Analysys in Beijing has issued its research on the number of registered blogs in China.:

According to Analysys International’s study, China’s blog market is evolving from the user cultivation phase to rapid growth phase although the business model is still immature. Most blog service providers are trying to attract more users by proactively developing new products and launching featured services. By the end of Q3 of 2005, the total registered users had reached 33.36 millions, more than twice compared with the user number of 14.75 millions by the end of 2004.

The involvement of large portals such as Sino Blog and MSN Spaces and some instant messaging service providers like Tencent is the main reason to drive the rapid growth of user numbers. Meanwhile many blog service providers are trying hard on business model innovation. When most of the bloggers enjoy the free service, some high-end users showed their acceptance of the paid VIP services, mobile blog service and paid blog space. Q-zone of QQ, Buluo of Netease and Blogcn becomes the top 3 blog service providers in Q3 2005

I spoke with Analysys a couple of weeks back on blogs for an article. The 33 million statistic, and the market share held by Q-zone and Netease, should be viewed with this in mind:

• The QQ and Netease numbers are inflated as they represent, as Analysys states, ‘registered’ blogs but not necessarily active bloggers. As well, active bloggers in China often change servers.
• There are a lot of abandoned blogs out there, and there are many blogs that are registered but may consist of nothing more than a post saying ‘hello.’
• There are probably 100-130 internet users in China… far less than one-third of them blog.
• This is also likely true for the English-language blogosphere. Consider, of 21 million blogs Technorati tracks - three of them are mine - one not updated since February 2003 and the other idle since early October.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, media, northeast asia

From a start-up blog that welcomes posts from anyone who hates anything, Ihatethis.org presents a rant from someone who hates Carlsberg that’s brewed in Malaysia.:

You know that your Carlsberg is brewed in Malaysia? No, no… I don’t pretend to say that Carslberg in Malaysia is bad, poisonous etc. I pretend to say it is not fair to cheat people.

Carlsberg commercials try to say they’re selling you the brand-cool beer from Europe. All those ancient traditions of beer brewing, vikings and other stuff. But they never want to tell you that they actually import that Carlsberg from Malaysia! Damn it… it’s like buying Rover from “the leading Chinese corporation”. Not to mention Rolls-Royce being over-60%-BMW-produced.

Carslberg from Malaysia? Here you go… happy drinking. True Danish beer!

AsiaPundit hates the fact that Pilsner Urquel isn’t available in Shanghai.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, malaysia

South Korea’s cloning genius Hwang Woo-suk didn’t get the eggs used in his research from the Easter Bunny:

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea pledged Friday to continue its support for cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk despite his resignation as the head of an international center for stem cell research in a controversy over the source of donor eggs.

A trained veterinarian, Hwang is a national hero and gained international renown for his breakthroughs, including cloning the world’s first human embryos and extracting stem cells from them. Earlier this year, he unveiled the world’s first cloned dog.

After more than a year of denying rumors that some eggs used in his experiment came from subordinate scientists, Hwang on Thursday acknowledged two scientists in his Seoul lab donated their own eggs for research.

He also acknowledged he had recently found out a hospital doctor paid some women for their eggs, and stepped down as director of the World Stem Cell Hub that he and international researchers announced just last month.

Under commonly observed international guidelines, scientists are advised to be cautious when using human subjects for research who are in a dependent relationship with them - a precaution against exploitation.

The Marmot reports that many Koreans are supporting Hwang, (comments at the post are well worth reading). Some are protesting the news station that broke the story and major banks are considering pulling ads.:

Netizens are planning a candlelight demonstration against MBC investigative program "PD Notebook," whose Tuesday edition accused Prof. Hwang of acquiring eggs from subordinate team members.  Meanwhile, two firms have pulled advertisements from PD Notebook’s time slot, and Woori and Kookmin banks are discussing suspending their ads.

Supporting Hwang is understandable, and AsiaPundit hopes his career can recover. However, attacking the messenger will not help Hwang or his international reputation. If anything, that will reflect badly on Korea as a whole.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, korea, media, northeast asia, south korea

The Taipei Times makes no secret of its pan-Green sympathies, but it does usually keep its sense of humor better hidden.:

Chinese tourists should be welcomed. It is unlikely that the possible threat of Fifth Columnists will greatly affect the security of this country, which after all, is already within striking range of hundreds of Chinese missiles and aircraft.

But it will not be easy to deal with the large influx of Chinese. There are cultural issues to which Taiwan should be sensitive.

For this reason, and in the spirit of cross-strait reconciliation, there are a number of phrases which should not be employed when speaking to tourists from China. Failure to not say these things will only exacerbate the mutual misunderstanding and cultural rift that exists between the two countries.

Therefore, do not — under any circumstances — say any of the following 10 phrases to Chinese tourists: One, noodles, paper, gunpowder. What have you done for us lately? Two, one-child policy plus patriarchal society equals no women. Three, 5,000 years of civilization, and all you have to offer us is pandas? Four, welcome to Taiwan. Please don’t spit. Five, Simplified characters for simple people. Six, Mr. Hu, tear down that wall! Seven, our opposition leaders get to have dinner with your president, but your opposition leaders get shot. Eight, our Chinese culture is better than yours. Nine, my dad owns the factory your dad works in. Or finally: We were going to “retake the mainland,” until we went there.

Thus, we can maintain cross-strait harmony

(Via Wandering to Tamshui)

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia, taiwan

An video-captured incident involving a Malaysian policewoman abusing a Chinese woman, and allegations that this isn’t uncommon, has Malaysian uberblogger and journalist Jeff Ooi saying this could be Malaysia’s Abu Ghraib:

When I viewed the stills and video clip that MP Teresa Kok showed to Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang at the Parliament today, I sensed it wasn’t only the victim who was shown in nude.

If the images are true, then the dark side of our Malaysian police has also been shown naked, stark naked.

Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid has been ordered by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to visit China to explain that Malaysian enforcement agencies are not targeting Chinese women.

Azmi said the matter was "very urgent" and he had to put off plans to visit Pakistan.

Abdullah issued the instruction following several alleged incidents of Chinese women being stripped while under detention, their money stolen and enforcement officers peeping at them.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, corruption, east asia, malaysia, northeast asia, southeast asia

I don’t think any religion has endorsed corruption, but it’s nice to see that a multi-faith conference in Malaysia has decided that it is a sin.:

Malaysiakini reports that representatives from the six major faith groups in the nation; Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and Sikhism; have finally come to a joint conclusion that corruption is a sin!

Duh!!?? Did it have to take that long for them to figure it out?

Collectively, they pledged to take the “fight (against) corruption in all its manifestations (by) using religious values that we profess and believe in” to their respective communities. Well, better late than never.

The above was actually a result of a two-day workshop on “The Role of Religion in Anti-Corruption Strategies” was organised by the Malaysian Society for Transparency & Integrity (Transparency International Malaysia) and sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. I can only pray that this newfound zeal is not just another case of “hangat-hangat tahi ayam” due to the perceived stand against corruption by the current Prime Minister.

China still run by godless ‘commies’ so no improvements in transparency and governance are expected following this announcement.

Technorati Tags: asia, corruption, east asia, malaysia, southeast asia

AsiaPundit, a Canadian by birth, was quite proud that a fellow national has for two years running been the world rock, paper, scissors (RPS) champion. But if the Japanese are training at the ’sport’ in the way that this game show suggests, AP expects that the mighty archipelago will clinch the RPS event as frequently as it does the Nathan’s hotdog eating competition. (Link via Brian David Phillips)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, northeast asia

While AsiaPundit frequently looks at how blogging impacts Mainland politics, not much time has been spent on the blogosphere’s impact on Taiwan. At Jujuflop, it’s revealed that the blogosphers has the ability to make Kuomintang politicians look like dorks.:

What does a Taiwanese politician do when he finds out about weblogs - and that people are using them to make fun of him? He blames his opponent and then sues him:

Legislator Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate in the key Taipei County commissioner race, yesterday filed defamation and public humiliation lawsuits against the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, Luo Wen-chia (羅文嘉), for allegedly posting libelous information about him on an Internet Web site linked to Luo’s campaign site.

The offending website is 瑋哥部落格 (or Wiego’s blog), which seems to be a very standard blog which has a grand total of 15 entries since it started last September. Is there any evidence that this is the work of Luo Wen-chia and not some random pro-DPP internet user? Not according to Luo:

In response, Luo yesterday repeated that the blog has nothing to do with his campaign, and criticized Chou for being ignorant about the blog culture that is now especially popular among young people.

“Chou’s accusations only exposed his ignorance of blogs and youth culture,” Luo said. “I can only describe Chou’s reaction using `five noes.’ He has no idea about the law, blogs, young people, or world trends — and he has no sense of humor.”

“As far as I know, a blog is usually written by the type of young person who just doesn’t fit Chou’s political profile,” Luo said. “They use their imagination and creativity to voice their thoughts.”

Unless there is some real evidence linking Luo to this blog, Chou is coming out of this looking like a complete idiot, and Luo as someone who actually understands this new-fangled internet thingy.

While AsiaPundit is a bit skeptical about most comparisons about the current CCP and the KMT, if the KMT’s Chou is any indication of the prevailing attitude it’s possible that the Nationalists are as clueless as the Communists.

u

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, east asia, northeast asia, taiwan

The Lost Nomad points to a report on how a government-funded research institute is now, and quite properly, criticizing the Seoul government’s North Korea policies:

A government-funded North Korea research institute voiced some rare criticism yesterday of the administration’s stance on human rights in the North. The Korea Institute of National Unification, an organ under the prime minister’s office, also urged that Seoul join international efforts to press the reclusive nation to end its abuses of its citizens. The institute released a paper on the European Union’s stance on human rights issues in the North and Pyongyang’s reaction to the outside pressure.

[…]

The report recommended that the government articulate a clear stance that the communist government must reform its practices. "Regarding the rights issues, it is necessary to make clear that the South Korean national leader is paying attention to the matter," the report said, urging President Roh Moo-hyun to show that he is concerned about rights violations across the Demilitarized Zone. The report suggested that South Korea should consider the EU and U.S. carrot-and-stick approach - continuing to provide humanitarian aid while criticizing abuses. "A North Korea policy focused only on giving humanitarian aid will have difficulty in gaining support at home and abroad, and that is undesirable for the administration’s long-term North Korea policymaking," the report said.

If anything holds true it’s that the winds of change blow quickly in South Korea and I’ve seen how fast this entire nation can come together on something.  Just look at the 97 financial crisis or the 2002/2003 U.S. hate-fest as examples.  If somehow, public sentiment started swinging towards condemning North Korea’s human rights abuses, I wonder how the government would react?

AsiaPundit has also noticed the ability of Koreans to switch behavior and attitudes on a mass scale, with both positive and negative effects. The switch from a nation with a high-savings rate and low personal consumption to a nation with massive credit card debts is memorable incidence of this. But Ap is also hopeful that a sea change is happening on attitudes toward North Korea.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, korea, north korea, northeast asia, south korea

Good news from the city of Harbin, which has had water shut down to its 3.8 million residents due to a chemical explosion upstream of its water supply. The massive slick of benzene polluting the Songhua river has not had any significant impact on beer production.:

Harbin Beer claims to be China’s oldest beer - a Russian businessman founded China’s first brewery in northeast China in 1900 - three years older than German’s Tsingtao Beer.

Harbin Brewery had been listed in Hong Kong and was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, which defeated SABMiller, in 2004.

    Anheuser-Busch …… said the water shutdown had not significantly affected its beer production in Harbin and that it was providing some of its supplies to Harbin’s citizens.

    "The city of Harbin asked our support in supplying fresh drinking water from the wells used at our two breweries to citizens, which we are doing at both breweries, as well as through supplying mobile tankers that will … deliver fresh drinking water," it said. (Financial Times)

Perhaps AB calls it corporate responsibility. In a city with 3 millions population in the urban area, I call it spectacular PR stunt.

AsiaPundit agrees that this will be great PR for Anheuser-Busch, although the damage to the Harbin brand elsewhere may suffer if the city becomes associated with a dangerously polluted water supply. For those interested, Harbin has continued to make tasty beers in spite of the AB acquisition.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, harbin, northeast asia

If rumors being reported by Fons are true, Shanghai is going to get its first woman mayor. There are reasons not to be happy about that.:

“They send us a maoist,” rages one of my Shanghai friends. “She is totally unfit to lead Shanghai.” According to yet-unconfirmed rumors the current governor of Qinhai Song Xiuyuan is going to be the next mayor of Shanghai.

Song has been making her way though the Chinese bureaucracy mainly in China’s provinces and it seen as an effort by the current central leadership to get rid of the more city-oriented officials that emerged under former president Jiang Zemin. “It shows how much the central leadership hates Shanghai,” says my friend.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia, puppy

NYT Shanghai correspondent Howard W French looks at some of China’s popular, and not quite apolitical blogs.:

On her fourth day of keeping a Web log, she introduced herself to the world with these striking words: “I am a dance girl, and I am a party member.”

“I don’t know if I can be counted as a successful Web cam dance girl,” that early post continued. “But I’m sure that looking around the world, if I am not the one with the highest diploma, I am definitely the dance babe who reads the most and thinks the deepest, and I’m most likely the only party member among them.”

Thus was born, early in July, what many regard as China’s most popular blog.

Sometimes timing is everything, and such was the case with the anonymous blogger, a self-described Communist Party member from Shanghai who goes by the pseudonym Mu Mu.

A 25-year-old, Mu Mu appears online most evenings around midnight, shielding her face while striking poses that are provocative, but never sexually explicit.

I had hoped to grab a more-enticing screenshot of the Dance Girl’s blog, but it seems to have vanished.

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, media, northeast asia

AsiaPundit’s global headquarters is in Shanghai, however AP hasn’t received the memo on how to properly report on the bird flu.:

1. Control the total amount of news reports, make sure that there are not too many and not too few.

2. All major news stories about the Avian Flu must be approved by the authorities in the Provincial agriculture department, disease control and prevention department, and the relevant departments in the central government. No one can release information without going through this procedure, with the exception of certain very important events or information, for which internal consultation may suffice.

3. Propagate the message that the Avian Flu is preventable and controllable, but do not make statements about whether or not the disease is curable, and do not emphasize the fact that humans can also contract the disease.

4. All experts to be interviewed must be vetted by the provincial authorities, no publishing of individual expert opinions by itself.

5. No publishing of sensitive numbers or statistics, no photos involving armed personnel, no detailed reporting on the process of killing, destroying or burying birds.

6. No speculative guesses about the effects or long-term consequences of the disease. No reports or opinions from economists, sociologists or psychologists about the effect of the disease on society.

7. No quoting or carrying news reports from overseas media and increase monitoring of small newspapers, magazines, and internet sites. No carrying of reports that might distort facts, spread rumors, and arouse mass panic. Those that do not follow these guidelines will be handled accordingly.

Technorati Tags: asia, bird flu, censorship, china, east asia, northeast asia

The problems stemming from an explosion at a chemical plant in Jilin, China, are more severe than AsiaPundit had initially expected. The makers of one of China’s tastier lagers will almost certainly have to shut down production for at least four days.

Millions of people in Harbin will also be without water.

ESWN has the best collection of primary and secondary sources on the incident and also raises a vital question.:

Question:  Why is there no issue with the water quality of the Songhua river anywhere between Jilin and Harbin, or any points further beyond?

UPDATE: In the comments and here ESWN follows up:

According to China News, Songyuan City (which is located between Jilin and Harbin) in Jilin resumed the supply of water on November 23 around 1pm after a stoppage of seven days.
So the auxiliary mystery is just what explanation was given to the residents of Songyuan?  Maintenance?  Or benzene pollution?  In either case, if the Songyuan news got out, it would have changed the whole perception of the Harbin situation.  First, if they said maintenance, then what is the likelihood of every city along the river having maintenance issues one after another?  Second, if they said benzene, then everyone living by the river will be affected in time.  What was the news shut down?

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia, harbin

While the Chinese government has been fairly successful at reigning in blogs, bulletin boards and news sites, the CPC is finding it difficult to thwart on-line game ‘addiction.‘:

Xinhua just published a report on a survey (not sure how scientific) they did to judge the effects of the fatigue system after the first month of implementation. The results are no surprise: it does not appear to have much of a effect in solving the government’s and parents’ concerns. Players are either:

1. Playing the same game but switching between accounts and/or servers every 3 hours;

2. Playing the same game but on private servers;

3. Playing more than one game.

I draw two conclusions at first glance. First, it is very difficult to regulate gamer behavior, and given the dearth of other entertainment outlets, these kids are going to keep playing games as long as they can, and the game companies are happy to oblige as long as they can find loopholes in the government policy.

Second, this is the third game addiction article from Xinhua in 4 days (the other 2 are the Blizzard lawsuit and class action against game companies articles). Xinhua represents the government, and these articles do not appear by coincidence. Most likely this is a topic the editors have been told to cover, probably because the government has already recognized that this system is not having the desired effect. This government does actually care about public opinion, and most parents hate these games (as they do in most countries).

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia

AsiaPundit has always hoped that Queen Elizabeth II has a long reign. I’m not a fan of the monarchy, but I am a Canadian and would dread having Prince Charles on the currency when he assumes his role as head of state. I expect the Chinese leadership aren’t looking forward to that day either.:

Bureaucratic, corrupt, and in possession of an overactive superiority complex’. In so many words, that was how Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, is reportedly to have described Mainland China, in a personal journal titled “The Handover of Hong Kong -`The Great Chinese Takeaway’”. Sections of which were published earlier this month in the Mail on Sunday, the Sunday edition of one of the world’s leading English language newspapers. Much to the distress of face conscious China.

In the journal, written by the Prince as a chronicle of his experiences and opinions during the 1997 hand-over of Hong Kong, form British control to Mainland Chinese rule, and obtained by the Mail on Sunday through undisclosed means, Prince Charles describes Chinese officials as being “appalling old waxworks” and the hand-over ceremony as being an "awful Soviet-style display" where the Chinese military ‘goose stepped’ around in a ‘ridiculous’ ceremony before turning on an artificial wind generator to make sure that the newly raised Chinese flag could be seen to ‘flutter enticingly’.

The journal, which was never intended for public consumption, then goes on to describe then Chinese President Jiang Xemin taking the podium and making an undisguised ‘propaganda’ speech to a crowd of loyalists, who had been gathered together by Beijing especially for the occasion in order to give the impression that the speech was well received by the masses.

Things haven’t improved much since the handover and passing of the Jiang era, ACB notes that Charles hasn’t taken a liking to Hu Jintao.:

The publication of the Prince’s acidic comments on China come at a particularly delicate time in relations between the British Imperial family and the Chinese State. Emerging, as they did, in near tandem with the circulation of rumors that Prince Charles purposefully arranged his travel plans so as to make himself unavailable for an official banquet with Hu Jintao, in effect arranging a boycott of the event, during President Hu’s recent visit to London.

Officially, Prince Charles was ‘recovering from jet lag’ during Hu’s visit. Unofficially, however he is said to have refused to attend as in protest against Beijing’s human rights record.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia, hong kong

The Shanghaiist notes with concern that Chinese cities are banning electric bicycles.:

…bans on electric bikes are already in place in Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Wenzhou and Fuzhou. A Beijing ban could go into effect as early as January. Those in favor of such bans say electric bikes cause traffic congestion, accidents and - get this - pollution (from discarded lead batteries). Those opposed to the bans said in response: “Are you all out of your fucking minds?” Electric bikes use very little energy, are quiet, much smaller than cars and cause no pollution if cities provide users means to recycle batteries properly.

Serial Deviant Andrea doesn’t share the Shanghaiist’s concerns:

We all know that China is far more friendlier to cars than bikes these days. The good thing is most motorists (most of whom barely have any driving skills, by the way, but that’s a rant for another day) are aware of cyclists. China may be a city known for bicycles, but it is staggering how few of these cyclists actually know how to go in a straight line, follow traffic rules, watch where they’re going, take care to pay attention to their surroundings, and be sensible road users in general.

Those on (silent) electric bikes are exactly the same, they just do it without pedalling and go much faster. There is nothing worse than someone who is out of control on a push bike — except for someone who is out of control on an electric one. Electric bikes are dangerous between the legs of these people. Therefore, they should be banned.

Gaijin Biker retorts.:

Serial Deviant says the ban is a good idea because China’s bike riders are dangerous. But if that’s the case, China should ban dangerous riding, not the bikes themselves.

In theory, I agree with Gaijin Biker here. And I should add that before the authorities start cracking down on cyclists, they start doing something about other vehicular traffic. AsiaPundit takes taxis everywhere. On every journey the driver will break some form of traffic law. Most frequently it’s taking an illegal turn to get access to my flat. However, pulling into oncoming traffic to pass or driving in dedicated bike lanes are also common. As China is expected to see car use grow by double digits for the near future, now is a fine time to force drivers to abandon bad habits.

I don’t want to sound like a bitchy expat, but after addressing cycles, scooters and cars, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start developing pedestrians’ walking skills.:

…not only are straight lines and predictible behavior frowned upon in Shanghai traffic - both vehicular and pedestrian - but most people here have only one use for the concept of vectors: to figure out how to cause a near-collision and disrupt the other guy’s course.

So I was crossing a street, walking a straight line, a head taller than anyone else in site, with a clear (that is, empty path before me when WHAM! a woman’s face connected with my left shoulder at high velocity.

Mrs AsiaPundit has a recurring back problem that is often set off by collisions with other pedestrians.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia

ESWN is a fine translator, but sometimes the cultural gap is still beyond me. For example, this report from a Chinese journo/blogger on George Bush’s church visit in Beijing on Sunday. Among other things: Bush is sleazy but cleans up well; the First Lady has impressive shiny ears; Condie looks good for a black person and the president has hairy hands.:

At 730am, Bush arrived. Very much on time. He was nicely dressed. He is a sleazy person, but he looks nice and clean when well-dressed. His wife was dressed in light-brown colors, her ears were shining and quite impressive. When Bush entered, he said, “Morning everyone!” An American politician! Everybody paid him respect and replied. Rice was also there. She was not as ugly as seen on television. She even looked good, and that is not bad for a black person.

Then we sat down and sang. I must be talented because I could sing without having learned the songs. These are the same old hymns with some new verses. It was easy. My voice was especially loud and moving and I looked sincere, and that convinced the believers around me that I must have been around for years.

That little boy was naughty, as he played my PALM all the time and did not sing. But I used his bible for disguise. When Bush sang, his head bobbed and weaved and he was really into it.

When Bush left, he shook hands with the believers on both sides. The people kept clapping. I have seen this type of scene often enough. When Lian Chen came and when Li Ao came, the Chinese people who have been devoid of political experiences and whose desire to express themselves have been suppressed too long therefore felt excited when they see political figures show off.

I was sitting in the middle, so I felt too embarrassed to rush forward. So I shoved the little boy to move forward to shake Bush’s hand. When Bush saw the little boy, he was delighted. He went up, grabbed the boy and spoke the very officious “Thank you.” Although he had the sincere look, he said nothing more. So my plan failed.

“His hand was very hairy,” the little boy yelled out to me in delight!

(AsiaPundit’s hairy hands have also impressed Northeast Asian children.)

(UPDATE: ESWN in the comments points to an alternate translation at Danwei that clarifies the point that was most perplexing - Jeremy translates ’shiny ears’ as ‘earrings ‘. I had thought it was a colloquialism of which I was unaware.)

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, media, northeast asia

Mongolia receives little attention in the press or in the blogosphere. Part of the reason for that is possibly that the country is making significant strides both economically and in terms of democratization. US President George Bush’s provides a welcome bit of recognition to a country that deserves substantial praise.

Still, while Bush deserves kudos for the visit, it’s a touch unfortunate that he chose to mark the occasion with an analogy that doesn’t really seem appropriate for a newly democratizing state.:

“There is a legend of a Mongolian woman who gave each of her five sons an arrow. She told each to break the arrow in his hand — which they did. She then tied five arrows together, and told each to try and break the bundle. None could do it. And she told them: Brothers who stand alone, like single arrow shafts, can be broken by anyone - but brothers who stand together, like a bundle of arrows, cannot be broken.”

It’s not quite a full-blown Bushism, but the speechwriter could have put a little more thought into things. From Wikipedia:

During the nineteenth century, the bundle of rods, in Latin called fasces and in Italian fascio, came to symbolize strength through unity, the point being that whilst each independent rod was fragile, as a bundle they were strong. By extension, the word fascio came in modern Italian political usage to mean group, union, band or league….

….

In November 1921, the National Fascist party came into existence.

New Mongols is quiet today, but further on the visit is available at Mongolian Matters.

Technorati Tags: asia, mongolia

Mei ZhongTai has an excellently researched post evaluating China’s ballistic missile capability and Taiwan’s missile defenses. One creepy point is that the Mainland’s battery isn’t capable of an efficient debilitating strike on military targets and in the event of a conflict - which AsiaPundit sees as a very remote possibility - the People’s Liberation Army may choose to hit non-military targets.:

The above analysis assumes that China has a specific list of targets that it deems most important to destroying Taiwan’s will to defend itself, such as the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Defense building, command and control facilities, and Taipei 101. This may not, however, be the case.

    That’s the lesson that Saddam taught us, that ballistic missiles may have little military value but do have great terror potential. [GEN Charles Horner]

If China were to target populated areas instead of specific targets, it would be able to create great destruction. No longer would China be launching 20 or more missiles at one target, and it could send all of its missiles toward Taiwan’s residential and commercial areas with the greatest population density. This would be a direct attack on national will–as would any missile attack. China could not take any ground with missiles, only boots on the ground can do that, but China may hope to convince Taiwan to surrender because of the vast destruction and threat of more destruction (see the importance of reserves).

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, north korea, taiwan

The real big news comes from Newsbreak, actually. Five stories:

Madame Operator, Part I: At long last, the various camps that worked with, against, and without knowing, each other during the President’s campaign are fleshed out. The President’s role as the one knowing everyone and having the big picture is clarified, too:

NEWSBREAK revisited the 2004 Arroyo campaign. We established the following:

*There were at least four groups that operated independently of each other. Only the President knew of the businesses of all four.

*The President worked with unaccountable persons in three of the parallel groups.

*Ms. Arroyo appears to be the first post-Marcos presidential candidate to have combined and maximized electoral dirty tricks from over half a century, foremost of which were the utilization of the armed forces for partisan activities, and tampering with election results.

*The alleged large-scale cheating was easily carried out because the election manipulators who honed their skills since the time of President Ferdinand Marcos, and who worked in the campaign of Fidel Ramos, also played crucial roles in the Arroyo campaign.

Madame Operator, Part II: The “Little Big Brother” and “Antidote” Groups in the President’s electoral machinery are described: they’re the most interesting. “Little Big Brother” refers to the President’s younger brother, Diosdado Macapagal, Jr.; the “Antidote Group,” the magazine says, infiltrated the House of Representatives to steal and substitute electoral documents:

We reported that the operation in Mindanao during the canvassing period, which was led by Garcillano, was done in haste and that operators only tampered with the figures in the certificates of canvass. The figures, therefore, could not be supported by the data in the election returns and statements of votes. Since Fernando Poe Jr. had filed a protest, there loomed the possibility that the mismatch in the figures would be discovered. Thus, there was an operation to sneak into the ballot boxes in Batasan the election documents with “corrected” and consistent figures.

Suspicious Operations: How a War Room was established within the premises of the Department of National Defense to “covertly monitor electoral results”:

Based on documents gathered by NEWSBREAK, it appears that the plan was hatched in February 2004 under the cover of an information and communication technology (ICT) support plan for the DND Election Action Committee (Deac). This action committee is a first in contemporary DND history.

Supposedly, the ICT support plan aimed, among others, to identify problem areas, facilitate database buildup of identified areas of concern; map out and monitor election-related events and enable network connectivity of the Deac. Tapped for the ICT support plan was the Defense Information and Communication Office (Dicto).



In the Shadows: Who wiretapped Virgilio Garcillano and who ordered the wiretapping? At last, something approximating an answer (and the President’s brother won’t like this article):

The motive? Some of the key campaign supporters of President Arroyo were not certain of Garcillano’s loyalties. They wanted to make sure that he was working for the President alone, thus the decision to monitor him. Note that the recorded conversations were those between the President and Garcillano during the most critical part of the election period, the canvassing of votes, or weeks after election day.



The other leading investigative journalist’s group, PCIJ, has three stories on food and the Filipino. One is about corned beef, which has become a Filipino staple; besides beef there’s carabao in those cans, too. The other story is an ironic story indeed: at a time when life is getting harder and harder, why are more and more Filipinos getting fat?

In other news:

The Palace announces that the President does not blog. Really. So, uh, if you didn’t know, Philippine President Joins Blogosphere is a parody blog. Really. But what can’t be ignored is that ( according to Leon Kilat) .

Mindanews has survival tips for traveling in Mindanao.

Israel announces it’s going to welcome more Filipino caregivers.

AsiaPundit doesn’t have much sympathy for those who use - and especially those who smuggle - drugs into Southeast Asia. While I have libertarian leanings and favor legalization of most drugs, I have little respect for those who lack the common sense to realize that Southeast Asia is not a good place to be caught with illicit narcotics.

Unless, of course, one of your partying pals in the son of Indonesia’s economics minister.:

The title of this post just about says it all. A young Australian model is arrested in Bali holding two tabs of ecstasy. She is busted going to a party south of Kuta at some theme park centered around giant Garudas. She is spotted in a truck painted with the logo of the Nirwana Bali Resort. Among the passengers is the son of the Minister of Economics with the Indonesian government. He is a major real estate developer in Indonesia and among the important investors of the Nirwana Resort, located right in front of a holy temple. One of Bali’s most controversial real estate developments. Ever.

So. We have Michelle the Australian model with two tabs of ecstasy, the son of the important government bigwig from Jakarta, the truck from fancy property owned by bigwig. She keeps her mouth shut. Her attorney is extremely diplomatic. A trial is held. Michelle is acquitted and can return home to Australia.

What part of this picture are we missing?

IndCoup has a further and not quite worksafe, commentary on the subject.:

Surprise surprise. Aussie model Michelle Leslie’s suffering is over.

Although she was found guilty on Friday of using a prohibited psychotropic drug (ecstasy), those kind judges in Bali unsurprisingly opted to give her only a three-month sentence, which considering that she was arrested almost exactly three months ago, means that she’s now a free woman.

Michelle Leslie won’t have to dig too deeply into her pockets either. Although the judges had recently fined an Indonesian dude over US$1,000 for a similar drugs offence, they only fined Michelle the princely sum of 1,000 rupiah (about 10 cents!!!). How very considerate of them: it really seems that Michelle’s considerable charms won them over in the end!!!

Summing up the court’s verdict, Judge I Gusti Ngurah Astawa said that Michelle was given a light sentence because she had been “honest, polite and remorseful during trial”.

“The defendant is still young and has no prior criminal record, has been well behaved and conveyed her regret in front of court,” he explained.

Whether Michelle will keep her mouth shut after returning to Oz, or will cave to checkbook journalism, remains to be seen. A safer wager would be on whether the lingerie model will shed the hijab she donned for the trial.

Technorati Tags: asia, corruption, east asia, indonesia, michelle leslie, southeast asia

Glutter alerts us to an item in the Guardian profiling jailed Chinese journalist Shi Tao:

According to Kultalahti, the main evidence provided against Shi Tao came not from inside China, but from the global internet service provider, Yahoo. In its defence, Yahoo claims that it was only following local legislation. When quizzed about the case in China earlier this year Yahoo’s co-founder Jerry Yang said that the company was never informed by the authorities of the reasons why they were requesting the firm to provide information. “To be doing business in China, or anywhere else in the world, we have to comply with local law,” he said.

Kultalahti offers further explanation. “Every company has to sign a public pledge on self-discipline for the internet industry,” she says. “In effect it means that they agree to the Chinese system of censorship and control. “There has also been some debate as to whether Yahoo was legally bound to provide such information to the authorities, since they are based in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system from mainland China. We are very disturbed by Yahoo providing information to the Chinese authorities which was used to convict Shi Tao.”

In a second item, a Guardian-hosted blog reports on a Amnesty International poetry event.:

Yang Lian’s outrage seemed much closer to the surface as he brought up the case of Chinese journalist and poet Shi Tao, imprisoned in Chishan Prison, Yuanjiang City for distributing a Chinese Communist Party memo to websites based outside China. “When people speak of China there are two different pictures in mind,” he said. “China presents one face to the world and another to its own people. Shi Tao is a very important symbol of this split. Western companies rush to China and shake that blood hand and shut their mouths.” He told of how protests with which he was involved in New Zealand at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre made it impossible for him to return to China, before moving to the lectern to welcome the actor Peter Forbes to the stage.

Yang began his readings with ‘June’, a poem by Shi Tao remembering the Tiananmen Square massacre, which he performed in Chinese before Forbes provided the translation. He was louder as he leant towards the microphone, suddenly more insistent, reading with an unstoppable momentum. Forbes seemed almost diffident in reply. Yang continued with a poem of his own about the massacre, ‘1989′, and a poem about the day when he discovered his work had been banned in China, ‘Banned Poem’, before finishing with ‘London’, a striking description of the texture of exile.

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, northeast asia

What Tian has Learned has posted a video feed of the Back Dorm Boys television premier.

The lads have some keen dance moves, AsiaPundit thinks that their talent lies in facial expressions, which is far better captured by the

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia