Like the Foreigner, AsiaPundit isn’t yet sure how much of a big deal this is, and is awaiting some indication of numbers and rank.:

It seems that not even KMT stalwarts believe the excuses that the party offers for its blocking of the special arms procurement bill, because an number of Taiwanese military officers have written a letter announcing that they’re taking leave of the party over the issue.

It’s a little difficult to gauge how big this story is because the number of defecting party members is unspecified. The chairman of Taiwan’s largest pro-communist party, Ma Ying-jeou, takes it seriously though, saying that:

the KMT sincerely hopes to communicate with those service members who wrote to the defense ministry in order to talk to them about their position on stalled arms procurement bill.

…

American readers should note that Ma also said that the KMT was opposed to the special arms bill because it is a “cash-for-friendship” purchase plan. In essence, he claims that George Bush’s armament offer is nothing more than a great, big mafioso protection racket. Now, if I’m not mistaken, Taiwan was the one that requested these weapons, Mr. Bush was the only leader in the world good enough to offer those weapons, and now Ma and the pro-communists spurn the weapons - and slap Bush in the face to boot!

Good luck with your next weapons request, Taiwan. You’re gonna need it.

AsiaPundit does object to referring to the Kuomintang as pro-communist though, if only because the Chinese Communist Party are ‘communist’ in name only and now rely far more on nationalism for support. The KMT has not turned hard-left, the CCP has turned hard-right.

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

Due to new laws restricting political parties from owning broadcasting interests, Taiwan’s nationalist Kuomintang has sold its broadcasting interests for a not too shabby chunk of change. But Jason says no changes in content should be expected.:

I guess Day-After-Christmas sales are no longer a solely American phenomenon: the KMT has reportedly sold its shares in the anachronistically-named China Television (中視), China Broadcasting (中廣), and the Central Motion Picture Corporation (中影) to the China Times Group (中國時報團隊) for a cool US$264 million, just as the National Broadcasting Law’s Dec. 26 deadline for political parties to sell their stakes in media companies arrived.

KMT Deputy Secretary Zhang Zhe-chen officially announced the deal Monday afternoon after the KMT’s Chung-hsia Company handed over its stake in the so-called “3 Chungs (Zhongs)” including a 33.94% stake in China TV, a whoppin’ 97% share in China Broadcasting, and a 50% part in the Central Motion Picture Corporation ) for around US$264 million cash (NT$9 billion). The China Times Group is also taking over US$147 million (NT$5 billion) in debt as part of the deal.

But as with most other deals involving the KMT and large amounts of money, someone ended up getting the shit end of the stick. Just as Zhang had announced the deal, he was chased back into his office by employees of the Central Motion Picture Corporation , who were not a little bit pissed off that KMT HQ hadn’t given them advance notice of the sale. After Zhang had, uh, retired to safety, scuffles reportedly broke out among the legion of journalists present covering the story.

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

The use of Chinese actresses as lead characters in the movie Geisha has caused a stir in both Japan and China, as well as in the blogosphere.

AsiaPundit doesn’t care!

To make a controversial comment, the physical differences between the peoples of the three main Northeast Asian nations are so minimal that it should make no difference to Hollywood casting directors for a English-language movie. For instance, AP isn’t the slightest bit perturbed to see Daniel Dae Kim cast as a .

AP has spent almost a decade in the region and can fairly easily tell when someone is from Korea, China or Japan. For that matter, its easy to guess whether an ethnic Chinese person is from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Mainland or elsewhere. This, however, is more often because of behavior, style of dress, language and accent than it is by physical appearance.

AsiaPundit has had Canadian Chinese friends in Korea who needed to, repeatedly, convince Koreans that they did not speak the language and were not ethnically Korean. I know ethnic Koreans who must do the reverse in China. Further, at the recent anti-Japanese protest in Shanghai, AP met Japanese consular staff and reporters who were in the crowd passing themselves off as Chinese simply by altering their style of dress. Quite simply, Northeast Asians can’t tell the difference between each other either.

Now, before posting any nasty responses, please do this short quiz at AllLookSame.com.

AsiaPundit admits to scoring a dismal, but above average, eight out of 18.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, hong kong, japan, korea, northeast asia, singapore, southeast asia

Obviously Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountains success in securing seven Golden Globes nominations wasn’t considered enough of an eye-catching headline for the editors of the China Post.:

(Via Wandering to Tamshui.)

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, brokeback mountain, film, northeast asia, taiwan

Roland of ESWN, who’s name AsiaPundit has never mentioned, has come out in the open with an interview in Hong Kong’s Next magazine. Letters from China provides a selection of money quotes.:

Quotations from Mr Soong’s interview which may reflect his philosophy of blogging (after reading my “translation” (so to speak), you will sorely miss ESWN):

“I do not make comment. I put everything on the internet. Who is right and who is wrong, you decide.” (我不下評論，全放上網讓你看，對對錯錯，由你判斷。)

“Countries in the world are divided into the South and the North. The South is developing countries. The North is developed countries. I came from the West to the East. So [the blog] is titled East South West North.” (世界上的國家，分南、北。南是發展中國家，北是已發展國家。我由西方來到東方，所以叫東南西北。)

“If I think English media coverage is sufficient, I don’t translate it. Lots of people talked about Bush’s visit to China. You could guess the way the New York Times reported the visit. And it is even more pointless to translate the People’s Daily. (如果我認為英文已經足夠，就不理它。像布殊訪問中國，大把人講。《紐約時報》的報導形式，你猜到。《人民日報》，更加無謂翻譯。)

“Perhaps one would not know [a 78-year-old Hong Kong citizen placed advertisement in newspapers questioning when would there be universal suffrage] by reading the New York Times.” (看《紐約時報》大概不會知道有這種事。)

“I particularly want media people to read [my blog] so that they dare not distort the fact. For instance, when Chinese fleet visited Hong Kong, New York Times put it like that the mainland scared Hong Kong democracy. And that article was even published on the annual report of American congress. How can you say that? I showed you. Was your fleet visit an attempt to scare China?” (我特別在乎傳媒人看，等他們別亂來 …… 像中國海軍艦隊來香港，《紐約時報》說成是大陸恐嚇香港民主，那文章還在美國國會年報刊登。…… 你咁都講得出？我讓你看，你們艦隊來，算不算恐嚇中國？)

Roland also notes the LfC translation, and reveals more details on his nonpartisan leanings from a speech at an Internet conference in Hong Kong.:

I do this by becoming the single most hated blog in Hong Kong. When I write about something like the number of marchers on 12/4, the democrats are howling that I am a Communist Party shill. When I write about something like the new rules on avian flu reporting in China, the other boot falls. So I am hated by all sides.

But why is my political position so ambivalent? Because I have none. As an American citizen, my greatest sorrow is to watch how political partisanship has destroyed all sense of objectivity among the citizens. Take an event such as Hurricane Katrina and run a public opinion poll on satisfaction with the administration’s performance? Approval rates are 10% from Democrats, 15% from Independents and 90% from Republicans. People don’t look at the objective situation anymore — everything is about partisanship calculations. I do not talk politics in the United States anymore, because nobody is listening.

But when I write about something on my blog, I do not look at the party behind it. If something is wrong, then it is wrong. It is wrong to exaggerate the number of marchers just as it is wrong to order people to hide information about an epidemic outbreak. If there is a pro-Beijing rally in which their organizers claim 750,000, you can bet that I will review the evidence and condemn them for lying. If the Hong Kong government has the same orders about reporting avian flu, I would publish that information too. After living through Free China, Richard Nixon, the Cultural Revolution, Monica Lewinsky, the War in Iraq and all that, I am now insisting on a world of truth.

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

AsiaPundit is a believer in the huge erection index. That the construction of the world’s largest building indicates hubris and an climax apex of economic growth. Brian Mathes, with rightful skepticism, points to an item that indicates far more trouble could be caused by the desire to build the biggest, largest or tallest anything.:

    TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - The weight of the world’s tallest skyscraper - specially built to withstand Taiwan’s frequent earthquakes - could be causing a rise in the number of tremors beneath it, a professor from the island wrote in a scientific journal.

    Lin Cheng-horng, an earthquake specialist at the National Taiwan Normal University in the capital, Taipei, says the 1,679-foot Taipei 101 building - named for the number of floors - might rest on an earthquake fault line.

Photo of Taipei 101 via the Foreigner.

While he has doubts about the earthquake theory, AsiaPundit is still expecting Shanghai’s World Financial Center to be an climax apex for the city’s property market growth.

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

It has been said, by a politician, that every politician in Taiwan has friends in the mafia. So why shouldn’t every Taiwan resident have the opportunity to have a little Mafia in their own home?:

Sometimes, products here are labelled in English.  The labels may be grammatically incorrect, but it doesn’t matter.  Just seeing them takes some of the risk out of a purchase, and for that I’m grateful.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Having said that though, I sometimes see a few things written in English that are unintentionally humorous.  Here’s one that made me smile:

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

Jason of wandering to Tamshui offers a rare note of approval for a visiting foreign correspondent on his assessment of the mood of Taiwan residents toward the Mainland.:

Larry Johnson, a columnist covering Asia-Pacific Issues for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has returned from a two-month trip to Taiwan with some information that has been long-known to some but little-known to many: most young Taiwanese are either apathetic to China or support continuing a separate existence from their long-lost brothers across the strait.

Among his findings after speaking to young students around Taiwan:

"The younger generations will decide Taiwan’s future. And that decision will be of great concern to a United States that is obligated by treaty to provide for the defense of Taiwan. What are the attitudes of Taiwan’s young people toward reunification and mainland China?

To answer that question, I recently spent two months traveling throughout Taiwan, talking with young people from 13 to 30. Their answers, overall, show an attitude in stark contrast to the conciliatory attitude of Taiwan’s top political parties and suggest a much more forceful stand for independence, one that would bring Taiwan into sharp conflict with China.

I did formal interviews with 50 people, from Taipei, the modern capital in the north, to Tainan, the ancient capital in the south. My subjects, for the most part, were high school and university students but also included young workers and business people. The interviews were in English, which is widely spoken, and even when language was somewhat a barrier, many of the young people were still eager to express their views.

Of the 50 people, only six said they would like Taiwan to become part of mainland China."

First of all, kudos to Johnson for taking the time to interview people from all over Taiwan, not just Taipei, which skews blue. Most foreign journalists are either too lazy or too ignorant of the rest of the country to even bother asking themselves whether the other 90% feel the same way as a pampered university student with family business interests in China.

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

Madman of Chu responds to Michael Turton’s counter-argument on the prospects of the Taiwanization of China.:

China’s only hope of avoiding cataclysmic meltdown is to opt for an eventual program of decentralization. All of the provinces of China must ultimately enjoy a great deal of autonomy and independence from Beijing- even more autonomy than the 50 states of the U.S. do from Washington, as each province is geographically, socially, and demographically more complex than even the largest U.S. state. As this process of decentralization occurs (assuming for the moment that the best-case scenario arrives), the question of the non-provincial territory of the PRC (the so-called “autonomous regions”) will naturally come into play.

Beijing is no more likely to ever grant Tibet, Inner Mongolia, or Xinjiang total independence than it is to Taiwan. Even so, it is not inconceivable that a reformed Chinese government might accede to a “bimodal” polity. In this scheme the 22 historical provinces of China would be fully integrated into a Chinese Federation. The autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia (Ningxia and Guangxi too, should they so desire) would be bound more loosely into a Greater Chinese Commonwealth. Commonwealth members would have many of the powers of sovereignty (thus the Dalai Lama could return to Tibet, Xinjiang could resolve its own policy toward Uighur language and Islam, etc.), they would only defer to Beijing on matters of foreign policy and defense.

If Taiwan were to join such a system as a Commonwealth member it could retain its own institutions and sovereign independence, and would benefit from the lowering of all logistical impediments to cross-Strait trade. This might seem like an impossibly optimistic scenario, but international trends such as that exemplified by the EU demonstrate that it is the downhill slope of history. A Greater Chinese Commonwealth is no more intrinsically unlikely than a European Union, it only seems so because where Europe had historically been artificially hyper-fragmented China has been artificially hyper-united. If despite centuries of destruction and hardship Europeans have finally moved toward a more rational reconciliation of disparate sovereignties, it is not too much to hope that China, whose suffering has been no less intense, might make an analogously rational move (albeit in, superficially at least, the opposite direction).

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

Michael Turton responds forcefully to a post by Madman of Chu (MoC) last week arguing that closer economic integration across the Taiwan Strait would lead to the Taiwanization of China.:

… One could profitably ask — what integration? May as well say that a mining company is integrated with its vein of ore. Taiwanese investment in China is a plant that exists in the hothouse of 9% growth. If that growth should slacken, the plant will die. Although I have been talking to local businessmen about Taiwan-China investments for many years, I have never heard one say: "I really have come to love China and even if the economy tanks and my costs rise, I’ll still keep my company there regardless." Taiwanese economic investment in China has not produced any emotional connection to China. In fact, until the economy took off at the turn of the century, polls showed consistently that Taiwanese who went to China came back more confirmed in their Taiwanese identity. Talk of political integration following trade is strictly a phenomenon of the last five years, and, I believe, strictly a wish-fantasy of those who flinch from facing the reality of potential conflict in the Taiwan Straits.

Another way to look at Taiwanese economic integration is to ask in what important way Taiwanese factories in China are different from the factories of other nations’ businesses in China. After all, American businessmen come to China, live in enclaves, shop in American supermarkets, eat in American-style restaurants, and take a local mistress. Ditto for Japanese businessmen. Again, do Taiwanese business behave differently? If economic integration drives political integration, surely China and Japan or China and America will draw closer politically. But the reality is that just the opposite has happened: Taiwan, Japan and the US have grown more wary of China even as their economic relationships with China have deepened.

AsiaPundit sees neither a political union between the Mainland and Taiwan nor a war as imminent. While I admit that both are possible, the former is far more unlikely. A war could be prompted by a single event such as a declaration of independence while unification would require a large series of events.

What I read in the MoC’s item on Taiwanization was not an argument for reunification but rather an expectation of political liberalization similar to what has happened in Taiwan, South Korea and elsewhere. That does come with wealth and exposure to outside liberal ideals - even Singapore and Hong Kong are relatively free, albeit not fully democratic.

Barring unforeseen events, the status quo is unlikely to change anytime soon.

Still, MoC’s flight of fancy is nice to entertain.:

"Strange as it seems to contemplate, coming decades could potentially see a KMT or DPP president at the helm in Beijing.:

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

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

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

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

Madman of Chu has a great essay on some of the themes touched upon by US President George Bush in Japan earlier this week, and something that liberals and conservatives should be in agreement on (even you Michael, seriously Richard had something nice to say): Mainland China needs to become more like Taiwan.:

Though the success of the democratization of Taiwan is undeniable, the prospects for the “Taiwanization” of China are less than obvious. Within the first week of moving into the men’s dormitory at Tunghai University in 1987 I returned to my room to find that my American roommate Doug had been collared by a young student in the army officer’s training corps who was earnestly delivering a sermon on cross-straits politics. He explained that the situation today was analogous to the days of the early Roman Empire. Though the Christians had been a tiny, persecuted minority then they eventually were able to convert the entire realm, and the people and government of Taiwan would transform China through a comparably subtle organic process.

Doug and I smirked. At the time it seemed like more of the patriotic pabulum dished out by Taiwanese leaders at state occasions, when speeches still regularly referred to the imminent day that the army would “retake the mainland.” Taiwanese leaders no longer indulge in that kind of rhetorical bravado, but as Taiwan’s political system and economy continue to thrive the picture that young officer painted looks less and less fantastic.

Read the whole thing.

While Taiwan’s democracy does have its rough patches, such as the frequent fisticuffs in the Legislative Yuan, Asiapundit would welcome even this in China. (AP would certainly welcome fisticuffs ahead of the end of one-party rule. Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan should give the National Development and Reform Commission’s Ma Kai a punch to the head, he deserves it.)

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

Americans will forever hold December 7, 1941 as “a day that will live in infamy.” Unfortunately, the events of that date seem to be absent from the textbooks of the People’s Liberation Army’s officers’ training program. Via Rand Corp’s presentation to U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission:

At least some Chinese military analysts believe that the United States is sensitive to casualties and economic costs and that the sudden destruction of a significant portion of our forces would result in a severe psychological shock and a loss of will to continue the conflict. When this principle is combined with the preceding two, it suggests a belief that a preemptive surprise attack on U.S. forces in the Pacific theater could cause the United States to avoid further combat with China. It does not need to be pointed out to this panel that the last time such a strategy was attempted in the Pacific the ultimate results were not altogether favorable for the country that tried it, but the Chinese military doctrinal writings we examined in this study did not acknowledge the existence of such historical counter examples.

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

The Whore of Babylon is a mouthless cat from the land of Sanrio. If not, the evil Kitty can at least be equated with Mammon. Her ‘barf bags’ now start at $10 US.

If you are lucky enough to travel by the Hello Kitty plane on Taipei-Japan routes, don’t leave the airsickness bag behind and do collect other’s bags (unused ones, I suppose). The starting bid at auction website for an airsickness bag with an adorable mouthless cat (no less!) is HK$120 / US$15, according to Hong Kong Apple Daily.

A Hello Kitty airsickness bag = 10 Big Mac.

Since LfC reported on the auctions Hello Kitty air-sickness bags have had a starting price of $10 on eBay, as can be seen in this auction.:

EVA AIRLINE A330 HELLO KITTY Sickness Barf Bag ,NEW , ONLY ON FUKUOKA LINE CAN GET IT.Winner pays 3 dollars for shipping worldwide. Registered mail $ 2 extra.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, taiwan, hello kitty

The Durex 2005 Global Sex Survey has been published, Curzon at Coming Anarchy examines the results.:

* Greeks do it the most, followed by Croatia, Serbia, and Bulgaria.

* Malaysians like to do it in the toilet and their parent’s bedroom

* Thais like to use porn.

* Indians are late to start and faithful at it.

* South Africans risk their lives doing it (which may explain a lot) as do women from New Zealand.

* The Chinese are least happy (22%!) with it.

* The Japanese do it the least, again (just 45 times a year); Singaporeans rank second to last (at 73 times a year).

* Canadian women like it more than Canadian men.

* Australians are average.

Also note,Taiwanese are the most likely (47%) to use vibrators as a sex aid;

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

Part of the mission of Asiapundit is to make up for the absence of an English-language pan-Asian tabloid (the format change at the AWSJ has not prompted a shift to tabloid journalism).

With that, we thank China Matters for bringing our attention to a reported affair between Madam Soong Mai-ling (Mdme Chaing Kai-shek) and one-time US presidential hopeful Wendell Willkie.:

In 1942, FDR dispatched Willkie on an around-the-world fact-finding trip accompanied by Cowles. During a brief stay in Chungking, Willkie and Mdme. Soong became powerfully enamoured of each other.

On one occasion they slipped away from a government reception, leaving Cowles to divert the attention and wrath of Chiang Kai-shek. Later that evening, the Generalissimo appeared at Cowles and Willkie’s quarters and searched it from top to bottom in a vain effort to find his wife.

At 4:00 am Willkie returned, in Cowles’ words “cocky as a young college student after a successful night with a girl…giving me a play by play account of what had happened”–though Cowles is too much the gentleman to reveal the details himself.

Then Wilkie announced to an astounded Cowles that he wanted to bring Soong May-ling back to Washington with him.

Cowles convinced Willkie such an escapade would doom his political aspirations. As repayment Cowles was delegated to deliver the bad news to Mdme. Soong. Her reaction created an indelible impression on him:

Before I knew what was happening she reached up and scratched her long fingernails down both my cheeks so deeply that I had marks for about a week.

When Mdme. Soong eventually made her historic trip to the United States the next year, she summoned Cowles to her suite in the Waldorf and proposed that he devote himself exclusively to obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for Willkie, spending whatever was necessary–with his expenses to be reimbursed by Mdme. Soong:

…she wound up her sales talk with a remark I shall never forget: “You know, Mike, if Wendell could be elected, then he and I would rule the world. I would rule the Orient and Wendell would rule the Western world.” And she stressed the word rule.

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

Beijing-based blogger and PR flack Imagethief has weighed in with a very meaty essay relating to the light argument between myself and Bingfeng last week.

… Bingfeng is half right. There is “collusion between media and business [that] has evolved into more sophisticated forms that influence/manipulate the public.” We call that public relations, and it’s what I do for a living. But no matter how distasteful you might find it, it is not necessarily corrupt, and seems not to have undermined civil society in most of the rest of the world.

The origins of the transportation claim notwithstanding, blaming MNCs and PR companies for corruption in the Chinese media is absurd. Complicit though they may sometimes be, it’s like blaming vultures for the death of your horse in the desert. This argument is the reframing of a victimization theme I often see wielded against foreigners and multinationals when discussing problems in China. It plays well on nationalist sentiments and often does a really good job of deflecting attention away from serious, underlying issues worthy of scrutiny. The Chewbacca defense, as Myrick pointed out.

Furthermore, to suggest that a cleaner media will lead to fewer restrictions on free speech is, quite simply, to put the cart before the horse. I believe the exact opposite is true. Free speech and a less fettered press are much more likely to be effective weapons against corruption.

There’s a lot of great info and argument in the post on the nature of Chinese media. Do read the rest.

I will note that on the ‘transportation claim,’ Will makes a reasonable point.:

In case you are wondering, although I think it’s a bad idea, I don’t feel that the transportation claim is corrupt. Media corruption thrives in the dark, when its influence is hidden. The transportation claim is completely matter-of-fact and auditable. You can follow the trail, from our cost estimate for events to our invoices to clients to the list of exactly which journalists showed up at a press event, and their sign-in signatures. It’s never guaranteed us good coverage, or even attendance at events. Frankly, I think it’s a desperate waste of money, and it will be a good day for the maturity of Chinese media when it is abolished. But that will only happen when the Chinese media decide for themselves to abolish it, or when all companies with PR efforts in China, both local and foreign, decide to abolish it together. It would take a company with a large risk appetite indeed to unilaterally decide no longer offer the transportation claim, especially while their competitors still did.

I expect that the ‘transportation claim’ is so widely done here that it is expected by some local journalists. I further believe that it does not guarantee positive coverage, but that failing to offer cash could cause the reverse. I still consider it payola, but an argument could be made that it is now so common it is more like institutionalized extortion.

I have a lot of respect for many of the local media I have encountered - there are many good journalists here, especially in the business press. I also know many PR flacks who are helpful and earnest. I wouldn’t suggest that anyone is corrupt as an individual, but I do see this as a corrupt institutional practice.

Barring the emergence of trend-setting leadership, solutions to the payola problem will indeed require a serious joint effort on the part of businesses, PR firms and media managers.

The latter could try a code of ethics and boosting local reporters’ salaries. Higher salaries, as Lee Kwan Yew would argue, deter people from accepting bribes. I also imagine that expected cash from ‘transport claims’ is priced-in to salary offers by local media operations. If a media company were to forbid reporters from accepting such cash, it would have to offer legitimate compensation.

Better still, government could simply outlaw the practice. That would save on promotion costs for local and foreign firms, spare PR firms an ethical dilemma and would likely cause quite a bit of upset among local hacks (which may, in turn, encourage a more critical and independent press).

UPDATE: Ian Lamont discusses the issue from a Taiwan perspective.

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

Via the Taipei Kid.:

Thank goodness the MRT authorities have posted these bilingual signs telling commuters not to bring poultry into subway stations. Taipei’s English-speaking community, mostly made up of North Americans, Europeans and South Africans, have a terrible habit of bringing live birds onto the subway.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, taiwan

The mouthless one from Sanrio continues the expansion of her evil empire.:

Apparently the Hello Kitschy sightseeing bus was not enough!

Taiwan airline Eva Air has painted one of its Airbus A300-200 with the big-headed cat and her family members. The plane will fly daily between Taipei and Fukuoka.

The plane’s interior features Hello Kitty-related items as well, ranging from boarding passes, baggage tags, dining utensils, and lavatory papers to flight attendant uniforms.

From MSN-Mainichi. Press Release.

Given Hello Kitty’s record with violence and mayhem, I putting the chances of a crash within the next two years at about 40 pct. The odds would be much worse if it were an Air China plane.

Technorati Tags: asia, east asia, japan, hello kitty

Former Taiwanese President Lee ripped apart the Mainland’s Communist government in Los Angeles, his last stop on his American trip, as reported by the Taipei Times:

In an explosive speech in Los Angeles on the last leg of a 13-day US tour that has infuriated Beijing, Lee called for capitalist nations to shun investment in China, which he likened to the 1930s appeasement policy towards German dictator Adolf Hitler and later Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

"As long as the capital from free countries continues to pour into China, China’s already oppressive practices will become more entrenched and the ensuing and ever-expanding militarism will make the likelihood of transition to a peaceful country ever more unlikely," he said.

Lee is known for being hypercritical of the mainland government, and when I read this I was preparing a moderate defense of the CCP, noting recent reforms and changes of rhetoric in favor of democracy.  Then I came across some commentary over at Shanghailist on a recent white paper, "Building of Political Democracy in China," (full English text here) which suggests that rhetoric may be a new way for the CCP to legitimize its own authoritarian power.  A Financial Times editorial lays out the best analysis I’ve found:

The 74-page government policy paper entitled "The Building of Political Democracy" seeks to justify autocratic Communist party rule in much the same way that Asian dictators have defended their regimes since the 1950s.

Genuine democratic demands are portrayed as "anarchic", in contrast to the party’s paternalistic guidance of the people towards prosperity and harmony. Echoing the "Asian values" popular with authoritarians in the 1990s, the paper says "China’s socialist political democracy has vivid Chinese characteristics". It shamelessly defines democratic government as the Communist party ruling on behalf of citizens with a view to perfecting "the people’s democratic dictatorship".

The fact of publication - this is the first such paper on this subject to be issued by the Chinese government - is of greater significance than the rather predictable contents. One theory is that the report was, like previous white papers, a response to foreign criticism and an attempt to explain China’s position to the outside world; the theory was lent weight by the coincidental presence in Beijing this week of Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary.

Seems to me that Lee is right that democratic reforms are not imminent on the Mainland, at least in the short term.

For some more background, see this NY Times summary piece.  A Taiwanese take is here.

Unlikely Kudos to Beijing’s space program come from Imagethief and B J Black.:

So China’s two astronauts have just returned from four days in orbit to heroes’ welcomes, and China has just announced plans for a spacewalk by 2007 and a female astronaut.

Imagethief would like to take this moment to applaud the Chinese space program for two reasons. First, as a professional spin-doctor, I appreciate that a nation indifferent to repairing the sink-holes in
the sidewalk outside my apartment can muster the drive to fire
astronauts into outer space.
It goes to show you that China’s priorities are, quite correctly, set on propaganda. I don’t say this lightly. Space programs have long served as diversions from other, more pressing matters, such as, say, Southeast Asian wars. Furthermore, recent rallying points in China have largely revolved around the heinous Japanese, so it’s good to see some national symbolism that is more positive, if still phallic and potentially military in deployment.

Second, China’s ability to casually broadcast its citizens into orbit it brings this world something we have sorely lacked since, arguably, 1969: a space race.

Via China Challenges, the second analyst in this VOA report discusses why China’s space program may be a good thing for Taiwan and its allies.:

China’s second manned space launch has ignited a new round of debate over the implications of the PRC’s burgeoning space capabilities. “China is serious in investing” in space capabilities that have “significant military applications in the future,” retired Air Force China specialist Mark Stokes tells Voice of America.

“Space assets, as well as countering… the U.S. use of space or other countries’ use of space, are important force multipliers that can help to even the playing field when you are going up against a technologically  superior adversary.”

According to Stokes, the space launch constitutes “a stepping stone for a longer-range program to make them a significant player in military space in the  future.”

Others, however, take a different view. The Chinese “already have so many other programs to weaponize and militarize space that would be more effective in a shorter time,” says Larry Wortzel of the Heritage Foundation.

“I would rather see them go ahead with the manned space program and use the money on that because I think in the near term, it makes the United States, Taiwan, and Japan safer.”

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, economy

ESWN makes a good argument in defense of Yahoo!’s co-operation with Chinese state security, and says he expects stone silence to his post. Because of that, it gets top of the page in today’s roundup.:

The police came quickly, assessed the situation
and decided that there was a chance of a bomb.  Hong Kong is one place that
takes possible explosives very seriously on account of the 1967
disturbances.  All pedestrian and vehicular traffic along Nathan Road was
stopped, and all shoppers and workers were evacuated.  This led to massive
traffic backups in one of the busiest part of the city.  At around 930pm, the
explosive disposal squad was in place to defuse the bomb.  A robot was sent
up and used a water gun to break open the box.  Fortunately, there was no
bomb inside, just two bricks.
The investigators then looked at the piece of
cardboard.  It read like a note from a disgruntled ex-employee of
PCCW.  There was an email address: .
Based on this and other information (note: there was a web page URL that is
blurred out in the magazine photo), the man was arrested.  He has been
tried and found guilty of threatening behavior.  The judge said: "In
the 21st century of our times, there are numerious incidents of violence,
attacks and bombing in the world.  To make the people of Hong Kong live in
a state of constant fear is a serious crime."  The man has not yet
been sentenced. . .
If several hundred requests come into Yahoo!
every day, how would they know which is which?  As Jerry Yang said,
"We do not know why they want that information.  We’re not told what
they look for."  So in order to tell which is which, Yahoo! will have
an in-house Chief Privacy Officer, who will demand the law enforcement agency to
produce the full evidence, explain the purpose of the inquiry and then he/she
will play God/Supreme Court Justice and render a decision in his/her infinite
wisdom.  Routinely, this CPO will have to make several hundred potentially
life-and-death decisions every day.  Now who wants that Chief Privacy
Officer job, with all the pressures and the legal and moral liabilities?. . .
In the case of Shi Tao, the law enforcement
will simply say the subject is suspected of having sent a state secret document
overseas via the Yahoo! email account on a specific date.  There is no
personal identification because the purpose of the request for the IP
information was precisely to detect the unknown subject.  Would you think
that the CPO will then demand to read the state secret document before deciding?
Is the CPO a good judge?  And does the CPO know how to deal with a genuine
national secret (such as the date and detailed plans of the invasion of Taiwan)?
I submit to you that Option 3 is not a good idea and corporate employees should
not be making these types of decisions.
As I said before, I expect stone silence to
this post, because the world is enjoying Yahoo!-bashing too much.

We now return to our regularly scheduled Yahoo! bashing.

Essential reading for cyber-dissidents, Reporters Without Borders has issued its guide for bloggers (pdf). Rebecca reviews it here.:

The Handbook for Bloggers is useful for beginners and veteran
bloggers alike. It starts out with several introductory chapters,
explaining how blogs differ from other kinds of websites, blogging
terminology, how to select a blogging tool and web-host, and how to get
started.  The middle chapters focus on tips that even veteran bloggers
will find useful. Journalist, blogger and We the Media author Dan GillmorMark Glaser
offers tips on how to "make your blog shine." I learned a lot from the
chapter on how to get your blog picked up by search engines, written by
internet consultant Olivier Andrieu.

A while back, I posted an Atanu Dey item praising Singapore over India. Today, via Amit Varma, an item that argues Singapore’s northern neighbor also has some lessons for India.:

My wife and I are in Malaysia now on a short term assignment for our
company, and every time we step out of our house in Penang, we feel the
amazing effects of a liberal economic policy. This small, densely
populated island off the coast of Malaysia (Penang) is a big
electronics manufacturing base (thanks to a Free Trade Zone, and a port
that was formerly duty free) and it is easy to see what this has done
to the local economy.
There is a booming free-spending middle
class, and almost no poverty. Everyone who wants to work seems to be
able to find a job, and they are doing well enough to import labor from
Indonesia for low-paying jobs. There are signs of development
everywhere - new roads, new bridges, new high-rises. And from what I’ve
heard, Penang reflects what is going on around the rest of the country.
Not
to say Malaysia doesn’t have its problems, but economically, they seem
to have found the secret to growth. We see all this, and naturally, the
next thing we think is, "When will this happen to India?"
We are
doing it backwards, it seems - Malaysia had manufacturing move over
here first, and that brought in a support engineering force which
slowly grew into a full fledged "high-tech economy." We got some
"low-tech" engineering activities first, and are hoping for the trickle
down from this to help our economy in other areas.

Far Outliers links to a study on the divergence of opinions in China and Canada on separatism.:

Whereas Canada has acclimatised to living next to its superpower
neighbour, absorbed the values of a virtual state and discarded the
traditional expectations of the importance of territory, China is a
rising power with an acute sense of grievance from the way it has been
treated historically, or at least the way it perceives it has been
treated. This strong inferiority complex has stimulated an intense
desire to do something about what many Chinese believe is their
misfortune, to occupy an international position that conforms to
traditional power politics and emphasises the value of territory.
Canada’s attitude is reinforced by its commitment to democracy and
interdependence, and to the granting of the wishes of the people of
Quebec, whatever they may be. The Chinese, on the contrary, lacking
both a commitment to democracy and self-determination or the status of
a developed state, view Taiwan not as an area containing a population
that should have some say in how they are governed, but as a
geopolitical object to be manipulated to maximise the glories of a
greater China.

Richard brings a troubling tale from the NY Times on police brutality and injustice in China.:

For three days and three nights, the police wrenched Qin Yanhong’s arms
high above his back, jammed his knees into a sharp metal frame, and
kicked his gut whenever he fell asleep. The pain was so intense that he
watched sweat pour off his face and form puddles on the floor.
On the fourth day, he broke down. "What color were her pants?" they
demanded. "Black," he gasped, and felt a whack on the back of his head.
"Red," he cried, and got another punch. "Blue," he ventured. The
beating stopped.
This is how Mr. Qin, a 35-year-old steel mill worker in Henan
Province in central China, recalled groping in the darkness of a
interrogation room to deduce the "correct" details of a rape and
murder, end his torture and give the police the confession they
required to close a nettlesome case.
On the strength of his coerced confession alone, prosecutors
indicted Mr. Qin. A panel of judges then convicted him and sentenced
him to death. He is alive today only because of a rare twist
of fate that proved his innocence and forced the authorities to let him
go, though not before a final push to have him executed anyway.

In light of the bird flu scare in neighboring Indonesia (which authorities there are calling an epidemic) Malaysia is cracking down on chicken smugglers (surely there are more lucrative illegal trades).:

I mean real chickens, the ones we have on our table for dinner. Yes,
it seems Malaysia actually has a shortage of chickens, hence a window
of opportunity opens itself for more dubious characters to actually
make a living smuggling them from neighbouring countries.
Now I know why a friend of mine who was an accountant quit his job
to open a chicken farm. The ‘rumour’ that McDonalds Malaysia created
quite a few ‘chicken’ millionaires might be true then.
From a Reuters report,

Malaysia said on Wednesday it was boosting precautions
against bird flu, and considering fines or jail terms for smugglers of
poultry from neighbours such as Indonesia, now battling the disease.

Seven-years to the day following his jailing, as Lone notes, former Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim announced he plans to sue former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for defamation.:

Former Malaysian deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim said Tuesday he will
launch a lawsuit against one-time prime minister Mahathir Mohamad for
accusing him of being a homosexual.
Mahathir said earlier this
month that he was forced to sack Anwar in 1998 to prevent mainly-Muslim
Malaysia from having a homosexual leader. Anwar was jailed for sodomy
after his sacking but the conviction was overturned last year.
"I
cannot have a person who is like that in my cabinet who may succeed and
become the prime minister. Imagine having a gay prime minister. Nobody
would be safe," Mahathir told reporters.
Anwar said he was
"shocked" to hear of Mahathir’s "defamatory" remarks, particularly
after a court last month awarded him 1.2 million dollars in damages
over a book that aired the sodomy allegations.
"I will not
allow this lie and slander to continue. Thus I have instructed my
counsel to initiative legal action against Tun (honorific) Mahathir,"
he said in a statement.

Lucia Lai notes that some concerns are being voiced over Dr M being allowed to participate in a human rights conference.:

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) marked its 6th
anniversary and Human Rights Day in Malaysia recently by holding a
hypocrisy party in the capital city, with former premier Dr Mahathir
Mohamad giving the opening address.
A group of 30
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had initially written an open
letter to Suhakam urging it to "close the door" on Dr M for a simple
reason that he had committed a host of "human wrongs" with regard to
human rights at home.
They had provided Suhakam a list of human
rights abuses in Bolehland by Dr M and pointed out that it would be
wrong to invite "a leader who perpetrated extensive human rights
violations" during his 22-year political reign."

AsiaPundit has earlier noted South Korean concerns about how Google Earth allows users to view the South Korean presidential compound and military bases, Pyong’yang, and the secretive Communist Party of China compound of Zhongnanhai. Politics 101 Malaysia is now noting that the spy satellite for the masses is .:
       

After recent my recent comments on Google Earth and ,  the fear continues.
A United Press International report on
Tuesday says terrorists and “rogue state” intelligence agencies could
be making use of free internet satellite images that leave sensitive
British military facilities exposed.
Yet again I ask, will our parliament address this issue during this session?

A Taiwanese in China creates a blog dedicated almost entirely to toilets (seriously).:

This one is the same as last one. Toilet in tibet temple. These walls
are higher than those in 1st picture. So, you can not play cards with
your friends who go to toilet next to you. …
This toilet is more "modern". This one was taken in
a famous tibet temple in yovnan. The small metal spot on the wall is
the button for you to clean your "waste".
Do
you know how to go? Yes, face out. No door, of course. But, in this
toilet, there is water. You can push the button on the wall. Yes, that
very small metal spot in the picture. So, in this kind of toilet, no
shit smell. It’s clearier. There is also another kind of toilet in the
very courtryside place. I did not take pictures. CAUSE, I CAN NOT GO
INTO THAT KIND OF TOILET. Shit everwhere near the door of that kind
toilet. How can I go? It’s really very strange. How do local people go?…
Usually,
this kind of very local & old toilet are in very small viliages.
"public toilet", mm, maybe. So, next time when you have a chance to
drive along a road in small countries in mainland China, remember to
find "public toilet". Then you can see this very localized toilet in
person.

Monty Python needs to reform and do a skit on Taiwan politics, like the WUFI, the People’s Front of Judea are also Splitters/Splittists.:

In case you were wondering the ‘World United Formosans for Independence’ and the ‘Taiwan Defence Alliance’ should not be confused with pro-formal independence political parties like the Taiwan Solidarity Union (which regularly polls between 5-10% in national elections), the ‘Taiwan Independence Party’ (which gained 0.3% of the vote in the last election), the ‘Peasant Party’ (0.4%) or the ‘Taiwan Number One Party’ (didn’t bother standing).

Someone will not be getting another invite to speak at Beijing University.:

Prominent Taiwanese commentator/legislator/raconteur Li Ao delivered one mother of a speech
at Beijing University yesterday. In front of a stunned audience, with
several high-ranking mainland government officials openly squirming on
stage, Li .
He openly criticized China’s censorship, saying that went against
what even Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai would have wanted. Quoting the
Collected Writings of Mao Zedong, he said,
"凡是歷史上發生的東西，都要在歷史上消滅。因此，共產黨總有一天要消滅…，S’s" i.e. "Every
historical figure that has risen has also been destroyed. One day the
Chinese Communist Party will also be destroyed by history…our mission
is to bring about its destruction a little more quickly." He made
not-so-subtle references to the Tiananmen massacre, saying that all
governments are bastards who are willing to open fire on their own
people. He even got in plenty of digs against the
charismatically-challenged former KMT chairman Lian Zhan and the
charismatically-gifted but politcally-challenged current KMT chairman
Ma Yingjiu.

Mr Wang notes Jacob’s run in with the authorities because his number was saved on Singapore Rebel director Martyn See’s cellphone. Mr Wang says the Singapore police really should exercise some restraint, at least for PR reasons.

…please bear in mind that Martyn See is blogging about every stage of
your investigations. This is a highly sensitive case. All kinds of
media organisations, international and local, are closely following
Martyn See’s blog for updates. So Mr Wang advises you to take extra
care in how you conduct your investigations. If you do any silly things
like Haul Anyone and Everyone Who Is Found in Martyn See’s Handphone
Down to the Police Station For Interviews, Martyn will blog about it
and the whole world will read his blog and think the Singapore police
is really acting silly.

Japundit reminds us why Engrish.com should be a regular surf stop.: