China’s loss is India’s gain

My article China’s loss is India’s gain appeared in NitiCentral


Here is the link...

Where is China going? Apparently the Middle Kingdom is not doing too well! Even economically! The economic publication Bloomberg recently reported, “China’s economy got off to a weak start in 2015 with disappointing manufacturing and service-sector readings, renewing calls for the Government to introduce more measures to spur growth in the months ahead.” In January, the factory activity recorded its first contraction in more than two years.
The Daily Economic News, a Chinese publication, predicted five macro-economic challenges for 2015. First, the increase in money supply may not be sufficient to revive businesses; second, exports would continue to decline; third, as banks tighten credit, the demand for credit could be difficult to satisfy; fourth, real estate developers will be unable to reap their usual high returns and lastly, as the Central Government tightened local Governments’ spending to reduce their debts, private investment may not be enough to push up local schemes.
It is difficult to say if the prediction will be correct or not; in any case, President Xi Jinping will have other serious problems to tackle in 2015.
Two other issues could particularly destabilise China: the current anti-corruption struggle and the severe new restrictions on Internet.
One ominous sign is the large number of suicides recorded in China. The Party has started asking its cadres to check on the number of ‘unnatural deaths’ of party members, in other words, suicides.
Zhang Ming, a political science Professor at Renmin University in Beijing told Bloomberg, “There’s a growing number of official suicide cases reported over the past two years as the anti-corruption campaign intensified,” adding that officials don’t want “to expose the people behind them, so the easiest way is to commit suicide to protect people above them and their family members”.
In case of deaths, Party cadres are instructed to fill up an eight-column form with name, sex, rank and work unit of the deceased, along with the time and cause of death. If possibly due to suicide, the location, method of death and status of the investigation, have to be given.
Wang Qishan, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the man behind the anti-corruption crusade, told a recent meeting of the Commission that “the handling of cases implicating corrupt high-ranking officials – such as Zhou Yongkang, Xu Caihou, Ling Jihua and Su Rong – showed the CPC Central Committee’s unwavering volition to punish corruption and strictly manage the Party.”
‘Wrongdoings’ include forming fractions and cliques, exchanging gifts bought with public money, banquets, travels, entertainment activities and ceremonies using public funds, “The situation has improved, but the root is still there, even though the tree has fallen. New tricks might be pulled under huge pressure, and our mission to prevent re-occurrence is arduous. …We cannot afford to lose,” said Wang.
“We can’t afford to lose the battle” seems the new war cry of Xi and Wang.
The CCDI report revealed that “[in 2014] 226,000 cases were filed as a result of complaints, with 218,000 closed. The cases led to 232,000 officials being given Party or administrative punishment, a yearly increase of 30 per cent, and another 12,000 people were transferred to judicial organs on criminal charges.”
Wang told the Commission that some officials still haven’t realised how ‘grave and complicated’ was the corruption issue. He mentioned several remaining problems such as slack supervision and ineffective measures to address grassroots disciplinary violations.
To corruption should be added, loyalty.
In Xinjiang in 2014, 355 Communist Party cadres have been investigated for ‘breaching party political discipline’, (usually, an euphemism for corruption), a six-fold increase over the previous year. Out of the 355 cadres investigated, 333 received unspecified punishments, which means that ‘loyalty’ and not ‘corruption’ was the main charge. President Xi has warned that wavering on core issues such as openly opposing the party line, or secretly working against Central Government would be severely punished.
In Tibet, 15 party officials have been disciplined “for joining independence groups and providing intelligence to the Dalai Lama in activities deemed a threat to national security”. The ‘cleansing’ is not limited to restive provinces. The Central Military Commission announced that the PLA must root out ‘chronic diseases’ and adopt a zero-tolerance stance toward corrupt officers. The reason for the intense chasing of the corrupt is that President Xi Jinping knows that if the disease is not eradicated China will follow the path to disintegration like the Soviet Union.
But is it not too late to tackle a seemingly incurable disease?
Xi believes that Marxism is the answer.
During a recent Politburo session, Xi spoke to his colleagues of the importance to be committed to Marxism and Socialism. The South China Morning Post mentioned, “The Politburo squeezed a collective study session on Marxist dialectical materialism into its tight schedule, a year or so after it held a similar one on historical materialism.”
Xi would have stressed that dialectical materialism was the party’s worldview and methodology in its efforts to unite and lead the people. The SCMP analysed, “The ruling party deviated from hard-line Marxist ideology when Deng Xiaoping launched market reforms in the late 1970s. Since coming to office, Xi has been eager to fill the ideological void by emphasising both Marxism and traditional Chinese culture and values.”
The second ‘hardening’ is the new tightening over the Internet. While China sees the controlling of Internet beneficial to its indigenous growth; some are aware that it is a tricky issue which could badly boomerang on the country’s economy.
The Global Times recently admitted that the ‘Great Firewall’, as China’s sophisticated Internet monitoring system is known, is misunderstood, “The firewall blocks certain overseas websites in a targeted fashion, rather than isolating China’s Internet from the overseas one.”
It argued that the success of China’s biggest Internet giants — Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, the so-called ‘BAT’, was due to the firewall.
Without this, The Global Times concluded, “China would become the realm of Google China, Yahoo China and Facebook China.”
What is interesting is that for the first time, the mouthpiece of the Party admitted the existence of the firewall.
The New York Times wrote a hard-hitting editorial, “Under the guise of improving security, the Chinese Government is clamping down on technology companies and further limiting the access its citizens have to information that is not sanitized by the Communist Party. These moves will hurt the Chinese economy and create a major rift between China and the rest of the world.” It quotes a letter sent by foreign business groups to President Xi protesting against new policies that “require companies that sell computer equipment to Chinese banks to turn over their source code to the Government.”
The US newspaper threatened, “But this push for greater control could cost China dearly,” before concluding, “Mr. Xi cannot expect the United States or any other country to engage in negotiations to liberalise trade and investment with his country while his Government is actively making it impossible for foreign businesses to survive there.”
It is where India, the largest world democracy, where freedom truly exists, has certainly a slot to occupy. The ‘Make in India’ of Modi Sarkar may become more and more popular with foreign investors extremely nervous at the latest developments in China.

Han chauvinism hurts China’s ‘ethnic unity’

Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital

My article Han chauvinism hurts China’s ‘ethnic unity’ appeared in today's Edit Page of The Pioneer.

After writing this, I came across an article published in China.com. It reported that during the NPC's meeting, Zhang Chunxian stated that "technologies like breaking the Chinese Internet Great Firewall are contributing to an increase in the number of violent terrorist attacks."
Zhang made these comments in response to a question from the press asking for his opinion on the recent violent in Kunming. The remark of Xinjiang's Party boss triggered a large wave of criticism on the Chinese Internet. It is said that millions of Chinese netizens use various ways to bypass the 'Great Firewall' to access international websites blocked by Beijing. Wang's opinion was widely viewed as a typical 'evil position' against freedom of speech. Most of the websites that reported Zhang’s comments later removed his remarks.

Here is the link to my article...

Be it in Tibet, where locals rarely uses violence but are frustrated by Central policies, or in Xinjiang, where the temptation to use violence is stronger, Beijing has utterly failed in its so-called minority strategy

On March 1 shortly after 9 pm, some 33 people were killed and 130 wounded when a group of attackers dressed in black went on the rampage in Kunming railway station. The ‘terrorists’ went around indiscriminately hacking and stabbing passers-by.
According to official sources the death toll includes 29 civilian victims killed by the attackers and four assailants shot dead by riot police.
Witnesses said that six men and two women used long knives to ‘crazily attack innocent passengers. Terrified victims ran away seeking protection.
The Legal Daily newspaper reported that the SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics unit) arrived on the scene less than 15 minutes after the beginning of the carnage and after firing 2 warning shots, Captain Zhang Jun (not his real name), the SWAT leader gunned down a masked woman who threatened him with a knife; he later shot four of the attackers in 15 seconds.
Zhang Jun recounted: “I didn’t have time to think, I shot them as fast as I could. After I shot all five, the first one, also the nearest to me, stood up again and threw a knife at me. Luckily I tilted my head.”
Beijing immediately described the incident as a ‘terrorist attack’.
A couple of days later, Xinhua, quoting Kunming officials, said that the initial investigations suggested the deadly attack was "planned and organised by separatist forces from Xinjiang."
The attack came a day ahead of the opening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and two days before the first session of the National People’s Congress.
The South China Morning Post commented: “It is traditionally the most politically sensitive time of the year, with the government eager to maintain stability and paint a rosy picture as thousands of delegates and government leaders head to the capital.”
The horrible Kunming massacre should be seen in the perspective of the past events in the restive Xinjiang. It is worth recalling the long series of violent happenings in the western province.
On June 25, 2009, two Uighur factory workers were killed and dozens injured in a huge brawl with Han Chinese in Shaoguan, in the southern province of Guangdong. As retaliation, thousands of Uighurs went on rampage in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital soon after security forces were sent to control the protest.
According to government’s sources, some 200 people died in the unrest and more than 1,600 were injured. Hundreds were arrested and at least 26 are sentenced to death. Uyghur sources said the number of victims could be as high as 500. ‘Ethnic separatist forces’ were blamed.
On July 18, 2011, the Chinese Police killed 20 protesters in Hotan in southern Xinjiang. The State media affirmed that the police had to fire on demonstrators who attacked a police station.
A month later, 13 Han Chinese were killed by suspected Uighur separatists.
On February 28, 2012, rioters armed with knives killed at least 10 people in Yecheng; the police was reported to have shot dead on the spot at least two attackers.
The unrest continued in 2013; for Beijing, one the most sensitive incidents (because it happened at the heart of the Capital) occurred on October 28 when three Uyghurs belonging to the same family crashed their car into Chinese tourists on the Tiananmen Square, killing two. The occupants of the car later set themselves on fire.
On December 16, 14 Uighurs and two police officers are killed in Shufu county; the attackers were once again described by the authorities as members of an extremist Islamist group.
On January 15, 2014 an eminent Uighur academic (and government critic) Ilham Tohti was detained by police and charged with separatism, carrying the death penalty. The list is indeed long.
After the Yunnan incident, the Government machinery was quick to denounce ‘terrorists’. Even pepresentatives from various religious bodies assembled during a session of the CPPCC denounced ‘terrorism’ which ‘undermined the social stability and unity’.
Losang Shandan of the Tibet Branch of the Buddhism Association of China, called on people of different nationalities to come together to fight against the violent activities and terrorists.
Who were the Kunming ‘terrorists’?
According to Radio Free Asia (RFA) the group of eight ‘has acted in desperation’. A Uyghur source in Kunming told RFA's Uyghur Service: “I believe the attackers may have been a desperate group of Uyghurs who fled Xinjiang to Yunnan and were trapped there after the Chinese authorities discovered their plans to get across to Laos."
The source added that he believes that the gang fled Xinjiang, trying to avoid police crackdown in Hanerik township (in Hotan prefecture).
It was later confirmed by Qin Guangrong, Yunnan’s Communist Party boss who declared the eight attackers travelled to his province and Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong, as they tried to leave the country: “These eight individuals originally wanted to join the jihad …They couldn’t get out at Yunnan so tried to get out in other places, but they also couldn’t leave Guangdong, so once again they returned to Yunnan.”
Wang Lixiong, the Chinese dissident (and husband of Tibetan blogger Woeser) gives his own perception of the Kunming incident. The outspoken writer knows Xinjiang well; he travelled there nine times between 1980 and 2007.
After the Kunming attack, he wrote: “People asked how I look at the incident. The issue lies not in the incident itself but beyond it, and it has been long in the making.”
Wang quotes from his book My West China; Your East Turkestan 2007 in which he argues that the name ‘Xinjiang’ itself shows where the problem lies. He asks: “What is Xinjiang? Its most straightforward meaning is ‘new territory’. But for the Uighurs, how could the land possibly be their ‘new territory’ when it has been their home and their ancestors’ home for generations. It is only a new territory for the occupiers.”
Wang Lixiong adds: “The Uighurs don’t like to hear the name 'Xinjiang' because it is itself a proclamation of an empire’s expansion, the bragging of the colonists, and a testimony of the indigenous people’s humiliation and misfortune. Even for China, the name 'New Territory' is awkward.”
He rightly asks that if Beijing claims that Xinjiang has belonged to China ever since ancient times, why call it ‘new territory’?
One often makes a comparison between India and China. But here Beijing has many lessons to learn from India if it wants to solve the ‘terrorist’ issue in Xinjiang.
Whether it is Tibet, where the local population rarely uses violence, but remains frustrated by the Central policies or in Xinjiang where the temptation to use violence is stronger (the proximity with Pakistan making things worse), Beijing has utterly failed in its so-called minority strategy.
The circle of violence in Xinjiang makes it all the more difficult for the leadership in Beijing to tackle the New Dominion’s issue.
Patience and wisdom are required; it is however not the forte of the Communist Party of China.

Chinese Great Firewall 'upgraded': No Good

Search for this blog on greatfirewallofchina.org

The Great Firewall of China is become higher and larger.
It has been 'upgraded' as the Global Times says.
As a blog on The New York Times put it: "China blocks online searches of politically sensitive terms, smothers embarrassing news events, blocks online messages from dissidents and simply deletes any microblog posts that it dislikes."
I am not sure in which category my blog falls, but for the past two years or so, I failed every tests on the greatfirewallofchina.org.
Yesterday, I mentioned that China is years in advance vis-a-vis India in terms of infrastructure development (particularly raiways), but as far as individual freedoms are concerned, India is eons ahead.
Small mercies!
Anyway, Merry Xmas to all, in China, in Tibet and elsewhere.

Adding More Bricks to the Great Firewall of China
December 23, 2012
MARK MCDONALD
HONG KONG - China appears to have reinforced its Internet firewall in recent days, blocking some of the leading services that allow people on the mainland to access forbidden sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

International business transactions also are being affected, Internet analysts said. The New York Times Web site remains 100 percent blocked on the mainland, along with the Chinese-language edition of The Times and Rendezvous.
At least three foreign companies - Astrill, WiTopia and StrongVPN - have apologized to customers whose virtual private networks, or VPNs, have been slowed or disabled. VPNs are used to circumvent the Communist government's firewall. The companies, meanwhile, were suggesting some work-arounds.
The daily newspaper Global Times, affiliated with the Communist Party, acknowledged the firewall had been "upgraded," but it also warned that foreign providers of VPN services were operating illegally.
China blocks online searches of politically sensitive terms, smothers embarrassing news events, blocks online messages from dissidents and simply deletes any microblog posts that it dislikes.
The firewall also blocks countless Web sites that are openly available to users elsewhere around the world - from pornography sites and commercial come-ons to news reporting, political activism and religious proselytizing. Users on the mainland thus have to use VPNs to reach the banned sites.
Liu Xiao Ming, the Chinese ambassador to Britain, told the BBC on Friday that there was "a misconception about the Internet and development in China."
"In fact, the Chinese are very much open in terms of the Internet," he said, quoted in an article in The South China Morning Post. "In fact, we have the most number of Internet users in China today."
An estimated 600 million Chinese have access to the Internet.
Foreign businesses also use VPNs not only to safeguard their transactions but also to keep government censors and rival companies from seeing their corporate communications.
Global Times quoted an anonymous executive at a foreign technology company operating in China who said the lack of a VPN would damage the firm's operations.
Josh Ong, China editor of the tech monitoring site The Next Web, said in an interview with the Voice of America that international companies were reporting disruptions in their corporate VPN services.
"A lot of companies have a general policy that they must use their own proxy network in order to transfer data, especially into and out of China," Mr. Ong said. "So you are looking at banks or e-commerce companies, anyone who is transferring very sensitive information, a lot of them use corporate VPNs."
Mr. Ong suggested that the tightening of the firewall could be tied to the recent leadership change in the Chinese Communist Party.
"It is certainly possible that some of it is just a general flexing of might, kind of coming in with a strong arm to really show who's in control," he said. "But there is definitely something intentional happening when these VPN services are being restricted."
As Bill Bishop wrote recently on DealBook, China's management of the Internet "has not been encouraging for those who want to believe the leadership will push reforms."
"I have lived in Beijing since 2005, and these have been the most draconian few days of Internet restrictions I have experienced," he said last month.
"Indiscriminate blocking of major parts of the global Internet is not going to help China in its quest to internationalize the renminbi and make it a reserve currency," Bill said. "Internet controls at the level of the last few days may also deter foreign firms from moving their regional headquarters to China."

Barbara Demick of The Los Angeles Times bureau in Beijing offered this cautionary tweet:

Note to Chinese censors: if you pull our vpns, main Asia news bureaus will have to move to Tokyo. Not good for China.
- Barbara Demick (@BarbaraDemick) 6 Nov 12

My colleagues Sharon LaFraniere and David Barboza wrote about similar concerns over China's Internet censorship last year, and they spoke to Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China, an investment and strategy consultancy based in Beijing.

It has been double the guard, and double the guard, and you never hear proclamations about things being relaxed," said Mr. Clark, a 17-year resident of China. "We have never seen this level of control in the time I have been here, and I have been here since the beginning of the Internet."