Την ίδια ώρα, στην Κίνα...

[Costas]

Ο βασιλιάς του χοιρινού στην Κίνα εξαγόρασε έναν βασιλιά του χοιρινού στις ΗΠΑ (Sinocism).

Από το ίδιο δελτίο του Sinocism, παρουσίαση των προσπαθειών για εξαγωγή του baijiu, της κινέζικης "βότκας", στις ξένες αγορές (και όχι μόνο για τους εκπατρισμένους Κινέζους): πώς έπιασε δηλαδή η τεκίλα και το σάκε; (Reuters)
"I thought it tasted like paint-thinner and felt like a liquid lobotomy," said Michael Pareles, manager at the U.S. Meat Export Federation in Beijing. "However, like many other things in China, I eventually grew to like it."
Baijiu's punch makes it a tough sell in Western bar culture where people drink on an empty stomach. So does its fuel-like odor and its aftertaste. But the history of alcoholic beverages shows that nearly any taste can be acquired. "Tequila has a very unusual flavor compared to more popular spirits," said Derek Sandhaus, industry consultant and author of a forthcoming book on baijiu appreciation. But through clever marketing, good cocktails, and good management, it's earned a place on the bar shelf. I see no reason why the world's most popular spirit can't do the same."
Με την εκστρατεία ενάντια στη χαλάρωση των ηθών των κρατικών λειτουργών, που εξαπέλυσε ο νέος πρόεδρος, οι πωλήσεις του ποτού έχουν πατώσει, γιατί σταμάτησαν οι "βασιλικοί πότοι". Εννοείται ότι δεν λείπουν και τα σκάνδαλα νοθείας (Asia Times). Ενδιαφέρον έχει, τέλος, η χημεία του ποτού: [1][2] (300 Shots at Greatness)

 

[Costas]

Εκμάθηση μανταρίνικων για φιλογύνηδες/ισσες...
Κι ένα εύγλωττο για τους περίφημους τόνους!

 

[Costas]

Εκανε το γύρο του κόσμου η περίπτωση του παιδιού που χάραξε χαρακτήρες πάνω σε αρχαίο γλυπτό στο Λούξορ, αλλά και το τι κάνουμε αν μας πιάσει χέσιμο μέσα στο μετρό έχει το ενδιαφέρον του ως λύση... (Off the Great Wall)
Μεγάλη επίσης η αγάπη των Κινέζων για τους αριθμούς. Εδώ, μηνύματα με αριθμούς αντί για τα δυτικά με γράμματα του τύπου lol κλπ. (Off the Great Wall)

 

[Costas]

Επέτειος σήμερα, μόλις που προλαβαίνω: Elite in China Molded in Part by Tiananmen (ΝΥΤ), και Cui Jian, A piece of Red Cloth, με αγγλικό στίχο εδώ.

 

[Costas]

Λινκ από το Sinocism:
China’s Prominent Weiborati Speak Out on Eve of Tiananmen Anniversary (""Don't worry about forgetfulness. At least the Sina censors remember.") (Tea Leaf Nation)
Witnesses to Tiananmen Square struggle with what to tell their children (The Washington Post)
The day that changed everything - June 4, 1989 (Purged officials and intellectuals recall devastating effect the crackdown of 24 years ago had on their own lives and their country's political future) (South China Morning Post)
Επισκόπηση του άρθρου “China’s Fear of Contagion. Tiananmen Square and the Power of the European Example.”

Λινκ από το Human Rights in China:
Chinese evade censors, as HK journalists stopped at Tiananmen (A call for unity in Hong Kong comes as many online are remembering the day in veiled references and by posting photos and memes) (SCMP)

Εδώ στην Ελλάδα ένα βραδινό δελτίο που είδα, του ΑΝΤ1, δεν είχε την παραμικρή αναφορά στο γεγονός (εκτός κι αν με πήρε ο ύπνος). Για τα άλλα κανάλια, δεν ξέρω. Αν δεν υπήρξε καμιά αναφορά στην επέτειο, λες να 'χει σχέση με τη θερμή πρόσκληση προς τους Κινέζους να επενδύσουν την Ελλάδα; λες;... Εντωμεταξύ, η ανακεφαλαιοποίηση των συστημικών τραπεζών συνεχίζεται. Αν κατάλαβα καλά, μια μετοχή σου της ΕΤΕ που άξιζε 10 ευρώ τώρα τιμάται 0,30. Διορθώστε με αν κατάλαβα λάθος.

 

[Costas]

Ενημερωμένη λίστα "ευαίσθητων λέξεων" που κόβονται από το λογοκριτικό στρατό ο οποίος παρακολουθεί το μέσο κοινωνικής δικτύωσης Weibo, με λινκ προς τα αντίστοιχα αγγλόφωνα λήμματα. (China Digital Times)

 

[Costas]

Spiritual-Religious Groups in the PRC after 1978, διατριβή της Kristin Kupfer. (Dissertation Reviews)

 

[Costas]

Ο Λίου Χούι, αδερφός της Λίου Ξ(Σ)ια, γυναίκας του Λίου Ξ(Σ)ιαομπό, καταδικάστηκε σε 11 χρόνια φυλακή. (Reuters)

In a rare statement to media, a weeping Liu Xia told reporters from the front passenger seat of her car as she drove away from the courthouse that she was extremely angry with the verdict and vowed to launch an appeal.
"I absolutely cannot accept this. This is simply persecution," she said. "This is completely an illegal verdict." Liu Xia said she had "completely lost hope" in the government. "I can't even leave my house." After about two minutes, security forced journalists away from the car, which moved off.
Liu Hui was out on bail last September, but then arrested again in January, after several rights activists and foreign reporters forced their way past security guards late last year to visit Liu Xia, one of his other lawyers, Shang Baojun, told Reuters before the verdict.

Από το Citizen Power for China: Statement on China’s Further Persecution of Liu Xiaobo’s Extended Family:
We also condemn the fact that the Chinese regime–in a further example of how much human rights has regressed in China–has once again begun to use the barbaric practice of “guilt by association,” and punishing political dissidents’ direct family members or even entire extended family, as was done in feudal China and under the dictator Mao Zedong’s rule. (Seeing Red in China)

 

[Costas]

Edward Snowden and China


First, why Hong Kong?

My answer: Because he’s a spook.

(...)

Snowden, in addition to his career as an IT grunt, had worked on the covert operations side in Geneva.

When he thinks about what happens to him, he assumes his identity is going to be revealed. He looks at the situations of Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. Definitely doesn’t want to stay in the United States (Manning). Definitely doesn’t want to take up residence in a liberal democracy which happens to be a US security partner (Assange).

He wants to control the circumstances of his exposure and obtain maximum press exposure to shape international perceptions of him and rally support before the legal hammer comes down.

He doesn’t want to take the risk of getting quickly jacked up by a national legal system of a nation allied to the United States on any charge, trumped up, plausible, or genuine.

Iceland? Pretty, snowy, let-Internet-freedom-ring-a-ding-ding Iceland?

One more problem.

He doesn’t want the local authorities and local spooks working enthusiastically with the US authorities to make surveil him, harass him, help make a case against him, and button him up. He doesn’t want to get rendered. He would like not to get bumped off.

What countries would a CIA analyst believe to have the lowest level of cooperation with the CIA and the most pervasive counterintelligence capabilities? Russia maybe. China maybe.

So he looks at a jurisdiction that a) has a liberal legal systems with good protections and process and b) keeps its US spooks on a short leash.

In other words, Hong Kong.
(....)
But I think Snowden knows he’s coming home, sooner or later.
(China Hand)

 

[SBE]

Το ΧονγκΚονγκ έχει συμφωνία έκδοσης με τις ΗΠΑ και διάβαζα ότι η Κίνα μάλλον δεν θα ανακατευτεί καθόλου- εκτός αν έχει κάτι να προσφέρει ο Σνόουντεν που δεν το ξέρουμε.

 

[Costas]

Ο Άι Ουέι-ουέι καταδίκασε το αμερικανικό πρόγραμμα παρακολούθησης Prism, της NSA: NSA surveillance: the US is behaving like China (the Guardian)

Hong Kong Demonstrators Show Support for Snowden in N.S.A. Leak Case (NYT)
In the last two days, the state news media in mainland China have embraced Mr. Snowden and confirmed details to The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, about how the United States monitors Internet traffic on the mainland and in Hong Kong. The official China Daily newspaper usually ignores pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, or derides them. But the lead story on its front page on Saturday described calls by democracy advocates in the legislature that Mr. Snowden not be sent back to the United States, and it discussed the planned demonstration, too.
China Daily gave the most prominent position on its opinion page on Saturday to excerpts from a pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong asserting that Mr. Snowden’s disclosures had damaged the standing of democracy advocates and their admiration for the United States. “The latest leaks have put the local rights politicians in a rather awkward position by exposing their idol’s true character,” the column said.
“Snowden is being persecuted by a huge institution,” said Marcus Ho, a retiree who said that he seldom attended rallies. “We must do something to help.”

 

[Costas]

Nicaragua fast-tracks Chinese plan to build canal to rival Panama
Congressional committee gives go-ahead to project despite objections raised by opposition (The Guardian)

 

[Costas]

Σε σχέση με το πλάνο για την ενίσχυση της αστυφιλίας (#793), που ακόμα δεν έχει πάρει το πράσινο φως, ένα άρθρο της ΝΥΤ συνοδεύεται από πολλές φωτογραφίες και επίσης από απάνθισμα τιτιβισμάτων στο Ουεϊμπό, το κινέζικο Τουίττερ, όπου Κινέζοι πολίτες εκφράζουν την οργή και τη θλίψη τους για τις εξώσεις με πενιχρή ή και χωρίς καθόλου αποζημίωση. Το άρθρο μιλά για στόχο 250 εκατομμυρίων απαλλοτριωμένων χωρικών ως το 2025. Στόχος: μια ανάπτυξη βασισμένη στη ζήτηση μιας εσωτερικής αγοράς ενισχυμένης από τους προλεταριοποιημένους αγρότες, οι οποίοι ως τώρα ζουν εν πολλοίς με αυτάρκεια και ιδιοκατανάλωση. (ΝΥΤ)

 

[Costas]

Μετά τα ποντίκια που φάγανε τις αποταμιεύσεις, οι...τερμίτες. Βίντεο. (Reuters)

 

[Costas]

Ανοιχτή επιστολή της Λίου Ξ(Σ)ιά στον Κινέζο πρόεδρο, μετά την καταδίκη του αδερφού της. (Initiatives for China)

 

[Costas]

(Sinocism)
The official People’s Daily on Monday published a commentary on Mr. Snowden’s leaks under a pseudonym frequently used to express the paper’s foreign policy views. The author wrote that Mr. Snowden had helped to expose American hypocrisy and that America’s “exceptionalism is an impediment to the transformation of international relations.”
The effect on American business in China from Mr. Snowden’s actions are unclear. Over the years, there have been occasional discussions in Chinese media about the risks to national security from a reliance on United States software, networking and telecommunications hardware.
Just as Huawei is now effectively blocked from selling its networking equipment in the United States, we should not be surprised to see more aggressive moves from Beijing to shut out American firms like Cisco Systems, which one Chinese news report on Monday noted had significant market share in core parts of Chinese networks.
Mr. Snowden’s disclosures may also explain why certain parts of the United States government have been so concerned about Huawei; they fear the Chinese government could use Huawei to do what the N.S.A. already does. Protests from Washington will be much harder to take seriously now if American technology firms start getting “Huawei’d” in Beijing on national security grounds.

Κάτι με αξιοσημείωτο γλωσσικό ενδιαφέρον:
To understand the process by which a rural entity becomes an urban one, we need to consider the institutional reforms that have facilitated this process of transformation. In the discussion below, the Chinese term chengzhenhua will be used to refer to the new policy as the English translation ‘urbanisation’ is misleading for two reasons. First, ‘urbanisation’ is already being used to translate dushihua 都市化, from which the new policy is intended to mark a departure. Secondly, ‘urbanisation’ evokes the image of an expansion of existing urban cores. As such, it forecloses possibilities of imagining the rural as a potentially urban site.

Εκβιασμοί με φότοσοπ:
Now, in addition to looking over their shoulders for antigraft inspectors, civil servants must contend with blackmailers armed with honey traps, video cameras or worse: Photoshop. Here in Shuangfeng, a rural county in Hunan Province, the authorities have arrested dozens of blackmailers, some of whom have used officials’ actual transgressions to demand payments and some of whom have simply used electronic manipulation to make misdeeds up.

Φωτογραφίες του Τζανγκ Υαξ(σ)ίν από τις Πρότυπες Όπερες της κας Μάο. (Time)

Η διαχρονικά πανάθλια εθνική ομάδα ποδοσφαίρου της Κίνας έχασε εντός έδρας 5-1 από τη δεύτερη ομάδα της Ταϊλάνδης την ημέρα των γενεθλίων του Κινέζου προέδρου... (SCMP)

10 χιλιόμετρα έχει η θαλάσσια γέφυρα Jiaxing-Shaoxing, τύπου σαν εκείνη του Ρίου (2,2 χλμ.), σπάζοντας το παγκόσμιο ρεκόρ στον τύπο της. (xinhuanet)

 

[Zazula]

 

[Costas]

An interview with Gady Epstein [The Economist] on China and the Internet (fivebooks) (τα παχιά δικά μου)

(...) what’s different here in China - versus infringements on freedom in the West - is that the Chinese government has worked very hard to make its Internet particularly different and distinct.

(Q) Yes, I don’t think people overseas realize just how different the Internet is here, behind the Great Firewall. People send me YouTube videos, without even knowing it doesn’t exist here. There’s no Facebook, no Twitter, and Google search is so slow you basically can’t use it. I follow Harvard professor Greg Mankiw’s economics blog – he’d probably be surprised to learn that he is blocked in China because Blogspot is. What amazes me is how this has led to this classic feature of East Asian industrialization, namely the creation of domestic national champions in China who provide these services instead.

(Α) It has. I think those national champions would have arisen anyway, because as Chinese companies they have some advantages over foreigners - the Chinese language advantage, the Chinese market advantage. But obviously they’re being helped tremendously by what amounts, essentially, to political protectionism. I don’t think protectionism is the goal of the Great Firewall, but it is definitely a by-product.

(...)

(Q) Here’s a question I’ve been wanting to ask ever since arriving in Beijing and discovering another by-product of censorship which is that the Internet is painfully slow, sometimes to the point of not functioning at all. If a large part of the Communist Party’s legitimacy comes from continuing to deliver economic growth – doesn’t a very slow and unwieldy Internet have economic implications?

(A) There’s no question censorship slows the Internet in China down, though it does depend on what part of the Internet you’re using. If you’re using the Chinese Internet, and you’re not going to Western sites, it’s much faster. But if you’re going outside China to go online, it will be slower. And people who are working in information technology, say, and many other fields will often need to go outside of China. I think that does impact productivity both for foreigners and Chinese here. I also think not allowing a free-flow of ideas on the Internet impedes innovation. If you’re not allowing Facebook, and Twitter and YouTube and whatever chaos the world brings, then you have an environment that is stifling innovation.

(Q) Are people at all concerned about this or even talking about it or measuring the impact of these restrictions on the economy?

(A) People are concerned. You will hear people speak about this publicly. Kai-Fu Lee [a Beijing based Internet entrepreneur who was head of Google China] talks about it a bit. Whether the Communist Party is concerned, I’m not so sure. They see a lot of benefits to the way they manage the Internet, and of course Chinese Internet companies benefit to a great degree, because they don’t have as much competition from foreign Internet companies.

(...)

(Q) What’s your broader view of where China is heading politically? Even if you think the Internet has slowed things down, do you think we will end up with democracy à la Francis Fukuyama? Or do you think China has shown there can be another way of organizing a country? Because the government can be really responsive now. Say with the air pollution in Beijing. If people kicked up a huge fuss about it, the government could presumably clean it up very quickly. They’re a one party state so, unlike the US, they wouldn’t have to spend years arguing in Congress about it, they can just do it…

(A) They can fix the very visible cracks, the ones that get the most attention and that cause the public the most concern. They can patch those up. The more fundamental problems - the deeper cracks in the foundation of the system - persist and get worse. Down the road there could be some crisis or catastrophe or economic crash, that will lead to both social unrest and political uncertainty and quite dicey times for the Communist Party. I just think the Internet is not hastening that day. It may actually be delaying that day of reckoning. There is quite a strong potential for a political transformation. How that takes place, what form it takes, really remains unclear to me. I do think a multi-party system or a system where people can vote and actually participate in choosing their leaders is inherently more stable long-term. So that would seem to suggest that eventually one party rule won’t work. But it could be decades before we come to that day of reckoning. Or it could be a shorter time.

 

[Costas]

Μάλιστα! "It's a Greek man, or an Italian man", και μετά, αν άκουσα καλά, κάτι λέει για Κούρδους και Τούρκους; Ψιλοσχετικό:

Δημοσκόπηση στους νέους κολεγιόπαιδες: Do you pleasure yourself? (ministry of tofu), όπου μαθαίνουμε μεταξύ άλλων ότι το γιαπωνέζικο πορνό ονομάζεται Νησιωτικές Κινήσεις (το "νησιωτικό κουνγκ φού", που λέει το βίντεο, δεν ξέρω γιατί το λέει, αλλά βέβαια αυτοί ξέρουν καλύτερα). Σίγουρα, πάντως, δύσκολα με τέτοια πόδια...

 

[Costas]

Μαθαίνουμε επίσης ότι το εκσπερματώνειν στον αέρα, κοινώς αυνανίζεσθαι, λέγεται και "χτυπάω αεροπλάνα"!