Ways That Are Dark

More on the tainted food scandals in China:

It’s scary to live here not knowing if the food and drinks are safe.

The above quote comes from CNN correspondent John Vause. The CNN website has an interesting Behind the Scenes feature, where their correspondents share their own experiences. Written from a personal point of view, they offer a refreshing perspective on the events they cover. Here are some excerpts from John Vause’s take on eating in China.

Eating out in China used to be one of the great experiences of living here. I often thought going out with friends and colleagues for dinner was a bit like the game of “Hungry Hungry Hippos” — vast quantities of amazing food that made dining a pleasure. Best of all, it was affordable and palatable.

But these days, the joy of anticipation of what the next dish will bring has been replaced with, well, the dread of what the next dish may contain.

When ordering at restaurants, I wonder: Is that drug-tainted fish and shrimp? Did that pork come from a pig that was force-fed wastewater? Any melamine added to those noodles?

Those are among some of the recent food scares here. Even drinking a glass of water instills fear: A recent government report found half the bottled watered in this city was counterfeit.

In defense of food quality, officials have argued that they are doing a lot to stamp out poor quality food. They insist that many of the recent events are isolated cases. The reporter continues:

I have another perspective. In a Communist country where corruption is rampant and the press appears only free to go after the little guy, I believe the deep systemic problems go unreported — that is until dogs and cats in the United States start dying from pet food made with Chinese-tainted ingredients and the world starts asking China some very difficult questions.

The bottom line is: If you’re worried about Chinese exports, rest assured the local stuff is without doubt many, many times worse.

The complete online article is Ordering food in Beijing makes me nervous.

The Washington Post reports on the growing popularity of Confucianism in China. Confucius Making a Comeback In Money-Driven Modern China finds many reasons for the recent resurgence in popularity. As can be gleamed from the article’s title, the resurgence can be seen as an alternative to corruption and materialism, which have become  driving values in China today. Communist Party leaders like how Confucianism emphasizes respect for authority. Parents like it because it stresses filial piety and obedience.

Is there anything new to be found in digging up ancient values? What real difference is there in sending kids to Confucian schools instead of regular schools? The article writes of one school where “children as young as 3 were memorizing and reciting ancient Chinese classics.” Memorizing and reciting is the basic bread and butter of any school in China, only the mindless doctrine is different.

What the article touches on really well, is that most “Chinese today are hard-pressed to fully describe the philosophy. It has become a grab bag of ideas that people are tailoring to their own needs as they search for a new belief system.” People are selectively choosing and discarding the bits of philosophy that suit their purposes. Confucianism has been seldom appreciated in recent years because it advocates a patriarchal system where men are superior to women. Also casually ignored, is the fact that Confucius himself “was a radical social critic with low opinions of his rulers.” These ideas seem to conveniently be brushed aside.

It seems that the current enthusiasm for this ancient philosophy is just another fad serving the times. Confucianism, above all else, is a belief system that trained millions of Han Chinese over the centuries to be obedient like sheep and accept leadership. The current government is not the first to note the advantages in that.

You would expect bank employees to have some required skills when it comes to handling money. It seems that two not so smart bank employees in Hebei province ended up becoming two not so smart bank robbers. With unfettered access to the vault, Ren Xiaofeng and Ma Xiangjing stole 51 million yuan and spent most of the money on lottery tickets. Read on:

The two thought that by buying millions of yuan in tickets they would eventually win back enough to replace the missing funds and allow them to leave their low paying jobs for a life of luxury, press reports said.

“Ma Xiangdong and I both like to play the lottery, we thought that we could use the money and buy lottery tickets and win the big prize. We were going to pay the bank back, we never intended to rob the bank.”

“The most we ever spent on lottery tickets at one time was 14.1 million yuan, we were thinking that we could win double what we had stolen,” said Ren, the father of two-year-old twins.

“But we didn’t win. It was at that time that we knew we were finished and that we had better escape,” he said. “So we decided we should steal some more money and flee Handan forever.”

Ren and Ma are facing charges of corruption and the illegal use of public funds. They face execution if convicted.

Read the original AFP article Bumbling Chinese bank robbers spotlight poor management.

The Associated Press reports that China is gathering information on foreigners who might try to use the 2008 Olympics as an opportunity to protest a variety of things.

China’s intelligence services are gathering information on foreigners who might protest and spoil the nation’s moment in the spotlight during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Spy agencies and research organizations compiling lists of potentially troublesome groups are looking beyond the usual suspects, human rights groups, at evangelical Christians demanding religious freedom, Darfur advocates wanting Beijing to use its oil-buying leverage with Sudan to end the strife there, and environmental campaigners angry about global warming, security experts and a consultant familiar with the effort said. (Source: China: Identifying Olympic Troublemakers)

No mention of terrorism or public safety, issues that host countries often pay the most mind.

Also this week, it has emerged on several China blogs that the government is toughening up its visa requirements between now and the Olympics. The new rules don’t seem to be aimed at tourists, but more specifically at foreign English teachers, expats and other people who regularly travel to China on business.

The Today in China blog writes:

I received the following notification from the company for which I’m working.

In the meeting held by the Exit & Entry Administration Ministry of Beijing on July 12, 2007 afternoon, expats’ visa application process were revised as following:

From July 16,2007 till the end of the Olympic games in 2008, in order to ensure the security of Beijing, during the 2008 Olympic Games, the Ministry of Public Security will carry on strictly foreign management in China.

1. If applicants enter China with L, F visa, the visa cannot be transformed to other visa types. (Except for the applicant’s job title is above vice president, legal representative of the company, director, or foreign representative office’s leader).
2. The urgent application (express visa service) cannot be accepted by the government for the time being.
3. When foreigners with L, F visa need to extend their staying in Beijing, the applicants need to do the visa extension personally, and need to present the company’s business license as supporting.
4. The applicants applying for the residence permit for the first entry will need to the application personally; also need to present the company’s business license as supporting.
5. The applicants who apply for the residence permit extension need to provide their employment permits, or the representative permits and company’s business license as supporting.

The original post is Visa application & extension process revision.

Next year Beijing will be hosting both the Olympics and the Paralympic games. Most observers believe that prior to these international events, the government will clear the city’s streets of beggars So far, the Beijing government has refused to discuss what plans they have for their removal. An article written by John Ray for The Guardian reveals that many of the disabled children working as beggars in Beijing were sold into slavery.

In a country still in shock from this summer’s unprecedented public soul-searching over the slave labour used in brick factories, the sale of children, often disabled, to work as beggars is yet another scandal the authorities will have to tackle.

The article tells the story of Gao Zhou Zhou, a disabled girl sold into slavery who begs near Tiananmen Square. We first learn the story of how she came to be a beggar in Beijing:

It was three years ago when a man she calls ‘uncle’ came to her village. There was a cash transaction with her stepfather, who was promised the equivalent of £150 in instalments. In the land of the rampant capitalist, this was just another business deal.

After detailing her daily plight and toil, the reporter takes a trip to Zhou Zhou’s hometown, to visit the stepfather who sold her into slavery. Here is the result:

Zhou Zhou has pinned her hopes on her stepfather. She gives this message to take to him: ‘Please come and get me. My life here is so bitter.’

We track her stepfather down to a village in Henan, an hour’s flight south of Beijing and a world away from China’s economic miracle. This is dirt-poor country.

Gao Jie Liang, standing in his cramped and muddy farmyard, is slightly built and 5ft tall. No way could he stand up to ‘uncle’ - even if he wanted to. He seems to have no regrets, except to believe that he sold Zhou Zhou too cheaply. She was a burden, he says. She wanted to leave, and it is common for the parents of disabled children to offload them in this way.

The complete Guardian article is China’s disabled children are sold into slavery as beggars.

It is turning into the China news story of the year, for the simple fact that it won’t be swept under the rug. Several days have passed, enough time for public opinion to simmer down, but people are still talking about the cardboard buns story. More and more people are coming out expressing the opinion that the original story was in fact true. Some say that reporter who has been detained for fabricating the Beijing baozi story, is really a scapegoat for exposing an embarrassing reality.

Certainly, Chinese officials have good reason for quashing the original story. Maintaining social stability is an oft repeated line, and the recent embarrassments over food export quality and the upcoming Olympic games are strong reasons for face-saving actions. Chinese media website Danwei, writes:

The way the authorities have gone about stopping the story is exactly the same way they clamp down on real news stories that they don’t want circulating.

One commentator on the site complains of the obvious lies in the governments position. He complains that in the days following the story breaking, the government did a hasty inspection of the breakfast food market. They reportedly found all buns to be “100% safe and clean.” Street food in China is notoriously dirty; many Chinese themselves refuse to eat it. So, to many commentators, the safety inspection seal of approval comes across like lies being told to protect the capital city’s image. It may be a bit late for that.

Check out the Danwei article Is the fake news story fake news? and be sure not to miss all the comments posted so far.

Until recently, the problem with Chinese goods has not been one of quality. The real problem is that people keep complaining about the quality of goods. What really irks the iron-fisted rulers, is the whistle blower, the one who points the finger at corruption and shoddy manufacturing and demands something be done about it.

This week The Washington Post has an exposé on the consequences and hard times faced by the whistle blowers, who have been trying to warn us of certain dangers for a long time. The article tells the stories of several concerned citizens, who passed on stories about fake medicines, counterfeit vitamin drinks, and drugs with poisonous ingredients. Invariably those who spoke out were arrested, lost their jobs, and were threatened and intimidated.

Read The Washington Post article, Safety Falters As Chinese Quiet Those Who Cry Foul, for yourself.

Chinese news media is reporting that the food scare involving baozi was a story fabricated by a freelance reporter. The Associated Press writes:

A freelance reporter for a Beijing television station has been detained for faking a hidden camera report about street vendors who used chemical-soaked cardboard to fill meat buns, local media said. (Source: Beijing TV Reporter Arrested Over Cardboard-Filled Bun Hoax)

The question that comes immediately to mind is which story should you believe? Was this really a hoax, or is this an effort at damage control to save Chinese face? Either way, the mainstream media has not picked up on the fabrication story as enthusiastically as it did on the original story of contaminated food. As a result, the public will remember the original footage of cardboard being chopped up and used as a food substitute for a long time to come.

Behind the scenes, an even bigger question need answering. How is it that news standards are so low, that a freelance reporter can file a report to be viewed by millions without it passing through the scrutiny of the editorial process? Was there no one available to verify to the veracity of the original report?

A news story has not been blundered so badly since the Beijing Evening News, the capital’s largest-circulation newspaper, plagiarized an article from the satirical website The Onion. It translated Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built into Chinese, believing it to be an actual “news” story. In that satirical piece, Congress made demands to modernize the U.S. Capital to a state-of-the-art facility or they would relocate to Charlotte or Memphis. The parody features an architect’s rendering of a proposed futuristic Capitol complete with a retractable dome, a “Dancing Waters fountain” and “55 more luxury boxes than the current building.” The Evening News story even reproduced the illustration.

According to The San Francisco Chronicle (U.S. satire tricks Beijing paper), the Evening News editor in charge of international news, Yu Bin, “adamantly ruled out a correction and grew slightly obstreperous when pressed to comment on the article’s lack of truth.”

“How do you know whether or not we checked the source before we published the story?” Yu demanded in a phone interview. “How can you prove it’s not correct?”

The Onion’s article on relocating the Capital was featured alongside headlines such as “Sexual Tension Between Arafat, Sharon Reaches Breaking Point” and “Man Blames Hangover on Everything But How Much He Drank.”

If Chinese reporters are hard up for material and are looking for other articles to translate/copy, may we suggest the following gems about China from The Onion archives:

• Chinese Employers To Grant 15-Minute Maternity Break
• Chinese Factory Worker Can’t Believe The Shit He Makes For Americans
• That Chinese Girl In Office: ‘I Am Not Chinese’

And as a real test of whether or not the Chinese have a sense of humor, try grappling with The Onion’s Inforgraphic on China’s Olympic Bid.

The online edition of Time includes a neat little exposé on the harsh realities facing China’s athletes when they retire.

According to the China Sports Daily, nearly 80% of China’s 300,000 retired athletes are struggling with joblessness, injury or poverty. Many athletes suffer from sports injuries and health problems caused by their training.

The Time article follows the appalling legacy of female weightlifter Zou Chunlan. Recruited at an early age, Zou was required to take pills that her coach claimed were “nutrition boosters.” They made her grow a beard and develop a prominent Adam’s apple and a deep voice. She is now infertile and must shave every couple of days.

When Zou Chunlan left school to become a professional athlete, her recruiting coach assured the 13-year-old that the nation’s huge sports bureaucracy would look after her for the rest of her life. All she had to worry about was winning. For a decade, Zou followed his advice, winning the 48-kg national weightlifting title in 1990 when she was 19 years old and pocketing four other national championships. But when she retired in 1993, Zou discovered that the coach’s side of the bargain wasn’t going to be met. After three years of menial jobs in the women’s weightlifting team’s kitchen, she was asked to leave.

With her little education and total ignorance of the real world, Zou had little choice but to turn to physical labor. After stints carrying sacks on a construction site and selling lamb kebabs in the street, she ended up as a masseuse in a public bathhouse earning $60 a month. Her fate isn’t unusual. A weightlifting coach explained to the Beijing News that Zou wasn’t the only retired weightlifter struggling with the real world. “Zou’s national medals are worthless. There are world champions who end up jobless after retirement.”

It is shocking treatment in a country that places a great deal of importance on winning athletic competitions. Much like the Soviet Union before them, China sees athletic competitions as a means of strengthening nationalism and providing a measuring stick to other countries such as the United States. We are sure to see in the upcoming Beijing Olympics that little matters more than the total medal count. The athletes that have given their entire lives to building the image of a strong socialist nation, could soon find themselves in menial jobs after the games are over.

Read the complete China’s Disposable Athletes on the Time website.

A 25 year old British blogger who works for China Daily in Beijing has used some of that sly, dry wit that the British are famous for, to blog about all the recent goings on in China. It’s a worthy enough recap of recent events to reprint in its entirety. Enjoy!

That’s enough already, China! You’re killing me!

I woke up this morning and ate some baozi. They were disgusting! I’m sure I they were made of cardboard.

To get rid of the strange taste I brushed my teeth. Unfortunately the toothpaste contained diethylene glycol, which can cause nausea, abdominal pain, dizziness, urinary problems, kidney failure, breathing problems, lethargy, convulsions, coma and even death, so I spat it out and rinsed with clean water from my water cooler.

Unfortunately I had read in the Beijing Times that water in water coolers is probably just ordinary tap water. Officials say tap water is now clean, but the problem is that the pipes carrying it are old and dirty, making the final product risky.

I therefore skipped the water and had some fruit juice. What bad luck I was having! It just so happened that the fruit juice I had purchased was in the small 20% group of fruit juice products that are substandard.

Bored with beverages I had a light snack to take my mind off things. I ate a sweet but it was horrendously sweet, so I then had a prawn. Unfortunately the prawn was clearly contaminated with antibiotic residues and carcinogens so I had to throw it away.

My dog was looking hungry as I discarded foodstuff after foodstuff, and I realized it must be his dinner time. He tucked into his pet food, but I was shocked when he suddenly keeled over and died.

I felt very sad at the death of my dog so I decided to take a walk in the fresh air. Unfortunately it wasn’t a blue sky day, so the air was heavy with suspended particulates, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide. Better give that a miss, I thought, and instead I resolved to drown my sorrows in booze.

It was at this juncture that my run of terrible luck changed.

It just so happened that the beer I had purchased was from the 5% of Chinese beers that don’t contain cancer-causing formaldehyde.

I’ll drink to that!

More China news tomorrow.