Ways That Are Dark

Was it just yesterday that I wrote about cut and paste journalism in China? Then today, China proves once again that when it comes to making mistakes, they still do things bigger and better than everyone else.

From The Guardian’s This week we want to know all about … The Homer Simpson X-ray:

Xinhua, the state news agency, published a health report on its English-language website, China View, under the headline: ‘Two new genes found for multiple sclerosis.’ It was illustrated by an X-ray scan of a human head, presumably from the agency’s picture library. Unfortunately, it was a cartoon X-ray image of Homer Simpson, he of the domed head and doughnut-sized mouth - and walnut-sized brain.

Doh!

This cock-up is nearly as big as the time that Beijing Evening News plagiarized a satirical article from The Onion and passed it off as real news, not knowing the difference. I wrote about that in Beijing buns a fabricated story?

You wouldn’t expect the official state news agency to have a sense of humor, but it’s not asking too much for them to set an example when it comes to copyright infringement and intellectual property.

As part of our continuing coverage of the countdown to the 2008 Olympics we would like to share with you some information on the cost of prostitutes in Beijing. The truth is, since writing about how prices for sexual services are plummeting in Oldest Profession Flourishes in China we have received a lot of traffic from people looking for information on prices.

Thanks to people doing their homework before visiting Beijing, the top search engine terms leading people to this site are now “Price of prostitutes in Beijing.” If those are the words you typed into Google that led you to this site, congratulations! Put your hairy palms together and give yourself a hand.

This is a short follow up on the Chinese government’s directive to local media that all news must be good news. The new rules are adding more pressure to the already challenging job of copying and pasting articles from Reuters.

The task is not always easy, as one episode showed during ceremonies Aug. 8 marking the one-year countdown to the Beijing Games.

The government-run China Daily ran an item on its Web site that evening pointing out that the site of the festivities, Tiananmen Square, was also the place where in 1989 the People’s Liberation Army crushed pro-democracy demonstrators, killing many. The item — true but touching on a subject banned from Chinese newspapers — was taken down the next morning and an investigation was launched. The author, colleagues said, had lifted the sentence directly from the Reuters news agency in a copy-and-paste maneuver common in Chinese journalism.

The offending journalist was suspended without pay for a month and fined the equivalent of $133, they said.

The above cut and pasted from The Washington Post article: Chinese Media Told to Play Up Positives of Traffic Test.

The Guardian reports in All news must be good news, says Chinese government that local media have been ordered to only report positive news stories in the build up to October’s 17th party congress. That means coverage of ongoing food and safety scandals, including the recent collapse of a bridge in Hunan province that killed over 40 people are off limits.

This makes one question what exactly will be discussed at the party congress. If the media can’t discuss real problems facing the country, will the government leaders have time to talk about them? The most important aspect of the upcoming congress will be the expected unveiling of the next generation of national leaders in a politburo reshuffle.

China has one of the world’s largest parliaments, with about 3000 delegates. Parliament meets for about two weeks a year.

Product Safety is turning into the Chinese news story of the year, and it’s not going to go away until there are fundamental changes to China’s manufacturing practices. A day after it was reported the toymaker at the heart of the unsafe toys controversy committed suicide, Mattel is recalling even more toys. This is a bad sign not only for parents, but for the reputation of Chinese businesses worldwide. In recent months it has been reported that of all companies in China, Mattel has one of the highest safety records and most sophisticated systems of ensuring product safety. Where does that leave the rest of the manufacturers?

Consumers fears will not be allayed until we get a glimpse of some really significant changes. No longer will strongly worded assurances and lofty gestures be enough. China needs to overhaul the way it things are made in its factories if it wants to enjoy the rest of the world’s confidence. The “Made in China” brand is too valuable for the world’s biggest toy factory to be lost as a result of shady businessmen who sell their friends “fake lead-free paint” for children’s toys.

Get more on the latest toy recall in The New York Times article Mattel Issues New Recall of Toys Made in China.

The head of a Chinese company behind a recall of toys that could cost $30 million committed suicide over the weekend. Zhang Shuhong, president of Lee Der Industrial, which supplied toys coated with lead paint to Mattel, was found dead in one of his warehouses over the weekend.

The Washington Post reports that:

His death dramatized the high stakes in an international scare over unsafe Chinese products and an increasingly vigorous government crackdown designed to restore confidence in the export industry.

It has also been reported by The Washington Post and The New York Times that the paint in question was sold to Lee Der by a company controlled by a close friend of the deceased.

Read more in Chinese Toy Executive Found Hanged After Export Ban and  Owner of Chinese Toy Factory Commits Suicide.

China Daily reports that the two men responsible for China’s largest ever bank robbery, over 50 million yuan, have been sentenced to death.

I first wrote on this story in Not so smart bank robbers. Ren Xiaofeng (pictured above) claimed that he and his accomplice “never intended to rob the bank.” They spent most of the money they took on lottery tickets believing the odds of winning big were in their favor. After winning big they would return what they took to the bank and still be able to live in luxury. Ren confessed that he and his accomplice both “like to play the lottery”. Unfortunately their winnings did not match the money they stole and they became China’s two most sought after fugitives.

In Vault managers get death for bank theft, China Daily reports that five bank officials have been fired as a result of this fiasco.

Ren Xiaofeng is the father of two year old twins.

Yesterday Beijing observed the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympics with fireworks and dancing in Tiananmen Square. Sun Ruoyu lives a few blocks away in a two-story building that has belonged to her ancestors since the 1840s. Miss Sun is guarding her home with her life because local officials want to evict her. A bulldozer waits outside for an opportune moment to begin demolition.

In the article In Beijing, a Little Building Is Defying Olympic Ambitions, The New York Times reports that a “recent study by a European research institute estimated that 1.5 million people would be evicted or displaced in Beijing by the opening of the Olympics.” Local media has not reported on Miss Sun’s case, as forced evictions are a politically sensitive subject in China.

While Sun’s family has been offered compensation for their home and business, the money offerd has not been adequate.  The government wants to use the land her home is on to make a park for the Olympics. Afterwards the land will be developed as a residential and commercial area in what is expected to become one of the city’s priciest districts.

Miss Sun has said:

No matter what they offer, I won’t be able to afford an apartment here. I want to be able to live here. They’ve used the Olympics to strip people of their property. They’re doing things against the spirit of the Olympics.

Read the complete Times article: In Beijing, a Little Building Is Defying Olympic Ambitions.

The Washington Post reports that a day after a small group of foreigners challenged Beijing to honor its Olympic commitments, a group of prominent Chinese dissidents and intellectuals also called on the government to honor its human rights commitments.

The open letter posted Tuesday on the Internet represented a different — and perhaps more difficult — challenge for Beijing. Signed by 40 Chinese men and women widely known for scholarly work or anti-government agitation, the appeal seemed harder to dismiss than complaints lodged by foreign groups.

The Chinese government has violated promises it made to secure the Olympic Games, the letter said, by jailing dissidents, pushing poor people from their homes to build stadiums and keeping censorship in place for Chinese journalists and artists.

The Chinese government has warned that attempts to politicize next year’s games will fail. Of course, using the Chinese capital as Olympic venue in order to show off the success of Communist Party rule is also a kind of political grandstanding.

Read the Post article Before Olympics, a Call for Change.

Two separate reports were released this week, accusing China of breaking its promise to grant foreign journalists freedom to cover the Olympics openly and objectively. One of the reports has the rather long title You Will Be Harassed and Detained: Media Freedoms Under Assault in China Ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The Asia director of Human Rights Watch is quoted as saying:

The ongoing harassment and detention of journalists make Beijing’s Olympic pledge on media freedoms seem more like a public-relations ploy than a sincere policy initiative.

The article, China detaining journalists, is part of CNN’s extensive Beijing Countdown coverage. Also this week, Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists have voiced similar complaints. The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement warning:

China’s poor press freedom landscape could hinder visiting reporters covering the Games and may have a lasting negative effect on local journalists once the international spotlight has faded. Unless things change, and soon, reporters who venture beyond the Olympic village should be prepared to work in an environment where official interference and detentions of journalists are common and sources are at risk.

The New York Times reported today in China Under Fire Over Media Curbs Ahead Of Games that Reporters Without Borders held a news conference in Beijing calling for greater media freedom. After the conference several journalists were kept from leaving for up to two hours with no explanation.

Reporters Without Borders said China had made specific promises when it was awarded the Games that it would improve press freedom and human rights.

Also this week, Telegraph correspondent Richard Spencer blogs about press freedom in Beijing. In his Beijing Olympics: the countdown begins entry, he writes about watching his fellow journalists on TV in Beijing, only to have their reports blocked in China. When asked on air to discuss the blocking, the report was blocked again.

Can you blame China for not keeping all their promises? Simply hosting the Olympics is seen as a victory for the Communist Party. They were naturally willing to say anything in order to host the games. In a country run by ageing technocrats, who have never had to answer questions from their own people, pesky foreign journalists are becoming bothersome. The authorities are irritated when foreign journalists ask them awkward questions about not keeping their promises. They would prefer the foreign press only write on positive aspects of the games, as in mandated in domestic media. It’s kind of like inviting someone over, and asking them to make themselves feel at home. Then you demand they behave the way you want them to. That’s not quite what hosting international events is all about.