Posts by Chris Waugh
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Legal Beagle: A four-year parliamentary term?, in reply to BenWilson,
A lot of people complain about local government, village in particular, being dominated by petty, domineering, uneducated, uncultured bullies. You'll also find that abuses of the one child policy, forced abortions and sterilisations, infanticide, etc, tend to happen in smaller towns rather than the major cities.
with little attempting to hear their concerns and almost no interest in their rights.
20 years ago that may have been perfectly true, but not any more, as masses of people "taking a stroll" together in, for example Xiamen in clear, if not directly stated, opposition to a planned PX plant upwind of a major residential quarter of the city, or in Shanghai in protest of a planned maglev train route to Hangzhou (fears of radiation rather than chemicals in that case, though). There are plenty more examples.
There is a hell of a lot more public debate over issues like the economy, the environment, education, even sex and sexuality (see Li Yinhe, for example) than I suspect the overwhelming majority of people outside China (or illiterate in Chinese - the internet and smartphones have really helped, and make all this visible to people outside China literate in Chinese). January's air pollution crisis* saw pages and pages of each day's newspapers devoted to air pollution and what to do about it, including many op-ed pieces calling for a new air pollution law, or at least improvements to the current law.
Also, it tends to be in rural areas, small towns, and poorer areas where political struggles tend to get violent - and the protests are always at local government behaviour, not central. An interesting contrast happened just in my neighbourhood in downtown Beijing. One day posters appeared on the wall of the local market announcing plans to demolish the market and build a hospital. Many people gathered around to read and discuss these posters and their content. Unfortunately, a cop car showed up just as I arrived, so being rather obviously foreign I made myself scarce. Next day the posters had some neighbours - locals in this middle class, reasonably educated area had written up protest posters appealing to Beijing and State laws and regulations as well as concerns about the impact on the local environment (no cops, so I stopped and read). A few days later all the posters were gone, and a banner was strung over the market gate asking everybody to go harmoniously about their business. The market later relocated to a new building over the road, but the land has sat empty and unused for years.
Close by posters appeared one day in a slum announcing that it was to be demolished. The locals, being poor and less educated, didn't seem to have the wherewithal to appeal successfully, and had responded by tearing the posters and spraypainting coarsely-worded slogans next to the 拆 (chāi, demolish) characters painted on the walls of the condemned houses. Within a couple of weeks demolition work had begun - although they only demolished half the condemned houses for some reason, and in the years since all I've seen to suggest further change is a poster announcing plans to build a mosque, while the slum sits there half torn down.
But yes, there are certainly strict limits to freedom of speech and protest, and the consequences of crossing those limits can be rather severe.
And within central government and party circles decision making seems to be more a very long process of negotiation and consensus building rather than Mao-style diktat. And yes, public opinion is very much a part of that process, just not in the same way it is in NZ.
Gotta run.... Nobody's chasing me, but the Mrs will be at the bus station soon.
*possibly helped Fonterra dodge a few bullets after that DCD scare.
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Legal Beagle: A four-year parliamentary term?, in reply to BenWilson,
who will swear blind that the Chinese government is the wisest and best form of government ever invented,
Well, the transition to every administration serving two 5-year terms then retiring (albeit a very active retirement in the case of Jiang Zemin) has been a huge improvement over the old rule for life (or rule until outmanoeuvered in the case of Hua Guofeng) of the pre-Jiang Zemin era. In the case of the Republic of China, transition from rule for life under Chiang Kai-Shek - or even Yuan Shikai's attempt to crown himself emperor in the very chaotic early years of the RoC - through liberalisation under Chiang's son Chiang Ching-Kuo to more or less full democratisation under Lee Teng Hui certainly seems to have improved things on Taiwan.
But:
Since they don't give a flying fuck about human rights
Well, yes. Although I find Chinese to be either naive or cynical on that subject - naive in the case of young ones whose parents haven't told them stories of the not too distant past. Still, that is one major problem in the PRC system, a problem that seems to have been more or less ironed out in the RoC, whose historic record in that respect is also pretty horrific.
I would argue that the major flaws in the PRC system are in local governance, and the more local (township, village) the more broken it is.
PRC central government, however, seems to do a much better job of long term, strategic planning than the NZ government. It also seems to be doing a better job at lifting its game than the NZ parties. But, as Graeme suggested, I suspect that has a lot more to do with the political culture than term limits.
So it seems to me that the PRC and RoC experiences suggest a reduction in term limits from life or whatever political survival instincts buy you to 2x5 years and whatever the limit is on Taiwan leads to an improvement in governance. Or was it the rise of the middle class and their pesky demands for participation.... Either way, no evidence that increased terms help much.
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Tangentially related, but I found this article in the Herald quite interesting, particularly:
"Our data show that Maori who prefer the term Pakeha to other descriptions, such as 'New Zealand European', 'Kiwi', or 'New Zealander', tend to view their own ethnicity as a more central to their self-concept," said Sibley, who led the survey.
and:
News Zealanders of European descent were also found to display a generally warm attitude towards Maori, but those who referred to themselves as Pakeha held more positive views of Maori than those who opted for "New Zealander" or "New Zealand European".
"Our findings suggest that Europeans who prefer to use the term Pakeha to describe themselves, are likely expressing a desire to recognise a positive relationship with Maori," Sibley said.
But why is use of the term 'Pakeha' only 14%, vs 50% for 'New Zealander'? I find 'New Zealander perfectly adequate for describing my nationality, but if you want my ethnicity, I reckon 'Pakeha' is far more useful and accurate than the other so-called options.
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Hard News: What did you do yesterday?, in reply to Ross Mason,
I hope your Mum's ok.
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Highlight of today's trip - anti-smoking propaganda, China style.
男 means male, man, masculine. 男人(nánrén) means man or men. Full slogan (white characters along the top + 男人) reads "Cut off the cigarette in your hand, go back to being a real man". On the wall of Yanqing County Hospital. It's art, at least, sorry about the lack of a street, but I'd certainly like to see more of these around.
And what the hell, it was a great view from the hospital window.
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Hard News: What did you do yesterday?, in reply to Will de Cleene,
blogging on topics which would be illegal to discuss in many other countries.
That would be nice... It'd also be nice to read said blogging without needing to turn on a VPN. I'll be back as soon as Immigration gives my wife permission to come along.
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I got up to see the Jundushan sillhouetted starkly against the rising sun. Absolutely perfectly clear air, so nice to breathe after that January we just had. Did some Chinese New Year supplies shopping in the county town. Won't name the store, because the company has a reputation for truly evil business practices, but somehow their Yanqing branch is really good - and has often saved our bacon by stocking stuff, especially baby stuff, we haven't been able to find elsewhere in Yanqing. Not just the exception that proves the rule, but I came home with, among other goodies, imported German brews, two blocks of camembert, and a block of Mainland Vintage cheddar (wonder if it has any DCD? Nevermind, Fonterra says I'd have to eat a gazillion tons of it to get a dangerous dose of DCD. Arseholes). Never, ever expected to find cheese in rural China.... Marvelled at the awesome views of the Jundushan along the southern rim of the basin and the Dahaituoshan - still capped in snow, which is unusual for Beijing's highest, coldest, and driest county. Didn't notice it was Waitangi Day until I got an email from my mum. This time of year I have to pay attention to two calendars, it's easy to lose track.
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Capture: Eyes In A City - Gary Baigent's…, in reply to ChrisW,
the Christian Spiritualist one has an extra something
Yes, me too. Hard to say what, but the sign seems so appropriate for what's going on behind it.
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Police art:
“Reminder from the people’s police:
Many thefts occur here. Please pay attention to protecting your valuables.”I like how Chinese police post notices like this, either notices or reminders or pleas for locals who may have witnessed an incident in the area to come forward.
And you think you know road signs. This is a road sign.
"Songyu North Road"
Songyu means "pine elm", but I don't think that's a kind of tree, I guess pines and elms were common in the area until they got chopped down. The area is a bit old to have been named by an avaricious but uncultured real estate developer.
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Capture: Someone, Somewhere, In Summertime, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Awesome pictures, Sofie
