Chinese Communist Party

Perfect skies for Beijing celebrations

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:58:34 +0200

The following photos show the gradual and perfectly timed improvement in weather conditions in the run up to the Chinese Republic's 60th anniversary on October 1.

Pure luck? Not so, says one of our Observers in the city. An American expat who lives in Bejing, Roseann Lake gives her reaction to the event.

Mao Zedong and Mary Poppins seem to have few things in common aside from rosy cheeks and the fact that the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China coincides with Julie Andrews's 74th birthday. As if to honour both, after days of smog as thick as a mudslide, the winds changed on the morning of October 1 to reveal impeccably blue Beijing skies.

The authorities seem to have struck just the right balance of silver iodide and dry ice.

This is a series of four photos taken by my flatmate on the three days leading up to the Chinese National Holiday, and the last one, on the day itself.

Photos: Felix Lettau

“Charmed and petrified as Hu Jintao rolled down to Tiananmen”

The streets were alive with the sound of military music as 8,000 smartly suited soldiers marched at a precise 116 steps a minute, and Tiananmen Square swelled with enough tanks and missile power to make the North Koreans look like wet-nurses.

As an American more accustomed to parades of the three-story-tall-Sponge-Bob variety, I watched both charmed and petrified as the average-height President Hu Jintao rolled down to Tiananmen in a Hongqi, a Chinese-made limousine with a striking resemblance to a Cold War cruiser. Waving out of the roof in a slim-fitting gray Mao suit, he solemnly saluted soldiers with alternating expressions of "Tongzhimen hao" ("Greetings, comrades") and "Tongzhimen xinkule" ("Comrades, you've worked so hard!").

Although Chang'an Avenue looked decidedly majestic flanked with tanks and soldiers, the only witnesses to the event were the freshly scrubbed high-rises on either side of the avenue and the snipers dutifully surveilling the parade from their rooftops. The ordinary Chinese of the People's Republic were nowhere to be seen, aside from the 30,000 officially invited guests of the government permitted onto Tiananmen Square. The first half of the parade displayed the best the Communist Party and its military assets could offer, including a fleet of stone-faced females marching in miniskirts and white go-go boots.

According to Evan Osnos of The New Yorker, these girls were not real soldiers, but a troop of village officials, teachers, doctors, white-collar workers and mothers united especially for the occasion. Oops. We won't tell Hu, who cracked his one and only smile during the parade as they marched by.

Residents of Beijing, blocked from getting anywhere near the event, were instead encouraged to stay home where they could be dazzled by the festivities on television and where the aerial views of the square allowed them to read the huge red-and-white signs formed by thousands of performers simultaneously flipping large coloured placards. "Do as the party says," flashed one, followed shortly after by, "Socialism is good" and "Long live China."

As a westerner living in the capital, I have mixed feelings about the 60th anniversary. I was initially vexed to learn that Beijingers couldn't attend their own country's parade and that all other cities were forbidden from having their own celebrations because so much security had been deployed to Beijing that there wasn't enough left to secure against riots elsewhere. But I quickly remembered that this is China, the country that can control its own weather and block Facebook for 1.3 billion people. Certain things happen here that don't elsewhere, but this doesn't mean that everything is bad, backwards, or militantly communist. Most of the time, it just appears that way.

A parade of exactly 60 exuberant floats followed the military, showcasing China's advancements in agriculture, aeronautics, athletics, education, health care, technology and other fields. Kitsch in a Chinese New Year sort of way and very reminiscent of the Olympic hullabaloo that still thrives in Beijing, the celebration ended with thousands of schoolchildren releasing balloons into the sky.

Of course, a few balloons haven't made me forget that China is still governed by a party that occasionally does silly, contradictory, or even reprehensible things (see Tibet, Xinjiang, Burma and select parts of the African continent), but any country with big aspirations often does. The point is, because of and despite its 60 years of communism, China is poised to surpass Japan as the world's second largest economy, and who knows what else.

So bring on the parade, the pandas, the fireworks, and the new subway line. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Gigantic Three Gorges Dam viewed from space

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:08:26 +0200

Above: the Yangtze River in 1987. Below: the same part of the river after the construction of the dam in April 2009. © Earth Observatory - NASA.

These high quality images of China's Three Gorges Dam were captured by the International Space Station in April. It took 15 years to build the world's biggest and most powerful hydroelectric dam, and despite concerns over its human and environmental impact, it finally came into use last autumn.

Taming the Yangtze River cost the Chinese government 18 million euros and a workforce of over 20,000. At 185 metres high, 2,300 metres long, and with a 600km reservoir, the Three Gorges Dam shouldn't have any problems in preventing future floods. What's more, it is capable of producing the same amount of electricity as 17 nuclear plants combined.

Behind the project however, are 1.5 million forcibly displaced people and 116 villages, along with ruins from the "Middle Kingdom", which now find themselves immersed under water.

In 2007, the project's deputy director, Wang Xiaofeng, admitted that there were environmental risks: soil degradation, landslides, and water pollution caused by sedimentation and the reduction of arable land. The benefits appeared to outweigh the risks, however, and the project went ahead.

Arrested for a subversive T-shirt

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:45:18 +0200

You often see Western teenagers wearing Che Guevara T-shirts as a sign of rebellion. Guangzhou resident Liu Shihui decided to don a T-shirt with the motif "The Chinese Communist Party opposes one-party rule". But despite explaining that the phrase came from the government itself, Liu was detained by the police.

First images of the convicted Tibetans

Julien — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:05:57 +0200

Thirty Tibetans accused of taking part in the riots last month have been convicted today with sentences ranging from three years in jail to life imprisonment. One of our Observers has sent us the first images of the trial, made public by the state press agency Xinhua, just as the sentences were handed out.

According to the Chinese TV channel CCTV, the trial lasted all day and was open to the public. These photos show ten of the thirty Tibetans who were sentenced today in Lhasa. The second image is particularly interesting - a man sitting in the front row of the public benches sporting traditional Tibetan dress. Is he a pro-Beijing Tibetan? The image has been carefully chosen, perhaps to show that - just as the authorities insisted from the very beginning of the crisis - Tibetan people support the Chinese government and only a violent minority took part in the riots. We will try to find out more and update this post soon.

Publicly humiliated, like in the Mao days

Julien — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:41:44 +0200

When a local factory owner filed a case against a power station for stealing his sand and tampering with the land, he did not expect to be found guilty of blackmail. Paraded through the streets for eight hours, condemned in public and jailed for three months, Tang Xiaodong has now launched a campaign to seek justice.

The local villager's plight began when power station developers announced late 2005 that they were planning to build a new plant close to his sand factory in Dao Country, Central China. When construction began, Tang says the developers made changes to the area without previous consultation. The changes, such as raising the land level by two metres and modifying fencing borders, resulted in the capture of his land. He said they also stole 200,000 metric cubes of sand and grit belonging to the sand factory. He decided to fight for his ownership rights and filed a case against the power station owners.

In February of last year he was set to leave Xialiu village for a holiday. Yet, upon his departure, he was arrested by a policeman and held in custody. Four days later, following negotiations with the mayor, the power station constructors forced Tang to sign an agreement. They said he would receive compensations worth €3,500, far short of the ground's value. However, the contract was no such thing. In fact, the document was later used as evidence against Tang when the developers accused him of trying to extort money from the company.

Small shareholders in China fret over tumbling economy

Julien — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:50:09 +0100

The Shanghai Composite Index has dropped by 40% in the past five months, with a massive 4% tumble occuring on Tuesday (March 19). The Chinese government promised its people immunity from the worldwide financial slump that grew out of the US subprime crisis, but the stark evidence suggests it has failed. Small shareholders fear the worst, and are expressing their worries online- including in songs.

Hitting an eight month low the Chinese stock market is valued at a third of what it was at its peak in October last year. But central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan yesterday dismissed the warning signs as "rumours". He shrugged off concern about the possible effects of the US subprime crisis. "America is far away," he pointed out, before telling the Chinese parliament "it's better not to talk about [these issues] here".

What a photo! Thanks Photoshop…

Julien — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 11:49:00 +0100

According to the Chengdu Evening News [original article in Chinese here], this image has been reproduced by almost 200 foreign media. “Dajiala”, the web-user who exposed the sham, says he discovered the hoax by studying the EFIX details which are automatically registered in the file of a digital image. The details proved that the picture was in fact a montage of various images taken on different days.

Frozen, and forgotten, world

Julien — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:37:25 +0100

The situation in Guizhou province, south-west China is grave. Seventy percent of rainfall is pure ice. Two thirds of electricity has been cut off, and water pipes are frozen. Many people in isolated towns are completely cut off from the world, while the rest of China remains oblivious to the extent of the disaster. To avoid national panic the authorities have downplayed events. But they may also be trying to cover up their poor reaction to the catastrophe.

Vox pops… with a script

Julien — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:23:09 +0100

Every journalist dreads doing a vox pop. Hours of standing outside, microphone in hand, camera over shoulder, always looking for the ‘right client'; the person who'll give you a clear and concise comment on the subject. But local television in China has found a solution. Journalists (see photos) prepare comments in advance, and simply ask passers-by to read them out.

These pictures were taken in 2004 in Huangshi in the central China province of Hubei. Journalists from a local television station are ‘questioning' people on a Communist Party conference that took place in town. Controversy over the affair started to flare up on the discussion forum that first published the photographs. Authorities have now banned any comments on the subject.

One child policy imposed on the rich

Julien — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:49:58 +0100

The one-child policy rule has always been enforced more strictly in rural areas of China. While it was originally the poor who had more than one child, it’s now the rich and famous. But at a cost of over €120,000 per child, this may now change. Our Observer Yi Fuxian denounces ‘a policy that ruins future prospects for a supposedly overcrowded population’.

The man writes: birth control: everyone has responsibility;

Then the boy rewrites: birth control: adults have responsibility;

The woman comes, and changes it to: birth control, men have responsibility;

The man comes, and changes it to: birth control, women have responsibility.