TIME.com: China Blog

Beijing Police Meet the Media: Round One

Simon Elegant — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:25:17 -0500

Furthr to Lin's post below, some of the police didn't take kindly to their crowd control efforts being filmed and a Hong Kong reporter and cameraman got roughed up and their equipment broken. They managed to preserve their footage (see here), which shows some pretty aggressive behavior by the police towards the reporters, something that doesn't bode very well should there be other problems in the coming which, which seems a fairly good bet. Presumably, as Lin also remarks, they were trained to handle this sort of thing? I sure hope so, especially all those SWAT guys sitting around in bulletproof vests holding submachine guns that seem to be all over the city these days.

A Final Battle for Olympic Tickets

Austin Ramzy — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:12:40 -0500

From my colleague Lin Yang, here's some footage and an account of the arduous ticket lines in Beijing today:

The final stage of Olympic ticket sales started at 9 a.m. Friday. I wanted to witness the moment of excitement when the ticket windows finally opened and people who had waited for two days got their tickets—if only I could find the head of the line. I expected to see a large crowd, but not this large. The area around the central Olympic area ticket booth was closed to car traffic, and police lined both sides of the street. When I headed towards the ticket window, the lucky ones had already started to emerge with tickets, looking exhausted and weary, but also happy. It was a very hot day, but people kept arriving, though by then it was likely they would leave empty handed. It turned out that the tail of the line was about a mile away from the head, and the newly arrived kept getting confused about where they should start. A lady in her 60s was sitting on the sidewalk fanning herself, trying to catch her breath. "I got here at 6:30 this morning, and I just can't wait any longer," she says. But her husband hadn't given up. "My husband and some other relatives are still in the line." Those better prepared came with floor mats, chairs, and even tents. A young guy from Shaanxi province had been at the line since yesterday afternoon, and he was still long way away from the ticketing area inside the stadium. "I took leave from work to buy soccer tickets," he says. "I will wait some more, but I guess if it seems too unlikely I'll have to give up." Some people who had clearly given up the hope to get any ticket were complaining about the chaos and overwhelming number of people. I overheard a guy explaining to the people nearby that the ticket line stretched around the entire central Olympic area and once one finally made it into the stadium, "there are another 30,000 people to wait with you. There are just too many people in China." The tickets do not come easily. At the end of the video, there is a guy leaning on the fence and fanning himself with the two track tickets he just bought after two days and two nights at the stadium. But to watch the competition on Aug. 22, he'll have to make another trip to Beijing. He comes from Hubei province, about 500 miles to the south. "I have to return to work", he told me, "but I will be back again."

Some people had it even worse at the ticket lines. Here's a story from Hong Kong's NOW tv about some of their reporters who were detained by the police. By this point you'd think Beijing cops would have learned that there are more savvy approaches to dealing with television reporters than sticking your hands in front of their cameras.

Beijing 08's Dirty Little (not very secret) Secret...

Bill Powell — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:36:53 -0500

I was going to call it the dirty little secret of China’s Olympics, but it’s not so little and it’s not much of a secret. China is and has been a huge source of product for blood-doping, steroid-shooting athletes across the sporting spectrum. Now, ARD, the German television network, has done a terrific documentary on the subject, just in time for the Olympics. An AP story on the ARD documentary says

A German television report on the availability of gene doping in China has stunned anti-doping experts shortly before the Beijing Olympics. In a documentary by ARD television, a Chinese doctor offers stem-cell therapy to a reporter posing as an American swimming coach. The report, filmed with a concealed camera, shows the doctor with his face blurred speaking in Chinese and offering the treatment in return for $24,000, according to a translation provided by the ARD television. The documentary broadcast Monday did not offer evidence that the hospital had provided gene doping to other athletes, but anti-doping officials were appalled that the treatment was so readily available. "I could not have imagined it in such a provable form," Mario Thevis, chief of the German center of preventive doping research in Cologne. Another Cologne expert on gene doping, Patrick Diel, said he was "stunned to see it."

Here's the link to the entire story: http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=3501414 Note that the AP story says anti-doping experts are “stunned” by what the ARD report reveals. I’m stunned that they’re stunned. China is and has been for a while a global source for this stuff (just as it’s a global source for pretty much everything else that’s made these days.) Its pharmaceutical-medical-industrial complex sells to all comers, to anyone who can pay. Still, keep this report in mind as China and its leaders glorify in the country’s medal parade in a couple of weeks, as athlete after athlete collects gold. Think east German swimmer Kornelia Ender (Montreal ’76) sprinter Ben Johnson (Seoul 1988), Ma’s army (Chinese track coach Ma Junren, who had six of his athletes suspended in Sydney 2000 for doping), and Marion Jones, the US track star who “dominated” her events in Sydney and is now serving a six month jail sentence for lying to federal agents about her steroid use. The anti doping cops can’t keep up with advances made in delivery systems, shielding agents and, most importantly, the stem cell based gene tweaking, which is now the cutting edge of this stuff. For all of the above, China’s a one stop shop.

How Do You Say PRESSURE in Chinese...?

Bill Powell — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:37:43 -0500

The character for pressure in Chinese is 壓力 . (That’s YA LI in pinyin). Think the Chinese hoop team is feeling any these days? This from 7 foot forward Yi Jianlian’s blog (Yi played for the Milwaukee Bucks this past year and was recently traded to the New Jersey Nets):

This morning Hu Jintao came to watch our practice. Even the top leader cares so much about our practice, so you can see how much attention the Chinese people are paying to us. He asked us about our physical condition. Hope we can do our best in the Olympics. Now we just have to prepare.

Olympic Blues and Greys

Simon Elegant — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:34:48 -0500

Some thoughts from our colleague Lin Yang:

Many of us joined the spontaneous carnival in the streets on a summer night seven years ago when Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics. But as the moment of glory finally arrives, the exultation is no longer shared by all. I have noticed growing sentiment recently in Internet posts and daily conversations indicating that some Chinese are experiencing a change of heart towards the Olympics. Pride, longing, anticipation has been replaced by confusion, frustration, and even anger. In Tianjin, when i asked my taxi driver to take me to one of the city's famous kebab stalls, he launched into a lengthy complaint instead. "Kebab stalls? They're nearly all gone!! All for the Olympics! I used to go with other driver pals on our night shift. The stalls were always packed, with people eating and chatting happily after a long day's work. Now it's serve th Olympics instead of serving the people!" Some people in Beijing meanwhile are planning to flee the Games and travel agencies are even offering "biyuntao" (避运套) packages. The homonym of "condom" in Chinese has become a popular term referring to "tour package to get away from the Olympics" (Bi-avoid, Yun-the Olympics, tao--package). "One world, one nightmare", as a friend summed up the situation with a sigh. On one of the leading Internet forums on current affairs, Tianya BBS, posters lamented over changes brought on by the coming games. "Now there are security checks everywhere; soldiers and police everywhere," wrote one poster, "'I can no longer recognize this place I call home", wrote another, "morning markets and street stalls are gone and we are left with no choice but to shop at pricier supermarkets; cheap housing is no longer available; manufacturing and construction are halted, and even restaurant takeout is banned, with no clear explanation other than a vague reference to the Olympics." There are also those who go even farther than complaining over daily inconveniences. "Rambobest", who called himself a "nationalist" in his post had some reflections on national glory and the Olympic games. "I understand the government wants to use this opportunity to show the world a rising China, but would hosting an Olympics alone qualify us as a rising power? Are there no other priorities like dealing with corruption, and other crucial social issues? Instead, different voices are clamped down on for the Olympics just so the government won't lose face." Some were simply disheartened by the futile journey to get a glimpse of the Olympic torch. A poster from Qingdao was outraged by the government order to ban all unlicensed citizens from entering the relay area. "The Olympics should be an event participated in and enjoyed by everyone. Yes the torch relay is broadcast on TV, but that's not enough for a Chinese who wants to voice his passion for the country and the Olympics!" And that is a good point. Seven years ago, people believed having the Olympics in Beijing one day would be a national dream fulfilled, and a moment shared by everyone. Is this still the Olympics we had in mind when migrant workers who built Olympic venues and infrastructures with their own hands are made to leave the city before the game starts, when watching the torch relay turns into a prestige event for the few, when witnessing athletes around the world competing on one's own land becomes a luxury?

California Comes to Beijing

Simon Elegant — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:43:43 -0500

And speaking of living in Beijing (my story about how great it is here), it can't hurt to repeat just how gobsmacking the changes in the city continue to be, particularly for those of us who saw the place in the 90s. The video below is taken at a new shopping center on the north west corner of Chaoyang Park, Beijing's largest. It is truly amazingly un-Beijing (or Hong Kong or downtown Shanghai for that matter), a low rise development that sprawls out extavagantly over many acres of some of the city's primest real estate. It really is much more like California than China, and not just because of the Mission/Adobe-style design. Except that, as you'll see at the end of the video, some things (blatant brand rip offs in this case) don't change. For every Nike shop (and there must be four at least) there's an Erke next door, mutated swoosh, strangely familiar sounding slogan and all.

Polling China

Simon Elegant — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:29:23 -0500

The Pew Research Center (which describes itself as "a nonpartisan 'fact tank' that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.) has just released a poll of attitudes in China. There's a bunch of interesting stuff but one fact should warm the hearts of cadres in Communist Party headquarters in Zhongnanhai: no frewer than 86 per cent surveyed said they were satisfied with the direction the country was moving in. You might say that people were nervous of giving their opinion to pollsters but though days seem to have passed. And besides, the figure was only 48 per cent in 2002. Before they break out the champagne though, those same cadres probably should take note of another number: a whopping 96 per cent said they thought inflation was a very big or moderately big problem.

Life in Beijing With Half a Car

Austin Ramzy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:24:59 -0500

Lin Yang from TIME's Beijing bureau has these thoughts about the city's Olympic traffic plan: Driving the four miles between my home and the office can take up to an hour, but with vehicle traffic drastically cut yesterday it took half that. Beijing’s drive to radically improve air quality for the Olympics means only private cars with even numbered license plates can drive on even numbered dates, and odds on odds. So I would not be driving the next day, but between the half hour and breathable air, I welcomed the change. Now, after battling two hours to catch a bus, squeeze onto an overcrowded subway and walk under the scorching sun to work, I’m having second thoughts. At the bus station, dozens of anxious commuters and the lack of any sort of line made boarding nearly impossible. I failed on my first two attempts. One needs the agility, stamina and determination of an Olympian to compete with the rush-hour crowd. Do not wear flip-flops. The subway was no better. It has been so packed since the start of the vehicle restrictions that it made the news—and a crowded public transportation station is hardly a novelty to us Beijingers. Some argue that we should suck it up, that it’s time for us to pay for all the pollution we have contributed to Beijing’s sky. But we are not the only ones paying. Those who take public transportation daily are suffering from the arrival of newcomers who know nothing about the unwritten rules of such a competitive commute. Taking cabs, which don’t fall under the new limitations on vehicle traffic, isn’t easy, either. With rising gas prices, many of the drivers have changed their business strategy from cruising the streets to camping in front of large apartment complexes and office buildings to wait for customers. To be fair, there is no sure-fire cure for Beijing’s traffic problems. The government has been trying to make it easier for everyone. The results, especially in infrastructure, are particularly tangible as the Games draw close. Another 2,000 buses have been put in use, and the network of the new subway and light rail lines rivals Hong Kong and New York. Three new subway lines are opened last Sunday, including one going to the airport. But for a city with more than 17 million people, this cannot be the ultimate solution. Legalizing and promoting carpools might help, as would improving bike lanes. The resolution the government shows in the preparation for the Olympics makes me hopeful. I can already imagine the long-term improvements, if we could only keep the extra buses and subway cars after the Olympics.

One World, One Dream, One Gas Mask...

Bill Powell — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:14:23 -0500

Literally, one gas mask. I began using this headline for these postings months ago with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Now comes today's Wall Street Journal with this hilarious piece about Olympic athletes who are LITERALLY planning to wear gas masks in Beijing.

U.S. triathlete Jarrod Shoemaker has a decision to make at the opening ceremony of the Olympics next month in Beijing: Should he strap on a mask? Chinese officials insist the notorious Beijing air will be cleaner by August, making such contraptions unnecessary. Concerned about the pollution, the U.S. Olympic Committee is distributing a high-tech mask, developed in secrecy, to its more than 600 Olympians. If athletes deploy it, they risk insulting the hosts. Then there's the geek factor. "I probably will want to wear it," says the 26-year-old Mr. Shoemaker, who plans to have his mask on nearly all the time he's in Beijing when not competing. "Whether I will be allowed to is a different issue." Though the practice is less common today, Chinese for years have worn masks to protect their lungs from the country's heavy dust and pollution. But foreigners wearing them during the Games this summer -- particularly at the opening ceremony broadcast to billions of television viewers around the world? That's a different matter.

(Link to full piece is here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121659379072468809.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone Note that the piece carries the requisite "but wearing the masks would mean a loss of face for the hosts..." sentence. If I'm a world class athlete who has to go breathe the poison they call air in Beijing, I'm not worried about the poor wittle Chinese hosts losing face. I'm concerned about my lungs.

Ban? What Ban?

Liam Fitzpatrick — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:16:14 -0500

The South China Morning Post has qualified its claim that Beijing authorities have ordered bar owners in the city's popular Sanlitun drinking district to refuse service to black people during the Olympics. A report on Saturday quoted a police officer denying that such a ban was been ordered. The paper also suggested that "not all bars in the [area] had been ordered to refuse black customers," contrary to the original claim that all bars had been asked to discriminate against black people. The blogger Beijing Boyce, who seems to have done rather more groundwork than the Post journalist Tom Miller, has a useful take on the story here. Meanwhile, for certain readers of my last post on the subject: my ethnicity shouldn't matter, but I am a Hong Kong-born Eurasian, not white. Also, I did not "report" the Post's story as truth. In fact, I took great pains to distance myself from it.

So much for 'decoupling...'

Bill Powell — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:01:59 -0500

Jun Ma is one of the more accurate economic forecasters following China (he's a at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong). His latest monthly missive states flatly that the inflation scare in China is over, and that he's now worried about a significant slow down in growth. He's marked down his 2008 growth forecast from 10.8 per cent to 10.2, and next year's from from a 9.7 per cent increase to 9.2. Though in the developed world that sounds like a world beating performance, this is China we're talking about, and there hasn't been a sub 10 per cent annual growth performance in years. The culprits according to Ma are sharply slowing export growth (a combination of weak growth in the rest of the world as well as a stronger RMB) plus a slump in the property market, plus the negative wealth effect associated with a savagely lower stock market. This bit in Jun's report particularly caught my eye:

"A large number of property developers are under pressure to liquidate their projects or completed units at distressed prices due to very tight credit policy as well as a sharp decline in demand. Year on year property sales growth (in terms of floor space) was down 7% in January to May period, the first decline since 1997."

Boy should that ever sound familiar to any American readers...

Magical Beijing

Simon Elegant — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:21:31 -0500

As a complement to my previous post, see here for our piece in the dead tree edition on China's magical capital.

Bummed Out in Beijing: Jams, Evictions and Other Pre-Olympic Blues

Simon Elegant — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:57:27 -0500

Spot the empty lane In reference to my post below (Rainy Beijing) in which I wondered about the effect vehicle controls on Beijing's long suffering commuters, please see here for a Reuters story which describes how the capital's main subway line ground to a halt because of the crush of passengers. Today is the first working day of the alternating ban on odd-even license plates and traffic is noticeably lighter, as you'd expect with half the cars off the road. As you can see from the picture above though, the designation of the outside lane on ring roads as Olympic-only has jammed up the other two lanes to the usual crawl. On the theme of Olympic silliness meanwhile, we had our first visit at my apartment from the police today to inspect our passports and make sure we were legal. It was a pretty desultory effort. My wife was out on an errand that required her to take her passport but the police didn't seem to notice or care, despite clearly having consulted a list of residents. I live in the compound that is was originally reserved for diplomats and journalists (foreigners were given permission to live anywhere in the city five years ago) and still houses the offices and homes of many reporters, so you'd think the police would be somewhat flexible. On Friday though the main gate was blocked for an age by no less than three police cars and up to 20 coppers trying to deal with an extremely irate camera crew who were refused permission to bring their equipment into the compound. For extreme pre-Olympic idiocy however, my colleague Jane Macartney of the London Times had an experience that is surely top of the list: she was thrown out of her house. See her account of here. Let's hope things won't continue to deteriorate as the Games get closer.

Bus Explosions Reported in Southwest China

Austin Ramzy — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:31:58 -0500

Two buses exploded in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming during the morning rush hour today, state media reported. The blasts, which occurred about an hour apart, killed two and injured 14 in the Yunnan provincial capital. A police official told the AFP that according to preliminary investigations the cause of the blasts was "deliberate sabotage." Police checkpoints have now been set up on major roads around the city and the province, state media reported. The blasts come at a time when the country is ramping up security ahead of the Olympics. In Beijing, police have stepped up patrols, guards are subjecting subway passengers to more stringent checks and anti-aircraft missiles have been set up outside Olympic venues. The government, Interpol and the U.S. State Department have all warned about the possibility of terrorist attacks during the Games. The resulting clampdown has left the city feeling paranoid at times. Authorities say incidents like an attempted attack on a flight from the western Xinjiang region to Beijing in March show the seriousness of the threat. Xinjiang is home to the Uighur minority group and a long-running independence movement, which security officials blamed for the attempted attack. Monday's explosions are not the first bus blasts this year. In May an explosion on a Shanghai bus killed three people. Police linked the blast to a man who brought a large amount of gasoline on board, though no further information has been released. In the past few weeks some areas of the country have been hit by unrest, the sort of incidents which also could contribute to a deliberate attack. Large scale rioting was touched off in the southern province of Guizhou when residents of Weng'an rejected the official explanation of the death of a young girl. Yunnan has also seen violence. This weekend two people were killed and 54 were injured in clashes between police and protesters at a rubber plant. The province's name means "south of the clouds," and what happens there usually feels far removed from Beijing. Kunming is 1,300 miles away, one of the most distant major Chinese cities from the capital. Yet it seems likely that the reverberations from Monday's blasts will soon be felt here as well.

A Nail House No More

Austin Ramzy — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 04:19:46 -0500

The Beijing nail house mentioned here has been torn down. At the site earlier today there was nothing but workmen moving the last bits of rubble, planting flowers and painting the red wall behind where the Yu family store once stood. A person at a nearby store said the destruction work began at 3 a.m. on Friday. From an aesthetic standpoint that section of Di'anmennei Street looks a lot better without the store sticking out amid the newly planted greenery. But whether flattening a house in the middle of the night contributes to social harmony is a question that's not as easily answered.