From a good friend of mine, who was driven out of his country by yet another fascist regime.

An Englishman, a Frenchman and a World Bank Economist are viewing a painting of Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden. “Look at their reserve, their calm,” muses the Englishman. “They must be English!”
“Nonsense,” says the Frenchman. “They are both naked and beautiful. They must be French!”
“You are both wrong,” says the World Bank economist. “They have no clothes and no shelter. They have only an apple to eat and they’re being told they’re in Paradise . Clearly, they’re Zimbabweans!”

An interesting comment on my previous Hong Kong post I found on ‘A Modern Lei Feng’. An interesting blog by the way.

Well, this isn’t so much “showing love,” but if you want to read a very interesting article, read the post (and the link to the article). This is straight out of a John le Carre meets Red Corner Richard Gere spy story and my guess is that much (if not all) of it is ficticious/all in the writer’s head. While its nice to flatter yourself, this isn’t the late 80s/early 90s and the PSB has far larger problems to deal with.

The quoted story by Loretta Tofani illustrates that now, with Hong Kong being ruled by its new colonial masters, it IS like what we experienced in China from the 80’s till the day of today, when it comes to harassment by the regime. And the PSB together with the Armed Police (the Chinese equivalent of the Nazi Waffen SS) has a very important task in covering up the truth, and making the life of journalists as difficult as possible. It’s Nazi Germany in the 1930’s all over again. Then there were people, just like now, who even when the Germans marched into Poland still believed in their good intentions. East Turkestan, Mongolia, Tibet, Vietnam, how many more invasions do we need before the rose coloured spectacles come off? Will somebody push the red button please!

Loretta Tofani is a former Inquirer reporter writing a series of articles on factory workers in China with a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The articles will be published in The Inquirer. From her is the following article from July 1st.

The clerk at the small Comfort Hotel in Hong Kong seemed like a nice guy. I decided to trust him. After all, this was Hong Kong, the democracy. So I told him something I would never say to a hotel clerk in other parts of China: “I’m a journalist.”

What happened afterward has led me to see Hong Kong in a new way: as part of China’s police state, where nearly everyone - whether in an official position or not - can be expected to participate in the Big Brother system of spying and repression.

This may seem surprising for Hong Kong. Ever since Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule on this day 10 years ago, China’s government has appeared to respect Hong Kong’s status as a “special administrative region.” The region has its own laws permitting freedom of the press, assembly and religion - freedoms not enjoyed in the rest of China. Yet Hong Kong since 1997 has been populated with Beijing-loyal citizens from China. “Apparatchiks,” Hong Kong Legislative Council member Martin Lee has called them. They help steer Hong Kong.

I was in China in March, April and May, doing some freelance reporting on factory conditions. I did initial reporting from Hong Kong. One organization gave me a booklet in Chinese. I do not read Chinese. I speak Mandarin, but not well. At the hotel, I asked the clerk, Peter, to translate a page. He obliged. We discussed my stories.

Then I left for mainland China.

When I returned to Hong Kong two months later, I checked into the same hotel. I used the hotel computer, clicking on a map of China.

“Are you finished with your report?” Peter asked.

I said I wasn’t, then disappeared into my room.

Minutes later, I heard Peter speaking on the telephone.

“. . . Map of China,” I heard him say. “She’s not finished yet; she’ll be back. No, she’s not afraid.”

I tried not to jump to conclusions. I thought back to when I was based in China in the 1990s for The Inquirer. My physician husband would say, “Bring out the Haldol,” a drug for psychotic patients, every time I noticed an odd “coincidence”: hotel workmen putting up drapes in my room at odd hours; repairmen “fixing” my not-broken refrigerator and air conditioner; the taxi “dispatcher” asking the driver for my occupation and nationality.

But this was Hong Kong, the democracy, in 2007. That evening, a new clerk informed me that the air conditioner in my room needed fixing. Would I allow a repairman in that evening, around 8:30?

“No,” I replied. “The air conditioner isn’t broken.”

The next day, Peter was back briefly. He asked if the repairman could visit my room that night.

I felt sure a listening device would be part of the “repair.”

“Sure,” I said.

One hour later, I checked out. The hotel’s front door shut behind me. I started making my way to the street. Suddenly the hotel door swung open and a clerk appeared. Her question seemed inappropriate:

“Are you going to America? Or China?”

I didn’t answer.

I checked into another hotel, Nathan House. Three days later, the maid asked for the phone in my room. I unplugged it and handed it to her. I didn’t think more of it until two nights later.

A man’s loud voice, angry, sarcastic, woke me from my sleep around midnight. He was in the hotel common area.

“Was her boss here?” he asked in Mandarin.

“No,” the hotel manager replied. “Her friend.”

“That wasn’t her friend,” he sneered. “That was an interpreter! An interpreter!”

He was right. A college student, Yuki, using my cell phone, was helping me contact factory owners for comment for my stories. It’s easier for a native speaker to get sensitive information over the telephone.

The man continued the tirade, his voice getting louder and louder, exchanging remarks with a woman whose voice I recognized: the hotel maid. They discussed my personal life - I had come to China without my children - and my phone calls the previous day.

Someone turned on a Chinese music CD at full volume - even though it was by then 12:40 a.m.

“Let her come out!” he taunted.

“Yes, let her come out!” cheered the hotel maid.

I went back to sleep. In the morning I waited for Yuki. I told her about the night’s events. “Don’t worry,” she said. “This is Hong Kong, not China. Anyone bothers you, just call 999. The police will come right away.”

I gave her a number to call: another factory. Yuki asked to speak to the manager.

There was a long pause. Yuki was told the man was at lunch.

“But it’s only 10:30,” Yuki said.

The conversation ended. The hotel maid’s mocking laughter rang through the hotel.

“Something is wrong,” Yuki said.

Yuki tried another number, another factory. The result was the same. The hotel maid’s laughter rang out again.

We stopped. The morning’s failure was not an accident, I felt sure.

As we left the hotel, a man wearing a suit strode into the hotel common area. He was looking carefully at a black object in his hands, larger and bulkier than a calculator.

Was it a machine to read and intercept the phone numbers Yuki had called? So perhaps he could call them and issue warnings?

I believe it was. Journalists are under government control in China. Some have their work disrupted, deliberately.

What does this mean for Hong Kong? The city needs a free flow of information for its capitalist system - a system China strongly supports, both for Hong Kong and itself. But my recent experience suggests that China’s agents will whittle away at freedoms. They will use covert, guerrilla tactics of intimidation and disruption against those they see as threats. In Hong Kong, the appearance of freedoms - for religion, press and assembly - will remain. But the core will be rotten.

A friend of mine sent me this email, which does not need any comment:

Just a warning about the Internet and China ……

Our website was shutdown by China Telecom as ordered by the Chinese government until we signed a new contract with the government stating we would not do “bad things” on the internet…I guess they mean pornography, but I really don’t know.

China Telecom said they were shutting down all websites until this new requirement was complied with, so if you have a website, you may want to check it to ensure it is operational.

When I asked China Telecom why they didn’t notify use before shutting off our service, they said, “this is China , we don’t have to notify anyone of anything”.

With thanks to MyLaowai for the heads-up:

We’ve known that our printers are spying on us, ever since the Electronic Frontier Foundation cracked the secret codes in the output of color laser printers. These hidden codes — apparently placed at the behest of the Secret Service — identify the serial number, make and model of the printer that printed them, as well as a date and timestamp.

What we didn’t know is that if you ask the manufacturer of your printer to stop spying on you, they respond by ratting you out to the Secret Service as a dangerous subversive, and a few days later, the SS will show up and ask you why you care about your privacy.

Click here for the full article.

The logo for the Expo 2010 in Shanghai most of us have seen many times already. What I never could figure out is what it is supposed to symbolize.

I can figure out the numbers for the year 2010 with using some imagination. But what is that green stuff that rises up from it and looks like 3 undernourished ghosts?

Does it symbolize the foul smell and pollution? 3 toxic eels from Suzhou Creek that glow eerily in the dark? Streams of green phlegm?

Not enough that a lot what they call ‘food’ here is full of bones. Some people don’t know where to draw the line:

Chinese Villagers eat Dinosaur Bones

Villagers in central China dug up a ton of dinosaur bones and boiled them in soup or ground them into powder for traditional medicine, believing they were from flying dragons and had healing powers.

Until last year, the fossils were being sold in Henan province as “dragon bones” at about 4 yuan (50 cents) per kilogram (2.2 pounds), scientist Dong Zhiming told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The calcium-rich bones were sometimes boiled with other ingredients and fed to children as a treatment for dizziness and leg cramps. Other times they were ground up and made into a paste that was applied directly to fractures and other injuries, he said.

“They had believed that the ‘dragon bones’ were from the dragons flying in the sky,” he said.

‘A picture says more than a thousand words’, and I have nothing to add to these…

From the South China Morning Post:

Ghost ploy used as sex lure, court told

A noodle shop delivery worker lured a teenager to bed by claiming he could exorcise the evil spirit he claimed was possessing her, a court was told yesterday. Appearing before District Court judge Richard Day, Tse Wun, 48, denied attempting to procure another person for an unlawful sexual act by false pretences.

The alleged victim, 19, testified that she knew Tse from the shop where he worked. She bumped into him on the night of May 31 and he had told her she looked unwell, as if possessed by an evil spirit.

The woman said she felt scared as she believed what Tse said because she had seen a ghost when she was small. She later had dinner with Tse.

She told the court she had another meal with him the following night when he gave her an envelope containing a cheque book that he said could help to ‘avert’ her misfortune.

On June 2 they had dinner together for a third time and Tse told her it would be dangerous for her to return home because ’something was going to happen’. She agreed to spend the night with him at a guesthouse, where he said that he could protect her, the court heard.

Arriving at a guesthouse in Yau Ma Tei, Tse allegedly told the woman he could read some words on her forehead in the dark. Afterwards, the court was told, he suddenly looked to the left side of her and yelled: ‘Don’t cause any trouble. I won’t let you go. Although I can’t have her, you are not to cause any trouble.’

The woman said she was so scared when Tse yelled at the ‘evil spirit’ that she leaned to him and was told to embrace him. Tse is then alleged to have told her the only way she could be protected was to have sex with him.

The woman told the court she reluctantly agreed as she believed it was the only way to expel the evil spirit. Tse is then said to have asked her to stretch her arms and lie in the shape of a cross. The court heard he undressed and molested her and attempted to have sexual intercourse with her, unsuccessfully.

The woman told the court she had worked in a karaoke bar and had provided sexual services for money but had not done so on this occasion.

She later told her boyfriend about the incident and was urged to report it to the police. The hearing continues.

This is NOT from ‘The Onion’, but from a daily overview in the South China Morning Post of headlines in mainland Chinese news papers, sorted per region. Something tells me there is something seriously wrong with this place.

Beijing

Avenging thieves beat soldiers
Witnesses stood by on Friday as two soldiers were seriously injured in a revenge attack by thieves, Beijing Morning Post reports. The two were kicked off a bus and attacked on a busy street by men armed with clubs after stopping a theft. (What kind of friggin soldiers do they have here? The Royal Marines they are obviously not.)

Crackdown against Olympic fakes
Authorities will launch a week-long crackdown against street peddlers selling fake Olympics mascots. Xinhua reports the campaign will shift focus from illegal manufacturers to street peddlers. (I am still waiting for a report on fake, fake selling street peddlers.)

19,000 students die each year
About 16,000 primary and secondary students and 3,000 undergraduates died in accidents around the country last year, Beijing Evening News reports. According to a report by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, 45 per cent of the deaths were due to low safety-awareness among the students and 18 per cent due to school mismanagement.

Pickpockets pick their routes
Police have named 10 bus routes most plagued by pickpockets, saying the thefts were most likely during rush hours, Legal Evening News reports. The cross-city 728 service was one of the most pick-pocketed lines because people fell asleep on the long journeys. (Really? Thefts are most likely during rush hours? And I always thought the empty buses were the favourite target. Less chance to get caught.)

North/Northeast

Man bites dog, saves puppy
HEBEI - A man in Xingtai is believed to have rescued his pet dog from the jaws of a stray by biting the attacking dog to death, Yanzhao Metropolis News reports. The man said he first tried throwing several watermelons (he must have known what’s in them) at the bigger dog and then strangled it in a 10-minute fight. Earlier reports quoted witnesses saying he bit the dog to death.

Gunman tracked down
JILIN - Police have detained an illegal immigrant in Longjing and confiscated a rifle and 30 bullets after the suspect allegedly stole food and clothing at gunpoint last month, China Radio International reports. The man, whose age, name and nationality were not given, was captured after a three-day manhunt. (Yeah, right.)

East/Southeast

Lover murdered for bad smell
SHANGHAI - A 65-year-old man who did not like the way his 64-year-old lover smelled has been charged with murdering her because he wanted to stop her coming over to his house, Shanghai Daily reports. The woman was found alive on a neighbourhood lawn on May 27 with four stab wounds and strangulation marks but later died in hospital. (I don’t like the way about 20 million people smell in this city.)

140,000 yuan lost to ATM scam
JIANGSU - A court in Suzhou has ordered the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to compensate a customer 30 per cent of losses he incurred after following the instructions of a notice on an automatic teller machine and transferring his money to another account, Oriental Morning Post reports. The customer followed the instructions from the bogus notice and transferred his money into a “safe” account, only to find his 140,000 yuan missing the next day. (Be a retard, and you shall be compensated.)

Central/South

Hospital fined for birth horror
HUBEI - The Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court has ordered a hospital to pay 75,000 yuan in damages after it refused to help a woman whose child died after she delivered the baby “in a hospital rubbish bin” in November, Changjiang Business News reports. The woman, who did not have enough money for the hospital admittance deposit, was left in a corridor for more than an hour and later gave birth outside. (No comment)

Father beats daughter, 2
GUANGDONG - A two-year-old girl was fighting for her life in a Shenzhen hospital after being seriously injured on the head by her father on Tuesday, Southern Metropolis News reports. The girl’s mother told doctors that the father had beaten and kicked their daughter two days previously because she would not eat. (I would like to have a few minutes alone with the ‘father’.)

Brother killed in tomb row
HENAN - A Tanghe county man, his wife and his son have been arrested for murdering the man’s brother after he tried several times to excavate their father’s tomb. The brother had blamed the tomb’s bad feng shui for his failure to find a wife, Jinri Anbao reports. The brother tried to dig open the tomb several times before the trio allegedly beat him with shovels during his last attempt, on April 1.

West

Seven die in minivan crash
GANSU - Seven people died in an explosion after a minivan crashed into a sedan on Tuesday afternoon on the Jiaan Highway, connecting Jiayuguan and Jiuquan , Lanzhou Morning Post reports. Witnesses said the explosion occurred within minutes of the crash and both vehicles were engulfed in flames. There were no survivors. (Yeah, they probably stayed in their cars, arguing and refusing to leave if they don’t get compensation. Darwin Awards material.)

Price check for cultural noodles
GANSU - Lanzhou authorities have put a price limit on its renowned beef noodles, insisting a bowl should cost no more than 2.5 yuan, China News Service reports. The price of the noodles rose to three yuan last month after the noodle-making process was listed as part of the city’s intangible cultural heritage. (I guess ‘intangible’ sums it up here.)