Beast of the Month - August 2008

Robalini's Note: Still a little behind, but catching up...

Beast of the Month - August 2008
Hu Jintao, Chinese President

"I yam an anti-Christ..."
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"

"One World, One Dream"
Slogan of the 2008 Summer Olympics

On August 8, the Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing. It will begin at 8PM, which will make it the eighth hour of the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the century. (In case you didn't know, eight is considered the luckiest number in China, and the Chinese people are particularly superstitious about it.) When it is, it will be viewed in the korporate media as the final coronation of China as one of the few world superpowers. Like it actually needs one.

It's hard to believe it's been nine years since someone from China has won BOTM, and eleven since Jiang Zemin took home the trophy. Why that's particularly hard to believe is because in the past nine years, China has not gotten weaker, but rather frighteningly stronger.

Want the proof? Just walk down the aisle of your local Best Buy, Target or (of course) WalMart. Try to avoid buying products which aren't made in the People's Republic. Good luck. Freelance writer Sara Bongiorni did that a full year in 2005 with her family. Needless to say, it often turned shopping for even everyday products into an epic journey. Her four-year-old son, despondent over the cool toys and gadgets he was unable to obtain, had this to say about the end of the boycott: "When we can buy China things again, let's never stop." Ms. Bongiorni summed up her dilemma thusly:

"The funny thing about China's ascent is that we, as a nation, could shut the whole thing down in a week. Jump-start a 'Just Say No to Chinese Products Week,' and the empire will collapse amid the chaos of overloaded cargo ships in Long Beach harbor. I doubt we could pull it off. Americans may be famously patriotic, but look closely, and you'll see who makes the flag magnets on their car bumpers. These days China delivers every major holiday, Fourth of July included."

Of course, if China was merely destroying Team USA's manufacturing sector while poisoning kids with lead-filled toys, it would be bad enough. Currently, China is the number two holder of US Treasury securities, ahead of the UK and only trailing Japan. It is number two with a bullet. What this means is that increasingly China will have a major say in the decisions of our political establishment. It's hard to ignore that in the late 80s and early 90s, for all the hysteria that was directed at the evil Japanese empire, they were nowhere near the economic threat to America that China is now, and a fellow democracy to boot as compared to a communist dictatorship. So where are the panic-stricken pop novels like Michael Crichton's Rising Sun over China?

Okay, maybe that's a little over-the-top: China, after all, is no longer a communist dictatorship, it's a capitalist dictatorship. China has a $7 trillion a year GDP when measured in purchasing power parity, second only to the USA. Since 1978, when free market reforms were implemented, it has grown at an annual rate of over 8 percent. This growth has been aided over the last decade by the reacquisition of both Hong Kong in 1997 and Macau and 1999. Hong Kong long has been the world's shining example of free market economics (Milton Friedman gushed about it in his 1980 book Free to Choose) while Macau has surpassed Las Vegas as the world's largest gambling center, and now only Dubai exceeds it as an example of 21st century capitalism on steroids. Meanwhile, China's biggest oil producer PetroChina became the first trillion dollar company in value last November, and Shanghai has become the world's largest cargo port. With all this money flowing to China, talks of reunification with Taiwan can no longer be dismissed as merely a dream.

But China is definitely still an ugly dictatorship. The crackdown on Tiananmen Square may have happened nineteen years ago, but an environment toxic to freedom still is alive and well. When Hu Jintao (The Konformist Beast of the Month) was selected to take over China's presidency in 2002 from Jiang Zemin, there was widespread hope that he would become the nation's Gorbachev, that political freedom would be unleashed by what was suspected to be a closet liberal. This was aided by his close relationship with Premier Wen Jiabao, who is about as close to a populist figure that can be found in the Chinese establishment. Nearly six years later, this has been proven to be a bogus fantasy, a fantasy exposed most blatantly by the continuing suppression of the people of Tibet. Indeed, the recent crackdown on Tibetan followers of the exiled Dalai Lama has become so intense, there has been a heavy push for nations to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies as protest. Other noted examples of China's continued repression are the persecution of the Falun Gong religious movement, the backing of a ruthless military junta in Burma and its ties to the bloodshed in Darfur via continued support of Sudan.

Some refer to the 2008 Games as the "Genocide Olympics" thanks to these crimes against humanity, and has led to further calls for a boycott, most notably from actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow, actor and Tibetan activist Richard Gere, director Steven Spielberg and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu. The most in-your-face example of China's continued autocratic style is the nation's crackdown on the Internet, which is already a major hurdle for journalist attempting to cover the Olympic Games. This is despite being lied to repeatedly by China that Internet censorship would be lifted on journalists during the games. (Hard to believe a dictatorship would use deception to land an esteemed multi-billion dollar reward.) According to an International Olympic Committee commissioner: "Had the I.O.C., and those vested with the decision to award the host city contract, known seven years ago that there would be severe restrictions on people being able to enter China simply to watch the Olympics, or that live broadcasting from Tiananmen Square would essentially be banned, or that reporters would be corralled at the whim of local security, then I seriously doubt whether Beijing would have been awarded the Olympics.” The climate of persecution that pervades the Summer Games has been so vast, criticisms of Beijing's toxic smog due to intense air pollution have been almost an afterthought. It appears that for all the talk of open markets leading to freedom, it's going to take longer to achieve Chinese democracy than it has taken Axl Rose to finish his GNR album of the same name.

Over the last eight years, two camps of the GOP have been divided over whether to continue treating China as a trading partner or turning them into an adversary for a Cold War sequel. (These two camps can be referred to as the "Shopping Mall Fascists" and the "War & Oil Fascists" for those keeping score at home.) This division is illustrated in the pro-China positions of both Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Christian televangelist Pat Robertson, both having normally anti-Communist views apparently trumped by their desire to profit in the untapped Chinese market. (Robertson's mammon is particularly telling, as he actually has defended China's forced abortion policy to control population, a step beyond the mere "pro-choice" position of American abortion activists he regularly bashes.) The general results of this debate has led the Bush Team to continue the plunge into transferring dollars into China's coffers while getting any dig into them whenever they can, no matter how petty. One noted example: the April Fools 2001 crash between a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet that led to the death of PLA pilot Wang Wei. Immediately, the Bush Administration insisted the incident happened in international airspace (a dubious claim) and demanded the release of the entire crew. (It's hard to imagine that if a Chinese spy plane near US borders caused the death of an American navy pilot, Team USA would immediately release the crew and their plane without investigation.) Ten days later, when the Bush Administration gave a belated and unconvincing apology after an increasingly shrill hysteria swept through the press, China released the crew, but by then the diplomatic damage had been unnecessarily done. Cut to 2006, when a visit by Jintao to the US was littered with snubs that showed a calculated pattern. Among the greatest hits: referring to China as “the Republic of China" (the actual title for Taiwan) during the official White House greeting. Perhaps even worse was granting a Falun Gong anti-China activist press credentials to a joint Bush-Jintao press conference. The press conference was interrupted for three minutes by an angry denunciation of Jintao and China by the activist, something which would've been halted immediately if it was an attack on Bush's failed War in Iraq. Normally, the granting of a press pass is so controlled, only right-wing closet gay prostitutes who sleep at the White House overnight can evade the tight scrutiny, which indicates the Falun Gong supporter's activities were sanctioned by the Bush Administration all along.

Of course, not all battles between China and the US are so minor. Both countries have used bogus excuses to use military weaponry in space, moves that indicate a "Star Wars" may eventually explode between the two nations for control of the Earth's skies. And as PetroChina's rise clearly shows, there is a huge battle already being covertly waged between the two countries over the vast Caspian Sea oil reserves. This covert war may go deeper than most suspect: while 9/11 conspiracy theories mainly focus on the US military, Israel, Saudi Arabia or the UK as the alternative culprit, Gordon Thomas makes the case in the book Seeds of Fire that the terrorist attack was actually a Chinese operation to punish the US and strengthen ties between China and Islamic nations. In particular, the book details the close financial relationship between China and the Taliban before 9/11. (Coincidentally, the Taliban was run from power almost immediately after China was voted into the WTO in November 2001.) That being the case, perhaps the tensions between the US and China will become increasingly overt as China continues to gain power without firing a single weapon.

In any case, we salute Hu Jintao as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Hu!!!

Sources:

Barboza, David. "Macao Surpasses Las Vegas as Gambling Center." New York Times 23 January 2007 <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/business/worldbusiness/23cnd-macao.html>.

Bodeen, Christopher. "Under Hu, China Tightening Media Reins." Washington Post 21 April 2006 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/21/AR2006042100951.html>.

Bongiorni, Sara. "A Year Without 'Made in China'." Christian Science Monitor 20 December 2005 <http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1220/p09s01-coop.html>.

Bongiorni, Sara. A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy. Hoboken: Wiley, 2007.

Chin, Larry. "Is the Anglo-American Empire Losing the 'Great Energy Game'?" Online Journal 8 January 2007 <http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1612.shtml>.

"China's Hu Vows to 'Purify' Internet." Reuters 24 January 2007 <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSPEK9570520070124>.

"Dalai Lama: China Causing 'Cultural Genocide'." CNN 17 March 2008 <http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/tibet.unrest>.

Eimer, David. "China Earthquake: Superstition a Potent Force." London Telegraph 24 May 2008 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2021715/China-earthquake-Superstition-a-potent-force.html>.

"The Genocide Olympics?" Washington Post 14 December 2006.

Harnden, Toby. "Outrage as Preacher Refuses to Condemn Chinese Abortions." London Telegraph 20 July 2001 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1316790/Outrage-as-preacher-refuses-to-condemn-Chinese-abortions.html>.

Hilton, Isabel. "China's One-party Monopoly of Power Is Coming to an End." London Guardian 12 July 2007 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jul/12/comment.china>.

Kahn, Joseph. "China Confirms Test of Anti-Satellite Weapon." New York Times 23 January 2007 <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/world/asia/23cnd-china.html>.

Kluger, Jeffrey. "Was A Satellite Shootdown Necessary?" Time 20 February 2008 <http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1714811,00.html>.

Lou, Ying. "PetroChina's Value Tops $1 Trillion, Surpassing Exxon." Bloomberg November 2007 <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQyRJI72Kor8>.

Marquand, Robert. "E.U. Weighs Olympic Boycott Over Tibet." Christian Science Monitor 27 March 2008.

Mone, Gregory. "Choking at the Olympics." Popular Science August 2007.

Musil, Steven. "Internet Censorship Plagues Journalists at Olympics." CNET News 29 July 2008 <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10002097-93.html>.

Ritter, Peter. "The New Space Race: China vs. US." Time 13 February 2008 <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1712812,00.html>.

"Shanghai Now the World's Largest Cargo Port." Asia Times Online 7 January 2006 <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HA07Cb02.html>.

Stelter, Brian. "Networks Fight Shorter Olympic Leash." New York Times 21 July 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/sports/olympics/21nbc.html>.

Thomas, Gordon. Seeds of Fire: China And The Story Behind The Attack On America. Tempe: Dandelion Books, 2001.

"WHO Fears Over Beijing Pollution." BBC 17 August 2007 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6950883.stm>.

Beijing’s Bad Faith Olympics

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/23/opinion/23sat1.html

August 23, 2008
Editorial
Beijing’s Bad Faith Olympics

The Beijing Olympics still have one more day to run. But the final gold medal — for authoritarian image management — can already be safely awarded to China’s Communist Party leadership.

Beijing got what it wanted out of this globally televised spectacular. It reaped a huge prestige bonanza that it will surely use to promote its international influence and, we fear, further tighten its grip at home.

It pocketed these gains without offering any concessions in return. When it increased repression — rather than loosening up — a supine International Olympic Committee barely offered a protest. Most world leaders, including President Bush, were nearly as complicit.

In Beijing for the opening ceremony, Mr. Bush seemed eager to play the role of the apolitical sports fan, instead of publicly pressing China’s leaders on the ongoing Olympics crackdown. That nicely fit into the Chinese script of talking up sports while shutting down politics.

To win the right to host these Games, China promised to honor the Olympic ideals of nonviolence, openness to the world and individual expression. Those promises were systematically broken, starting with this spring’s brutal repression in Tibet and continuing on to the ugly farce of inviting its citizens to apply for legal protest permits and then arresting them if they actually tried to do so.

Along the way, government critics were pre-emptively rounded up and jailed, domestic news outlets tightly controlled, foreign journalists denied full access to the Internet and thousands of Beijing’s least telegenic residents were evicted from their homes and out of camera range. On Friday, the Chinese police confirmed that six Americans protesting China’s rule in Tibet had been sentenced to 10 days of detention.

Surely one of the signature events of these Games was the sentencing of two women in their late 70s to “re-education through labor.” Their crime? Applying for permission to protest the inadequate compensation they felt they had received when the government seized their homes years ago for urban redevelopment.

A year ago, the I.O.C. predicted that these Games would be “a force for good” and a spur to human-rights progress. Instead, as Human Rights Watch has reported, they became a catalyst for intensified human-rights abuse.

Mr. Bush has taken some note of China’s appalling human-rights record this summer — privately meeting with Chinese dissidents in Washington just before his visit to the Games and gently nudging his hosts on religious freedom while in Beijing. With these repression-scarred Olympics now drawing to a close, Mr. Bush and other world leaders must tell Beijing that its failure to live up to its Olympic commitments will neither be ignored nor forgotten.

The medal count and DVD sales cannot be the last word on the Beijing Games.

IOC’s gymnastics probe falls well short

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=dw-iocprobe082208

IOC’s gymnastics probe falls well short
By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
8-22-8

Finally, gold Aug 19, 2008 Johnson only sees the silver lining Aug 17, 2008

BEIJING – At least when the NCAA runs one of its bogus investigations of Big State U, it sends some people out in the field, conducts some interviews and then after a few months (or years) claims that the Ferrari Enzo the star tailback was driving really did come from grandma back home and not the booster or the agent.

The International Olympic Committee apparently sees no need for such pause or pretense.

The “investigation” it ordered into whether some Chinese gymnasts were under the minimum age of 16 was concluded after just a few hours Friday.

The not-so stunning verdict: The Chinese are innocent.

Please move along, now. Nothing to see here.

“We believe the matter will be put to rest and there’s no question … on the eligibility,” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. “The information we have received seems satisfactory in terms of the correct documentation – including birth certificates.”

While you slept, the IOC swept.

Sorry, the matter isn’t being put to rest no matter how many whitewash inspections are done. A real investigation does not take hours. It takes days or weeks or however long is necessary.

What exactly did they do except look at the same questionable info – government-issued passports – they had previously been presented? Did they ask He Kexin if she was 16, cross your heart and hope to die?

The Associated Press says the Chinese turned over information to the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) on Thursday evening. It included the current and former passport, ID card and family residence permit for the double-gold medalist. All had the same and proper birth date.

That was enough for FIG, which by Friday morning had declared everything fine.

No word on the old websites, interviews with friends and families, a trip to the birth hospital or discovery of old school records. Nothing.

Perhaps this would have amounted to little and perhaps He and the others are, indeed, 16 – but this was nothing but the most ridiculous kind of propaganda.

A 12-hour investigation? Really? No one at the IOC or FIG has even the sense to think, “Perhaps we should at least pretend to care before simply clearing the gymnasts?”

The investigation by FIG was so fast word of its start didn’t make the Chinese government-controlled English newspaper China Daily. No news is good news.

This in the face of mounting evidence from multiple media and citizen investigations in America and England that showed more and more old registration forms, gymnastics websites and athlete logs that showed three of the six Chinese gymnasts used to list birth dates from 1993 and 1994, which would make them too young to compete at the Olympics.

In an effort to protect young athletes before their bones and muscles fully formed, FIG mandates that to compete in the Beijing Games a gymnast must be born in 1992 or before.

First came stories in The New York Times, The Associated Press and the Times of London that listed He’s birth date as a too-young Jan. 1, 1994. Then private citizens got involved. The latest was from a New York computer expert going by the name Stryde Hax who combed old Chinese documents on the web that found even more of the same.

Just last December government controlled media wrote stories about He calling her a 13-year-old “little girl” and a “star of the future.” The future became now when she showed up at the Olympics with a Chinese passport that claimed she was born Jan. 1, 1992.

There were also suspicions about two of her teammates. The birth date of Yang Yilin was listed on official national registration lists posted by the General Administration of Sport of China website for three years from 2004 to 2006 as a too young Aug. 26, 1993, according to the AP.

On her passport her birth date is Aug. 26, 1992.

Jiang Yuyuan’s birthday was Oct. 1, 1993, as recently as a registration list for a 2007 competition. On her passport she was born Nov. 1, 1991.

Perhaps the birth date of one gymnast could be confused one time, but half the team on multiple occasions? Considering 2000 Chinese bronze medalist Yang Yun later admitted on state television she was 14 that year, the IOC or FIG should have been all over this.

Instead, they did nothing until the USOC requested action. Then they just brushed it aside.

Having younger, and presumably smaller and more nimble athletes, can be a significant advantage in some gymnastics disciplines. Romania’s Nadia Comaneci scored seven perfect 10s in the 1976 Games when she was just 14, before FIG set the age limit.

This investigation isn’t fair to the sport of gymnastics, which will forever look suspiciously on the competition here. It isn’t fair to the United States, Romania and Russia, who all deserve to move up one spot on the medal stand if China used ineligible athletes.

And it isn’t fair to China, He and her teammates, who if innocent don’t deserve this to hang over their heads forever.

The IOC and FIG have never been about fair, though. They’ve been about kowtowing to the powerful and cashing the checks. They have so lost their way, have become so insulated by the power, they can’t even fathom no one is accepting a kangaroo court investigation.

Even the NCAA is smarter than that.

Internet censorship plagues journalists at Olympics

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10002097-93.html

July 29, 2008
Internet censorship plagues journalists at Olympics
Posted by Steven Musil

With the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games a mere 10 days away, members of the media have learned that there is at least one thing they can expect not to be open: the Internet.

Despite earlier assurances that journalists would have unfettered access to the Internet at the Main Press Center and athletic venues, organizers are now backtracking, meaning that the some 5,000 reporters working in Beijing during the next several weeks won't have access to a multitude of sites such as Amnesty International or any site with Tibet in the address, according to an Associated Press report.

When Chinese officials were bidding for the right to hold the games seven years ago, they assured international organizers that there would be ''complete freedom to report.'' In April, Chinese organizers told International Olympic Committee members that Internet censorship, which is routine for China's citizens, would be lifted for journalists during the games.

However, IOC members issued a clarification Tuesday, saying that Internet freedom applied only to Web sites related to ''Olympic competitions.'' Some journalists expressed frustration at the slow download rates and even voiced suspicion that it was deliberate and intended to discourage use.

''This type of censorship would have been unthinkable in Athens, but China seems to have more formalities,'' Mihai Mironica, a journalist with ProTV in Romania, told the AP. ''If journalists cannot fully access the Internet here, it will definitely be a problem.''

This development is only the latest in a long string of headaches the media have suffered in China while preparing to cover the games.

When a senior vice president for NBC Sports, which paid about $900 million to broadcast the games, asked organizers last month to lift broadcast and interview restrictions at Tiananmen Square, the response was reportedly clear: "Don't push the issue."

Having the Chinese government telling you where you can and can't go on the Internet is not only frustrating but a bit unnerving as well. You can bet they are also watching journalists very carefully. Considering the way China dealt with YouTube during the Tibet crackdown earlier this year, what kind of "journalism freedoms" will reporters have if their stories offend Chinese officials?

Skateboarding could be Olympic discipline in 2012

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=219573

Skateboarding could be Olympic discipline in 2012
June 8, 2007
Associated Press

LONDON -- Skateboarding could make its Olympic debut at the 2012 London Games.

The International Olympic Committee said Friday it has held discussions with cycling's world governing body about introducing skateboarding as a discipline for the London program.

Skateboarding events are part of the X Games, and the IOC is eager to modernize the Olympic program with sports and disciplines that appeal to youth. It has already added snowboarding to the Winter Games and BMX cycling for next year's Beijing Olympics.

"The IOC wants to make the program relevant for young people," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said.

Moreau said officials of the International Cycling Union met with the IOC sports department this week to discuss their proposal for adding skateboarding to the London Games.

The IOC does not recognize an international skateboarding federation, so the sport would first need to be adopted as a discipline under the UCI umbrella. After that, the UCI could make a formal proposal to the IOC for its inclusion in the Olympics.

The proposed venue for skateboarding in London is the velodrome in the Olympic Park.

"We are doing our best to introduce skateboarding for 2012," UCI sports director Olivier Quejuiner told the London Evening Standard. "We have a clear strategy ... The venue could be wonderful. All we need now is the green light from the IOC. Technically, logistically and in terms of cost, it would not be a problem to stage the event in 2012."

Twenty-six sports are on the London Olympic program. While it is too late to add any sports, new disciplines can still be brought in.

The X Games feature skateboarding "vert," "street" and "big air" events.