the black China hand

As the death toll in Chinas Sichuan province climbs, the nation’s bloggers have joined together in the search for a scapegoat. Broadband connections across the country are pulsing with rumours of “earthquake omens” involving toads or butterflies - all allegedly ignored by the authorities. Some even talk of a vast pre-Olympic conspiracy.

Although, I’ve blogged about this before, the devastating Sichuan earthquake has unfortunately reminded me of the subject again. One of the trends that have surfaced so far in China’s new year of trouble has been the amazing use and integration of technology to spur, sustain, oppose or illuminate reaction and spin on the current events of the day. I was in China in 1989, another year of trouble, but the limited use, access to and understanding of technology was more a force (used aptly by the government) to control and hinder reaction. Nowadays, technology in China, for better or worse, has permeated almost every level of society. For many average citizens and expats, this is a blessed development. But for others, the government in particular, the jury is still out. Still, one point is for certain, tech is here to stay in China. For the government that will mean more energy spent on controlling and using it to their advantage. For the rebel, the blogger, the journalist, the angry citizen, the whistle-blower and others, this will mean being more creative in how they deploy tech to circumvent the coming government restrictions.

China bloggers cook up quake conspiracies

Not really sure how I came upon this blog but I’m glad I did. It describes itself as, “a regular series of informal commentaries published by the China Policy Institute to stimulate discussion on critical policy issues facing China in its rapid development.” It looks like another interesting blog I’ll happily make a part of my daily China briefings.

China Policy Blog

I stumbled onto this next blog while I was updating my blogroll. Mary Nazarro, back in the day, started a blog dedicated to Chinese sports. In January, she was “invited to blog on the Beijing Olympics for Sports Illustrated’s FanNation site.” The results of that invitation is a great sports blog and an informative Beijing Olympics blog in particular.

Beijing Olympics Blog

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from a Chinese man who sought asylum in the United States because his wife was forced to have an abortion under Chinas controversial family planning policy.

An interesting case. I’m reading the 11th Circuit decision now to see what the specifics were. More on this shortly.

Court turns down Chinese mans asylum claim

And now, a search for 家乐福 Carrefour in Google.cn does not show any of the 6 million results it shows in Google.com – instead, Google China returns a nearly blank page with a single message that if an automatic translation is to be believed roughly means, “You cannot access information of this search result, please return to google.cn for other information.” While censorship of selected domains is common for Google China, keyword-based censorship is more rarely to be seen. Plus, this specific filter covers not only web search but other services, like news or video search, as well.

If foreign firms want to “survive’ in China, they need to understand the not so subtle Chinese principle of: This is how we do it and you better get with the program cuz the boyz in the hood are always hard, you come talkin’ that trash we’ll pull your card. (Thanks to BoyCaught for the pointer)

Google China Self-Censors Carrefour

While I love the law and find Chinese law extremely interesting, I cant imagine using time away from the office to blog about legal issues. I deal with law enough in the office, I dont want to take it home with me. Therefore, while this blog touches on legal and political issues occasionally, the focus is still on my favorite extracurricular activities.

Another on point (notice the all the legal lexicon) post from AMLF. And I completely agree. Although, I’m a lawyer and I’m interested in Chinese law (especially Chinese Criminal Law) … I would like to think I’m more interested in all things Chinese since my interest started way before I became a lawyer… and so in my blog I try to touch on all those interesting things. That’s what I found so appealing about the diversity of China blogs from by lawyers and/or people that went to or are in law school. A hundred flowers are truly blooming.

活雷锋 - Lawyers Writing About China

I found out an interesting fact today. The blogger behind A Modern Lei Feng is a lawyer. I would never have guessed it.¹ By my count, that makes four China blogs on my blogroll authored by lawyers…In addition to AMLF there are the obvious China Law Blog; China Law Prof Blog; Chinese Law and Politics and of course there’s yours truly (although with a name like the black China hand, one also wouldn’t think I was a lawyer). Anyway, that got me thinking … how many China blogs out there are penned by lawyers (and more specifically why are we blogging)? Ten minutes of searching and I’ve found the following:

Update:

There is quite a diversity of styles and subjects on all these sites and it would be interesting to build a list of them all. So if anyone knows or runs into any other China blogs authored by lawyers please send me the link.

1. …and I absolutely agree with his observation on interning at a Chinese law firm. I interned at East Associates in Beijing during the summer after 1L. It was interesting but absolutely useless in helping secure legal work in China after graduation. [↩]

A Chinese cargo ship believed to be carrying 77 tonnes of small arms, including more than 3m rounds of ammunition, AK47 assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, has docked in the South African port of Durban for transportation of the weapons to Zimbabwe, the South African government confirmed yesterday … the Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change that Chinese soldiers had been seen in the country.

It is clear that China has “arrived.” It was thought … I had thought … that perhaps they’re arrival would bring a different dynamic … something different then those that had preceded her (read: US, England, France, Russia, etc.). It seems now, though that it’ll be just more of the same … a superpower looking to exploit others (away from its borders) for its own benefit.

Chinese ship carries arms cargo to Mugabe regime

“It is no shame for big cities to have such areas. On the contrary, Shenzhen and other cities should take initiatives to build cheap residential areas for low-income residents including migrant workers who want to stay in the cities where they work,” said Tsinghua University Professor Qin Hui. (b/w of China Digital Times

I’ve heard (and suffered) some off the wall comments in my day in China (like the Chinese professor that once asked to see that gun that he thought all African Americans had) but this is telling at how it is directed at the urban, migrant poor. A section of society that even top China boss Hu Jintao has singled out as being in need of protection.

Tsinghua Professor: Big Chinese Cities Need Slums For Migrant Workers

He has never thrown a no-hitter, like Clay Buchholz, or had a shutdown performance in the World Series, like Josh Beckett. He never captured the imaginations of Yankees fans as an electrifying rookie, like Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain. He is not as accomplished as Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte or Curt Schilling, But there is no pitcher in the majors with as many victories as Chien-Ming Wang since the start of the 2006 season. He is efficient and dependable for the Yankees, a quiet, stoic and steady presence in their rivalry with the Boston Red Sox.

Wang Quiets the Red Sox With His Stoic Way

The British Broadcasting Corp. reported Wednesday that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.

Can this be the first of many a dominoes to fall? And if it’s true … the fuse has been lit. The question remaining will be what fallout will the explosion create?

ESPN-Report: Brown will not attend opening ceremonies in Beijing

Flash Update: Gordon Brown today confirmed that he will not be attending the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony … Angela Merkel, German chancellor, will stay away from the opening ceremony in protest along with her counterparts in Poland and the Czech Republic. France’s human rights minister, Rama Yade, told Le Monde at the weekend the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, would boycott the opening ceremony unless China starts talks with the Dalai Lama and release political prisoners.

Brown will not attend Beijing opening ceremony