72 Hours
Posted by MyLaowai on Tuesday, March 15, 2011
A few years ago I was on the phone to a client, and he asked me what the time difference was between where he was and China. I replied: “Four hours and four hundred years behind you”.
But China is also 72 hours behind the rest of the world, because it always takes three days for any news at all to filter through the censors, if it ever does. It has always been thus.
And yet, within 72 minutes of Japan being rocked by a massive natural disaster, the news was on every television, in every public place, on buses, in subways, everywhere. Imagine my surprise.
My attention was drawn to this by groups of people, mostly young adults, standing around public propaganda television screens and cheering loudly. Imagine my not-surprise.
It is true that not all Chinese people are outwardly expressing joy at the tragic situation Japan is facing – I have spoken to a number of Chinese people who simply don’t care either way, and more who are actually quite upset. Well, they would be, of course, because their customers and/or suppliers are Japanese and they stand to lose a lot of business.
In case you are wondering whether China has offered to send any support or rescue teams, the answer according to ChinaDaily is a resounding YES! Mind you, if you read the small print you may notice the true answer is that an NGO team that happens to be based in China is going, and that the Party and People of the world’s second largest economy with the world’s largest cash reserves have refused point-blank to countenance any help at all.
Just to put things in perspective, Japan has been the single largest contributor to the success of China’s economy, giving hundreds of billions of dollars in the form of soft loans, development aid, direct investment, and so on. It is no exaggeration to say that most Chinese people would still be living in mud huts without the generous assistance given to them freely by Japan. In 2008, when western China was hit by a large earthquake, Japan was one of the very first nations to offer condolences, support, rescue teams, and humanitarian aid. No one in Japan was laughing or cheering.
And so, once again, we see why China and the Chinese people are not fit to play a role on the world stage. Kel surprise.
Wo Shi Laowai - Wo Pa Shui 
Nips Are Great said
Right.
This morning I turned on the local idiot box to watch the ‘news’.
THE broadcast of the morning, 8:30, on the’news/新闻’ channel, 13 I think.
Yes, and at the beginning there’s a pleasant piece of music playing (no doubt written and performed by foreigners) while the screen shows beautiful places that the CCP’s PLA has invaded and shitholes of Chinky-land with heavy-handed photoshopping.
Well, quelle surprise (the French is for your benefit Mr. Laowai) the first ‘news’ item was the on-going rescue efforts in Yunnan. In fact it’s probably a place that used to be Tibet but that part of the border and the changes since the invasion I’m a little unfamiliar with.
Yes, yes… Shown were grateful yellow runts standing around scoffing down rice gruel and instant noodles thanks to the glorious CCP and the wonderful PLA… blah blah blah. You know the story. The reporter there was probably happy as hell he’s on the spot in Yunnan and that he gets the lead story – topping Japan no less.
There were other stories.
A FULL NINE MINUTES PASSED before what was happening in Japan was mentioned. A full nine minutes. A sensible person would think that would be ‘lead story’ newsworthy. Big earthquake, explosions at nuclear facilities, etc… Oh… But I just said it. It’s not news. It’s propaganda. It’s the CCP’s message to the yellow runts to never feel sorry for the Nips, I mean noble Japanese people. Always hate them.
Now I have a question. The honourable host of this site writes:
“…Japan has been the single largest contributor to the success of China’s economy, giving hundreds of billions of dollars in the form of soft loans, development aid, direct investment, and so on.”
And I’m aware of this. But what I would like to know is the number. Exactly how much money have the Japanese people given to the terrible little shits here? Does anybody know?
MyLaowai said
‘soft’ Yen loans to China since 1979 were 3.3 trillion yen, unadjusted for inflation, up until FY2007. This represents 75% of ODA for the same period. It does not include FDI which is considerable.
In addition, 145.7 billion Yen, unadjusted for inflation, in grant aid has been given, as well as 144.6 billion Yen, unadjusted for inflation, in ‘technical cooperation’ (building of airports, roads, etc).
Japan has paid for the electrification of 5,200Km of railway lines, 60 large-scale berths for ships, Beijing’s China-Japan Friendship Hospital (treating 3,000 patients daily), has trained 15,000 personnel via the Japan International Cooperation Agency and 22,000 personnel via the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarships, and has sent more than 5,000 experts to China to help with various projects (all this as of FY2003).
Loan aid was given for the following projects:
Shanghai Pudong International Airport Construction Project (40.0 billion yen)
Beijing Capital Airport Terminal Area Expansion Project (30.0 billion yen)
Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport Expansion Project (6.3 billion yen)
Wuhan Tianhe Aerodrome Construction Project (6.3 billion yen)
Xi’an Xianyang International Airport Terminal Expansion Project (3.09 billion yen)
Beijing-Qinhuangdao Railway Expansion Project (87.0 billion yen)
Guiyang-Loudi Railway Construction Project (30.0 billion yen)
Chongqing Urban Railway Construction Project (27.1 billion yen)
Beijing Subway Construction Project (19.7 billion yen)
Datong-Qinhuangdao Railway Construction Project (18.4 billion yen)
Hangzhou-Quzhou Expressway Construction Project (30.0 billion yen)
Liangping-Changshou Highway Construction Project (24.0 billion yen)
Xinxiang-Zhengzhou Highway Construction Project (23.5 billion yen)
Guiyang-Xinzhai Highway Construction Project (15.0 billion yen)
Heilongjiang Heihe-Beian Road Construction Project (12.6 billion yen)
Qinhuangdao Port Expansion Project (67.4 billion yen)
Qingdao Port Expansion Project (59.7 billion yen)
Huanghua Port Construction Project (15.4 billion yen)
Shenzhen Dapeng Bay Yantian Port 1st Phase Construction Project (14.7 billion yen)
Dalian Port Dayao Bay 1st Phase Construction Project (6.7 billion yen)
Tianshengqiao Hydroelectric Power Project (118.0 billion yen)
Jiangxi Jiujiang Thermal Power Plant Construction Project (29.6 billion yen)
Wuqiangxi Dam Construction Project (25.2 billion yen)
Shanhe Thermal Power Plant Construction Project (24.6 billion yen)
Beijing Shisanling Pumped Storage Power Station Construction Project (13.0 billion yen)
Weihe Chemical Fertilizer Plant Construction Project (26.9 billion yen)
Inner Mongolia Chemical Fertilizer Construction Project (21.4 billion yen)
Jiujiang Chemical Fertilizer Plant Construction Project (21.4 billion yen)
Shanghai Baoshan Infrastructure Improvement Project (31.0 billion yen)
Environment Model City Project (Guiyang, Chongqing, Dalian) (30.7 billion yen)
Ningxia Afforestation and Vegetation Cover Project (8.0 billion yen)
Xiang River Basin Hunan Environment Improvement Project (3.1 billion yen)
Beijing Sewage Treatment Plant Construction Project (2.6 billion yen)
Inland Higher Education Project (88.8 billion yen)
There’s a lot more, but you get the point.
Nips Are Great said
Cheers.
QuirkyPlebeian said
Do I see a case of injured Japanese nationalism on the part of the great Nips?
QuirkyPlebeian said
Keep in mind Mylaowai, those money were loans not grants, and even those probably came with some form of strings attached. Loans means they must be paid back eventually.
70 or so years ago, the Japanese went to China and took that amount by force. China never asked Japan to pay war reparations.
Given the atrocities the Japanese army committed in China in WWII, I don’t think those loans and FDI are worth commending.
MyLaowai said
I completely disagree, QP. You are wrong in many ways with that, but I’ll let it slide for now.
However, since we are keeping things in mind, please do keep foremost in your thoughts that it was the fact of that war that allowed the Chinese Communist Party to illegally seize power, while the legally elected government was fighting the Japanese. Even Chairman Mao himself said so, when he personally thanked the Japanese PM for it.
That’s right: the CCP actually thanked Japan for that war. Not that many people inside China know that.
justrecently said
Don’t mind an occasional (or frequent) lack of civility if you enjoy this blog otherwise, Quirky. I haven’t looked at Japanese loans and development aid in the past few years, but as far as I know, Japan’s development aid to China differed from most or all other industrialized countries’ in that there were no strings attached (such as having to buy from or to use services from Japanese companies). All the same, Japanese companies were (and are) frequently successful in securing orders, but that was a matter of Chinese choice.
As for Japanese apologies, I seem to remember several from Japanese prime ministers. But most importantly, Japan has acted accordingly or impliedly – something that matters much more than words in East Asia. In fact, explicit apologies are quite unusual both in China, and Japan – in daily life as well as in politics.
I think a happier nation than China – especially given its size, economic success, and nuclear status – would begin to get past the war stories. As Jonathan Spence said in his Reith Lecture of 2008 – even if referring to the Opium wars, and not to the Japanese war there -:
“The issue I think is now no longer a real one in any important sense and to harp on it now is not something the Chinese have to do. It’s something they can do if they wish to keep an old pain alive.”
Most of current Chinese unhappiness, I believe, is home-made – think of the civil war, the “Great Leap Forward”, the “Cultural Revolution”, the denial of meaningful autonomy to national minorities – just to name a handful of domestic Chinese issues. Japan (and other foreign devils of choice) are probably rarely more than convenient projection screens. Old pains can make a lot of sense – especially as diversion tools for those who abuse their powers these days.
justrecently said
I’ve just come across this post at the Granite Studio, Quirky. I think it provides a nice overview.
That said, I believe that Chinese feelings towards Japan will to a great degree depend on how comfortable Chinese people will be with themselves, and their own country.
Nips Are Great said
Pleb,
Even if you write politely and make like you’re erudite the drivel you produce shows clearly you have a head-full-of-shit and know jack.
And I’m not a Nip.
I’m a White Devil.
And after being in chinky-land for so long I’m happy to use all racial slurs and apply them with equal amount of gusto. Well there’s one I’ll apply with more gusto than the rest. I’ll give you a hint, it rhymes with dinks.
Krauts, Gooks, Heebs, Rag-heads, Slopes, Slants, Jungle-Bunnies, Frogs, Spicks, Nips, Wagon Burners, Wops, and Chinks…
Try it. It’s very liberating
QuirkyPlebeian said
Don’t hate Nips. You will only get cancer that way. The heavy pollution there is already speeding that process.
Since it seems you can’t or doesn’t want to leave that place, why not try to make the best of it?
Slap2tickle said
Dear Pleb, you don’t need to worry about a little radiation leaking from a reactor in Japan to get cancer in this god for saken pitiful excuse for a country, you just have to eat and drink the food here to get any number of common or exotic diseases and medical conditions, the milk is full of protein, oh sorry I meant melamine, and the crops are full of pesticides as well as being irrigated with water from the heavily polluted rivers with a mix of heavy metals and industrial chemicals from heavy industry and pharmaceutical waste, if that doesn’t make you sterile then the forced sterilization in hospitals being systematically done all around the country (probably more so in the far west new frontier and the mountainous plateau of the Tibetan areas) certainly will. Cancer is the least of your worries.
Bill said
I’m going to reblog these stats….excellent post btw
newworldorder said
QuirkyPlebeian,
you hypocrite idiot. you are talking about what Japan did to Nobel super innocent baby poor China 70 years ago? Japan in 2011 is not Japan 1940 you blind idiot. But China in 2011 is the same as A.D. 1000. Take a close look. I dont’t want to waste more words on you, you stupid little human.
MyLaowai: You are right and we are proud of you. Please continue this blog as long as you can. You are the real voice of truth in the china expat blogosphere. Please believe it, me and others appreciate you very much! Don’t pay so much attention to stupid blind party asslickers and blind romantic china lovers who love to make theur dump here…
Chinese Netizen said
Weren’t the Japs also one of the very first countries to recognize the PRC diplomatically?
MyLaowai said
No. 1972 is when that happened. Mind you, that didn’t stop them from sending money and apologies galore prior to that date.
Sinosceptic said
Fucking (own)mindless retards. A large dose of rivers (yellow and yangzi simultaneously perhaps) bursting there banks would make them think again and then we could refuse to give them aid as we don’t want to interfere in their internal affairs.
Hans Dampf said
Japan = civilized
China = drunken monkeys with hookers
enough said
Chinese Netizen said
China = drunken monkeys with ugly hookers
Japan = drunken devils with cute hookers
Slap2tickle said
Salt anybody?
MyLaowai said
No, thanks mate. But only because I’m not a superstitious retard who thinks eating 5Kg of table salt is a cure for radiation poisoning.
But hey, Darwinism at work, right?
YiZhang said
Haha! stupid foreigners .salt is best for radiation. In China we know this .You naive foreigners not very advanced in science .ask in China teacher then you can learn that salt is best against the radiation from Japan !also CCTV the national televison of China said this . funny foreigners, you know nothing.
Slap2tickle said
@ YiZhang, then why are millions of Chinese flooding back to the supermarkets and stores to ask for refunds after realizing salt does nothing but make food taste a little nicer? Oh and if my memory serves me right, and correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t people boil vinegar and salt water to keep the virus away from them during the SARS? Mylaowai, as for Darwinism at work, I think it certainly could be, there are already unconfirmed reports that some people have overdosed on salt and subsequently died as a result.
Nips Are Great said
“there are already unconfirmed reports that some people have overdosed on salt and subsequently died as a result.”
Isn’t that perfect?
Get them out of the gene pool.
Darwinism at work.
YiZhang said
you are so stupid foreigner .i really not want talk with you .first your english is very bad . secondly you lie .in China we prove that the vinegar and salt is best for SARS and kill all SARS . Now China beat SARS as first in world you see!!! by the way: SARS come not from China, it comes from vietnam and thailand .All sickness in China come from abroad and we must make more hard rules to protect the Chinese people from dieseases .Also, the AIDS come from foreigners to China too.I think is best way to protect China from sickness by harder regulating Visa and foreigners and not let the bad foreigner blood to come to our pure country and chinese nation .also regarding to the lies from the foreigners .
Stranded Mariner said
The Chinese government actually said a few days after the quake and tsunami that ‘China would do what is necessary’.
I reckon they were referring to stealing Japanese oil and gas in the East China Sea.
MyLaowai said
So, no policy changes, then.
MsCheeky said
Come on MyLaoWai, you’re writing as YiZhang as well aren’t you, to inject a little satirical comic relief? Really, because nobody could be that dense. Or maybe I haven’t spent enough time in China yet?
It’s doubly funny if they’re not buying iodised salt.
MyLaowai said
You have my solemn word that I am not writing as YiZhang.
0112337 said
It’s another Laowai, enjoy the show.
0112337 said
By the way, I am back…
Do you miss me?
I missed you…
*kisses*
:)
Wang Lipu (王离谱) said
So-called MsCheeky so stupid and thinking Chinese is not Chinese! Such word hurt the feelings of the Chinese people! She is foreigner this is very clear, and don’t understand China! And not Chinese feelings! She never learn because read such bad websites!
Foreign countries really very dangrous, I know because I read so-called Ms Cheeky and see no foreigner understand China, because China is different and special and the oldest civilization of the world! Such word is insult against oldest civilization of the world!
Nips Are Great said
Yes, how much of the good Nip blood do you have in you Little Wang?
Your grandpa whored out your grandma during the good years when Japan ran a chunk of chinky-land. First time a man ever rang her bell. Again and again. ‘Ring my bell Mr. Nip, bring your friends too. No Chinese anymore, they’re so weak. I likee your Nippy jiji very muchee.’ Undoubtedly the best time of her life.
Your grandpa was pretty happy too, making a bit of coin. That was until he found out his ‘wife’ wouldn’t ride him anymore. ‘You too weak! You makee happy happy by self.’
Do us all a favour Little Wang. Eat more salt. You’ll need about 5kg.s. Scarf it down with your local river water.
Wang Lipu (王离谱) said
This commenter (Wang Lipu (王离谱)) not worry about some Japanese blood inside. Worry be when there be “nips are great” blood inside. “nips” dont no his mama who runs away when seen after berth. Is probably Jiang Qing, because same characteristic. Piss of turtleshit.
Nips Are Great said
Yes, my daddy put it into Jiang Qing.
And all the Song sisters too.
That was after he put it into the remnants of Puyi’s harem.
And it only cost him a nickel a pop.
And he told me the girls all said the same thing.
‘I likee your jiji very muchee.’
Nips Are Great said
Enjoy.
I couldn’t help bust a gut laughing.
The German heavy metal at the end is a bonus.
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjU0NDI3OTk2.html
MyLaowai said
Darwinism at work. I’m considering a new competition, called “Find A New Slogan For China’s Road Safety Campaign”. My submissions:
Chinese Drivers – No Survivors
China – 1.5 Billion People, No Good Drivers
Did anyone notice that in every case, within a second of justice being righteously done, there was an immediate response from a random tofu-seller, rushing forward to the scene to get set up for the inevitable crowds that were about to form?
Hahahaha, nice find Nips.
Japanese Money in China- Reblogging a Comment « Understanding China, One Blog at a Time said
[…] from here ‘soft’ Yen loans to China since 1979 were 3.3 trillion yen, unadjusted for inflation, up until FY2007. This represents 75% of ODA for the same period. It does not include FDI which is considerable. […]
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