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Posts Tagged ‘ChinaDaily’

Latest: Typhoon Krosa

Posted by MyLaowai on Sunday, October 7, 2007

From that shining beacon of truth, Xinhua (faithfully reported by AP):

Powerful Typhoon Krosa made landfall in east China on Sunday afternoon, forcing the evacuation of more than one million people…

Krosa, the 16th typhoon this year, landed at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday near the borders of Zhejiang’s Cangnan County and Fujian’s Fuding City, packing winds of up to 126 km per hour, the Zhejiang Provincial Flood Prevention and Drought Relief Headquarters said…

Krosa is expected to trigger gale force winds, torrential rains and even landslides in some areas…

More than one million people have been evacuated […] while schools, airports, expressways and shipping services in some areas have been shut down. Meanwhile, vessels have been recalled to harbor.

The tourism authorities in Zhejiang have closed almost all scenic spots along the coast, and evacuated more than 500,000 holiday-makers who had flocked to the seaside resorts for the week-long National Day holiday ending on Sunday.

MyLaowai says: Utter Bollocks. Play a new record, Mister DeeJay, this one’s crap.

For the record, Mrs MyLaowai was in one of those scenic spots. In fact, at the time of writing she is on her way back from there. She says it was “a bit rainy”. No one was ‘evacuated’, schools have not been ‘shut down’ (because they were not open anyway – National Holiday, remember?), airports and expressways are all open for business as usual, and the ferries are still running. And I’ve just about had it with the Associated Press for having the audacity to repeat these lies over and over.

News in China? Give me a break.

UPDATE (late Sunday night): Ferries in the area have now been stopped by Government order, but although there is quite a lot of rain, there is nothing resembling a major storm or typhoon. Shanghai has just a light drizzle. Thank you for your attention, you may now return to your regular programming…

Posted in Environment, Lies & Damned Lies, Media | Tagged: , , | 5 Comments »

Missing Persons Alert! Where Is Wipha?

Posted by MyLaowai on Thursday, September 20, 2007

Typhoon Wipha, easily the most devastating storm to hit China in more than a decade, slammed into Shanghai in the early hours of Wednesday morning, bringing with it 200Kph winds and torrential rain, and leaving death and devastation in it’s wake. More than two million people were evacuated, the largest evacuation in sixty years, all flights were cancelled, and more than 700 homes destroyed.

At least, that’s what the State-run media would have us believe. Oh yes, and also those lazy bastards who claim to be journalists / reporters, and who work for the Western media, who seemed content to parrot every word of it verbatim, without once ever thinking of actually checking to see if any of it was actually true.

I, on the other hand, as a mere person who was actually there, saw nothing untoward. There was a slight drizzle, tending towards light rain at times, but clearing. There was a bit of a breeze, but although one of my outside pot plants got knocked over, it wasn’t enough to prevent me lighting a cigarette outside. Then again, perhaps I just spent my entire day in the eye of the storm (an eye which, conveniently, followed me around the city as I went about my business).

So, Where Was Wipha? And where now is the credibility of the fuckwit journo’s who were completely happy – yet again – to parrot something they’d been told by the Chinese Communist Party? It isn’t like this is the first time, indeed there would be very few days I don’t see the same stock copy reprinted for the benefit of readers of the New York Times, Washington Post, most of the English papers, and the worst of the worst – CNN and AP. Even the BBC does it at times (sorry Auntie, but you do). And the day that Fox ‘News’ ever reports a fact, factually, will be the day that I eat my cardboard baozi.

From typhoons to exports, Taiwan to Government statements, there are so many falsehoods, cover-ups, and outright blatant lies told by the people and Government of China, that one hardly knows where to start – and it is all reported faithfully by the lazy arse journo’s whom we entrust with our own information supply. Sure, there’re a few out there who know their trade, ask questions, actually listen to the answers, and then report it in a meaningful way, but when it comes to China I could count them all on the fingers of one hand. It’s worse still when those same reporters actually start to invent their own stories to support what they’ve been told to write coughCNNcough. There’s an easy test, of course – when Chinese are speaking, look closely at their mouths. If the lips move, then they are telling a lie.

Anyway, having got that off my chest, I’m just going to sit back and wait for the next terrible flood in which the same village is again washed away with tragic loss of life, the same 650,000 people lose their same homes, and the same soldiers race against time to build the same makeshift sandbag dike. Not that I’ve ever even heard of anyone who has ever actually seen any of it, but hey it’s a good story all the same, right AP?

Or you could simply get your news from people who are actually there. If it isn’t too much trouble.

Posted in Environment, Lies & Damned Lies, Media | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Quotations From Bastards

Posted by MyLaowai on Monday, September 3, 2007

From the Land That Time Forgot, these quotations…

“China is highly transparent in terms of military policies and security strategy, as reflected in its commitment to no-first-use of nuclear weapons… [but] Transparency will always be relative. The key point is mutual trust.”
– Peng Guangqian

Yeah, except that China has a stated first-use policy and is internationally known for having the least transparent set of military policies and budgets on earth.
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The number of cases involving foreign institutions and individuals conducting illegal surveying and mapping in China has been on the rise in recent years, according to the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM).

In the first six months of this year, local authorities have handled five cases and investigating five others in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Shanghai Municipality, and Jiangxi and Jiangsu provinces.

SBSM said most of these foreigners came into the country under the disguise of scientists, tourists, expeditionists, and archaeologists.

The results of these foreigners’ surveying and mapping belong to China, and must not be brought and transmitted abroad without official permission by Chinese authorities, according to the law.

Foreigners who have illegally surveyed, collected and published geographical information on China will be severely punished according to law.
– ChinaDaily

These cases involve innocent people entering positional data into their GPS handsets. Hell, it includes me, since I’ve entered waypoints into my GPS-enabled cellphone. Come and get me. .

“Organic farming is not a new thing in Chinese agriculture. We did it thousands of years ago and now we are just going back to the traditions with some modern technologies.”
– Guo Changjun

Yeah. Modern Technology. Like not shitting in the rice paddy and calling it ‘Organic Farming’.
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“China consistently spares no efforts to enforce its IPR legislation with great success acknowledged by the international community… It is regrettable for China to see the United States has chosen to request the establishment of a panel in spite of China’s efforts to settle this dispute through consultations.”
– Chinese WTO Delegation

Except that China rejected consultations under “relevant WTO regulations”.
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一人超生，全村结扎！
If one person has too many babies, the whole village will have their tubes tied!
“一胎环，二胎扎，三胎四胎杀杀杀！”
One pregnancy gets the ring. Two pregnancies gets your tubes tied. The third and fourth, kill kill kill!
– Family Planning Slogans

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“The reality of this country’s economic reforms is that the country, the race, is prospering. This must be extolled. It can only be extolled. There can’t be anyone who makes fun of it. People who do either have ulterior motives or they’re mentally challenged… As a Chinese director … as a Chinese actor, this point of view must be firmly entrenched.”
– Han Sanping, China Film Group Chairman

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An unidentified official with the [Zhejiang] provincial industry and commerce bureau said that a thorough inspection shall be carried out for imported food products.

He also warned people to be cautious of taking foreign nourishment and avoid blind faith in expansive [sic] products.
-ChinaDaily

Yeah. Better to stick to cardboard-filled buns, right?
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If we are serious about protecting Chinese culture, maybe we should begin by preventing our language from being Europeanized.
– Zou Hanru, ChinaDaily ‘opinion’ writer

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Foreign acquisitions of Chinese companies will be subject to stringent new checks intended to protect national economic security under a new law passed Thursday.

“As well as anti-monopoly checks stipulated by this law, foreign mergers with, or acquisitions of, domestic companies or foreign capital investing in domestic companies’ operations in other forms should go through national security checks according to relevant laws and regulations”
– From the new Anti-Monopoly Law

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Foreign investors are urged to pay more attention to environmental protection and energy conservation.

“China will strengthen restrictions on foreign investment in energy-intensive high polluting and low efficiency industries.”
– Vice-Minister of Commerce Wei Jianguo

Yeah, because that’s the exclusive traditional domain of Chinese companies.

Posted in Censorship, ChinaDaily, Environment, Food, Human Rights, Lies & Damned Lies, Propaganda, Rules of the Road | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Another Front for Political and Ideological Education

Posted by MyLaowai on Sunday, July 8, 2007

Oh dear, here we go (again)…

China’s Ministry of Education has banned university students from renting private accommodation during their studies, telling all students that they must share four to eight-person dormitories.

In a notice issued on Friday, the ministry instructed all universities to make the dormitories “another front for political and ideological education” in order to create a “good climate for the students’ growth”.

The ministry told the universities to strengthen the administration of dormitories, in what it says will ensure the safety of students and facilitate communication between them.

It also ruled that students sharing dormitories should be classmates with the aim of making it easier for teachers to monitor students’ lifestyles outside the classroom.

– Xinhua

Posted in Censorship, Human Rights | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

ChinaDaily Headline – 4th May 2007

Posted by MyLaowai on Saturday, May 5, 2007

From that bastion of historical fact, the same beacon of light that reported Atlantis had been discovered in Fuxian Lake near Kunming, comes this wee chortle:

Stone Age site yields evidence of advanced culture

Chinese archaeologists say they have uncovered strong evidence that Stone Age people in southern East Asia were at least as technologically advanced as their European cousins — challenging the long-standing theory of “two cultures” *. Excavations at the Dahe Stone Age site, in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, had revealed elaborate stone tools and instruments that rivaled those of the Mousterian culture that existed at that time in Europe, said Ji Xueping, chief archaeologist at the site.

  • Better known as the ‘Movius Line‘ theory, proposed in 1948

Yeah, except that the European sites are dated 70,000-32,000 BC and the Dahe site is dated 42,000-34,000 BC. Looks suspiciously like the Levalloisian and Mousterian-type tools were simply copied, rather than invented by Chinese Neanderthals.

Ye Gods! What’s the big deal, anyway?

Posted in ChinaDaily, Lies & Damned Lies | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

I Have A Foreigner Boss

Posted by MyLaowai on Friday, May 4, 2007

Whilst it would be untrue to say that anything surprises me any more, it is a fact that I am constantly awestruck by the constantly expressed xenophobia and hatred towards non-Han Chinese here. You can see it (and hear it) walking down the street, you can feel it in the air at times. One place you will see it day after day, is on the internet.

ChinaDaily (the Party mouthpiece) operates, in addition to their ‘news’, a forum. One section of the forum is in English. Now, it being a Party mouthpiece, you will of course understand that every single comment that appears has passed scrutiny by a team of moderators. Forget criticism of the Red Gods, it’ll never appear. Essentially, what you see passes muster and is approved of at high levels. It is, therefore, a good barometer of the current state of affairs in China.

Check out this thread. Some young girl has a new job with a foreign company, and is asking for advice on how to deal with a foreign boss. I reckon it’s a stupid question – do your job and work hard – but it ain’t nearly as bad as some of the replies:

my boss is a foreigner and he is not so well to get along with,nothing about the language

Don’t worry about the language barrier, your foreign boss should understand or he’ll just be an IDIOT.

Be sure of the scope of your work, not so that you would be calculating but so that you will not end up a slave labour in your company. I understand that some bosses like to exploit their staff.

Your boss should learn the Chinese culture …. if you are referring to working in China. If your boss, working in China, cannot adapt to the ways in the China and her people, then I think the company has sent the wrong guy to manage the company. He/She should be shipped back immediately home to handle domestic chores.

In the West, the quickest way for the employee to move up would be to sleep with the boss. Better yet, sleep with the boss and then sue the boss and the company for millions for sexual harassment. Quick settlement, early retirement.

American bosses are demanding and unreasonable. The excuse they often give for criticising others – they are from the “advanced” country and you are just a “developing” nation. I have heard those craps from American bosses, many times. One more thing, when it comes to axeing staff or retrenchment because the company is making losses (due to their poor financial management), the American bosses are merciless. They are quite well-known for that

American PRESIDENT exploiting an underaged INTERN sexually. He is writing books and still making his rounds to make speeches. That’s the kind ROTTEN FREE society you have. To protect NOT those vulnerable but those in POWER. Perhaps, it doesn’t matter a s-h-i-t to you yankies that Lebanon (also Iraqi) children and women are bombed and killed so long as the doer is your prodigal son, Israel. And you go round giving the BS about Human Rights, whose rights exactly?

my first job is aslo a foreigner boss. he is from uk, 25-year-old, not so tall. in my mind i feel all foreingers are tall and robust. when i meet him first time, what i saw hit me a heavy blow. my boss nearly has the same height with me, and he is thin. so i am not afraid of him. at first i am so happy. i think i get a perfect chance to make money and practice my oral english. but the guy is so smart that he gave me little money, and he even learn chinese from me!

Generally it’s not easy to get along well with a expatriate despite you can speak english very well.

And on it goes. Well, I’ve got advice for any Chinese wanting to work for a ‘foreigner boss’:

1. Do your fucking job. That’s what the company is paying you 2.5 times what any Chinese company pays you to do. So do.

2. Work, in this context, is a verb. It is something you do. It is not where you go to sleep from 2pm until 5pm.

3. When your employer asks you to do something and you don’t understand – say “I don’t understand”. It’s far better than saying “I know, I know, I know” when in fact you don’t know your arse from your elbow. When you eventually fuck up, giving the blank ‘I-don’t know-nothing-and-I-won’t-lose-my-face’ stare is not going to help much. Unless you want to see yet another laowai reduced to incoherency, in which case it helps plenty.

4. When you have a deadline, it means that you are expected to complete a task by that time, not begin it then.

5. Sorry to be picky, but get your mother to iron your shirt, and learn to brush your teeth. And roll down your shirt and trousers, for goodness sake!

6. You being able to chat on MSN and QQ is not the primary reason your company opened a branch in China. Quite possibly, they actually expect you to do something more productive. Like your actual job, for instance.

7. Sleeping with your boss may well be a job requirement in China, but in most cases your ‘foreigner boss’ has better things to do with his time. There are more than enough whores, slags, and ho’s for him on the street, without him having to deal with them in his business.

8. Contrary to 5,000 years of experience, 60% complete is not 100% complete.

9. Your boss doesn’t give a flying fuck whether ‘this is China’ or not. He wants you to do what you have been paid to do, not ‘negotiate’ the details with him.

10. When your contract says you are supposed to work from 9am to 5pm, then it means that 9am is the time that you should be at your place of employment. It is not the time that you get out of bed.

Honestly peeps, it ain’t rocket science. Why make it so hard?

It’s no wonder we drink.

Posted in Ask MyLaowai, ChinaDaily | Tagged: , | 8 Comments »

ChinaDaily Headline – 25th March 2007

Posted by MyLaowai on Sunday, April 29, 2007

This one is worth repeating:

Official: China will not affect world energy demand

Nairobi – China’s increasing energy demand will not affect world energy security, said visiting top Chinese political advisor Jia Qinglin on Tuesday.

China has all along relied on itself in meeting its energy need since it has abundant coal resources and great potential in oil and natural gas exploration and development, Jia said.

“Over 90 percent of China’s energy demand is met through domestic supply,” he said, adding that though China’s consumption of oil and gas is growing, its per capita consumption and per capita import are low.

China’s per capita import of oil and gas is 100 kg, while the world average is 400 kg, Jia said. China has strengthened energy cooperation with Africa in recent years, which has become a new focus in China-Africa business ties.

…

“Such cooperation is normal business practice on the basis of equality, mutual benefit and the rules of market economy. It is totally different from the plunder committed by colonialists in Africa,” Jia said.

I wonder if that 90% figure includes resources being plundered from the annexed territories of Tibet, East Turkestan, and Inner Mongolia, or whether it is to include the Spratly Islands, or the parts of the gas fields on the Japanese side of the sea border with China?

I’m just asking, ok?

Posted in Annexed Territories, ChinaDaily, Lies & Damned Lies, Propaganda | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

ChinaDaily Headlines – 24th March 2007

Posted by MyLaowai on Tuesday, April 24, 2007

China moves to clear up the Internet

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday launched a campaign to rid the country’s sprawling Internet of “unhealthy” content, state television reported.

“Development and administration of Internet culture must stick to the direction of socialist advanced culture, adhere to correct propaganda guidance,” said a summary of the meeting read on the news broadcast.

“Internet cultural units must conscientiously take on the responsibility of encouraging development of a system of core socialist values.”

In January, President Hu made a similar call to “purify” it, and there have been many such calls before.

“Consolidate the guiding status of Marxism in the ideological sphere,” the party meeting urged, calling for more Marxist education on the Internet.

China warns US piracy case will harm trade ties

China has made great strides in protecting patents and copyrights and a US complaints over commercial piracy would “seriously harm” cooperation, Vice Premier Wu Yi said on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the United States launched two cases at the WTO claiming that Beijing was not doing enough to punish illegal copiers of films and music and that Chinese restrictions on entertainment imports violated trade rules.

China denounced Washington’s complaint and, Wu, who heads the country’s economic dialogue with Washington, bluntly warned that the complaints would bruise bilateral trade ties.

“The United States Trade Representative, the USTR, has totally ignored the massive strides China has made,” Wu told an intellectual property forum in Beijing.

The US action “flies in the face of the agreement between the two country’s leaders to propose dialogue as a way of settling disputes,” Wu said, adding that never before had a WTO member simultaneously mounted two cases against another country.

“This will have an utterly negative impact and will inevitably badly damage bilateral intellectual property cooperation,” she said, also warning it would “harm” cooperation over market access issues.

‘West wrong to criticize IPR record’

A senior official Monday fought back at Western countries that seek to condemn China for violations of intellectual property rights, while ignoring the huge strides the country has made in strengthening IPR protection. [Action Plan on IPR Protection]

“It is not right for them to observe China while wearing blinkers,” Tian Lipu, commissioner of the State Intellectual Property Office said in an online interview with http://www.gov.cn in Beijing.

The government’s attitude toward intellectual property rights protection has always been resolute, and its achievements are obvious to all, he said.

Foreign smugglers eye underwater treasures

Foreign smugglers and antiques raiders are using sophisticated salvage equipment to steal China’s underwater treasures, an investigation by the Cultural Heritage Administration has found.

In China’s territorial sea, there are thousands of sunken ships carrying ancient treasures, mostly priceless porcelain.

Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, told China Daily that the illegal foreign salvage ships were often equipped with the most advanced technology, in contrast with rudimentary ships and equipment used by Chinese archaeologists and conservationists, who are trying to protect China’s underwater heritage.

Smuggler activities have been particularly heavy over the last two years.

The relics are traded on the international waters beyond China’s maritime boundaries before they are shipped to markets worldwide, many to the United States.

Besides underwater heritage artefacts, cultural items from ethnic minority groups, such as costumes and musical instruments, are also a favorite among international dealers and smugglers, Shan said.

The Chinese government has recovered a “great number” of cultural heritage items stolen from the country in the past few decades, he said without elaborating.

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A fairly typical day – China purifies the internet, China is a victim of US trade aggression, China is a victim of Western IPR aggression, and foreigners are stealing Chinese cultural assets.

Yawn. Try a new record fellas, this one’s worn out.

Posted in ChinaDaily, Lies & Damned Lies, Propaganda | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

China No Threat To Others

Posted by MyLaowai on Friday, April 20, 2007

China pursues a road of peaceful development and will not pose any threat to other countries in the world, said Cai Wu, minister of the Information Office of the State Council on Friday.

“China was not, is not and will not be a threat to other countries,” Cai told the Sino-Germany Media Forum in Berlin.
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At the risk of sounding somewhat like a Doubting Thomas…

Tibet, East Turkestan, Russia, India, South Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Taiwan may differ. And that’s just in the last 55 years. Add to that list the literally dozens of nations that had revolutionary groups who were armed with Chinese weapons, or who currently face organisations such as the PLA who now have state-of-the-art Chinese anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles…

Posted in ChinaDaily, Lies & Damned Lies | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Beijing Institutes Queuing Day

Posted by MyLaowai on Friday, April 20, 2007

The 11th of every month in Beijing is to be “voluntarily wait in line” day as the city attempts to eradicate queue-jumping before next year’s Olympics, a city official said on Wednesday.
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You’re kidding, right? Why change 5,000 years of Superior Chinese Culture?

Posted in ChinaDaily, Propaganda | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »