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September 2006

From FoxConn's one yuan to Ching Cheong's five years: about politics of reality

2006-09-02 - oiwan
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今天看到十年砍柴對富士康的評論, 說 "不想看到富士康案 '適合國情' 式的收場". 一種好像是皆大歡喜式的和解: 記者承認採訪不夠扎實, 但並非誹謗; 富士康會改善工人條件, 歡迎監督; 原有的新聞自由與媒體監察等議題被化解了, 廣大勞動者仍舊沉默.

From FoxConn's one yuan to Ching Cheong's five years: about politics of reality

2006-09-02 - oiwan
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Today i came across Ten Years Logging's comments on FoxConn, he said "I don't want to see the FoxConn case end up being 'appropriate for the China Context'". What he meant was a happy reconciliation for everyone: the reporters admit that they are not substantial enough in their fact finding, but the report is not libel; FoxConn claims that it is willing to improve working condition and monitor is welcomed. The original press freedom and media monitor issues will be desolved, but the workers are still silent.

Insufficient domestic demand in China

2006-09-03 - chong
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Despite incredibly high growth arate, China economy is always characterized by its insufficiency of domestic demand. In other words, the ordinary people do not want or are not able to consume as much as the producers expect. Where have the money gone? Some put money into their bank account. But most people's purchasing power is much weaker than economic development. The annual growth rate of income is only 6-7% but GDP increases at about 15% each year. It is estimated that the supply of consumer goods exceeds demand by 70%. Now the average Chinese people make only RMB 700 (less than US$100) each month. How could they afford the way of life of high consumption?

Millions people depose Bien

2006-09-05 - cityghost
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From early middle August, 2006, a former anti-KMT fascism protester ‘Shi-Ming-De（施明德）’ pronounced to have a sit-in protest against Taiwan president “Chen-Shui-Bien（陳水扁）’on 9 of September. He called for people who detested Chen’s scandal to donate 100nt dollars for the cost of the protest, and when the donation reached a hundreds of millions, it would imply that there were millions of people supporting the ‘Depose Bien Headquarter（倒扁總部）. The headquarter will mobilize the demonstration in the ‘Kai-Da-Ge-Lan avenue（凱達格蘭大道）’, which is a well known protesting place in front of the presidential office.

There is much more to it than it appears: The transformation of USFK

2006-09-05 - francis
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The debate on wartime operation command now happening in South Korea actually conceals more than it reveals. The fact that the debate is now taking place is itself a bit funny. Why? It means the sovereign state of the Republic of Korea has been so far lacking sovereign authority over its own army. It also means that there is still strong reluctance to have it back among some sections of the public, the so-called pro-US social forces. Who has that operation command? The US forces in Korea (USFK). Why? Because the US wanted it and South Korea believed it was better that way, until recently.

FoxConn, First Financial Daily and CCP

2006-09-07 - chong
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China studies scholars in western countries have been concerned with a question: What kind of society has been brought by open-door policy? The reconcilation between FoxConn and The First Financial Daily gives us some hints.

The world outside China has the impression that China's media is controlled by government. It is partially true. Strictly speaking, media in China is janus-faced. Sometimes they look like any media in western countries. Sometimes they seem go back to the old times. The incident of "Freezing Point" (Bingdian) is a recent example.

Stories about competing to be international universities

2006-09-08 - oiwan
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The western and eastern imaginations of being "international" are so different. At least in China and Hong Kong, to be international means to develop at the expense of history, culture and environment, which is so contradictory to international trends. And it is sad to see even universities, the institutes for knowledge production, are caught up in such developmentalist imaginations.

Peking University: international English standard and golf court

Land Expropriation Reform Makes "Land Enclosure" Worse

2006-09-10 - chong
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Author/Qin Hui

The land problem has become intensified after local tax reform. The central government has paid a lot of effort in constraining land "enclosure". In the year of 2004, it initiated the reform in land expropriation, the so-called "new land policy", "land revolution" and "The deadline of August 31", and it has enormously constrained the collusion between government and business sector and protected the national interest. The reform has changed the interest distribution between developer and government. The system of negotiated leasehold is replaced by open auction. Now it is less possible for developers to offer bribe to local officials to get land at low price. This policy reduces the loss of land revenue to national financial income.

The death of a sex worker in Taipei

2006-09-10 - sueyvonne
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Wearing black, holding the picture of Kuang, a group of sex workers, COSWAS (Collective of Sex Workers and supporters) members and other labour organizations staged a protest on August 23, in front of the Presidential Office to call for de-criminalization of sex workers and to call for president Chen, former mayor of Taipei City to be responsible for it.

Reporting on depose Bien campaign

2006-09-11 - oiwan
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Last night I discussed with cityghost until past midnight about his series of reports on the depose Bien campaign and worked until 1:30am. Yet, the two articles were still on hold.

It is difficult to write on the issue when the representation of event itself is very political. (In Hong Kong, most of the mainstream media are positive about the anti-Bien campaign.) The funny situation is that everyone wants to open up a non-partian movement, in the end, everyone is attacking each other for being partisan and our very analysis cannot help falling into the blue and green division.