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China Reform Monitor
No. 685, February 18, 2008
American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC
Olympic propaganda;
China's unique Internet boom
Editors:
Ilan Berman and Jeff Smith
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January 23:
China may have hired an international public relations firm to boost its image
before the Beijing Olympics this summer, but the CPC will not be abandoning its
more time-honored tactics anytime soon. With China’s international image set to
take center stage, Chinese President Hu Jintao has implored a group of party
leaders to “perform well the task of outward propaganda.” Taking the lead in the
effort will be China’s Propaganda Department (or, as it is now named, Publicity
Department); a body outranking any government ministry or communications office,
with broad authority to “punish outlets, writers, filmmakers and journalists
that defy its guidelines,”
according to the Associated Press.
January 25:
When Britain’s Royal Yachting Association set up a weather station in China in
preparation for this summer’s Beijing Olympics, it drew a harsh reaction from an
unexpected source: China’s secret police.
London’s Guardian reports that the Association’s weather station at
Qindao, which tracks humidity, wind strength, and rainfall, was recently
“confiscated.” The machine had apparently been made illegal under the nation’s
updated “meteorological law” passed in 2007. “Foreign violators installed
illegal monitoring equipments under the auspices of pre-match preparation,” an
online government statement has maintained. But the UK insists that the station
is necessary, since Chinese official data is unreliable, and has pointed out
that only equipment from the UK, U.S., and Australia – coincidentally, three of
the world’s best sailing teams – has been seized.
January 27:
For years, China has been under intense pressure from Washington to allow its
undervalued currency, the yuan, to appreciate against the dollar. But now that
the U.S. Congress has finally gotten its wish, some Americans are recoiling at
the natural consequence of a weaker currency: a foreign spending spree on
American assets.
The Washington Post says China’s share of the incoming tide of
capital remains relatively small – $9.7 billion last year – but the 2007 total
was a shocking 146 times greater than that of the year before. The cheaper
dollar is not the only thing drawing Chinese investors, however; America
actually offers less expensive electricity and land than China’s booming cities.
Finally, buying U.S. firms and opening up production centers in America brings
Chinese firms closer to their most profligate customers and immunizes them from
any tariffs they might face from a protectionist Congress.
January 28:
Between 1964 and 1996, China conducted some 45 nuclear tests at a remote site in
Western China. Last year, the CPC decided the eight million veterans and family
members who took part in those tests deserved some extra benefits, doling out
more than $2 billion to those affected in 2007. Though the government has
remained tight-lipped about possible long-term adverse effects, foreign
journalists “have reported an increased incidence of cancers and other diseases
in people near the test site,”
reports the New York Times.
January 31:
China is on track to become the world’s most prolific user of the Internet in
just a few months time. But,
according to a report by the Economist, exactly how China has
embraced the Internet may prove more revealing than how fast.
With Beijing’s notorious censorship laws, China’s Internet culture has evolved
quite differently from its counterparts in the West. Most obviously, China’s
Internet caters to the young – 70 percent of users are under the age of 30 –
which means an enormous market for Internet gaming and social networking
directed at the hundreds of millions Chinese youth who lack siblings. And
although hard news is heavily restricted, gossip sites and sporting events have
proven big draws, while pirated film, TV shows, and music downloads reign
supreme. |
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Copyright
© 2008, American Foreign Policy Council. All rights reserved |
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