Notes From Xi'an 西安随感

The Communist Party’s New Politburo Standing Committee, Headed by Xí Jìnpíng (Nov. 15th 2012)

From Xinhua: ‘General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Xi Jinping (C) and the other newly-elected members of the Standing Committee of the 18th CPC Central Committee Political Bureau Li Keqiang (3rd R), Zhang Dejiang (3rd L), Yu Zhengsheng (2nd R), Liu Yunshan (2nd L), Wang Qishan (1st R), Zhang Gaoli (1st L) meet with journalists at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 15, 2012.’

This piece in Time Magazine, ’Meet the Men Who Will Rule China‘, briefly introduces the 7 members of the new Politburo Standing Committee (click the names above to go to them), while this link offers a video of Xí Jìnpíng’s acceptance speech (18 mins –  includes an English translation). There are a few extended profiles of Xí in the previous Note below, but non of Lǐ Kèqiáng, so here is one from The Washington Post.

I just saw this quote from Cheng Li, in Tania Branigan’s recent Guardian piece, which made me smile: ‘”What’s very important is the capacity to be on the right side of history,” said Cheng Li of the Brookings Institution in Washington. “He [Xí Jìnpíng] himself probably does not know what he will do.”‘ There is also this brief but optimistic video interview with Cheng about the hopes for Xí’s leadership, from the Brookings Institution.

Bill Bishop, in his Nov. 16th daily China digest, wisely noted:

“Watching Xi’s remarks I was struck by his three references to “中华民族伟大复兴” (translated as “great renewal of the Chinese nation” or “great Chinese renaissance”) and his omission of most of the standard ideological benchmarks.

“中华民族伟大复兴” is not a new term and has historically been used by Deng Xiaoping and many others as the justification for reform. On November 15 Xinhua in 述评：循序渐进，中华民族复兴路线图清晰可见discussed Deng’s plan for the renewal and said that the roadmap for the “great renewal of the Chinese nation” is getting clearer.

Xi’s repeated mention of this goal may be another sign that will see a more nationalist China during his rein. The Party knows it needs more than “Scientific Development”, “The Three Represents”, “Marxism”, “Mao Zedong Thought” or “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” to justify its rule.

And that is why I think we will see attempts at reforms, though nothing like the political reforms Westerners and liberal Chinese hope for. The great renewal of the Chinese nation will not happen without significant changes to the economy, and a real crackdown on corruption (calling Wang Qishan…) Some will argue that it will also not happen without wholesale political reform, but Xi Jinping and the new leadership are unlikely to agree.

Expect Xi Jinping to be a reformer, but possibly a hardline nationalist one. Be careful what we wish for?”

*Bill also spotted this great set of Xi family photos over at caijing.com’s photographic section.

Elections, like New Years, don’t immediately usher in significant change but they do offer a nice simple way to re-package our perspectives and look at things anew. With Xí up top instead of Hu, and with his more affable but stringent character, as well as his closer ties with the (expanding) military, it may be a more interesting time to keep an eye on China’s evolving political landscape, both here in China and abroad. (Also see this Nov. 16th Sinca podcast, titled: ‘The State of the [Chinese] Navy’. Kaiser Kuo chats with Taylor Fravel, who is Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT and an expert on Chinese foreign policy, with particular knowledge of China’s naval development.)

With all this in mind, here is a link to an article that a friend of mine sent me last night entitled ‘War Making and State Making as Organized Crime‘, written in 1985 by Charles Tilly (the pdf automatically downloads from the link). I include it as a matter of general perspective rather than one of critique. We shall see what a Xí Jìnpíng and Lǐ Kèqiáng future holds.

I was actually reading the following article when I saw the announcement about the makeup of the new Standing Committee, as it has some relevance to this new China context, particularly from a European laowai perspective, I thought I would add it here too - ‘Austerity is Here to Stay, and We’d Better Get Used to It‘. Just to finish here is something a little different – a heads up from a German péngyou: ‘The Wealth of the Commons‘.

While I may not be making much time to write any Notes From Xi’an at the moment, the world does still seem to be turning. And one aspect of this ongoing rotation is the leadership transition going on right now at the top of China’s Communist Party. So, for my part, I thought I would just re-post a couple of relevant Notes I wrote earlier in the year, which took a look at that transition. For ongoing and up-to-date insight do not forget to check out Bill Bishop’s daily updates. It is also well worth taking a look at this rare interview with Xí Jìnpíng, recorded in 2000 but translated and published by the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) in October this year.

As an extra aside, I have just seen that Richard over at The Peking Duck has highlighted an interesting review, by Ian Johnson, of the newly translated English version of Yang Jisheng’s ‘Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962‘, that I was just reading in The New York Review of Books at the weekend. It is maybe worth checking out Richard’s post, Ian Johnson’s review and the book itself. There is also this piece in The Nation by Samuel Moyn, titled: ‘Totalitarianism, Famine and Us‘.

i. Understanding “China’s Leadership Transition” and Well, Just Simply “Understanding China – Or Not”

cartoon from es.toonpool.com

While I am still in a post-nuptial state of flux, or rather more disconcertingly a post-matrimonial photo-shoot state of mind, and as my next atom-splitting Note is still only in the gestation stage I am going to have to follow the lead of prolific blogger David Wolf at Silicon Hutong. I will do what I rarely do [update: then at least!] and that is simply post an extract from another blogger (or two). I will, however, throw in the odd comment for good measure or at least for my own small sense of ownership.

I agree with David’s appraisal that Patrick Chovanec’s Primer on China’s Leadership Transition is well “worth reading and absorbing”. For those of us uneducated about all things Chinese, or more specifically uneducated in things Chinese government, this article is a godsend. [Update 11/2012: also see this report by Susan Lawrence and Michael Martin produced for the US Congress, titled: 'Understanding China's Political System']

I will, however, go a step further and throw in a second extract from another great blogger, Sam Crane, whose perspective on China comes from a slightly different academic domain to Patrick’s Business, Economics and Management perspective. Creator of The Useless Tree, Sam is a professor of political science who focuses on ancient Chinese thought, and who approaches the issues covered on his blog from that multi-faceted but concentrated perspective. He wrote a piece last week, titled Understanding China – Or Not, in response to Vice-premier Wang Qishan’s recent emotive comments that Americans are a simple people who don’t understand China.

…continue reading the rest of the original Note

ii. Xí Jìnpíng (习近平): On His Way But Still Keeping Quiet – A Couple Of Profiles

As I am at present stuck in that no-man’s land between British time and Chinese time (which means waking with intent at 3am) and as Xí Jìnpíng – China’s President elect –  is at this same moment quietly crossing America, I thought I would simply note down extracts from, and links to, a couple of profiles of Xí that I have just been reading. Going on the basis that they didn’t have the desired affect of sending me to sleep, they may be worth passing on. It does seem, though, that not a great deal is known of the man who will, more than likely, succeed Hú Jǐntāo as Party head later this year and as President of China in March 2013, let alone what he might actually do when in office.

The visit has highlighted the fact that both parties – the Americans and Chinese – are in election mode, although with differing strategies. Vice President Biden has taken the opportunity to publically air a few American grievances vis-à-vis China’s control of its currency (link), its various trade irregularities (link) and its role within the UN, most recently in relation to Syria (link). Xí Jìnpíng seems to have adopted the “let’s not rock the boat” school of diplomacy, which is as much to do with his own election – not yet in the bag – than any significant representation of his leadership style or his views on China’s relationship with America. See this piece in the New York Times.

The Guardian: Profile – Xi Jinping by Tania Branigan – ‘His name is becoming more familiar but his face is still unknown to most and his opinions and intentions are an enigma. Xi Jinping’s visit to the US this week is unlikely to answer the west’s most important questions. But this is a getting-to-know-you trip for China’s heir apparent, who is expected to take the helm of the world’s second largest economy and fastest rising power from late this year. The Chinese vice-president’s Valentine’s Day meeting with Barack Obama is notable – as are his plans to catch a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game and to return to Muscatine, the tiny Iowa town he visited in 1985 as head of an animal feed delegation. His activities suggest he is shaping an image very different from that of the current Chinese president, Hu Jintao. While Hu is determinedly anonymous, Xi is “a big personality”, according to those who have met him.’ + a more recent profile (Nov’ 2012) from Tania Branigan here.

The Washington Post: Profile – Xi Jinping by Andrew Higgins – ‘After years of persecution by a Communist Party he helped bring to power, Xi Zhongxun was hauled from solitary confinement and taken to see his family. The purged revolutionary could barely recognize his own offspring and recalled a melancholy Tang Dynasty poem: “My children do not know me. They smile and say: ‘Stranger, where do you come from?’ ” More than three decades later, his son is set to become China’s next leader. Just months from his near-certain elevation to the country’s most powerful post — general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party — 58-year-old Xi Jinping arrived in Washington on Monday for a visit that U.S. officials hope will clarify the direction of the world’s fastest-rising economic and military power. Probing where Xi might be going, however, involves answering a question that, back home in China, is largely taboo: Where exactly is the leader-in-waiting coming from?’…continue reading + this recent piece (Nov’ 2012) from the Washington Post on China’s next Premier Lǐ Kèqiáng

Tea Leaf Nation.com: Netizens On Xi Jinping – The Inscrutable Heir Apparent by Rachel – ‘The Chimerica couple is serious about romance. As President Obama gears up to teach Vice President Xi Jinping some Potomac two-step on Valentine’s Day, netizens on China’s microblogs are voicing their own hopes for their Heir Apparent. No one is questioning the succession chances of Xi aside from few grumblings of “who elected him?” A widely circulated speculation on the reason behind the clampdown on Cantonese broadcasting is that his future title “Party General Secretary Xi” (习总书记) sounds like “Secretary Bastard” in Cantonese (for those who speak mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation of ‘Xi’ in proper Cantonese resembles ‘Za’). Xi, a “princeling” whose father was a high level official in Mao and Deng’s days, has not really shown his colors on the key question of political reform and whether the country should turn “left” or “right.”’…continue reading + this from them.

And then there was this [another 3am moment] :

The New York Times: Why China’s Political Model Is Superior from Eric X. Li - ‘This week the Obama administration is playing host to Xi Jinping, China’s vice president and heir apparent. The world’s most powerful electoral democracy and its largest one-party state are meeting at a time of political transition for both. Many have characterized the competition between these two giants as a clash between democracy and authoritarianism. But this is false. America and China view their political systems in fundamentally different ways: whereas America sees democratic government as an end in itself, China sees its current form of government, or any political system for that matter, merely as a means to achieving larger national ends. In the history of human governance, spanning thousands of years, there have been two major experiments in democracy. The first was Athens, which lasted a century and a half; the second is the modern West.’ …continue reading

Mark Kitto wrote a challenging piece in Prospect Magazine recently that highlighted a few realities about life in China today. Not least was the issue bound up in the title of his article: “You’ll Never Be Chinese”.

Now, Mark, as he explains, was never trying to don the cap and gown, or learn to spit in places that really should never be spat in. What he did want to do, however, was build and live a life in China with his family, and live it “normally”. This seemed to mean to him a life where wealth and status, and the “Great China” narrative didn’t infect all forms of social interaction, all business opportunities, and all educational institutions. It also meant a life lived with the laws of the land applying equally to all, no matter their background.

Mark’s discussion does not, though, simply orientate around his own personal experiences but attempts to outline a few worries he has about Chinese society generally. His views are particularly noteworthy given that his love affair with China – nearly 25 years in the making – has, in his own words, now died. You can read his article to get a much clearer and more nuanced sense of his experiences and where he is coming from.

Mark Kitto

I will briefly note a couple of my own thoughts on Mark’s basic premise: that one will never be Chinese.

First, it seems to me that the sooner one acknowledges to oneself this reality the better. No matter how long we foreigners stay in China, we will always be perceived – by a majority – as coming from outside and treated as a visitor. If we can assimilate this fact it into an “it is what it is” worldview, then we should be able to go on with a “normal” life, quite happily. In this way, we will be more equipped to bear the ubiquitous reminders of the fact that we are “not from around here” without high levels of surprise or frustration, disappointment or anger.

I remember quite early on in my time in Xi’an becoming very conscious of having this feeling: that no matter how long I lived here, how much I did here, or how well I spoke Chinese, I would always be the alien, the “not from around here” guy, even if I felt happily at home. And, that feeling hasn’t changed. It may turn out that one day I have a more subtle appreciation of ancient Chinese philosophy than some, use chopsticks with the dexterity and precision that many can only dream of, and I may even be able to speak Putonghua better than a fair few; but it won’t matter. I will always be to many the “where do you come from, how long have you lived here, wow, you can use kuaizi” guy, who can be easily disparaged with a quick laowai quip.

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Bill Bishop

The Useless Tree

Pop Up Chinese

Shanghai Street Stories

China Dialogue

They all just keep producing the goods.

I don’t really follow the news cycle and I haven’t kept up to twitter-speed with all the developing aspects of the Chen Guangcheng case, although, I am of course aware it is going on, and that it will continue to go on for years to come, whatever happens in the next few days and weeks.

It does seem to me that in some ways during stories like this the modern media world of major corporations, blogs and social media show their worst side, even if we like to think they show their best. The desire to have the next part of the story – whatever the story is – every few minutes or seconds, leaves everyone chasing each other’s tails for that next instalment, to stay in the loop, or just to stay on the edge of their seat. Until, the story actually reaches a point where we can begin to take stock and see where it sits in a wider context. Or, when another story just simply comes along to wipe it off the front pages, and the cycle goes again.

What I will try and do, though, is take the excellent Evan Osnos, from The New Yorker, as a lead, when he states that:

“[I]t’s time to learn more about how he [Chen Guangcheng] got there, and where he goes next.”

So, as I do not know a great deal about Chen, over and above the basic facts of the case, that is what I shall do.

I will write a comprehensive Note in due course, once I have gathered more information about Chen’s tragic yet inspiring life to date, but for now I will include an extract and link to an interesting piece over at The New York Review of Books. Where the author, Perry Link, compares Chen’s contemporary case with that of Fang Lizhi in 1989:

“I do not know what US officials are saying to Chen at the moment, but I can report first hand what they said in a strikingly similar case twenty-three years ago, when the physicists and human rights advocates Fang Lizhi and Li Shuxian took refuge at the US embassy following the Tiananmen Square massacre.”

As I am contemplating re-focusing my mind somewhat by beginning a Masters programme, it seems as good a time as any to go back to basics and start to pay a little more attention to some of the more concerning aspects of our societies. And, I do not mean just in China. I mean parts of a society, or even whole societies, where there exists a distinct inability to allow full lives and more equal communities to flourish, but where there is a desperate desire for wealth and power (on a multitude of levels).

When it comes to traveling, and when you have traveled a reasonable amount, there is something to be said for first impressions of places. They are often the ones that stay with you and they do, quite often, get right to it in terms of getting a true sense of somewhere. So, with that excuse for making sweeping generalizations about Chongqing out the way, I will get on with offering my own take on the city.

The first thing that struck me when arriving in Chongqing was how it reminded me of Kolkata in Northern India, a city I passed through on my way to China. I had reached Kolkata by train before taking a rusted ferry across the murky waters of the Hooghly River; I still remember, as we edged across the silty current, beginning to make out the buildings on the opposite bank through the fog. I also recall the air and the vista full of the distress and poverty that Kolkata has become famous for around the world. Here, in Chongqing, we got off a train, got into a taxi and traversed the Jialing River by road bridge, the same kind of murky river waters below us and the incomprehensible growth of tower blocks rising before us. They climbed from the river’s edge all the way up the sub-tropical hillsides that make up this Chongqing basin, and spread along the river as far as we could see.

I had heard about aspects of Chongqing before coming here and it was immediately apparent that those pre-conceived ideas were not far from the mark. Chongqing is an epic city, an atmospheric metropolis, with hints of South-East Asian islands poking out from in between the realities of any other Chinese mega city. But, here it is on a scale that actually feels exciting. It suddenly seemed so suited to Bo Xilai’s governing style that had become so famous in these parts. It was the perfect setting – with Chongqing’s sub-tropical humidity and poisonous pollution hanging in the air – for the subsequent scandal involving him, his wife, his chief of police and an English businessman. It suddenly felt like: “Only in Chongqing.”

It was not, however, just the polluted urban riverscape that took my mind so clearly back to the streets of Kolkata; it was also the luan-ness and the very obvious everyman nature of Chongqing. Luan in Chinese means something close to chaotic and disordered, carrying with it a sense of indiscriminateness and arbitrariness, and that is how this city can feel. Chongqing is a fantastical concoction of 30 (+)-storey buildings standing on once-lush green plots of land that are only just wide enough for a building’s foundations. Hundreds of apartment buildings, offices and hotels rise at every level around you; the footings of one building planted beside the 10th floor of another, the roof of one shabby apartment block just a short jump, if you are that way inclined, from the entrance to another. In between all this construction are steep ancient stairways and ramshackle street-level, tarpaulin-draped hutted communities, which weave old and new lives together. While, bound up in all this – and in the humidity-ridden, rain-soaked and river-induced moldy dampness that grows upon all the walls and street – is the other noticeable aspect of Chongqing that reminded me of Kolkata, and that is the poverty.

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I wrote a Note in December that pointed the way towards the some time concoction of slightly more random Notes. This is one such time. Picture wise, I will begin with Jinghao Lu’s Blogspot site, China – Africa Relations In My Eyes: Perspective From A Chinese (don’t forget blogspot sites still need a proxy or vpn in China). Jing has translated an article that was first published by NetEase (网易) in 2011, and which included an interesting set of Chinese in Africa centred images. The article, along with Jing’s own contributions, discusses the situation for Chinese workers in Africa today. It also looks at the impact of this wave of immigration on the African communities themselves; particularly, the effect on employment opportunities and the local people’s feelings towards their new neighbours.

The second image incorporates a link to a classic short video from Wimp.com. It comes unambiguously titled: ‘China, China‘. It is a short film that amusingly symbolizes the ubiquity of China in our lives today. It is worth a couple of minutes watching time. It certainly brought a smile to my face. There is also a link here to the You Tube version of the video, c/o Ryan Mclaughlin over at The Hao Hao Report, as the wimp.com one can load quite slowly.

The third image, of a Tibetan nun, comes from Sascha Matuszak’s thought evoking piece: ‘Tibet: A World Apart’, over at Roger Presents. It is a longish piece – so be prepared – but worth the read.  Sascha offers a thoughtful and somewhat prescient conclusion. That is certainly not to say, however, – as Sascha well knows – that such foresight, realism, hope, or whatever it is, will actually come to pass. A couple of points that were made in the comments section stimulated some interesting discussion and offered further food for thought.

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As I am at present stuck in that no-man’s land between British time and Chinese time – which means waking with intent at 3am – and as Xí Jìnpíng – China’s President elect – is at this same moment quietly crossing America, I thought I would simply note down extracts from, and links to, a couple of profiles of Xí that I have just been reading. Going on the basis that they didn’t have the desired affect of sending me to sleep, they may be worth passing on. It does seem, though, that not a great deal is known of the man who will, more than likely, succeed Hú Jǐntāo as Party head later this year and as President of China in March 2013, let alone what he might actually do when in office.

The visit has highlighted the fact that both parties – the Americans and Chinese – are in election mode, although with differing strategies. Vice President Biden has taken the opportunity to publically air a few American grievances vis-à-vis China’s control of its currency (link), its various trade irregularities (link) and its role within the UN, most recently in relation to Syria (link). Xí Jìnpíng seems to have adopted the “let’s not rock the boat” school of diplomacy, which is as much to do with his own election – not yet in the bag – than any significant representation of his leadership style or his views on China’s relationship with America. See this piece in the New York Times.

Patrick Chovanec’s Primer on China’s Leadership Transition, that I profiled in a Note back in May, is still worth a read – for those in China a VPN or Proxy is required for Patrick Chovanec’s site.

The Guardian: Profile – Xi Jinping by Tania Branigan – ‘His name is becoming more familiar but his face is still unknown to most and his opinions and intentions are an enigma. Xi Jinping’s visit to the US this week is unlikely to answer the west’s most important questions. But this is a getting-to-know-you trip for China’s heir apparent, who is expected to take the helm of the world’s second largest economy and fastest rising power from late this year. The Chinese vice-president’s Valentine’s Day meeting with Barack Obama is notable – as are his plans to catch a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game and to return to Muscatine, the tiny Iowa town he visited in 1985 as head of an animal feed delegation. His activities suggest he is shaping an image very different from that of the current Chinese president, Hu Jintao. While Hu is determinedly anonymous, Xi is “a big personality”, according to those who have met him.’ …continue reading

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