China - Part 2

In our last issue, we took a look a look at the men who are currently leading China and now we are going to turn our attention to the problems facing China today. While the Chinese government would like to say that everything is on the up and up, the reality is something very different. The fact that in 2005 there were over 87,000 riots and anti government demonstrations in China (mostly in rural areas) should give an idea how bad things really are in China.

While China had hopped that 2008 would be the year China would show off how wonderful things are, it so far hasn't turned out that way.

First came the snow storms that struck China during the New Years Holiday. If you're one of the 150 - 200 million Chinese migrant workers (you read that right, and if you don't believe me, go to cnn.com) then New Years is the only holiday you get off, and its the only time that you get to go back to your home province to visit your family. The snow storms that struck China this year were the worst in over 50 years and stranded millions of people at railway and bus stations waiting to go home to see their friends and family. Never before had so many people been prevented from traveling because of bad weather. Meanwhile, the rest of the nation saw the worst power outages and utility interruptions since the Communist Party took over back in 1949. The damage from the storms were totaled at being over 7 billion dollars.

So what do you do when almost 20 percent of your population is stranded in transit stations, angry at how they're spending their one time off of the year? Well President Hu and his crew knew that even the image of doing something was better than doing nothing. Primer Wen was quickly dispatched to the hardest hit areas and even Hu himself toured other areas and made sure to be seen on tv trying to fix the situation. Eventually, the crisis faded away as people started trickling home (in case you're wondering if these stranded workers got any extra time off - well I looked around on the Internet and - scary to say - could not find an answer).

Then in March came the uprising in Tibet - the largest since the major uprising in 1989. There were many different reasons why it occurred, but the end was the same as in 1989, with government troops and state police cracking down on the demonstrators. Just like in the demonstrations in Burma last year, the demonstrations in Tibet started with Buddhist monks protesting - this time to remember the events of 1959, which was the last time Tibet erupted in a full scale rebellion (it also caused the Dali Lama to flee to India during the crackdown). When the original monks were arrested, their fellow monks came out in larger numbers asking for their release, and soon large number or ordinary Tibetans joined in also. Soon, the demonstrations spread throughout Tibet and other areas of China with large Tibetan populations (when China took over Tibet in 1950, it annexed whole sections of Tibet and incorporated them into existing provinces of China). Besides marching protesting Chinese rule, the Tibetans also rioted, attacking government buildings and neighborhoods where Han Chinese lived. To no one's surprise, President Hu (who was one of the leaders in the 1989 crackdown) sent in the army to end the riots, with the dead being estimated at over 100. The Tibetans had many grievances, from being second class citizens to the recent influx of Han Chinese immigrants to the continual suppression of Tibetan culture. Basically, the Tibetans don't want Tibet to turn into Xinjiang.

What is Xinjiang?

Never heard of Xinjiang? Well don't be surprised, few have heard of the single largest region of China, Xinjiang, which makes up China's northwest. Xinjiang makes up one sixth of China's land mass, and historically was inhabited by the Urghurs, a people who are related to the Turkic peoples of Central Asia. Just like their cousins in the Central Asian republics, the Urghurs (by the way, I've found about four different spellings for Urghur) are Muslims and had their own colorful culture, even after centuries of Chinese rule. The Chinese emperors allowed to Urghurs to live their own lives as long as they paid their taxes and knew who was in charge. That all changed in 1949, with the coming to power of the Communist Party. Before long however, the Chinese government encouraged poorer Han Chinese to move to Xinjiang, and now over 40 percent of the permanent population is Han Chinese, and this does not include the migrant laborers who head there every year, as well as the normal group of bureaucrats, Communist Party officials, and military personnel. The Urghurs have watched their land and culture being destroyed, a process that has accelerated since the 1990's. Just like their Tibetan neighbors to the south, the Urghurs have protested to Chinese rule, but with part of Xinjiang bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Chinese government has repeatedly stated that these anti government groups are really fronts for Islamic terrorists. Whenever an Urghur is discovered in a terrorist camp (which isn't that often), the Chinese government gleefully declares it proof of a large scale Taliban/Al Quada conspiracy to end Chinese rule of Xinjiang. Since 2001, the Chinese government has used the US "War on Terror" to crackdown on all pro Urghur movements in Xinjiang, even those that are content with Chinese rule and only want the Urghurs to be treated better. Amnesty International reports that Xinjiang is the only part of China where political executions are still commonplace.

Oh, and China has little disregard for environmental laws in Xinjiang, so since the 1980's, the environment of Xinjiang has taken a nosedive as China continues to strip away land for minerals and more factories are built with no regards for the health of the workers and people who live around them.

Back to China

So since the crackdown on the Tibet protests in March, another major problem has struck China: inflation of food prices. Since January, food prices in China have rose by about 21 percent, and with 800 million Chinese living in poverty or near poverty, that is a major increase. The usually suspects have been accused in the rise in food prices: rise in costs of fuel, demand for bio fuels, a large middle class now eating just like their Western counterparts, ect... So far China is trying to deal with the problem, but its attempts so far have been not so great.

Add in a major disregard to the environment around the nation, major pollution, no regard for workers rights, and you have a nation with serious problems.

So now you have a better understanding of the most populous nation on Earth. You would think that our wonderful media might try to report more on it, but wait, a brand new dumb female celebrity has arrived on the scene, so as we all know, dumb celebrities are so much more important that the problems facing the nation where one fifth of all humanity lives.

Postscript

Congratulations to Senator Barack Obama in his victory over Senator Hillary Clinton! Only a miracle can save Billery now! Whether you're a liberal or a conservative, we can all take joy in the fact that the Clintons won't be moving back to the White House!

The Swanson Blog is Back!

Welcome to the new and improved Swanson Blog! By popular demand, it's back and better than ever. Just like the old blog, we will deal with all the news and culture our wonderful mainstream corporate media ignores. The new Swanson Blog will have the following features:






Messed up Third World S*** Holes: These are the nations you probably don't even know exisit, or if you do, you probably only know their name (and most world leaders like it that way), but they do exist, and many of them are home to humanitanian crises so bad that you will be glad that you're biggest problem right now is waiting in line at the local DMV.


Nation Reports: These are reports of certian nations that while do not fall under the above catergory, but have many issues, and while it can be argued that some of the Third World nations have no effect on the Western World, these nations do.



How Can It Exist? These are nations that despite all the commanments of God, all the laws of physics, and all common sense, somehow still do exist, and we will look into how and why they do exist.




Meet Your Congressman: These are reports on those 535 men and women who make up the United States Congress. While most will be on corrupt, bizare, or downright dangorous congressmen, we will from time to time report an incredibly cool awsome member of Congress (yes they do exist).




Films You Must See Before You Die: As a film buff, I'm dissapointed that too many people refuse to watch films simply because it's in a forgien language. The point of this part of the blog is too ease your fears and show how international cinema can be incredibly awsome.




So, let's begin:



Nation Report: CHINA













This was originally going to be just about Tibet,but after doing research, I soon discovered that for once, the American media has been doing a decent job reporting what has been going on in Tibet (I guess Brittney Spears wasn't doing anything stupid that week). But at the same time, I began to see China as a whole and decided to give a whole overview instead.




To understand modern China, you must go back to 1949 with the establishment of the People's Republic of China under Chairman Mao Zedong. Under Mao's leadership, China quickly split with their fellow Communists in the Soviet Union and struck off on its own. Along the way China experienced the Great Leap Foward (1950's), which was supposed to give the peasants their own land and modernize farming, but it backfired and about 20 million Chinese peasants died of starvation. Then came the Cultural Revoluation (1960's), which brought the entire nation to a standstill, as mobs of mostly young (many in their teens) Chinese marching around in the name of progress beating up anyone who had a different viewpoint and getting rid out anyone who was opposed to it (as well as Mao). The government of China was also brought to a halt due to a nasty power struggle between Mao and other members of the goverment. During this period a large number of culutural and historical sites were torn down and the Chinese people were subjugated to the a whole number of awful movies, plays, and ballets that glorified the China under Mao.




After Mao died in the 1970's, there was a period of infighting within the inner party over who would succeed Mao. One of the main factions was the "Gang of Four" led by Mao's wife Jiang Quing, the other was led by Deng Xiaoping, who was known to be a moderate. Deng Xiaoping's faction would emerge victorious, and by 1980, China's leadership was revolving around Deng. Under Deng, China began to experiment with capitalist reforms, which led to the booming economy that is present today in China, espically on the East Coast. But as we all know in 1989, the Chinese government crushed a rebelling in Tibet and later crackdown on the democracy demonstration at Tiananmen Square.

In the 20 years since Tiananmen Square, China has undergone radical change. It's middle and upper classes are booming and many live a lifestyle simular to their Western counterparts. China has also gained two cash cows: Hong Kong and Macau. Hong Kong, formeraly owned by the British, is, along with New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, one of the financial centers on Earth (though China's own Shanghai is very quickly catching up), and Macau, formeraly owned by the Portuguese, is the casino capital of East Asia and has a thriving tourist trade. But underneeth all of that is a nation with many, many problems.

Let's start at the top and see who is running the most populous nation on Earth. Now in the inside murky world that is Chinese politics, it is sometimes hard to figure out who is really in control since traditionally the man at the top in name is not always the man at the top in fact. A good example of this is Deng Xiaoping, who never held the top offices, yet everyone knew he was the man in charge.

Currently at the top in both name and fact is this man, the most powerful man you've never heard of: President Hu Jintao

NOTE: In China, like most East Asian nations, the family name is always first and the personal name is always second, if you would meet Hu Jintao, you would address him as President Hu, not President Jintao



Head of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of China since 2003, and Head of the Chinese military since 2004, Hu is the man to deal with. Before becoming President, Hu was almost completely unknown outside the very top circiles of the Communist Party. Hu got his start in 1989 when he was sent out to Tibet to run the local chapter of the Communist Party. When the Tibetians rose up in revolt later on that year, it was Hu, not the regional governor who organized the brutal crackdown, and Hu's determination and loyalty to Bejing made him very popular with the government. However, the Tibetians didn't see it that way, and Hu's role in the harsh crackdown made him the most unpopular man in Tibet; later on when the Panchen Lama (the second most important spiritual leader in Tibet) died under mysterious circumstances, many in Tibet accused Hu of having the Panchen Lama murdered.



By the mid 1990's Hu was back from Tibet, and was being gromed by then President Jiang as a successor. Since comming to de facto power in 2003, Hu has proved to be devoted to the Communist Party of China. While contiuning the Free Market reforms to the economy, Hu has stepped up on cracking down on the democracy movment in China. In Hong Kong, Hu has worked hard to resitrict the limited democratic government it had inherited from the British. However, Hu has allowed the media of Hong Kong and Macau the same freedoms it had before their take over at the end of the 1990s. Of course, good luck find the webpage of a Hong Kong or Macau based publicaion on the Chinese mainland (though the Chinese government recently annoucned that the BBC's webiste - which is very critical of China - can be view uncensorded by ordanary Chinese citizens).



In international affairs, Hu has contiuned to take advantage of the West being bogged down in the Middle East and the Islamic World to expand China's influence in SouthEast Asia, Africa (and a lesser extent), South America. China's influence was seen last summer when it refused to take part in the world condemnation of the crackdown on the peacfull protests in Burma , and it was in part Chinese influence that prevented the rest of the world from being more harsh in their condemnation.



Hu has also proven to be a master of public affairs. While previous leaders in China were almost never seen by the public excpet on public holidays, Hu is seen on tv all the time, just like a Western head of government. Also, Hu has contiuned the process Jiang begain of putting more power into those at the top, and without a doubt, Hu is the most powerful President China has ever seen. However, this does not mean Hu has total power; President Hu still must share his power with a few other men at the top.



In his prviate life, Hu is reportedly into tennis and (I'm not making this up) ballroom dancing. He is married with several grown children.



Next up is former President Jiang Zemin

This man is the man most responsible in the creation of president day China. Jiang got his start in the 1980's when he was the mayor of Shanghai, a city whose population is about the same as the state of Florida. Jiang was a devoted follower to Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms, and it was in Shanghi where the first results of these reforms were seen. When the democracy movement Tiananmen Square demostartion caused a simular demostration in Shanghi, Jiang was quick to crush it. That same year, Deng Xiaoping rewarded Jiang by making him head of the Communist Party and President of China.

When Jiang took over the job of President, he had no real power. But as the 1990's progressed, and as Deng and his generation retired or died off, Jiang consoloated his power and by 1997, was the man in charge. Jiang, besides inventing the moderen Chinese presidency, made very profitable trade deals with the United States. Jiang also saw importanace of good PR and how a strong media (though not independent) can help the government's PR. Beginning in 2002, Jiang began to retire, handing off power to his groomed successor, Hu. Even though Jiang has not held any office since 2004, and is seen little outside of public events, it is assumed by most experts that Jiang still holds power and influence inside the Chinese government.

Next up on our list of who's running China is this man, Wen Jiabao, who holds the job of Premir of China. Known for his "man of the people" appeal, the government has turned Wen into its most seen figure. While Hu is usually seen on tv making speaches and reviewing legislation, Wen is usually seen in factories and on farms working with ordanary Chinese dealing with their problems. Wen is also known as a conservative, and has never fell out of the party line. While the excent of Wen's actual power is unknown, it is agreeded that Wen is a potental successor to Hu.



Another top leader in China today is this man, Zeng Quinghong, one of China's two Vice Presidents. Though Zeng does not hold any military posts, he is very close to the Chinese miliary. In the West, Zeng is known (if at all), for his role in the crackdown on the Falun Gong movement.

Finnally we have this man, China's other Vice President, Xi Jinping. A recent arrival on the national scene in China, Xi is reported very close to President Hu; in fact, Xi's father was very important in helping Hu out in his early days in politics. Like Jiang, Xi is from Shanghai, and many see him as the other potental successor to Hu. Xi's wife, Peing Liyuan, is a nationally known folk singer in China, and if you want to know why I don't use wikipedia as a source, check out their entry on her.




So now you've been introduced to the most powerful men in the world that you have never knew existed. In our next issue we will take a look some of the problems plaguing China.