Japan planning for more constructive engagements in Asia-Pacific

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda delivered a key foreign policy initiative calling for Asia-Pacific nations to build a network to better managed disasters. Xinhua also reported Japan's "five commitments" on Asia's development.

This is an excellent development. Japan's attempts in the past to gain seat as a member of the U.N. Security Council has failed. All of Asia have been suspicious of Japan, because it still has not fully reconciled its WWII past with its neighbors. In order to normalize relations with other countries in Asia and to gain their trust, Japan is finally taking the right concrete steps to play a very constructive role within the region.

We remind our readers to pay attention to this theme - once Japan fully reconciles its past with its neighbors, and the completion of a free-trade zone within whole of Asia - that will serve as a great stabilizer to world peace.

The reason the League of Nations failed after WWI is because some powerful nations did not have representation in it. We all know which nation that was. The United Nations was founded after WWII and the establishment of the Security Council was to ensure that the most powerful nations are accorded adequate representation. This then incents them to maintain their membership and play (generally speaking) by the rules of U.N..

Given Japan's size, the U.N. body will eventually need to accord it (and other countries like India) the level commiserate with its importance around the world.

China wins a seat on WTO's top court

Zhang Yuejiao was sworn in to replace one of the two outgoing judges in the WTO. She will serve a four-year term on the Appellate Body - the highest court in the WTO - along with seven other judges. She also will be a first Chinese judge to serve in such capacity for the world organization. Japan's Shotaro Oshima is also reported sworn in.

Strangely, back in November 2007 when Zhang was nominated for this role, Taiwan's representatives (from Chen Shui-bian's administration) attempted to block it. The BBC reported US, Japan, and other key members were taken "aback" by Taiwan's move.

We have written about Asia's rise in the past. For example, as regional trade agreements allow Asia or Europe to trade more freely, world bodies like WTO could become less relevant. For WTO then to compete in importance, it must guarantee representation also by key economies of the world, namely, China and Japan.

the Chinese Century blog - where you are reading from

The Chinese Century blog has been officially operating since April 2008, and we would like to share with our readers where you are all visiting the site from. Below is a visitor map with larger circles representing larger groups of readers.



Even though this entry is created on May 20, 2008, this map will continually update reflecting the Chinese Century blog readers visiting from around the world. The thumbnail version of this map in the navigation pane, when clicked, will bring readers to this entry.

As of May 20, 2008, the break-down of readers by countries are as follows. We will update this table from time to time.

"U.S. Senate adopts resolution to mourn victims of China earthquake"

Xinhua reports "U.S. Senate adopts resolution to mourn victims of China earthquake" - which we have decided to quote in full below. The list of senators sponsoring this resolution are particularily interesting to the China watchers. Note that both Senators Clinton and Obama are on the list - one of them will be the Democratic candidate for this years election.

This story hasn't shown up in the Western media yet. Maybe it will go unnoticed.

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Xinhua) -- In an unusual move to express its sense, the U.S. Senate on Monday adopted a resolution to mourn the victims of a devastating earthquake which struck southwest China on May 12 and convey condolences and support to the Chinese people.
"The Senate mourns the horrific loss of life and terrible human suffering caused by the earthquake in the People's Republic of China on May 12, 2008," said the resolution, jointly submitted by Barbara Boxer, Democratic senator from California, and Lisa Murkowski, Republican senator from Alaska.
The Senate also expresses its "deep condolences" to the Chinese people and to all those affected by this enormous tragedy and its "profound sorrow" for the families of all who lost their loved ones, including those who suffered the heartbreaking loss of having their children trapped in schools that collapsed.
The Senate called on President George W. Bush to respond to any requests for humanitarian assistance made by the Chinese government, saying that it stands ready to support the provision of additional resources, as necessary, to assist those impacted by the earthquake which claimed at least 34,000 lives and injured 245,000 others.
Another 19 senators also co-sponsored the resolution. They include Senators Richard Durbin (the Democratic Whip), Joseph Biden (Chairman of Foreign Relations Committee), Richard Lugar (ranking member of Foreign Relations Committee), Chris Dodd (Chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs),Dianne Feinstein (Chairman of Committee on Rules and Administration), Patrick Leahy (Chairman of Committee on the Judiciary), Hillary Clinton (Democratic presidential candidate) and Barack Obama (Democratic presidential candidate).
A similar resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives and is expected to be adopted this week.
Editor: Wang Hongjiang

Dalai Lama addressing British Parliament with human rights evidence

BBC reported the Dalai Lama is to address the British Parliament with "evidence" about human rights in Tibet. (See, "Dalai Lama starts tour in London") Some dissidents in China get into trouble precisely for doing this sort of thing.

This move simply will not bolster his case with China as his aides are resuming talks with Beijing.

Time is on China's side - as China becomes even more economically powerful the separatist element within Tibet continues to dwindle. If the Dalai Lama wishes a type of arrangement such as Hong Kong has with China for Tibet, the key audience he needs to win over are the Chinese people.

How could the Chinese people trust him if he goes to foreign countries to present evidence about human rights violations or attend various forums with groups who are separatists?

As things are, maybe the real solution is simply time.

NPR reports 4.8 million relocated and families adjusting

NPR reported that 4.8 million people were temporarily relocated due to the earthquake in an article, "Chinese Families Face Reality, Adjust After Quake". 100,000 tents have been deployed with some occupied by as many as 20 people. By October, Sichuan will become cold, and its critical that enough permanent housing be established such that those affected could find proper shelter.

Please continue to urge your friends and families to donate. See our previous entry, "Ways to donate to help China earthquake crisis."

Jackie Chan tribute to victims: "Be with you forever 生死不离"

Jackie Chan produced a tribute song to the victims of the Sichuan earthquake. He has become a hero in the eyes of many Chinese.

"Baby, if you are able to stay alive, you must remember I love you"

Many stories are surfacing now regarding the Sichuan earthquake disaster. One that deeply moved us is of a mother and an infant. By the time rescuers reached them, they had found the mother knelled and managed to stay hunched over. The rescuers knew she had passed away but thought her pose curious. They checked her and found her holding a baby sleeping. They later found a cell phone wrapped with the baby and the mother had typed a message, "baby, if you are able to stay alive, you must remember I love you."

Click the following link to see the story told through a Chinese television anchor:

http://video.sina.com.cn/news/s/bn/2008-05-18/104515830.shtml

President Hu thanks foreign governments and friends for quake aid

BBC reported, "China praises world's quake aid" where Pesident Hu expressed gratitude to international aid following the massive earthquake in Sichuan this past Monday. Chinese officials feared death toll may top 50,000. Over 28,000 died and 198,000 injured as of Saturday, May 17, 2008. This wound will take a long time to heal.

Out of the 6 billion yuan donated thus far, 1 billion yuan was received from outside of China. China recognizes the goodwill from around the world and this gesture will never be forgotten.

Chinese Leadership and Chinese People Holding Together

On May 13, Premier Wen visited City’s elementary school in Dujianyan, Sichuan and saw rescue workers trying to get a school kid from the rubble of a building. Premier Wen called to the kid: “Hello, I am grand Opa Wen Jia Bao, please hold on and we will do whatever we can to help you out here” On the same day, Premier Wen visited injured kids at a sport stadium in Mianyang, Sichuan and with tears in his eyes, he said to the kids, “Central government will help you, the future of our country.”

Zhao Pu, a CCTV moderator, became so emotion and couldn’t continue reading news from Sichuan. With tears. he said, “Why it is in China, we are always so deeply moved by pictures and voices, … because we love this land and people in this land understand respect and taking care of each other.”
All roads are blocked by gigantic stones falling down from mountains. Without machine crane, special police units can only calm down the trapped kids inside the building and watch the bitter suffering of people. A solder found a picture of a small kid and his hands were already full of his own blood. It was horrible. People were dying.
A small kid is held by a rescue worker. Her tears, helplessness and sorrow is felt by the little kid. A young soldier is carrying an elderly man. He is so tired but continues moving. China is suffering but China holds together, like the lady and soldier helping others in the worst nature disaster in decades in China. A wife mourns her relative. He is a teacher… She cleans his hands. Under his hands, he protected his four pupils with his back against the falling wall. He passed away. But all the four pupils survive. The entire world will pay the highest honor and respect to the great hero of a nation, China.
In Mianzhu, majority of DongQi School’s building collapse. A young couple lost their kids and mourn over the loss of lives. The wife said, she will need to pick her kid from school and clean her when she came back. The husband stopped her… We feel pain and suffering and today in China, there are no spectators, the pain and suffering of our brethren are also ours. A grand ma lost her grand kid and her daughter in law could do nothing but mourn. There are thousands of families all in sudden lost their loved ones. The entire China mourns, for they are all ordinary people like you and me.

A mother and doctor can not hid her feeling when injured people were brought one wave after another. Thousands of medical personals are fighting for the lives of others and many of them have lost their own relatives. They are working and working, and still see the people coming in an endless line. The entire Chinese people are supporting you and we are holding together to overcome the challenges we are all facing.
On May 16, President Hu also, after meeting with Premier Wen, personally went to epicenter in SiChuan. At the sport stadium in Mianyang President Hu visited the rescued people. Chinese leadership coordinates the biggest mobilization of all its resources in her history in fighting the aftermath by the gigantic earthquake hit in central China. Thanks doctors, soldiers and workers and all walks of life. Thanks the central government, President Hu and Premier Wen, you are deserved to have respect and honor of all Chinese people at home and abroad.

China reports U.S. donating $23 million so far

Over at TIME's China Blog, some netizens are reacting to initial reports about the U.S. government's donation being "paltry." China has just reported that the U.S. has a combined donation of $23 million (from American Red Cross, the government, and corporations), thus far to earthquake in Sichuan.

It is human nature to be critical. Few netizens have pointed out that the Chinese government gave $5million, 600 tents, and other supplies for the Katrina disaster. U.S. government's $500,000 in comparison seem paltry.

We think people should not feel entitlement. The goodwill gesture is there and should be recognized. Everybody also knows that private American citizens and corporations will contribute. Furthermore, the U.S. government is in tremendous debt.

We feel the Chinese government and the Chinese media are correct in being gracious and thankful to the U.S..

CNN President Jim Walton apologizes for Jeff Cafferty's remarks on China

CNN's President, Jim Walton, has apologized for Jeff Cafferty's insulting remarks about China. Not much coverage about this in the press.

Since Xinhua News Agency reported this, the Chinese government is probably closing on this issue.

The neat thing with the Internet is that now there is a record of this issue, as well as those egregious mistakes made in the past of this network. Hopefully this doesn't repeat too frequently in the future otherwise people will come out demanding for more than just apology.

NPR reports villagers angry with local government for collapsed school

(added 11:35pm May 15, 2008)
Xinhua News just reported a probe has been opened to investigate this issue. See its article, "Officials: China orders probe of school collapses in quake".

---

NPR had an article today titled, "Shoddy Work, Leadership Blamed in School Collapse". It reports that some villagers feel corruption is partly to blame for the school building outside of the city of Dujiangyan to collapse which killed most of the students inside of it. It said that villagers thought money the local government got should have been all used to tear down the original two stories and build a stronger brand new four story building.

On one hand, the population feels the Chinese government is doing a great deal and at its best abilities to rescue victims of this earthquake. On the other, many will divert (rightly so) their anger at the local governments, as in this example reported by NPR.

This tragedy reminds us how critical it is to have government transparency in things affecting the public. China has taken steps toward this direction. See: "New Chinese information rules to promote government transparency."

If the villagers were allowed a chance to voice their concerns during the schools construction (expansion from two to four stories), which they get through transparency laws, then things of egregious nature would have been caught. It will be interesting to watch the development on this particular issue.

This is also not to say that the local government has by default done something wrong. Governments would prefer to not have this type of tragedy occur.

Given the likelihood of earthquakes in that region, it is shocking to hear the amount of damage wrought to properties. Places like Shanghai and Beijing makes one think that China is wealthy. The earthquake disaster in Sichuan has reminded us that China is also still very poor. We hope that this disaster will serve as a reminder for rest of China to beef up its building qualities.

Finally, we also liked what a reader over at TIME: China Blog commented about blaming too early:

1World I think you jumped to conclusion too fast with you statement per post 5-14 10:50 a.m. somehow implying only the school was built shoddily and collapsed, while the rest aren't. This was quickly corrected by Zhihua which you also acknowledged. To be honest, that's clearly not the case even if you take a cursory glance only at the picture. You can clearly see a track stadium, and your so called rubbles (looked like tents to me) were very orderly laid out with a clear straight line down the middle. Very Likely the adjoining building to the North with the reddish courtyard is the school, and there were no visble signs of collapse. Please do not take this as a hostile criticism, just that there are quite a few rush-to-judgement conclusions in these blogs/posts and finger-pointing. Unfounded rumours can get started without basis. Just a reminder to exercise caution before accusations in the heat of the moment. The tragedy is still unfolding. I think the soul-searching part of the "whys" should be left a little later. Let's concentrate on helping out where we can - such as publicizing the plight of the victims, and keeping our solidarity. I don't know if there is a way we send convey condolences on-line to the victims. Does anyone know?

Posted by canchi May 14, 2008 11:14 PM

China reports NASA-lead team on human-caused climate change impacting earth

Xinhua News reports, "Human-caused climate change widely impact Earth," a study by NASA-lead. China as a nation will need to come to grips with climate change, and this will be a theme we encourage our readers to pay attention to.

AMD set up joint research center in Beijing

Microprocessor AMD announced a joint research center in Beijing with China Electronics Standardization Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information. AMD has been battered as of late by its chief rival, Intel. On one hand, this is a way to reduce R&D cost for the chip maker. AMD's investments in Germany in terms of wafer fabs has garnered strong support for AMD within Germany itself. Since China is such a growing market, this type of investment will likely help the company gain further traction there.

In terms of globalization, this is another sign of an American multi-national soaking up talents within China. In turn, more opportunities are given to researchers in China where their work could be applied to real world products. Its a win-win for all.

China earthquake: an image that sums it all

An image that sums it all for us is a group of children buried by falling debris. We intentionally posted a lower resolution version here. For a higher resolution, you may click on the image (please be warned it is very graphic).

Most of these children are the only children of their families, because China has a one-child policy. Those parents may also have lost their homes.

We strongly urge you to donate to help the victims of this disaster.

Poll: Amount I have donated to the China earthquake and why

Dear Readers,

We urge you to donate to help victims of China earthquake that has already claimed more than 14,000 lives, 1,400+ still missing, 25,000+ buried in debris, and 64,000+ injured. If you plan to or have already donated, we ask that you take this simple poll to let our other readers know that the world cares. We also like you to comment to this post your connection to China and Sichuan and why you have decided to pitch in. Please help us spread the word.

Opinion Polls & Market Research