CHINATION REPORT©

By Kevin Deluca

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_10359098

With the Olympics over, I hope the Western sport of bashing China over Tibet might stop.

Working in Beijing during the Tibet riots and the preparations for the Olympics gave me a unique perspective. Growing up with Western media and Hollywood, I am used to our embrace of the Dalai Lama. Being in China, I saw the Chinese point of view.

Seeing both sides suggests the need to abandon simplistic political stances in favor of some self-reflection and historical context.

Although we should criticize China’s censored media, the Tibet riots revealed some troubling blindness among our own media. While the causes of Tibetan unrest are complex, it is clear that the March riots were started by Tibetan protesters and that they were quite violent. Indeed, they were violent enough to lead the Dalai Lama to threaten resignation if his followers did not stop the violence.

Since “violent Tibetan” does not fit our stereotype, our media fixed the news. While Chinese media showed extensive footage of violence and interviews with Chinese and Tibetan victims, Western media manipulated images and even showed footage from other countries (Nepal and India) in order to paint a picture of ruthless oppression by China’s government.

Chinese media exposed the Western media manipulations, forcing the BBC, N-TV and RTL-TV to apologize. Not surprisingly, the American media has yet to acknowledge
its bending of the truth. The point is that while the Chinese know their media is censored and do not trust it, we believe our news is objective and end up being righteous while misinformed.

If we had seen the violence of the Tibet riots, our condemnations may be more nuanced. Quite simply, no government, democratic or not, allows such violence within its own borders. Providing peace and stability, even by force if necessary, is what governments do.

Large and powerful countries tend to have regions that were not always part of the country. In America, we proudly call it Manifest Destiny and never trouble ourselves with how we got much of California and Texas from Mexico, never mind the rest of the country and our sordid history with Native Americans.

On the Chinese flag there are five stars commonly interpreted as representing the five major ethnic groups in China. One of those stars represents Tibetans. China’s claim to Tibet spans centuries and it is a claim that the United States and the rest of the world recognizes.

To Chinese people, removing one of those stars is akin to removing one of our states, such as Hawaii. Our history with the native people of Hawaii has been relatively brief and quite brutal and there exists a tenacious independence movement. Still, there is no talk in the mainstream media and among the Hollywood celebrity activist circuit of Hawaiian independence, not to mention Puerto Rican independence or the American Indian movement.

Government repression of these movements also escapes media scrutiny. Before we lecture China, we may want to tend to our own backyard.

Amid cries of “free Tibet” and calls for religious freedom, the question is what does freedom have to do with Tibet? Under the Dalai Lama, was there religious freedom? Was there any freedom? Actually, no.

We would recognize the Dalai Lama’s Tibet as a medieval religious theocracy with a small elite class served by a large and oppressed serf population. The Dalai Lama ruled a region with no religious freedom, no political freedom, indeed, no human rights of any kind. The rulers were ruthless. Torture and mutilation were widespread. Poverty and starvation were rampant. It was Shangri-La only in the West’s imagination.

Richard Gere, Sharon Stone and other Hollywood devotees may be surprised at their idol’s current positions. The Dalai Lama condemns abortion and homosexuality while accepting prostitution. For decades the Dalai Lama secured millions of dollars from the CIA and runs his government in exile like a monarch.

Despite its shortcomings, Chinese rule has provided the Tibetan region with infrastructure and public schooling and provides Tibetans with widespread opportunities and a degree of personal freedom unheard of under the feudal theocracy of the dalai lamas.

China is far from perfect and deserves honest scrutiny and criticism. To expect China not to act like a large and powerful country, however, and to throw stones from our glass house, proves nothing but our own ignorance.

KEVIN DELUCA is an associate professor of communications at the University of Utah and author of “Image Politics.”

By: X. Gong

By now we all know that Sarah Palin has accepted John McCain’s pick as his vice presidential running mate. This is an extraordinary moment. As an ambitious professional woman and mother of two young children, I applaud her courage and bravery. She makes many women including myself proud.

After the initial excitement began to wind down, I felt a tiny bit of unease in my heart. My eyes caught the mention of Sarah’s lovely new born baby, Trig. Baby Trig was born with Down syndrome. Her choice of knowingly bringing Trig to life is truly noble and speaks louder of her values than any words. As a woman, I found myself often torn between the choice of climbing up the corporate ladder and keeping a balanced and happy family life. I must say, there is no success of any job in the world that could match the joy of having my two wonderful children.

Ms. Palin was reportedly back to work three days after little Trig was born. She is obviously a strong woman and she is much more capable than I could ever be. I also thought I had little doubt that, if elected, she could still be that responsible mother while working hard for the country.
Wait a minute! Really?

Source: http://www.citizensugar.com/1565605

Source: http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu/archives/images/trig4634_bg2%5B1%5D.jpg

How about that little innocent baby Trig that needs special care for the rest of his life? Is he happy that his mother made the choice to bring him to this wonderful world?  But would he still be happy if he knew how little he would see his mommy since she would be spending most of her time on the campaign trail in the next two months?  And if Ms. Palin and Senator McCain get elected, would little Trig understand the cause and the sacrifice of his mommy and support it?

- Senator Obama’s Other Brother Who Lives in China

A recent UK Times Online news headline reads: Barack Obama’s brother pushes Chinese imports on US 

Media in the US have focused on Barack Obama’s half brother living in Kenya. George Hussein Onyango Obama, Barack’s half-brother, is said to be living in poverty on a dollar a month in a Nairobi shantytown. This article is about Barack Obama’s other half-brother, Mark Ndesanjo, who lives in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city bordering Hong Kong. While we believe the Times used such a headline to help attract readers, we wonder how those words relate to Mark’s real life in China. 

To clarify in readers’ minds the true subject of the story, Chinationreport editors translated an online article from the Mandarin, as it appeared in the South China Daily. The article was written based on interviews with Mark’s close friends and partners. Below is the English translation of this article:

Slim, healthy, vegetarian, over 6 feet tall, strongly built, short-cropped black hair, often seen with a baseball hat on, dark brown skin, black eyes with very clear facial features. This is Mark Ndesandjo, the half brother of Senator Obama, the US Democratic Party presidential nominee.  Mark has been living in Shenzhen in the past six years and wishes to continue to live in China. He is married to a Chinese woman from Henan province. Mark shares the same father with Senator Obama but carries his mother’s last name.   

The Nanfang Metropolitan Paper reports that - after Mark’s relationship with Senator Obama was revealed - he has gone underground, avoiding public attention. Mark is a pianist. 18-year-old Long Ben, who was raised in the Shenzhen Social Welfare Center Orphanage, is his piano student. On the evening of August 1st 2008,  Long Ben received a text message from Mark, saying: “I have a very urgent matter to take care of immediately. Very sorry that I couldn’t make the lesson that I promised last time. After I deal with this matter, I will try to call you. Okay?”

From the date of that text message until this edition of the paper hit the street, Mark hadn’t come to the Orphanage for classes, a period of three weeks. This is the first absence since Mark started teaching at the orphanage in 2002. Long Ben has no idea what the Mark’s ‘urgent matter’ was, however, he admits the media has recently taken an intense interest in Mark’s young student. “I don’t want to be interviewed, especially by those who would use me to learn something about Mark.”

From Sui Zheng Jun, Mark’s best Chinese friend in Shenzhen, who owns an online information service called Worldnexus, reporters worldwide are gradually learning more about Obama’s half brother Mark.

Since July 27th 2008, when Mark received the phone call from Times followed by the publishing of article, an outpouring of interview requests has interrupted his normal life. In Shenzhen, Mark’s relationship with Obama was exposed at the same time. While Senator Obama lives as a public figure, Mark prefers to lead a quiet, ordinary life in the big, bustling city of Shenzhen.  

After this ‘breaking’ news, reporters, including those from Hong Kong, were searching Shenzen for any possible clues about Mark. According to Sui,“Some of them found the company where Mark used to work. Several dozen reporters were waiting outside the building, collaring anyone they thought might know something about Mark for questioning. “What does Mark look like? How to find him?” were the questions, an old colleague of Mark recalled. “The reporters even found the bar Mark frequented.”

Interestingly, on March 18th, 4 months before the UK Times article appeared, there was a report on Xinhuanet indicating that The New York Times reported on the 17th that Obama’s younger brother is in China. Missing catchy headlines, both Xinhuanet’s piece and the original The New York Times article completely passed under the radar screen. 

In order to evade the irritating reporters, Mark and Sui Zheng Jun have chosen to leave Shenzhen. Sui still found it hard to believe that the media are trying everything to tie his friend of six years with now the very famous Obama.

Mark and  his six years of volunteer work at an Orphanage

Before the revelation of the relationship between Mark Ndesandjo and Barack Obama, the only media article found about Mark dates from March 2004. The Nanfangnet Daily’ English edition reported in an article entitled Not Just a Donation that Mark “…had successful experience in remote communications. He is also a self-taught musician.”

In the article, Mark is quoted as saying “Here the children have enough food. What they are lacking is art and music. Music unites humans in a spiritual level. It has a long and deep effect on children. So I decided to teach music here.”

Since 2002, Mark has been closely connected with Shenzhen. Ever since making their acquaintance Mark’s and Sui’s life in Shenzhen have been closely interconnected. Sui said, “Before coming to China, Mark had never taught school. He came as a member of a Sino-American culture exchange program. As part of this program, Mark worked in a Shenzhen foreign language school. During this period, he nurtured the idea of establishing a non-profit organization in China to help orphans.”

According to Sui, before coming to China, Mark tried contacting a lot of people, including some media and even Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He sent them his proposal but nobody replied. Back in 2002, who knew the name Obama, let alone Ndesandjo? Finally, Mark got some donations from his MBA classmates in Emory to bring to China. When he first arrived in Shenzhen, he even didn’t know where the orphanage was located. He knew Sui through an English teacher in Shenzhen. Sui brought Mark to the orphanage. They brought milk, milk powder, DVDs, etc to the orphans.

Mark doesn’t have much money. His goal is to bring the art of music to the orphans. He believed an orphan’s life needs not only the essentials. The arts are needed, too. Mark began teaching piano lessons at the orphanage every week – at least until events of this year overtook him.

The orphanage workers were all moved by his persistence. He came almost every week. No other volunteers gave of themselves as much. Since 2002, Mark has taught several dozen piano students. Two of his students studied with him for more than two years, one is Xing Yun, who went on to college in Guangzhou. The other is Long Ben. 

So, who is this Mark? He is a very talented, self-taught musician The only printed material that can be found is on the sleeve of a compact disk which was sent as a gift to Long Ben in the Orphanage. It’s printed in black and white, titled Nightmoods and includes some Chopin pieces. On the dedication, it says, “To my most trustworthy and best friend Ruth Ndesandjo”

Ruth Ndesandjo is Mark’s mother, the third wife of Mark and Barack Obama’s late father. When Mark was very young, they divorced. An honor student from Harvard, Ruth runs an upscale daycare center in Nairobi, Kenya.

Within this CD, the short biography of the performer says: 

“Mark is a writer, painter and composer who spends most of his time in Asia and USA. He was born in Kenya. He studied at Brown and Stanford Universities. He published 3 CDs and one book. The book’s title is Observations in Africa and others. This (semi-autobiographical) book is about a young Kenyan man who immigrated to the US and lived in a metropolitan city there. He studied Communications and worked at Lucent Technologies and Notel Networks in high positions. His hobbies included sky diving, skiing and surfing.”

Mark’s friends know that he moved to the US after spending the first seven years of his life in Kenya. He graduated from Brown University with a mathematics and arts degree. Then, he attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California for a Physics degree. After that, he received an MBA degree from Emory University. In 12 years, he worked for several companies in the US.

After playing a piece of Chopin, Long Ben revealed to the article’s reporter, “I have become a lot happier since I started taking piano lessons from Mark.” Long Ben was born in Shenzhen in 1990. He came to the orphanage at the age of three. After finishing middle school in 2006, Long Ben started to take piano lessons from Mark. Before Long Ben, Mark taught several other kids. But none of them continued for various reasons. Mark taught Long Ben every weekend, no matter how busy he was. He always seemed to be in a hurry. On the evening of August 1st, Long Ben received the short text message from Mark saying that he had something very important to deal with and he would call after he handled the urgent matter. At 10PM, Long Ben called Mark and chatted to him about his own small issues. At 1:19AM, Mark left another message saying: ‘Don’t worry. I support you. Try your best to practice piano.’  

Teachers at the orphanage noted that Long Ben has become confident and strong thanks to Mark’s help. Long Ben says he loves music, especially classical music, particularly Chopin to whom he feels emotionally connected. Long Ben says he received a lot of support from others and he will also try to help people in return. “I am happy and content with what I have.”

Mark’s real passion and life in China

Sui Zheng Jun said, “You will never guess what Mark imagined about China before arriving there!” Before 2002, Mark felt that China, though beautiful, was undeveloped. He thought that China was a very poor country with many orphans. He wanted to walk in the country with a backpack, getting to know China while helping them. After he settled in Shenzhen, he realized there was a big gap between his old perceptions and reality. It was a lot better than he had thought. He liked Shenzhen very much. More than one time he expressed his wish to live and work there. 

Not Just a Donation mentions that Mark wanted to organize a charity concert performed by foreign musicians in order to collect donations to buy musical instruments and equipment for the orphanage. To prepare, Mark and Sui strategized and planned for a long time. It did not happen for a variety of reasons. During this time, both of them cemented their friendship. They decided to continue to do something together.   

Sui used to be a branch manager of a bicycle company. When he met Mark, he was planning on getting his MBA and needed someone to help him improve his English. He was also making his next career move. He registered an information consulting company under the name Worldnexus. Sue was the owner. He appointed Mark chief consultant. “We are partners!”

Business was very tough. Day after day they worked hard but made no profit. Sui, Mark and other partners worked for free, receiving no salary. Each was using up savings. In the evenings, after an exhausting day, they got together to have a beer and barbeque from street vendors. Mark always ate dried tofu and potato chips. He is a vegetarian and always wondered why Chinese grilled tofu tasted so delicious. 

While dining, Sui came up with a plan: Instead of just consulting, why not also open a barbeque stand? This idea excited Mark a lot. He said he wanted to open such stands in Kenya to introduce grilled tofu and potato chips to his countrymen. While enjoying their beer and chips, they drew up a business plan on a piece of scrap paper. They even designed a menu. Mark insists that it has to be natural. He wanted a very simple, unpretentious hut instead of a fancy restaurant. They named the hut-restaurant Cabin BBQ. At the end of 2003, the first Cabin BBQ was opened in Shenzhen, adjacent to their existing information consulting office. ?
 As of today, Cabin BBQ has seven branches, including one in Yingchuan in the northwest of China, far away from Shenzhen. They are also planning on entering the Kenyan market with their next Cabin BBQ. Sui said, “From a simple joke out of desperation to a viable business, we feel like we’re in a dream!” Thanks to the opening of their first Cabin BBQ, which became a very successful, profitable business, they were able to pay themselves a salary while covering the overhead of the consulting firm, which is still not profitable.

In the beginning of 2006, Mark said he wanted to leave our team to start learning Chinese. Mark spent a whole year just studying Chinese at Shenzhen University. He is very capable of learning. After just more than one year, he started reading A Dream of Red Mansions, the most famous work of Chinese classical literature. Mark’s Chinese friends often tease him when they see him read the book (as reading this book is often considered old fashioned by the young generation -ed.). 

Although they are not working together any more, Mark and his Chinese friends get together often. They go hiking, swimming, and especially, all activities involving nature and Chinese tradition. Sui asked Mark to come back to work with him again. Mark promised that he would come back after 2008. Sui was pleased to hear that but had no clue why he needed to wait until after 2008. Sui felt that it was probably a personal issue. 

Regarding Mark’s personal life, Sui knows very little. He knew that some of Mark’s siblings are in the USA and some are in Kenya. Mark rarely spoke of his family. He only talked about his career, education etc. Sui learned more about Mark’s family only after his mother’s visit to Shenzhen.

Mark’s mother Ruth came to visit Mark about three years ago. She left Sui deeply impressed. She is a woman, but one almost has to borrow the word gentleman to describe her. She plays the piano beautifully. She was Mark’s first piano teacher. 

There is something in which Mark put Sui, a real Chinese, to shame. Mark started to become interested in Chinese calligraphy. Mark thought this was an authentic representation of Chinese culture. Once making up his mind, Mark soon found a teacher. He even learnt the Xing (cursive) style of calligraphy. Sui remarked, “I first thought he was just kidding. After he showed us his work, we were all shocked. I admit, although I am Chinese, his Chinese calligraphy is much better than mine.” 

Not long ago, Mark visited his brother Barack and gifted him with his Chinese calligraphy. “I saw Mark do the Chinese idiom in calligraphy. But I promised him to keep its content a secret. It is between him and his brother.” 

Mark’s friends did not find out about his relationship with Senator Obama through the media. Mark revealed it by himself after he had been exposed by Times. (Note: Although Mark’s Chinese friends did not read the story published by Times, Mark had to admit his identity to his friends to explain the foreign media’s intense pursuit of him. He feared that they would find out about it sooner or later – ed.) On July 27th, some friends invited Mark to go to an outdoor photography event. The organizer of the event was a Chinese-American, ‘Hua Jiang,’ (meaning a gardener) who had heard from Sui a few times about this American friend of Sui’s. What intrigued Sui and ‘Hua Jiang’ was that Mark was trying to avoid having pictures taken all day long. They all knew he was a passionate photographer, but he refused to pose as the subject before anyone else’s camera. 

Everyone was puzzled by Mark’s actions on that day and wondered what was wrong with him. On the way home, Mark started talking: “You know that I am from Kenya. You know that I have a brother in America. My brother is Barack Obama” Sui stopped breathing for a moment. “What? How come you never told us?” Mark explained that he never wanted to tell anyone, but now, referring to the news article from the United Kingdom, the cat’s out of the bag. Everyone stood there awestruck in mute silence.

On the same evening, some pictures from that day’s event got uploaded to the Internet. At midnight, Sui called ‘Hua Jiang’, asking him to delete all pictures containing Mark. Sui had to explain the real reason.
 Since then, Sui has not been left in peace. He gets hundreds of messages and phone calls daily. Everybody wishes to get information about Mark through him. He has even received girls’ love letters addressed to the married man. Mark’s Chinese friends all share the same view about Mark. He is intelligent and well educated - an intellectual with high class wishing to keep his modest, simple, anonymous life in a rented apartment in Shenzhen, a city with a population of millions. Mark’s Chinese friends also believe that Mark likes China, especially now, since he married a Chinese girl from Henan. 

Chinationreport is not responsible for the accuracy of the content of this article.
The original article in Chinese was posted on www.wenxuecity.com with credit to Nangfang Daily

by Virginia Hoge
August 27, 2008

I have been noticing the alarming amount of China-bashing going on in our media leading up to, during, and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but where are they getting their “information” from? This is the troubling question, one that has not been addressed by anyone in the country (that I know of), certainly not in the national headlines.

For instance, a recent article in Huffington Post was entitled “Mixed legacy likely as China’s Olympics conclude”. More of the same came from the New York Times whose headline read “After the Glow of Games, What Next for China?” (two blog columnists at the New York Times conspicuously have bashed China: Nicholas Kristoff and Mike Nizza).

Mixed legacy likely as China’s Olympics conclude? The “mixed legacy”, from what I can see, lies with the Media, more importantly with their sources, and nowhere else.

Almost ALL American media has jumped on the “China-bashing” bandwagon, and has been sounding off about “human rights abuses in China”, picking up information sourced by - and here is the point, WHO? Two groups mainly:

Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders.

Yet Reporters Without Borders has been outed for years as nothing less than a U.S. State Department funded propaganda arm with links to Otto Reich (from Contra days) - see here http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html.  I found literally thousands of press releases designed expressly for the Beijing Games, here: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25234

I first became aware of them when they mounted an obvious and ugly “media propaganda siege” against the Beijing float in the 2008 Rose Parade in my hometown of Pasadena, CA, Fall 2007. They displayed their “handcuff” graphic on a large billboard in town (a graphic photographed all over the world) and took over the local press (who were already openly sourcing a right-wing extremist, and therefore easy “prey”) barraging my city with more “information” than a 3rd year History of Human Rights Abuse in China PhD student could ever care about!! They also co-opted the the tiny Falun Gong club at Cal Tech.

One small moment of “poetic justice” occurred at the end of all this ugliness, when no one less than Diana Barahona (author of Reporters Without Borders Unmasked) was there, unintentionally, in the audience of the parade.

I wrote about it here, but only after ALL of the local press refused to address the issue: http://pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com/2008/01/reporter-without-borders-media-siege-of.html

Among other writings about this group, I wrote a recap of their anti-Olympic’s campaign. As a graphic designer, I could not help but notice their blatant use of propaganda, via clearly expensive and trendy graphics: http://pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com/2008/04/reporters-without-borders-anti-olympics.html.

More than anything I have discovered about this group, what is most alarming to me is their proliferation within our Media. They are used as an almost constant source for “news” on a daily basis. Yet, one finds right out there in the open, information coming from them, that is either biased or bogus.

Take their 2008 Annual Report “Freedom of the Press Worldwide” http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25595.  Reporters Without Borders has built a reputation (and bank account) by outing censorship of journalists around the world - yet give this ridiculous 2008 assessment for the United States, which contains almost nothing more than:

ONE (count ‘em) Iraqi journalist detained in Guantanamo

ONE blogger, Josh Wolf, got three paragraphs detailing his plight

A big plug for the Shield Law

A plug for the Freedom of Information Act (an act that has become a tool for the Right to attack public institutions like public schools)

And that’s it! (come on!)

People around the world have called RWB out for giving out the wrong information, seemingly based on how tight they are with the U.S. - or not. Here, Hossein Derakhshan writes about their misleading “information” on Iran:
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/hossein_derakhshan/2006/12/reporters_without_borders_rsf.html

excerpt:
“Reporters Sans Frontier, sent out a press release announcing that Iran has blocked access to The New York Times, implying that the Islamic republic has expanded censorship to Western news websites and this is in line with the new anti-Western policies of president Ahmadinejad.

A few hours after that, through trusted journalists and friends in Tehran, I verified the report and realized that almost none of the websites mentioned in the report, including the New York Times were filtered.”

In Rwanda, they noticed some funky stuff going on as well: Rwanda: Reporters Without Borders Pulls a Scam Again
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802290947.html

This incredibly prolific spread of information (I would call it “dirt”) condemning other countries is super-alarming to me, because I often find it clearly politically motivated. Yes, the information exists, but what is not mentioned is how it has been selected and literally shoved down the throats of the entire nation, via the Media, via Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch.

I wrote about the obvious benefits of all this to the Bush Administration here: http://pasadenanewprogressive.blogspot.com/2008/08/bush-gets-gold.html

Human Rights Watch is up for questioning as well.

For more information on Human Rights Watch, Read Paul Treanor’s excellent (and forgotten) article here:
Who is behind Human Rights Watch?
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Paul.Treanor/HRW.html

Robin Kelley, professor of history and American studies and ethnicity at  USC, also noted in a recent lecture that Human Rights Watch does not currently address ANY human rights issues in the United States (unlike their past good work with prison abuse here).

I also noticed that they have “stepped in” as THE most-used source, replacing Reporters Without Borders during the Olympics. Could the fact that Human Rights Watch opened a headquarters in Paris last Fall have anything to do with that? How close are the two organizations?

I’m not saying this group is all bad, I am NOT saying that human rights are not important.

But both organization’s “work” in helping America’s media to condemn the Beijing Olympics, is nothing less than highly suspicious and needs to be looked into, if only to prevent something like this from happening again. These embarrassing media games, are below the dignity of our great country.

That said, the grace of the Chinese in ignoring this petty “media siege” and continuing on with their work producing the Games, is awe-inspiring.

What is wrong with this picture? answer - since when do protester's carry signs with corporate logos on them?

Monkey Business - this ridiculous and staged photograph illustrates exactly Who is wearing the handcuffs

Reporters Without Borders billboard erected in Pasadena, CA - just in time for the Rose Parade (note the channel 7 logo in the corner)

Same handcuff image was displayed all over the world (how much did this Graphic campaign cost? who paid for it?)

DENVER, United States — Barack Obama has no intention to transform and challenge the one-China policy should he be elected as the US president, his senior foreign policy advisors said Monday.

Gregory B. Craig, a long-term advisor of Obama on foreign affairs, told a press conference that the Democratic presidential nominee to be would observe the one-China policy stipulated in a set of institution of understanding between China and the US.

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks to supporters at a campaign event at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport, Iowa, August 25, 2008. [Agencies]

The Illinois senator has made it clear that the relations with China is a very important and key one for the US, said Ambassador Wendy R. Sherman, a former aide for former US State Secretary Madeleine Albright, at a press conference during the Democratic National Convention here.

Obama will be officially nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate at the gathering. “People said that the 20th century is American century, and the 21th is Asian century,” she said.

She said that she has no doubt Obama would visit China in his early presidency if he is elected in November.

“We are economically interdependent on each other, and there are many places that we can work closely together as China becomes a more and more responsible stakeholder,” she said, citing the six-party talks as an example.

On the Taiwan issue, she said Obama’s policy will be the continuation of American presidents’ one-China stance and that he hopes to see the constructive relations between two sides.

By James Shen

I recently wrote an article “Mainstream Western media stages Blemishing China Marathon” which was posted on a number of blogs and websites. Many comments were received, most were generally supportive or partly positive, while a few readers expressed their criticisms especially over my observations on politics and problems in the US or the influence of the mainstream Western media.

Some Western readers felt the discomfort of being criticized by an supposedly “outsider” (BTW, I resent that idea because I am a Chinese American with 24 years of experience of studying, living and working in the West), but it is in fact an intended simulation exercise for them to get a taste of how it feels to be criticized by outsiders. Hopefully this will help some develop the skill set to see things from different perspectives.

There are also comments that urge me to write follow up articles either to continue criticisms on the Western media or to provide more balanced and less emotional observations on differences and problems of China and the West.

My first article was inspired by a total off-balance in the Western media coverage of Beijing Olympics, and the intention was to draw attention from people to this issue and urge Western media and their reporters to rekindle their much preached doctrines of objectivity and independence. It was the hope of the article to promote the Olympic spirits of mutual understanding and tolerance so that we can share “a better and peaceful world” in “these increasingly troubled times.”

The article also was not intended to invite or intensify arguments about different views people have about the world around them, be it religious freedom in China or racial tensions in the US.

I am neither motivated nor qualified to offer much observation on a wide range of issues and challenges facing both the West and China. I am an ordinary person who usually enjoys blog writing in Chinese about family, friends, food, fun and travel. I am or was a Christian who is now increasingly attracted by the fundamentals of Daoism and Buddhism. I am more interested in learning than offering at this point. So let this article be the final one from me about the issue of Western media coverage on China.

The party is finally over

2008 Olympics just closed in Beijing and the central scene of the closing ceremony was a grand party between the audience, volunteers, officials and athletes from 204 countries. It may not be as spectacular as the opening ceremony but the idea of harmony and friendship was nevertheless presented successfully.

Although I was hoping that the presentation from London would be more centered on old British traditions, double-deck bus and umbrellas did give us a unique and truthful image of London – the one I knew very well. Let’s wish London all the best with a hassle free Olympics in 2012. By the way, it was not my intention to encourage anyone to protest in London in 2012, and the Chinese is encouraged to show the world the wisdom of restraint and generosity not to retaliate with any law-breaking protests, biased coverage or vandalism in the 2012 London Olympics.

Time to clean up China’s own house

As for the Chinese, there are a lot to be concerned about after the grand party of 2008 Beijing Olympics is over. It is time to clean up the post-party mess in Beijing and start to refocus on domestic issues and various ongoing and pending reforms.

While the China coverage by mainstream Western media is often tainted by self-serving motives and tend to be unconstructive in many ways, many problems or symptoms pointed out by foreign papers are areas where China needs improvements. Without doubt, the contemporary challenges faced by China are much more extensive and complex than what the Western media can comprehend, and these needs to be tackled one at a time at a pace which does not upset the country’s stability so that the fruits of reform so far can be preserved and shared.

I applaud the Chinese government in making the country’s “stability” its top priority ahead of all other objectives. It is also a great relief to see this Chinese government put its emphasis on “social harmony”, “people-orientation”, “environmental conservation” and “high quality economic development”.

Granted, there is still a vast pool of problems facing the country, especially at the local levels and in less-economically developed areas. There are structural flaws in the Chinese political system, government organization, legal system and social-economic hierarchy that need to be reformed. Corruption is still rampant, environments are damaged, and the fruits of 30 years of reform are not shared equally by all Chinese people. On top of these, there are territorial, racial and religious issues which are deeply-rooted in China’s history.

How should the Chinese deal with these? Should these be resolved through direct confrontations between the people, interest groups and the government by means of protests, vandalism, movements, negative press coverage, pressure tactics or violence & riots? If these confrontational approaches don’t work, should the Chinese seek a regime change? Who is going to take over? Will the new regime be a better or a worse one? Will there be another cultural revolution, more turmoil or even an internal war?

The Chinese people already paid a dear price for following the revolution theory of Karl Marx which advocated for achieving society transformation and resolve class conflicts through violence? Enough is enough!

It was the fear of endless internal political turmoil and the cultural revolution, regardless whether they were started from top to bottom or from bottom to top, that drove me and many of my peers away from China. Should there be more turmoil in the country, China will suffer, the Chinese people will suffer, and, make no mistake about it, the whole world will suffer too. Imagine the disruptions to the global supply chain and the international financial market, destabilization of surrounding countries, massive legal or illegal immigration, to name just a few. So, think again now, does the West still want to see turmoil in China?

Learn from the West selectively and wisely

With reference to this topic, there are lessons to be drawn from the Chinese history. Faced with threats of colonization by Western powers in the 19th century, Li Hongzhang, a prime minister and a leading reformer of the Qing Dynasty, suggested that “take what is strong (from the West) to make up our weakness and pick what are good and suitable to follow” (取彼之长，益我之短，择善而从).

There is much to learn from the West by the Chinese government in areas such as the tactful handling and use of media (both domestic and international), public relations and creation of legal and peaceful venues for aggravated citizens to express their grief and opinions. There is also much to learn from the West by the Chinese people in areas such as taking advantage of peaceful and legal ways to express anger and grievances as well as government lobbying. Nevertheless, don’t learn from the illegal Western protestors and hooligans at Beijing Olympics – they are bad examples to be avoided.

At the end of the day, resolving China’s problems will depend on the wisdom of the Chinese people and leadership which are to be drawn mostly from the rich Chinese culture, traditions and heritage. Learning from the West should be selective without external pressures and any attempts to transplant other country’s success will most likely fail. A system with Chinese characteristics is definitely the way to go.

China does not need the approval of the West

Constructive suggestions from the West, whether from media, politicians, business people and friendly groups and citizens, should always be encouraged and heard with great respect. For those who are hostile or unfriendly, however, the best response to them is simply ignoring them. Arguing with those who have preconditioned mindset, questionable objectives and ill intentions is a waste of time.
“China doesn’t need the approval of the Western media” and “China has emerged as an economic power in the last twenty years without the blessing of the West,” a reader commented on my first article. Indeed, every Chinese has worked really hard to get to where the country is now, and the “mouth water” of the unfriendly Western media can not take it away or dampen China’s prospects.

Final suggestion

My final advice to the Western media – Try to be objective, constructive, respectful and gracious. Too much bad mouthing will only serve to further shrink its influence, creditability and relevance. Learn from many leading Western businesses in China which have both contributed to the country and thrived together with it.

My final suggestion to the Chinese people is borrowed from Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy” – “Go your own way; let others talk!”

————————————————————————————-

James Shen is a US-based independent business analyst supporting multinational companies that seek cohesive growth in China. He is a native of Beijing and a naturalized U.S. citizen. He studied in the UK in the 1980s and has lived in the US in the past 19 years.

Synopsis

This is a follow-up article of “Mainstream Western media stages Blemishing China Marathon”. With the Beijing Olympics closing successfully, the author calls China to clean up its own house and draw selectively from the West. However, China’s past economic success was not built on Western blessing and it does not need the approval of the West. Those who are hostile and ill-intentioned should simply be ignored and deemed irrelevant.

Source: Chinadaily.com.cn / 2008-08-25 09:02

‘TAIPEI - Taiwan is considering building a bridge linking Kinmen, one of its outlying islands, to Xiamen city in Fujian Province on the mainland, the Central News Agency said on Sunday, in a sign of improving cross-Straits ties.

“The idea, talked about by many Kinmen residents, of building a bridge between Kinmen and Xiamen in southeastern Fujian province could also be discussed,” the agency quoted Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou as saying.

The government will complete a proposal by the end of the year on whether constructing the bridge would be feasible, Ma was quoted as saying in Kinmen.

Ma, who was in Kinmen to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1958 artillery battle between Taiwan and the mainland, also said the island planned to offer landing visas or multiple visas to mainlanders visiting Kinmen, to boost tourism exchanges.

Ma has been unveiling a slew of policies to boost trade ties with the mainland, such as allowing more tourists to visit Taiwan and increasing direct flights.’

Chinationreport considers this news to be very significant for the future of Taiwan and China relationship.

According to Wikipedia/Kinmen:

Kinmen or Jinmen means literally “Golden Door” or “Golden Gate” in Mandarin. It is administered by Republic of China (ROC) government. But it is claimed as part of Fujian’s Quanzhou Prefecture by the People’s Republic of China. The island was the site of extensive shelling between PRC and ROC forces in the 1950s and 1960s and was a major issue in the 1960 United States Presidential Election between Kennedy and Nixon. In the 1950s, the United States threatened to use nuclear weapons against the PRC if it attacked the island.

Kinmen was originally a military preserve. However, the island was returned to the civilian government in the mid-1990s, and travel to and from Taiwan was allowed.

Kinmen witnesses history: ‘Retaking the mainland’

‘Wu Wang Zai Ju’ stone written by Chiang Kai Sek, photographed by seasurfer on 6.7.2005 in Kinmen.

中文: 蔣中正的毋忘在莒石碑 金門縣的莒光樓

English: Calligraphy by former President Chiang Kai-shek (Taiwan) etched on a rock in Kinmen reads, “Forget not that you’re in J?” - an allusion to the Warring States Period when the State of Qi, cornered into the City of Ju by the State of Yan, successfully counterattacked and retook its territory. This is intended as an analogy to the situation between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China. Other slogans alluding to “retaking the mainland” can still be found in Kinmen.

Xiamen is a coastal city in Fujian province, People’s Republic of China. It looks out to the Taiwan Strait and particulary Kinmen. Xiamen and the surrounding countryside are famous for being an ancestral home to overseas Chinese and one of China’s earliest Special Economic Zones in the 1980s. It covers an area of 1 565 km² with a local population of 5 million. It was recently named China’s 2nd most livable city.

View of Xiamen from Gulangyu Island’s mountain peak. Foreground: Gulangyu. Background: Xiamen
Taken 2008-06-15, picture released in public domain
Text source: Wikipedia.org/Xiamen

—————————————————

Please share your thoughts on the future of Taiwan and Mainland China. It is our goal to facilitate dialog and increase understanding of different views and perspectives. Serious bloggers only please.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinmen

By: Chinationreport Editor

Allegedly three Chinese Gymnasts are under 16, the minimum age allowed to compete in the Olympic gymnastics. This incident has caused serious global consequences, namely:

• America lost one to two gold medals in the Beijing Games.
• The hard work of American gymnasts is not fairly awarded and recognized.
• The feelings of 300 million Americans are hurt.
• The feelings of Chinese gymnasts are also hurt. They insist that they did nothing wrong.

The Chinese government denies this allegation and has since shown various official documents and explanation to prove its innocence.

According to numerous sources, the pre-war Iraq intelligence was forged. The Huffington Post reports on August 5th, 2008:

A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.
Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery - adamantly denied by the White House - was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

By now we also know that the forged CIA intelligence has had and is still having some severe global consequences, namely:

• A war has been waged against Iraq.
• Saddam was captured and executed, followed by domestic violence in Iraq and increased tensions between US and Iran.
• Over 4000 American soldiers lost their lives.
• An Opinion Research Business (ORB) survey conducted August 12-19, 2007 estimated 1,220,580 violent deaths due to the Iraq War (range of 733,158 to 1,446,063). Out of a national sample of 1,499 Iraqi adults, 22% had one or more members of their household killed due to the Iraq War (poll accuracy +/-2.4%). – Source: Wikipedia.org/Iraq-War
• During an NPR interview on March 3rd 2008, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, co-author of The Three Trillion Dollar War explains that Americans will spend decades treating the physical and psychological wounds of Iraq veterans — and when the economic consequences of the invasion are taken into account, the costs are staggering. – NPR.org
• Indirect consequences may include: US record budget deficit, record oil price, US and global financial crisis

On August 24, 2008, I searched ‘CIA Forged Document’ and ‘under age gymnasts’ on Google with the following results:

Results 1 - 10 of about 59,600 for cia forged document

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,110,000 for under age gymnasts

My dear loyal visitors:

I am not trying to defend China on this age controversy. I am not trying to accuse the USA on its CIA intelligence. History will be our best judge. I ask why our freedom loving Western citizens, given the dramatic different impact of these two incidents, you are more outraged by China’s unproven cheating than America’s well-documented lying?

If China is proven wrong, the medals can be returned to the USA. When USA is proven wrong, can any lives be returned to their loved ones?

James Shen’s response to Joe’s criticisms on his article

“Mainstream Western media stages Blemishing China Marathon” at www.Chinationreport.com

Thank you, Joe, for your patience to read my article “Mainstream Western media stages Blemishing China Marathon” and your criticisms.

You were right to point out some quotation discrepancies. Indeed, there are different versions of translations for the saying of Confucius (己所不欲，勿施于人), and I agree that your version of translation is more suitable in the context of this article. Also you mentioned about the biblical source of “let he who is not sin cast the first stone”. Again there are multiple sources including John 8:1-11, Matthew 7:12 in the Bible citing this criticism of Jesus on Pharisees. I have updated my article to reflect your suggestions. Thank you for helping me improve this article.

However, I have to say you have misread some parts of my article and I feel obliged to clarify and respond.

I do know Barack Obama is neither a Muslim nor the “anti-Christ” and I only cited media reports of these lies to show how some Western media would like us to believe them despite how obvious the truths are. For the record, I happen to be an Obama supporter.

I also happen to know very well what cannibal or cannibalism is. While my English may or may not be as good as yours, it certainly is much better than the Chinese of most, if not all, Westerners living in China.

Your comments seem to suggest that I was advocating for the official Chinese media, but if you read my article carefully then you realize I was only hoping that there was more positive coverage on China by the mainstream Western media so that people who do wish to read about some positive developments in China do not have to rely exclusively on the official media.

You also indicated that I do not know what is really going on in China. I don’t know where that came from, but let me tell you I spend at least three months in China each year, work with ordinary Chinese employees routinely, have a blog in Chinese where I share thoughts with Chinese bloggers, read internet news in Chinese often, and have the experience of worshipping in house churches, government-approved churches and international churches in Beijing. Do these convince you that I may know just a little more than you or Western reporters about China?

However, I am particularly disappointed that you have repeatedly referred China and the Chinese government as “your country” and “your government” in your comments to me despite my statement in my article that I am a Chinese American and a naturalized American citizen. For your information, my government is the US government and I am electing a new president in November. Regardless how some Americans would like to discriminate or prejudice against my ethnicity and race, I refuse to give up my rights and entitlements as an American and no one can take away my pride as a patriotic American with Chinese heritage.

Indeed, the rights of minorities in America have improved dramatically in the past 50 years. But by no means has racism submerged in today’s Western societies. While you may wish to dispute it, my personal feeling is that racism and racial prejudices are simply taking new forms, and racial tension is growing in political, social-economic, legal and cultural arenas in Western countries. Your own assumption that I, a Chinese American, am somehow an outsider serves to show the racial mindset of many Americans.

Your criticized my citations of various political and social problems as well as foreign policy issues in the US and the West. You also implied explicitly that I am somehow ignorant about the foreign policies of “your country” although I clearly indicated in my article that I am a Chinese American who has lived here for 19 years and received advanced education in the West.

If studying, living and working in the UK and the US for a total of 24 years does not qualify me to comment on the problems and politics of “your country” where I live, work, pay taxes and vote, why do you feel those Western journalists who have little or no living experience in China know that country better than me and deserve to bash China regularly for its policies and problems?

It is obvious you felt the discomfort of “your country” being criticized by an “outsider”, but please don’t get too excited about it – it is not good for your health – I learnt it from having to deal with similar discomfort every day

Well, I have to admit my article was intended to give you and people in the West a taste of that discomfort in the hope you realize how we, as Americans with Chinese heritage, feel when China is pushed around by over-simplistic, ignorant and biased media reports routinely.

The point of my article is neither to criticize the West nor to enter into debates about race and international politics, but rather about “don’t do unto others what you don’t wish to do unto yourself” and “to live and let live”. It is obvious there are differences and disagreements between countries, races, religions and interest groups, if we choose to focus too much on them, we will argue and fight forever without peace, no to mention living in a better world.

Lastly, you spoke about appointing a Uighur or Tibetan to the position of the Chinese premier. Perhaps you are not aware of the fact that Uighurs and Tibetans are already well-represented in the governments of their respective autonomous regions. People from these two minorities also hold important positions, such as the Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress, in the Chinese political system. Dalai Lama himself held an important position at the CPPCC before rebelling in 1959.

As to a Uighur or Tibetan premier for China, I am quite hopeful you will see this happen by the time we have an American Indian as President of the US.

With reference to the remarks that China does not allow Tibetans to read religious texts, I am surprised that you actually bought the story since you quickly pointed it out that Obama is not a Muslim. I have not been to Tibet, but at the least I do know there are many monasteries and monks in Tibet. If they don’t read religious texts in the monasteries, do they study and read English instead? No wonder the Western journalists can communicate with them so well.

Since you touched on the issue of minorities and minority regions in China, let me share another personal story with you to show where I am coming from. I have always wanted a big brother from very young. The fact is I do have a big brother but I hardly know him at all. He was a well-educated young man with a lot of future, but he responded to the callings of the government and volunteered to relocate from Beijing to Kashgar, Western Uighur in late 1960s to support the development there as a technician for the local frozen-meat factory. He passed away two years ago in Uighur at the young age of 59 due to various diseases associated with the hardship he endured there. Make no mistake about it, he was just one of the many many Han Chinese who volunteered to help Uighur and Tibet in the past fifty years. For whatever that is worth, they deserve to be remembered and our respect.

……………………..

Finally, I apologize if I hurt your feelings in any way because it is not my intention to be mean. Wisdoms from the Bible and my Chinese heritage teach us to be more generous and not mean-spirited, but I guess we are all too weak when provoked. This is probably why the Chinese culture always calls for harmony and avoidance of direct confrontations.

The Bible teaches us “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9) and “…be at peace with one another” (Mark 9:49). Let me conclude by offering my reconciliations to you despite our disagreements. Let’s focus on our common values and interests rather than underscoring differences, and join hands in the hope of a better and more unified world….

…. if not anything else, for the sake of our children and their children!

Joe’s comments on my article : Mainstream Western media stages “Blemishing China Marathon”

You should read more carefully. Barack Obama isn’t a Muslim. Confucius said that you shouldn’t do unto others as you would not want done to you. You might have been quoting Jesus in Matthew 7:12. I’m also not sure if you know what a cannibal is. Eating scorpions is only cannibalism if you are another scorpion.

In case people only like to read what Xinhua tells them or watch cctv, these same criticisms of China are available from Indian, Korean…media.

There are a plurality of sources for media in the West be they independent, not for profit, single issue, for profit, institutional, governmental, non-governmental, international. Also, almost every country has an English language paper which western viewers can read wherever the country is …Xinhua is a government mouthpiece.

To talk about CNN putting up phony pictures and praising Xinhua is a horrible hippocracy. Some of the pictures in Chinese papers are flat on their face fakes to the naked eye.

It is a huge step towards infantilism to believe what your government tells you time and time again. It is worse off to portray run of the mill propaganda as a positive Chinese trait.

It is a moot point to talk about other countries biases when you don’t even know what is going on in your own country. If people get news from official sources and foreign sources aren’t let in, then it is a monument to self deception for someone to think they know what is going on anywhere.

It is also absurd that you talk about racial tensions becoming worse in the last few decades in the US. Do you think the situation was really better in the 1930’s? The 1800’s? Even comparing the 1980’s to today, you believe racial tensions have increased?

I don’t agree with Bush on the vast majority of issues, I believe the war in Iraq was completely wrong and I do believe there is a lot of media bias towards China in General, but to show Western foreign policy as retrograde in the last few decades is not really sound either. While World war 1 killed more than 9 million people and World war 2 killed 50 million. Since then, however, the cold war resulted in the Korean War and Vietnam, but the total death tolls in both wars combined was less than half of World war 1’s.

Countries such as Japan and Germany were engaged as allies and enjoyed great leaps in prosperity, and stability instead of being humiliated and robbed. The US is unique in history of ending wars and leaving without family ties as in the old European system. Did Germany do this? Did England? Did Japan?

Past choices by China are the reason that it wasn’t the world’s richest country a long time ago. It’s allies as well as its fellow communist countries have also suffered economically. Chinese support for Burma has meant nothing but poverty and death for a nation bounding with minerals. Chinese support of Sudan, has left Arabs richer, but has meant that blacks are victims of genocide with Chinese weapons or being pushed into deserts to die. Chinese Weapons to Zimbabwe go to a dictator who has completely ruined his country’s economy and killed his own people…

To bring up this lovely 5,000 years is really to look past the fact that the country itself is less than 50 years old and that large swaths of it are regions of other groups such as in Xinjiang. If you want to talk about a Chinese way in reference to the country, then why not make an Uighur or Tibetan premier and then prove how unified you are instead of sending a bunch of han to live in their regions and not letting them read their religious texts?

Despite reports, Chinese hope Olympic guest love their “house”

By Teresa Shen

It was a special moment, to see Li Ning touch the fire to the majestic torch. The flames spiraled swiftly up and burst into fiery orange, strong and determined. An estimated 15% of the world population watched this, a historic moment that lit the hearts of many people.

The Beijing Olympics is in full swing now, whether or not one likes the idea of China hosting it. Soon, with a flourishing Chinese brush, the closing ceremony will draw a hopefully spectacular period to this world party. It is sometimes hard to believe that so much hard work, training, time, money, excitement and genuine feeling can be put into a short 16 days. But then, it is like my mom hosting a Christmas party for friends. She busied herself senseless scrubbing the floors, cleaning the whole house, and making tons of food with the sole wish to make her guests happy. When they left, my family and I ended up eating leftovers for a week. But the guests loved our house, just as the Chinese hope their foreign guests love their “house”. It seems that the uncontrollable flow of tourists has been unhindered by the negative portrait the main media paints of China.

For more than a week, I have not slept a full night. I set three alarms before I sleep, on my watch, my cell phone, and my clock to get up at a scheduled time and watch the games live on CCTV. Everyone seems to get a cheer in these Games. The Chinese home crowd loves to thunder out their approval. Every athlete on the field, even one who might snatch away the gold from a favored Chinese athlete, receives energetic applause. After all, these are the Olympics, and the host should be gracious.

However, despite the spirit of the Games demonstrated by Olympics volunteers, athletes, and most Chinese people and tourists, the mainstream Western media continues their negative reports. Many criticisms seems quite strained, even amusing. I was confused by the news of 300 Bibles being confiscated from Americans who tried to bring them into China. What would they have done with these Bibles? Sell them? Or did they truly think that China needed those 300 Bibles, when the country prints more than 8 million a year? The mainstream media cries for religious freedom in China. Maybe I was dreaming that my family and I worshipped in a Beijing church, stampeded for chocolate eggs on Easter in a Beijing garden, and saw Bibles on sale at Beijing bookstores? I did not receive a bullet in my head for being a Christian. Whatever the Bible bringers wanted to do, they have the obligation to respect the law of any country they are entering, even if it feels idiotic. Sulking in the airport despite being asked to leave is quite embarrassing behavior. One side note, I have never tasted a dog penis, or seen one on a plate in China. CNN really likes to go to some weird, rare restaurants and put it all over their article.

So far, there were surprisingly few protests in Beijing, except for isolated incidents involving mainly tourists. I fail to realize what vandalizing a Novotel Peace Hotel room in Beijing, then running away without paying the bill, will do for the development of religious freedom. Unless having this freedom means I can walk into the Shawnee Inn and start splashing paint on the walls? Little groups of protests have been organized in Beijing, with the mainstream media drooling after them. It was no wonder that the demonstrators were detained immediately, since none of the protests were in the protest zones! Although I love the right to protest, in many countries demonstrators must stay within a restricted area. My parents protested in England against the Chinese Government’s handling of the Tiananmen incident in 1989. It was a very cold morning and my dad stepped outside the protest zone to warm himself under the sun. He was promptly handcuffed by British police, dragged away, and thrown into a cell without food or water. Because my mom wanted to stay with him, she also spent many hours crying for coffee in a separate cell. After their release, the press was not interested in hearing my parents’ story. It seems strange that now the media races after the illegal protestors, encouraging their infringement of law with positive reports. Luckily, most of the Chinese public seems unperturbed by protestors, intent on just celebrating the hard-won Games. One response from an old Chinese lady to a protestor in the Tiananmen Square was to fan him. She probably couldn’t understand a word the protestor was yelling. Seeing how hot it was outside, she started fanning him in sympathy. Maybe if the protestors are really concerned about human rights and freedom for China’s people, they should start shouting their slogans in Chinese? How else would the message be understood?

While the mainstream media competes to find skeletons in China’s closet, our wonderful athletes compete for the gold. Michael Phelps has cut through the water for those record-breaking eight gold medals. Track and Field competitions are in full motion. The tough, suspenseful swings and leaps of the gymnastics battle have finally ended with a beautiful gold for Shawn Johnson. She deserved this one, and her friendly smile towards everyone was quite touching. Whatever age the young Chinese gymnasts are, they also deserved their share in the glory with their amazing performance. Personally, I do think some have features looking too young to be that of sixteen year olds. As of now, there is not enough evidence to prove it. Overall, after all the years of preparation, the Olympics are coming to a blissful end. Many countries’ leaders have gone to China. Many tourists have cheered in the stadiums and wandered around the real Beijing. Many Chinese people have fulfilled their hopes to host a grand world party and welcome friends of across the globe. Hopefully, this can be the beginning of understanding between cultures, and more constructive dialogue in areas like human rights and environmentalism. Already, positive changes are happening in China. Despite the media barrage about the smog in Beijing, the Chinese Government had implemented a $17 billion plan to lessen pollution way before the Olympics. Though it does not seem to have worked yet, the effort is sincere. Labor laws guaranteeing overtime pay and a social security program have been passed. Much more will come, but at the pace China can adjust to. Change cannot, and should not, be forced.

As more people see and feel other cultures, they will become less daunted by the differences that often lead to fear and condemnation. For those who have been following the Olympics, enjoy the last few days of the splendid party!

The author is a 17 year old Chinese American (ABC) high school student in the US who studied in the US and China intermittently. She is a published bilingual (English and Chinese) novelist and a student columnist for the local newspaper in the US which published this article recently.