Chinese Sphere: Wrinkles in Relations

The People’s Daily, the Chinese government’s official newspaper, published an interesting commentary titled, “Learn to Listen to Public Opinion from the Internet.” Penned by an associate professor at the Central Party School, the country’s premier institution for the training of future CCP cadres, it addresses the recent “human flesh search” phenomenon, how it has led to the downfall of certain government officials, and the attempts of one city to ban them:

The development of the Internet is not just an information revolution. It is also an essential part of the development process of political democracy. Through this important bridge to public opinion, the party and government can, with the help of the people, perfect the management mechanism of cadres, the disciplinary mechanism of party members, and the enforcement mechanisms of the judiciary.

Today, there are quite a few officials who are feeling more pressured, that it’s tough to be an official because there are countless eyeballs keeping close watch over them. If you are carrying out your duties responsibly, what do you have to be afraid of? Some people feel pressured because they cannot abuse their power and engage in under-the-table transactions any longer. Now there are many officials who have changed their behavior, become more disciplined, and do not dare to exceed their authority.

Is the Chinese government allowing the Internet to develop into a kind of civil society? Or is this an attempt by the central government to keep the local government in line?

While room for expression seems to be expanding in China, journalists in Hong Kong working beats in China are finding their activities coming under tighter restrictions. Ming Pao, the leading newspaper in Hong Kong, laments this recent development:

Today the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council announced the “Regulations for Hong Kong and Macao Journalists Reporting in the Mainland.” The key portion of those regulations is that journalists in the Mainland must carry and be ready to produce at all times a press pass issued by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government on behalf of the All-China Journalists Association. This is a restrictive rule which only adds to the obstacles faced by Hong Kong and Macao reporters operating in China. This very clearly goes against the trend of the Mainland opening up. Also, there needs to be strengthened communication and increased understanding in order to speed up integration between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macao. These new rules will most certainly hinder that vision from coming true.

The restrictions may be due to the Chinese government’s wariness over the abundance of sensitive political anniversaries this year, such as the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident.

The gloomy outlook for the Chinese economy has caused much worry in Taiwan where exports to China dropped nearly 40% last year. The Liberty Times, one of Taiwan’s leading newspapers, sounds an alarm over the island’s over-dependence upon its neighbor:

It can be said that in the face of the global financial tsunami, China is already drowning and is in no position to help others. This is not surprising. Recently China’s leader reiterated that China could only take care of itself and was not able to save the world. This statement clearly tells us that Taiwan’s economy cannot rely on China. It’s a dead end. Regretfully, President Ma, who continues to relax restrictions on investments in China, seems to be totally oblivious. ...

Wen Jiabao stated that it would be difficult for China to maintain an 8% GDP growth rate. Anyone who is sensitive towards the Chinese economy will easily detect the warning signs of deterioration in the Chinese economy from Wen’s remarks. At this present moment what the government should be doing is maintaining a safe distance from China.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has been expending a lot of political capital in efforts to reduce tensions with China through closer economic exchanges, which were largely supported, and scaling back efforts to increase Taiwan’s international space, which was much more controversial. Now that it appears that the economic links are not going to deliver the goods in the near term at least, the Ma administration has been trying to put a positive spin on its cross-strait policy. However, it will be hard-pressed to tout any accomplishments in enlarging Taiwan’s international space because there simply are none. Even when presented with an opportunity recently to re-establish diplomatic relations with Malawi, the Ma administration has chosen to decline out of unwillingness to displease China. With this kind of foreign policy, one wonders what occupies the time these days of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs?