History 366

[hist366]

China, US Law Experts Discuss Human Rights Issues

December 8, 2015 Shanghai Daily

Experts from China and the United States held a dialogue on Rule of Law and Human Rights in Beijing. The event brought together 40 experts, scholars, judges and lawyers from the U.S. and China to discuss protecting “the interests of people involved in legal cases, human rights protection in judicial reform and guiding lawyers to contribute to the judicial system.”

Bethany

[hist366]

EU/China: Rights Dialogues Without Benchmarks Lack Impact

(Brussels) – The European Union-China human rights dialogue will have extremely limited utility without clear benchmarks for China’s progress and consistent pressure from the highest levels of European governments, Human Rights Watch said today. The 34th round of the dialogue is scheduled to take place in Beijing on November 30, 2015.

EU/China: Rights Rialogue Without Benchmarks lack Impact 

NOVEMBER 26, 2015 Human Rights Watch

Human Rights law in China has been discussed 33 times before, but China repeatedly violates international human rights standards. Yet again China will discuss their shortcomings with the EU. The Strategic Frameworks states that   “it’s up to the EU to show tenacity, principle, and strategic thinking in helping reverse the downward spiral for human rights in China.”

Bethany

[hist366]

China's food and agriculture deals likely to rebound soon, says Rabobank

Photo:Xinhua

http://www.scmp.com/business/commodities/article/1877991/chinas-food-and-agriculture-deals-likely-rebound-soon-says

This article from last November focuses on China’s likely increase in purchasing foreign foodstuffs. In part this was credited to the “slower economic growth and ahead of the release of the government's new five-year plan.” Concerns over what the new five year agricultural plan would entail or what it would mean for China’s agricultural economy played into the slowing of the economy. Primarily since investors were disinclined to get involved until after the new agricultural plan was released. This also opened the flow to more foreign agricultural goods being circulated, as well as because the plan was suspected to support some foreign food trade for non-local food products.

-Callie Liberty

[hist366]

Modernising China’s agriculture key to tackling slower economy, says Premier Li Keqiang

Xinhua

Image credit-Xinhua

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1714676/modernising-chinas-agriculture-key-tackling-slower-economy-says-premier

Premier Li Keqiang called for changes in the agricultural economy in Feburary 2015. He suggested increased financial support of the agricultural economy for dual reasons. On one hand to assist in producing safer better quality food stuffs. In a discussion directed at the agricultural sphere Li also “urged them to produce safe food and speciality products including organic ones.” 

On the other side Li proposed to allow farmers to become more active consumers in the greater commercial market. Saying that ‘farmers are the country’s largest consumer group ... by increasing farmers’ incomes through accelerating agricultural modernisation, we can activate farmers’ huge potential consumption demand.”

-Callie Liberty

[hist366]

China pledges $60bn to develop Africa - BBC News

China's president announces $60bn (£40bn) of assistance and loans for Africa to help with the development of the continent at a summit in Johannesburg.

One part of nation building which has become vital in our modern day is economic allies and China most certainly has done its fair share. Recently with the Paris Talks on Climate Change, China tried to shift the focus away from its own contributions to global warming and instead tried to make aiding developing nations the prime target for investment. This would be extremely profitable for China as they have spent billions in the African economy trying to create new economy alliances to reduce dependency on western markets.Its possible that they have seen the economic sanctions placed on Russia and do not want to give Europe and the United States that much power over them. Whether this is political or financial, with the recent pledge of $60 billion dollars of developmental aide to Africa, China will become the most important player in a region that has for the most part been an untapped market for the west.

_Samgoad 

[hist366]

“Sex ratios are presented as the number of boys per 100 girls. The biologically natural sex ratio is 105, which means that 105 boys are born for every 100 girls.  That figure is also represented as 105:100.”

All Girls Allowed is a religious organization that speaks out against the One Child Policy, gendercide in Chinese society, and promote women’s rights and equality. The link above gives many statistics and information about gendercide, national sex ratios, and towards the end of the post, it correlates the large male population to increased male crimes statistics. 

Julianna Saracho

[hist366]

Economist Says Polyamory Can Solve China’s Gender Imbalance. Chinese Internet Explodes.

Could polyamory be the solution to China’s gender imbalance? The New York Times’s Sinosphere blog reports that one economist’s proposal to that effect has

“Xie Zuoshi, a professor at the Zhejing University of Finance and Economics, recently proposed on his blog that a solution to China’s surplus of single men would be to allow women to marry more than one husband. The proposal has provoked a furious backlash from readers who accuse him of “violating traditional morality,” forcing a fed-up Xie to clarify that he was not proposing that plural marriage be mandatory.”

I find this incredibly amusing. In theory, why not, it certainly would work, but in this day and age I don’t think he’s going to get much support. This article also touches upon the “bare branches” and the “leftover ladies,”, the other factors affecting the competition of brides for men, and societal pressure on women.

Julianna Saracho

[hist366]

2011 The Chinese government says that the One Child Policy has restrained China’s mushrooming population (claiming that it has prevented an estimated 400 million births since it’s inception in 1980). But critics say that the law is a violation of […]

“Since the policy went into effect, China has had a significant gender imbalance, an abnormal sex ratio. The imbalance steadily grew worse since ultrasound became widely available in the mid-1980s. Today, the ratio hovers around 120 boys to 100 girls (compared to a “natural” ration of about 105 boys to 100 girls around the world). Although the practice is now illegal—China banned prenatal sex screening in 1994—the problem continues (it’s still fairly easy to pay a doctor to give more subtle “coded” message regarding a fetus’ gender—a slight shake of the head, for instance).”

A very interesting post made in 2011 introducing the history of the One Child Policy and its effects on China, as well as the criticisms and controversies that arise from the OCP, such as Female Infanticide and Gender Imbalance. 

Julianna Saracho

[hist366]

Following complaints that some Chinese firms were not respecting Nigerian labour laws, the Chinese envoy to Nigeria, Ambassador Gu Xiaojie has assured that

“Following complaints that some Chinese firms were not respecting Nigerian labour laws, the Chinese envoy to Nigeria, Ambassador Gu Xiaojie has assured that the government of his country would henceforth sanction any Chinese company that disobeys Nigeria’s local content and labour laws.”

The Nigerian government is claiming that many Chinese companies are ignoring labor laws set for the workers of Nigeria. There are many Chinese companies that outsource for African laborers, and although the Chinese government claims that they are looking into this problem, they are mainly avoiding confrontation and putting up a positive front. For example, the Chinese government is not taking responsibility or accountability for their domestic companies because of their intended market economy. While the majority of the statements coming from the Chinese government about this situation are focused on all of the jobs that Chinese companies are creating in African countries such as Nigeria. 

The Chinese government is also taking more of a moral standpoint on the issue claiming that they would hope that Chinese companies are treated their outsourced labor as they would want Chinese laborers to be treated. Basically, do onto others as you would want others to do onto you. While the Chinese government is recognizing the problem, they see it more as the companies problem as well as foreign government’s problems because they do not have legal authority to enforce regulations in other countries territories. 

Source: http://dailypost.ng/2015/11/17/chinese-government-will-sanction-companies-disobeying-nigerian-laws-envoy/

By: Sylvester Ugwuanyi on November 17, 2015

-Casey Ryan

[hist366]

China admits they burn more coal than previous numbers

China has always been heavily reliant on coal, something that Xi Jinping has promised to try and move China away from. Coal powers much of the Chinese economy, but it also causes massive amounts of air pollution. Now China has released that it actually burns 17% more coal each year than it previously disclosed. To put i in simple terms, it means that China is emitting a billion more tons of carbon dioxide than previously believed.

The implications for this are huge, especially since China is no quietly admitting than it’s a lot worse then everyone thought, as this data discrepancy has been going on since 2000. While many doubted the official numbers China was putting up, no one seems to have thought it was this bad.

This of course has major impacts on China and the rest of the world. The air is not something that is confined to the borders of a nation, and this shows that things are worse than previously thought on the air quality levels in China. IT will be interesting to see how this plays out. Xi Jinping has promised a reduction in emissions, but can his word be trusted/will his pledges be enough with this new data coming to light? 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/world/asia/china-burns-much-more-coal-than-reported-complicating-climate-talks.html?_r=0

-Corey Bolyard

[hist366]

Media censorship in China

China maintains a tight grip on traditional and new media to avoid potential subversion of its authority. Using different tactics, China’s government controls and monitors the internet but at the same time the growing need for the  internet is outweighing the regime’s control. In May 2010 the government issued its first white paper on the internet that emphasized “Internet sovereignty.” 

-Andrea Villegas

Source: 

http://www.cfr.org/china/media-censorship-china/p11515

[hist366]

Internet is for everyone. Everyone should and everyone has the right to access internet. Not in china of course. It does not mean the people in china cannot access the internet. It means they are restricted in the usage and not all the information on the web is available for one who is accessing the...

“What it does is channel the country’s internet traffic through six massive internet gateways that are more like tollbooths... Not only that, if a user repeatedly searches for something considered taboo by the government, the IP address is recorded and appropriate action is taken against him.”

To the world: the Great Firewall of China, and to China: the Golden Shield Project (or Jīndùn Gōngchéng) - a massive undertaking by the Chinese government started in 1998 and completed just under ten years ago, the Great Firewall of China was created to censor the internet, and keep sensitive and negative opinions away from the eyes, ears, and minds of the Chinese people. When a person in China searches for something on the internet, key words on the webpage chosen are searched for - if any of them appear, the website is flagged, and not given to the user. Search for these pages enough times, and the police will hunt you down. While the Great Firewall blocks many truly dangerous websites, it also blocks websites critical of the government, or websites showing images ,or talking about the terrible things the Chinese government has done in the past, commonly referred to as the “three T’s”: Tiananmen Square, Taiwan, and Tibet. 

~Tom Updike

[hist366]

http://www.fastcompany.com/1715042/youtube-youku-websites-and-their-chinese-equivalents

This is an interesting article that shows how, because a large number of internationally popular websites (Google, Youtube, Facebook, etc.) are not welcome in China, the Chinese people made their own versions of each of these websites. We have mentioned the Chinese version of twitter, Sina Weibo, but my favorite Chinese remake - their version of Google is called Baidu, and is actually the second largest search engine in the world because of China’s huge population!

~Tom Updike

[hist366]

How The Great Firewall Prevents China From Becoming A World Education Power

If China hopes to produce high school and college graduates with the authority-challenging chutzpah to lead the world in the coming age of global innovation - instead of just cloning innovations developed elsewhere - it needs to finally admit that the days of the Great Firewall are over.

”China’s 618 million netizens seem resigned to this reality. Most of them implicitly accept that many sites and certain topics – such as the three T’s of Tiananmen Square, Taiwan, and Tibet – are verboten.”

This article provides an interesting light on how the “Great Firewall of China” is affecting it’s economy and culture internationally. Being isolationist in a world where isolationism is no longer valid creates self-made handicaps preventing China’s upcoming generation of workers grow and learn with the tools needed to thrive in the global economy. This article is the firsthand account of an American businessman, and how the censorship of the internet is making it difficult for him to work there.

Source: Forbes Magazine

~Tom Updike

[hist366]

T. Swift censorship controversy in China

The title of the popular pop star’s new album is “1989″ which is just meant to reflect the year she was born but it proves to be problematic for Chinese media because of some of the bloody happenings that took place like the pro-democracy protest on June 4th 1989. To make matters worse, her initials are also on the album so it appears as “T.S. 1989” which in China, her initials could be mistaken for standing for, Tiananmen Square, where hundreds were killed when Chinese troops fired on civilians. 

-Andrea Villegas

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/22/news/taylor-swift-1989-china/

[hist366]

The Real Reason for China’s Two-Child Policy: Millions of New Consumers

Officials have acknowledged that more mouths to feed paradoxically means more economic growth.

With the change of China’s population from a culture of manufacture to a consumer society, questions whether it’s “One Child” Policy would slow development could have lead to its end. As China’s products are increasing being created for people within their own country, the ability to find homes for those products becomes a concern to business. One of the reasons for this policy originally was a fear that basic living resources such as food and water could run out but also that China’s economic system would not be able to find employment for these millions of people, thus not find any market. With the rise of the standard of living and influx of consumer spending however, this policy may have a chilling effect as there wouldn’t be enough local demand for this fledgling market. Whether China can support this growth is unclear, but they are determined to grow in anyway they can.   

[hist366]

Sri Lanka Attempts to Repair Relations With China Amid an Escalating Financial Crisis

Seventy percent of the Sri Lanka’s infrastructure projects are funded and built by China. This has led to Sri Lanka’s foreign debt tripling over the past five years. This week, Sri Lanka appealed to China to relax the immense amount of debt that they owe. Many projects, “initiated under Sri Lanka’s former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, have been halted — much to China’s displeasure — by the government of his successor Maithripala Sirisena over allegations of widespread corruption.” 

It will be interesting to see what happens between these two countries. Sri Lanka seems willing to have a good relationship with China but will the memory of the corrupt regime hinder their progress?

Source:  Rishi Iyengar for TIME, 19 October 2015

http://time.com/4077757/sri-lanka-china-financial-crisis-ravi-karunanayake-interview/

Emily White