Two new posts at the Atlantic Monthly: an update on renewed calls for demonstrations this weekend in China and a meditation on the meaning of drought in Chinese history.
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Two new posts at the Atlantic Monthly: an update on renewed calls for demonstrations this weekend in China and a meditation on the meaning of drought in Chinese history. It’s been a weird few days in Beijing. I still believe that the calls for a Jasmine Revolution in China are mostly wishful tweeting, but neither have I been surprised by the government’s security minders wildly overreacting to the whole situation. The Internet has been hit or miss all week, even by the usual standards. VPN services are harder to access and Linked In has now apparently joined Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as the latest in a long list of overseas social media sites declared verboten by the CCP Net Ninnies. Linked In is now working in Beijing which I think says more about Linked In’s irrelevancy as it does about the the government’s tolerance. And just in case that wasn’t sufficient, there’s always the old school approach as reported by Tom Lasseter on his blog: But in addition to cyber tactics, the Chinese government has also apparently resorted to simpler measures: rows of trees in front of part of the Wangfujing McDonald’s, and a new construction site stretching down the street. Signs say the road is being repaired, though there’s not much evidence of that happening yet. (For pictures, see this post by Beijing-based French journo Jordan Pouille) Today was a busy day. Yajun is by herself in the Beijing office writing a story on new calls for a revolution this weekend even as the PSB is busy rounding up the usual suspects. I was teaching today, 90 exhilaration (for me, if not my students) minutes on Chiang Kai-shek and the Nanjing Decade. And somewhere between last night and this afternoon I finished two new posts as part of my week-long gig guest blogging for James Fallows at the Atlantic Monthly site. Post one was inspired by a comment on twitter by Bill Bishop (of the Sinocism blog and the well-known Twitter handle @niubi) about the speciousness of comparing the last days of the Qing with contemporary China. I couldn’t resist, so I took him up on his challenge and concluded that while admittedly there are some pretty significant differences which make historical parallels difficult to make, there are sufficient similarities for Hu Jintao to keep reaching for his bottle of printers ink to keep the gray hairs away. The second post was more of a “what’s hot in the China blogosphere today?” kind of story, this one about Ambassador Jon Huntsman “coincidentally” showing up at last Sunday’s YJ is pretty excited — and a little freaked out — over how much attention her post on the Jasmine Revolution is getting. As of 8:30 p.m. Beijing time tonight, if you google “Jasmine Revolution,” Yajun’s post is the fifth entry on the first page after Wikipedia, Washington Post, BBC, and the New York Times . In other and somewhat related news, this week I’m really thrilled to be one of several guest bloggers for James Fallows on the Atlantic Monthly site. For my first post I’ve tackled the same question as YJ — why isn’t China ready for an Egypt-style revolution. I agree with Yajun that a major issue is the lack of any meaningful organization, but I also argue that this is because the Party has learned the lessons of 1919 and 1989 and is now very careful about letting disaffected groups from linking their causes together either vertically across class lines or geographically. Enjoy. On Saturday, an anonymous letter circulated online calling for Chinese people to follow after the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia and launch a “Jasmine Revolution” in 13 different cities in China. The McDonald’s at Wangfujing in Beijing was one of the locations. (I have to say that this choice of the location is beyond my understanding. First, since Wangfujing is one of the most populated shopping center in town, how do you tell who is protesting and who is shopping? Second, McDonald’s? Really? The revolution may or may not be televised, but apparently that didn’t stop us from soliciting corporate sponsors. Too bad Groupon blew their ad budget on the Super Bowl.) In the end, there were a lot of police and a handful of foreign correspondents. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the protesters, because they didn’t show. Later there were rumors that some university officials checked dorms to make sure students stayed away from the “revolution.” And according to AP, dozens of activists throughout China were placed under house arrest and warned about participating in any protests that may or may not be planned for today. So it would appear that the government took it seriously. The question is: |
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