Respect for Intellectual Property Rights in China and the Chinese Blogosphere?
@ Sun 22 June 2008 8:32 PM HKT by Tom LeggI always love the obligatory hand wringing over intellectual property rights in China by those who are paid by clients to wring their hands over intellectual property rights. The actual level of concern over intellectual property rights in the English-language Greater China blogosphere is noted every time the bloggers recommend a certain blogger who has spent years stealing other people's photographs.
In fact this "highly recommended" blog's highest viewed posts tend to be collections of stolen photographs and is quite willing to point this out to academic conferences hosted by other bloggers/journalists. For example here the world sees Roland Soong stealing these photos of the Sichuan earthquake, where it's impossible to find a copyright notice or the name of a copyright holder/photographer for a single photo. You don't even have to accept the AP's new extreme anti-blogger copyright stance to understand that this collection doesn't fall under the concept of fair use. It's just intellectual property theft for the purpose of driving up the hits at his blog. And all you'll hear from the paid professionals and bloggers about this intellectual property violation is jealousy and awe at the web hits that come from intellectual property "piracy", which demonstrates their true thoughts on IPR when there isn't a client paying them to do the obligatory hand wringing.
FoxConn Announces Strategic Withdrawal
@ Thu 19 June 2008 10:52 PM HKT by Tom LeggJust saw this up on HK Headline news. 富士康搬廠減成本 Foxconn is looking to move their factory out of Shenzhen. The immediate thought is Hebei and Shanxi provinces as the provincial salaries there are 60% of Shenzhen's. Also note this:
亦會在匈牙利及印度等低成本市場開設新廠房
Foxconn is also looking at other low-cost markets, specifically naming India and Hungary, for possible sites to open new factories to reduce the price pressures found in Shenzhen and China.
crossposted at the Geek Blog without any political speculation, but let me pose the thought question to the readers here about what it might mean if the Taiwanese businessmen with their manufacturing bases on the mainland that have pushed for "closer cross-straits ties" decide that what Taiwan really needs is closer economic/political ties to India or the EU instead of the PRC?
Gay Marriage versus Disneyland and the Olympics
@ Tue 17 June 2008 7:26 PM HKT by Tom LeggAFP reported yesterday on the California economy boosted by gay marriage bonanza
California's economy is poised for a multi-million-dollar windfall as same-sex marriages get underway here Monday, with the tourist sector eyeing a bonanza as gays and lesbians flock to the state to tie the knot.
"Spending by resident same-sex couples on their weddings and by out-of-state couples ... will boost California's economy by over 683.6 million dollars in direct spending over the next three years," the UCLA study reported, adding that the new industry would create around 2,100 new jobs.
Whew! Thank goodness we have the geniuses at the Hong Kong Tourism Board to protect Hong Kong from lucrative tourist business like this. Even when provided the option of allowing the English Consulate from performing gay marriages under English law, the local authorities said nope.
Instead Hong Kong gets "financial successes" like Harbour Fest, Hong Kong Disneyland, and the Equestrian events for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Given the lack of hotel reservations, it seems the only people wanting to attend the HK equestrian events according to the local Immigration Dept are terra-ists. *BOO*
Blogging Is So Free On The Mainland
@ Tue 17 June 2008 5:30 PM HKT by Tom LeggRTHK[?] reports that a mainland dissident was arrested.
His mother said Huang Qi, who operates a human rights web site, was detained in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Mr Huang's website recently posted articles criticising the government's response to the Sichuan earthquake.
Thank goodness, we have folks like MacKinnon and Soong to remind us that things are getting so much better on the mainland and we shouldn't worry our pretty little heads over things like this. The charge that Huang Qi has been detained upon? Possessing state secrets. Probably something like photos of schools that collapsed in the earthquake demonstrating shoddy construction have now been declared state secrets.
As noted in yesterday's Standard a photo of one of those schools was removed from a photo exhibit on the mainland.
A photograph hinting at shoddy school construction was pulled from an exhibition about last month's devastating earthquake, an apparent indication of rising sensitivity over the issue that has already prompted angry, emotional protests from parents of children killed when the buildings collapsed.
The photo showed a hand clutching a twisted piece of steel rebar that looked no thicker than a pencil, taken from the ruins of the middle school in the town of Juyuan, one of about 40 that collapsed in the May 12 quake.
The picture featured prominently among a collection of artifacts when it opened to the public last week. By the weekend, though, it was gone, and organizers were reluctant to say why.
Monoliths and Shady Social Science Apologetics
@ Sun 15 June 2008 8:36 AM HKT by Tom LeggIf the CCP[?] ruling coalition is recognised to be non-monolithic with inter-factional arguments and criticism of policies and goals, then wouldn't it follow that the Chinese Internet would also show these same inter-factional arguments and criticisms? If true, then a "diversity" of opinions on the Chinese internet and the mere existence of criticism of companies or government policies and goals on the Chinese internet does not suggest that there is social change or progress or that the focus on Chinese censorship is misplaced.
If the mere existence of criticism in Chinese publications was a sign of progress, then the Cultural Revolution must have been the heyday of Chinese progress. Criticism of government policies and figures and debates over policy were numerous, though often oblique and couched in metaphors and proxy memes, during the Cultural Revolution as factions and splinter groups struggled for power.
Furthermore as Chomsky has long argued the appearance of diversity and freedom in US media has been one of the primary foundations of information control in the US and makes it seem less obvious than the information control of the Stalinists. So allowing the Chinese internet the latitude to serve as proxies for the debates and critiques going on at the top of the post-'89 unified factional Zhongnanhai allows a veneer of freedom and moderation to a system, which hasn't fundamentally changed in the use of coercion through pruning BBS comments, censorship, guided social pressure, and arrests with the backing of a party-dependent judicial system (sosumi) to maintain the Party's ultimate position in information control.
So we should laugh heartily at any and all social scientists who collects statistics on the number of criticisms on the Chinese internet but fails to distinguish between a criticism of Huawei for example that bolsters the power politics of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions as being acceptably pro-status quo and a criticism of Huawei's labour practices that calls for independent trade unions and collective bargaining as being pro-change. And academic conferences that purport to tell the world that the Chinese internet is changing and that the hosts are helping to change it via their "policy of engagement" (to use the favoured phrase of pro-apartheid Reaganites) should be met with amusement and reminded that as Woody Allen wrote, Statistics are like a bikini, what they reveal is interesting, but what they conceal is crucial.
Tourist Opportunities Denied
@ Thu 12 June 2008 9:39 PM HKT by Tom LeggVia Kottke, I saw Foreign Policy's list of top tourist spots Americans can’t visit
Looking for someplace special to spend the Fourth of July? FP investigates five fabulous destinations where a summer getaway is next to impossible.
I looked at the #1 spot and just started laughing. No, it wasn't for the Fourth of July, but for a vacation the weekend before. A number of the tour operators in Hong Kong have 5-day tours to Korea that include a day and a half in the Kumgangsan Tourist Region of North Korea. These tours of Korea had to be scratched from consideration due to my passport.
Though I do have a standing invitation from a Peng Chau native to go visit Cuba, which is also on the list, so...
Why you can’t: Because it is impossible. For a host of reasons—some of which have the last name Castro—U.S. tourist travel to Cuba is thoroughly restricted. Even travel to Cuba through a third country, such as Mexico or Canada, is technically illegal, and violators can face prosecution and a hefty fine of up to $65,000 upon return to the United States.
Only a few more months left of the Worst President Ever and his crew of spying, torturing, punitive assholes and the hope for a more sensible US foreign policy and immigration/visa situation.
Ferry Schedule Change
@ Thu 12 June 2008 8:49 PM HKT by Tom LeggInterestingly tonight at the Peng Chau pier the local Rural Committee posted a few boards to make announcements about what a great job they are doing. One of the boards was advertising a change in the ferry schedule. They are moving the 3am fast ferry from Central to Peng Chau to 2am and moving the 3:25am ferry from Peng Chau to Central to 5am.
Hopefully this news will be well received by all. But it should have been announced by the Transport Dept during the re-tender process rather than coming now.
Inflation Is Our Top Priority (Except When It's Not)
@ Wed 11 June 2008 11:00 PM HKT by Tom LeggAnother sign of economic genius from the CCP[?]'s "stern" drive of the last n+1 months to fight inflation. (Which included items to grow the money supply via decrees to aid the stock market and property development market).
Producer or wholesale prices on the mainland rose at their fastest pace in nearly four years last month. The producer price index gained 8.2 percent from a year earlier. The wholsesale {sic} price of gasoline and raw materials both recorded double digit increases.
Disaster Relief In Hong Kong
@ Wed 11 June 2008 10:16 PM HKT by Tom LeggResidents of Tai O are demanding more support from the government, to help them cope with the aftermath of Saturday's heavy rainstorm. Road access is still blocked, and fresh water supplies have not yet been reconnected. Some locals staged a protest when the development secretary, Carrie Lam, visited the area this afternoon.
No scenes of a geologist at the helm or of the heroic PLA digging out the survivors. Instead you get the government patting itself on the back for the great response it's provided and locals demanding more help. This from RTHK[?], in case you hadn't read the front page of today's City section in the SCMP[?], which noted that more remote villages around South Lantau, that aren't tourist attractions like Tai O, have it even worse with villagers being forced to drink boiled stream water.
The Islands District Officer, Byron Lam, said the ferry operator had been asked to add an additional sailing from Tai O to Tung Chung at 5.30 am to assist residents going to school and work.
We asked for the government to institute a 5:30am sailing for Peng Chau during the latest ferry tender to handle these same issues, but were turned down, had our fares increased and handed to a smaller ferry operator. Guess we should have hoped for a storm to wash out our road access to the MTR and the rest of the SAR. (see the update from the next night concerning a new announcement of a local ferry schedule change
Mr Lam also confirmed that repairs to Tai O Road would take at least two weeks, although a section between Tai O pier and Ngong Ping had been partially re-opened.
Tourist attractions get taken care of before the local villagers?Technorati
No More Cream of Some Young 雞 (Gai1)
@ Wed 11 June 2008 9:09 PM HKT by Tom LeggThis can't be good. Especially since I don't think they've found the source of the infected chickens yet. RTHK[?] reports poultry cull in all HK markets as bird flu spreads.
The government has announced the culling of all poultry in markets throughout the territory, following the discovery of the H5N1 bird flu virus in three more markets. Tests on chicken faeces taken from Tuen Mun, Fanling and Ap Lei Chau markets showed positive results for the virus.
No cull of local chicken farms as they've proved negative for H5N1 so far. Stall owners will get HK$30 per bird.