There seems to be a Dolphin Submarine on Offer…

Dolphin submarine (Wikimedia Commons)

Israel may not get this one, reports DER SPIEGEL, and Taiwan could use one (or many) of these diesel-electric (and fuel-cell propelled) submarines.

If only the technology would stay in Taiwan. With some help from Taipei, China might re-engineer that thing within ten years. The KMT and the CCP are said to be very close. Almost like brothers. And the Taiwan Strait is a flash point. China told the German government so.

But what are we supposed to do with that thing? Putting it into a thema park?

Pekings neue Waffe gegen Nicht-Regierungsorganisationen

Zeng Jinyan, verheiratet mit dem AIDS- und Umweltaktivisten Hu Jia, arbeitete nach der Verhaftung und Verurteilung ihres Mannes Ende 2007 / April 2008 an der Aufrechterhaltung der AIDS-Hilfeorganisation “Loving Source” (Ai Yuan), an deren Gründung sie beide beteiligt gewesen waren.

Den Betrieb dieser Organisation hat sie nun eingestellt. Als Grund nannte sie in einem Blog-Eintrag steigenden Druck durch Steuerprüfungen. In ihrer Erklärung rief sie alle freiwilligen Mitarbeiter dazu auf, auch nach der Einstellung der Tätigkeit der “Loving Source” alles in ihren Möglichkeiten Stehende zu tun, um weiterhin den Kindern zu helfen, denen die Organisation mit ihrer Arbeit geholfen habe.

Verschiedene andere – bei der chinesischen Führung missliebige – Nicht-Regierungs-Organisationen gerieten seit 2009 ebenfalls unter den Druck der Steuerbehörden.

Eine Australierin chinesischer Abstammung steht per Internet in Verbindung mit Zeng Jinyan und wird – vorausgesetzt, dass die chinesischen Behörden die Kommunikation nicht dauerhaft unterbrechen – weitere Informationen auf ihrem Blog veröffentlichen. Sie bittet andere Blogger, bei der Berichterstattung zu helfen, um damit möglicherweise eine Milderung des behördlichen Drucks auf Zeng Jinyan und anderer Aktivisten zu erreichen.

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Hintergrundinfo: Die ausländische Krankheit, “Die Zeit”, 25.11.2004

Six Decades of Kitsch and Vulgar Productions

From the News

Culture Minister Cai Wu criticized the trend of “vulgar productions” and “kitsch” in print and on electronic Chinese media, and lashed out at publications with gossip and sensational stories that advocate money worship and consumerism.

“We publish more than 300,000 books every year, but how many of them could be compared with the scriptures inherited from our ancestors?” asked Cai in an interview with Xinhua.

From china.org.cn

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http://www.hualan-international.com/UpLoadFile/200951611262560205.jpg

Some vulgar books about China suggest to point at the mulberry but curse the locust when you criticize someone or something.

But what I do know is that China is as old as it owns Tibet. When I’m looking at the list of Chinese classics as listed by Wikipedia, it seems to me that the classics weren’t all written within sixty years. (The first Chinese classic I ever read, aged twelve or so, was Jin Ping Mei).

The People’s Republic of China is a rather young dynasty state, and during the 1950s China reconstructed, during the 1960s, the Great Helmsman and his vulgar fat ass knocked over what had been reconstructed previously, same during much of the 1970s, and then it was time to reconstruct again.

But it’s true – after 1978, some more useful stuff could have been written. Instead, we got:

– Deng Xiaoping’s Theories (and some other of his works)

– Jiang Zemin’s Three Represents and an opera building which (experts say) lacks architectural freedom (but still looks like the shell of a nuclear reactor)

– and I’m sure Hu Jintao has hired a gang of ghostwriters already, to write some more politporn.

Not to mention the “Modern Beijing Opera” and Chinese pop “music”. And almost every speech ever delivered and printed by a Communist cadre, on whatever level of the hierarchy.

But there’s no reason to become alarmist. Time after 1949 has been too short to build a civilization in China.

The real Statement on Dalai Lama, Obama

JR claims to be a China expert. But this time, he has fallen for a crude piece of anti-China propaganda. Did he really believe that the government of China was still living in the woods, throwing fortune cookies with weird messages inside at Chinese and foreign journalists?

This is what the Chinese foreign ministry actually said. (All websites which quote spokesman Ma Zhaoxu otherwise are silly fakes):

“We obviously don’t encourage foreign leaders to meet with the Dalai Lama. Such meetings aren’t conducive for our policies on Tibet, and we initially hoped that our American partners would take our domestic tasks and interests into account here. But if president Obama believes that a meeting with the Dalai Lama is a must for him, we have to respect his decision. After all, the Dalai Lama travels from India, not from our country.

I’d just like to say that such meetings do nothing to make America look more virtuous. We here in Beijing don’t think of ourselves as morally superior. The way we took control of Tibet in the 1950s and after isn’t a glorious point in our history, and we acknowledge that the way we govern Tibet needs a lot of improvement. Suggestions from anyone are welcome, provided that they are meant to help the Han Chinese and the Tibetans to improve their lives as Chinese citizens. But the American president and the American public must understand that Tibet is part of China, just as any U.S. state is part of the United States. As long as all sides are credibly committed to this position, our minds are open to their comments and contributions from inside and outside China.

We do what we can to gradually improve the lives of the Tibetans, just as we are working for the improvement of all Chinese citizens’ lives, no matter of which nationality they are. We do  not only take into account what we think is best for the Tibetans, but we also listen to the voices of the Tibetans themselves. Thank you, next question.“