OFFICIAL CHINESE PUBLIC SECURITY SPENDING TO OUTSTRIP OFFICIAL CHINESE MILITARY SPENDING

CHINESE SPENDING

FOR

PUBLIC SECURITY

TO EXCEED

SPENDING

FOR THE

MILITARY

THE "MARBLE BOAT"

THE SUMMER PALACE

BEIJING AREA

Photographed 1981

This week came the news that officially, China would be spending more on combating potential internal enemies (through its budget for "law enforcement and public security") than on combating potential external enemies (through its military budget).

According to the New York Times, the Chinese government "said it planned to spend $95 billion on the police, state security, armed civil militia and jails, 13.8 percent more than last year. Military spending rose 12.7 percent to $91.5 billion."

Much of the discussion of these disclosures focused on whether the domestic-foreign priority ranking would still hold if the real figures for both kinds of spending were known. In short, was this factoid true at all?

Of course, it would not be the first time that defeating the internal enemy was thought more urgent than trying to defeat the external one: think of the KMT, the Communist "bandits," and the Japanese invaders during the Sino-Japanese War, which started earlier than World War II (or began World War II, depending on one's perspective).

And somehow the mind goes back to the Empress Dowager's folly, that "Marble Boat" she had built on the Summer Palace grounds, with funds intended for the Chinese military of the time.

When I look at the photograph above, I cannot help thinking of my old mentor, John King Fairbank, and his quip that it was just as well that all the money went into this "marble" boat and not into "real" ones for the navy, to fight off the encroaching Great Powers, for the real ones would long ago have been sunk -- without making China strategically stronger.

Of course now Beijing does not have to choose between real boats and "marble" ones, between showcase projects for "soft power" and hard power projection abroad, and between ships and many, many boots on the ground -- right in China itself -- and, oh yes, the kind of cyber-surveillance merely fantasized before.

CHINA WILL *NEVER* BE A MULTI-PARTY DEMOCRACY: THUS SPAKE WU BANGGUO

CHINA'S #2

SAYS

* NO *

TO

(MULTI-PARTY)

DEMOCRACY

WU BANGGUO

Photographed at the 17th CCP Congress

Beijing, October 2007

Wu Bangguo is Chair of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, which is, officially, China's legislature, and which is holding its annual session in Beijing now.

Parliaments have at some moments in history been known to challenge the power of executive authorities such as kings.

But Wu is also number two in the hierarchy of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (only General-Secretary-and-President Hu Jintao is ranked higher). It comes as no surprise, then, that Wu announced today that "We have made a solemn declaration that we will not employ a system of multiple parties holding office in rotation," as the BBC reported.

No separation of powers, "bicameral or federal system," or diversification of "our guiding thought."

For if the system changed, "It is possible that the state could sink into the abyss of internal disorder."

The Party rules or Chaos looms.

THE COSTS OF THE REVOLUTION IN CHINA

OUT OF

THE MOUTHS

OF ...

THE HAMMER & SICKLE

DOMINATES

THE SETTING OF

THE 17th & MOST RECENT

CONGRESS OF

THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY

(October 2007)

"Unrest is still imprinted deeply into Chinese society. Revolution catalyzed a new China, but society also paid heavy costs for the revolution."

This is the message not of some opposition group -- no whiff of jasmine, here, directly -- but of the March 7, 2011, editorial of the Global Times, owned by the flagship publication of the Chinese Communist regime, the People's Daily (as reported by the Washington Post).

JOURNALISTS OF THE WORLD! ELDER BROTHER IS DEFINITELY TRACKING * YOU *

TARGETING

THE

MESSENGER

THE MEDIA DISPERSE

AT THE CLOSE OF THE

17th CONGRESS OF THE

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY

Beijing, October 2007

Outside the Great Hall of the People

Another Sunday. The third "jasmine" Sunday of a massive security presence and a ratcheting up of pressure on journalists. No report of beatings this time, but preemptive intimidation, some detentions, and a threat of expulsions.

So the messenger is not being shot, but is definitely being targeted, and tracked.

P.R. IN THE PRC: JIA QINGLIN ON PROMOTING CHINA

P.R. IN

THE PRC

JIA QINGLIN

in the Great Hall of the People

for the 17th Congress of

the Chinese Communist Party

October 2007

As the member of the nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party responsible for chairing the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Jia Qinglin is somewhat quaintly referred to by the authorities as a "political adviser." At the opening meeting of the annual CPPCC meeting in the Great Hall of the People yesterday, Jia said, according to McClatchy, that "We will strengthen our external publicity work so that the international community can learn more about our country's political system . . . so that we can win its understanding and support for China."

When the outside world learns "more about our country's political system," China will win "understanding and support." Right. I remember in 1992 when I covered the 14th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, my minder delighted in repeating in answer to my questions attempting to "learn more about" the political system of the People's Republic of China, that "In the Information Department we have no information."

Now the plan is said to be to spend billions "to expand the global reach of its main state media outlets, giving it the ability to beam pleasing news from China to a wider audience."

"Pleasing news," but real information, especially about the political system, is rather likely to be as lacking as before.

ELDER BROTHER IS TRACKING YOU? BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, BEIJING-STYLE, 2011

ELDER BROTHER

IS

TRACKING YOU?

DELEGATES TO THE

17th CONGRESS OF

THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY

DEPARTING (Beijing, October 2007);

ONE (upper right) LOOKS TO BE

CHECKING HIS MESSAGES

One of the Twenty Million? (see below)

Or perhaps he does not live in Beijing.

Will the new (newly revealed?) program

go country-wide?

It is being reported today by the New York Times that "Beijing officials" announced yesterday "that they intended to monitor the movements of millions of residents via information transmitted by their cellphones. One official was quoted on a government Web site as saying that the new program would provide 'real-time information about a user's activity.'"

The Times continues: "The project, which would make use of global positioning technology, aims to monitor all Beijing residents who use mobile phones -- some 20 million people -- to detect unusually large gatherings." And Chinese media reports themselves "said government officials could use the data to detect and prevent protests."

So: Not only is there such a project, but also it is the opposite of a secret endeavor.

You have been warned.

Big Brother, Elder Brother, is watching you.

The scent of jasmine? The scent of fear?

More Jasmine here and here

Chinese telephony a generation ago (1981)

"HERE BE GIANTS"

WEN JIABAO, WEBCASTS, WHISTLES, & WASHOUTS: JASMINE SUNDAY #2

JASMINE 

SUNDAY 

#2 

CHINESE PREMIER  

WEN JIABAO 

(Photographed at Harvard) 

(A Beijing photograph is here) 

On Sunday, February 27, 2011, Wen Jiabao, "Grandpa Wen," the smiling face of the leadership of the People's Republic of China, went on line in a big way. On the eve of the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, Premier Wen took questions in a special webcast, and made news: Beijing would not push the economy quite so hard; he was mindful that rapid price rises hurt the people. 

Out on the street, the story was different. For the second Sunday in a row any whiff of jasmine was smothered; any possible protest was washed out -- literally, this time, by street cleaning machines and a water truck -- and whistled away -- by incessant police whistles. 

And journalists -- apparently especially photojournalists and videojournalists -- were harassed and detained and even physically assaulted. 

So there was no protest to speak of or to see -- China was not Tunisia or Egypt -- and the regime seems either prudent or paranoid -- someone in authority still thinking A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire? 

POLICING THE JASMINE: ZHOU YONGKANG WEIGHS IN

POLICING THE 

JASMINE 

ZHOU YONGKANG WEIGHS IN 

Over this past weekend, the ministers and provincial leaders of China were summoned to Beijing for a special "study session"; all nine top leaders (who make up the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party) were in attendance. On Saturday, Hu Jintao, who is General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party as well as president of the People's Republic of China, called for "raising our level of control over virtual society, and perfecting our mechanisms for the channeling of public opinion online.” 

Hu is Number One in the Chinese hierarchy. Sunday, Number Nine made his speech and won his turn in the spotlight. Zhou Yongkang (pictured above) is that Number Nine. Zhou's importance lies in his portfolio: domestic security. He basically called for nipping any potential social unrest problems in the bud. 

As they were preaching, the authorities were already moving to nip in the bud any possible "Jasmine Revolution" inspired by what was going on in the Arab world -- by preventive detentions and preemptive police presence Sunday in the locales specified in Chinese-language tweets. 

Bud nipped: so it would seem. 

Leaving behind an interesting quote or two: This "event," said one (participant observer?), "didn't have much organization, but it's a chance to meet each other. It's like preparing for the future."