China’s Economy At A Standstill

The Asian market, in general, is in an economic slump. While the controversial stand and policies of US President Trump is partly to blame for this, the long-standing issues of poverty, corruption, calamities and many others have long been factors as to how the Asian market fares in the global market. And one of the most formidable markets in Asia is that of China. No other nation can beat China’s achievements and influence to the entire world. After all, almost everything is made in China, right?

However, the market is volatile. Everybody knows that. Sometimes the market is doing well and other times it does not. China isn’t exempted from this economic trend and likewise, has its fair share of ups and downs over the years. Even though the China’s economy is the second largest the world over, certain triggers can make it crash with little warning.

Benchmark equity indices in mainland China and Hong Kong closed higher on Monday as resurgent hopes for a significant public stimulus boost captured investors' attention more than did the release of a batch of poor activity and spending data.

Weakness was evident nearly across the board and continued a trend of disappointing news from the world's second-largest economy in recent months.

Industrial production expanded by an annual 6.5 percent in April, dropping from 7.6 percent in March and falling notably short of expectations while fixed investment data suggested a slowdown to 8.3 percent in April from 9.4 percent the previous month. Retail sales and fixed asset investment also underperformed forecasts.

"This slowdown as a result of weakening demand is also reflected in the prices of key industrial commodities like iron ore," said Sebastian Lewis, content director for Greater China at S&P Global Platts in an email to CNBC on Monday, pointing out that the price of iron ore had dropped 30 percent since February alone.

(Via: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/15/china-data-sparks-concerns-of-a-consumer-led-slowdown-in-worlds-second-largest-economy.html)

If there’s anything that is holding up the Chinese economy, they owe it all to property investment and infrastructure. However, there is no assurance that they will hold up any longer if the Chinese market continues to decline any further.

China's growth is set for its weakest patch since the global financial crisis as authorities pull back on the stimulus that helped the economy get off to an unexpectedly strong start this year, and keep funds tight to deter risky lending.

After clocking 6.9 percent in the first quarter thanks to spending on infrastructure and a property boom that policymakers want to rein in, analysts surveyed by Reuters reckon economic growth will just about make Beijing's target of 2017 of 6.5 percent as it slows over the rest of the year.

Massive debt - standing at nearly 300 percent of GDP - and serious budgetary imbalances mean Beijing can't carry on pump priming. The brakes went on in April, when annual growth in fiscal spending dropped to 3.8 percent from 21 percent the first quarter.

And worries about speculative bubbles have forced the central bank to tighten short term liquidity, while trying to keep medium term funding available for investment.

(Via: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-idUSKCN18C0FZ)

China plans on reducing debt to help the economy bounce back. The Chinese government is tightening their belt in a desperate attempt to reduce financial risks and hopefully improve the Chinese market. Their goal is to drive the economy by consumer spending but it’s a long way from now. The best solution for their financial woes involves deep economic reforms to promote sustainability and boost economic growth.

Although technically not in a recession, the Chinese economy has greatly slowed down over the last two years. Their economy is the second strongest in the world next to the US, so seeing them struggle is not a good sign at all. It is hard maintaining an annual growth of 10% when the economy matures like that of China, so their main focus should be directed towards needed reforms rather than push for more growth that the current economy can’t yet support.

China’s Economy At A Standstill Find more on: CHRDNet

source https://chrdnet.org/2017/05/30/chinas-economy-at-a-standstill/

Is Chinese Labor As Bad As It Seems?

We’ve all heard stories about cheap Chinese labor that aren’t always pleasant to the ears. Almost everything sold globally is made in China. China has one of the cheapest labor/ manpower in the market, which is why multinational companies prefer doing business in this part of the globe because they get to save lots of money in the process. But how well do we really know about what’s going on in many of these Chinese factories? Don’t workers get paid right and do they really work under extreme and often unsafe working conditions?

Wherever you are in the world, it is hard to compete with Chinese labor and companies know that. Name any popular brand you know and they likely have an offshore office or factory in China to help them meet production demands. For the average Chinese person, these factories provide opportunities for them to earn some money to provide for their own families, obtain basic rights and send their kids to school. And no matter how difficult working conditions are, most Chinese don’t complain about it and just do their jobs to the best that they can.

Inside the sweatshops, toys such as Thomas the Tank, Barbie, DJ Suki Trolls, Hello Kitty, Hot Wheels and Disney princesses can be seen on conveyor belts.

Workers in the assembly department have a target goal of 4,000 toys a day, often without a break.

The April and September investigation also found that three of the four factories only paid their workers about $300/month, while others were paid $400/month.

Employees can only work a maximum of eight hours a day, but can sometimes do no more than 36 hours of overtime per month.

“We found that the average working hours in these four factories was 11 hours a day, with more than 50 overtime hours a month, and at half of the factories, overtime hours had reached 100 hours,” the Chinese Labor Watch report read. “Moreover, the extremely high production requirements left workers with barely any time to rest. During the 11 hours that workers put in within a day, all they had was a 40 to 60 minute lunch break.”

The workers live in filthy, unsanitary or hazardous conditions, with the floor covered by electrical wires, and about 14 people sharing a shower and toilet.

There is one cafeteria where workers can purchase food that isn’t considered nutritious.

“We can’t tolerate that children’s dreams are based on workers’ nightmares. Any toy that is manufactured in China is a process where workers’ rights have been infringed upon,” the report said.

“Workers in toy factories face heavy workloads every day, but only earn an extremely low wage. They have children as well,” it read. “But after years of separation, when the workers finally return home with various illness or occupational injuries, who will protect the dream of their children?”

(Via: http://nextshark.com/undercover-photos-reveal-horrific-working-conditions-chinese-toy-factory/)

It’s true that many Chinese workers are still abused by their employers and don’t get proper remuneration for the services they render. However, things are improving in some factories and working conditions are better now that in did before. We can still hear the occasional horror stories but things are gradually changing. Meanwhile, other factors affect the overall work climate in China. This nation may have over a billion in population but many are aging and gaining affluence, which has a big impact on the work force in general.

It might be hard to imagine a worker shortage with nearly 1.35 billion people, but with an aging population and rising affluence, China's longstanding edge on inexpensive labor costs is starting to slip.

And most likely Chinese labor won’t come in cheap anymore.

Demographics are driving the trend.

China's one-child policy — launched as a population-control measure in 1979 and phased out starting in 2015 — has left immense gaps in the country's age mix and a graying, shrinking and increasingly choosy workforce. As average incomes rise, Wong said, many are often passing over factory work.

(Via: http://www.sltrib.com/home/5161138-155/changing-china-its-not-easy-doing)

In any nation, there will always be cases of abuse in the workplace. It is up to the worker to stand up for themselves and protect their rights with or without the help of the government. Companies will often choose profit over everything else. So, it is not surprising to see them compromise other aspects of production and manpower just to save more money and grow their income. When that happens, it’s time you go looking for a new job in a company that won’t compromise the life, health, and safety of their workers.

With increasing globalization and the rise of social media, it is more convenient than ever to expose inhumane working conditions so the authorities are made aware of such practices. As the income of the average person also increases comes more opportunities for livelihood for those individuals who no longer want to settle with a low-paying factory job. China is not an exception to all these things no matter how much the government tries to restrict the citizen’s access to the web. And it is only the right thing to do that many companies are cleaning up their ranks and improving working conditions in most Chinese factories because all eyes are on them now.

The following article Is Chinese Labor As Bad As It Seems? See more on: Chinese Human Rights Development Net

source https://chrdnet.org/2017/05/24/is-chinese-labor-as-bad-as-it-seems/

The Chinese Government Tackles The Nation’s Unemployment Problem

China is one of the biggest countries on the planet and home to the most number of people too. With a growing population and dwindling resources, lots of problems are coming out in the open requiring the government’s attention. The Chinese government is more than just strict. They ensure that laws are observed and the people refrain from complaining. As if censoring most contents available on the web is not enough to curtailing their rights, various cases of human rights abuse are also rampant but only a few go out in the streets to protest.

We may think of the Chinese economy as bustling and flourishing and in many ways it is true. However, we also have to remember that there are more Chinese than any other nationality so ensuring that everyone has work (whether in the private or public sector) isn’t an easy job. Even though there are many companies with factories or offshore offices in China, it’s highly doubtful that it can manage to employ all the working Chinese population. Even translators as a profession have been limited. Hence, the Chinese government has to pick up its pace and ensure that the problem with unemployment doesn’t get any worse than it already is.

China has announced plans to promote employment, the country's top policy priority, across the nation.

The information, which was released on Wednesday and approved by the State Council, China's cabinet, underlined the importance of job creation and urged policy makers to create more pro-job policies.

The document stated China faced "intensified structural conflicts" in the current job market, and urged employment to be placed as a top policy priority, while addressing new challenges.

It further stated if new urban jobs dramatically declined or unemployment rates sharply rose, the government should be responsible for stepping up fiscal and monetary policy support to ensure stable employment and economic growth throughout the country.

(Via: http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/04-20/254284.shtml)

While money is not everything, money still makes the world go round and ensure everyone sleeps at night with a roof over their head and a full tummy. However, this is not always the reality for everyone as many people actually struggle to make a decent living. And even if you do have work, you can’t always expect the working conditions to be decent and humane and the pay commensurate. Moreover, an individual’s level of education is a big factor as well on the chances of a person to getting a good-paying job.

China’s labor market remained tight in the first quarter as the economy roared back. Workers, however, are finding that pay hikes aren’t as generous as they used to be.

A slew of official and private indicators from recruitment fairs and websites show employment solid as factories stopped cutting payrolls amid surging industrial output. But services firms and new industries are no longer aggressively hiring, and wage gains for high-skilled professionals as well as less-trained migrant workers are moderating.

China’s job market is increasingly intertwined with consumption, which has been bolstered by rising incomes: Private and government buying accounted for 77.2 percent of the first-quarter expansion. Policy makers have prioritized creating greater employment as they move to cut excess output in mines and factories that would inevitably lead to layoffs.

Officials can be reassured, at least for now. The surveyed jobless rate fell below 5 percent in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. China created 3.34 million jobs in the first quarter, well on pace to exceed the government’s 11 million target for this year.

(Via: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-20/china-workers-get-slower-pay-gains-even-amid-ample-job-openings)

The good thing about this is that the Chinese government is doing something about the situation and government officials are not just sitting comfortably in their air-conditioned offices waiting for the issues to resolve on their own. The Chinese are hard-working people by nature and laborers will find a way to put food on the table without relying on the government for help.

But things have changed now and the people have a new set of needs and want. Aside from the conventional basic needs, other needs are now considered basic too, like access to the Internet and the use of smart technology. This has put a bigger strain on the dwindling resources of ordinary laborers that also needs to be addressed or risk dissent. The Chinese government is doing its very best to take care of the mess in its own backyard without missing out on opportunities to growing their economy and improving the quality of life and well-being of its people.

The following blog article The Chinese Government Tackles The Nation’s Unemployment Problem is courtesy of Chinese Human Rights Development Net

source https://chrdnet.org/2017/05/22/the-chinese-government-tackles-the-nations-unemployment-problem/

What You Need To Know About China-US Relations

All nations have their own sovereign rights in this world but establishing and maintaining diplomatic relationships with other nations is a must to maintain peace and order on a global scale. Whether you are near or far from each other is not a hindrance to maintaining positive relations with other countries. The world is gripped by war and if there is anything we can do to prevent more conflict is best for everyone. And more than anything else, it is the job of world leaders to do just that.

Quite recently, President Donald Trump of the U.S. and Chinese President Xi Jinping met to discuss diplomatic relations between both countries at no other than the luxurious private club of the former in Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. This is not the first time President Trump met with a world leader here. He also met with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Mar-a-Lago about the time when they heard about North Korea’s missile launch back in February, which incidentally happened to be President Trump’s first real national security scare.

When Xi Jinping and his wife Mme. Peng Liyuan arrived at Mar-a-Lago resort at around 5 p.m., Donald Trump and his wife, Mme. Melania Trump greeted them in the parking lot. The two couples took photos and chatted warmly. Then they listened and enjoyed the performances of Donald Trump's grandson and granddaughter singing Jasmine Flower, a traditional Chinese song as well as reciting verses from the "Three-Character Classic" and Chinese classic poetry.

In the meeting, Xi Jinping pointed out that I have kept close contact with Mr. President for some time, and we had several telephone talks and exchanged messages. I am so happy to hold this meeting in the US at the invitation of Mr. President. I am willing to exchange in-depth views on China-US relations and major international and regional issues with Mr. President, so as to reach more consensus, and chart the course for the development of bilateral relations in the new era.

Xi Jinping stressed that sound China-US relations will not only benefit the two countries and the two peoples, but the world at large. There are a thousand reasons to make China-US relations a success, but not a single reason to break it. Since the normalization of China-US relations 45 years ago, though bilateral relations have undergone ups and downs, yet it has made historic progress and brought enormous practical benefits to the two peoples. How to further develop China-US relations in the next 45 years? It is a question requires deep thinking, and the leaders of the two countries should make political decisions and historic commitments. I am willing further push China-US relations for greater development with Mr. President.

(Via: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/zxxx_662805/t1453036.shtml)

The Chinese state media cheered the official meeting of the two world leaders during the two-day summit held earlier this month. It is a breath of relief for many who thought that relations between the U.S. and China were going sour as President Trump openly talked about being anti-China during the US election. And even during their recent meeting, the two leaders avoided any discussion of possible diplomatic gaffes that can ruin their relationship.

The summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida was billed as a historic meeting between the world’s two most powerful men. As the meeting wrapped up, however, the US missile strikes in Syria overshadowed the cordial affair, which featured the presidents and their families sharing meals and taking informal strolls around the grounds.

The Mar-a-Lago summit produced a 100-day plan to resolve trade disagreements and four dialogue mechanisms for the presidents to discuss bilateral issues. Trump also accepted an invitation to visit China later in 2017.

All of these resolutions are agenda-setting agreements, rather than concrete pacts or deliverables, which many observers expected since it was the first in-person meeting between the two leaders. That the meeting adhered to scripted pleasantries is not insignificant considering Trump’s unpredictable dialogues with other foreign leaders and his bold anti-China remarks on the campaign trail.

The friendly remarks offer reassurances about the China-US relationship. However, the issues that were not publicly resolved indicate lingering uncertainties over what is dubbed “the most important relationship in the world”.

(Via: http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2017/04/14/what-the-xi-trump-summit-left-unanswered-for-china-us-relations.html)

While no controversy arose during their meeting, a lot of things were either left unasked or unanswered despite the eagerness of both leaders to cultivate a constructive China-US relationship. Critics remain hopeful that despite the earlier confusion, there is a lot of promise of developing a more pragmatic relationship between these two global superpowers.

There was even no talk about the missile strike done by the US on the Syrian government airbase, which happened about the same time as their meeting. China is not new to threats of missile strikes as its close and diplomatic ally, North Korea, likewise has an active nuclear program. Trade issues were discussed, though, although President Trump refrained from speaking anything rash to trigger a trade war. But overall, the meeting was a positive one and China-US relations appear stronger than ever.

The following blog post What You Need To Know About China-US Relations is available on CHRDNet Blog

source https://chrdnet.org/2017/05/17/what-you-need-to-know-about-china-us-relations/

Civil Rights In China: Does It Really Exist?

Human beings have innate human rights. Among these rights are your civil rights. Civil rights simply mean an individual’s right to social and political freedom and equality. Being able to express your political opinions freely and not be persecuted for it is an example. Being protected from discrimination and freedom of speech, thought, press, religion, assembly, and movement is other examples of civil rights.

A person’s liberty and civil rights are often restricted in a country like China. It is not uncommon to hear horror stories of human and civil right abuses happening rampantly all over the country because that’s just the way of life in the Land of the Red Dragon. However, it does not mean that dissent is unheard of. There are uprisings here and there and some of the few brave souls protest these abuses done by the government to its people but many times their voices are repressed through persecution and making them prisoners of the state. The one party system in China is mostly to blame with this ongoing repression. And we will probably see major changes to come their way as China finally overhauls their civil law after 30 long years. It is probably high time they do that considering how times have changed today.

Following the examination of three draft versions of the General Rules of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China (“the Rules”), the final version of the Rules has been adopted at the Fifth Session of the 12th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (the “PRC”) on 15 March 2017. The Rules will be effective from 1 October 2017. 

The Rules contain 206 provisions divided into eleven chapters covering fundamental principles, natural persons, legal persons, unincorporated organisations, civil rights, civil juristic acts, proxies, civil liability, statutes of limitation, calculation of periods of time and supplementary provisions. Many of these topics were provided for in the General Principles of Civil Law of the PRC (the “GPL”) which was adopted by the People’s Congress on 12 April 1986 and has been in effect for 30 years since 1 January 1987. 

The Rules are considered to be a key development in the legislative process that will eventually result in the PRC having a civil code. The PRC does not currently have a civil code but adheres to the fragmented laws and regulations of the GPL as well as other civil regulations. The GPL will not be replaced by the Rules and will remain valid. Where there are discrepancies between Rules and the GPL, the Rules will prevail. Eventually, the GPL, the Rules and the other civil regulations will be replaced by a civil code. The National People’s Congress has announced that the civil code will be in place by 2020.

(Via: http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=bfa1e670-9b8e-4e58-99db-ee57151715ee)

These rules that are now introduced are aimed to protect civil rights and establish the rule of law in China. Perhaps this is the start when the world won’t see as many civil arrests of Chinese activists or probably witness greater transparency in the government’s functions.

The changes are part of President Xi Jinping’s wider push to align the legal system with the country’s social and economic modernisation and for some legal reformers, the code is a test of how far China will go in allowing civil liberties that might impinge upon state power.

“Civil law is the fundamental doctrine for a country’s legal system, the source of its basic essence,” Liang Ying, head of the NPC Legislative Affairs Research institute, told state media on Sunday.

“A foundational civil (law) system is an important sign of whether a country’s legal system is mature.”

Xi has made governing the nation by law a top priority of his tenure though he has drawn a line at allowing the courts to expand their power at the expense of the Communist Party’s control. Since pledging to reform and open in 1978, China has been gradually shifting its legal system away from a socialist law towards something closer to a European-style legal system.

In 2011, China declared that “socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics” had been established, but officials themselves say China’s laws remains a work in progress.

(Via: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2017/03/10/444167.htm)

This legal reform will likely be helpful in addressing sensitive topics involving the children and the elderly as well. A 2011 incident where a toddler was hit-and-run was ignored by multiple passersby is a sensitive issue that comes to the mind of many. Moreover, the new law can also help define the scope of basic rights of individuals.

China will likely remain to be a big mystery to the rest of the world considering how long it has kept itself in the dark. We are actually only starting to get to know more about this emerging superpower and we can’t help but be amazed at how much China has accomplished over the past few years, capable of taking their economy to new heights, improving their military and increasing their influence to the world at large at the expense of the trampled rights of its citizens, which will hopefully will be less and less moving forward.

The blog post Civil Rights In China: Does It Really Exist? was first published on Chinese Human Rights Development Net

source https://chrdnet.org/2017/05/10/civil-rights-in-china-does-it-really-exist/

China And North Korea: Friends Or Foe?

China a.k.a. the People’s Republic of China is known as the Red Dragon of Asia. Meanwhile, North Korea is officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). Although different in many ways, both countries actually have a striking similarity: the long list of human rights abuse issues plaguing the country and government from then until now. People’s rights are curtailed and there is little the outside world knows about what’s really going in within their respective nations although life in China has changed significantly now.

While China opened its doors and finally joined the international community, North Korea remains a mystery to everyone. With issues of abuse and poverty among North Koreans, the government under the leadership of Kim Jong-un is flawed in a lot of ways and remains to be shrouded in secrecy. Kim Jong-un is both the supreme leader of the DPRK and the chairman of the Worker’s Party of Korea (WPK) among many others.

China-North Korea relations are bilateral and both countries have important embassies in both countries. While they have close diplomatic relations before and share a 1,416-kilometer long border, China and North Korea conflicts have been growing over recent years and are mainly because of China’s growing concern over the nuclear weapons program of North Korea and the number of Chinese fishing boats the latter have impounded. Even ordinary Chinese people don’t see North Koreans in a positive light.

China’s top Korean War historian provided an unexpected take on the current crisis on the Korean Peninsula and China’s relationship with North and South Korea.

“We must see clearly that China and North Korea are no longer brothers in arms,” Shen Zhihua said recently in a shocking speech, the New York Times reports. “The fundamental interests of China and North Korea are at odds.”

The Trump administration has been pushing China to pressure its unruly neighbor, and while China has made some concessions, Beijing is still pushing back. China does not “hold the crux and the key to resolving” the North Korea issue, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters Monday. Beijing has restricted coal imports from the North, cutting off a key source of revenue for the regime, but bilateral trade between China and North Korea appears to be on the rise.

(Via: http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/chinas-top-korean-war-historian-china-north-korea-are-no-20268)

In this world, governments have allies and enemies. Although there is no permanent friend or foe in politics, the rich history shared by China and North Korea is one of the few things that link both countries together until the present.

North Korea is in the headlines - again. For a small, poor country of 25 million people, it sure does make a lot of news. This time it's the perennial issue of nuclear testing. North Korea has tested five nuclear devices since 2006. Donald Trump is in no mood to allow a sixth.

Just days before his Florida summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump vowedthat "if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will." Then, just after the summit, he backed up his pledge by ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the region.

Most people agree that North Korea is a problem. Aside from its nuclear tests, it also stands accused of state-sponsored counterfeiting of foreign currencies, the industrial-scale manufacture and sale of illicit drugs, and even of assassinating its own citizens in foreign countries.

But why is North Korea China's problem in particular? China is North Korea's only major diplomatic ally, but the relationship is fraught with difficulties. How did China get saddled with such a troublesome partner? The history of the relationship runs much deeper than most people realise.

(Via: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/04/170415110614281.html)

While the entire world thinks that China and North Korea are BFFs for life, their relationship isn’t carved in stone. Their relationship isn’t particularly rosy nowadays and China struggles to maintain balance and weigh in on its next steps – whether to continue support for its long-time ally or finally put an end to decades of friendship for obvious reasons.

China may be getting fed up with continued nuclear bluster from long-time ally North Korea and tilting toward the United States.

A day after North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister said Pyongyang would test missiles weekly and use nuclear weapons if threatened, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Beijing was "gravely concerned" about North Korea's recent nuclear and missile activities.

In the same press conference, spokesman Lu Kang praised recent US statements on the North Korean issue.

"American officials did make some positive and constructive remarks... such as using whatever peaceful means possible to resolve the (Korean) Peninsula nuclear issue. This represents a general direction that we believe is correct and should be adhered to," Lu said.

(Via: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/19/asia/china-us-north-korea-statements/)

Now is a crucial time to find out just how deep China and North Korea relations are. While North Korea remains to be antisocial and a war-freak nation, always making threats of nuclear war with other countries, China has slowly become a global superpower that likewise has to maintain diplomatic relations with various countries all over the world, not just to North Korea alone.

It may be unlikely that North Korea will have a change of heart and start opening up to the world soon but we will likely witness a severing of ties between China and North Korea if the latter continues with its unorthodox and unethical ways. The government itself is the problem and the citizens of North Korea don’t enjoy any form of democracy whatsoever. And this treatment alone is something that does not sit well with the entire world. Whether China and North Korea remains to be friends in this changing world or new enemies is just looming on the horizon.

China And North Korea: Friends Or Foe? Find more on: The Chinese Human Rights Development Blog

source https://chrdnet.org/2017/05/05/china-and-north-korea-friends-or-foe/

Less Social Media in China

We live in a modern world dominated by technology, advancements, and social media. Everywhere you go and wherever you look, technology stares you right in the face. Even our own homes are full of gadgets and tech knick-knacks that are supposed to make our lives easier and more comfortable (even when things break down). No need to get your hands dirty when a cool gizmo can do the trick for you, right? And that is the case in most parts of the world (even in developing countries). Technology use is fast becoming the way of life.

We all know China is an emerging global superpower. We have heard of the many mind-blowing advancements happening all over China and just how far their economy has taken them today, but we are also aware that China is a land of many cases of human rights abuse. The country itself is a land full of no-nos. No freedom of expression on a lot of things. Extreme Internet censorship also restricts Chinese citizens from utilizing the full scope of the web and many social media sites are likewise banned in the country. Aside from monitoring the Internet use of its people, the Chinese government also block various website contents they don’t want the public to have access with. Hence, they earned the nickname “The Great Firewall of China.”

IT HAS LONG BEEN suspected that the Chinese government, as part of its effort to control the Internet within its borders, surreptitiously floods social media with fake posts written by a vast army of hired promoters posing as ordinary people. The “50-cent party,” it’s called, because each fake post supposedly earns its author 50 cents. 

The phenomenon has been talked and written about widely by journalists, academics, activists, other social-media users, but evidence for these claims has been hard to find—until recently. In a study (to be published this year in the American Political Science Review) that has already prompted a startled response from Beijing, Weatherhead University Professor Gary King, the director of Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science, confirmed the suspicion: the 50-cent party, he says, is real, although much of the rest of what everyone believed about it is wrong. For one thing, the fake posters likely aren’t paid 50 cents. Most aren’t independent contractors: they’re government employees writing online comments on their off time, and there’s no evidence they earn extra money for it. 

More surprising, the purpose of these fabricated posts is not to argue with other social-media users, but to distract them. To perform the study, King and his two coauthors—Jennifer Pan, Ph.D. ’15, and Margaret Roberts, Ph.D. ’14—analyzed a trove of leaked emails sent between local government offices and the propaganda department in one county in southeastern China. “A big giant mess of a dataset,” King recalls, from which the researchers harvested nearly 44,000 fabricated social-media posts from 2013 and 2014. Across all of China, they calculated, that suggests about 450 million posts per year. In those King and his team read, 50-cent party members “are not arguing with anybody at all,” he says. They don’t jump into fights when other users complain about the regime’s repressions or corruption among local officials. 

(Via: http://harvardmagazine.com/2017/05/chinas-social-media-smoke-screen)

For the average Internet user nowadays, we truly enjoy all the benefits offered by the web, whether it is for work, school or leisure. But after hearing stories like this on how the Chinese government manipulates the contents Chinese citizens have access to – as if blocking certain contents is not enough violation of their human rights – you can’t help but feel bad on how little is there left for the Chinese to explore with on the web. Even social networks that are the favorite past time of many nowadays are not accessible in China for reasons only the government can justify.

Have you ever wondered if your government monitors what you do on your smart phone? If you lived in China, this would be an every-day Orwellian reality.

Imagine this: You pay your morning coffee with your phone, and then check into work with a tap of your fingers. You make lunch reservations and transfer your co-worker money for said lunch. You schedule a doctor's appointment and see your check-up results afterwards. And of course you post your lunch pictures for all of your friends to see, too. All of this happens in one app.

It sounds convenient, doesn't it? But what happens when every single step of your day is documented in that app? This scenario is already everyday reality in China: We are talking about WeChat, a messaging app turned into a so-called "super-app," developed by the Chinese Tech company Tencent.

WeChat has over one billion registered accounts with 850 million active users. The app and its competitors are amassing never-seen amounts of data about its users in China – data that the Chinese government can monitor.

(Via: http://www.dw.com/en/hello-big-brother-how-china-controls-its-citizens-through-social-media/a-38243388)

Imagine living in China. Aside from the many restrictions and violations of your human rights, the government also monitors every thing you do on the web. You not only miss out on social media platforms like Facebook and all the many wonderful things you can do with it as well as the equally life-changing network, Twitter, which is also out of reach mainly because of the strong political discourse happening on these channels.

It seems as if the government is limiting Western influence on its people in every means possible, so the government ensures the people follow all the policies of the government without any complaints. This self-regulation likewise ensures the Chinese people promote and support Chinese businesses and industries first, which consequently boosts the nation’s economy. When the Chinese people don’t have access to more liberal contents on the web, the government have no or little explaining to do and life goes on within the great walls of China.

Less Social Media in China was originally seen on chrdnet.org

source https://chrdnet.org/2017/05/01/less-social-media-in-china/