There is a lot going on now that I want to write about but I've found myself a bit busy to go in-depth on anything. To compensate I'm going to point out a few communication and issue-related articles from the last week that caught my eye, with some brief comments. In no particular order:
Cash for journalists skews Chinese media (Subscription)
Financial Times, August 2nd
Mure Dickie and Jamil Anderlini write about the perennial problem of the "transportation claim" in which Chinese journalists are paid about RMB 200 to show up at press conferences and interviews. I actually spoke to Mure for this article as "Imagethief" but was rather circumspect in my comments because of my company, and so wound up on the cutting room floor. I'm pleased to see he got some good quotes elsewhere:
“It’s awful. It’s an embarrassment for Chinese journalism . . . and
it’s corruption,” says Ying Chan, director of the Journalism and Media
Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. “It’s not that
journalists endorse this – people live with it knowing it is wrong.”
There are actually two related but slightly different issues. The transportation claim, which I have defended in the past as essentially inconsequential, and the practice of explicitly paying for good coverage or to withhold bad coverage. Unfortunately, much as might like to be able to rationalize the transportation claim, the two are related and I've become less sanguine over the years. The transportation claim itself might be inconsequential, but it establishes the precedent that cash payments to journalists from PR companies and their clients are acceptable under any circumstances. A young journalist makes four or five thousand RMB a month here. Attending three press events a week means a 50% salary subsidy from the PR industry. That's a problem.
Now, how to solve it?
Family planning slogans given makeover
China Daily, August 6th (and Associated Press)
"Raise fewer babies but more piggies" and "Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected" are out. ""Mother Earth is too tired to sustain more children" and "Both boys and girls are in parents' hearts"are in:
"Affectionate slogans which play up gender equality and economic development can be more persuasive," Fang Dayue, a village cadre in Anqing, Anhui Province, said.
Indeed. And they don't compare your children to pigs which, even in the year of the pig, may not be well received. Also in ESWN with graphics. Tip of the hat to The Horse's Mouth.
China not living up to media freedom pledge-report
Reuters, August 1st (and Wall Street Journal, by subscription)
Last week the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, in Beijing, released a survey of its own members on whether or not China is living up to its pledge to loosen restrictions on foreign journalists before the Olympics. The verdict is mixed. Travel is easier but Foreign Ministry upbraidings are more common. From the Journal's article:
China has pledged to give international media
"complete freedom to report" as it hosts the Olympics. And the
government has, starting this year, lifted some restrictions on foreign
reporters. According to the survey, 43% of respondents said conditions
have improved this year.
However, 68% of respondents believe Beijing hasn't
lived up to its pledge of complete freedom to report. And 40% of
respondents cited cases of interference from authorities since the
beginning of the year, despite the government's easing of restrictions.
Those included intimidation of sources, surveillance, detention and, in
several cases, physical assaults of reporters or their sources.
Interestingly, the day after the FCCC report broke, the China Daily carried an article titled "Foreign media enjoy greater access" quoting Liu Jianchao of the Foreign Ministry Information Department talking up the improved environment for foreign correspondents. Coincidence? You decide. As Danwei noted, no foreign correspondents were interviewed nor was the FCCC report cited. (Danwei also provides a PDF of the full report.)
China faces backlash at home over Blackstone investment
International Herald Tribune, August 2nd
PR trouble ahead for private equity group Blackstone, the recent lucky recipients of a US$3 billion investment from China's nascent sovereign investment fund. Unfortunately, what looked like a sweet China coup for Blackstone at first is turning a little sour as their shares have tanked over 15% since the investment, costing China a cool half billion on paper. While the Chinese government might (and we stress the "might") take a long-term view, the public is not being so kind:
Bloggers and even some Chinese financial media have frequently
mentioned the dwindling value of the government's stake, and some have
been highly critical.
"O senior officials of the Chinese government, please do not be
fooled by sweet-talking wolves dressed in human skin," said one of
several Internet postings compiled by an anonymous blogger on Sina.com,
a Chinese Web site. "The foreign reserves are the product of the sweat
and blood of the people of China, please invest them with more care!"
In a sign that the Chinese government may be censoring criticism on
the sensitive issue of government investment losses, the blogger's
entry was visible on the Web site on Thursday afternoon but had
disappeared by Thursday night. Other entries by the same blogger were
blocked, but milder criticisms of the Blackstone investment could still
be found.
Whether this impacts Blackstone's investment prospects in China remains to be seen. Perhaps not, but it will certainly give them a headache they did not need:
"These fierce wolves are similar to the foreign thieves who pillaged
our forefathers, only they are all the more cunning and manipulative,
but their goal of pillaging China does not change with the centuries."
What is it about private equity companies that brings out the warm fuzzies in people around the world?
U.S. to probe Yahoo in Chinese reporter arrest
Associated Press, August 3rd
It's the issue that won't go away for Yahoo. On July 29 and again on July 31 Rebecca MacKinnon blogged at length on papers provided by the Duihua Foundation that suggest that Yahoo was not entirely forthcoming about what it knew and didn't know about the nature of the investigation in Shi Tao last year. Now the US House of Representatives, under the urging of Congressman Tom Lantos, who is not a China fan, is going to look into the matter:
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Tom Lantos
ordered the investigation after a human rights group released a
document that it said raised questions about what Yahoo knew when it
shared information with authorities about Shi Tao. Beijing officials
had sought Shi for sending an e-mail about Chinese media restrictions.
"For
a firm engaged in the information industry, Yahoo sure has a lot of
secrecy to answer for," said Lantos, D-Calif. "We expect to learn the
truth and to hold the company to account."
ESWN has argued that Yahoo, faced with a legitimate police investigation, had no choice but to comply. Rebecca points out that Yahoo has exposed itself by making choices that its competitors have eschewed. It's a charged issue and, unfortunately for Yahoo, doesn't look like going away any time soon. Looks like Jerry Yang picked the wrong time to quit drinking assume the CEO title.
One thing I take from Yahoo's situation and the food and product quality crises is that companies that do business in China or source here can't treat China like some skeleton in the closet that they hope people won't notice. Companies for whom China is important need to think about how to explain their relationship with China to other stakeholders in a positive and relatively transparent way that inspires confidence. Fair or not, that looks increasingly like a cost of doing business here.
Also worth reading:
China's local censors muffle an explosion
Washington Post, August 1st
The central government may set policy, but it's enforced in the provinces and therein lies the rub.
Bad news tests China's propaganda arm
Washington Post, July 27th
Not everyone in the Chinese government agrees on what should be censored and what should be allowed, a fact often lost in the misperception of China's government as a monolith.
Citizen censors to combat fake reports
Times of India, July 30th
Can deputized readers make up for editors' failings?
And, of course, Xinhua ran a picture of Homer Simpson's brain next to an article on MS. Smooth. By all means read Chris O'Brien's post on this in Beijing Newspeak.