[Update: A commenter tells me that the Boston Herald is unreliable and has its own agenda (sorry, didn't know), so I wanted to offer other sources for the same story here and here and here. The co-author of the study is Nobel Prize-winning economist Dr. Lawrence R. Klein, founder of Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates. This is not just a Boston Herald story.]

I hope word spreads that the outsourcing threat is a myth, and that more IT jobs in India and China will not spell doom for America's IT workforce. From the Boston Herald today:

Outsourcing white-collar jobs to low-wage countries such as India and China has thrown some Americans out of work, but a new report predicts that the trend will ultimately lower inflation, create jobs and boost productivity in the United States.

The Information Technology Association of America, in a survey set for release Tuesday, acknowledges that the migration of tech jobs to low-paid foreigners has eliminated 104,000 American jobs so far, nearly 3 percent of the positions in the U.S. tech industry.

Software engineers have been particularly hard hit. Researchers at Global Insight Inc., which prepared the report for the ITAA, predicted that demand for U.S. software engineers would shrink through 2008.

But ITAA leaders emphasized that outsourcing has damaged the job market far less than the dot-com meltdown of early 2000, when Internet startups, telecom companies and other companies eliminated as many as 268,000 positions.

"The myth is that we've started this long decline into the midnight of the technology work force," ITAA president Harris Miller said. "This report shows that, assuming the recovery continues, the number of IT jobs will actually increase."

I hope the Dems decide not to make this a centerpiece for their platform. It's way too wobbly an issue.

[For an explanation of the strikethroughs, see my follow-up post.]

From Wonkette, via Kevin Drum via Mark Kleiman. (You should see all three posts to get the whole picture.):

This is an administration that will live in infamy. Nothing surprises me now. Shocks, yes. Surprises, no.

[UPDATE Apparently this ad is not a true Kerry ad, but one created by an independent group. Personally, I'd say they didn't do Kerry any great favors, as viewers will inevitably associate the ad with Kerry, as I automatically did. Stephen Frost has a great post that tells us exaxctly what the Chinese characters in the ad say, who placed the ad and where you can see it for yourself.]

I will do everything I can to support John Kerry in the race against George W. Bush. That said, I was highly disappointed to view a Kerry TV commercial that I find misguided, deceptive and inappropriate. And Kerry and his team have to know it.

The ad begins by showing a group of factories that resemble what you'd find in America's Rust Belt. The announcer says something along the lines of, "During his administration, President Bush created more than 3 million new jobs." There's a brief pause, and the announcer continues, "In China." With that, the camera pans upward and pulls back to reveal huge signs over the factories, all in Chinese characters. The rest of the ad warns of the horrors of outsourcing and how Kerry will fight for US workers, whereas Bush caved in to big industry.

I find this unacceptable on more than one level. First, it creates anti-Chinese sentiments, positioning them as an enemy/threat. It also implies the president can easily "do something" about US jobs lost by outsourcing. And, possibly worst of all, it makes a relatively small issue appear ominous, playing on people's fears. It's populist politics at its most unattractive.

Outsourcing brings real benefits to most Americans, and when it comes to all the jobs lost it is not nearly as big a factor as the Kerry ad would have you believe. There are so few jobs out there because employers don't want to hire when they're still anxious and unsure about the economy. I know, that's not much consolation to the poor factory worker whose job has been exported to Guangzhou. But that's part of the price of free markets and globalization.

It really hurts me to write anything negative about Kerry, but I'm worried that if he doesn't get more substantive he will appear phony and insincere. He's also got to get more aggressive in dealing with the charge that he says whatver his latest audience wants to hear. Karl Rove is making the waffling charge the No. 1 issue, and so far Kerry has done a poor job countering it.

The China ad should be scrapped. With so many real issues out there, why they would make outsourced jobs to China a key issue is beyond me.

I watched rather dumbfounded last week when Richard Clarke testified in front of the 911 commission. It was almost as though we were back at the hearings on Clarence Thomas or Watergate. I was mesmerized from the start, when Clarke uttered his now famous apology, which was surely the shrewdest, most brilliant snippet of politcal oratory I've heard in years.

Equally remarkable, however, has been the take-no-prisoners smear campaign spearheaded by Bush's lieutenants against Clarke, an ugly reminder of how nasty this administration gets whenever it feels threatened. (Remember Paul O'Neill just a couple of months ago? Same scenario, same full-frontal-assault tactics, same game of lambasting the accuser while ignoring the issues he brings up.)

Andrew Sullivan is quick to point out the lunacy of the administration's response to Clarke:

I agree with the Washington Post yesterday that the more worrying sign is the way the White House has responded. They have been close to hysterical, defensive to an absurd degree and therefore unpersuasive. Their response to Clarke evokes far more doubts about their pre-9/11 conduct than anything Clarke could have mustered by himself. More evidence that they're losing it. I think they realize they're in trouble and don't know quite how to right themselves. Hence the policy lurches - from Mars to [gay] marriage to steroids.

Determined to dig their own graves, the White House continues its refusal to let Condi testify before the commission in public and under oath. To understand just how convoluted, how deranged her argument for not testifying is, you simply must read Josh Marshall's precious post using Condi's own words to show how idiotic her reasoning (i.e., lack of reasoning) is.

So far the White House and various Republicans have spent an entire week spinning their wheels to make Clarke look bad by whatever means possible. One of the very slimiest was Senator Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert questioning whether Clarke had committed perjury because his testimony was contradicted by things he had said earlier.

But nothing is sticking. Having served under the last four presidents, in which capacity he has built a reputation for intelligence and fairness, Clarke simply can't be torn down with dirty tricks, the only weapons the White House now has at its disposal. It was a real pleasure reading Josh Marshall this morning on the folly of the Frist/Hastert perjury charge -- and how Clarke beat them at their game.

I think the early signs are that this perjury attack on Clarke was a major, major blunder. I don't think the perpetrators of this ugly stunt even thought they'd ever get into a courtroom. That wasn't the point: this was watercooler ammo. Something you get on to the news so that when Mr. X asks Mr. Y over the watercooler what he makes of Clarke's testimony, Mr. Y responds, "Hell, that guy? He's probably gonna get indicted for perjury. You can't believe anything that guy says."

Still, Clarke -- who was unflappable on the shows this morning -- and Hill Democrats seem to have immediately called Frist & Co.'s bluff. Not only have they welcomed the release of Clarke's materials, they've called for the release of more documents, correspondence and testimony from him and Rice. Selective declassification would be very difficult in the current context -- and could complicate efforts to keep so much other stuff out of the public's view.

He's made a clean sweep so far; out of nowhere, this bureaucrat many of us never heard of two weeks ago managed to turn the Bush administration on its head and call into question its main raison d'etre, national security. Something of a miracle, don't you think?

So far the polls aren't showing any significant change in public opinion toward Bush, but I think we're just getting started. Condi eventually will testify, and between now and the moment she's put under oath, the government will continue to lose credibility, as Sullivan says above. And Clarke is not going to vanish into the night. He has captured the media's attention, ascending overnight to super-stardom, and at this very instant the first story on the evening news is all about Clarke and Condi.

This obviously has Bush and Rove twisted into knots. From now on, all praise of Bush's national security policy will bring to mind Clarke's charges calling that policy into deep doubt. Again, for a single-issue candidate this is nothing short of a catastrophe. And it didn't have to be; the Condi Rice omerta exacerbated it infinitely, and has made the Administration appear frightened and defenseless in the wake of Clarke's testimony. Amazing.

You really have to be in America to have a feel for just how badly Condi has blundered by refusing to testify under oath on 911. Forget about whether she did anything wrong (or right) and just look at it from the perspective of appearances:

Here we have the No. 1 issue on which George W. Bush is campaigning; it's all he's got, what with the economy a mess and unemployment high. So what do the Bushies do? They reject pleas from the most respected members of their own party, like former Navy Secretary John Lehman, who said today that if Condi refuses to testify under oath and in public before the 911 commission, the American people will inevitably believe she (and the government) have something to hide. He said that in effect the GOP was cutting its own throat.

I really had a lot of respect for Condi following the 911 attacks, and it's sad to see her implode by adopting this bunker mentality (not to mention her recent junkyard-dog demeanor). After appearing on every talk show under the sun to combat Richard Clarke, her refusal to testify in public is particularly galling. She's obviously got the time, and obviously has a lot to say. But refusing to do so under oath, on the topic of supreme importance to all Americans? It's nothing less than bizarre, and I suspect she'll either have to relent and testify or else face political ruin. And maybe both.

Predictably, the CCP is pointing to the Taiwan elections as proof that democracy opens the door to chaos, and warning Hong Kong that this is exactly why true democracy there would be a bad thing.

China's official mouthpiece Friday warned Hong Kong for the first time of the chaos it can expect if it presses ahead with demands for speedy democratic reforms, using Taiwan's election turmoil as an example. "Democracy is promising as a theory, but in reality it is something entirely different," the official China Daily said in a commentary written by Xiao Ping.

"If it is fostered in a radical way that is more than the local community can handle, the inevitable outcome is the disruption of the original social order while a new one is not yet established, resulting in the paralysis of governance and social chaos."

There's no question that there is a price for freedom, and the people of HK and Taiwan have made it perfectly clear that they are willing to pay that price. If only China's leaders understood why this is so -- why men are willing to march and riot and risk their lives for political freedom -- they could save themselves an awful lot of trouble trying to convince people who are free that they'd be better off under the authoritarian rule of the CCP.

This can happen anywhere and is not unique to China. But surely as China develops and people make more money, we'll be seeing more of it. I am posting briefly about it here because the victims of this particular story are people very important to me.

Yesterday one of my closest friends in Beijing sent me an email that was obviously written in a state of panic: his naive father had been tricked by con artists who managed to walk away with his life savings. This is a man in Yunnan with no job whose wife sells vegetables in a local market. The amount that was stolen sounds negligible to Westerners, but it was all the security they had.

We spoke on the phone and exchanged several emails, but there was little I could say to make the situation any better. Today, he told me his parents have adjusted to their new reality and are altering their lives accordingly.

This accident is too terrible to believe, like a nightmare. My parents still went to vegetable market to sell this morning. My mother planned to sell her few stock to other vendors, then stop this business which he worked hard for 15 years. I told my parents that I hope they take good care of themselves, nothing could be more valuable than their health. I also tried to ask my brother-in-law to stay with my parents as long as possible, I do not let them alone at this special time. My brother-in-law planned to take my mother to another town which he is teaching in.

All my family including me should learn the lesson from this accident. We should be more cautious and choose proper personal finacial management model that could reduce risk. Maybe for my parents, they are too old and traditional. But for me, this will be a lesson I must learn from. I plan to buy an insurance for my mother, she never worked for any corporate and isolated from social security system. (My current security status is the same with my mother, but I will change it in few month).

I will take my parents to visit Beijing, it is their dream even for my dead grandmother. My parents are almost 60 years old, they worked hard for more than 40 years, but they never lived in any star-hotel for one night......for my mother, she never be out of Yunnan. All this will become my motivation to work hard to let them experience best life, they deserve it!

Apparently this sort of story is not that unusual in China, and there's no mechanism in place to stop or prevent it. That's not a criticism; it's just one more thing China will need to learn to deal with as it progresses. I hope that as the leaders focus more attention on its poor citizens in the countryside that they will help educate them and protect them from the exploitation and trickery that have plagued them through the centuries. This example drove home to me just how tragic the consequences of ignorance and naitvete can be.

Below are the suggestions some affected bloggers in China have offered for circumventing the Great Firewall. Several unblocked bloggers like myself are posting it, and hopefully this will filter down to readers in China affected by the blog-out.

The Nanny does not care about blocked blogs. If Typepad can't find a
way to sort it out, then affected websites in China will have to find
different ways to stay online.

It was only about 15 months ago -- back when this blog was hosted by blogspot -- that I had my first personal experience with the CCP's censors. It was a rude shock to wake up one morning to find I could not access my own blog or any others on blogspot.

From that day on until I uprooted to Singapore, I could never again see my own blog except via proxy servers, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. (There were some odd days when, inexplicably, I would be able to access blogspot sites. But within a few hours, without fail, they'd be inaccessible again. I called it Chinese water torture.)

Four days into the ban, I still wanted to believe there was hope, and that maybe enough coordinated outrage would impel the man behind the curtain to end the ban.

Yes, it appears the Chinese government has imposed a permanent nationwide ban on all Blogspot.com sites. At least, after four days, the story has spread. Maybe the blogger outcry will convince our leathery leaders that a staple for a robust and thriving society is the free exchange of information. Are they really afraid that some "subversive" blogs (anything interesting seems to be subversive here) can cause their system to come toppling down? C'mon guys, lighten up!

Evidently my pleas went unheeded. Not only does blogspot remain blocked to this day, but as we all know, the censor's tentacles have recently reached out to embrace local blogging services like blogcn and another of the big blogspot-like services, typepad. This means some of my favorite sites, like danwei.org, cannot be viewed in China, at least not by those who don't know how to get around the Great Firewall.

I've seen all sorts of theories. I've read posts urging greater understanding of the CCP as well as posts advocating "violence" against the wicked system. Coming to the conversation weeks after the fact, there's not really much I can offer that's new, aside from my own sympathy and anger.

To me, this outrage drives home once again that freedom of speech is something the government of China is not ready to deal with. No big shock there, except we've all been hoping that freedoms were being expanded, not contracted. That they feel so threatened by blogs, of all things, speaks volumes to their paranoia and insecurity. And I have no patience for such nonsense, only contempt.

Just imagine being a blogger in China and suddenly having the fruits of your labors erased, seeing it all taken away from you. As Adam wrote recently:

If I were a blog owner that’s been blocked, I would be livid that all my effort is now not available to the very audience that I wish to reach. Hell, I haven’t been blocked and I’m livid as it is.

Well, I was blocked, and I can assure you that you are absolutely right: I was livid as hell. This was the first blow that caused me to question the notion that China was reforming and becoming freer. It was so nice to take it on faith and believe, but when I could no longer read my own blog, I knew the world had become intoxicated on a myth: China was still hell-bent on controlling the minds of its people by whatever means possible.

Some are posting that they expect the ban to last only a short while, that it will be lifted and things will soon be back to normal. Speaking from experience, I have no choice but to see this as hopeless naivete. I thought the same about the blogspot ban, now in its 15th month. If the censors are so convinced that these sites are worth their blocking, what on earth is going to suddeny enlighten them and convince them they were wrong? Nothing, I suspect (although I'd love to be proven wrong).

A lot of bloggers are shrouding their sites in black, a sort of cyber-armband indicating solidarity and outrage. Fair enough; I think we should be protesting, and this is as good a way as any. But again, based on experience, I suggest you not keep your hopes up too high, and get used to the fact that black may be a key color of your site design for a long time to come, if not forever.

Isn't it terrible?

China Daily today attacks the US for its alleged hypocrisy in harping on China's human rights violations, and points out some of America's own gross violations to prove its point.

While pointing the finger at other countries over alleged human rights violations, the self-appointed monitors in Washington are practising exactly what they censure in others.

And what exactly are the gross human rights violations being perpetrated by the US? I hope you're holding onto something:

Showing no respect of the human rights of Chinese citizens, the United States began demanding fingerprints and photos from Chinese applicants for visas to the United States on Monday.

The move infringes the human dignity and right to privacy of Chinese citizens.

So now we all know. What right does the US have of pointing fingers at China with documented examples of religious persecution, murders in prison, the arrest of reporters -- how dare we come forward with such claims when at the exact same time we are inflicting such mental torture on the Chinese....by asking that they (and many others coming into America) be fingerprinted and photographed?

Don't get me wrong. I think King-of-the-world Bush and his cronies are barking up the wrong tree by demanding the fingerprinting and photographing of arriving visitors. But to compare it to charges of blatant repression, arbitrary/illegal arrests and murder -- give me a fucking break.

The same article ends with an, ahem, outspoken conclusion about us wicked Americans:

They can kill anyone they think is a potential threat to their precious lives. That is their idea of human rights.

One can almost visualize us evil Americans stalking the world, killing anyone at will on the slightest pretext, totally unaccountable to anyone. For the government that has honed political repression into a fine art to accuse Americans of killing anyone who threatens our "precious lives" -- well, it's a bit extreme, don't you think? I mean, we weren't the ones who massacred our own civilians some 15 years back for staging anti-government demonstrations. Few essayists in the US are locked up for the best years of their lives for posting an essay on the Internet.

There's plenty of hypocrisy to go around in just about every government. But this sort of slam is beyond comprehension and beyond belief. When our leaders fuck up, there are hearings and investigations and banner headlines -- not necessarily justice, especially under the current administration, but at least we can do something without fear of reprisal. If the fingerprinting is the best example China could come up with of America's murderous ways, I think they're on pretty shaky ground.

On a more personal note: I've been away a long time. There's been a lot of recent news on stories that normally I would be shouting out about, like the obscene blog ban, the arrest and persecution of more reporters in Guandong, and the tightening of restrictions on the Internet, to name a few. With my new move home and the job search and an ever-nagging mid-life crisis, it's been impossible for me to post the past several days. But I'm back in the mood now and I plan to post at least once a day, starting today. Thanks for your patience.

I'm alive and well and in New York City, still recovering from acute jet lag and the nastiest bronchitis I've ever had. I won't be posting regulalrly until next week, when I'll be back home in Arizona; I promise, I will not simply disappear.

Meanwhile, I can't can't yet say how big a picture Asia will continue to play on this site. It all seems like a very distant blur at the moment, but the jet lag and the cough medicine may be partly responsible for that. What I can say is that the site design and name will stay the same for now; no big changes until I find a new job and can afford a redesign.

Sorry to keep everyone in limbo (and sorry to see my site traffic go down the drain, as well). But it really is temporary. I can't wait to get back into action, and when I do come back it'll be with a vengeance.

Too bad, that my last few days in Asia were spent bedridden with a high fever and bronchitis. I was enjoying a beautiful trip to Hangzhou this past weekend, walking around the enchanting West Lake and the Ling Yin Temple when I started coughing. When i woke up the next morning I knew I was really sick.

There are so many stories I'd like to comment on, so many observations I want to share about Beijing and Shanghai, but I'll have to wait, probably several days. Maybe tonight if I feel better (but I truly doubt it).

Two of my most enjoyable encounters in Beijing over the past few days were with fellow bloggers. I was lucky enough to have dinner with one of them last night and enjoy a spirited discussion about US politics, the Chinese media and the changing mindset of Chinese university students. We don't agree on everything, but we come pretty close. The Chinese blogging community includes some of the greatest gentlemen/women I've ever known. It's been a real privilege knowing and meeting them.

I'm in Shanghai now, where I spent a few hours today visiting the local office of the company I worked for in Beijing. Tomorrow I say goodbyes to a few other friends, then head for Hangzhou for a few days and finish the trip back in Beijing.

It's been a great journey, with some of the usual jarring experiences I came to expect here. Half the time, China's Internet wouldn't let me on to post or comment, but half the time I got lucky and there was no problem. I had a hilarious episode at a state-owned hotel in Beijing this morning that brought home a barrage of memories that every expat has about how customer service in China is not always what it is elsewhere. But then, that's part of the inherent uniqueness that makes the place so endearing. There were some other examples of those aggravations that at first raise your blood pressure to near-bursting but that, after time, you learn to just smile at.

Still can't devote time to politics or news here; I just want to take in the scenery before I say goodbye.

China's idiosyncratic Internet is causing me a bit of grief today, with posts getting lost and access being denied and a lot of time being wasted. So strange, how one minute it's not working, the next it's fine. Totally unpredictable. I'll be here another five days, and my time on the Net will be very limited. Sporadic posting at best.

A troll has been dropping incredibly obscene comments all over my site, and I apologize for any offense taken. I'm trying to delete them as they come, but don't have the time to police the site adequately. Thanks for your patience.

When I met with a former co-worker today for lunch in Beijing, the first thing he asked was whether I heard the latest big news from Beijing: Dr. Jiang Yanyong, the whistleblower who tipped off the Western media to the SARS cover-up last year, had demanded the CCP turn the spotlight on the Tiananmen Square massacre and reappraise what occurred.

The story has already been covered nicely by Water, Joseph and Andrea.

My friend seems to think the doctor's fame and reputation will help win support for his request, and that it has the potential to further push China along the road to greater transparency and accountability. It could also be a good test of who's really pulling the strings in Beijing, the reformers or the hard-liners. This is one to watch carefully.

More posts about Tiananmen Square:
Tiananmen Square revisited
Tiananmen Square re-revisited
The story behind the Tiananmen Square "tank man" photo

Beijing 's weather is spectacular today and the city looks nicer than ever. I've been meeting old friends and still have two more meetings this afternoon. One of them told me some political news that I'll have to blog about when I get a minute to myself, which might not be anytime soon.

More job opportunities for me in China, now that I've decided to go home to the US. Still, it's good to know there are options, and that I can come back anytime. Now, if only I could make a final decision about what I want to do with the rest of my life....

Just a year ago, as we all know, the CCP covered up the spread of SARS in Beijing because it would've spoiled the good cheer of its rubberstamp National People's Congress. I've been assured time and again that this can't happen anymore because China learned its lesson. Never again will bad news be kept from the public just to make the Party look good -- especially if supressing the bad news could endanger human life.

And then I stumbled on this post with the telling subject heading, "Major pollution incident in Sichuan; don't tell people."

A chemical leak into the Tuo River in Sichuan on Tuesday left up to one million people without water, according to international reports of a story in the Shanghai Morning Post.

However, with China in "good news only mode" during the NPC/CPPCC egofest, there is, of course, absolutely nothing - not a single mention - of the disaster at national level. Perhaps ironic that two days after the incident, the official media carried a report Uniform water system stressed.

One would have thought that some lessons in communications had been learnt last year. One could even argue that reporting news of major spills would support the government's efforts to improve China's environmental peformance. A quick review of the English language versions of the national media sources over the last few days shows there to be an complete and utter absence of news which might suggest that there is anything other than sweetness and light in the Middle Kingdom. I'm not sure how Chinese media people can hold their heads up when they are overseas. It's basically corporate communications on a grand scale.

Hey, don't slander my profession! If anyone in corporate communications committed crimes even close to this, they'd be fired and blacklisted from the field forever. Cardinal rule in crisis comms: acknowledge the crisis publicly, and never, ever lie or cover it up. China learned that lesson so well last year with SARS, remember?

Just because I'm trying to give the CCP the benefit of the doubt in regard to several recent initiatives doesn't mean I won't stop calling them on their shit if and when it surfaces. They have a long, long way to go to earning international trust and respect. This really sucks, and the whole world should know.

And he's pretty direct about it.

Thank God — I think. Mel Gibson has granted me absolution for my sins. As "The Passion of the Christ" approached the $100 million mark, the star appeared on "The Tonight Show," where Jay Leno asked if he would forgive me. "Absolutely," he responded, adding that his dispute with me was "not personal." Then he waxed philosophical: "You try to perform an act of love even for those who persecute you, and I think that's the message of the film."

Thus we see the gospel according to Mel. If you criticize his film and the Jew-baiting by which he promoted it, you are persecuting him — all the way to the bank. If he says that he wants you killed, he wants your intestines "on a stick" and he wants to kill your dog — such was his fatwa against me in September — not only is there nothing personal about it but it's an act of love. And that is indeed the message of his film. "The Passion" is far more in love with putting Jesus' intestines on a stick than with dramatizing his godly teachings, which are relegated to a few brief, cryptic flashbacks.

With its laborious build-up to its orgasmic spurtings of blood and other bodily fluids, Mr. Gibson's film is constructed like nothing so much as a porn movie, replete with slo-mo climaxes and pounding music for the money shots. Of all the "Passion" critics, no one has nailed its artistic vision more precisely than Christopher Hitchens, who on "Hardball" called it a homoerotic "exercise in lurid sadomasochism" for those who "like seeing handsome young men stripped and flayed alive over a long period of time."

And it only gets more intense from there. Highly recommended.

It will probably be my last visit to China for a while, and I have the feeling it will be an important one. I'm lined up to see a lot of people in Beijing and Shanghai, to say my final goodbyes, and in some cases to say my introductory hellos (folowed quickly by goodbyes).

I had my last day of work this week. As soon as I get back to the US I'll have to start looking. I've always had pretty good luck finding jobs, but I hear the current job market in the US has rarely been worse.

So I have a lot of complicated thoughts to sort out, and a lot of issues I have to come to terms with. There are some people I will miss so much I can't imagine being so far away from them. And I know there's a lot about living in Asia I'll miss, especially being able to maintain this blog with a live-from-Asia perspective. I don't know what it's going to become after I get home.

48 hours until I arrive in Beijing, followed by a trip to Shanghai and then home, first for three days in New York to see friends there, and then, finally, a return to my home and family and loved ones and cats in Arizona. It is so overwhelming and so surreal I can't describe it. I am bracing myself even now for the culture shock.

Second Update: It's been fixed.

Update: LiC has apparently blamed this on a technical glitch. I don't know enough about technology to comment; I guess the aggregator can actually "bounce" individual blogs from being picked up. It's happened before, in the case of Gweilo Diaries and See lai, both of which carry photos of scantily clad ladies. I found it amazing that now, when it happens for the third time, the site in question, danwei, is featuring a post with lots of photos of -- you guessed it -- scantily clad ladies!

No one has praised Living in China more than I, and I contribute to it whenever I can. But little episodes like this get my conspiracy-theory sensors activated. Looking at the three times this has now happened, I just have to wonder: is it just pure coincidence? Apparently, at least according to those in the know, it is.

As Brian points out, the Living in China aggregator seems to be acting up again, leaving off a bunch of danwei's most recent posts, which are damned good.

Maybe Jeremy requested they be left off -- I don't know. But if it was a decision by the LiC board of directors, I hope they reconsider. They already have the disclaimer above the aggregated posts, and if they think the Chinese government is going to freak out over stuff that is already being printed in their media anyway -- well, it just seems kind of silly.

Whatever you do, don't miss danwei's latest.

It's really extraordinary. if you scan all the news stories coming out about China in recent days all around the world there is a new and rather sudden emphasis on one topic -- the gap between China's rich and poor.

So it's consistent that at the Party Congress in Beijing today, Wen laid out a strategy for economic stability, promising that agriculture is the government's top priority in the year ahead.

Premier Wen Jiabao promised to increase spending on agriculture, education, job creation and social security this year as part of efforts to provide more assistance to the poor.

Speaking of the huge wealth gap between cities and countryside, Mr Wen says agriculture remains the government's priority this year.

Wen said the government is planning more direct and forceful measures to support agriculture and boost farmers' income. The central government will pump 30 billion yuan into the agricultural sector, a 20 per cent increase over last year, while urging local authorities to also invest more. The government will also abolish special agricultural taxes, such as those applied to the fish industry and certain cash crops - except tobacco - which will save farmers 4.8 billion yuan each year.

The premier also made a special mention of the government's plan to help migrant labourers recover unpaid wages from property developers as well as from local authorities.

It sounds good, and underscores just how hard the current government is going to demonstrate its commitment to China's disenfranchised, those left behind by the economic miracle, those who feel they have no choice but to be cockle pickers in England or migrant construction workers in Shanghai.

I know it's boring when I say this, but I have to: I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and see if they'll put their money where their mouth is. After watching China for more than three years I'm impressed with the new leaders who are at least acknowledging the "gap crisis" and shining the spotlight on it.

According to the article, Jiang Zemin was there as Wen spoke, seated prominently to indicate his firm grip on power. He was no doubt pleased when Wen announced an 11.6-percent increase in military spending.

I was laughing out loud. Head to Crackpot Chronicles (newly added to my blogroll, by the way) for the wickedly funny lyrics. And they wouldn't be so funny if they weren't so true.

Thanks to Joseph Bosco for directing me to this devastating photo essay on soldiers who were seriously wounded in the Iraq war.

The pictures are upsetting enough, but the real poignancy is in the text, brief interviews with the young soldiers and how they view thir futures. Painful reading and viewing, but an important reminder that those reports we hear on the news each night and that by now leave most of us numb -- those report are about more than just statistics.

This is urgent -- you will all want to see this. (Well, "hear it," actually.)

Just go here, where there is an entire special program on change in China called "Reversing the Revolution." Be sure to click the link "Urban Poor." Despite the poverty and misery, many of them are quite grateful for their lot. That tells us much about how things were before.

Actually, click all the links. They are all good. While it basically sheds a good light on the government, it doesn't touch on the issues of freedom, rule of law, censorship and corruption. But there's no denying the benefits of economic reform since Mao's death.

Sorry, but I really can't stand the guy. This important little article tells how the director of The Passion based many scenes on the writings of an antisemitic nun, Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824).

The bedridden visionary, who is said to have borne the stigmata and the wounds of the Crown of Thorns, is a particular source of contention for Gibson because of her depictions of Jews as bloodthirsty and venal. In "The Dolorous Passion," for instance, she "sees" Jewish priests passing out bribes to get people to offer false testimony against Jesus and even tipping the Roman executioners. She also describes seeing Jesus' Cross being built in the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem. (Some of those details were found in an early script, but it could not be determined whether they made it into the final cut of Gibson's film.)

And Emmerich's 19th century biographer, the Rev. C.E. Schmoeger, wrote about how she had one vision of an "old Jewess Meyr," who confessed to her "that Jews in our country and elsewhere strangled Christian children and used their blood for all sorts of suspicious and diabolical practices."

Mel actually carries a piece of cloth from Emmerich's habit wherever he goes. The money quote comes when he's asked about her antisemitism.

"Why are they calling her a Nazi?" he is quoted by New Yorker writer Peter Boyer as saying. "Because modern secular Judaism wants to blame the Holocaust on the Catholic Church. And it's revisionism. And they've been working on that one for a while."

News to me, but I guess Mel must know, or he wouldn't have said it....

It's that time of year again, China's National Party Congress, when protestors and anyone who might in any way make the party look bad is silenced in one way or another, be it house arrest, temporary exile from Beijing or what have you.

That's been the drill for years now, so no surprise to read that it's no different this year. But I did feel disappointment to read that part of the CCP's agenda for making everything look good and harmonious and happy includes ending all public discussion of the very controversial Zhongguo Nongmin Diaocha, the publication of which I saw as a hopeful sign of a new Gorbachev-style "glasnost" in China.

This week the Communist Party's propaganda department issued a nationwide media notice listing several books regarded as too sensitive for further public discussion. Among them was A Report on the Condition of China's Peasants by investigative journalists Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao, a harrowing account of how China's 900 million villagers are taxed and exploited to provide funds and cheap labour for dazzling coastal and urban developments. Party propagandists said the book should not be publicised or criticised, meaning it should disappear from public discussion. However, it has not been removed from sale.

The two authors are being sued by one of the officials whose alleged depredations on peasants were detailed in the book. The official is taking action in a local court in which his son is a judge, a fact that has not appeared in the official media.

Remind me not to get too optimistic about reforms again anytime in the near future.

It seems like it was a hundred years ago, but it was only last year that the CCP reached a new low at its Party Congress, clinking champagne glasses and beaming at the magnificent implications of all its rubber-stamped amendments. Only a few weeks later, the world would be shocked to learn that SARS was spreading through Beijing, that the CCP knew it and ordered all news of it suppressed during the Congress.

I keep hearing that the new leaders are different, and I've been impressed at times by what I've seen. But the sins of last year mustn't be forgotten so soon. It was too much of a betrayal of the people's trust to simply slough off.

Many have said that this was a pivotal moment for the CCP, that they learned from it and would not repeat the same mistakes again. And I am willing to believe that. But as Ronald Reagan would say, "Trust, but verify." I'm willing to believe, but they've got to show me the money. I've devoted more space to the Nongmin Diaocha than to any other topic recently. And now i read that pubic discussion is about to be suppressed. So what should I think?

Update: For a humorous look at how the Chinese media grind to a halt for the People's Congress and spit out pukish pabulum on how dandy things are, you have to see Danwei's post and photos.

I take one day off from this blog and it suddenly takes on a life of its own in the comments to the post below on what's going on in China. Is there any other country that has so many identities, that can be seen in so many different ways depending on who's looking at it? What is China? Everyone has a different idea....

Unfortunately, for at least the next day or two the comments will be the only reason to come here, since I won't have time to post. Packing and settling all my accounts is now in the final stage. I am really getting out of here. What a feeling.

Another post on the Zhongguo Nongmin Diaocha, this one over at Shanghai Eye, is poignant and distressing. And a must-read.

It not only includes some beautiful photographs and exquisite writing, it also drives home just how misleading the ever-burgeoning figures for China's GDP can be, obfuscating the grim (and I mean, like, very, very grim) lot of China's disenfranchised peasantry. As the peasants witness the obscene divide between themselves and China's growing urban rich, they have to see just how awful their situation is.

The evidence uncovered by the authors [of Nongmin Diaocha] would be shocking even if it provided only the sharp facts of life in the Anhui countryside, where peasants earn about 400 RMB a year and have to pay a quarter of that to the corrupt local county government. Once you add in the violence, the intimidation, and the murder, it is obvious why so many in the rural community in Anhui have chosen to try their luck in Shanghai.

400 RMB -- that's about US $52 if I remember right. Yeah, the cost of living is low, but that's still dirt, dirt poor. It might be better than it used to be, but it's only relatively recently that there's been such an enormous gulf between the poor farmer and the city dwellers driving cars and buying stocks. It's a classic recipe for calamity.

To the government's credit, it seems to be acutely aware of the enormous probem this gap represents. Can they do anything about it aside from the recent populist gestures? My guess is that they must have a plan. If not, would they have dared risk allowing the distribution of the Nongmin Diaocha? No, they're not stupid; there's a strategy here. I think.

I have no conclusions and apologize if this seems half-baked. It's just that there seems to be some sort of shift recently, or at least that's how it seems from the outside. Can anyone on the mainland confirm (or deny) that something's in the air?

Andrew Sullivan on the loving and forgiving director of The Passion:

Mel Gibson was asked what he felt about potential backlash against his movie, "The Passion of the Christ." He responded, with classic Christian grace: "I don't know where it's going to fall. And quite frankly... you want to hear something? I don't give a flying fuck." The man who allegedly only put as much violence in his movie as occurred in the Gospels was also asked how he would greet Frank Rich, one of his more prominent critics. Gibson replied, "I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick ... I want to kill his dog." This is the man now hailed as the savior of America's evangelical Christians. I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

Can you believe it? Yes, I'm afraid I can.

Adam links to an intriguing story from Reporters without Borders on China's efforts to step up Internet censorship via new directives sent to the country's big portals.

The council of state's information bureau, which regulates online activity, explained the new directives to those in charge of China's main Internet portals : Sohu.com, Netease.com and Sina.com.

Changes were quickly apparent in the forums on these portals, Reporters Without Borders has learned. Some discussion groups with a slightly political content or ones dealing with social issues were closed or redirected to entertainment forums (culture, people and so on). This was the case with the Sohu.com news group Xin Kong (Starry sky), which was closed and replaced by a forum not considered subversive.

It also seems that debates of a political nature have virtually disappeared from forums as a result of stricter filtering criteria used by the Ban Zhu (discussion group moderators). At the same time, there has been a surge of posts by Internet users complaining about censoring of their messages, which they are unable to post online.

Reporters without Borders warns that in the wake of these directives, US tech firm Verisign's "decision to involve China in the management of global Internet traffic appeared extremely dangerous." This is a topic I don't understand well enough to comment on, but it's spelled out in detail over at Truth Laid Bear (also via Adam). It sure sounds ominous, but Verisign says not to worry.

One can develop permanent migraines and dizzy spells trying to figure out whether censorship in China is lessening or worsening. I think the best generalization is that on social issues -- sex, fashion, self-expression -- things are looking better, but on political issues and anything that can make the government look bad, censorship is still tight and may be getting worse, with some big exceptions all around. After all, Vagina Monologues was just banned, while on the other hand the government has allowed the amazingly critical Nongmin Diaocha to be released to the public.

So generalizations don't work too well. Things are zig-zagging in every conceivable direction. What are we to think?

It's definitely a good thing that the WHO says China is improving when it comes to letting them know about outbreaks of infectious diseases like bird flu.

Of course, after last year's SARS cover-up, China could only get better in this regard. Still, progress is progress, and I hope it continues.