The Party’s mouth piece is left in a precarious situation, a lack of reporting on corruption would give the people the impression that nothing is being done to confront the very visible problem. Reporting too much though gives the impression that every gov’t official is corrupt, and the Party is failing in their efforts to control it. This tight rope act must be carefully managed so as to maintain precisely the right balance in appearance of action and control.

In order to get a sample of the stories published by People’s Daily, I used Google Site search with the phrase “corrupt” (which also caught corruption and ant-corruption), and then limited the results to 1/1/2011-12/31/2011 (results). This returned a total of 374 results, of these roughly 60% were false positives caused by links to other articles. The remainder fell into three general categories; the largest focused on the Party’s anti-corruption efforts, the second largest focused on denouncing corruption and opinion pieces encouraging the gov’t to take action, and the smallest subset consisted of just 14 articles related to specific cases of corrupt officials being prosecuted.

These cases proved particularly interesting, since they give the clearest picture of corrupt officials and their crimes (see table at bottom). The smallest amount published was 10,000rmb, which was used for a banquet for the Luwan District Red Cross in Shanghai, while this received a great deal of attention on Weibo and was part of a very painful public image crisis for the Red Cross (which had also been hit by the Guo Meimei scandal), it was an insignificant amount compared to the other instances of corruption. The average amount accumulated by individual corrupt officials tried in 2011 was over 18,000,000RMB (based off only what has been reported in PD, which excludes the Liu Zhijun case), with the most corrupt being Xu Zhongheng, former mayor of Shenzhen, who was accused of taking over 33,000,000 RMB. The largest instance of corruption reported, was related to the trial of the managers of the Wenzhou Vegetable Basket group, which is a State Owned Enterprise; the CEO and 15 others took over 426 million RMB from the company during a restructuring process. People’s Daily though prefers to focus on individuals even when it clearly involves a group of corrupt officials.

I think for a casual reader the steady stream of information about anti-corruption efforts and limited reporting on individual trials may give the impression that corruption is being effectively controlled. Yet, when one looks at all of the reporting together, it seems woefully inadequate. For example, the paper mentions an effort to register the financial assets of 1.67 million officials, yet only 51% reported their property ownership, 36% registered their investments, and 48% reported the employment status of their relatives (who as we learned from the Bo Xilai scandal can also receive massive perks from their connections). Unsurprisingly the paper is complicit in glossing over these disparities; in the previous year roughly 146,000 corruption cases were investigated, yet only 14 were reported in the PD. These efforts seem at best to be a weak attempt at transparency.

The lowest amount reportedly taken by an individual official was 1.2 million RMB, which makes me wonder what the threshold is for punishment. Unfortunately we will never know how much the 146,000 officials were caught with, but the total must be massive considering that according to the cases reported in People’s Daily just 29 officials pilfered 647.18 million RMB.

Furthermore, the People’s Daily quickly backed away from the sensational report released last year from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences that 16-18,000 officials had fled overseas with up to 800 billion RMB over the past 20 years. This figure was later replaced with the somewhat less damning claim of 4,000 officials with 50 billion USD over 30 years (roughly 40% of the original figure). The fact that there is a phrase to describe officials getting ready to flea, naked officials, indicates the scale of the problem.

Despite being the mouth piece of the Party, People’s Daily did publish a few bold editorials related to corruption. “Tofu Projects in China,” focused on various vanity projects throughout the country that had been poorly constructed and wasted public funds, and “The Recipe of China’s Food Safety Crisis” squarely blames corrupt inspectors for the country’s failure to protect its citizens from harmful ingredients. The paper also reported that corruption was rife in the construction industry, and that bribes can make up to 5-10% of the cost of a single project (China invested over 4 trillion RMB to bolster the economy after the 2008 downturn, do the math).

Overall, it seems that the tight rope act is now in danger of taking a disastrous fall as Weibo and other platforms become the more popular sources of information, largely because of inept reporting by PD and other “official” papers. Sadly, state media fails miserably at providing the people anything more than a glimpse of the scope and scale of the corruption. There are a few bright spots though, one being that corruption efforts do seem to actually be expanding to formerly off limits levels of gov’t, and secondly, that local elections seem to be reducing corruption at the local level, which has a very direct negative impact on China’s farmers.

Note: China “cracks down” on lots of things, and my Chinese friends found nothing surprising about the language used. It’s highly likely that local authorities did not consider how the campaign would sound to foreigners. Hopefully, someone will learn a lesson from the backlash, the poor “journalists” at People’s Daily have been trying to put a positive spin on it for days now.

“Strengthen the management of foreigners. Crack down on the three types of illegals.” Banner in Beijing from @niubi. The three illegals are: illegal entry, overstayed visa, and illegal employment

First, it is important to note that “foreigners” is a catch-all term for a very disparate group. South East Asians and North Koreans (a second campaign was launched in North Eastern China to combat this) fill the needs of cheap physical labor in industries that are no longer enticing to Chinese workers; African traders have found a base that offers them a reasonably comfortable life, while opening a market for cheaply made Chinese goods; and young, mostly white, English speakers only partially fill the gigantic demand for teachers. They are attracted to China for many reasons, but the fact that work is easy to find is likely the most common one (I was almost made a VP of marketing for a wine distributor while shopping at the supermarket once). Unfortunately, China seems to have been completely unprepared for this, and has what could only charitably be described as a rudimentary system for handling the influx.

This brings me to my second point: except for the occasional, vague threats, there is little reason to follow China’s visa regulations for the time being. As far as I have seen, companies hiring foreigners breaching the terms of their visas never face repercussions (same in the US), and so have no reason not to hire these people. At the same time, the chances of getting caught working illegally are probably about the same as being audited by the IRS, and the salary generally is much higher than whatever the fines would be (for English Teachers). While I am in no way encouraging this behavior, it is not hard to understand why so many otherwise law abiding individuals break the terms of their visas.

This is further exacerbated by the often mercurial visa process, and the hassle associated with it (this of course coming from expats like me, who have never had to apply for a US or EU visa). Not only is it confusing for an individual applying for a visa, but it can also be incredibly difficult and expensive for companies/schools to get permission from gov’t officials to hire foreigners. In the cases I am familiar with it has been the school or company that encouraged the expat to come on a tourist visa, insisting that it is common (it is) and legal (it isn’t).

The majority of the people I know in this category are living in China on student visas, but find themselves working on holidays and weekends for spending money. I doubt that very many of these people will be swept out in this campaign, yet this group seems to be the most vocal about the crack down. Instead I think it will focus on people from other Asian countries and Africa, these are the groups that my co-workers quite openly despise and are seen as a source of crime (I don’t know of any statistics backing this up, but neither do any of my co-workers).

In the debate, it’s also worth noting that there are a large number (but a small percentage) of foreigners in China that are truly despicable, but are here completely legally. This was the case with the Russian cellist who swore at the woman on the train, and the British tourist who attempted to rape a local woman (which in Chinese is simply two undifferentiated foreign devils). Checking visas and passports does nothing to curb the underlying problems related to Chinese law enforcement.

Twice I have been approached by completely unknown expats who were teachers that openly bragged about sleeping with their students or prostitutes. After the disturbing conversation, they gave me their business cards. Yet, when I contacted their schools and the local authorities about these individuals, I was completely brushed aside. The training school in Guangdong said the man had a heart condition and therefore could not engage in sexual activity. Shanghai Normal University, where the other man was employed, said that they were confident that such a thing had not happened and weren’t going to investigate it. The gov’t agencies in Shenzhen never replied to my emails. Sadly, I doubt that this is uncommon.

Yet, I worry that even if these schools were to fire these individuals, another institute would offer them a position. The sad reality is that many institutions are so starved for foreign talent, that they never question the character of the individuals; even when presented with damning evidence they are more concerned with saving face than protecting their students (I know of similar cases involving Chinese teachers that were also covered up).

Furthermore, legal cases involving foreigners are still unclear in the eyes of law enforcement officials which leads to “special treatment.” This of course is something that expats have little control over, and quite frankly should not demand. As mentioned in today’s People’s Daily, expats pulled over for speeding are occasionally let off without a fine due to the police officer’s inability to communicate with them. While English shouldn’t be a requirement for all officers, perhaps a translation service could be set up to help police communicate with expats to avoid such unequal application of the law.

Others are let go because the officers are concerned about how to handle the situation and are wary of the possible mountains of paper work, which has been another aspect specifically mentioned in Chinese editorials on the issue. Perhaps here foreigners are targeted because it is not possible to openly criticize the military personnel and gov’t officials who also receive these undeserved privileges.

So I would like to propose the following – that we expats living in China improve our efforts to police ourselves. When we hear our friends talking about looking for work, we push them to get the proper visas. When we see obnoxiously drunk expats staggering out of a bar, we get them into a cab and on their way home. When we hear of teachers sleeping with their own students, we take action to protect their students. You can also focus on your own behavior- like withstanding the pushing on the bus without screaming and maybe even give up your seat when no one else is willing. Reply to as many “Haalllooows” with a friendly smile and wave as long as you can stomach. As unfair as it is, remember that wherever you go, you’re not only representing yourself or even your country, but all waiguoren, all ~5.6 billion of us.

First, it gives us a very interesting glimpse into how many Chinese view freedom. In the west we might define freedom as the ability to participate or not participate in any act, so long as it doesn’t affect others. This version of freedom is very visible in our anti-smoking campaigns in the States; you can’t smoke here, because other people’s health would be effected. In China however, freedom means that you should be able to do whatever you want (several of my Chinese friends have made this argument). If I want to light up in a crowded restaurant, I should be able to, because that is what I would most like to do. Laws and placards be damned.

This Chinese notion of freedom fits within one conception of freedom, just one that becomes somewhat untenable in a country of well over a billion people. It’s the same notion that leads to 6 a.m. construction projects in neighboring apartments, driving in reverse down sidewalks full of students, and a good amount of the other unusual behavior that drives expats crazy. One thing that you might not realize by simply watching what happens, is that most of my Chinese friends would describe these same behaviors as uncivilized and rude, but they wouldn’t want to impose on someone else’s freedom.

While this seems to contradict the idea that Chinese society focuses more on collective benefits than individual ones, this notion of freedom ignores the individuals who don’t want to breathe second-hand smoke and is limited only by acts that interfere with collective issues like stability (so clearly rumor-mongering is beyond the pale).

The second thing that we can learn from smoking in China, is that the line between “can’t” and “won’t” is often poorly defined. Virtually every doctor I have spoken with in the last two years at the hospital has mentioned that smoking is causing massive health problems, with roughly 12% of male deaths being linked to the practice. The Chinese gov’t has also released a flurry of articles and proclamations in an effort to reduce smoking with virtually no effect (even a state report said that they were among the least effective in the world).

So which is it? Is it that the Central gov’t simply can’t reign in local gov’t agencies to enforce these no smoking laws that are on the books, or is it that they won’t enforce these laws because it would effect tax collection efforts (this is overly simplified, but the gist of the arguments are there)? The answer is that there is an inextricable mix of both “can’t” and “won’t”.

Similar questions could be posed about prostitution, corruption, black jails and a whole host of other social ills. An angry opinion piece from PD last year, the kind that has since disappeared from the paper, argued that

…because of low salaries of law enforcement officers, offering bribes is relatively easy. As a result, law enforcement officers in the chain have become corrupt. With the protection of law enforcement officials, counterfeiters will be more reckless. When the industry becomes open to “hidden rules,” the role of law enforcement officers becomes numb or powerless.

So even though the Central gov’t may desperately want to curb these scandals, they may actually be powerless to stop them.

It’s always interesting to see how something as meaningless as smoking in the airport (and everywhere else) can reflect both gov’t policies and ideas about freedom.

I should say that we aren’t just talking about a single road, the majority of the projects we visited were infrastructure projects. One involved repairing an irrigation system, another was to fix a broken water pump, and the third was to build a water pump. Throughout China this charity is also involved in rebuilding schools, roads, bridges and village clinics.

This ties back into an important argument made by economists who say despite the hundreds of billions of dollars the Chinese gov’t has poured into infrastructure over the last few decades, China’s infrastructure investment is still far behind the US and other developed countries. This, they argue, means that China’s investing is still producing excellent returns, and is far from the waste of resources that more pessimistic economists allege.

Perhaps this is why I was so frustrated by what I saw in the countryside. Yes, there is still clearly a need, and yes, China is still funding infrastructure with billions of dollars, but a tiny percentage of that is reaching those who live in poverty. These optimistic economists fail to ask whether or not these resources are being used to fulfill actual needs, or if they are being wasted on vanity projects (like turning bridges into tunnels).

The Chinese aid worker I talked with about this issue tried valiantly to come up with a politically safe answer to my question, “Why didn’t the gov’t build this village road?” Finally she said, “They didn’t build it because it wouldn’t help local GDP very much. They are only interested in projects that build their resume and reputation.” The ugly fact is that instead of building a road that would have allowed these 40 families access to the city and its markets, which did make a huge difference for them, the local gov’t decided instead to invest in a new old looking town that might someday attract tourists.

The same was true of the other projects that had been ignored by local officials. In the most remote village we visited the charity had built a water pumping station. I had heard about how villagers prior to the pump had been forced to walk several kilometers and cross over a mountain to the next valley for fresh water, and how much better off they were now thanks to our efforts. So you can imagine my surprise when the village was next to a rather large stream.

“Why don’t they just use this water?” I asked, “Why were they going so far away?” The first response was, “They have always done it this way.” The second response was, “During the 60′s a mine was built upstream, it released a lot of contaminates into the water which caused many diseases.”

So even here, in one of the most isolated villages I had ever been to, reckless gov’t projects had created a need that had never existed before AND then refused to address the problem (a similar theme appeared today in People’s Daily). It should be noted that gov’t officials took us to see the pump in new cars, and then asked the charity to help pay for the needed repairs.

As you can probably tell reading this, I am more than a little frustrated by this issue. China’s gov’t has footed the bill for Olympic stadiums, high-speed railways, airports, space shuttles, and who knows how many official cars and banquets, but somehow still fails to provide the basics. While many have been impressed by China’s political system when visiting Shanghai and Beijing, one would have the exact opposite impression if they visited these villages.

Secondly, I’d just like to encourage you to check out Mike’s other episode and add China Blogcast to your podcast subscriptions (this is week 2, so it won’t take long to catch up). At the moment there is a real shortage of China related podcasts, and this is a very good addition to the others that already exist. Mike is planning on releasing a new ~30 minute episode every Thursday featuring chats with other China bloggers.

It is worth noting that these are initiatives begun by local TSPM churches, and represent just a small amount of the “good fruit*” that seems abundant in many of the churches I have visited.

Hospice and Counseling

One of the churches we visited had created a hospice program which met with terminally ill patients. Some of these patients were Christian, but many were not. The goal of the program was not to tell people about Jesus, but instead to show Christ’s love. This has been a theme in many of the projects I have seen.

For most of the patients, their families were either unable or unwilling to be with them (AIDS patients were generally abandoned by their families). In rural areas, discussing death is a major taboo, this means that those who have fallen ill are often lacking a person willing to listen to their fears. This group of dedicated volunteers fills a gaping void in end of life care.

After a few months of hospice work, many of the volunteers felt that their service wasn’t as professional as it should be. To better serve the hospice patients and others, they began a 1-year counseling course and invited psychology professors from the provincial university to help in the training. So far nearly 100 people have completed this lengthy course, and though the training offers them no career advantages, they commit themselves to the work as a part of their Christian compassion.

Deaf School

Another project supported by the local church was a school for deaf children. Since its inception they have been able to secure some funding from the gov’t, but the amount given per student is only 10,000rmb per year which is also supposed to cover the cost of hearing aids for each child. Because of this the deaf school relies heavily on volunteers and additional funding from the church and other organizations.

The school now boards nearly 100 students, with many coming from rural villages and other impoverished provinces. Some were as young as 2 or 3, which was sad to see knowing that they had limited contact with their parents. The school still suffers from a shortage of properly trained teachers who can communicate fluently in sign language (which are incredibly rare in China), but are working to develop a more complete school. They are also hoping that the gov’t will revise their funding so that they can provide a better learning environment for the children.

AIDS Education

In one of the small cities we attended a presentation on AIDS education projects started by one church that was supported by the local CDC. The CDC leader proudly said, “We have always had a policy of being open about the scale of the challenge when it comes to AIDS in this city.” He also made sure to point out that the first case of AIDS diagnosed in the city was in 1994, it was a middle aged man who had worked for a foreign company (AIDS initially was viewed in China as a symbol of contamination from the West and a symptom of opening up).

Then the church leader stood up and said, “In the early 2000′s when we approached the CDC about creating an AIDS education program we were told that there were no cases of AIDS in our city and that we should focus on something else. But, they have always supported our work.” Despite the apparent contradiction, at the moment it did seem that the local CDC was supporting the efforts of the local church.

The AIDS education project consisted of running a hotline for questions about the disease, training community educators, and distributing tissue packets with information about how AIDS spreads. They also worked with the local infectious disease hospital, and visited AIDS patients. The church said that there had been a few setbacks along the way, most notably that the CDC had forbade them from discussing the link between prostitution and drug use and AIDS in materials meant for the general public (talk of needle sharing and sex were allowed). In their workshops for community educators, there were several description of how people get AIDS that included the story of a Party official contracting the disease from a mistress.

Another challenge was that initially a few church members had vocally opposed the project, since it might give the impression to the community that the church was full of prostitutes and drug users. Fortunately, reason prevailed, and church members saw that ministering to these marginalized groups was exactly what the church should be involved with.

These represent just a few of the community outreach projects started by Chinese Christians. Others include charity sales, support for the disabled and their families, English classes taught by local Chinese professors, and many others. The foreign ministers that accompanied me on this trip said over and over that they wished they could spark this kind of enthusiasm for volunteer work in their home congregations.

Tomorrow we’ll be looking at a few questionable types of projects the Chinese church is involved with.

*To me Matthew 7:15-20 seems to be saying that we should guard ourselves from false prophets and teachings, and that the way to judge these is by examining the fruits of those teachings. If rural TSPM churches are overflowing with new believers, and those believers in turn are reaching out to the neediest in society and working towards a vision of a just and equitable society, I find it hard to call that false.

I think too many Christians in the US are overly concerned with whether or not Chinese TSPM churches are teaching a “true” version of Christianity, with “true” usually meaning that it agrees with their exact ideology. It should be noted that missionaries in the 1900′s were keen to see Chinese Christians develop a native theology that met the needs of the local population, and the projects discussed in today’s post are very similar to what was done by “real” Christians at the turn of the century.

From what I have seen in my dozens of church visits, TSPM churches are often the most visible source of social good in their communities. They offer everything from medical treatment to agricultural education, from caring for orphans to helping those with terminal illnesses face death knowing that they are loved. They boldly proclaim Christ’s love not only in words but in deeds as well. These churches exist in a questionable space, a space that many of them would like to see reformed, but I have not seen a church anywhere in the world completely immune from politics and policies (many of whom are the ones pointing their fingers at TSPM churches).

I propose that instead of quarreling over TSPM church teachings, which have not been standardized or sanitized by the gov’t or the TSPM itself, we should instead be focusing on the restrictions placed on all religious groups within China. TSPM churches are also demolished and closed without explanation, and their ministers have been detained. As Christians we should be united in solidarity with our brothers and sisters (just one of dozens of verses warning early Christians about division within the movement).

My pleasant chat with the happy rural Christians was almost the complete opposite from my chat with one of the ministers of that province’s Christian Council (the governing branch of the officially recognized church). Perhaps that was because she could speak English, and wasn’t constrained by the officials that had come along with us; perhaps it was because she’d been pushed too far.

In the city where she worked, the gov’t had big plans for the downtown areas, and the plans required the bulldozing of a historic church and a Bible training center. While the groups were being more than fairly compensated for the land, this minister was adamant that gov’t should not interfere with the church and that these place were sacred (she was also very vocal about the inadequate compensation for the villagers that were being displaced by the new buildings).

When she explained the proposal from the gov’t, it was easy to understand why she was so upset. Not only was the Bible school to be moved from the downtown area to a distant suburb, but the gov’t had also maintained control over the design of the new school and church. The design the gov’t had selected was reminiscent of the Crystal Cathedral, and the minister was well aware of the fact that upkeep would likely be far more than the church could afford. The church wanted something practical, and the local gov’t wanted a centerpiece; by the time we arrived the church had already lost.

Later that day she pointed to a series of buildings next to a lake and explained that it was where the retired provincial officials lived. When the current gov’t tried to build a bridge over the lake, the cadres complained it would obstruct their view. As a result, there is now an incredibly expensive tunnel. To her, these two cases were one in the same.

During a dinner one evening with provincial gov’t officials (who were busy toasting others with very expensive baijiu, this fact was explained in a very very long speech), the minister shared something even more surprising – even though she was a life long member of the registered church, she supported her son’s decision to join an underground congregation. “The underground church,” she whispered, “is closer to the Bible.*”

She continued, “You know, I just returned from a conference overseas, and there everything about Bo Xilai was exposed on the internet. When I returned to China, we couldn’t see anything.” She was getting louder and had switched to Chinese, so I scooted closer and reminded her that the officials might hear her. “You know they monitor our (ministers’) emails and phones? One of my friends was taken away for meeting with foreign ministers. We work for the official church, but they still have no trust in us.”

“One man,” she said, “even built a school for the children of one very poor village. He had permission from the gov’t and everything. He had been very careful to do everything in accordance with the laws. One day, he was found visiting an underground church, so to punish him they said he could never return to his village and they closed the school.”

At this point she was pulled back into the conversation with the officials and I never had the chance to follow up with her for more stories.

For the next several days I traveled with this minister, and was thoroughly impressed by her ability to navigate through the system that was, while quietly encouraging something new. I was overwhelmed by her compassion; even in the smallest villages congregants would rush to hug her when we would step out of the car. If you’ve spent much time in China, you know how rare these displays of affection are. She shared an intimate connection with thousands of believers. She knew their challenges and concerns and also shared in their joys. This outspoken minister is one of the people that I will never forget.

-

Despite these problems with the local authorities, Christianity was flourishing in the communities we visited (the most commonly cited problem was overcrowding at services). Tomorrow I’ll be sharing some of the projects currently led by Chinese Christians that have a profound impact in their cities.

*This hasn’t been my experience in Chinese churches

Villager #1 – Before we became Christians, our village was known for quarreling with our neighbors. Outsiders said that you could hear us fighting even before you entered. Neighbors would fight from sun up to sun down. We were really terrible then (congregation nods in agreement).

Another villager later told us that she had been one of the absolute worst, and raised her hands to show her ability to fight. The other villagers found this hilarious, but it seemed pretty obvious that she was one tough old lady.

Then one of our villagers met the minister from the nearby town and became a Christian (this minister was Chinese, he had been converted by another Chinese minister in the 80′s). When the others saw how happy she was, they wanted to become Christian too. Now almost the whole village has become Christian, and we no longer fight with each other. Things are much better now. We even received an award from the local gov’t for being a harmonious village.

The Lord has blessed our village in many other ways as well. For instance, because we are located high on the cliff, and we only recently had a road built, we used to have to lower caskets down by rope for burial. From time to time, the casket would tip over and the body would come tumbling out, it was a terrible misfortune for the family. Since we became Christians though, this has not happened a single time.

The congregation in their sanctuary

Minister from the nearby town – When the villagers from this place first started coming to my church, it took them nearly 6 hours to get to the chapel. This was because there was no road to the village, and so the trip was not only difficult but dangerous. When I learned about this I contacted a Christian charity for help. The charity then worked with the local gov’t to secure the funding for the project, but to keeps costs low, the villagers had to work together.

Even though they weren’t fighting with each other as much during that time, they were still too busy farming to work on this project. One day though, this woman (a woman missing one arm comes to the front of the church), picked up a bucket and started working on the road. When the others saw that even this disabled person was willing to work, they knew they had no valid excuses (at this point, most of the people in the church were crying, including the woman). Now that the road has been built it is not only much easier for them to come to the city for church, but they can also reach emergency medical services and sell their goods in the market. This is truly a precious gift from God.

the road

Lay Leader responding to a question about literacy - In our village we have very few people who can read. Most of the young people have left (the ones who could read), and so it can be difficult for new believers to understand the Bible’s teachings.

One of our members was so determined to learn the lessons, that she had her husband read her passages from the Bible every night until she memorized most of the important texts. Even though she can’t read, the others in the church know that if there is ever a question about the scripture, she can always recall the whole verse.

Another woman’s husband decided that he could teach his wife to read while she worked. So every night he would copy a verse in large characters for her. Then when she was plowing the fields, she would attach the verse to the back of the cow and study the characters one by one. Now she is one of our church leaders.

So even though most of the members can’t read, all of the members can access the Bible in one way or another. We also spend time before each church service learning all the songs for the day.

Minister from nearby town answering a question about whether or not he’d ever had trouble from the local gov’t for being a Christian- One time in the late 80′s, shortly after I became a Christian, I saw many young people on a motorcycle and they seemed to be prostitutes. I thought this was something that the gov’t should control, and so I made several large-character posters encouraging them to take action.

A few days later the Public Security Bureau came and took me to the police station for questioning. They asked, “Did you write the signs near the gov’t buildings?”

“I did,” I said.

“Who told you to do this?” they said.

“I did it by myself,” I replied.

“Why are you against the Party?” they asked.

I was very confused though, because I had never said anything against the Party, I was just encouraging them to uphold the laws. After several more rounds of questioning, I finally realized that these officers had never even seen the posters. Someone had simply reported to them that I was putting up signs by the gov’t buildings, and that I had never done this before I was a Christian. In those days, that was enough to get you into a lot of trouble.

Once I recognized this and explained to them what the signs had actually said, they were very embarrassed that they had questioned me about them, and assured me the gov’t would look into this case.

For seven years Chen Guangcheng has been silenced in China for his role in opposing illegal forced abortions in Shandong province, that ended today with his arrival in the US. Even after his escape from thugs in Linyi, the gov’t in Beijing kept him in a tightly guarded hospital room. Finally, he will have a chance to talk openly about his experiences and the situation facing hundreds of other activists in China.

I hope you will take a moment to reflect on the power of that image – a man once tortured and imprisoned, now is able to stand in front of the world.

I wanted to say that he was no longer afraid of the Chinese gov’t and their reprisals, but much of Chen’s extended family are still facing harassment from officials in Linyi. Even 10,000 miles away from Beijing, he is reminded that “opportunities and risk exist at the same time,” and is not yet truly free from the authorities.

Image is from NYT, read their full article here

Video of Chen’s speech in NY from New Tang Dynasty

“China is a large country with a large population,” seemed to be the catch-all excuse for much of the poverty we saw as we traveled through rural parts of a central Chinese province.* While I generally find it an unconvincing dodge, the remoteness of this region lead me to contemplate how it could ever be prosperous. Many of China’s remote regions were settled exactly because they were so difficult to reach, offering minority groups and small clans protection from outsiders. But now that trade and manufacturing are the base of China’s growth, these rural places have been left behind. One village we visited was located on what was essentially a cliff that could hold no more than a few dozen homes. They farmed in the narrow valley below, growing mostly rice and corn for their own consumption.

It’s difficult to imagine a way for such a remote place to prosper; in the US it would have been turned into a nature reserve long ago.

The local gov’t officials told me that their current plan was to try to grow tourism. Given that the “city” (that managed the tiny village) was located on a narrow two-lane road, it seemed like a more realistic vision than expanding heavy industry or manufacturing. Currently the region is mostly cash crop farming, with a few cement plants and a handful of mining operations. These industries though are quickly cannibalizing the mountains that the new plan relies on.

The same thing is happening to Guangxi’s famous mountains

It seems though that tourism has become the focus of every small town in China. While this region did have some spectacular views, the closest airport was two hours away and is already seated in an area that has world famous scenery and well developed infrastructure for tourists. The city I was visiting only offered scenic drives on rough dirt roads. Furthermore, every city between this small one and that tourist hub was focusing on tourism too.

It seems that 10 years ago, as domestic tourism was just starting to grow, the entry cost was much more attractive to farmers and villagers, and many decided to build small restaurants and guest houses. Now when you pass these places you see dozens of worn down, empty hotels standing in the shadows of big shiny new ones. Domestic tourists have much higher standards now and are uninterested in staying in what the villagers can afford to build (Jeremiah Jenne wrote a great post that explored a few other angles of tourism).

It’s also important to note that even though there are more and more domestic tourists, many of them have very little time and money for travel. When I talk with my Chinese friends about the vacations I have taken to the countryside, I’m often met with confused looks. Why would I ever visit a poor area when I could just as easily see a rich one? Why would I visit some county no one had heard of when a famous one was nearby? Chinese tourists seem to put a very high value on checking well-known sites off their lists as travel is very much a status symbol (Evan Osnos’s hilarious account of traveling with a Chinese tour company to Europe).

Additionally, this area lacked most of the key ingredients for becoming a tourist hot spot – It was not the site of an important ancient city or religious site, and had no preserved old town like Lijiang or Xi’an (but they were planning on building a new old town at the villagers expense, like many other cities in China); it did not have “famous” scenery, meaning that it was not a destination for poets or painters of the past; and it is still too rustic to attract those seeking something more luxurious like Shenzhen or Shanghai. I worry that the hundreds (thousands?) of villages seeking to develop tourism will fail at massive costs to their villagers.

Other tourist spots, like those in the quake effected parts of Sichuan, have seen a boom in the number of visitors, but have noted that few of them spend money while passing through. As a reporter from the Global Times stated,

“Each day, thousands of visitors come to see the ruined Xuankou Middle School and leave flowers, but they depart quickly.

As most of these spots lie outside the main residential areas, most visitors do not come into the center of town and see the newly reconstructed earthquake-resistant buildings. What’s worse, they do not participate in the economy.”

Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that the more prosperous villages I’ve visited aren’t focused on tourism, they are focused on cash crops and adding further value to the raw goods they are producing (like milling wheat and using the flour to make frozen mantou to sell throughout China, or growing kiwis and bottling the juice). It’s as if China has leapt from one rural development model to the next without much thought of how it would actually work.

Next week we’ll be looking at some of the projects I visited on this trip and discussing the state of the rural church.

*I’m being intentionally vague here.