Tomorrow will be the twentieth anniversary of the tragic events that took place in Beijing and across China in 1989. The British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, posted a blog on this today. Here is what he said: http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/miliband/entry/tian_anmen
So far, there has been hardly a reference to the anniversary in the domestic Chinese media. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China reports that restrictions on foreign journalists have been severely tightened. Full details from the FCCC are here:
www.fccchina.org <http://www.fccchina.org>
Peter
Posted at 10:11 03 June 2009 by Peter Wilson | Comments[1]
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The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, published the UK Government's strategy towards China yesterday, 22 January. The strategy itself is on the FCO website
The Foreign Secretary launched the document in Manchester, home to the third largest Chinese community in Europe. There is a growing interest in our relationship with China, from across the whole of the UK. More than 500 British schools now teach Chinese. The Terracotta Warriors exhibition at the British Museum last year broke all records. China is in the UK news every day.
It makes sense for the UK Government to make its strategy public. The strategy makes a strong case for closer engagement with China on a range of issues. To build support this strategy over the long term, we need to make the case for engagement at home in the UK, and more broadly in Europe. The relationship does not just involve a small group, but increasingly large numbers of people, in both countries. And it will continue to grow.
The strategy had a good reception in the Chinese press this morning, including in the People's Daily, China Youth Daily and Global Times. I encourage you to read it!
This is the first time we have made a specific country strategy public. It underlines the priority the UK Government attaches to this key relationship.
Posted at 07:47 23 January 2009 by Peter Wilson | Comments[4]
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Foreign Secretary talks to young Chinese about their hopes for the 21st century, and perceptions of China and the West
David Miliband came to Beijing on Friday 24 October. Before he went into ASEM meetings he met a bright group of Chinese university students (see his blog) at the Communist Youth League. You can read the full transcript of their conversation, which followed an online debate run by the China Youth Daily in the week, at UKinChina.
The conversation was an insight into young Chinese thinking about this new century and perceptions, in the West and in China. The Foreign Secretary sets out how he sees the new challenges, and how he sees China. To use his words - it was a pretty open discussion.
Posted at 00:31 27 October 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[1]
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Media freedoms for foreign press made permanent
Media freedoms for foreign press made permanent At 23.45 on Friday 17 October, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a press conference, to announce that new regulations would replace the temporary rules for foreign correspondents, which were introduced in the run up to the Olympics. The new rules would make those temporary measures permanent, and in a few small ways improve on them. Foreign correspondents can now continue to interview whom they like, and go (mostly) where they like. This was very good news - and a positive result from the Olympics. The temporary rules would have expired that night. I was in Guangzhou at the end of last week, where I met with some of China's print media. Chinese journalists do not have the same freedoms as the foreign press now have here, but their situation is changing too. Newpapers, like the Southern Metropolitan Daily, are printing interesting news, and are asking hard questions. They help ensure that corrupt practices are stopped, and they have a growing readership, because people want to know what they have to say. There are lots of ways to increase market share - celebrities, and consumerism, both sell here, just as they do in the West. But newpaper businesses in China are also finding that one way to boost high end market share (and advertising revenue) is to print real news. These two things - greater freedom for the foreign press, and the power of consumers in an increasingly competitive domestic market - are both likely to lead to China increasingly mediating its own story in the world, as well as at home. When local news is heavily censored people turn to CNN - and, with over 250 million internet users at the last count, that is easy to do in China. When local media is more open, not only do more people at home read it - so does CNN, and every other global media outlet. Foreign print journalists say that whereas five years ago, they made the news in the West about China, now the really big investigative stories are all begun by local journalists. This is good for the Chinese state. Accountable government is a priority here. A better press is part of that. As with many other pioneering reforms in the past, Guangdong is a leader in China. Thank you for latest comments, some on earlier blogs - and thank you for your two thumbs up, Lingshan. By the way, I didn't post the last one at 4am in the morning - it is seven hours ahead of UK time here, so don't worry about me!
Posted at 06:30 21 October 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[4]
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The statistics are pretty amazing. China has passed the US this year with the most "netizens" on earth - over 220 million, and increasing by more than 4 million a month. Chinese users spend an average of 16 hours a week on line. And 50% of them are under 24 - more than seven years younger than the average internet user in the US. Users seem to have different interests, too - the most popular service is online music, used by 86%. Search is only the fifth most popular. Online gaming comes ahead of e-mail. Commerce is a more popular search than sex or celebrity, which leads elsewhere. There are 44 million bloggers.
The internet is censored here. Undesirable foreign websites are blocked, although the BBC English language service was unblocked earlier this year (its Chinese language site is still only accessible outside China). Blogs are regularly policed, and closed. Earlier this year, a new Government regulation required all websites carrying video content to be state owned or controlled - but this was watered down to allow some existing sites to continue. Internet users do get round blocks by using proxy websites - and as soon as they close down, others open. The proliferation of blogs has also meant that it is impossible to keep an eye on everything all of the time - some campaigns have taken off before being closed down, and have sometimes led to a response, rather than just a clampdown. The Government itself finds the internet a useful tool to guage public opinion, in a system where its more formal expression is not encouraged. And it is also useful in pursuing Government objectives of holding officials to account, and exposing corruption.
It was nice that the first comment on my blog was Chinese. It appeared on my screen, from Tian, as two squares, because my machine needs me to turn on a separate programme to read Chinese characters. I turned on Chinese Star, not sure what I would find. It resolved the squares - into a colon and a bracket. A smile. Thank you! You've encouraged me to keep going!
Posted at 09:45 17 July 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[2]
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China - where change is a constant theme
Today is my first day blogging. I am the British Embassy's Political Counsellor in China . That means I run a team that covers China's internal politics, its relationship with the rest of the world, our press and public affairs operation here, and our bilateral relationship with China. I am also responsible for the Olympic attache at the Embassy (one of the more unusual Foreign Office jobs) and his team.
I am just back from two weeks away in Europe. It was just under a month to go at the Olympics. Even with only two weeks to go, there's been change. I just got off at Beijing's new terminal three that opened in March - a Norman Foster design, that is bigger than the whole of Heathrow, tho' nowhere near as full. The airport is gearing up: young Olympic volunteers, friendly airport staff, and luggage out five minutes after I was. Not many using the Olympic channel yet, said one of the border control officials, but better to be prepared. A lot of smiles and friendliness.
Now coming back into town. Coming in on a new road, that was not open when I left two weeks ago - not unusual for Beijing!. A second airport express way, just opened for the Olympics. It is good, tho' I am getting a bit lost now coming in a new way, past buildings that were not here a year and a half ago. The one thing I already miss, tho', is the blue skies I have been enjoying on holiday. Most Chinese still live in the countryside. But the cities, which are growing as rapidly as the economy, are polluted. Beijing's skies are grey (and it is double the size it was a decade ago). Climate change is a big issue for this Embassy. Domestic environmental pollution, and energy conservation, are key issues for China's top politicians, because the public cares about it now, and because it makes economic sense.
Change is a constant theme here. It is hard to get perspective on a place moving as fast as China is . I've now been back in China a year and a half, after almost ten years working on other things. I first came to Beijing in 1981, briefly, when I was 13. I came back in March 1989 as a student on vacation. And then not again until 1994, when I was studying Mandarin in the Foreign Office (I had two years training, full time, one in London and one in Beijing) . My first posting was here , in our Commercial Section , helping British companies enter the China market . I left in 1998. Even if blogs had existed then, the political climate here would have made it impossible to write one. That is not so true any more - although I am not sure this will be easy to access from a Chinese terminal. But I thought it would be worth having a go, to see.
There is plenty of material out there now in English to help form an impression of this country that now matters so much for all of us. And there are some really excellent British perpectives. James Kynge's China Shakes the World, published three years ago now, is still my favourite book about modern China. Rana Mitter's Short Introduction to Modern China, which came out earlier this year, is really imaginative. More and more British people are coming to see China for themselves: 600,000 visited last year. That exchange is two way - Chinese students are the largest foreign student community in the UK, with more than 60,000 students. I do not know who might read this, but I hope that perhaps some of those students will, and will comment.
Posted at 15:13 10 July 2008 by Peter Wilson | Comments[4]
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