LINK
Thanks Wikileaks
.............................
Wikileaks: Top Chinese official doesn't believe GDP figures
China's economic figures are unreliable and not to be trusted, according to Li Keqiang, one of the country's most senior officials.
The 55-year-old is widely tipped to become China's next prime minister and is currently the country's executive vice premier, with responsibility for macro-economic management.
However, in private talks with the US ambassador in 2007, when he was still just the head of the Chinese province of Liaoning, Mr Li cast doubt on China's much-vaunted economic statistics.
A diplomatic cable leaked by Wikileaks, the whistle-blowing website, reveals that Mr Li described China's gross domestic product figure as "man-made" and "therefore unreliable".
Chinese officials have repeatedly been found to have artificially inflated their local GDP figures in order to win face and hit their targets.
On several occasions, the sum of all of China's local GDP tallies added up to more than the national statistic. In 2009, for example, the National Bureau of Statistics said first half GDP had grown by 7.1pc to 13.99 trillion yuan (£1.37 trillion), only to find that the sum of local GDP readouts was 10pc higher.
Mr Li said he used three ways of evaluating Liaoning's economic activity, focusing on electricity consumption, the volume of rail cargo and the amount of bank loans disbursed.
"By looking at these three figures, Li said he can measure with relative accuracy the speed of economic growth," the cable said. "All other figures, especially GDP statistics, are 'for reference only,' he said smiling," it added.
Monday, December 06, 2010
China's attack on Google a personal vendetta?
LINK
Another revelation from Wikileaks.
...........................
(CNN) -- Several U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks show growing anxiety among Chinese officials about citizens getting uncensored online content through Google -- with one Politburo member reportedly angry to find negative comments about himself online.
In May 2009, Google approached the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, according to one leaked cable, "to discuss recent pressure by the Chinese government to censor the company's Chinese website."
Chinese officials were unhappy that the sanitized google.cn, which was established by Google in 2006, contained a link to the uncensored google.com, and appeared especially sensitive about the issue because of the imminent 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.
The redacted cable, dated May 18 and written by Economic Minister Counselor Robert Luke, says U.S. diplomats had been told that "the root of the problem was China's Politburo Standing Committee member (name redacted)." Later it says: "(name redacted) allegedly entered his own name and found results critical of him....He also noticed the link from google.cn's homepage to google.com, which (redacted) reportedly believes is an 'illegal site.'"
In another apparent reference to the Politburo member, the cable says he "believes Google is a 'tool' of the USG being used to 'foment peaceful revolution in China.'"
The New York Times, which had advance access to the cables obtained by WikiLeaks, says that official is Li Changchun, who is a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Standing Politburo Committee -- its highest body -- and runs the Politburo's propaganda apparatus. He subsequently asked three ministries to demand that Google end its "illegal activities," according to the cable.
At the same time the Chinese government was taking commercial steps against Google, instructing state-owned telecom firms to stop doing business with the company -- "a hard blow because mobile Internet is Google's 'big bet in China,'" the cable added.
Google refused to remove the link on its Chinese site, and its lawyers "found no legal basis for China's demands."
The dilemma for the company was that it risked "losing the Chinese market in retaliation for maintaining its integrity and brand," the cable said.
Google had entered the Chinese market on three principles: it would never disclose to the Chinese government any personal information about its users or their search habits; it would always include a disclosure notice to identify when search results had been removed due to censorship; and it would always provide an uncensored, U.S.-hosted site, subject to U.S. law.
Two months later -- in July 2009 -- Google's servers were "virally infected" for 24 hours, amid claims that Google was failing to filter out pornographic sites. The embassy's sources, says a cable from that month, believe "the real reason for the government's wrath is the company's refusal to remove a link to google.com from the google.cn website."
The cable continued, apparently quoting a Google official,: "(redacted) said the negative press coverage and service outages have caused the company to lose market share.....(redacted) said that, faced with the continual difficulties of doing business in China, the company may even consider pulling out of the market."
The attacks on Google servers continued, with the company reporting in January of this year that it had been the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China. It said it also discovered that the "Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties." So it began redirecting users visiting google.cn to the uncensored content of google.com.hk.
A US. cable written from Beijing after that cyber attack said: "A well-placed contact claims that the Chinese government coordinated the recent intrusions of Google systems. According to our contact, the closely held operations were directed at the Politburo Standing Committee level."
The cable noted: "An appeal to nationalism seems to be the Chinese government's chosen option to counter Google's demand to provide unfiltered web content." An unnamed Chinese contact "stated that PRC operations against Google were 'one hundred percent' political in nature and had nothing to do with removing Google, with its minority market share, as a competitor to Chinese search engines."
The cable also suggested the move might backfire on the Chinese authorities, apparently citing a Chinese contact. "All of a sudden, (redacted) continued, Baidu (a state-owned internet search engine) looked like a boring state-owned enterprise while Google 'seems very attractive, like the forbidden fruit.'"
However, the cables suggest that the Chinese leadership -- and specifically the State Council Information Office -- believed that the internet in China could be controlled. "Through the Google incident and other increased controls and surveillance, like real-name registration, they reached a conclusion: The Web is fundamentally controllable," according to one source quoted in a cable.
Long before the crisis in 2009, Google was running into hostility from Chinese officials.
In November 2007, China asked the U.S. government to reduce the resolution of Google Earth images of military, nuclear and other sensitive sites in China.
Chinese officials warned of "possible 'grave consequences' if terrorists exploit the information to harm China." A diplomat at the embassy said he would report the Chinese request to Washington, but noted that Google is a private company.
Other cables suggest close ties between Chinese state enterprises and private hackers in China. According to a cable from the U.S. secretary of state's office written in June 2009, the China Information Technology Security Center "has recruited Chinese hackers in support of nationally-funded 'network attack scientific research projects.'"
One such enterprise -- TOPSEC -- employed "a known Chinese hacker, Lin Yong (a.k.a. Lion and owner of the Honker Union of China), as senior security service engineer to manage security service and training." Another was "known to affiliate with XFocus, one of the few Chinese hacker groups known to develop exploits to new vulnerabilities in a short period of time."
The cable concludes: "While links between top Chinese companies and the PRC are not uncommon, it illustrates the PRC's use of its 'private sector' in support of governmental information warfare objectives, especially in its ability to gather, process, and exploit information."
Another revelation from Wikileaks.
...........................
(CNN) -- Several U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks show growing anxiety among Chinese officials about citizens getting uncensored online content through Google -- with one Politburo member reportedly angry to find negative comments about himself online.
In May 2009, Google approached the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, according to one leaked cable, "to discuss recent pressure by the Chinese government to censor the company's Chinese website."
Chinese officials were unhappy that the sanitized google.cn, which was established by Google in 2006, contained a link to the uncensored google.com, and appeared especially sensitive about the issue because of the imminent 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.
The redacted cable, dated May 18 and written by Economic Minister Counselor Robert Luke, says U.S. diplomats had been told that "the root of the problem was China's Politburo Standing Committee member (name redacted)." Later it says: "(name redacted) allegedly entered his own name and found results critical of him....He also noticed the link from google.cn's homepage to google.com, which (redacted) reportedly believes is an 'illegal site.'"
In another apparent reference to the Politburo member, the cable says he "believes Google is a 'tool' of the USG being used to 'foment peaceful revolution in China.'"
The New York Times, which had advance access to the cables obtained by WikiLeaks, says that official is Li Changchun, who is a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Standing Politburo Committee -- its highest body -- and runs the Politburo's propaganda apparatus. He subsequently asked three ministries to demand that Google end its "illegal activities," according to the cable.
At the same time the Chinese government was taking commercial steps against Google, instructing state-owned telecom firms to stop doing business with the company -- "a hard blow because mobile Internet is Google's 'big bet in China,'" the cable added.
Google refused to remove the link on its Chinese site, and its lawyers "found no legal basis for China's demands."
The dilemma for the company was that it risked "losing the Chinese market in retaliation for maintaining its integrity and brand," the cable said.
Google had entered the Chinese market on three principles: it would never disclose to the Chinese government any personal information about its users or their search habits; it would always include a disclosure notice to identify when search results had been removed due to censorship; and it would always provide an uncensored, U.S.-hosted site, subject to U.S. law.
Two months later -- in July 2009 -- Google's servers were "virally infected" for 24 hours, amid claims that Google was failing to filter out pornographic sites. The embassy's sources, says a cable from that month, believe "the real reason for the government's wrath is the company's refusal to remove a link to google.com from the google.cn website."
The cable continued, apparently quoting a Google official,: "(redacted) said the negative press coverage and service outages have caused the company to lose market share.....(redacted) said that, faced with the continual difficulties of doing business in China, the company may even consider pulling out of the market."
The attacks on Google servers continued, with the company reporting in January of this year that it had been the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China. It said it also discovered that the "Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties." So it began redirecting users visiting google.cn to the uncensored content of google.com.hk.
A US. cable written from Beijing after that cyber attack said: "A well-placed contact claims that the Chinese government coordinated the recent intrusions of Google systems. According to our contact, the closely held operations were directed at the Politburo Standing Committee level."
The cable noted: "An appeal to nationalism seems to be the Chinese government's chosen option to counter Google's demand to provide unfiltered web content." An unnamed Chinese contact "stated that PRC operations against Google were 'one hundred percent' political in nature and had nothing to do with removing Google, with its minority market share, as a competitor to Chinese search engines."
The cable also suggested the move might backfire on the Chinese authorities, apparently citing a Chinese contact. "All of a sudden, (redacted) continued, Baidu (a state-owned internet search engine) looked like a boring state-owned enterprise while Google 'seems very attractive, like the forbidden fruit.'"
However, the cables suggest that the Chinese leadership -- and specifically the State Council Information Office -- believed that the internet in China could be controlled. "Through the Google incident and other increased controls and surveillance, like real-name registration, they reached a conclusion: The Web is fundamentally controllable," according to one source quoted in a cable.
Long before the crisis in 2009, Google was running into hostility from Chinese officials.
In November 2007, China asked the U.S. government to reduce the resolution of Google Earth images of military, nuclear and other sensitive sites in China.
Chinese officials warned of "possible 'grave consequences' if terrorists exploit the information to harm China." A diplomat at the embassy said he would report the Chinese request to Washington, but noted that Google is a private company.
Other cables suggest close ties between Chinese state enterprises and private hackers in China. According to a cable from the U.S. secretary of state's office written in June 2009, the China Information Technology Security Center "has recruited Chinese hackers in support of nationally-funded 'network attack scientific research projects.'"
One such enterprise -- TOPSEC -- employed "a known Chinese hacker, Lin Yong (a.k.a. Lion and owner of the Honker Union of China), as senior security service engineer to manage security service and training." Another was "known to affiliate with XFocus, one of the few Chinese hacker groups known to develop exploits to new vulnerabilities in a short period of time."
The cable concludes: "While links between top Chinese companies and the PRC are not uncommon, it illustrates the PRC's use of its 'private sector' in support of governmental information warfare objectives, especially in its ability to gather, process, and exploit information."
Chinese government ossified and resistent to change? BAH!
LINK
Thanks Wikileaks.
...........................
WikiLeaks: China's Politburo a cabal of business empires
China's ruling Politburo is a cabal of business empires that puts vested interests over the needs of the poor and curtails media freedoms to avoiding having shady business deals exposed in the press, according to a leaked US government diplomatic cable.
The damning description of China's secretive leadership machinations also described how the descendants of China's Communist revolutionaries – known as "princelings" – derided officials from less august revolutionary backgrounds as mere "shopkeepers".
The assessment of what motivates China's opaque top-level decision-makers was relayed to Washington in July 2009 in one of the 250,000 cables published by the WikiLeaks website.
"China's top leadership had carved up China's economic 'pie,'" the US embassy contact said, "creating an ossified system in which 'vested interests' drove decision-making and impeded reform as leaders maneuvered to ensure that those interests were not threatened." The US embassy contact also asserted there were no "reformers" within the top Communist Party leadership, only competing factions that sought to protect their business empires from attack by in-coming leaderships.
The source said that it was "well known" that former Chinese premier Li Peng and his family controlled China's "electric power interests" while the country's security tsar Zhou Yongkang controlled the state monopoly of the oil sector.
The wife of China's premier Wen Jiabao, a popular figure in China often affectionately referred to as "grandpa Wen" for his feelings for the common man, is said to control China's "precious gems" sector, while Jia Qinglin, ranked fourth in the Politburo, has "major Beijing real estate developments".
Further down the political food-chain, the desire of local officials to protect current business interests also explained China's reluctance to rein in rising inflation and take steps advocated by international economists to re-orientate its economy more towards domestic consumption.
"They [local officials] always supported fast-growth policies and opposed reform efforts that might harm their interests," the contact said, adding, "As a result, the proponents of "growth first" would always be in a stronger position than those who favored controlling inflation or taking care of the poor." The assessment also said that economic self-preservation was one of the key reasons why China's leaders were so resistant to increased media freedoms.
"Vested interests were especially inclined to oppose media openness, he [the contact] said, lest someone question the shady deals behind land transactions." China's reluctance to engage in political reform is to be highlighted this week when Liu Xiaobo, the dissident author of the Charter 08 petition for greater rights in China, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "in absentia" after being jailed in China for 11 years for challenging state power.
The perception inside China that the country is run in the interests of a Party elite is also growing, with an online poll last February by the state-run China Daily finding that more than 90 per cent of Chinese believed that the new rich had achieved their wealth through political connections.
The web of commercial interests also forces China's modern rulers to act by consensus, with the current President Hu Jintao likened to the "Chairman of the Board or CEO of a big corporation", juggling factional interests, unlike the autocratic figures of Mao Tse-tung or Deng Xiaoping who could rule by fiat.
The man tipped as China's next leader, Xi Jinping, was selected, not for his leadership qualities but, the contact said, because he "maintained a non-threatening low profile and had never made enemies" and could be relied upon not to wage political vendettas through anti-corruption investigations.
"The central feature of leadership politics was the need to protect oneself and one's family from attack after leaving office. Thus, current leaders carefully cultivated proteges who would defend their interests once they stepped down," the contact said.
In the past in-coming Chinese leaders have consolidated their position by instituting crackdowns, with Jiang Zemin, the former president, shutting down a number of businesses owned by the associates of his predecessor, Deng Xiaoping, when he came to power in the early 1990s.
A similar process was observed in 2003 after Hu Jintao took office, with several high-level figures in Jiang Zemin's Shanghai power-base facing investigations and purges that analysts said were aimed at curtailing the power and influence of the Jiang faction.
The contact also outlined the scornful factionalism that divided the scions of the old 'red' families – those with revolutionary lineage whose fathers and grandfathers fought to bring the Communists to power in 1949 – and those who had risen up the Party ranks, so-called "shopkeepers".
China's current leaders, President Hu Jintao and prime minister Wen Jiabao, both fall into the latter category, while the putative next leader, 57-year-old Xi Jinping, is the son of a revolutionary hero Xi Zhongxun and often referred to as a 'princeling'.
The US embassy contact said that China's princelings felt they had a "right" to the fruits of the revolution, recalling one family deriding those without revolutionary pedigrees by saying: "While my father was bleeding and dying for China, your father was selling shoelaces".
Thanks Wikileaks.
...........................
WikiLeaks: China's Politburo a cabal of business empires
China's ruling Politburo is a cabal of business empires that puts vested interests over the needs of the poor and curtails media freedoms to avoiding having shady business deals exposed in the press, according to a leaked US government diplomatic cable.
The damning description of China's secretive leadership machinations also described how the descendants of China's Communist revolutionaries – known as "princelings" – derided officials from less august revolutionary backgrounds as mere "shopkeepers".
The assessment of what motivates China's opaque top-level decision-makers was relayed to Washington in July 2009 in one of the 250,000 cables published by the WikiLeaks website.
"China's top leadership had carved up China's economic 'pie,'" the US embassy contact said, "creating an ossified system in which 'vested interests' drove decision-making and impeded reform as leaders maneuvered to ensure that those interests were not threatened." The US embassy contact also asserted there were no "reformers" within the top Communist Party leadership, only competing factions that sought to protect their business empires from attack by in-coming leaderships.
The source said that it was "well known" that former Chinese premier Li Peng and his family controlled China's "electric power interests" while the country's security tsar Zhou Yongkang controlled the state monopoly of the oil sector.
The wife of China's premier Wen Jiabao, a popular figure in China often affectionately referred to as "grandpa Wen" for his feelings for the common man, is said to control China's "precious gems" sector, while Jia Qinglin, ranked fourth in the Politburo, has "major Beijing real estate developments".
Further down the political food-chain, the desire of local officials to protect current business interests also explained China's reluctance to rein in rising inflation and take steps advocated by international economists to re-orientate its economy more towards domestic consumption.
"They [local officials] always supported fast-growth policies and opposed reform efforts that might harm their interests," the contact said, adding, "As a result, the proponents of "growth first" would always be in a stronger position than those who favored controlling inflation or taking care of the poor." The assessment also said that economic self-preservation was one of the key reasons why China's leaders were so resistant to increased media freedoms.
"Vested interests were especially inclined to oppose media openness, he [the contact] said, lest someone question the shady deals behind land transactions." China's reluctance to engage in political reform is to be highlighted this week when Liu Xiaobo, the dissident author of the Charter 08 petition for greater rights in China, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "in absentia" after being jailed in China for 11 years for challenging state power.
The perception inside China that the country is run in the interests of a Party elite is also growing, with an online poll last February by the state-run China Daily finding that more than 90 per cent of Chinese believed that the new rich had achieved their wealth through political connections.
The web of commercial interests also forces China's modern rulers to act by consensus, with the current President Hu Jintao likened to the "Chairman of the Board or CEO of a big corporation", juggling factional interests, unlike the autocratic figures of Mao Tse-tung or Deng Xiaoping who could rule by fiat.
The man tipped as China's next leader, Xi Jinping, was selected, not for his leadership qualities but, the contact said, because he "maintained a non-threatening low profile and had never made enemies" and could be relied upon not to wage political vendettas through anti-corruption investigations.
"The central feature of leadership politics was the need to protect oneself and one's family from attack after leaving office. Thus, current leaders carefully cultivated proteges who would defend their interests once they stepped down," the contact said.
In the past in-coming Chinese leaders have consolidated their position by instituting crackdowns, with Jiang Zemin, the former president, shutting down a number of businesses owned by the associates of his predecessor, Deng Xiaoping, when he came to power in the early 1990s.
A similar process was observed in 2003 after Hu Jintao took office, with several high-level figures in Jiang Zemin's Shanghai power-base facing investigations and purges that analysts said were aimed at curtailing the power and influence of the Jiang faction.
The contact also outlined the scornful factionalism that divided the scions of the old 'red' families – those with revolutionary lineage whose fathers and grandfathers fought to bring the Communists to power in 1949 – and those who had risen up the Party ranks, so-called "shopkeepers".
China's current leaders, President Hu Jintao and prime minister Wen Jiabao, both fall into the latter category, while the putative next leader, 57-year-old Xi Jinping, is the son of a revolutionary hero Xi Zhongxun and often referred to as a 'princeling'.
The US embassy contact said that China's princelings felt they had a "right" to the fruits of the revolution, recalling one family deriding those without revolutionary pedigrees by saying: "While my father was bleeding and dying for China, your father was selling shoelaces".
Friday, November 12, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
trooper dude
horq
mangalica
modali
groc
roho
skegger
hard suit
rocknboss
storm trooper
AD Police
Helghast
Kerberos Panzer Cop
Deep Eyes (Final Fantasy)
Bubblegum Crisis
Aliens
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
aviatrix update
The dog is a Papillon. These dogs are pretty expressionless in real life so I tried to give it a bit of character by ballooning the size of the ears and giving it a human facial expression but I don't think I quite pulled it off.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
l'inconnue
Wikipedia
The supposed death-mask of the young girl known as L'Inconnue.
The legend is that she was a young 19th century woman who drowned herself in the Seine, possibly because of an unhappy love affair, but that when she was fished out they found her so beautiful that her death mask was turned into an icon and a muse for poets and artists.
To this day we do not know who she is.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Monday, April 05, 2010
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