Some answers!

Today I have been resigned to staying in the apartment, despite thenice weather as I slept in too late after last night's partying.

I'll explain why I have to stay in -its because Flic is coming backlater, but someone has to let her in as her key no longer works.This is because our locks were changed (since she left). The lockswere changed by the landlord because we had not paid our rent yet (aweek late I think). The locks were changed when we were not in theapartment, and after he changed them he then refused to give us thekeys until we paid. We did of course pay, so he did give us thekeys. After charging us for changing the locks, and after chargingus for the inconvenience of changing the locks (I think...) and ofcourse also wanting to charge us extra because of late payment ofrent.

hmm, extortion or what? So we are checking out if we have toactually pay all these extra costs. I am sure in the UK, if you were1 week late with rent, the landlord could not change the locks andleave you homeless until you paid. I hope not, anyway! Hey, itsChina :)

So, apart from clubbing, lock-outs, alumni gatherings (welcome back,Kate!) and unusually warm weather (a recent rend according to thepapers...could it be because of global warming?), onto today's topicof mild interest.

Well, I found it interesting. Firstly I had always been confusedbaout communism, because everywhere you read that the Chinesegovernment is activley persuing 'Socialism with Chinesecharacteristics) -this is the offical line. So why is it called thecommunist party, then? I found the answer. go tohttp://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_22249.htm (the Ministry of Culture's site) and youwill read: "Now the CPC is leading the Chinese people to buildsocialism with Chinese characteristics, and strive to achieve itsultimate goal -- communism." yay, I am happy.

On the same site I read some of (got quickly bored and laughed toomuch) the Chinese constitution -apparently the state still owns allthe land in cities! I think that law was recently reformed, yet theconstitution is out-of-date. In fact I think most of the constituionis out-of-date because so many laws are being changed and rewrittenhere daily. I was shocked at the changes China has to make due toWTO accession, and wondered if the UK could ever make anysignificant changes in anywhere near the time. What with 1 year ofdebate, 1 years of consulation, another year of debate and thenfinally a law being passed, its amazing that China passes far-reachign reforms weekly.

Also on the site, it explains about elections and parties. It seemsthere are elections (mostly indirect, and only in certain cases) -Ihad heard before that a lot of villages have some kind of election.It also seems there are 8 other non-communist parties -this somewhatshocked me, especially when you read the names of theparties: "China Association for the Promotion of Democracy", "ChinaDemocratic League".

Actually you notice 2 things. Firstly the parties don't do anythinglike their name suggests (although they might have done when theywere founded in 1948), eg, in these cases, the former "devotesitself to economic construction, improvement of the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation, and the reunificationof the motherland." and the latter "to hold high the banner ofpatriotism and socialism, implement the basic line for the primarystage of socialism, safeguard stability in the society, strengthenservices to national unity and strive for the promotion of socialistmodernization, establishment and improvement of a market economy,enhancement of political restructuring and socialist spiritualcivilization, emancipation and development of productive forces,consolidation and expansion of the united patriotic front andrealization of the grand goals of socialism with Chinesecharacteristics. " -that being a VERY chinese long, winding sentence!

The second thing is that "The non-Communist parties of China areneither parties out of office, nor opposition parties, but friendlyparties that coexist over a long period of time, engage in mutualsupervision, show utter devotion to each other, and share honor anddisgrace, weal and woe with the CPC". So, nothing like Westernparties at all then.

The final thing is that their combined membership is around 500,000people. Only a few less than the Communist Parties' membership of 60million! (although of a population of 1.25 bn, 60 million is muchless than I expected, but doesn't include 62 million Communist YouthLeague Members)

Anyway, so one correction i need to point out about the chineseminorities is: "According to the fifth national census taken in2001, the Han people made up 91.59 percent of the country's totalpopulation, totaling 1159.4 million; and the other 55 ethnic groups,8.41 percent, totaling 106.43 million. "

Thats enough for now. Apologies for boring you, I kinda find thisstuff interesting. Will talk more about crappy chinese superclubsand 'chinese women' some other time; although the latter will haveto be carefully worded depending on who is reading ;)

Enjoy the weekend, come on Spurs (2 wins in 3 months!!!! ha ha)

Adam