Christmas 2013

As we near the end of another year, it's truly cold and its truly Christmas in a Chinese way. A lot of people seem to be taking a few days off (maybe foreign companies are giving them some time off, as officially the only public holiday is Jan 1st) and of course much of the Western world has stopped, so things are a bit slower. There are major attempts to plant Christmas trees everywhere in office buildings and shopping malls, as well as Christmas lights on any trees outside such buildings. There's occasionally some Christmas music played too, though its usually not too loud. Certainly there is an abundance of emails with various Christmas and New Year greetings (and bear in mind the Chinese New Year is not till Jan 30th, so there may be a second round of email cards then!)

The Lane family here is not really into Christmas but that might change as the little Lane gets older. She does seem to like opening things. She was a bit confused about a fake wooden present that we have next to our little Christmas tree that we got given for free a year or so ago in a shop. She tried to open the present, but it's a solid wooden block.

As I look back on the year, as ever China has continued to change: the new leadership, new policies (some are potentially significant affecting migration for example), new trade reforms, increased tension with other Asian countries over various neighboring islands, massively increased domestic awareness on air pollution (and some political response to improve it) amongst other things.

My work has been fairly stable with a variety of different projects related to China and some not related to China as well as some successful events in Beijing and Shanghai where I've made a more intentional effort this year. Other aspects of BSR's work definitely picked up towards the end of the year and next year should be more interesting. Andrea's certainly been the busier of the two of us, getting money, hiring staff and organizing activities around the country. Life should be interesting for her too next year.

Some things have stayed the same: same apartment, same social activities, same regular trips back to Europe every 6 months, and same occasional holidays elsewhere. Same level of Chinese and same awfully poor German.

Now its almost time to head into 2014, a few more weeks of work, a birthday for someone, and then back home. I'm already looking forward to the Hong Kong trip at the end of February for some warmth and time on the islands.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Corruption, air and Shanghai

Today an excellent op-ed in the NY Times from Friedman makes the important point to the Chinese President that if he is serious about addressing corruption (which he claims he is, having recognized that corruption is seen as the main reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as most previous Chinese empires/dynasties) then he really needs to allow the media to investigate high-level corruption (which is he is not allowing, by blocking websites from foreign media that report on these issues and potentially kicking their journalists out the country). He also accurately notes that technology has already enabled citizens to explore and discuss these issues, so it's better to let the media bring them to the government's attention so that they can be addressed before it's too late and eventually citizens address it in the only way they know: protests. Check it out: www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/opinion/sunday/friedman-dear-president-of-china.html%3fpagewanted=all.

It's interesting that the Chinese media will try to push the boundaries in many aspects of their reporting, but they won't touch personal relationships to the President. It shows the government is not serious about addressing corruption; it's also not serious about enabling an effective, independent, judiciary; any semblance of a free media; or any sense of allowing the people to hold their government to account (it does not have to be through a full democracy, but through some means). I've been saying for a while that unless those issues are addressed, the country won't be a good place to be living in a decade from now. All the signs are, despite the pressure, there is no movement on any of these areas. In fact in most it is getting worse! The government still refuses to trust its people, and in return the people refuse to trust the government. Not a great situation....

I even joked last week to a friend in Shanghai that the focus on the environment, as bad as it is, might be intended to distract from other issues that are much harder to solve. Not that it will be easy to solve the energy and water and pollution issues, but it's technically possible within the current system, and the government is generally willing. With those other issues, it's not technically possible in the current system, and the system is not likely to change. The other distraction, of course, are things like foreign policy/nationalism (witness all the hyperbole over the East China Sea recently), the moon landings etc.

Anyway, on the plus side the government is responding to the pressure from the public to try to clean up the air - and it's an issue they can't hide! It rears its ugly head all the time, whether the media are bothering to report it or not! Funnily enough those in Shanghai thought they got off better than Beijing until November, since when Beijing has had good air and Shanghai awful air. All of a sudden the Shanghai folk can't think of anything else to talk about and have finally gone out and bought air filters (the Beijing folk bought them a while ago). Now it's still not an easy thing to fix quickly, but it will be fixed, and probably quicker than most people will expect, somehow.

I've been going to and from Shanghai quite a few times recently for weddings, work and the marathon. One day the air was good and as I landed I could see out about 20km to the skyscrapers of Lujiazui. I struggled to spot the 88 story Jinmao Tower, which when I arrived in Shanghai 9 years and 3 months ago was the tallest building around. Now it's dwarfed by two taller buildings next to it, and many other buildings of similar height. Still the pictures of Taipei where Taipei 101 stands out ridiculously or of Dubai where the Burj Khalifa stands out even more ridiculously are more stunning. Whilst in Shanghai I ran past the Expo's corporate buildings, lying abandoned... what a shame, but maybe something will happen to them (large 2-3 story buildings that are the size of museums) eventually.

In other news, it's definitely winter, though it's not too cold yet, and still gets above zero in the daytime; Hannah's going crazy with her little bobby-cart pushing herself all over the place. I tell you what, she could teach quite a few adults something about reversing, steering, stopping and more.... then again, she's also getting good on the trampoline, finally speaking a few more words (mostly Chinese), and keeping us entertained at weekends.