Asian Digital Tastes Explored At Music Matters Confab

May 30, 2007 - Global | Digital and Mobile

By Steve McClure, Hong Kong

Asian consumers are as passionate about the digital technology they use to access and play music as they are about music itself, according to the results of a survey released May 30 at the Music Matters conference in Hong Kong.

Fifty-one percent of consumers said they would listen to music more if they owned an MP3 player or music-playing mobile phone, said Ian Stewart, MTV Networks Asia VP, research and planning, in presenting the results of a survey of just under 4,000 people between the ages of 15 and 34, and conducted in 10 Asian territories in April.

The survey, which was jointly conducted by MTV, advertising agency Branded and market-research firm Synovate (both based in Hong Kong), found that 56% of consumers had played music on a computer in the past month, while 53% had played music on an MP3 player in the past month.

But Stewart said traditional methods of music delivery should not be discounted, with digital technology living side-by-side with traditional forms of music delivery in Asian territories such as India and Indonesia, where Internet penetration is not as widespread as in other parts of the region.

Other highlights of the survey (which covered China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) were:

* Twenty-seven percent of consumers in the region had downloaded and saved a song to their mobile phone in the past month.

* Thirty-two percent of males aged 15 to 24 said they are likely to download songs to their mobile phones -- the highest ratio for any of the demographics profiled in the survey.

* Consumers in China (39%), India (33%) and Malaysia (33%) are more likely than consumers in other countries in the region to have downloaded songs to their mobile phones.

* Seventy-one percent of Indians feel "very passionate" about music -- the highest ratio for any of the 10 territories. Meanwhile, just 27% of Hong Kong consumers -- the lowest figure among the territories covered by the survey -- feel the same way.

Music Matters – Music piracy fact sheet

30 May 2007

HONG KONG — Music piracy remains an ongoing problem in Asia according to the Branded, MTV and Synovate Music Matters survey released today at the 2007 Music Matters Asia Pacific Music Forum in Hong Kong.

In research that explores music habits and attitudes among young urban Asians, Synovate surveyed 3,857 respondents aged 15 to 34 years in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

Synovate Director Media Research Asia Pacific, Craig Harvey said with the proliferation of digital technologies, music piracy continued to pose a challenge to music industry organisations in Asia.

"The Music Matters survey shows that one quarter of urban Asian consumers surveyed have downloaded and saved a song from the internet without paying for it in the past month, and 18% have used a file-sharing program to share music with others," he said.

"Consumers also appear to underestimate the extent of the piracy problem, with 47% of respondents surveyed believing that the music industry is doing a good job at protecting the intellectual property of artists."

However, Mr Harvey noted that it was not all bad news, with online music also providing new opportunities for the industry in Asia.

"On a more positive note, of the relatively healthy 14% of consumers surveyed who had paid to download music from the internet over the past month, only one fifth of these (21%) had also purchased music in a physical store, showing that the web is opening up a whole new market of music consumers across Asia," Mr Harvey added.

About music piracy

In the past month, of the young urban consumers surveyed regionally:

• 31% swapped or borrowed a music CD or mini-disc from a friend
• 34% purchased music in a physical store
• 25% downloaded and saved a song from the internet without paying for it
• 19% ripped or copied music from a CD
• 19% burned or copied music onto a CD or DVD
• 19% purchased a bootleg or counterfeit music CD
• 18% used a file sharing program to share music with others
• 14% paid to download music online
• 9% purchased a CD or mini-disc online

Asia's Digital Music Free-For-All

Demand for online and mobile music is strong in Asia, but so is piracy, and that has music executives singing the blues

by Brian Bremner - Business Week 30.05.07

Young, urban Asian consumers are among the most tech-savvy people on the planet. In a region that boasts roughly 1 billion handsets and blisteringly fast wireless networks in richer markets such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Asian teens and 20-somethings are "mashing up" music and video content from every imaginable source by integrating applications from their feature-laden mobile handsets, personal computers, and the Net.

These kids love to download everything from J-Pop acts in Tokyo to Vedic heavy-metal bands out of Mumbai and New Delhi. There's just one problem: They hate to pay for it. And what should be a dynamic market for the global music industry and all manner of online and mobile music sites is turning out to be a bedeviling one. Companies are casting about for the right business model to exploit the undeniable demand for digital music in a region where pirated CDs and illicit music and file-sharing sites are ubiquitous.

Most vulnerable by far are the major music-recording labels. Legitimate physical sales of music (LPs, cassettes, CDs, DVD audio, and so on) have been falling or remaining stagnant this decade and the $29.3 billion in worldwide sales the industry raked in last year is expected to fall 61% to $18 billion by 2009, according to estimates by Soundbuzz, a Singapore-based digital music provider.

Biggest Black Market

"It's impossible to talk about the music industry without talking about the piracy that is ravaging it," bemoaned John Kennedy, head of the IFPI recording trade group at a music industry conference in Hong Kong on May 30. "We can't compete with free."

And Asia, despite its huge mobile phone base and dynamic economies, is a big part of the problem for global record companies trying to embrace digital technologies as distribution channels for their artists. In China, about 350 million knock-off CDs are in circulation and these in turn are being ripped, burned, and transferred to PCs and MP3 music players, according to IFPI data. It is by far the biggest black market for pirated CDs, which cost the recording industry more than $400 million in lost sales per year—and the mainland is also a growing player in online fraud.

At the urging of major recording labels such as EMI, Mercury Records, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner (WMG), IFPI has gone after regional Web sites and search engines such as Yahoo! China. The concern is that Internet service providers have allegedly maintained links to illegal music download sites, where one can gain access to tracks by international artists such as Coldplay and Gorillaz and any number of popular regional acts for no charge. On Apr. 24, a Beijing court ruled that Yahoo! China should be responsible for blocking access to such sites

On the Phone

That's not to say there aren't huge opportunities for the industry if it can make some headway in rolling back the piracy problem in Asia. About 85% of the $4.2 billion in digital music sales (online and mobile) last year in the Asia Pacific region were downloaded via music-enabled handsets. What's more, the total digital music market in Asia is expected to more than double to $9.35 billion, according to forecasts by Soundbuzz. Right now, ringtone melodies, rather than song tracks, are by far most the biggest type of digital music in demand.

In the future this could be sweet news for handset manufacturers with music phones that are easy to use, sync seamlessly with PCs and music sites, and have the kind of memory capacity that can store 1,000 or so songs.

Until recently, "Manufacturers haven't done a good job" developing music phones that match the ease of use and memory storage of popular MP3 players, especially Apple's smash hit iPod, says Chris White, a senior director for global music marketing at Motorola (MOT).

However, he thinks the mobile phone industry is closing the gap and points to the functionality of Motorola's new ROKR brand of music phones. To make it easier to find and transfer music quickly to its handsets on the mainland, the company has developed a MOTOMusic China site that offers 100,000 music tracks and is the biggest legal, online, commercial music service in the country.

Still, for the digital music market to deliver profitable growth to recording companies and most online sites, different types of business models must be rolled out that price music at a level attractive enough to build a big following of consumers interested in buying content legally.

Victimless Crime?

A number of executives think some sort of subscription-based, online music site (in which consumers pay one low, monthly fee for unlimited downloads) is the way to go. "You have to price music at a level that consumers will avail themselves [of]" and look for alternatives to pirated music, says Don Millers, president and chief executive officer at Beatnik, a San Mateo (Calif.) mobile-device software maker. However he admits that offering a significant discount on its copyrighted content is "going to be difficult for the music industry to accept."

Getting the right distribution and pricing strategies for Asia's fast-growing digital music market will be a critical challenge for the global music industry. Most young consumers in Asia think pilfered music is a victimless crime and hardly worthy of condemnation.

Indeed, a survey by researcher Synovate, released on May 30, of 15- to 34-year-old consumers around the region found that 25% had downloaded music from the Net—without paying—in the past month and 18% used file-sharing programs to swap music with friends. That kind of consumer behavior makes music industry executives mad—and will make profiting from Asia's digital music boom a tall order.

Bremner is Asia Regional Editor for BusinessWeek in Hong Kong.

Music Does Matter - Especially When It Is Mobile

Lots of big music industry folks down at Music Matters in Hong Kong last week. For those of you not familiar with the confab, it is basically an opportunity for everyone who touches the music business to sit down and talk about the business in Asia.

The attendees included EMI, Mercury Records, Sony BMG, Universal Music, and Warner Music Group, along with a host of other companies in different parts of the industry.

It's Like a Royal Navy Symposium, circa 1740

Naturally, at the top of everyone's agenda was piracy, and that got a lot of play. Reading the coverage each music executive sounded like a cross between Babbit and Marvin the Paranoid Android, spinning tales of woe about how they are all getting ripped off by those bad kids ripping their pirated CDs.

Research house Synovate contributed their little bit to the gloom, with survey results from around the region suggesting that one out of five of Asia's young urban consumers purchased a bootleg CD in the last month, and one in four downloaded an illegal song from the Internet. Synovate's stuff is interesting, but all it offered was a snapshot rather than some inkling of how some of those numbers might be evolving.

The downer of the session likely came from industry group IFPI, who estimate that piracy costs the music business $400 million annually around the region.

Now, that's not good, certainly, and we here in the Hutong are scrupulous - nay, anal - about legitimate content. But with clients and family in what has become affectionately known as "the Biz," I'll grant we are no test case.

Nonetheless, there is a sunny side to the music business in Asia, and the folks at the record labels appear to have a lot more to be happy about than the movie, television, and shrinkwrapped-software crowds.

The Music Industry Eats Its Wheaties in Asia

Brian Bremmer at BusinessWeek did a nice write-up on the program ("Asia's digital Music Free-for-All",) and he points to the PriceWaterhouse Coopers study that estimates Asia's digital music industry at over $4.2 billion. In other words, if you believe the stats, digital music sales alone, not counting sales of CDs or cassettes, is four times LARGER than the total estimated piracy losses in the region. Think the MPA would kill for those kinds of stats? You bet. And the digital music industry is supposed to rise to over $9.35 billion in Asia.

(Okay, so can we fess up to the idea that digital media is not such a terrible thing after all? That while it eases piracy and cuts down on album sales because people are just buying the tracks they want, that it really is a significant market?)

And you need to look at what is driving the market: mobile phones. PWC says that 85% of that $4.2 billion were songs downloaded directly to music-enabled mobile phones. Half of the people MTV surveyed in Asia said they would listen to music more if they had a mobile music device like a music-enabled handset.

The Future of Music is Mobile

You look at all of these numbers, and you are led to a couple of inescapable conclusions:

1. Piracy sucks and still exists in Asia. (It still exists in America, for that matter, but we digress)

2. The future of music in Asia is mobile, and it's a robust business already with huge growth prospects. Any artist, label, distributor, or retailer not doing everything they can to make legitimate music more accessible to Asia's one billion (and growing) mobile device owners is both ignoring their future and giving the business away to pirates.

The challenge is for the industry to work together to make listening to music an increasingly fast, easy, and delightful experience. The model is there and its working. Now the challenge is to broaden the appeal.

It's absolutely stunning Apple didn't own this event. My friends at Apple need to get their collective act together. The music lovers in this region are shopping at other vendors and building that habit. Don't wait for long, guys. The market sure won't.

Further Link: Mobile Converge

Article from 03.06.2007 Silicon Hutong

弄假成真

(nong4 jia3 cheng2 zhen1)

Make-believe becomes reality

旧的不去, 新的不来

旧的不去, 新的不来

(jiu4 de bu4 qu4 xin1 de bu4 lai2)

If old things don't go, new things will never come;

大吃大喝

大吃大喝

(da4 chi1 da4 he1)

Eat and drink to one's heart's content;
to waste too much money on feasting and partying

Space Real Estate - Satellite Diplomacy

Over the last few years there has been increasing concern in Washington over the impact that Chinese advancing ability to command space real-estate - better known as Satellite - might have on the balance of power. Specifically, that it might shift it a little less in America's favor than it used to be. Traditionally, these concerns have fallen into 2 categories.

1) Military concerns
2) Economic concerns

Military

On the military front, Washington has expressed concern that a modernizing China is increasingly able to design, build and launch space based hardware with the potential to improve Beijing ability to:

1) Coordination its military forces
2) Gather long ranged intelligence about opposing forces
3) Impede America's own capabilities by jamming communications or destroying US military Satellite

Thus making any future Sino-American conflict more difficult to wage for the US and more costly for Washington in terms of manpower and dollars.

Equally, Washington has expressed concern about the close relationship between China's military and civilian satellite industries. Particularly that experience and capital generate through the development and launching of civilian satellites could easily be channeled towards military satellite programs. Allowing Beijing to develop increasingly sophisticated technologies under civilian auspices which can rapidly be put to military use - so-called "Duel Use" technology - while at the same time presenting elements of military R&D budget as being civilian in nature so as to avoid international oversight.

Economics

Though a secondary issue, and one more reserved for the future that the present day, elements within Washington have also expressed concern over the potential economic impact that Chinese Satellite might have on US economic interests. Such fears are two fold.

1) That China will deploy communications and Earth observation Satellite domestically, using them to improve the efficiency of its agricultural, industrial, and service industries. Thus allowing China's economy to grow faster and to compete with the Ameriica's more directly
2) That every Satellite that Beijing builds, and every dollar that it earns in doing so, will allow China to develop increasingly sophisticated and economical Satellites for export. Eventually enabling it to reach the stage where it will be able to compete with the US on the open market. Forcing US manufacturers to cut their margins in order to stay competitive, and attracting international investment away from the US and towards China. Thus impacting upon the US Satellite sector in much the same way that is has already happened on the manufacturing sector.

Soft Power Politics

For the most part, the fact that Washington has spent so much time and effort worrying about the military and economic threat posed by China's satellite industry says as much Washington's way of thinking as it does about anything else. However, there is also a third potential threat that officials in Washington are now began to wake up to. One which may have more impact on the balance of power in the post Cold War, post 9/11, world than either of the above.

According to the latest reports, Beijing is now actively seeking to market satellite in the developing world. Selling, or leasing, space hardware to countries who aspire to the benefits brought by orbital real-estate, but who lack both the technical ability and the wealth necessary to do so acquire them independently.

"[China] want to play a leadership role for developing countries that want to get into space." - Joan Johnson-Freese, Chairperson, Department of National Security Studies, US Naval War College

At first, this might not seem like a big deal for Washington. After all, there is little profit to be made selling Satellite to people who can barely afford basic amenities, and a third world country would need a first world military to go with its satellites before it could pose a tactical threat to US interests. However, this is where so-called "Soft Power" comes in.

By offering to provide space real-estate to the developing world, on favorable terms, China can pick up influence and political good will that could be translated into virtually anything in the future, from votes in the UN and trade advantages, to favorable access to natural resources/

"It's just such a win-win for them. They are making political connections, it helps them with oil deals and they bring in hard currency to feed back into their own program to make them even more commercially competitive." - Joan Johnson-Freese

Although often individually economically small or without influence, developing countries make up a significant portion of the world's population and are the source of a significant portion of its natural resources, too, together can have a large impact on world affair. Thus making them important friends for China, which is seeking international recognition and credibility, as well as the natural resources to fuel its growing economy.

Equally, with leverage in the developing world, China can rally international support for it's own domestic policies and programs. Making it impossible for the West to criticize China, or to put pressure on it over such things as it domestic human rights record or its trade/economic policies, without itself facing a backlash from China's developing world allies. Thus weakening the West position by forcing it onto the defensive on many issues.

A Sign of things to come?

A recent example of this, and what the future may hold, was seen last week when China launched the $US311 Million Nigcomsat-1, for Nigeria, an oil rich country that maintains a problematic relationship with the Wests, but which has increasingly been looking to China for assistance in developing its infrastructure and harvesting its natural resources.

"What we have achieved in this project is a masterpiece of Sino-African relations - T Ahmed Rufai, Chief Executive, Nigerian Communication Satellite Ltd.

While a small fish in a large pond, the construction of Nigcomsat-1 is highly notable in that China managed to pulled the contract out from under the noses of almost 2 dozen competing bids. Most from significantly more developed states, including America, Israeli, Russian, and the EU. With China offering a level of service that the other nations either couldn't or wouldn't provide.

Russian and Israeli manufacturers were forced to pull out of the bidding process because they couldn't guarantee to provide coverage for the whole of Nigeria across the Ku, C, L and Ka bands from the required orbital position, as specified in the contract. US companies faced difficulties because of Washington's strict technology export laws, which could potentially have impede their ability to fulfill the Nigeria's criteria for an all inclusive service, and there were also concerned over the profitability of the contract and Nigeria's ability to pay for it an follow up work. EU groups were similarly concerned over long term financial issues.

"Business ventures with Nigeria have been difficult, to say the least" - Roger Rusch, President, TelAstra Inc, California

Chinese engineers managed to resolve issues over band provisions using technological solutions, while Beijing overcame finance/profitability concerns by providing a finance package along side a contract bid. China also faced no challenges in regards to technology exports, as American companies did, due to China's "No strings, no judgment" policy; under which Beijing does not require foreign countries to meet domestic standards before exporting items of high technology or cost to them.

Foreign attitudes were also said to come into play, and it was reported that representatives of one of company declined to work to Nigeria's specification; considering it to be too advanced a program, and instead offered to build them a satellite built to their own design. Causing much bad feelings among Nigeria officials, who saw the offer as being an insult.

"A senior representative of this company came to visit us and was arrogantly telling us what we needed, and why we didn't want what our [Request for Proposal] said. I told him I was expecting him to ask two questions he didn't ask, and I posed these questions to him myself: Do you see people living in trees here? Do you see lions or hyenas running in the streets? This company was not taking us seriously." - Robert Boroffice, Director-General, Nigerian National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA)

At present, Beijing has is contracted to build approximately 30 foreign satellites, including ones for the oil-rich, US-hostile, states of Iran and Venezuela, with whom it has been cultivating relations for some time. As well for Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand.

Other Concerns

In addition to concerns that Beijing might be using space real-estate exports to "win friends and influence people", the prospect of China selling satellites to the developing world also raises other concerns for the US. Many of which revolve around China's "No strings, no judgment" policy, which allows it to deal with states the US wouldn't, and in situations which could cause many problems for the US.

For example, the sale of communications satellites to countries with different world views - such as Islamic Middle Eastern state or socialist Latin American states - could greatly expand said states ability to broadcast their ideologies to a global audience, or to communicate with sympathetic audiences independently of US infrastructure. The sale Earth watching and communications satellites could allow developing countries to develop faster, and to make better use of their natural resource. Making them more self reliant and more able to compete on the world market, and less reliant on Western countries for technology, but without them first having to reform their social, political or economic systems. Equally, China may also export "Dual Use" satellite technology to countries that the US considers to be unsuitable recipient, who might put them to uses that impede America's ability to project force overseas. For example, an Earth watching satellite designed for civilian use could be acquired by a nation such as Iran and used to target missiles, or to spot approaching US forces in the event of a confrontation.

Summing Up

While arguments over policy and threat go on in Washington, China watchers have noted that, regardless of whether China's satellite industry civilian in nature, military, or a mixture of both, its eventual emergence as an export market will be a loose loose situation for Washington.

Whether America is loosing votes at the UN because of the soft power in the developing; because of subsidized satellite deals, loosing loosing oil and ore deals in the third world; because China has the inside track with regional government, loosing contracts in Africa, Asia and Europe; because governments have can find a cheaper alternative and a more amenable trading partner in China, or loosing aircraft carriers in the pacific; because China's military satellites give have narrowed the technological divide, Chinese satellites seem destined to make a difference to the Sino-American dynamic.

Nigcomsat-1

Nigcomsat-1, is a quad-band geostationary communications satellite designed to provide broadcasting, telephony and broadband internet access. The satellite's launch is predicted to save Nigeria over $US600 Million in telephony costs, and to cut into the $US100 Million that Nigerians currently spend leasing services from foreign owned satellites.

"[Nigcomsat-1] gives you bandwidth to enable you to communicate from point A to point B, from rural Africa to urban cities" - Dr Bashir Gwandu, Director, Nigeria Communications Commission

According to Chinese and Nigerian sources, the satellite was constructed in a shorter time than the average for a Western country, and to a lower budget.

"The bid from China was judged the most economically advantageous tender and thus won the bid" - T. Ahmed Rufai

In addition to constructing and launching the satellite, China was also contracted to build two ground monitoring stations for NASRDA, and to train 98 Nigerian engineers to monitor and maintain the satellite's systems and services.

source

Menschenrechte in China - Die coole Oberfläche täuscht

Von Mark Siemons, Peking

25. Mai 2007

Bundespräsident Köhler reist in nervöserer Atmosphäre durch China als die letzten deutschen Staatsbesucher. Mit einigen Nadelstichen ist es Deutschland in den letzten Wochen gelungen, das Thema Menschenrechte wieder scharfzumachen, von dem man schon glauben konnte, dass es in den üblichen diplomatischen Routinen restlos untergegangen sei. Eine Resolution des Bundestags hatte Chinas Arbeitslager kritisiert; den europäisch-chinesischen Menschenrechtsdialog in Berlin hatten Pekinger Diplomaten vorzeitig verlassen, weil auch Hongkonger Nichtregierungsorganisationen teilnahmen, die als „staatsfeindlich“ klassifiziert wurden. Nun wägt Köhler seine Worte vorsichtiger denn je.

Zuvor konnte man den Eindruck haben, der allzu abstrakte Begriff sei erfolgreich neutralisiert: Mit der gleichen Geläufigkeit, mit der die „Menschenrechtssituation“ von westlichen Politikern angesprochen wurde, wurde sie von ihren chinesischen Kollegen höflich zurückgewiesen (innere Angelegenheiten) oder freundlich delegiert (es läuft ja schon der einschlägige Dialog).

Philosophie statt Machtabgabe

Aber die coole Oberfläche täuscht, auch in diplomatisch ruhigen Zeiten fühlt sich China durch den universalistischen Anspruch erheblich herausgefordert, der verhindert, dass konkrete Kritik ohne Weiteres als bloße Einmischung abgetan werden kann. Zahllose Forscher und Forschungsstellen, auch eine „Chinesische Gesellschaft für Menschenrechtsstudien“, beschäftigen sich seit Jahren mit dem Thema, um der „westlichen Diskurshegemonie“ etwas Eigenes entgegenzusetzen. Die offizielle, immer wieder neu variierte Position ist, dass Chinas traditionelle Kultur eine eigene Sicht der Menschenrechte entwickelt habe, die eher von der Harmonie der Gemeinschaft als von „Individualismus und Egoismus“ ausgehe. Deshalb nennt das regierungsamtliche Weißbuch Demokratie „das Recht des Volkes auf Existenz und Entwicklung“ als das „vorrangige“ Menschenrecht, um das der Staat sich zu kümmern habe.

Es ist offenkundig, dass da eine Regierung philosophiert, die Gründe dafür sucht, weshalb sie keine Macht abgeben soll. Und auch ernstgemeinte Argumente können von einem Staat, dem sie ins Konzept passen, natürlich jederzeit instrumentalisiert werden. Gleichwohl tut ein Denken, dem der universalistische Charakter der Menschenrechte ernst ist, gut daran, sich auf die unterschiedlichen historischen und kulturellen Erfahrungen argumentativ einzulassen, die in diesen Debattenbeiträgen zum Ausdruck kommen können (wobei man mit der Benennung von Unrecht nicht warten muss, bis die Diskussion abgeschlossen ist).

Die „De-facto-Religion des Westens“

In der Zeitschrift, die die Chinesische Akademie für Sozialwissenschaften herausgibt, ist gerade jetzt ein Aufsatz erschienen, der radikaler ist als die übliche kulturalistische Argumentation. Der an der Akademie arbeitende Philosoph Zhao Tingyang bezeichnet die ständigen Verweise auf Menschenrechte da als die neue „De-facto-Religion des Westens“ (bei anderer Gelegenheit hatte er den westlichen Universalismus einen „verborgenen Fundamentalismus“ genannt), und die defensiven Reaktionen offizieller Kreise hält er für philosophisch bedeutungslos, nichts anderes als das heimliche Eingeständnis, dass die westliche Sichtweise richtig sei.

Doch wie der Westen aus einem rein biologischen Umstand - demjenigen, Mensch zu sein - ein „Recht“ ableite, lasse sich nicht rechtfertigen; die Natur habe noch nie ein Recht begründet, das könne erst die Moral. In Wirklichkeit mache den Menschen nicht das, was er „ist“, sondern was er „tut“, zum Subjekt von Rechten. Aus spieltheoretischen Erwägungen leitet Zhao nun ab, dass sich die menschlichen Interessen am besten in einem System der „symmetrischen Gerechtigkeit“ befriedigen lassen, in dem Menschenrechte nicht als „natürliche Rechte“, aufgrund des Seins, sondern als „Rechte auf Kredit“, aufgrund des Handelns, gewährt werden: „Alle menschlichen Rechte, einschließlich derjenigen auf Leben und Freiheit, sind etwas, was zurückgezahlt werden muss.“ Sie sollen nur bei Wohlverhalten gelten.

Die paradoxe Pointe der Menschenrecht

Der blinde Fleck dieser aus dem Handeln und den Beziehungen gewonnenen Position ist offensichtlich: Sie nimmt die Gesellschaft, von der die Rechte abhängen sollen, als etwas Naturwüchsiges, ohne die Frage, wer denn da nun nach welchen Kategorien die Rechte gewährt oder entzieht, in den Mittelpunkt zu stellen. Zhao gesteht immerhin selbst ein, dass es für die Gerechtigkeit in diesem System kein objektives Kriterium gibt. Eben der staatlichen Willkür, die die Menschenrechte begrenzen sollen, würden da Tür und Tor geöffnet.

Aufschlussreich aber ist, dass Zhao genau das unplausibel an den Menschenrechten findet, was ihre ursprünglich naturrechtliche oder christliche Herleitung betrifft. In der praktischen Politik sind diese Ursprünge längst eingeklammert, doch in der Konfrontation mit einer ganz anderen Geistesgeschichte treten sie nun wieder als etwas Fremdes hervor. Doch die paradoxe Pointe der Menschenrechte hängt nicht davon ab. Ihr Postulat verlangt dem Staat ab, eine Grenze seiner eigenen Wirksamkeit bedingungslos zu schützen. Um den Sinn einer solchen Grenzziehung einzusehen, bedarf es keiner bestimmten Metaphysik, sondern nur der historischen Erfahrung, dass Staaten zu Übergriffen auf Menschen fähig sind. Und von dieser Erfahrung hatte China genug.

How to write a China article.

By ChouChou

You’ve just arrived in your 5-Star room at the Shanghai Hilton and unpacked your fancy new Apple laptop. As you pull the top off the mini bottle of Hennessey XO, you finally turn to your instructions from the editor back home. 2000 words by Monday about the important issues facing China today. Easy.
But two days have passed and you are still staring at a blank screen. You’re experiencing a stretch of writer’s block as long as the Great Wall of China and the deadline is hanging over your head like the proverbial Sword of Damocles. It seems that more research than flicking through a copy of Wild Swans in the airport is needed after all.

Sound familiar? Then you, my journalist friend, need the Sinocidal fully patented guide on how to write that Pulitzer Prize winning China article. Simply follow the steps below, and you’ll have your name splashed across the front page of every newspaper in Britain faster than a convicted child molester.

Title

Each and every good China article begins with a carefully considered and well thought-out title. “Cor, what a scorcher” may be good enough for a tabloid article about heatwaves in April, but if you’re going to impress your fellow tofu-eating, goatee bearded colleagues at the Grauniad office (not to mention that hot feminist who writes angry columns about women’s issues), then you’re going to need to think up a snappy headline. Thankfully, titles for China articles follow a strict guideline, and a catchy media soundbite can be created in seconds thanks to the Sinocidal (TM) China-headline-o’matic. Just choose one of the words from column A, and match it with a random word from column B.

A
China
The Dragon
The East
1.3 Billion People
Red Star

B
Rises
Century
Awakes
Stirs
Does Dallas

The only exception to this rule is when writing an article about the clash of western commercialism against old-style Communist practices, in which case the title “Mickey Maos” must be used.

Interview a taxi driver

You may well be isolated from the unwashed masses of China in your luxury Shanghai hotel room, but for God’s sake, you don’t want the brainless idiots who read your newspaper to know that. A good journalist never loses his common touch: after all, the whole point of your article is to pretend that you care about “the Chinese people themselves” and how unfairly the system treats them. Bob Geldof has made a career about appearing to care for African people, and hopefully you can do the same for Chinese people, earn loads of money, and buy a big fuck-off house in the south of France. There’s no way you actually want to meet any of the Chinese people though. It’s OK to let some of them clean your hotel room, but any more contact than that and you risk catching tuberculosis. So you might as well make use of the only Chinese person you ever come into contact with - the taxi driver - and pass off his opinions as your own.

Interest rate predictions for the coming quarter? Ask a taxi driver.
Improving Sino-Japanese relations in the post-Koizumi era? Ask a taxi driver.
Financial aid to developing African economies? Ask a taxi driver, but leave out his politically incorrect opinions regarding “those dark folk”. The students in the SOAS reading room don’t like reading about that kind of thing.

If you can’t find a taxi driver whose political views match those of your readers, then just make one up. Call him Mr. Wang, inform your public that he only earns a hundred dollars a month, and they’ll believe any old crap you write. “I’ve been following the latest series of Big Brother with interest,” says Beijing cab driver Mr. Wang (43), “though Jade Goody’s recent behaviour has been quite reprimandable. Still, it’s hard to follow all this celebrity gossip when I only earn five yuan a year.”

Contrasts

Nobody really understands China. Especially you, because you hadn’t even heard of the country until last week when you failed to be chosen as a New York correspondent. So get around the whole problem of writing difficult conclusions by just presenting a series of contrasting images. Here are some easy ones to start you off:

• A statue of Mao with an advert for Coca-Cola in the background.

• An elderly Chinese man, with a long wispy beard, sat on a bench next to a fibreglass model of Ronald McDonald.

• A sign saying “Promote Environmental Awareness” stuck in a field full of nuclear waste and dead babies.

• A girl with a mobile phone walking past a tramp.

• A description of a fashionable Shanghai socialite who hangs out at Starbucks and likes KFC, quickly followed in the next paragraph by a description of a former prostitute who works 5 million hours a day in a condom factory for just two grains of rice a year.

Vague Conclusion

When you’ve finished writing your pointless and vague summary of obvious contrasts, follow it up with an equally pointless and vague conclusion. Write how some things point to x, whilst some other things point to y. “The future, it seems, is still uncertain for China” is always a good one to sign off with, especially because other countries are all governed by psychic fortune tellers who know everything that will happen for the next 200 years.
If, for whatever reason, you want to try something different (perhaps this is not your first time to write a China article. It might be your second, say), highlight the enormous population of China, and then focus on a single individual. That way you’ve covered all the bases and it looks like you care. You could even try and combine both conclusion styles if you’re feeling cocky. For example:

“It seems that the future is looking bright for the 1.3 billion people who make up the world’s most populous nation. But for Li Hui - who is still working at the condom factory for just two grains of rice a year - that future is still unclear.”

Follow the above guidelines and you can’t go wrong. Before long, you’ll be printing the words “CHINA EXPERT” on your business card and you’ll have your own book about the Chinese political landscape listed under the Lonely Planet Guide to China’s list of recommended reads.

Perhaps you could even call the book “China Awakes”.

America Didn't Get What She Wanted; Now What?

clipped from chinabusinesslaw.blogspot.com "disappointing" results of this round of trade talks Secretary Henry Paulson hosting a delegation of high level Chinese officials They, as I think, agreed to continue to disagree on some of the thorniest issues: the undervaluation of the Chinese currency--"Renminbi" (or "Yuan"); the failure of Chinese government in its protection of intellectual properties; American companies' access to the Chinese market, especially in the financial services sector he parties did agree on the following the number of daily passenger flights between the U.S. and China will be doubled in 2012 from the current 10 to 23 in five years; an increase of the number of cargo flights will also increase; a slight expansion of financial services to enter into China trade deficit with China is simply too large to overlook; it was a whopping $232.5 billion in 2006 which is reportedly larger than U.S. trade deficit with any country in history China unlikely to back down on its position to let the Renminbi rise 40%

Snubbed by U.S., China Finds New Space Partners

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BEIJING, May 23 — For years, China has chafed at efforts by the United States to exclude it from full membership in the world’s elite space club. So lately China seems to have hit on a solution: create a new club.

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China launched a communications satellite for Nigeria, a major oil producer, in a project that serves as a tidy case study of how space has become another arena where China is trying to exert its soft power.

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Not only did China design, build and launch the satellite for Nigeria, but it also provided a huge loan to help pay the bill. China has also signed a satellite contract with another big oil supplier, Venezuela. It is developing an earth observation satellite system with Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand. And it has organized a satellite association in Asia.

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Beijing also is focused on competing in the $100 billion commercial satellite industry.

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In recent years, China has managed to attract customers with its less expensive satellite launching services. Yet it had never demonstrated the technical expertise to compete for international contracts to build satellites.

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The Nigeria deal has changed that. Chinese engineers designed and constructed the geostationary communications satellite, called the Nigcomsat-1. A state-owned aerospace company, Great Wall Industry Corporation, will monitor the satellite from a ground station in northwestern China. It will also train Nigerian engineers to operate a tracking station in Abuja, their national capital.

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Nigeria is a risky customer for any satellite manufacturer. It is consistently rated one of the most corrupt nations

clipped from: www.nytimes.com

With the satellite priced at roughly $300 million, the state-owned Export-Import Bank of China, or China ExIm, granted $200 million in preferential buyer’s credits to Nigeria. The bank often provides the hard currency for China’s soft power aspirations: In Africa, China ExIm has handed out more than $7 billion in loans in recent years, according to one study.

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Satellites also are becoming vital to Beijing’s domestic development plans. In the next several years, China could launch as many as 100 satellites to help deliver television to rural areas, create a digital navigational network, facilitate scientific research and improve mapping and weather monitoring. Research centers on microsatellites have opened in Beijing, Shanghai and Harbin, and a new launching center is under construction in Hainan Province.

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But China’s focus on satellites has also brought suspicions, particularly from the United States, since most satellites are “dual use” technologies, capable of civilian and military applications. Currently, China is overhauling its military in a modernization drive focused, in part, on developing the capacity to fight a “high tech” war.

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China’s determination to develop its own equivalent to the Global Positioning System, or G.P.S.

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Most alarmingly to Western countries, China conducted an antisatellite test in January by firing a missile into space, destroying one of its own orbiting satellites and scattering a trail of dangerous debris despite its oft-stated opposition to the use of weapons in space.

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Space relations between the powers were already frosty. Washington, responding to scandals over stolen technology, has tried for nearly a decade to isolate the Chinese space program through export restrictions that prohibit the use of American space technology on satellites launched in China. Washington also has prevented China from participating in the International Space Station and, in some cases, stopped Chinese scientists from attending space conferences in America
New York Times

Nur eine große China-Blase?

clipped from www.china-in-the-news.de Nur eine große China-Blase? Die Chinesen sind als Volk der Spieler bekannt. Daher darf es kaum verwundern, wenn von den 16 Millionen Einwohnern Shanghais mittlerweile 11 Millionen in Aktien investiert haben. Was in China passiert, ist deshalb von so großer Tragweite, weil es auch massive Auswirkungen auf die Finanzmärkte in Übersee, vor allem in den USA, haben kann. Schon die ersten Warnzeichen im Februar 2007 haben aufgezeigt, dass der amerikanische Aktienmarkt auf starke Kursabschläge in China sehr nervös reagieren kann. Das wahrscheinlichste Szenario wird sein, dass ein Crash in China die dortigen Indizes innerhalb von wenigen Tagen um bis zu 25-30 % einbrechen lassen könnte. Eines ist jedoch sicher, nämlich dass der so genannte Kran-Indikator auch für China gilt: Dort wo besonders viele Kräne stehen, sind Aktien-Crashes vorprogrammiert. Dies konnte man letztes Jahr am Aktienmarkt in Dubai beobachten, wo die Kurse um mehr als 70 % einbrachen.

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