Lured by a seemingly attractive investment opportunity, Ying Jiuqing, a wealthy individual from Suzhou, a charming ancient city 50 miles away from Shanghai, China, spent close to 5 million yuan (US$570,000) to purchase 190,000 admission cards issued by the Oriental Pearl’s “Space City,” an entertainment outlet that claimed Joan Chen, a Hollywood actress whose stardom budded in Shanghai, as one of its investors. What he did not expect was that, instead of raking in millions of dollars as he had dreamed, he woke up to a six-year-long nightmare with no positive end in sight. These little plastic cards with a magnetic stripe would wipe out all his savings, suck up his business, and drag him into a government sanctioned fleecing of consumers.
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On January 12, 2004, the outgoing secretary of commerce Don Evans made a visit to China. Among other things, one of his major issues was asking China to stop product piracy, which is estimated to cost U.S. companies 3 billion dollars a year.
The number sounds alarmingly serious, but the reality is even far crueler. Product piracy and fraud in China is so widespread that it can be found almost everywhere, and in nearly all categories. As a popular saying describes, “everything is fake in China, only swindlers are true.”
The poster is meant as a joke, but sadly it also happens in real life. On January 15, China’s Quality News Network (http://www.cqn.com.cn) exposed the “Big Ten product quality frauds in 2004 (in China).” Below are some highlights:
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In China, people often refer to the Chinese National Congress as a rubber stamp. People regard the Congress as no more than an official title, a body with no real legislative power. But the lameness of the Congress does not carry over to its delegates, who are treated as privileged authority figures. Even powerful officials of the public security system sometimes have to defer to C.N.C. delegates.
The social status of a Congressional delegate is illustrated by this story that was published in a Chinese newspaper and is often cited on Chinese websites:
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This secret notice was issued to “further boost Marxist atheism research, propaganda, and education.” It reflects a new assessment from the top Party leaders, in light of “the new situation to target ‘Falun Gong,’ and various pseudo-sciences and superstitions, and represents a new trend of denigrating Western ‘hostile’ forces attempting to ‘westernize’ and ‘disintegrate’ China, in the name of religion”. It mandates that Marxist atheism propaganda and education be integrated into all sectors of society throughout the country, at all levels. All efficient measures shall be taken to “ban all uncivilized conduct in spreading superstitions,” in order to assist “peoples’ minds to be educated, spirits enriched, and their state of thought improved.”]
On January 17, former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Zhao Ziyang passed away at the age of 85 in a Beijing Hospital, an event mourned by many concerned with China’s welfare across the world. Zhao’s life is a microcosm of contemporary China, one of tumultuous change and reversals of course. We saw things come full circle with Zhao’s life — Party ideology undermining a person’s human nature, and human nature reawakened.