作者：Yang Fu  来源：US-China Perception Monitor

On June 14, 2013, a group of five Chinese students were attacked by a group of three intoxicated local French men. The assailants hurled xenophobic and racist insults before hitting a 24 year old woman in the face with a champagne bottle. The attack occurred in the town of Hostens, 30 miles south of Bordeaux.

News of the attack triggered strong reactions in both China and France.

China Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the violent attack and urged the French government to ring the perpetrators to justice and take concrete actions to safeguard Chinese citizens safety and legitimate rights and interests.

On China’s micro-blogging site Weibo, reactions were varied:

@Emy Mi Sauce: “This is the first time I’ve heard of racism in France.”

@Riding into Chang’an wrote: “Make the connection between Chinese gold miners getting beaten in Africa and the Chinese students in France who were attacked yesterday. Everyone in the world thinks that the Chinese people are weak.”

@Yisudaer wrote: “On the Chinese students in France who got attacked: The six Chinese students were 22 to 30 years old. Five grown men and one woman had their faces messed up by three French gangsters. So shameful! Are you Chinese? Are you Han? Are you men?

@Sunzhenming wrote: “Hope all students studying abroad take care of themselves and help each other.”

@Straw hat Ji wrote: “Spreading the news just saw that six study abroad students in France got beaten up, one of whom is in critical condition. Foreign countries are messed up. If you want dignity, you need to rely on your motherland.”

The students were studying wine at La Tour Blanche School of Viticulture and Oenology. Hostens mayor Michel Viallesoubranne described the Chinese community as total of 11 people who are all very well-behaved. They’ve already well-integrated into life in the small town!

In France, officials unanimously condemned the attack, calling them “xenophobic” and “inadmissible.” Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll described the attack as an unspeakable act. It is the image of France that is damaged with the xenophobic attitudes.”

Wine producers in France are particularly worried about how this attack will be perceived in China. Vintner M. Michel hoped that France would apologize and make clear to the Chinese and all other foreigners that they are welcome here.” Another lamented, these youths study with us because they like our wine, our history, and our ways of doing business. They will be, in the future, our ambassadors in their country, and this is the message we send them?”

China is the world’s largest importer of Bordeaux wine, consuming 48 million bottles in 2012. Chinese wine importers are also quite nervous at the moment. It is expected that Beijing will slap tariffs on imports of European wine following EU anti-dumping tariffs on exports of Chinese solar panels.

________________________

Written by Yang Fu. Yang is a graduate student at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. From Agence France-Presse

来源时间：2018/4/6   发布时间：2013/6/20

旧文章ID：15835

作者：Roger Moore  来源：US-China Perception Monitor

After three years of construction, pipelines in Myanmar are nearly ready to begin pumping oil and natural gas into China’s southwestern provinces. It should be an exciting time for China, which is set to establish another vital source for its voracious consumption of natural resources, but the event is largely overshadowed by unintended developments within Myanmar. Besides costing Beijing billions of dollars to construct, the pipelines have sparked widespread resentment among Myanmar’s residents, who are demanding compensation for lost land and damaged livelihoods. Unfortunately for the Chinese leadership, far from being an isolated episode that can be easily resolved, the opposition in Myanmar is indicative of wider problems that will confront China in the future as the country continues searching for new means to fuel its economic growth. It may seem as if China is creating an “an economic empire,” but an unending thirst for natural resources has not led to many lasting friendships.

In order to maintain present growth rates, China must continue looking for new areas from which natural resources might be extracted. Like the volatile situation in Myanmar, however, this obsession for more resources often leads to suspicion and even outright hostility in the host countries’ populations. In Africa, despite receiving billions of dollars in Chinese aid, many nations are becoming alarmed with China’s growing presence in the region. Some have even compared China’s involvement with the dark days of Western colonialism, calling the country’s narrow interest in natural resources a new form of exploitation. Despite trying to improve its image with venerable initiatives—for example, by offering 12,000 full-ride scholarships to African students to come study in China—much greater attention is devoted to the illicit activities, such as recent reports of illegal gold mining in Ghana.

China has also faced scrutiny among northern European countries close to the Arctic region, even when its actions are seemingly innocent. For example, Iceland twice rejected a Chinese plan to buy a large farm on the country’s northern coast for a proposed golf resort. Icelandic authorities feared that the offer was really just a cover for China to build a port near a strategically important part of the Arctic region. Similarly, in 2012, European Union Vice President Antonio Tajani traveled to Greenland to offer hundreds of millions of dollars in developmental aid so long as Greenland promised not to give China exclusive access to rare earth metals. Tajani, simply calling it “raw mineral diplomacy,” tried thwarting China’s plans before they even began!

Other examples abound. Although animosity rarely turns as violent as it has in Myanmar, mere suspicions can hinder China’s economic plans. In Europe, mistrust of Chinese trading policies could be leading to a trade war between the two sides, an outcome that would certainly be damaging for their economic prospects. Similarly, suspicion over Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, has hindered the company’s ability to operate abroad, most notably in America.

So, what might China be able to do to reverse these trends of mistrust? In Myanmar,the Chinese leadership has tried to address the problem directly, telling its companies to embrace Western-style corporate responsibility practices and respect the rights of individuals living near large-scale projects. Although responsible actions will certainly help China’s image in Myanmar and elsewhere, a true solution to the problem will require broader initiatives on the part of the Chinese.

Most notably, China will need to balance its trading relationships, which have become a staple of its international relations and a foundational element of its development model. Almost without exception, China has developed unbalanced relations in which its inexpensive products flood other countries’ markets while receiving relatively few imports in return. This problem has been highlighted extensively in America, but it extends to other countries as well. Mexico and Brazil have expressed concerns about their trading deficits with China, both complaining that Chinese companies’ products have rendered their own manufacturers uncompetitive. In Africa, too, many of the complaints about colonialism stem from the fact that Chinese companies arrive ready to invest, but they are not providing the necessary training and infrastructure that will allow African companies to manufacture and export their own products in the future.

Fortunately, China appears well aware of the problems and has begun promising to ameliorate them. Recently in Mexico, Xi Jinping promised to strive towards a more balanced relationship with that country. Likewise, Premier Li Keqiang promised in Mayto reduce Indian’s trade deficit with China, which has reached a staggering $40.78 billion. These are promising signs, but China still has a long way to go to prove that it is not a self-centered country trying to exploit others.

Recent events might persuade China that its deep pockets will render its poor image mostly irrelevant. Although many European countries may look askance at Chinese actions, they have also reached out to China for needed investments that could help pull the continent out of recession. Similarly, Americans may be suspicious of China, but the recent buyout of Smithfield Foods, one of the country’s largest food producers, demonstrates the willingness of American companies to welcome China’s financial wherewithal. The country’s economic might was also on display recently during Xi Jinping’s visit to the Caribbean, where he promised $3 billion in aid to nine Caribbean nations.

However, China’s bank accounts will not help the country overcome its problems in the long run, a lesson the Chinese will hopefully learn from its experiences in Myanmar. Once entirely dependent on China’s largesse, Myanmar is now opening up to the rest of the world, looking for new countries that will contribute to its growth. Although Myanmar is a unique case, it nevertheless provides an example of how a country can shy away from China’s economic grip. Other nations, if they feel too dependent on China or believe that China is only looking out for itself, may also turn elsewhere. Unless the Chinese change how they fundamentally interact with other countries, the events in Myanmar may prove to be the norm instead of an isolated incident.

By Roger Moore

Roger is a graduate student at Georgia State University and current intern with The Carter Center

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来源时间：2018/4/6   发布时间：2013/6/19

旧文章ID：15834

作者：Derek Ha  来源：US-China Perception Monitor

Revelations about the existence of far-reaching surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency (NSA) have made waves all the way across the Pacific. On June 6 and June 7, media outlets revealed that the NSA has been collecting data on foreign communications with the help of companies like Verizon Wireless, Google, and Facebook.[1] The incident raised important questions not just about civil liberties in the US, but also about America’s image abroad. In China , reactions by netizens on Weibo provide an interesting window into the country’s perceptions of the US.

The incident’s timing makes the implications for Sino-US relations hard to miss. It came less than two weeks after a report accusing Chinese hackers of compromising US defense systems was made public, and just one day before a much-anticipated summit between Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping in Sunnylands, California. Expected to confront Xi about the allegations, Obama suddenly found himself with two cyber spying-related controversies hanging over his head.

The irony was not lost on China’s internet users. Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong newspaper that covers Mainland affairs, posted a photo of first lady Peng Liyuan in Sunnylands using an iPhone, and quipped:

[blockquote3] The NSA…can collect data directly from servers at Google, Apple, and other big tech companies…Madam, perhaps you should switch to a different phone?[/blockquote3]

Adding another twist to the drama is the decision of Edward Snowden, the confessed whistleblower, to seek refuge in Hong Kong. Many Chinese see it as a role reversal—Snowden, a citizen from the self-proclaimed ‘Land of the Free,’ fled to China to escape persecution by his own government. Some clearly reveled in this turn of events. Author Wang Xiaodong, a well-known Chinese nationalist, tweeted: “Now there’s a true freedom fighter. Now that he [Snowden] is in China, we have to uphold universal human rights by protecting him and resisting pressure from the US!” Mei Xinyu, a frequent commentator on Chinese trade relations, wrote of Snowden: “I bet he’s smarter and more productive than all those former Chinese who sought ‘asylum’ in other countries. Don’t let him leave, this is our gain!”

Other posts on Weibo suggest that for some, the NSA scandal undermined the democratic values that the US purports to represent. Cynical comparisons were drawn between the US government and China’s authoritarian state. A Suzhou resident going by AgeLessBeing on Weibo wrote: “This incident proves that so-called democracy is barely better than a dictatorship.” Mi Ya, a college student from Beijing, tweeted: “The US government makes a secret of monitoring you. China’s government is just more upfront about it.”

For these Chinese and many others, the NSA story validated their suspicions toward the US and confirmed the hypocrisy of a country that preaches transparency, rule of law, and human rights. In the wake of this scandal, the US will have to reflect on both the integrity of its domestic government and the consequences to its credibility abroad.

来源时间：2018/4/6   发布时间：2013/6/17

旧文章ID：15833

作者：  来源：US-China Perception Monitor

Since early June, 169 illegal Chinese miners have been rounded up and detained in Accra, Ghana. This is the latest push by the Ghanaian government to crack-down on illegal small-scale mining, an epidemic that has pot-holed the resource-rich nation, and has received considerable international media attention.

Small-scale mining, also known as artisanal mining, has long plagued the West African nation. As much as 95% of all small-scale mining in Ghana is illegal.[1] Illegal mining robs local governments of tax revenues, risks environmental damage, and causes tensions in local communities when illegal miners are foreigners. Considering Ghana’s large gold deposits, its struggle to enforce laws, and the doubling of the price of gold in the last four years, Ghana is an unsurprising target for illegal small-scale mining—but few in and outside of China realized how Chinese migrants were contributing to the problem.

In Ghana, only locals are given licenses for small-scale mining. Foreigners are allowed to provide equipment and services, but only 75 Chinese citizens have official permission to do so.[2] There are no accurate numbers on the number of Chinese in Ghana, but the majority of miners hail from Shanglin County, Guangxi province.[3]According to a Shanglin County spokesperson, at least 12,000 local residents had gone to Ghana since 2006 to mine gold.

The scale and degree of illegal Chinese workers in Ghana is causing bitterness amongst Ghanaians, and understandably so. In towns where mineral exploration takes place, the unemployment rate for Ghanaians between the ages of 15 and 24 falls between 70 and 90 percent.[4] Frustration over the lack of jobs from the mining industries has resulted in local backlash.

There have been attempts to address this grievance. Governments and large mining corporations (Newmont Gold Mining and Gold Fields Ghana, to name a few) have developed several projects which try to create other economic opportunities, such as agrarian work, for local residents. The extent to which these ideas are sustainable is not proven, nor is there proof it has deterred illegal mining enterprises.[5]

African governments are not alone in their struggle to deter illegal small-scale mining. Many parallels can be drawn from the experience of Latin American countries and their efforts to clamp down on illegal mining activities. One reports points to a serious challenges these governments face:

“The question, then, is why states continue to design policies aimed at regulating thousands of people that move in informality when these policies have proven to have limited effects, instead of focusing on the few actors that government the chain? The answer is often corruption.”[6]

Latin American governments have been trying to regulate their mining industry for years, testing different policies and meeting various levels of success. One report from ELLA (Evidence and Lessons from Latin America), an initiative that shares knowledge with sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, describes how these governments have not adequately addressed corruption in the mining sector. They identified, however, a role for media to play in exposing government corruption.

Corruption in Ghana’s mining sector is illustrated by the acquisition of guns by Chinese migrants. Ironically, the Chinese migrants buy the guns from Ghanaian police officers.[7] And many times, a bribe to the right police officer can evade or postpone arrest.

The need to strengthen Ghanaian governance and public policy is only one half of the picture. The other half lies within the Chinese miners themselves. What leads hundreds of Chinese citizens to travel thousands of miles in search of difficult, illegal labor? The answer may simply lie in the economic opportunities in Ghana that are inaccessible to them at home. Chinese migrants hope to earn more than they could at home, and despite the fact that a few strike it rich, the majority of these miners remain subsistence workers. Small-scale mining is essentially a poverty-driven industry.

To be fair, it’s not only Chinese migrants mining illegally. Fifty-five West Africans from Niger, Togo, and Nigeria were also detained on suspicion of illegal mining. Six Russians were also arrested throughout Ghana. The majority of arrests have been Chinese though, and it is the Chinese arrests that are grabbing the most headlines, fueling the picture of a “Chinese menace” in Africa.

We should be careful of quick characterizations, though. Painting this incident as another one of China’s soft power missteps, or another example of China’s troubled relationship with Africa, glosses over important questions regarding the root driver of this conflict: corruption and poverty – both on the Chinese and Ghanaian side.

Both the Chinese and Ghanaian government need to respond to this challenge differently. Once this anti-illegal mining task force dies down and most, if not all, illegal Chinese miners are expelled from Ghana, how are Accra and Beijing going to stop this from happening again? The burden is on both governments to do something to stop this cycle of abuse, corruption, and criminality.

The Ghanaian government should look towards the work and best practices of other governments. They should also consider building links with non-governmental organizations with experience in the field. Ghanaian media, though under-resourced, must realize the critical role they can play in addressing crime and corruption. The Chinese government should support initiatives by Ghana, not only because these incidents cast an unfavorable light on China’s presence in Africa, but also because poor management of African natural and human resources has serious consequences for China’s own strategic interests on the continent.

The Chinese government should also take a hard look at its own economic development and the lack of opportunities for young people in poorer provinces. While the Chinese government’s crisis management response has performed well, a pre-emptive policy that addresses illegal Chinese behavior overseas needs to be created.

It’s surprising that Chinese online reaction is not more vehemently critical of Chinese conducting illegal operations abroad. Last month, netizens reacted harshly when it was revealed a teenage Chinese tourist defaced an Ancient Egyptian temple.[8] Perhaps this lack of outcry can be explained by an understanding that, in China, economic opportunities are hard to come by. It may not be pretty, but striking it rich by mining illegally in Ghana may have been the only hope for these Chinese migrants. This is hardly the stuff of Xi Jinping’s Chinese dream.

来源时间：2018/4/6   发布时间：2013/4/6

旧文章ID：15832

作者：Yang Fu  来源：US-China Perception Monitor

On June 19, 2013, the US State Department released its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. This year, China received a tier 3 ranking—a failing grade. The Chinese government is not too pleased. The TIP report assesses the degree and scale of human trafficking around the world and whether governments are doing enough to address the problem.

Since its publication last week, the report has reinvigorated criticism of China’s human rights and human trafficking record. Some commentators accused the Chinese government of being “too indifferent to make it a priority.” US Congressman Chris Smith called China the “sex and labour trafficking capital of the world.” Meanwhile, anti-human trafficking organizations commended the tier 3 designation to China. The International Justice Mission lauded “the bravery of the decision to downgrade China… despite the political ramifications.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying responded, “No country can “rate” others by posing itself as an authority.” In a Global Times article, Liu Tao, a law professor with the Chinese People’s Public Security University, defended China’s human trafficking record: “China’s criminal law stipulates harsh punishment for perpetrators of human trafficking. And it set up special task forces to combat the crime at various levels.”

According to the US State Department, China suffers from pronounced trafficking in the country’s internal migrant population, while forced labor remains a problem in brick kilns, coal mines, and factories. Furthermore, China is still a significant source of girls and women put into forced prostitution around the world.  The report points to the skewed sex ratio of girls to boys in China, a legacy of the one-child policy, as a driver for the demand of foreign women as brides and for forced prostitution. Foreign brides for Chinese men may originate from Burma, Malaysia, Vietnam, or Mongolia.

The United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking states that cross-border trafficking of Chinese women is increasing according to anecdotal evidence. Women between the ages of 14 and 20 years are the most likely to be trafficked. China has also been criticized for returning North Korean human trafficking victims to the DPRK, where they potentially face the death penalty.

During the past nine years, China has been placed on the tier 2 Watch List. China remained on this list based on a government plan to achieve the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking. However, China’s efforts to increase victim protection and cooperate with international organizations, as well as its use of social media to increase public awareness of human trafficking, were apparently insufficient.

The report recommended that China strengthen its legal framework to combat trafficking, including defining and separating different types of crimes; providing data on the number of criminal investigations and prosecutions of cases involving forced labor; investigating and persecuting government officials who facilitate or are complicit in trafficking; expanding victims services like counseling, medical, and reintegration services; and ending the forcible repatriation of North Korean trafficking victims.

The report is not without its own flaws. It remains unclear how the report is put together, how research in undertaken, and which sources are used. The report has also been criticized for its partiality. According to Aidan McQuade of Anti-Slavery International, the rankings are “inevitably coloured by US foreign and strategic interests.”

One of the main challenges in investigating and reporting on China’s human trafficking situation is the lack of information and transparency about the Chinese government’s efforts to combat human trafficking. The report itself admits that it was “difficult to accurately assess Chinese anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, including the government’s statistics on trafficking-related investigations, prosecutions, and convictions.”

The TIP report remains the main tool used by the US government to engage governments about their human trafficking records. According to its website, the report is “the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts.”

Under US law, the US could put in place non-trade sanctions on tier 3 countries, which would limit US foreign aid and access to international financial institutions like the World Bank. This year, other tier 3 nations include Russia, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

In 2001, South Korea fell to Tier 3 as well, much to the horror of its government. By the next year, it was designated as a tier 1 nation again after the introduction of a Joint Task Force on Trafficking in Persons, which introduced prosecutors for the investigation of criminal organizations related to human trafficking. The South Korean government also stepped up its efforts in areas of victim protection and victim support programs.

While China’s record on human trafficking still leaves much to be desired, recent crackdowns have proven fruitful. In 2012, five Chinese nationals were arrested for trafficking 200 Burmese victims to metal and paper factories in Guangdong province. In December 2011, 178 children were rescued in a human trafficking bust. The Supreme People’s Court also delivers annual and semi-annual training courses on human trafficking and anti-trafficking in certain high-prevalent provinces. The government uses social media platforms like Weibo to raise awareness and disseminate information about human trafficking.

In April 2013, the Chinese government released a new eight-year national plan of action (it was released after the TIP Whether this initiative is enough to result in an improved TIP ranking for China is unclear. Regardless of China’s ranking in 2014, it is undeniable that the Chinese government must continue to confront the grim reality that is human trafficking.

Some disturbing facts about human trafficking:

For more information on China’s human trafficking problem and human trafficking worldwide, check out these sources:

• UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children: full-text
• The Polaris Project: www.polarisproject.org
• La Strada International: European network against trafficking of human beings:www.lastradainternational.org
• Liberty Asia: www.libertyasia.org
• LexiNexis Human Trafficking Awareness Index: www.nexis.co.uk/humantrafficking.php
• Anti-Slavery International: http://www.antislavery.org/english/
• Radio Free Asia, Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery:http://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/HumanTrafficking/Home.html

Written by Yang Fu. Yang is a graduate student at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Photo: Playing cards showing details of missing children. From China Photos/Getty Images

来源时间：2018/4/6   发布时间：2013/6/28

旧文章ID：15831