Shanghai Scrap

Shanghaiist makes an interesting proposal for supporting Shanghai’s poorest:

• Put a small bill in an empty water or pop bottle.
• Throw it in a public bin.

The people who will find the cash are the folk that make a living trawling through garbage- and we bet that even a 5RMB note will make a big difference to their haul for that day.

[Note to readers outside of China: RMB5 = US$.71]

The post suggests – convincingly, I think – that this is far preferable to supporting beggars who (rumor has it) are often connected to organized crime. In either case, the post reminds me of an urban legend that’s been circulating for years among the thousands of laborers employed in southern China’s thriving paper recycling industry. Now, keeping in mind that waste paper is China’s highest volume import from the United States, it goes something like this: careless, wealthy Americans sometimes throw away bags of paper money along with their old newspapers …. and sometimes those bags of money are found by poor migrant laborers working in South China’s recycling plants. (more…)

As of this morning, I’m adding “This Just In” as a category to Shanghai Scrap’s roll of posting categories. The idea is to commemorate – as often as possible, really – the issuance of bland, tautological or just plain non-newsworthy events by my good friends at Xinhua and the Beijing Olympic Committee. So, just to be clear: Last week’s announcement – by Xinhua – that “snowstorms have been hitting the US for years” is the gold standard for “This Just In!” – State Media Division. And BOCOG’s “Clear signs mark direction in shooting venue” is the release to beat in the Beijing Olympics Division:

For reasons which will almost certainly remain a permanent mystery, this image and release – originally issued on July 28, 2007 – was reissued on March 14, 2008 to the “Games Preparation” section of BOCOG’s site (which is why I’m posting it now). Perhaps it’s been a slow news week for Olympic propagandists? Whatever the case, there is much to admire and consider here – but perhaps nothing intrigues quite so much as the news that the image and its captions were “updated” on July 28. From what?

I’ve just returned to China, and as I was exiting the plane, I couldn’t help but notice all of the discarded newspapers on empty seats turned to coverage of the recent and ongoing events in Tibet. I was (and now, am) aware that most of that coverage has been restricted in China (and state-owned media isn’t much of an alternative). So as I walked up that jetway, I was more keenly aware than usual that I was entering an entirely different political and media reality. And, more than usual, it felt uncomfortable.

I am not a news reporter, generally. My work in China is typically feature-based, and though I’ve devoted a considerable portion of the last five years covering religious freedom – particularly as it applies to China’s burgeoning Christians – I’ve never delved into the history or current reality of Tibet and its Buddhists. Perhaps, at some point, I will. But at this point I lack the knowledge – and thus, the competence – to discuss it in a way that can be meaningful to this blog’s readers.

That said, at some point soon, I intend have something to say about the so-called “Patriotic” religious education that seems to have been riling Tibet’s seminaries (it’s a topic that I know well from my writing on China’s Catholic seminaries). But again, I want to make sure that I know what I’m writing about, first. In any case, I hope my reticence doesn’t suggest indifference or something much worse. Believe me: I’m interested.

Dan at China Law Blog has an interesting post explaining his reticence on this issue, and it’s worth reading, both for the explanation and the list of other sources of information on “the situation out West.” Recommended.

Of China’s many critical environmental issues, I believe the one that receives the least attention is the one most tangible to the average Chinese: namely, how to throw away and/or recycle all the worn out and broken stuff that Chinese businesses and consumers have been acquiring for the last thirty years.

For much of the last six months I’ve been trying to put together an answer to this question, and, with a little luck and some good sources, I’ve been able to put together a general outline of the plan. Over the coming months I’m going to be publishing aspects of this story. But the first part – by necessity [see the addendum at end of this post] and tradition – is being published in Scrap, the venerable journal of the US recycling industry (other aspects of this story will appear in mainstream, general interest publications later this year).

Scrap Made in China, Pt. 1, focuses on China’s efforts to consolidate and green the neighborhood street-corner scrap trade, with a particular focus on Huadong Nonferrous Metals City, the largest domestic recycling center in North China, located in Linyi, and a model for what China’s recycling trade might look like in a decade. Part 2 of the series will focus on various efforts to create an e-scrap recycling system for the roughly 120 million computers and appliances that China throws away every year. But first, an excerpt from Part 1: (more…)

[3/13 addendum at end of post]

Like many expats, I’ve long been suspicious of the building materials utilized in Shanghai’s – and China’s – two-decade construction boom. The concrete, I’ve noticed, seems to crack too quickly; the rebar inside of that concrete has an uncanny tendency to rust and emerge from that cracking concrete too frequently; and the aluminum window frames so beloved for use in China’s highrises seem to corrode with the first humid wind. But it’s one thing to be suspicious of those building materials, and it’s another thing to have actual data on just how bad they are. And, despite my suspicions and best efforts, I’ve never been able to obtain actual data on building material inspections (or results) in Shanghai or elsewhere.

So I must say I was more than a little surprised when my beloved Shanghai Daily ran a story – this morning – containing this jaw-dropping revelation:

HALF the steel material sold at wholesale markets and now being used in construction has failed quality tests.

The Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau inspected 52 batches of steel material at three markets and 15 construction sites in seven districts, including Xuhui, Zhabei and Baoshan, and officials said 27 batches had quality problems.

There are – according to the story – a couple of problems: the steel was often too light (five times too light, in one case) to meet construction standards; 48% of the tested steel lacked sufficient carbon content, rendering the material dangerously brittle; and 22% of the tested products failed tension tests.

This is a big story, and it deserves sustained attention. Whether that happens is anybody’s guess. For now, I’d just like to ponder one question: What does all of that sub-standard structural steel mean – in practical terms – for Shanghai’s skyline – and your apartment building? (more…)

The Chinese blogs are alive with the sound of class resentment, triggered by the so-called “pro rich” proposals that Zhang Yin – once China’s richest woman – presented to the National People’s Congress last week. They certainly sound self-serving – especially the one to drop the income tax rate on China’s top earners. But what seems to have gotten the delegates – and the blogs – churning most viciously was Zhang’s proposal to “exempt labor-intensive companies from signing permanent contracts with their employees who have worked for more than 10 years.” That is to say, Zhang isn’t happy with how China’s new labor law protects long-term employees from dismissal without cause in labor intensive industries.

No surprise, the news-reading and blogging masses are indignant that Ms. Zhang, Chairwoman of Nine Dragons Paper (and the esteemed Worldwide Chinese Ambassador of Love), one of the world’s largest paper manufacturers, would dare to propose legislative reforms that are – they claim – so baldly in her own interest.

Now, this is really not my battle, and I’d have absolutely nothing to say on this topic but for the fact that Ms. Zhang decided to respond to the criticism via New Culture, a newspaper based in Jilin. The essence of the response, as summarized by South China Morning Post, was that “her company was not labour intensive because it had the world’s most advanced hardware and technology.“

As it happens, I am one of the few (only?) foreign reporters to have ever visited the enormous 2.4 million square meter Nine Dragons facility in Dongguan, and so – if I may – I’d like to weigh in with an objective opinion on Ms. Zhang’s claim that technology has overcome the need for large numbers of employees at Nine Dragons. (more…)

Fifth paragraph of “Sino-US focus on weather forecasts,” March 12, 2008 edition of China Daily, special Olympics/Spotlight section:

Like China, the US too has been plagued by snowstorms, with six severe ones battering that country since December. In fact, snowstorms have been hitting the US for years.

In February 2007, during an otherwise triumphant eight-country tour of Africa, President Hu Jintao faced exactly one schedule change: on February 4 he canceled his planned inauguration of the new, Chinese-owned and operated, Chambishi copper smelter due to rumors of planned protests by disgruntled miners (the China Nonferrous Metal Mining Corporation maintains this site to explain the investment). Lord knows, they had reason to be disgruntled: wages at Chambishi are roughly 30% of those paid at other foreign-invested and owned mines in Zambia (roughly US$83/month), and safety conditions are notoriously bad (51 workers were killed in a blast at the mine in 2005).

But if anybody was under the impression that ruining Hu’s parade was going to improve conditions or wages at the Chinese mine (see: Olympics, Darfur), well, that person’s impression was quite wrong. In the year since Hu’s canceled visit, exactly nothing has changed. And so, last week, 500 Zambian workers employed at Chambishi went on strike for improved wages and work conditions. By the second day of the strike, riots had broken out and several Chinese managers had been taken hostage. Two days later – no surprise – Chambishi’s owners fired the 500 striking workers (a useful chronology with relevant links can be found here).

Chambishi’s sad history is filled with accusations that the Chinese are not respecting Zambian labor laws. I’ve never been to Zambia, so I can’t say for sure, but I’d venture to guess that such violations don’t occur without the tacit approval of the Zambian government. After all, the Chambishi mine is owned and operated by the China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group [CNMC] a state-owned corporation that also happens to be China’s largest overseas mine operator. And, with China’s State Council officially encouraging Chinese companies to seek resources abroad – with the financial “support” of China’s federal government – it can be safely assumed that CNMC operates with a free hand (and, some might argue, impunity) in Zambia’s largest China-oriented trade zone. (more…)

Given that no subject in the China-based English language blogosphere gets people more excited than Chinese nationalism, it’s amazing to me that more reporters haven’t bothered to go out and report on the phenomenon’s actual origins and current adherents. And that’s why I’m so pleased that my great friend and MN compatriot Mara Hvistendhal is beginning to publish her reporting on this important topic. For more than a year she’s been reporting in places (and people) where other foreign journalists generally don’t go. The first fruits of that reporting – The Boxer Shorts Rebellion – has just appeared in The New Republic:

You’d think that the younger, Internet savvy generation of Chinese twenty- and thirtysomethings would be the ones guiding China into better relations with the West. Instead, they seem to have glanced toward the rest of the world and turned back, appalled. Groups like the Patriots Alliance Web and the Greater China Anti-Japanese Alliance claim tens of thousands of members who routinely log into chat rooms to discuss Japanese war reparations, U.S. support for Taiwan, and Chinese territorial claims, along with a host of more personal grievances. Western observers tend to assume that such nationalism is fueled by a one-party state eager to gloss over its mistakes. But, while the government might look the other way during xenophobic manhunts, fenqing [roughly, "angry youth"] tend to be professionals in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing–exactly the people who were supposedly going to lead China toward greater openness, using the allegedly democratizing tool of the Internet. Nationalism is growing even as– some would say because–China is opening up. (more…)

I’m traveling over the next six days (four cities!), so blogging is hereby suspended until Tuesday, March 11.

[The far edge of a preferred continent - from a window seat.]

For readers in need of a China-based blogging fix, let me suggest Global Voice’s riveting Hack Into Freedom City, danwei’s fabulous post on translating the name of the American national anthem into Chinese, Jim Fallows on right wing bloggers and China, Cup of Cha’s account of his recent visit from the PSB, and a couple of fine Uigher music videos (who knew?) at the Opposite End of China.

And, as a final piece of parting business, I’m more than a little surprised to report that last week’s The Tragedy of Yao’s Left Foot is now Shanghai Scrap’s all-time most popular post – and by a very, very wide margin.

See you next week!

[k.d. lang's new Watershed co-exists nicely with the Raveonettes' latest on my ipod. Yours too.]

I have a friend from Hunan who tells me that in the small town where she was raised – children who don’t devote themselves sufficiently to their schoolwork will likely be told something along the lines of: Continue like that, and you’re going to end up a rubbish picker. That is to say: memorize those multiplication tables or you’re going to end up buying scrap computers on a street corner.

Now, I suppose, you could argue that the reason China has so many scrap peddlers is an insufficient devotion to homework. Or you could look a little bit deeper and recognize that there’s serious money to be made in buying, sorting, and selling the recyclable parts of what other people throw away.

And that’s precisely why – for at least a decade – perfectly intelligent Chinese bureaucrats and their recycling industry friends have been trying to devise ways to put China’s estimated 10 million scrap peddlers out of business. For many reasons, they haven’t succeeded, and they won’t so long as there’s a good living to be made doing the work that big companies can’t afford to pay people to do: sort through trash, strip valuable components from computers, or strip insulation from wires. There’s another factor at work here, too, and that’s the fact that China’s small-time peddlers – knowingly or unknowingly – are the primary suppliers for the environmentally damaging and illegal e-scrap processing operations that are so often blamed on e-scrap exporters in the developed world (who are still responsible for a significant trade in e-scrap in China- though much diminished over the last few years). (more…)

I’m at the very tail end of a several month project and my mental state – at least in regard to the writing process -is best described by the piece of steel jammed beneath the jaws of this hydraulic shear.

Just a quick note on safety: don’t cut two-inch ship steel at home (with or without a hydraulic shear). But if you do, this guy’s methodology seems to be the best one. It goes something like this: slide steel between the jaws, hit the “on” switch, and then run backwards until the grinding, screeching sound stops and the shear is no longer shaking the bolts that keeps it from dancing across the floor. At that point, you’re either fatally injured, or … you’ve got a smaller piece of ship steel.

Last week’s not-so-shocking news that Yao Ming has a fatigue-induced stress fracture in his left foot has generated very little in the way of recriminations in the Chinese state-owned media and sports authorities – and I can only take this as but one more example of the message (and media) restraint and discipline that has been imposed as the Olympics approach. It could have been much different. Over the weekend I received several emails taking me to task for having the nerve to suggest – here – that Yao’s off-season national team duties, combined with his NBA schedule, were the cause of the injury. I didn’t quite put it that way, but I did suggest that there didn’t seem much sense in wearing out Yao’s massive body for a national team that nobody – not even the national team – expects will win a medal.

In either case, Yao’s injury seems to have set off some soul-searching on training methods among China’s sports authorities and their media enablers, as evidenced by a spate of stories that emerged over the weekend questioning whether China’s athletes are over-training. It’s a question that I’ve heard – muttered, quietly – among non-Chinese Olympic trainers, several of whom have told me (hopefully, in some cases) that over-training might be the most serious risk to China’s hopes for medal supremacy in August. Sunday’s South China Morning Post contained a fine feature on this subject [subscriber only, alas], focused primarily on the physical damage wrought on China’s diving team by an intense training regimen pretty much unknown – and not recommended – elsewhere in the world: (more…)

Sure, it seems like all fun and games being elected the President of Russia. But when the vodka stops flowing, and the long shadow of one Vladmir Putin starts peering over your shoulder, those Moscow nights might start looking a whole lot darker. And if that’s not trouble enough, those pesky, nosy Western democracies aren’t going to waste any time labeling your election a step backward. So where – oh where – does a newly, ahem, elected Russian autocrat turn for solace? China Daily, of course!

“Moscow, confronted by increasing pressure from the West, needs understanding and support from China,” added [Xu Tao, a professor of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations]. “This is a key reason why Medvedev will cherish the partnership with Beijing.”

[A friend recently emailed to ask: "Where would this blog be without China Daily?" To which I answer: I. Don't. Know. Bless them.]