Chinese Road Rage

Road rage is all the rage in China these days. Of course, this is not a phenomena that is limited to China; virtually anywhere there are cars and traffic, road rage pops up. In China, it comes with rather quirky trappings.

The press, not just in China, was peppered in mid-September with stories about Li Tianyi, 15, the son of the acclaimed singer Li Shuangjiang, who accosted a couple in Beijing over a traffic-induced slight. The younger Li, hopped out of his unregistered souped-up BMW and with a friend (himself driving an Army-registered Audi) proceeded to beat the crap out of the male half of the couple. He warned bystanders not to call the police. Nevertheless, he was arrested and given a years jail time. His father apologized quite profusely and publicly.

Some time ago, Li Qiming, the son of a police chief in Hebei province hit and killed a young woman while driving on a university campus. He then attempted to bully his way past security guards shouting “My father is Li Gang.”

In a less reported incident, this time in Anhui province, a young male driver was attempting to parallel park on a commercial street. On the sidewalk next to the road was a sign advertising the the adjacent shop. The driver managed to flatten the sign. To his credit, at least he was trying to actual parallel park; many Chinese drivers just stop as near to the curb as they can, altho far from parallel, and block traffic until they finish their business. At any rate, in this case, the shop keeper took exception to the destruction of his sign and came out of his shop to give the driver a piece of his mind. Things, predictably, escalated. The driver objected to the shopkeeper's objections, entered the store and trashed the place, ripping the phone out of the wall, smashing anything within reach. The shopkeeper's wife and baby were collateral damage, although, fortunately, not fatally. By this time a crowd had gathered, surrounding the store. If the driver had fantasies of a blitzkrieg and quick escape, they were firmly dashed. Someone called the police, who arrived shortly after. They took the young driver into custody.

That's when things began to get interesting, as the crowd departed from the usual passive pattern. This wasn’t just an afternoon’s entertainment. Apparently fearing that the driver would get off without punishment, the crowd took matters into their own hands. The estimated 2,000 people on the sidewalk and street surrounded the police car and refused to allow the cops to leave the scene with the young driver. They forced the cop and culprit out of the car and made them stand side-by-side next to the police car. Then, armed with the latest cell phones, they took pictures of the driver and the cop, as if to forever link the two. If the kid got off, they’d know who to blame. That was the idea, anyway.

The moral of the story, for me, is that the average people of China are getting more than fed up with the atmosphere of lawlessness, privilege and arrogance that is so much a part of some segments of Chinese society. Road Rage, Chinese style, is merely a symptom. It will be interesting to see if anything changes.

Welcome To Beijing, Mr. Ambassador

Ambassador Gary Locke, America’s first Chinese-American Governor and America’s Tenth Ambassador to China (and only Chinese-American to hold the post) was the guest of honor at a lunch today, hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the US-China Business Council. He’s had an interesting and rather unusual time of it so far, in ways that were also, probably, unexpected.

First, some background:

When I was a young boy -- maybe 10 or 11 years old -- I had a chance encounter with one of the many members of the Rockefeller family that lived in suburban New York. What I remember about that glimpse was that my father used it as a “teachable moment” about values. Strikingly, here was a member of one of America’s then richest families, driving down the road in a well-worn Ford station-wagon; one of those ubiquitous buggies with the big round taillights, mini fins canted up and out at a forty-five degree angle, and fake woodgrain on the side. A Woodie, as we used to call them but, of course, just painted steel that looked, from 30 feet away, like wood. Unassuming and rather modest for someone so unaccountably rich.

So: what does that have to do with welcoming a new American Ambassador to Beijing?

One of the most curious subtexts of Ambassador Gary Locke’s short time here in the Peoples’ Paradise is that he has come in for a bit of chatter from Baidu posters and the Sina Weibo masses for some incongruous, at least for many Chinese, Ambo-sightings. This has nothing to do with Amb. Locke’s speeches. It has everything to do with something more akin to his political body language.

The first sighting was a photo of the new ambassador on his departure from Seattle-Tacoma Int’l Airport, on his way to Beijing. He did something totally unremarkable for most Americans. He bought a Starbucks coffee -- it was Seattle, after all -- while his backpack was slung over his shoulder. My reaction was: well, you have to put your pack over your shoulder so you can use your hands to manage your coffee. The Chinese reaction was completely different: “He bought his own coffee? Why? What’s with that? And he carried his own bag?”

More recently, he’s apparently been scouted tooling around Beijing on a bicycle, shocking the locals even more.

All of this is quintessentially American. At least that part of the American character that most Americans are proud of. Its like a Rockefeller tooling around suburban New York in an everyman’s aging Ford station wagon. And why not? For many Chinese that I’ve heard from, this is a very refreshing thing. A “Senior Official” (and Beijing is overflowing with them) who sees himself as a normal human being (albeit with a pretty interesting and high ranking job)? Bravo!

For many other Chinese, its a sign of America’s inescapable and inevitable decline. High ranking officials, they believe, should let no opportunity escape to remind everyone that they are: powerful; not like you and I; special; held to a different standard; and so on. If you can, and don’t, there must be something wrong. But there’s nothing wrong with Amb. Locke. I’m sure his State Department armored limo is in great condition. He’s just self aware enough to know who he is. Who he really is. In the U.S., no matter the reality, people with either power or money or both want to be seen as being “just everyday folks” or, as the Chinese would say “laobaixing (老百姓)”. Its an eloquent statement, and a welcome one.

So, Mr. Ambassador: Welcome to Beijing!

And Thank You!

What's Next, Redux.

It's Not Fun Being Right

I posted this article a while ago; February 1st 2009, to be exact. While I may have missed a few of the details, overall I think I was pretty much spot-on. The social fabric of Europe is getting frayed, as is that of the U.S. (think of the Tea Party movement as a sign of things to come) and, of course, the "Arab Spring" wasn't a phrase that would have meant too much two and a half years ago. There's much more of this on the way, I'm afraid.

What's Next? (February 1, 2009)

As the global economic order collapses, most of the attention has been, for obvious reasons, on economics. After all, this is, first and foremost, an economic problem. We've all, those paying attention, become steeped in the vocabulary of economics and the financial world: credit-default swaps, hedge funds, yield curves, Treasury bond pricing, currency valuation, trade imbalances, savings rates (or lack thereof). For me, it has always been useful to try to look at problems from a completely different perspective. Sometimes its an empty and fruitless exercise -- interesting, perhaps -- but ultimately, providing no new insight. At other times, a whole new light can be shone on something and we see it in a new way.

The economic collapse we're witnessing is so complex and so multi-faceted & nuanced, that it gives us all kinds of different angles to watch from. One very popular Scenic Viewing Spot, a great Photo Op, you might say, is to look at the current situation and compare it to the Great Depression of 1929-1939 (or so). Certainly, there's a lot we can learn from the mistakes of the past that will help policy makers deal with the dilemmas of today. Its not the same, of course; it never is. But there are enough similarities, and the mistakes of the 1930's were so glaringly obvious, that the same mistakes won't be repeated. In China, in the U.S., in Europe, the media (and policy makers meeting rooms, you can bet) are filled with analysis and studies of lessons to be learned. There's been at least one thing that's been largely missing from the discussion, altho I'd bet that, at least in Zhongnanhai, the Powers That Be have been paying close attention. The media, to be sure (at least from my reading) hasn't woken up to the problem yet. What is it? Its the issue of what's next. What happens in the aftermath of an economic collapse of this magnitude? Again, a look back to the Great Depression is useful. It doesn't mean that the same things will happen; they never do. But similar things could happen, even if in different ways and in different places. Here's what I mean: the biggest & most consequential result of the 1929-1933 economic collapse was not economic, altho that was bad enough. It was political. Europe saw a turn from liberal democracy towards fascism, resulting in the rise to power of the National Socialists (who weren't really socialist at all) in Germany and the National Fascists in Italy. In Asia, Japan turned to the militarism that was latent in Japanese culture and politics. And, of course, the consequence of this broad political shift was World War Two. I'm not suggesting that the current problems will lead to another big war. Not at all. What I'm suggesting is that a broad shift downward in the economic prospects of hundreds of millions of people, if not billions, is likely to have political repercussions.

Already we have seen the Icelandic government collapse. Russians are restive, as are people in other pockets, both in Europe and in China. The U.S. has seen a peaceful, albeit dramatic, political change. With apologies to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, I'd like to suggest that her Five Stages of Grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Psychological Depression, and Acceptance) have a sociological and political application. First off, though, some caveats. These stages are not predictive, meaning they aren't inevitable. They may come in a rather random order. While, for individuals, there is a sequence, the edges are rather fuzzy (one can be alternate, for instance, between denial and anger). lastly, people don't necessarily go thru all the stages. Kubler-Ross maintained that people always experienced at least two stages, altho which two could vary. This is, in my opinion, even more true with large groups of people. Certainly, some of these stages of grief are already apparent. Who would today suggest that as recently as last summer, denial was not common? Americans were characterized as a "nation of whiners" by former Senator Phil Gramm. John McCain famously said the American economy was "fundamentally sound". If that isn't denial, the meaning is lost on me.

While some are still in denial, you can see evidence of bargaining, particularly in the halls of government. Then again, that's their job. In the U.S., at least, anger has been apparent, but it hasn't been a broad motivating factor. In other regions, it has been more visible. In China, it has sprouted up but has not been a broadly motivating factor for most of the population. For most of the world, the situation is in its early stages. There is economic pain, to be sure, but it is still characterized by early stage shock and denial. What is to be feared is the anger that may come as people realize their prospects & wealth may have been forever altered. If the world's government leaders, with their central bankers & finance ministers, are successful in limiting the disintegration that is potentially right around the corner, the dragon of political and social disruption will go back in its lair to hibernate for another eon. That's a big "if".

Earthquake!

As you may have heard by now, there was another big earthquake in China, this time just west of the area hit by the Sichuan Earthquake that did so much damage. This time, it was Qinghai. This story gets posted on this blog for a number of reasons. I've been going to Qinghai regularly as a board member of the Surmang & Amara Foundations. The Surmang Clinic is in Yushu Prefecture, the very area at the epicenter of this latest major quake. Our Beijing office is in touch with the clinic in Surmang and with representatives in Yushu City, also known by its Tibetan name. Jyekundo. Needless to say, help is urgently needed. If you are interested in doing something NOW, in real time, click on the Surmang Foundation link to the left of this screen or click on the embedded link. If you can contribute, do it. People are suffering & you can help!

A Skirmish in the War of Words

Ripped off from my FaceBook posting earlier today:

Heh, heh! Whether to rise or not to rise, that is the question. Is it better to resist the evil Americans and persist in acting only in China's self-interest or "diaotou" (turn around) and do what is the normal state-of-affairs for global economic leaders? The proof of whether the RMB is or isn't undervalued is twofold: 1) whether or not the RMB would rise in value if allowed to float, with value set by supply & demand; and, 2) Purchasing Power Parity: Does RMB 682 go farther in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou than US$100 will go in major American cities? In both cases, I'd suggest, the RMB is way under-valued. But this isn't just an economics debate. If it were, we'd all be bored silly (unless we were currency traders, importers or exporters, central bankers, or economists). This is, in a very big way, a political debate. And a debate about the (unfortunate, IMHO) rising nationalism of many Chinese (a recurring event) and the accompanying over-confidence that is evident in Chinese attitudes toward events of the last decade, That this influences foreign policy and expectations for the near future shouldn't be a big surprise.

Why Chinese University Grads Can't Get Jobs

There's an interesting series of short opinion pieces in today's New York Times on why Chinese University grads have such a high level of unemployment (and, one presumes, underemployment). The unfortunate fact is that universities here don't provide the skills to its students that most employers want. The article, Room For Debate: Educated and Fearing the Future in China is here.

And here's my comment. This has been submitted to the Times, but one of the privileges of having your own blog is that I decided what what to publish. And so, here it is:

As a former dean at one of Beijing University's business schools (it has two, believe it or not) and a former professor of business at another top university in China, I can tell you that, by and large, only one of your commentators actually gets what's going on in China with university graduates. Huang Yasheng has hit the bull's eye with his comments. The Chinese educational system and, in particular, its top universities are culturally and politically incapable of delivering an education that prizes innovation, critical thinking, intellectual independence and strength of character, let alone the personal confidence to weave all of those characteristics (all closely related) together in any set of functional skills. I often tell people (including officials in China's educational hierarchy) that the Chinese educational system most closely resembles a game of "Whack-a-Mole"; any attempt by students to stick their heads up out of the obscurity of the masses is likely to get them whacked over the head, intellectually speaking. The sad fact is that the system repeatedly asks for those very characteristics that it actively discourages in its students. And given China's history of punishing cultural and intellectual outliers, this is not likely to change anytime soon.