Hillary Failed, But Another Woman is Coming – Sarah Palin

When I stepped out of the elevator at Journalism school of CUNY, where I just started my new semester as a graduate student, I’ve heard girls murmuring excitedly in front of the TV screen. At that moment, Sen. John McCain announced that Sarah Palin, the governor of Alasaka State will be his presidential campaign running mate, and maybe the next vice president of the United States of America.

In the Democractic National Convention, some women supporters to Hillary Cliton, felt heart-broken when listening to her speach calling for uniting for her former competitor – Barak Obama. Although as a non-citizen, I don’t have the voting rights for next president, but I do wish Hillary Cliton to win the primary, at least to be the nominee for the November final.This year’s competition is fierce, and historical: the first woman candidate, black candidate, oldest candidate, and the youngest in the history. Now, here comes another woman political star – Sarah Palin.

She delivered her fifth baby in April, but now, she stood there in front of her supporters and her family, giving encouraging speeches, smiling, calling everyone to support a gentleman, who served his country for many many years. I was persuade by her words emotionally. In social and political issues, she seemed a traditional republican party member, anti-abortion, anti-terrorism, and conservative. In economy issues, GOP always supports free trade agreement, less governmental control on financial market. I think for current surging problems on real estate market and financial market, America needs more automatic capitalized methods to adjust for the future, but not governmental interfernce. China can be the example to show how good and bad government can do to the economy.

Hope Mrs Palin and Mr McCain can win the war at the end, then we can welcome the first American woman vice president. [Photo from New York Times.]

Where Is The Future, Eastern or Western?

Americans were amazed by the Beijing Olympics, not only on the fabulous opening ceremony or the trimpet of Michael Phelp’s eight golden medals but also on the beautiful scenery of Bird Nest and National acquatic center. They think twice now before they call China as a third world country. But if foreigners has the chance to go to rural parts of China, they can tell what the third world country is like.

Thomas L. Friendman wrote on how Americans should catch up, focusing on domestic construction for New York Times. From his experience in Beijing, he suggested presidential nominees to China to see where the future locates.

I do agree with his ideas of China’s development on economy and national power based on its concentration on internal improvement. Digging out its potentials and caring less about the rest of the world are main international policies in China for these ten years. However, China sacrificed rural parts to develop its centerpieces. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hongkong become metropolitan cities now, but farmers still struggle with their poverty, coal miners are still under the danger of working safety. That’s why the rest of the world critize us lacking of human rights.

Looking back to the Tibetan protest and the crackdowns, the protesters behaviors on Olympic torch relays, I realized the different opinions on one issue are mostly based on media reportings, their bias, censorship (a big problem in China, right?), and cultural backgrounds. These comments are from a Chinese Blogger named A Dai when the riot in Tibet just happened in late March. (translated by me, first published on China Digital Times.)

Recently, whenever I watch TV or read news online, there are Tibet riot stories from Chinese mainland media and foreign media. Regardless of the standpoint, at least, there are some true facts: someone protested in the street, someone lost financial assets, someone died in the riot.

Chinese media reporting suddenly raised nationalists’ patriotic enthusiasm. Some blamed foreign media for intentionally distorting stories; someone criticized violence, even some of the overheated discussions appeared on the portal’s news discussion column. Everyone knows that in China, commercial news websites are under severe censorship nowadays, so if even the overheated discussions can pass the tightened scrutiny, we can only imagine about the blocked ones.
After reading domestic news these days, I still have the following questions:

The Chinese government contributed millions of dollars every year for Tibetan construction, so why do Tibetans still go protest in Lhasa?

How could the Dalai Lama, who was regarded as worthless in China, win the Nobel Peace Prize? And why can he meet frequently with top officials from the U.S., UK, Germany and Canada?

If it was an organized, premeditated riot with violent damage, why didn’t we let foreign media report and win their sympathy?

Before clarifying all these questions, can we give up our anger first? I don’t want to be the hunter with evil hands and blind eyes.

See, Chinese people and its government have their own problems, and lack of transparency makes it more severe than before. My conclusion is who can fix the problems inside, who will win the future at hands, either Eastern world or Western World.

Renewable Energy, Wind, Biofuel or Solar?

Bianyu, a second-generation chief executive of a private family enterprise in Zhejiang province, China defended his father’s long-term vision of developing environmental protection facilities back to the 1980s. Not like other private-owned companies focusing on fast moving consumer goods, they began to research and develop on the energy industry a long time ago, and their next step is not coal mines, but wind-power turbines.

Under the pressure of high gas prices, global criticism on its energy policies and pollutions threatening the Beijing Olympics, China started to make efforts on its renewable energy development. “The wind power is the most hopeful industry in northwestern China,” Dadi Zhou, Primier Wenjiabao’s energy consultant said at a conference in April, 2008. Meanwhile, the wind power just occupies 1 percent of the U.S.’s renewable energy market.

Politically sensible domestic companies have already breathed the air of new opportunities on renewable energy. Bian Yu and his father, founder of Zhuji, Zhejiang-based Tianjie Group, have changed their business to making steel facilities for the solar and wind power since 2000. Meanwhile, they obtained the drilling right at a gold mine. They also founded an aluminum company under their family tree. The latter brought their revenues twice as much as last year, while the former is their next step of profit.

From recent point of view, wind seems the hottest topic in renewable sources in China. And solar is the next. Biofuels used to be a favorable source, but rising food prices forced the Chinese government to think twice before developing the fuel. And from its experience in rural areas promoting biofuel, the government had realized the effective use of wind power on a wide scale is likely to remain a dream.

The Lawrence Lab of the University of California, Berkeley not only paid attention to new technology development in the U.S., it is also cooperating with the Chinese government nationally and locally to set up the standards of the green energy industry. “First of all, diminishing the cement industry’s carbon footprints is the project we are doing now with China.’ Mark Levine, Director of China Energy Center at the Lawrence Lab said. China surpassed the U.S. at carbon emissions this year, so carbon-neutral became their priority. At this moment, the green energy industry should boom as the next generation’s hope.

Winning the broadcast War, NBC vs CCTV

CCTV, a state owned monopoly broadcast earns more than 40 times for the Summer Olympic. Another winner, NBC attracts more and more people to watch the Game online and TV together, which drew big advertisers and revenues. But they win the Finals in different ways.

In China, only CCTV, a TV dictator, has the right to negotiate with International Olympic Committee (IOC) about the broadcast plan for this Beijing Olympic. CCTV paid about $9m to the deal, but has generated $400m from advertising.

Meanwhile, NBC Friday night’s taped opening ceremony,  attracted 34.2 million people, up 35% from the last summer games. NBC won the Game via successfully protecting it from online leakage. “I tried tens of ways watching it online regardless of the time difference, but most of the ways are blocked, others are slow moving.” Mike Wang, a silicon valley veretan said.

Chinese students and immigrants in the U.S. talked enthusiastically before the Game’s opening ceremony approached. High technology enigeers were pushed to figure out there is certain method to watch it at the same time with their Beijing relatives. TVants, Sopcast, UUSee, but they lost the Game at the end. CCTV and Sina.com, the partner of onlilne broadcast in China are prevented from the overseas at the beginning of August.

At that moment, advertisers won the Game via emotional eye-catching commercials. Coca Cola’s five little birds, GE’s cute girl and firing dragon, and Michael Phleps’s Visa animation impress audience very much. It contributes to their success during this hot summer. For soft drink competition, Coke is the dominantor globally, and it almost caught up Pepsi, who is the No.1 in China. However, after its China star-Liuxiang, an Olympic 110 men’s hurdle winner and an icon hero- dropped off the preliminary, Coke has to face with celebrity crisis now in China.

CCTV was also critized by its low-quality commercials from its advertisers. At the begining of this year, Hengyunxiang, a weather fabric maker, repeated its sponsorship to Beijing Olymopics tons of times, and was banned by the government later.  Although the company spent millions of Renminbi to the partnership, they led to image loss. As a broadcaster, CCTV did the same. However, from its monopoly stand, it can still earn back from the advertisers. That’s the Game rule in China.

Will tainted toys from China trigger a global trade war?

Mattel Inc., the largest toy maker in the U.S., on Sept. 4, 2007 announced its third significant recall over a month of China-made toys, citing lead-containing paints, which were used on the surfaces of the toys, were in violation of the U.S. laws.

This time, 530,000 toys sold in the U.S, and 318,000 toys shipped to other countries were involved.  Toys are not the only made-in-China products that are scaring the American people. From pet foods to toothpastes to tires, tainted exports from China have raised a series of questions in the U.S. and other countries. The Chinese government, however, were picking fights against products imported from the U.S., and at the same time are playing down the recent news through its state-run media.
China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine responded to the international criticism on the massive toy recall in a written statement, saying China believes the vast majority of its products are safe. On made-in-China product safety, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai insisted “more than 99% of the products China exports are of good quality and are safe.”
In response to the repeated made-in-China label scares, China claimed to have stepped up its inspections of exports and has promised to send delegations to the U.S. to discuss the trade issues this fall.
On Aug. 22, China fought back against the U.S., saying that China has found repeated food safety problems in soy bean imported from the U.S. and demanded the U.S. take “effective actions” to solve the problem. Will China and the U. S. begin a trade war? And who will be the victim? Chinese authorities pleaded their case in the recent food safety uproar, saying international media have taken a global problem and unfairly laid it on China’s shoulders.

“Foreign media are using irrelevant cases or just a few cases to make the safety issue much bigger than it is and have linked this to the success of hosting the Olympics,” Health Ministry spokesman Mao Qunan said.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has strictly sealed the news in mainland China. There has been little news about the recalls, leaving Chinese citizens largely in the dark. Regarding the sensitivity to consumer products issues, newspapers are full of stories assuring the public that food and consumer products are safe, and that foreign media coverage are mostly hyped.
Victims in this brouhaha did not merely include global consumers. According to Southern Metro Daily, a Chinese newspaper based in Guangzhou, Zhang Shuhong , the boss of Foshan Lida Toys, hung himself in mid-afternoon on Aug.11 at his own plant at Nanhai, near Guangzhou.
Zhang was reportedly under great stress to pay back $30 million for the tainted exports out of his plants. But that amount was too much for him. And he learned that his long-term friend and business associate Mr. Liang, who is also the paint supplier, had cheated him with fake and lead-containing paint for his toy business.

Free Media, Free Expression

A few months ago, When I interviewed Mr. Craig Newman, founder of craigslist.com, and wrote a news story about him and published it in a Chinese newspaper. A few days later, I saw another story about Mr. Newman in a Chinese magazine. Half of the story was exactly copied from my story.

Being a freelance writer for a few years, this wasn’t the first time I saw my stories got stolen. But this time, my story was blatantly stolen by a so-called famous columnist. My editor and I made direct contact with the newspaper. However, like most of our other complaints, our calls ended up without attention.

This case more or less exemplifies the current disorder in China’s media, which is mostly controlled by government institutions. Argument with media equals arguing with the government.

My long-held belief is the media is a channel providing truth to the public. This belief, however, has been constantly challenged when I was a freelance reporter, or even when I worked as a PR staffer. In the latter case, I often found the published story was always a distortion of real facts. Somehow I can understand why the media is doing this. The media has its own interest and preference; they have propagandistic tasks; eye-catching is very important for attracting more audience: those are all factors that often steer Chinese media away from the fundamental principles of accuracy and equality. Finally the agenda setting makes the public into the spiral of silence.

I am now staying in the U.S., and am enjoying the “luxury” of freely reading and writing. Many of my friends in China have big apartments and drive BMWs, but they can only watch government-owned TV stations and read highly censored books. I feel I am much richer than them. I’d like to share with you my thoughts and opinions on China’s booming economy, slow and disappointing democratic reform from an outside look. You can also reach me at ying.zhao@journalism.cuny.edu.

Two circulation audit cases in China

Ying Zhao, published at China Media Research Vol.3 No.1

Abstract：This thesis analyzes two Chinese media circulation audit cases with BPA: 21st Century Business Review and China Marketing. It summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of current circulation audit models in China. It applies the theory of double selling, the circulation spiral and the competitive monopoly of the media market. After analysis of the trial-run of China’s local circulation audits, this paper predicts the future of circulation audits in China. [China Media Research. 2007;3(1):103-113].
Key Words: Circulation audit, BPA, Double selling, Guoxin publication circulation audit research center Introduction

Branding Fashion in China

Milton Kotler, Kate Zhao, published on China Marketing (Chinese version)

In China, fashion apparel industry competition is fierce, but most of the domestic companies don’t understand the core competency relies on dividing brands into segments and targeting at the segmented consumers. Analyzing western apparel branding methods can help us investigate deeply on real targeted consumer needs.

In China, fashion means capitalized icons in most of times, so everyone regards owning a Louis Vuiton handbag or dressing in a pair of Prada high-heeled shoes as their icons of wealth. They haven’t form a certain value and mission of fashion industry, that’s why they are eager to express their wealthiness via full of logo apparels. We call it fast-food fashion branding period, which opens doors to hundreds of unrecognized brands.  However, knockoffs always ruined the high-qualitied, fashionable branding apparels. It’s a complicated question to answer: whether China is ready for the global competition on fashion industry.

There were always two major questions from our audience. Why are Chinese consumers buying Western apparel and accessory brands rather than Chinese brands, in spite of the greater advertising input and distribution access of the Chinese apparel industry? How and when can Chinese fashion design be branded for export to the West and take its place on the runways of Paris, New York and Milan? These are tough questions and the answers are even tougher.

The first thing to keep in mind for the apparel industry is that there are many ways to make money besides creating and selling fashion. Fashion is only a subset of apparel consumption. There is luxury, fashion, styling and unbranded apparel. If you are a good business person you can make money in any of these segments, you’re your own brand or for OEM. If you are a bad business person you cannot make money in anything, including fashion.

The first step is to understand what we are talking about today, – fashion apparel and accessories, not luxury goods. It is important to understand the difference between luxury and fashion. Luxury goods, including apparel and accessories, signify wealth status, – they do not signify taste and social and personal identity. Luxury represents established money power signified by heritage and prestige. Fashion presents change and new trends of identity. Both are very expensive but they appeal to different consumer segments. In short hand, luxury expresses status; fashion expresses taste and new identity.

China and California Look for Green Energy Solutions

The State of California got the environmental pressure from the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean. That’s why venture capitalists, governmental officials, scientists and environmental professors gathered for a conference, looking for renewable energy solutions and how to greeening the IT industry. From New American Media:

Scientists, inventors and venture capitalists from the US and China came together in San Francisco last week to discuss ways to conserve energy.

The Chinese government is in a conundrum about energy. They recognize their wildly increasing energy needs, but also want to reduce energy consumption and not loot their considerable natural resources.

In search of inspiration and possible collaborators, Chinese scientists came to California for a conference on clean energy, put on by The Asia Society on April 18th. Venture capitalists, inventors and energy policy makers met to discuss the latest science – addressing climate change, technical innovations and investment opportunities. Both China and California share a sense of urgency about clean energy issues and both are grappling to discover which of the dozens of new technologies being developed to address global warming will succeed on a large scale. As one of the world’s largest economies, California has come a long way when it comes to reducing energy consumption.

The U.S. Lost Gold Medal to China in Women’s Team Gymnastics

Wednesday night, the U.S. women gymnastic team lost a narrow margin to the Chinese team in team final, because most of the competitive athletes all made mistakes during their performance.

The U.S. team finally lost two points to the champion. Alicia Sacramone, the captain of the U.S. women gymnastic team fell from the beam, and at the last routine, three of them all stepped out of the bounds, including Alicia Sacramone, Nastia Liukin, and Shawn Johnson.

“They are a little bit nervous. Though Chinese team didn’t perform flawlessly, they achieve the team final gold because of less mistakes.” Liang Qiao, the U.S. head coach of women gymnastic team said. He was born in Beijing, China, but immigrated to the U.S. a few years ago and took charge of the U.S. team for 2008 Summer Olympics.

Nastia Liukin hit an incredible uneven bar routine, which got her the highest score of 16.9 in the final. Besides her, the U.S. team all finished their uneven bar routine with perfect performance. After the routine, they caught up the hope for competing with Chinese in the gold metal race.

On the beam routine, even Cheng Fei, China’s captain of women’s gymnastic team final fell down, but she continued her difficult routine perfectly. Other younger and inexperienced team members, including Deng Linlin, Jiang yuyuan, and He Kexin, hit the audience and other competitors with higher difficulties, less mistakes and higher scores, especially on uneven bars. This is the first time of Chinese women’s gymnastic team won the Olympic gold medal on team final.