Chinese Language Blog

It was this time last year that I was en route to give a talk at a university in Wuhan.  During the drive from the airport, I began to chat with the driver.  Our focus soon shifted to trade between the US and China.  As we built rapport, he asked very frankly, “是不是美国公司就把这些垃圾食品卖给我们中国人吃?” (Are American companies just selling junk food for us Chinese people [to eat]?)  It seemed like a far-fetched notion at the time that American companies would dump low-grade products on the Chinese market.  If they did that, then they would have no competitive advantage over locally produced low-quality goods, to say nothing of locally-produced high-quality goods.

Having lived across the street from Beijing’s famed 秀水街 (xiu4shui3jie1 – silk market) as well as Shenzhen’s noted 罗湖商业城 (luo2hu2shang1ye4cheng2 Luo Hu Shopping City), I have seen no shortage of fakes, knock-offs, and imitations that were “not quite quite.”  My only possible explanation for the local government’s 睁一只眼闭一只眼 （zheng1yi4zhi1yan3 bi4yi1zhi1yan3 – one eye open, one eye closed) or staggered approach to combating fake goods is that having people employed selling fake goods is generally better for social harmony than having restive unemployed citizens.

The original appeal of 次品 (ci4pin3 – factory seconds) is that goods can be had at low-cost, not unlike the factory rejects often on sale at outlet malls or bargain bins like you might find in the States.  This concept extends beyond mere clothing, however.  Printers with iffy paper feeds, bookcases missing screws for shelves, and other consumer goods are all part of the 次品 market in China.

Knowing the importance that people attach to foreign brands and understanding of quality that exists among Chinese consumers, imagine my surprise to read the March 16 China Daily article describing how several world-famous 名牌 ( ming2pai2 – top brands) imported into China had failed routine quality inspections.

The girlfriend of an associate of mine works for one of the top foreign luxury brands in China, running a store in one of China’s second-tier cities.  She has observed how sales girls with employee discounts will skip one meal per day for months in order to scrounge up the money to purchase a bag from this company.  The revelation that the goods may not be up to par with the originals sold in Europe or the Americas quickly unravels the allure of getting such a product.

Readers, what have you experienced?

When I lived in Beijing, every day I would pass a trash compactor station where tricycle-bound trash collectors would empty the contents of the storage tank mounted on the back.  I would reflect on how having  a roving fleet of trash collectors could replace several garbage trucks and reduce congestion and air pollution on Beijing’s roads.  Anything that could not be recycled was 垃圾 (la1ji1 trash), and I’d bring my paper, glass, and bottles to independent people bearing signs reading 高价回收 (gao1jia4hui2shou1 [high price paid for recycled goods]).  It was never difficult to find them- there were about 3-4 stationary people in high-visibility areas within a 1-mile radius of my apartment.

Now in Beijing’s so-called “7th ring” area, there is a growing concern about trash management.  According to a recent Guardian article, Beijing’s existing trash-handling capacity can only handle 61% of the trash produced daily (11,000 ton handling capacity to meet a daily output of 18,000 tons).  This has led to an unexpected short-term solution.  Instead of developing a contingency plan for improving recycling, waste management officials have installed several deodorant guns near landfills past Beijing’s 6th ring road.  This is used to keep the smell down before the trash is burnt.  This has led me to informally examine systemic issues with recycling both in Beijing and Shenzhen.

In my building, every floor has two separate trash bins- one for recyclable items and one for non-recyclable items.  Since moving to Shenzhen last August, I had assiduously separated my trash into each bin every time I took out the trash.  Earlier this week, I encountered a building employee emptying both bins into one bag, commingling my biodegradable newspapers with plastic bags.  After asking the woman what happens to the trash, she notified me that a person downstairs 分类 (fen1lei4 [sorts]) it.  Except for glass, it seems that most waste could be dropped down a chute rather than having someone come upstairs, mix it, then bring it downstairs for somebody to separate it again.

Most of the  coworkers whom I surveyed expressed that separating their goods was very 麻烦 (ma2fan2 [annoying]), but that they’d consider doing it if it were made easier.  Readers, what have your experiences been with waste management in China?  Does your office separate trash from recyclables?

With the recent (although a long time coming) announcement of Google shutting down its operations in mainland China, comes much debate about the reasons and justifications for doing so. While Google (谷歌）has made claims about invasion of privacy, blocking content, and security breaches (including email virus attacks to gain info on human rights advocates) as justification enough for the pullout in China, the real reasons for Google’s sudden exit from the largest and fastest growing online and cell phone market in the world are much simpler: they just can’t compete with Chinese interests.

Let’s take a look at a few factors that played a role in Google’s decision.

First, Chinese internet is censored, a fact most people are aware of. However, its decisions to censor certain sites (gmail, facebook, youtube etc…) are not all due to maintaining political influence or silencing critics. Often times, websites that are censored are done so to provide greater market entry or market share of budding Chinese (often knock off) social networking sites. The justification is simple: these sites provide constant, and targeted advertisement space to sites people visit hourly. However, ad revenue is decided by those who own the pages, hence, domestic or Sino-centric sites are given preferential treatment as foreign sites are often “temporarily down” for weeks at a time. It’s not censorship really–it’s profiteering.

Second, is the nature of Chinese business and company structure. While the Open Door Reform Policy （改革开放）of 1979 ushered China into the capitalist global framework, the last 30 years have shown an intertwining of state and government-run joint ventures with private investors. In the last 10 years, as these joint ventures have shifted toward the private sector, the affiliations, dealings and financial support have not. As a result, companies like Baidu (百度) and China Mobile have been able to leverage influence or simply bribe their way into gaining market share while foreign companies like Google have to wait for any leftover scraps.

Third, due to the lack of regulations and legality in China regarding intellectual property rites, high end software is easily mimicked and provided to the population for free, removing much of Google’s profit stream for China. Google apps, Droid software, search engines, social networking sites–all of it is being re-branded in China without Google seeing a dime.

Fourth, broadband or high-speed internet is almost nowhere to be found in China. In fact, in all my time spent there, only government buildings had the fastest speeds (around 5-10 mbps) while the average internet household averaging an only 1 mbps or less connection. Compare that to the ubiquitous 100mbps or faster speed that is found in the US, and Chinese internet simply can’t handle the bandwith required for smart phone programs, youtube streams or video chat to be worthwhile. As a result, Google websites specific to these high speed settings fail to run properly and are thus infrequently used by people living in China.

Lastly, and the over-arching reason why Google is pulling out of China is common sense. Four years ago when Google gained access to China, it was seen as a thriving market with millions of internet users joining per day. Google saw it as an untapped market just itching to explore the internet with Google leading the charge. However, what they found in China was a population unfamiliar with the freedoms and curiosities put forth by a global community. Baidu seemed simpler and catered to burgeoning interests, but neglected the more controversial and complicated aspects of freedom of speech. It worked well with the internet infrastructure and carried all the western tv, movies, fashion and culture China was developing a taste for without introducing those pesky political or human rights issues. Since then, not much has changed. Before Google left China, Baidu had overwhelming market share and was overwhelmingly preferred by Chinese citizens (especially with youth and young adults). It seems the services Google provided to China was unwanted and seldom used, so Google said “why bother?” and pulled out two days ago.

While the reasons for Google leaving China are many, it highlights the singular resounding issue at hand, which is internet censorship. While a slight blow for short term Google revenue streams, this move could be disastrous for the long-term growth of Chinese ingenuity. The simple fact of the matter is that censoring information, no matter if it’s through book burning or blocking websites has a negative effect on education and the ability to advance as a society. Just as the Chinese blocked their harbors to trade ships in the 18th and 19th centuries, they are now building a “Great Firewall” of China to keep western internet out.