Serious Business on the Border

Note: I planned to illustrate this post with a photo of the China/North Korean border at Dandong, but Chinese censorship means I'm still accessing my blog through a proxy, where some of the options have disappeared.

When I lived on the North Korean border I was never worried about the possibility of being kidnapped. The quiet barren wasteland over the river just didn't seem threatening. We all knew that armed guards sometimes lurked in the long grass, but we saw them as part of the vague thrill that came from living on the border of the hermit state. When we went to 'one-step crossing' and waded through the shallow water to touch DPRK soil, there was a small sense of apprehension, but it was never based on reality. After all, we were citizens of the free world and that kept us safe, right?
But this week two American reporters were caught by North Korean guards and sentenced to 12 years hard labour, in a gulag with horrific conditions. They were reporting from the Chinese border city of Yanji, which is further north than Dandong, and were apparently trespassing on North Korean territory when they were picked up. However, this can't be confirmed, and surprisingly no-one trusts the word of North Korea. They may have even been blatantly kidnapped from Chinese soil...After a matter of days, they were put on trial, found guilty of 'grave crimes' and sentenced almost immediately. I have never seen a court move so fast! If only we could convict rapists and child molesters within that short space of time. Of course it just shows that the North Korean 'justice system' is an absolute farce. Speculation about North Korea's motivation is rife. This new aggression could be an attempt to assert authority in the face of the new Obama administration, or a way to blackmail the US into giving diplomatic and monetary favours. North Korea's recent behaviour, since Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke last summer, has been increasingly erratic. His sons are jostling for position as his successor, the youngest one is currently favourite. Kim's government has tested another nuke, closed a major joint-owned South Korean production facility and now pulled this out of the hat to shock the world. They have become more aggressive, seem unconcerned about appeasing anyone and have refused to participate in the six-party talks aimed at peacefully resolving the nuclear testing issue and improving North Korea's relationship with the outside world. It's difficult to guess the next twist in their unpredictable behaviour, seemingly designed to shock everyone and alienate themselves still further. The US have already mentioned putting North Korea back on the blacklist of terrorist-sponsoring nations and tightening existing sanctions. I can't imagine the effect this must be having on the North Korean citizens, who live in bad enough conditions already. Having potential foreign aid cut off because of reckless government jockeying is the last thing they need.

Caonima! Alpaca to the Rescue.

Today is just another sunny day in Dalian. As I walk down the street I'm enjoying the sunshine and watching the bustling activity of street vendors, deliverymen, school children and other ordinary Chinese people going about their daily lives. However, the means by which I accessed my blog today quickly reminded me of the realities surrounding this country.

Today is not just another ordinary day. It's the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 1989 events the West calls 'The Tian'anmen Square Massacre'. I was only seven when Deng Xiaoping's People's Liberation Army violently suppressed pro-democracy protests in Beijing, killing hundreds of students and civilians. The story is well-known in the Western world, but the Chinese government still tries to keep it quiet within China. One method they use is internet censorship, which has tightened up considerably in the weeks preceding the anniversary. Now a number of popular social networking/blogging/personal video sites are inaccessible. Of course, the government is afraid of word getting out. Youtube has been blocked for the last month. Recently, Twitter, Blogger and Flickr fell victim to the 'net nanny', 'great firewall of China' and other tags referring to the government's censorship mechanism. I have been accessing this blog through a proxy server, which I discovered through a friend. Usually a simple Google search for 'free proxy server' produces a whole selection of options. This time it was a difficult task, because each one I tried, even the old stalwarts, failed me. Sneaky old sneakme was the answer, and I have been 'sneakily' sneaking onto my blog since yesterday. But oddly enough, foreign news sites with front-page headlines such as my current homepage, "Survivors Confront Legacy of Tian'anmen' (Wall Street Journal) are freely accessible. This morning I watched a whole 5 minutes of archive video footage showing the PLA tanks chasing and shooting people in the backs as they tried to run away. It was unreal and I felt detached, as if this wasn't the same Beijing square where I'd often strolled with friends on tourist trips to the capital, watching the dragon kites drifting in the breeze and the happy families playing with kids and photographing each other.

It makes me wonder how much the average Chinese person knows about these dreadful events. I have always been hesitant to ask my Chinese friends, fearing to make them uncomfortable. Those educated in foreign countries usually have some knowledge of 1989's events. However, most of my English-speaking Chinese friends, because of their greater exposure to Western cultural sources, do not really represent the average 'lao bai xing', or common citizen. I wonder about the fruit sellers in the marketplace, the young girl doing my manicure while we chat in Chinese about trivial subjects, and the guy sweeping the streets - do they know anything about 1989? More importantly, do they really care? Sometimes I believe that people are perfectly satisfied with their government, for it has given them a society where they have a roof over their heads and food on the table. Maybe our lofty Western ideals of 'free speech' are lost on a more practical kind of folk, who feel they can do nothing to control the government and anyway, have families to feed.

But there are Chinese people who know full well what happened in Beijing. They want to shout about it, they want to protest about the government's continuing bad behaviour, they want everyone to know the truth. Unfortunately, these advocates of freedom are continually repressed and can suffer all kinds of punishment from house arrest to torture. In an attempt to subtly vent their opinion, people have resorted to satire and irony. Today I discovered the real saviour of media freedom, national hero 'Cao Ni Ma'. This phrase has two distinct meanings; Grass Mud Horse, or an expletive - Fuck your Mother. The Grass Mud Horse takes the form of a cute alpaca. It has popped up all over China as a cult symbol of defiance against government censorship and repression. I'm currently trying to buy my own little Caonima on taobao. It's cute and would be an interesting souvenir of three years living in a police state.