China, the IRS and Bribery

My Chinese friend was lamenting that many officials here are sad, they receive money (bribes) but can do nothing with them, its hard to capitalize on their wealth. For instance, the typical Chinese functionary (chicom) may earn from U$ 700-3500 per month. But apart from that they can earn from 3 to 10 times that amount from kickbacks and bribes. So a woman making about U$10,000 per year can easily have U$50-100,000 in actual money (its called grey income). The problem is that these people cannot flaunt their wealth, for if they do, the chinese get pissed, put their names on the net and basically take vigilante justice out on the functionaries. In this respect, China is very much a vigilante society. The US developed the IRS to fight this type of crime. The IIRS caught drug lords and gangsters like Capone, they make people show where they get their money from. I guess this is a big difference between the US and China….to me the US seems much less primal or savage…

Beijing Breakfast

This is what breakfast time in Beijing looks like. Cabbies urinating in the street , their clothes hastily hung by their cabs to dry. Single women lead little one-child policy babies along the streets to learn English or buy fruit. Stores filled with heavy lidded men and women slurping noodles noisiliy from large bowls. Pollution not too suffocating now, touch of sunlight. Angry people happy to rest for a day, if their bosses allow it, most dont.

More Nobel Nonsense From China

More from the on-going anger on China’s part for the jailed China man, Liu Xiao bo in winning the Nobel Prize. excerpt: “Amnesty International said members of Norway’s Chinese community were being pressured by Chinese diplomats to join anti-Nobel protests planned for Friday and had been threatened with retaliation if they failed to appear. Instead, some pro-democracy protesters showed up Thursday in Oslo in support of Liu, and the rights group planned to deliver a petition demanding his release to the Chinese Embassy.”

Increase in Global Corruption Reported, Is This Part of the China Effect?

Read this excerpt below, its not about China per se, but you really gotta wonder how big its impact is…. excerpt: “Corruption increased globally over the last three years as more people paid bribes in countries across the world, according to a Transparency International survey. A quarter of 91,500 people surveyed reported paying a bribe to an institution or for services from health to education to tax authorities in the last year, Berlin-based Transparency said in the 2010 Global Corruption Barometer report on its website. Some 60 percent of people believe corruption has risen since 2007, according to the report, which covered respondents from 86 countries and territories.”

Oh Snap! The Nobel Committee Bitch Slaps China

This is agreat post, see snippet below, . The leader of the Nobel committe states that China’s reaction to the award underscores her weakness… I predict the chicoms will : -make an award to compete with the Nobel, ooops they already did -cut off trade talks, opps did that too -call Norway names, opps did it -send faulty products to countries who attended,,,, ooops did that to I guess we can all just tell the chicoms to suck it on this one excerpt: By Josiane Kremer and Marianne Stigset Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — The imprisonment of Nobel Peace Prize Winner and activist Liu Xiaobo illustrates the fragility of the Chinese political system, the chairman of the Nobel Committee said at the awards ceremony. “Many will ask whether China’s weakness is not manifested in the need to imprison a man for 11 years merely for expressing his opinions on how this country should be governed,” Thorbjoern Jagland said, according to the text of a speech at today’s award ceremony in Oslo. Liu, awarded the prize on Oct. 8 “for his long and non- violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China,” was taken into custody in 2008 and sentenced to prison last year on a charge of plotting to subvert the ruling Communist Party. The 54-year-old writer was one of the organizers of Charter 08, an open letter signed by more than 300 Chinese academics, lawyers and activists calling for direct elections and freedom of assembly. Liu is in isolation in a prison in northeast China.

Freaking Vultures in China- Bringing Treats to Wrok and a Chinese Reaction

Today at the office someone had the birth idea to bring treats. Chinese, for the most part are tight and will do anything to save a buck. Thus, the treats to them, represent a free meal, a way to save a jiao or two, put them that much closer to a first or second home. It started slowly, some guy left some goodies, and then one guy inspected them, proclaimed them edible and the a fury ensued. There was loud talk, smacking of lips, open mouthed chewing.. Now on the plate where once stood cookies and cakes, there is nothing more than drool and and crumbs. This is China

The Guy Behind Me in China-Living and Working in China

The guy who sits behind me is a great guy, he’s really nice, kind and pretty smart. he’s older so he’s seen the worst of China, but seems to have taken it quite well. he’s not angry nor bitter, he simply does his job. The only thing about him, well two things, are that to me it seems like he’s always snoozing at work. I know he often does, I catch him snoring at times. when it happens, i genlty kicks his desk, or discretely turn up the volume on the DVD he’s watching…the problem is that he’s got these heavy eyelids so from afar it always looks like he’s asleep. if he’s not snoring, I have no idea if i should wake him or not. I really dont mind if he sleeps, after all, its his life and his job, but damn, you’d think he’d drink coffee or something. Other than that, he pisses me off sometimes. He has this habit of sucking on the end of his chopsticks then stuffing them into the middle of the food when we have company lunches, not on the outskirts, or periphery, but smack dab in the middle. I watch him eat like a hawk, dont want to touch food contaminated by his utensils, after plunging the chopsticks into the meal, he raised it,liver colored lips smacking on them, cleansing them , fat tongue playing over the edges, after gagging i usually try not to eat from the same dish as he. Most of the other people may lick their chopsticks, then eat form the communal bowl with them, but i can avoid the places they’ve touched. They usually hunt from the same spot as the others, so i merely avoid it, I stick to the food at the edges of the bowl. This is impossible, with the sleeper man, however, he’s got a penchant for going after the juiciest hunks of meat and then disrupting or upsetting the pile of rice as he forages for more. After eating with him I usually go to starbucks and get a salad. Today I had salad.

Chninese Laborers

Beijing China

China Snubs Nobel Prize, Creates Own Confucius Prize- Only to Be Snubbed By Winner

The actions of the ruling communist party of China are nothing less than mind boggling and or scary. Due to their fanaticism and angst over Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Prize, they have cut off trade talks with Norway, kept many Chinese from leaving China and prvented groups from gathering at the time of the awards. The last part I can understand, they dont want big problems from all their citizens, but the following shows the maturiyt level of the communist regime. China created their own Nobel Prize? WTF Yeah, China created some bs confucius peace prize and awarded it to a guy from Taiwan who snubbed them, he never showed up. All that left them with egg on their collective faces and feeling pretty stupid. excerpt: “BEIJING (Reuters) – It was meant to be China’s answer to the Nobel Peace Prize, a timely riposte to the honoring of jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo. But the winner of the first “Confucius Peace Prize” didn’t even bother to show up. Instead, it was left to a scared-looking girl, whom organizers did not properly identify, to collect a stack of bills for the $15,000 cash prize meant for former Taiwan vice-president Lien Chan. Lien had won the prize for his efforts to improve relations between China and Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own, beating out five other nominees, including past Nobel Peace Prize winners Mahmoud Abbas and Nelson Mandela. “We believe that Mr. Lien Chan, with his knowledge, dignity, and political wisdom, would not refuse peace, and he would not refuse this prize,” Confucius Prize organizer Tan Changliu gamely told a packed news conference in Beijing. Lien, now honorary chairman of Taiwan’s ruling Nationalist or KMT party, has not commented publicly on the prize. Lai Shin-yuan, chairwoman of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, told Taiwan lawmakers that the island’s government found the prize “amusing.” “As far as we know it is an unofficial prize. We don’t plan to make any comment on it,” she said. “But we do find it amusing.” Lien travelled to China in 2005 in his then capacity as chairman of the KMT in the first such trip since the Communists won control of the mainland in 1949 after forcing the KMT to flee into exile in Taiwan. He has since visited China numerous times and had several meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The prize, offered before more than 100 journalists in a cramped windowless conference room in a Beijing office block, was first suggested in an opinion piece in the popular Chinese tabloid the Global Times three weeks ago. Its timing is no coincidence, coming the day before the Nobel is formally awarded to Liu in Oslo, an event that has prompted a slew of invective from the Chinese government for honoring a man it calls a subversive and a criminal. Tan said China’s prize had nothing to do with the government, though an invite to the ceremony had suggested involvement of a department under the Chinese Culture Ministry. Ministry officials said they had never heard of the prize. “This prize is from the people of China, who love and support peace. It has no relation to the Chinese government, the Ministry of Culture or Beijing Normal University,” said Tan, referring to the university where his resume says he got his doctorate. When pressed by journalists on claims in a press release that the prize had been chosen by “democratic voting by Internet users,” Tan admitted that no Internet voting had occurred, swiftly adding next year’s prize would incorporate voting. Mainstream Chinese media have not reported on the prize, and Tan refused to answer questions on the merits of pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel award. But the awarding of the prize bore at least one resemblance to what will transpire at Friday’s Nobel ceremony — its recipient was not in attendance. The Chinese government, furious after Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, has not allowed Liu or his wife to go to the Nobel gala in Oslo. Liu’s wife and numerous Chinese activists have been put under house arrest ahead of the Nobel ceremony.”