Chinese Businessmen and Laziness

The pace of working in a Chinese company is hectic. Hectic as in you need to be the first to the hallway to catch the elevator before its swamped with dozens of Chinese who dont realize that 1750 is the amount of weight an elevator can support, not the amount of passengers. Or hectic in terms of quickly covering up the book you are reading when a nosey neighbor happens by.

Chinese like to complain about their hard work, but seem to be stealthful at hiding just what it is they do at their jobs. Although they pass the day sighing and staring intently at their computer monitors, one has to wonder just what it is that consumes their days, as their output can be measured in the inaccurate reports and rubbish they put out.

Yeah I see plenty of meetings filled with ‘experts’- meaning old people who were educated during the cultural revolution- as if that were possible. These 55 year old ‘guests’ come to our sacred house of work empty handed and leave with little trinkets proudly displaying the name of our venerable organization. from there they are whisked off to dine at the finest restaurants in Beijing and then presumably trod home to live out the remainder of their miserable existences. The workers will then return to their respective desks,power up QQ and watch the latest moves, all for free on xunlei.

As for me I shake my head and wonder just wtf is so hard about working here.
This is Chinese living.

China’s Communist Party and Chinese Companies

The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers (Richard Mcgregor) On the desks of the heads of China’s fifty-odd biggest state companies, amid the clutter of computers, family photos and other fixtures of the modern CEO’s office life, sits a red phone. The executives and their staff who jump to attention when it rings know it as ‘the red machine’, perhaps because to call it a mere phone does not do it justice. ‘When the “red machine” rings,’ a senior executive of a state bank told me, ‘you had better make sure you answer it.’ The ‘red machine’ is like no ordinary phone. Each one has just a four-digit number. It connects only to similar phones with four-digit numbers within the same encrypted system. They are much coveted nonetheless. For the chairmen and women of the top state companies, who have every modern communications device at their fingertips, the ‘red machine’ is a sign they have arrived, not just at the top of the company, but in the senior ranks of the Party and the government. The phones are the ultimate status symbol, as they are only given out to people in jobs with the …”

Chinese Auditor “Violates Party Principle”

This is a pretty funny post. A Chinese auditor was caught ‘violating party discipline’ by spending ‘lavishly on hospitality’- wtf? So it is illegal for this guy to take some of his cronies to a ktv to buy some cheap hookers and its illegal? Yet the rampant stealing of land from the citizens, corruption and malfeasance are tolerated?

chinadaily

BEIJING – A top auditor in the city of Haimen, East China’s Jiangsu province, was discovered to have violated Party discipline by spending lavishly on hospitality, among other infractions.

Shi Ping, director of Haimen Audit Bureau, on Saturday received an administrative demotion and a severe reprimand from the Communist Party of China for violating discipline after he was exposed in an online post last month.

The post, published by “hacksuper18” at the end of December on Tianya.cn, one of China’s most popular Internet forums, revealed that the bureau hosted a luxury tour for its counterparts from Mianzhu, Sichuan province.

The junket is estimated to have cost nearly 100,000 yuan ($15,000), according to some netizens.

The detailed itinerary of the tour showed that only four hours were used by officials to discuss business, while the remainder of the two-day trip was spent on pleasure, including karaoke sessions at high-end clubs and visits to museums.”

Chinese Knockoff

From china-mike.com

Shanghai the “Whore of the Orient” Puts Travelers in Cages

The following photos are from chinasmack and show capsule houses for weary travelers. The capsules cost about rmb 88 per day. I dont know about you, but if I have to stay in Shanghai, I dont think a rat cage would be my preference. I heard Tokyo has this sort of thing, but its Tokyo, has much more to offer than the ‘whore of the orient’- imho.

A few days ago, a capsule hotel appeared in Shanghai. According to reports, every room’s width and height is approximately 110 centimeters, about 220 centimeters long, and is equipped with LCD televisions, internet connections, etc. According to reports, this hotel charges by the hour, with a base rate of 28 yuan, or 88 yuan per day.

Steel framed “capsules”, 110 centimeters wide and tall, 220 centimeters long, with pillow and blanket, ventilation fan, adjustable lamps, alarm clocks, electrical sockets, LCD televisions, and internet access. 68 stacked rooms split into three areas, separate from the bathroom, toilet, smoking area, shop, and storage areas.

China and Education

Checking my phone this morning I saw a message, “I hate myself, I am a loser” it said.
My friend had just taken the masters exams in China and may not get into China’s best school. It was no consolation to her that China has no world class universities and thus not getting in one of the best here is no big deal.
She explained that her parents had wanted this for her and as she did poorly she will be seen as a failure or disappointment to them. They cannot brag to their neighbors about their child’s success and count on her earning enough cash to support them when they get old.
This is China life.

Petitioning the Government in China

The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers (Richard Mcgregor) For centuries, the central government has maintained a national petitions office in the capital to which citizens take complaints about official misconduct. Ahead of the congress, though, Beijing threatened to mark down the careers of local leaders if residents from their cities managed to get to the capital to make use of it. In case anyone got past the security cordon, the provinces maintain a last line of defence to protect the Politburo from the public, a string of ‘black jails’, or unregistered prisons, where local complainants can be held before being sent home. Detaining protesters according to this formula is akin to winning political points in the west for keeping the crime rate down. ==========

Chinese Photo

from funnyinchina.com

Funny Chinese Sign

Funny photo from micktravels.com

China and Iran

Good article, US fears Chinese companies are breaking Iran sanctions Iran says it has a right to peaceful nuclear technologyThe United States has asked the Chinese government to do more to stop Chinese companies helping Iran with its nuclear programme and missile technology. A senior US official told the BBC that Washington had provided Beijing with a list of firms it believed had been operating in violation of UN sanctions. Beijing promised it was committed to implementing the sanctions and that it would investigate, the official added. The US believes Iran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb. Iran denies this. In June, the UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment activities. The technology used to enrich uranium for use as fuel for nuclear power can also be used to enrich the uranium to the higher level needed to produce a nuclear explosion. Tehran says its intentions are peaceful. Centrifuges, On Sunday, the Washington Post reported that the US intelligence believed several Chinese companies and banks were involved in providing restricted technology to Iran, mostly for its missile programme. A second official, also speaking anonymously, told the Post that Chinese companies had been discovered selling Iran high-quality carbon fibre, which could help make better centrifuges needed to enrich uranium. “We did provide some information to China on specific concerns … the Chinese assured us they will investigate” End Quote PJ Crowley US state department spokesman In 2008, Iran allegedly obtained 108 pressure gauges, which are critical to the functioning of a centrifuge, from one Chinese company On Monday, a senior US official told the BBC that the concerns were raised during a visit to Beijing last month by state department official Robert Einhorn, who oversees the enforcement of sanctions against Iran and North Korea. The official said the Chinese government had promised it was committed to implementing UN resolutions against Iran, and that Washington expected it to take the appropriate steps to stop any violations. “We did provide some information to China on specific concerns about individual Chinese companies and the Chinese assured us that they will investigate,” state department spokesman PJ Crowley later told reporters. The BBC’s Kim Ghattas in Washington says it is believed that Chinese officials did not authorise the activity of the companies. When sanctions were passed this summer at the UN, the US and the EU were concerned that Chinese companies would fill the vacuum left by Western companies pulling out of Iran, our correspondent adds. On Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said it was ready to resume negotiations with the West on its nuclear programme.