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 Sing a mountain song for the Party. Blogger Zhai Hua notes two different reports of "popular opinion" on the 17th Party Congress. The first is a short interview between a VOA reporter and a student at Peking Unversity:
Reporter: I'm with the media. I'd like to ask you about your opinion on the 17th Congress.
Student: What?
Reporter: The 17th Congress. Do you know what the 17th Congress is?
Student: I'm not sure.
Reporter: What's the 17th Congress?
Student: The 17th National People's Congress session.
Reporter: No.
Student: Then what is it?
Reporter: The National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Student: Isn't that pretty much the same thing?
Zhai contrasts this with a CCTV Network News broadcast in which reporters ask other citizens for their opinions:
Fujian farmer: The 17th Party Congress is about to begin. We are all waiting in anticipation. The past few years, the building of a new countryside has brought bigger changes to our mountain, and our lives have gotten better and better. We want to express our feelings through this mountain song....
Jilin rural woman: Oh, we're so happy! Us farmers are really attentive to the 17th Congress...
Zhai Hua continues:
The interviews by VOA and CCTV reporters are aimed differently; the PKU student's "not sure" stands in stark contrast to the northeastern rural woman's "so happy," but they're both fairly one-sided and misdirected. The Social Survey Institute of China recently conducted a national opinion poll in major cities whose goal was to gain an understanding of the public's attention to the 17th Congress and what the public was most concerned about during this time frame. The results showed that 94.5% of respondents were "very interested" or "rather interested" [in the Congress]; only 5.5% of respondents said they were "uninterested." The results also showed that finance, the rising price of goods, social security, employment, protection of democratic rights and property interests, the housing market, the wage gap, the Taiwan issue, corruption, and social order are the top ten problems that the people are concerned about. Among these, the questions of finance, rising prices, and social security were the top three issues that the public was concerned with; they each were mentioned by more than 80% of respondents. It's worth mentioning that more than 80% of the public believes that the 17th Party Congress can increase the party's understanding of people's lives and highlight the people's livelihood.
In sum, rather than investigating how concerned the people are about the 17th Party Congress, it's probably more valuable to look into whether the 17th Party Congress is concerned with the public.
Tim Johnson, McClatchy's Beijing bureau chief, blogged about a recent press conference prior to the Party Congress in which a spokesperson attempted to convey how concerned the party is with the public:
The final question from a Singapore reporter was this: Pollution and land disputes in China are getting worse. Social conflicts appear to be escalating. Could you release the latest figures regarding these social conflicts?
Li did not answer that question. Instead, he described social unrest in China as "only regional and individual." In the larger picture, he said, "the majority of people have enjoyed real benefits from reform and opening up."
...
"Now in China, the economy grows, there is social progress and the people enjoy higher and higher living standards. The people are satisfied. Thank you.”
Some delegates are communicating with the public through blogs. Xinhua journalist Han Song notes that "some of the delegates' blogs have a rather different flavor from normal blogs, just like the definite differences that would exist between Martians' blogs and Earthlings'." He continues:
I'm worried for the blogging delegates. Will people go to their superiors and report them, saying that they're blogging when they should be working? I've learned this profound lesson myself.
However, having seen that so many 17th Party Congress delegates are determined to blog, I'm more than a little relieved. The people need us to blog. And can you blame them? An all-round well-off society cannot be a blogless well-off society.
Interested in reading delegates' blogs? People Online is currently featuring three delegates: Luo Chengyou, Zheng Xuejun, and Zhang Hemin.
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This article is from Danwei.org
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In this day and age, why would anyone write a letter to a newspaper? Or, since writing letters to correct factual errors is still a useful practice, perhaps the question would be better phrased: what would drive a crank to write a letter to a newspaper these days?
Why submit an opinion piece to an institution that is concerned with column inches, when the Internet provides ample space for all? Blogs are free, plentiful, and easy to set up, and there's no gatekeeper with a vested interest in keeping the views of the common man off the printed page.
Perhaps one reason is that traditional journalists still have one thing that most bloggers do not: access. Sure, a resourceful blogger might be able to pull together more inside information than someone whose chief responsibility is massaging press releases for the business section, but bloggers are by nature solitary individuals and no match for the combined Rolodexes of an entire newsroom.
So suppose you are a crank in possession of critical information that absolutely must reach its intended recipient - in the business world, the entertainment industry, or the upper levels of government - why not ask your local paper to forward your letter? Besides, if that fails, there's always the chance that it will end up on the Internet, anyway, on the blog of some amused journalist.
Here are some examples, the first three from Zeng Pengyu of the Beijing Youth Daily and the last courtesy of Guo Guangdong of Southern Weekly:
1. A letter to Tie Ning:
Last year Tie Ning was selected to head the China Writers' Association. One of our reporters conducted an interview in which the issue came up that she had never married (at the time). Her parents were very concerned about this, and so forth. Half a month later, a letter from a reader suddenly arrived at the department. The letter was addressed to the newspaper, and then had written "forward to Tie Ning."
The opening words of the letter were shocking: "Ms. Tie Ning: Of the three ways of being unfilial, not having children is the gravest..." And then it described the problem of filial piety in China over the course of several hundred words. Then it said, "Of course, if we want to solve the problem of filial piety, we must have suitable people to choose from. Myself, for example. Height: xx; weight: xx; age xx..." Oh, now I understand, this person was proposing to Tie Ning!
And it wasn't over, either. The second half of the letter went like this: "...nearly fifty but never having appeared on stage (出台, but probably 出阁 "gotten married" - [Zeng's note]), I seem to see a lonely woman who is waiting in the hope of a partner. For you are so outstanding that normal people aren't in your league. The person you have been waiting for all these fifty years has finally appeared: that person is me..." The inscription on the letter contained a detailed address for "Beibei," a 50-year-old resident of a particular town in Hebei.
There were copious typos in the letter, but when you think about it, the guy had to be gutsy to express his love to Tie Ning. So even though I was unable to put this declaration of love into Tie Ning's hands, I didn't think of pitching it into the garbage can, and instead, just kept it in a drawer. Re-reading it today, I chanced upon a line on the back of the letter: "Please forward this to Ms. Tie Ning. Should that not be possible, then please give it to some other woman of worthy qualities...."
2. A letter to Zhao Zhongxiang:
This is a letter we received from a reader about two years ago after the [Rao] Ying Affair" was exposed. It was sent to an upper-level leader, who passed it on to us after reading it.
This reader was apparently a woman, and in her letter she told Mr. Zhao very sincerely that she watched his Animal World program for many years and was in total admiration of his character. So she said, "I absolutely do not believe that Mr. Zhao have anything to do with [Rao]Ying," because "she's unworthy." However, the topic quickly shifted, and she wrote, "Actually, what makes me even more angry is that you [Mr. Zhao] have been charged with the crime of rape even though you didn't rape her. You should have raped her in the first place, and taught that cheating woman a lesson!"
At the end of the letter, after repeating her complete faith in Mr. Zhao, the reader left these harsh words: "If that woman [Rao] Ying ever harasses you again, tell me her address and I'll give her something to look at!"
Amusingly, that high-ranking leader added this line when he forwarded the letter to us: "The culture desk should take care in handling this; the animal world is indeed a ferocious place..."
3. A letter to Qin Shi Huang:
One year there was a problem with the Great Wall - one ancient section was pushed over. When we reported the incident, we received many letters from readers expressing indignation. This was not uncommon; what was unusual was that one letter was written to Qin Shi Huang.
The letter expressed immense sorrow over the state of the protection of the Great Wall as a cultural relic, and then went on to write out a calculation: if the bricks of the Great Wall were sold for US$100 apiece, then the entire Great Wall of 10,000 li could be sold for hundreds of millions of dollars or more. The present circumstances were tantamount to letting hundreds of millions of dollars sit there and go to waste!!
The letter also said that at present, the departments in charge of the protection of cultural relics were entirely unaware of the value of the Great Wall, and had completely betrayed the original intentions of the great Qin Shi Huang, who built it in the first place....so, he hoped that down in the nether-world, when he's not "fitfully sleeping," Qin Shi Huang would send dreams to the leadership of the departments in charge of the protection of cultural relics, warning them that they must not shortchange the Great Wall; they must exploit the Great Wall's economic and cultural value to the highest degree possible!
Ah, Qin Shi Huang hasn't got it easy - dead for two millennia, and still taken out and appraised in US dollars....
4. Finally, there are some things that even the mainstream media has no control over. Guo Guangdong posted this letter early this year:
Editor Guo
Greetings!
I am a devoted reader of your publication. I have just read the article "'Special Interest' is becoming the chief culprit behind environmental destruction," in the 18 January, 2007 issue (#1197) of your publication. I highly respect Director Pan [Yue], and I think he is an excellent successor to the communist endeavor. I want to recommend to the Party Central Committee that he be made a national leader, but I have no channel to do so. I would like to ask your publication to pass on my remarks. How about it? Previously, after reading your publication, I have sent a number of express mail letters to the central committee recommending individuals, but I have never gotten any word in reply. So this time I respectfully ask you to pass this on for me.
I trust that my words won't vanish like a stone in the ocean.
Regards,
A reader
2007.1.19
Standing Committee Members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party:
I ask you to read the article "'Special Interest' is becoming the chief culprit behind environmental destruction," published in the 18 January, 2007 issue of Southern Weekly (#1197). Please see how vice-director Pan is thinking and working for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. I believe that he is a worthy successor to the communist endeavor, and I recommend him for a national leadership position.
A 78-year-old retired party member
2007.1.19
Guo ends his post by saying that the majority opinion among his colleagues was that the letter was either a joke or written in the heat of the moment, so they did not pass it on. However, allowing for the possibility that it was sincere, Guo decided to post it on his blog rather than let it "vanish like a stone in the ocean."
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This article is from Danwei.org
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 Beaten down by SARFT. Most people agree that Chinese cinema and television are not as good as they could be, but they disagree as to why.
Is it the vulgarity, the catering to the lowest common denominator? When SARFT, the regulatory agency everyone loves to mock, has been enjoying an unaccustomed spate of good feeling after issuing orders to suspend several widely-criticized reality shows.
Or maybe its that contemporary entertainment doesn't deal enough with uplifting themes. Patriotism, for example. China Film Group chairman Han Sanping recently urged the country's filmmakers to carry out their duty to sing the praises of the nation.
PR blogger Imagethief explains "Why patriotism won't save the Chinese film industry":
Imagethief was intrigued to read in an AP article a week or two ago that Han Sanping, Chairman of the government-backed China Film Group, has called for more patriotism in Chinese movies. Han minced no words, saying:
"The reality of this country's economic reforms is that the country, the race, is prospering. This must be extolled. It can only be extolled. There can't be anyone who makes fun of it. People who do either have ulterior motives or they're mentally challenged," the executive was quoted as saying.
"As a Chinese director ... as a Chinese actor, this point of view must be firmly entrenched," Han said.
He also said he wanted to see more "ethically inspiring" content produced by his group.
Imagethief is all for extolling that which needs to be extolled, although he also believes that almost anything, including the rise of China, can be made fun of. Imagethief is also easily excited when bureaucracy sticks its nose into popular culture because it is inevitably a train wreck and often precludes the need for anyone else to make fun of anything. In fact, government involvement in any aspect of popular culture, unless it is simply cutting a check, is generally bad form. This is because politicians and bureaucrats are, by and large, crappy arbiters of taste.
It's a terrific rant. Go read it.
Then read this piece by Chang Ping, deputy editor in chief of Southern Metropolis Weekly magazine. Chang Ping argues that when fiction is criticized for not reflecting an idealized reality, and reality itself is too sensitive to touch, quality film and television becomes an impossibility.
After Chongqing TV's First Heartthrob (第一次心动), similar programs Guangdong TV's Date With Beauty (美丽新约) and Shenzhen TV's Super Date (超级情感对对碰) were ordered to stop broadcasting. In the eyes of viewers, they all share one quality: vulgarity. Actually, this vulgarity reflects a lack of creativity, duplicated content, impoverished ideas, and poor moral quality. As people wring their hands in frustration, has anyone asked what brought things to their present circumstances?
In all the times it has wielded the knife, SARFT has been the hero just this once. When it required TV hosts to dress properly, keep subdued hair-styles, and speak standard Mandarin, or when "Super Boys" was changed into "Happy Boys," everyone felt that it was abusing its power and meddling in things that were none of its business. But this time it has won wide acclaim. According to the results of a survey by China Youth Daily's survey center, 96.4% of those respondents who were aware of what First Heartthrob was cast their vote in support of SARFT's action.
One gets the feeling that SARFT's policies are not stable: alternately strict and permissive, sometimes hitting the mark and sometimes going far afield. Or else that its policies have changed, turning to follow public opinion and only looking after those things that people complain most vociferously about. In fact, this is not the case. SARFT is a serious agency; there should be no doubt about the longevity of its policies and its ability to carry them out. The "meddlesome" image of the past has a cause-and-effect relationship with the "satisfy the people" image of today.
To make this easier to understand, let us look at a recent blog post from film star Jet Li. In the guise of discussing with his online friends how to shoot a movie, he expressed his long-held resentment at SARFT. Most of Jet Li's movies, from Bodyguard from Beijing through Danny the Dog, have not passed the censors. Fiction does not tally with the facts, but realism is too sensitive; Chinese police beating foreigners is no good, but having them beaten by foreigners is even worse. Setting the story on the mainland doesn't work, but you can't move it to Taiwan, so where are you going to shoot? Jet Li is at a loss. But there are answers. One is to work the "main theme," and the other is to do crappy costume dramas. Li's Fearless is a fusion of both - the story's weak, and it's full of sermonizing.
Jet Li gave an example: the movie Kiss of the Dragon was banned because Chinese cops fought and killed people overseas, and this harmed China's image. In the same movie, there was a scene in which he used a French national flag to beat French police. He asked producer Luc Besson whether this would get banned in France, and Besson told him to go ahead and fight, there wouldn't be a problem because the audience wouldn't confuse a movie with reality. Such a simple-sounding truth, but SARFT and the citizens nurtured by its policies cannot comprehend it.
As an example of the taboo over realism, we can look at the well-known film Mission Impossible: III. It has a scene in which shirtless Chinese people are playing mahjong. Even though this is a common sight in China, it was still thought to hurt the country's image, and SARFT gave the order to delete it. Of course, this only affected screenings on the mainland; internationally, the original version was shown. What magnificent self-deception.
This double-taboo on both fiction and reality restricts the Chinese people's imagination and limits their awareness of reality. What's left for television shows in the absence of those two elements? Hence, our serious TV news programs aren't as timely or in-depth as other people's, and our entertainment programs are much less rich and interesting than theirs. What will you have the viewers watch? When a fresh, new program suddenly appears, everyone crowds forward to see it. This is abnormal in and of itself, not to mention the fact that the program was copied from a foreign show.
If we had better current events news, they'd naturally shunt off a portion of the audience; if we had creative, healthy entertainment shows, they too would command a segment of the audience. The remaining few low-class programs wouldn't have such high ratings - they wouldn't be terribly successful, and thus wouldn't raise the ire of the public. And if those programs implemented a ratings system so that adults could satisfy their base interests at designated times, what's not to like?
So we see SARFT's heroic cancellation of vulgar programming is like someone who has beaten another person to a pulp and driven him to the streets, only to save him from the toxic garbage he picks up to quell his hunger.
Jet Li closes his blog post with a question for his readers (translation from his blog):
With the Chinese movie market growing strong, many foreign investors want to invest in China. How can we combine all of the positive attributes of the Eastern and Western film markets to become a global industry?
I am still in the learning process. I hope that all of my friends on the internet can discuss what types of action film stories would be accepted by the audience in Chinese theaters.
What is your opinion?
Imagethief closes his post with a simple list of steps the government can take to improve domestic film, ending with "Shut the *** up." I'll step out on a limb here and say that the chances of SARFT heeding this advice are pretty much nil.
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This article is from Danwei.org
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This article is from Danwei.org Psychologies magazine celebrates its one-year anniversary with the September issue.
Launched with a July/August double issue last year, the magazine has featured a well-known star on every cover. Last year, Danwei noted that Psychologies tries to "communicate with readers through the cover model's eyes."
Those eyes have belonged almost exclusively to Hollywood actresses. Gong Li, September's cover model, is the first Chinese national to be featured. By putting Gong alongside previous cover models like Sharon Stone, Joan Chen, and Meg Ryan, Psychologies acknowledges her international stature
Inside, there's an interview with Gong in which the magazine tries to suss out the roots of her independent spirit.
  Psychologies supplement - true cover and advert. The September issue comes with a supplement that contains a couple of self-scored personality tests and a few personal confessions, all translated from French, liberally illustrated with stock photos of couples at various relationship stages.
Ads for the issue have been put up on billboards across Beijing, but the supplement that is show in the ads is slightly different from the one you receive when you purchase the magazine.
On the left is the cover of the actual supplement, "Handbook for Sexual Communication" (性·沟通手册). Subtitled "work together for better passion," it has a number of eye-catching teasers: "sex test for two people," "discover your 'sexual' temperament," and "sexual confidence increases during school."
On the right is the version that appears on billboards. All references to "sex" have been removed, from the background photo to every occurence of the character 性. The supplement is now a "Handbook for Love Communication" (情爱·沟通手册), and is subtitled "work together for better love." The teaser line only promises a "test for two people," but none of the other risque stuff. The title of the supplement has even been changed on the billboard version of the main magazine as well (sorry, no photo available).
The last red line on the cover advertises "Those questions that we don't really want to ask"; for Psychologies, there are some questions that they don't really want to advertise.
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"Poor governance" has been the buzzword this week in opinion pieces reflecting on the recent brick kiln slavery scandal in Hongdong County, Shanxi. Commentators lauded the watchdog role of the media and the Internet and railed against the corruption and malfeasance of Shanxi officials.
Overall, a sharp distinction was made between "poor governance" at a local level - be it the active participation of the local police or the willful ignorance of local government officials - and the central government
In the Jamestown Foundation's China Brief, Willy Lam finds the central government at least partially culpable in this scandal because of "serious lapses in the administrative ability of both Beijing and the provinces."
This is echoed in the lead editorial in the 25 June issue of China Newsweek which, though still laying most of the blame on "local officials" and "low-level political organs", discusses the central government's actions in a frustrated tone:
This case was the same old story: the illegal actions were exposed primarily because media reports kicked up a storm of public opinion, with online public opinion in particular fiercely indignant. Then the government's attention was attracted. Various central government departments personally took to the field before the local government was spurred into action, swift and vigorous, and the problem - or at least this particular case - finally found a fairly acceptable solution.
However, it's not hard to imagine that the central government cannot give such close attention or invest so many resources for each and every case of injustice among the public. For this reason, the usual way to solve problems like this should fall to the effective operation of the local government and low-level political organs. If the local government does not actively exert itself, then the attention of the central government will be substantially diminished. For example, in 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao issued instructions concerning Zhang Xubo, the young man who in 2002 was tricked into working in the Shanxi kilns and who had his legs broken by the foreman, but he has yet to receive the 490,000 yuan in compensation ordered by the courts.
The piece then asks, "When will the assurances offered by the central government to the victims in the Hongdong case become the normal state of affairs."
Cultural critic Zu Dake went one step further on his blog, indicting China's current political system for allowing, and even encouraging, the situation in Hongdong:
The Hongdong Effect in Chinese Society
by Zhu Dake
Corrupt, violent, shameless, and seriously anti-human, the Shanxi kiln slavery affair is one of the 21st Century world's darkest episodes. Those illegal brick kilns that kept thugs and dogs not only illegally trafficked in children and disabled individuals, forcing them to serve as slaves, but also even more ruthlessly mistreated and tortured them, killing them and destroying their minds. The brutal violence of their techniques utterly exceeds the bounds of human imagination. This is not just China's shame - it is a shame on all human civilization. Low-level political organizations, including the village cadre management system and the police security system, were enmeshed in widespread corruption; local officials who were not themselves involved with dirty money and who did not act as direct protection for the slave system just utterly ignored the horrible situation and the appeals of mothers looking for their sons. Their indifferent dereliction of duty showed an absence of even a basic social conscience. This slave system was discovered in 1998 but was not handled as it should have been. Following long-term growth and expansion, it became common practice, part of the chatter, a grand spectacle - and a malevolent footnote to so-called harmonious prosperity.
This is not just a frightening moral and legal crisis - it is, after the great famine and the Cultural Revolution in the mid-20th Century, the third constitutional crisis that the ruling party has encountered. Facing such severe, systemic bad government, the party's ability to rule and its "advanced nature" face unprecedented challenges. This time it is the malignant cancer on low-level organizations that has brought the upper levels such unbearable pain. Like the lyrics in the Peking Opera Su San Carried Off: the entire country has become a "Hongdong County" where there are "no good people." The kiln slavery affair in Shanxi sounds a clear warning: the Hongdong effect in Chinese society is now unstoppable.
After the exposure of the situation, Zhongnanhai was furious. The State Council held emergency sessions, the Shanxi government launched sweeping searches, the underground slaves were rescued, the forces of evil were arrested, corrupt local officials were stripped of their titles, and the provincial governor Yu Youjun apologized to the entire nation. But Beijing did not apologize to China. And the twelve teams that Hongdong County sent out to all corners to apologize look once again to be political junket, tours on the public's dime. All of these actions will no doubt placate the families of the victims and provide an explanation through action to the country and the world, yet they do not touch the root cause of the slave system. That root is none other than today's unitary political structure. The kiln slave incident demonstrates that without constitutional oversight from free citizens, an independent media, and democratic organizations apart from the party, this structure cannot prevent corruption in itself or renew politics. Nor can it maintain "advanced" political ideals. China has no way to avoid the fate of political necrosis.
In the 1980s and 1990s, China missed two successive opportunities for political reform, and the weight on the system becomes heavier by the day. Today, a third opportunity looms. There are manifestly few such chances. If the blood and lives of the slaves can instigate structural renewal and bring political progress to Chinese society, then this is a political treasure to be cherished.
A formless memorial tablet to the slaves has already been erected by the public. Inscribed on it are the heart-rending stories of tens of thousands of slaves. "Hongdong County" has once again become the butt of history's joke, and those evil forces are nailed to the pillar of shame, forever cursed by the people of the world. As I see it, this enormous "public praise" should also be a marker in time for the start of democratic politics. It is a final call to all political elites who possess a conscience. On this memorial, the public will, using its own devices, inscribe a lasting warning to the world -
"Save the children! Save China!"
Then there's this recent blog post, which purports to be a transcript of a speech at an "internal meeting":
Comrades, we have been testing out the One County, Two Systems policy for a decade or more, and it has generally been effective. I am quite satisfied. People both inside and outside of the country had opinions - they clamored, hollered, murmured, and acted uncultured - I do not see them as anything hard to overcome. Don't they just want press freedom? But freedom is not absolute. Right now there are people who are satisfied with one country, two systems, and there are people who are not. This is normal. Overall, I am satisfied. This is not just my own opinion - it is the opinion of many senior comrades, and it is the opinion of the entire populace. In the break room just now I chatted with a few reporters. The question came up: should we, on the foundation of One Country, Two Systems, try out One Country, Three Systems or One Country, Four Systems? Some places are historically backward and have a poor foundation - should we try out a slave system? We could put a pilot site in Hongdong County, for example. Why shouldn't we? I say we can. The groundwork for a slave system in Hongdong County is substantial. Reform must be bold, mistakes are not to be feared, errors should be corrected. Who among us does not make mistakes? I myself made a mistake once - the last time I corrected test papers I summed up one student's marks incorrectly, that poor fellow. VOA and the BBC took hold of it and had daily reports, gleefully congratulating each other, but ultimately it wasn't anything extraordinary - doesn't a simple correction solve it? So we should not fear mistakes. We should not be timid and effeminate; we should be strong men. Those who have done great deeds throughout history were all strong men. Qin Shi Huang was one, Emperor Wu was another, and Zhu Yuanzhang another. I could be one too, after a fashion. On a math exam back in high-school, there was one question that everyone answered A, but I persisted in answering B. Ultimately I was proved to be correct. So you must be bold, and do not fear making errors.
The past few days, the illegal brick kiln incident erupted in Hongdong County. The media chattered about it, talking so much that it was as if a great flood, a landslide, and an earthquake came, frightening everyone to no end. Last night, a Shanxi leader gave me a call, weeping and wailing that there was no hope. I say there's nothing that great here. We shouldn't be nervous, we shouldn't panic. This would have come out sooner or later, and sooner is better than later. The sooner it comes out the sooner it can be resolved. Isn't it just showing that our country still has a slave system? I say, here's what we should do. One Country, Three Systems isn't anything that hard. If the subject is socialism, then if we do a slave system in one county, not even amounting to a little finger, what's there to be afraid of? Yesterday we arrested the boss - what was his name? Right, Heng Tinghan. Under the socialist system, this man should be killed, if not 10,000 times then at least 9000. But comrades, we must talk dialectics when evaluating the historical position and contribution of an individual. I have talked on this issue many times in many different places. Someone like Heng Tinghan, under a socialist system, is a criminal. He should be put to death by a thousand cuts. But if we try out a slave system in Hongdong County, then I say he should be a county governor, or if not, he's at least qualified to be a village head. If he really can manage Hongdong County, if he can spur the economy, the I want to send him a letter of congratulations. I am also considering sending him to live among the cannibals in Africa for a few years to learn something from them and come back with a PhD. Who says a slave master can't study for a PhD? I say it's fine.
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