The New York Times account of the passage of a new environmental
protection law in China offers a perception of a legislative process that is
very similar to one practiced in the UK or Mexico or the USA.
China’s
Legislature Votes to Toughen Environmental Protection Law
The Chinese legislature decided Thursday to revise the country’s
environmental protection law…
The legal revisions were approved Thursday
by the National People’s Congress [NPC], a legislative body that generally
agrees to policies already made by Communist Party leaders. Li Keqiang, China’s
prime minister, has said that China is ready to “declare war” on pollution…
You know what's misleading about that account.
The
New York Times reporter makes it sound as if the NPC is meeting in Beijing
like Parliament does in London, and on Thursday it passed important revisions to
environmental protection legislation.
What's wrong with that impression?
If you were asked that question on an exam, what would your answer be?
Here's the account by the Chinese news agency
Xinhua:
China's
NPC adopts revised Environmental Protection Law
The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC),
the country's top legislature, has voted to adopt revisions to the Environmental
Protection Law…
The bill was passed with a solid majority of votes…
And the difference between the two accounts?
You should
recognize right away that the ±3000 delegates to the NPC are not in session at
this time of year. They meet earlier in the spring (March 5-15 in 2014).
You should also know about how political bodies in China regularly have
"executive" committees to do the work of larger groups and ask for approval for
those actions later. The Communist Party has a Politburo and within that a
Standing Committee.
In a system of democratic centralism, policy
decisions are made at the very top of the system by very small groups of people.
The Party politburo is a group of about 25; the Party Standing Committee has 7
members. Similarly, the 3000-member NPC (meeting yearly) has a standing
committee of about 150 (meeting every other month) and the chairman and about 14
vice-chairmen (probably meet weekly or as needed) serve as the executive
committee for the NPC Standing Committee.
So, as with the care you must
take with Nigerian journalists who carelessly toss around terms like government
and regime, we must take care, even with respected journalists like those who
write for the
New York Times, when they describe political processes in
terms that sound familiar. Comparative politics is not easy to get right.
_______________________
Facial hair and subversion
The news about beards is probably only one bit in a long list of things the
Chinese government wants to know about, but it makes a good headline.
China
Offers Rewards for Beard Informants in Muslim-Majority Area
Authorities in western China’s restive, Muslim-majority Xinjiang
Uighur Autonomous Region are offering rewards to locals who inform on their
neighbors for “wearing beards,” government-controlled media reported this week.
Islamic liturgy recommends that Muslim men wear beards.
In recent months, local officials have tightened religious restrictions on
Xinjiang’s ethnic Uighurs, in response to a series of armed attacks that were
allegedly perpetrated by Uighur separatists…
Informants in parts of
Xinjiang’s Aksu prefecture, an epicenter of the region’s ethnic tensions, can
earn anywhere from $8 to $8,000 for reporting their neighbors’ illegal religious
or “separatist activity” — which can now include facial hair, according to
Chinese newspaper
The Global Times.
"That's a lot of money for
Uighurs in the south [of the region]. There they are very poor. This is an
incentive to betray their fellow Uighurs to get some financial gain," Alim
Seytoff, spokesman for the Uighur rights advocacy group World Uyghur Congress
(WUC), told
Al Jazeera…
Local authorities have attempted to
suppress various ostensible signs of Muslim religiosity in the past. But
Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch, said this appeared to
be first time officials are comfortable enough with such measures to allow them
to be reported in an English-language publication geared toward foreigners…
Tomorrow morning at 6:30 in Rm 302, I will bring donuts/pastries, fruit, juice and chocolate milk. Please post in comment mode if you are able to bring any food for your brain. Also, post any Qs here till 10 pm and I will do my best to answer them.
Even Putin loves his mother.*
Chris Wolak @ChrisWolak1 · 
