Have you got an e-bike?

The city of Kunming now sees hundreds of thousands of ebikes on the roads every day.

Now I am back in the city where I grew up, and I could no longer imagine going anywhere by riding a bicycle.

It is way too dangerous to do that now. There are still bicycle lanes on the roads, but these lanes are mostly occupied by a new type of bicycle: electronic bicycles. They look very much like motorcycles, only that they were powered by batteries. They are faster than traditional bicycles, but are considered non-vehicles and therefore run in the same lane with bicycles.

Worse, they compete with pedestrians for road rights, because as non-vehicles, they don’t have to stop when there is a red light, and they cross the street on crossing lines together with pedestrians.

Read the full story here.

Chinese Moviemakers Betting On A-list Hollywood Star

Christian Bale

Bale in The 13 Women in Nanjing

Hollywood star Christian Bale and China’s top movie director Zhang Yimou have teamed up in a movie production in China. In the midst of the shooting, Bale received a slew of awards, including an Oscar, for his role in "The Fighter."

Bale’s success certainly delighted his Chinese colleagues, who are betting on his stardom to boost box office performance of the new movie, "The 13 Women of Nanjing" (金陵十三钗), not just in China, but around the globe.

The movie is about 13 Chinese prostitutes’ struggle against Japanese invaders during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. Bale is said to portray a westerner who was in the city and helped these women.

The budget for the movie set a new record for China’s movie industry, and a large portion of the over US$90 million budget goes to Bale’s pay check, Zhang Weiping, producer of the movie, told the Chinese media. Bale is paid about US$300,000 per day, Zhang said.

But Zhang Weiping said Bale, the latest Batman as in "The Dark Knight," will attract a huge number of audiences to go watch the new movie in theaters around the world. The movie will be shown in 150 countries and regions, Zhang told Chinese media.

“What we need to do is to let them [international market] open the door and welcome Chinese movies,” Zhang Weiping said. How? Zhang’s strategy is to stop being copycat of Hollywood productions, but to import Hollywood actors and techniques to the service of Chinese filmmaking.

So Bale was imported. The British actor has been called the most dynamic actor of his generation. His possession of charm and talent has brought him a huge fan base around the world. Even his recent F-bomb loaded lashing out at a co-worker on the set of Terminator Salvation did not seem to undermine his star power, but perhaps made him even hotter.

And the Chinese filmmakers can now afford someone like Bale. In 2010, box office gross in China exceeded 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) for the first time. Chinese moviemakers in recent years have increasingly endeavored huge budget productions, such as John Woo’s "Red Cliff," which cost US$80 million, a record in 2008.

But being able to hire Bale does not mean Chinese moviemakers now have the same leverage as Hollywood. For Zhang Weiping and Zhang Yimou, pouring out so much money on one big star is still a huge gamble. If "The 13 Women" failed to do well in box office, the Chinese filmmakers will have to suffer the loss.

Bale, regardless, will emerge intact. As an A-list star in Hollywood, he has even bigger projects lined up, including another Batman movie to be released next summer. The new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises," is going to have a budget of at least US$175 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. That is nearly double the cost of The 13 Women, and yet to set a Hollywood record.

Related links:
On Location: 'The Dark Knight Rises' in L.A. as studio sets up production office

Zhang Weiping talks about The 13 Women: here and here

Liu Xiaobo and Neoauthoritarianism

Generally speaking, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo does not have much to do with neoauthoritarianism, except for the fact that the latter is part of the reason that he is in jail.

Briefly, neoauthoritarianism is a political ideology that postulates economic growth under authoritarian rule. This was the ideology that Zhao Ziyang held when he lost the political battle with the hardliners amid the1989 pro-democracy demonstration, as pointed out by Ruan Ming, a former aide to Hu Yaobang.

Dissidents from 1989 often blame Zhao for failing to ally more firmly with the demonstrators and take the initiative of media freedom, thus possibly turn the demonstration into a successful democratic revolution. But if one understands Zhao’s political position at that time, i.e. neoauthoritarianism, one could see that such scenarios were just not going to happen.

For Zhao simply never really believed in democracy or freedom of press. As much as he wanted to liberalize the market, he had no intention to liberalize the political system. Zhao, like pretty much all party leaders, who might have different views regarding how to hold onto the party’s monopoly of power, firmly supported the one-party rule. They don’t believe Chinese people are ready for democracy, free election and free speech. They see political liberalization as simply the cause of chaos and turmoil.

As Liu Binyan, one of the media freedom advocates from the 1980s, stated, China is unique in some way. When the communist regimes in Eastern Europe collapsed like dominos in 1989, the Chinese Communist Party hurried to tighten its grip of power. The entire China was on fire in the spring of 1989, demanding more freedom in politics, thoughts and expression, only to cause the party re-realize that ideological control was the very lifeline of the party rule. Despite the outcry and demonstration from millions of people, including journalists, there turned out to be less, not more, freedom for the media in political discourse.

In other words, people like Liu Xiaobo, who have fought with their lives for democracy and freedom for the Chinese people, keep getting disappointed, or worse, jailed. The answer, at least in part, still lies in neoauthoritarianism.

Zhao Ziyang was down, but the political ideology he was trying to practice is still strongly upheld among the CCP leaders, only that today’s ruling group is savvier in both propelling economic growth and maintaining political control through control of media and expression.

This is not to say that neoauthoritarianism is all bad and evil. Whether China is ready for a political overhaul does merit a big question mark. At the same time, Liu Xiaobo and his comrades deserve all the respect and honor for pursuing their dream of a better country for the Chinese people. But unless there is a substantial number of members of the party elite actually believe in democracy, civil liberty and media freedom, grass-root dissidents like Mr. Liu would probably have to spend more time in jail.

Forbes Put Hu as the Most Powerful Person in the World

Surprising even to editors at Forbes, Chinese president Hu Jintao is the most powerful person in the world, according to the latest Forbes List.

U.S. president Barack Obama is the second.

The power ranking is based on evaluation of four criteria: number of people under influence,  financial resources, powerful in multiple spheres, and active wielding of power. The combination of scores in all four categories put Mr. Hu to the top spot.

In the explanation of Hu's power, the authoritarian nature of the Chinese political system, China's taking over as the world's second largest economy, as well as China's massive foreign currency reserve are the key elements. 

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Is Hu Jintao Really The Most Powerful Person In The World?