It’s nearing the end of the month again so that means I should probably post in an effort to keep some sort of continuity going on my blog. I’m coming up to eight years of blogging this April for which I hope to do a little write up on what I’ve learned so far. But in this post I wanted to share with you a few changes that have happened both in Beijing and in China.
Change #1: The Brickings
When I was out of Beijing last year for a few months the city embarked on a “beautification campaign”, otherwise known as the “Great Bricking of 2017”. Essentially, all the old buildings that the government deemed unsafe or, more likely, unsightly, were either torn down or bricked up. Now you might say that is a mean thing to do, and certainly we lost a lot of pubs and small Mom and Pop shops in the ordeal. But was it altogether unfair?
Any traveller to a developing country will often cite the “traditional” way of living, particularly the presence of run-down or “rustic” buildings or some similar type of adjective. The problem with these descriptions? They often ignore the relative unsafe conditions and the problems behind them (notably, poverty). Moreover, they tend to fall down and, no matter how much character they add to a place, just simply look bad. What looks like a throwback to the history can also be seen as unsafe living conditions. And that’s kinda what Beijing wanted to do, clean up its image. And so with that, they either knocked the buildings down or put little red bricks in front of the stores so they couldn’t be used any more. What happened to the owners? Good question. Probably set up shop across town.
Change #2: Pollution
This past winter saw the north east region of China switch to natural gas instead of coal for its heating needs which meant that they could not only burn as much coal, but shut down some of the older power plants, too… which may have put out of work a million people or so. We don’t know. The main point, however, is that the skies were clearer and the sky a little bluer throughout the winter months. Not only did they switch to natural gas but they also restricted the amount of construction that could go on. That meant a lot of empty gray, unfinished buildings standing around. one building that didn’t stop construction, however, was the China Zun tower, which is currently being built in the middle of Beijing’s CBD and is said to be the 2nd tallest building in China. Or 3rd. I can’t remember. Oh, and it’s just down the street from me!
(Oh, and much of the country still depends on coal (which surged in price from $3 to $15 over the last three years) and that if cities need to meet their quotas for pollution controls, guess what they do? Shut down the heavy industry for a week, let the smog clear up, meet the quota (since it’s on a monthly basis), and then fire them back up! I guess you can’t blame them as this type of maneuver seems to be pretty common all over the world.)
Change #3: No more limits
Probably the most publicized change in China is the removal of term limits for Mr. Xi Jinping, the current head of government for China. During the committee meeting held in Beijing throughout March, the constitution was amended to remove the part about term limits for the person at the top. The move is similar to how the current Russian government works despite the Russian Federation holding national votes. Further, if you look closely of what role Xi Jinping plays, the titles he is conferred is similar to the roles given to the President of the USA. That is, leader of the country (president), leader of the party (Communist), and leader of the military. So the big change is that instead of handing over the reigns in 2022 (the end of Xi jinping’s would-be second term), he’ll most likely continue to stay in power and direct the country.
Why the change? Various reasons can be given, be it a power move or simply a return to roots: China has basically always been ruled by one person. Whatever the case, we’ll see what happens in 2022. Who knows, maybe this was just a symbolic move?
Change #4: The news is always happy
I have been reading a lot of news lately, particularly the Wall Street Journal and Foreign Affairs. The current political climate and my interest in the markets sort of makes me do so much reading but, honestly, I can’t say they do much for me other than make me feel completely uncomfortable and insecure. Haha. But, the cure for that is to read some Chinese news, notably the China Daily. Although the China Daily isn’t as obvious as their brethren over at the Global Times (which is basically the voice of the Communist Party), I noticed that this year the China Daily seems to be much more vocal about a few things: how great China is, how great everything is going, and how much the government is right in doing the things they do. It certainly is a different perspective. It’s kinda like whoever writes the articles saw that Western media is too negative and then decided that the news doesn’t have to be negative. And so, in China, it isn’t.
Change #5: AI and cameras
So one of the big investments that China is making these days is in AI, that is, artificial intelligence. Apparently, Mr. Putin has said that whoever leads in the development of artificial intelligence will rule the world, or something like that. And so now China has mobilized itself to develop its AI sector and is incorporating it into everyday use. Recently, the security folks at the train station in Zhengzhou (one of the places we travel to for business) started using AI-enhanced camera glasses. Think Google Glasses but with Chinese characteristics. Ostensibly they’re doing this in an effort to make it easier to identify people on their watch list but who knows who else they’re profiling. To be fair, however, Beijing itself is said to be one of the most heavily camera-equipped cities in the world.
Further, jaywalking is being clamped down on in the south of China as traffic cameras now identify people who cross the street on a red light. The penalty for being caught can be two-fold: not only does your face go on up on a large screen for all to see, but then you get stopped by the police and fined! Noticeably this technology is absent from Beijing which is probably one of the worst countries in the world for jaywalking but, and here’s the next point…
Change #6: Stopping and queuing
I’m not sure if the aforementioned laws and cameras are really having an effect but I can say that two of the biggest changes I’ve seen in Beijing at least is that people, that is people walking on the street, are now actually stopping at the sight of the little red triangle (Beijing uses triangles to count down to the lights changing) and waiting for the light to change! Not only that, as I’ve seen on my morning commute, people are actually queuing in lines outside the subway cars! WTF?! It’s almost like Japan where they stop for lights even though the street is only one car length wide! What’s happening?
Change #7: IP law
Apparently China has started taking IP law very seriously now, that is, intellectual property. I suppose with the current administration at the helm, the rule of the law is trying to be adhered to. A few years ago it was graft amongst the ranks and now its intellectual property. The strange thing is that, at the same time many countries are accusing the USA of protectionist policies, China has never been one to really care about foreign laws concerning IP or any other sort of Western business protection (why do Huawei’s phones look so much like the iPhone?!). That seems to have changed and now the government is enforcing various IP laws in an effort to give its economy a little bit more credibility around the world. We’ll see how this goes but now it seems that the days of downloading movies and music for free in China are numbered.
And so those are the major changes I’ve noticed in China since returning in November. Granted, some of the old habits still remain, most notably Beijing walking, wherein people will still cut you off as you walk, but it does seem a few things have noticeably changed. I do have to point out that Beijing is not China and China is not only Beijing, so it might be that I’m only seeing this because I’m in the capital and not elsewhere. I also can’t help but wonder if it’s simply because I’m reading more of the news than before which really only leads me to one conclusion: stop reading the news!