Last week, Tibetan exile groups voiced outrage at a video posted on YouTube that purportedly showed militarized police beating and kicking detained Tibetans during ethnic unrest a year ago.
 
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, was dismissive of the video at a March 26 briefing.

“I have also seen the video. The contents are obviously edited and doctored. Maybe the Dalai clique got some tips of image-editing from certain Western media,” Qin said, adding that police during the riots used “utmost restraint.”

Nonetheless, the government seemed to sense that this position wasn’t completely convincing. So within a day, censors blocked access to YouTube.

As of today, YouTube once again appears available in China. But if you try to see the video, you get a banner that says, “This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”

To see the video, you have to go here, an exile website. Judge for yourself whether it is fake. But beware: the scenes are not for the weak of stomach. (The site is blocked in China unless you have software to bust through the Great Firewall.)

On a related subject, Qin Gang is becoming a master at the art of high dudgeon, making the Foreign Ministry briefings entertaining in an odd way. But he certainly turns black into white. I wasn’t at the aforementioned briefing, although transcripts are available here. Qin routinely treats foreign media as lacking in the standards that he ascribes to the Chinese media.

Interestingly, to seek credibility for its Tibet stance lately, the People’s Daily has repeatedly been turning to, you guessed it, foreign scholars and experts. Not surprisingly, they all seem to say good things about China’s policies on Tibet. When one scholar was recently quoted in such a fashion, I was a little surprised. So I wrote him an email. Here’s an excerpt of what he wrote back:

“I had insisted to People's Daily that they should NOT remove a sentence I said about military presence and its long-term negative influence and even without informing me, they run this. I didn't even realise they were running it. They have removed 60% of what I said!!!”

I guess if the “Dalai clique” needed some tips on doctoring information, they could also turn to the People’s Daily.

Kevin Rudd, the Australian prime minister, is a man to watch when it comes to observing China’s relations with the world.

As everyone probably knows by now, Rudd, a former diplomat, speaks Mandarin well and is seen by China as a friendly interlocutor.

But Rudd is hypersensitive about being seen among Australian voters as too cozy with the Chinese so he virtually never speaks with the Australian press about China.

Last weekend, the No. 5 man in China’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee, Li Changchun, visited Rudd in Canberra, and Rudd’s office kept the visit virtually secret. Li is in charge of propaganda, media and ideology. Given these high-level contacts, it’s worthwhile listening to Rudd when he does speak about China, which he did Wednesday evening in Washington on the NewsHour With Jim Lehrer program on PBS. Rudd spoke after coming out of a meeting with Barack Obama at the White House (see photo). Here are excerpts from a transcript provided by PBS, beginning with a segment on the upcoming G-20 meeting next month in London to deal with the global financial crisis:

JIM LEHRER:  Of course, one of the major economies in the world is China.  Is it doing its part? 
KEVIN RUDD:  The Chinese have stumped up a reasonable stimulus package so far.  It's probably something in the order of about $500 billion.  This...
LEHRER:  What is that -- put that in perspective, what does that mean, $500 billion?  Is that a big package or is that -- in Chinese terms...
RUDD:  Well, there are different ways of calculating such a package in China.  And, of course, there's a certain opaqueness with some of the numbers in China.  And there are other things which the Chinese may not be currently declaring, for example, how credit is being released through their banks to support businesses and consumers. 
But if governments around the world -- and this debate on fiscal stimulus is getting going a bit at the moment -- let's just look at the possibility of governments not stepping up to the plate with what they've already done. 
The IMF has calculated there will be 20 million -- nearly 20 million more people on the unemployment queue across the G-20 economies today, including China, were it not for fiscal stimulus.  I think the responsible course of action is to get behind this as a temporary measure. 
///
At another point, Rudd goes into great detail about his views about China:

LEHRER:  You've suggested in some of the things you've written and said that you believe there is a golden opportunity for -- that's my word, not yours -- for the United States, as well as the rest of -- Australia and the rest of the so-called developed world, to collaborate more with China and kind of move together as partners in some of these areas involving economic and financial matters.  Explain your point there. 
RUDD:  Right now we're trying to deal responsibly, globally, with this global recession, through the G-20.  Now, what's the G-20?  It includes 20 of the largest economies in the world, a few exceptions.  But it's got some representativeness to it, because together they represent about 80 percent or 90 percent of global GDP. 
But it's also a small enough body that you can actually get together and broker some decisions politically.  And in the past, a lot of our international institutions have broken down because an agreement couldn't be reached. 
Now, China is a player in the G-20.  And, therefore, when we look at one of the decisions we're going to have to make soon, when is the reform of the International Monetary Fund, China will be expected to step up to the plate and put more resources into the fund. 
But China right now, its voting rights within that fund are the equivalent of Belgium and the Netherlands.  I think you've got to change that so that China has a bigger place at the table, rightly, but also that the world can then draw upon the resources which China puts responsibly into an international financial institution. 
That's one example of how this G-20 group can help frame an outcome for the future of the International Monetary Fund, which also brings China into helping with the solution. 
LEHRER:  In a more general way -- I mean, you are a China hand, as a professional diplomat, you speak Mandarin Chinese -- should China -- what would be your advice to Americans as to how they should view China now, as a competitor, as a potential ally, as an enemy, as a potential problem?  What is it?  What's China represent -- should represent to the average American?  Put it in any terms you want to. 
RUDD:  Jim, I think China represents a huge opportunity for us all for the 21st century.  The numbers speak for themselves.  The center of global economic gravity is moving to the Asia Pacific region in the 21st century.  And so what's happening in China, we see it also with India and you also see it with many other economies in the region, in Southeast Asia, Indonesia.  But China is big.  And, of course, the continued strength of Japan, as well. 
Therefore, when you look at China in the future, I don't think anything's to be served by simply assuming it's all going to go bad.  I think the challenge is this -- and our friends in America to do the same -- work with us in integrating China into the institutions of global governance, on the political side, on the security side, also on the economic side through, for example, the G-20, and also integrate them front and center in the great challenge of climate change, as well. 
If you engender that sort of environment, then you enable China to do -- as the head of the World Bank, Bob Zoellick, once said -- for China to play the role of a responsible global stakeholder. 
Now, if China was to turn its back on that or not be responsible, the world would soon know.  But I think the smart course of action for us all is to involve them. 
They're not perfect.  They've done some bad things in the past.  But let's look at the opportunities, rather than simply assume it's all threat and all risk. 

Many Chinese youth are apathetic when it comes to politics.

After all, what change could possibly be in the offing? Morever, with China’s sustained economic boom, the youth of today have never known a year which wasn’t better than the last one. For the vast majority, life has gotten better and better as long as they’ve been alive.

But there are currents and counter-currents, and exceptions to every generalization. Another current among young people is irreverence, especially to efforts by the state to control how they may express themselves.

Chinese leaders uphold the narrative that they are building a “harmonious” society and insist that they are for “healthy” development of the internet. So anyone who posts something that gets deleted from the internet is said to have been “harmonized.”

Controls on expression inevitably lead some people to try to get around them, bypassing and mocking censorship. One example is the phenomenon of Chinese talking about the “grass mud horse,” a harmless mythical creature which sounds nearly identical to the tonal sounds for about the most vile expletive in the Chinese language to use against someone’s mother. Click here and here and here for more.

Another example is the T-shirt in the photo. If you decipher the Roman numerals, you can make out that they read “8964.” Anyone clever enough realizes that it refers to June 4, 1989, the day pro-democracy demonstrations were smashed by the People’s Liberation Army in and around Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

The topic, of course, is verboten in China. Chinese leaders do not want a public debate about how patriotic soldiers fired into a crowd of their own people. Nor do they want Chinese seeing videos on YouTube that they don't approve of, one reason why YouTube appears to have been blocked this week.

So the Sohu.com blog where the T-shirt was mentioned quickly drew the attention of censors. If you click on the link now, you come to a page saying it has been deleted because it was deemed unhealthy.

But you can bet that Chinese creativity will come up with plenty of other ways to keep the censors busy.

The above scene looks like it might be along a Russian street. Actually, it’s in the Chinese border city of Manzhouli, where most shop signs are in Cyrillic to attract Russian traders. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I was up there last week. Here’s a link to the article I wrote. Be sure to click on the video accompanying the article.

A journalist friend of mine once wrote a magazine article about Panama entitled “Dustbin for Dictators.” This was a decade ago, and at the time the description was apt.

Living in Panama City then were ousted Guatemalan strongman Jorge Serrano, and toppled Haitian army chief Raoul Cedras. Ousted Ecuadorean President Abdala Bucaram was spending his time (and the taxpayer money of Ecuadoreans) in the casinos of Panama City.The shah of Iran passed through Panama looking for a place to hang his hat. So did Vladimir Montesinos,  a sinister former spy chief from Peru.Is Hong Kong now vying for the title that Panama City once held? After all, both places are international entrepots with an anything-goes mentality.

What brings this to mind is a story today about Robert and Grace Mugabe, the authoritarian leader of Zimbabwe and his wife, who appear to be setting up Hong Kong as an alternative base.

On Sunday, Hong Kong announced that Grace Mugabe would not be prosecuted for allegedly lacerating the face of a photographer on assignment for the Sunday Times of London with her diamond-encrusted ring. The photographer was shooting pictures of Madame Mugabe Jan. 15 as she was shopping in a ritzy Hong Kong area.  Hong Kong’s Department of Justice said Grace Mugabe would enjoy diplomatic immunity for any actions in Hong Kong.

Turns out that the Mugabes’ daughter, Bona, is studying at a university in Hong Kong. The Sunday Times also reported that the Mugabes may have recently bought a $5.5 million dwelling in Hong Kong. In cash.

Hong Kong is also one of the favored destinations of ousted Thai strongman Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin, a fugitive who recently was sentenced to two years in jail in Thailand for abuse of power, bought a home for about $6 million for his daughter Paetongtarn last November, the South China Morning Post has reported.

Is any of this illegal? Perhaps not.  But if Hong Kong offers refuge to many more people of this sort, its reputation may take a beating.

I got a very interesting email from a regular reader of this blog. He lives in Zhengzhou in Henan Province, and recently had an unusual experience trying to buy a computer.

I’m in the city of Manzhouli along China’s far northern border with Russia. It’s snowing like crazy outside and I’ve just woken up in my bone-dry hotel room with a terrible thirst.

I reach for a plastic bottle of what appears to be the complimentary drinking water. One can’t drink tap water in China, so it’s this or nothing.

The label reads: UP-O2, All-Weather Movement Drink.

Then it says, “Relieves thirst omnidirectionally. Golden Natural Mineral Group.”

“UP-O2 is one kind of the moisture consumption and the 02 healthy drink of human body supplement because of the movement.”

“UP-O2, The especially quality after the movement, the work, bathes and gets out of bed drink.”

But is it water? The “gets out of bed” part describes me to a T, but I just want plain old water. The Chinese characters on the label don't seem to offer any further clarity. All I know is that I don’t want any treacly sports drink or weird beverage.

So I open it up and … Ah! It’s water!

It’s not just Americans worried about the stability of the U.S. banking system. China’s “a little bit worried,” too. So says Premier Wen Jiabao.

“We have loaned a huge amount of money to the United States,” Premier Wen said at his annual meeting with the media Friday.

“Of course, we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried, and I’d like through you (Western journalists) to call on the United States to keep its word and stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets."

China is the largest creditor to the United States, and Wen’s gentle reminder is that China has a lot of skin in the game when it comes to global economic recovery.

I was in the back of the third-floor salon in the Great Hall of the People where the meeting is always held, standing because there were not enough chairs.

I didn’t bother to raise my hand because after nearly six years here I realize that all the questions are pre-arranged by the Foreign Ministry ahead of time. It isn’t a press conference in any normal sense of the word. I would describe it as a session where the premier talks on themes raised by journalists and coordinated through the government. One news agency employee told me they’d been approached about asking a question but submitted a question deemed to general for the satisfaction of the ministry. After all, the news conference is televised to the entire nation and one would not want to be embarrassed by an unexpected question

I came back to the office grumbling that there had been hardly anything worth reporting out of the news conference. My Chinese news assistant asked what question I would have asked had I been given the chance.

I had no chance so I hadn’t given it much thought. There are so many topics, some of them ponderous, like how would China reform the U.N. Security Council to make it more equitable? And what kind of security arrangement would China like to see in Northeast Asia?

But sometimes I prefer simple questions. How about: Will China feel relieved when the Dalai Lama dies? Or one off-the-wall issue that many Chinese care about: After the glorious success of China’s athletes at the Olympics, what will it take for the nation to build a successful professional soccer league free of corruption and up to standards that can compete at global levels? (China’s greatness in other sports is matched by its weakness in soccer, and this is a point of intense interest because soccer is popular here.)
 
So now it’s your turn. What would you ask the premier?

If the Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas ever gets built the way its designers foresee, it will be the largest resort of any in the Caribbean region. And China will play a huge role.

Mammoth is the only way to describe the $1.6 billion Baha Mar resort, which is to include 3,550 hotel rooms, a big casino, a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, shopping entertainment venues and lots of tropical drinks with little umbrellas in them. It will go up on New Providence Island, the most populous of the Bahamian isles and site of the capital, Nassau.

Problem is, in this economic climate, it’s not so easy to get bank lending. So China has stepped in, not only with cash but also construction know-how. And maybe laborers.

Two months ago, the chief executive of the project, Sarkis Irzmilian, let drop at a conference in Nassau that the project was facing, shall we say, a few setbacks. A press release at the time hinted that Chinese investors might come to the rescue:

Baha Mar Resorts is currently in discussion with Chinese investors regarding the future of the mega resort project. Later this month, the company will host an important delegation from China visiting The Bahamas to continue talks.

“Our Chinese friends have recognized that the current slowdown provides us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to build this project at a greatly reduced cost, and be ready to open when the recession ends and the world recovers. As we move ahead, I look forward to being guided by their wisdom and long term strategy.”

As I noted in an earlier blog posting, among the senior Chinese leaders touring the Western Hemisphere in February was Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, who stopped in the Bahamas.

A new press release from Baha Mar has just hit my desk. The State Construction Engineering Corporation signed a contract this week in Beijing to build Baha Mar, and the Export-Import Bank of China will provide project financing. Both are government entities.

“While there are various next steps we must take together with our Chinese counterparts before the project’s financing is finalized, this marks a significant milestone for the future of the project and for the growth of Bahamian tourism overall,” Baha Mar President Don Robinson said.

So will the Chinese actually own part of Baha Mar? That’s not clear to me. But what I do find rich in symbolism is the juxtaposition of the resort – to be built by state-owned companies of a nation ruled by a (nominally) Communist Party – a short boat ride away from Miami, the bulwark of Cuban-born anti-Communists. Times do change.

Also curious is a line in the latest press release promising to “to hire as many qualified Bahamians as possible to work on the project during its 2-3 year construction phase.” That is probably coded language for the following: China will ship in lots of its own laborers but will try to keep it low-key and not let them off the site. Bahamians will get some jobs, too.

Some 500 Chinese laborers were brought in to Grenada a few years to build the national stadium on that Caribbean island, stirring up some local resentment even though the stadium was a gift from Beijing. China has also sent laborers to build stadiums in Jamaica and Antigua. Then last October, some Chinese laborers kidnapped several Israelis in a pay dispute on West Caicos Island, not far from the Bahamas.