Picture of the Day: Low Carbon Footprint

This afternoon a parade of mules lugging bricks passed by the Holiday Inn Lido.

One was frightened by the big buses and cars whizzing by him, but his owner managed to calm him down.

These people, who live on the outskirts of Beijing, come into town on these large flatbed carts and go to sites where buildings have been torn down.

There they scavenge for bricks they can use to build their own houses, or perhaps to sell. They pack them neatly on their carts and then their mules have the tough task of bringing them back to their villages.

These mule-drawn carts, some of which have fruits and vegetables to sell, are only allowed on the 4th ring roads and beyond -- you never see them closer to the centre of the city.

But what's great about these people is that they really have low carbon footprints -- not only do they re-use recycled items, but also transport themselves using mules.

While they are doing it out of economic necessity, it's good to know not everything is wasted.

Fundamental Misunderstanding

Today I had lunch with a former colleague who I haven't seen for a few months as he's now based in Xinjiang, his home province.

However, he's back in town for the upcoming National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress next week to see what new policies will be implemented.

He was telling me how much he missed Beijing, as Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang is very polluted. "Sometimes you can't even see 200 metres in front of you," he explained, saying the city is surrounded by mountains on three sides, trapping the air.

It also doesn't help that the main industries there are producing steel, which in turn uses a lot of coal. Many homes still use coal for heat and cooking too.

Nevertheless, he raved about the landscape, how there was so much to see, as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region covered one-sixth of China. The north was more about scenery, while the south was about its culture.

He added the place was rich in natural resources, like minerals and lots of oil. However, there's the West-East pipeline that transports gas to Shanghai. He said there's a cap on how much gas can be consumed in Xinjiang, which is why many cars are lined up at gas stations all the time, as most of it is piped to the east.

One of the biggest concerns in this western region is social stability he says, as there are constant terrorist threats from Uighurs who want to separate and form their own country of East Turkestan.

"I don't understand why they want to harm innocent people," he said.

I explained that genetically they aren't even Chinese -- they are from Central Asia. And perhaps, I suggested, they feel desperate, which is why they have resorted to violence to get their message across.

"But the Chinese have made their lives so much better," he said. "Now they live almost like people here in Beijing. We liberated them."

As soon as he said that I realized I had to tread very carefully through this conversation. But what did China liberate them from? Sound familiar?

We ended that thread of the conversation soon afterwards, but he seemed sad about how his home province has become so polluted and not as developed as he had hoped.

Still Ranting

The sale of the two bronze animal heads from Yuanmingyuan is over and yet China is still raising a ruckus about them.

Early this morning Beijing time, the heads of the rat and rabbit were sold for nearly $35.9 million, not including commission.

They were sold to anonymous telephone bidders and now the giant band of 81 Chinese lawyers who originally tried to halt the sale of the bronze heads want to find out who the buyers were and harass them.

Liu Yang, head of the legal group tried to put a positive spin on their fruitless efforts: "But our effort was rewarded by the attention this case attracted. We have heard condemnation of the parties in this deal. We are glad to see the reactions of the government and public," he said.

Now the Chinese government wants to put tighter controls on auction houses like Christie's by imposing limits on what they can take in or out of China.

The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) has ordered entry and exit administrative departments for cultural heritage at all levels to carefully check "heritage items" that Christie's seeks to import or export. The notice also extends to agents and employees of Christie's.

These entry and exit departments are separate from customs administration.

And the notice says if these cultural heritage employees find relics owned by Christie's that might have been looted or smuggled, they should report these finds immediately to the SACH.

"In recent years, Christie's has frequently sold cultural heritage items looted or smuggled from China, and all items involved were illegally taken out of the country," the notice said. It didn't specify the items or transactions.

Earlier today the SACH issued a statement condemning Christie's for putting the two animal heads up on the auction block, saying the auction "damaged Chinese citizens' cultural rights and feelings and will have serious effects on Christie's development in China."

Firstly, does the Chinese government not understand how auctions work?

Christie's and Sotheby's do not own the objects they sell; they merely act at middlemen who bring potential buyers and sellers together and try to get the highest prices for the sellers.

These auction houses wouldn't be caught with items in their possession.

Secondly, these items were looted, stolen, pillaged... over 150 years ago. They left China so long ago that it's almost impossible to get them back legally.

The best thing the Chinese government can do is try to get its "cultural relics" back through diplomatic means.

Why not have some class and in a non-confrontational way try to meet the owners of the other animal heads and come to come kind of gentlemanly agreement? We all know that money talks.

Thirdly, the totally disorganized response from the government and the band of lawyers is the result of a knee-jerk reaction that had no effect at all. This sale was announced months ago, and only at the last minute did these lawyers, on their own volition, make a pathetic attempt to stop the auction.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government then tried to jump on the bandwagon and hoped to fan the flames of nationalism, but no one changed their MSN message to "give us our heads back!" or "those heads belong to us!"

The only one to really join in the chorus is artist Jackie Chan, who has become the posterboy for China.

"They remain looted items, no matter whom they were sold to. Whoever took it out (of China) is himself a thief," he was quoted by AFP as saying.

That was over 150 years ago, Jackie. We probably will never know the real thief.

Lighting Up Attention

Last night I took the 614 bus home from Dongzhimen.

And one of the commercials on the TV screen was a startling one that grabbed your attention.

It showed three scenarios where people present cartons of cigarettes to friends and family as gifts.

In the first one, the recipients, middle-aged men, are horrified, as in place of the cigarettes, they see a pair of blackened lungs.

Next, a group of people have shocked expressions on their faces, when they see a man in pyjamas, dragging an oxygen tank with him and a saline drip.

The last scene shows an older couple, who, instead of seeing the man holding a carton of cigarettes as gifts, sees him present a funeral wreath instead.

The message basically says that giving cigarettes is not a good idea, as the recipients may think you're trying to kill them.

China has some 350 million smokers and the country's State Tobacco Monopoly Association is a hard one to crack as it is one of the Middle Kingdom's biggest taxpayers.

While the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has suggested to member states to adopt graphic picture warnings on their cigarette packaging to get the message across, China has been slow to do that.

It has dragged its feet by adopting the minimum requirements, like printing warnings in the smallest font size and covering an area of 30 percent of the packet, without a distinctive contrasting colour background to highlight the message.

The reason? The State Tobacco Monopoly Association manages the work related to the implementation of the convention.

Talk about counterproductive.

However -- if the television commercial I saw gets more play not only on buses, but subways and TVs, then it may definitely shock people into thinking twice about lighting up.

It's a good start that I hope continues to have messages that are even more horrifying to watch.

Celebrate Or Else

Tomorrow is the start of Tibetan New Year, called Losar.

Similar to Chinese Spring Festival, Losar is a 15-day holiday where family members gather, have large feasts, set off fireworks and burn incense.

But this year many are in a sombre mood, wanting to remember those killed in last year's riots.

There are estimates more than 120 died in the violent clashes with Chinese authorities. And this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the failed anti-Chinese uprising, after which the Dalai Lama fled to India, making things even more tense.

As a result, many Tibetans are joining in a non-violent protest campaign called "Say No to Losar", launched by Tibetan groups in Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama's home in exile.

"Instead of the usual celebrations marked by singing, dancing and other festivities, silence will be observed and butter lamps will be lit in the temples and homes to pray for the deceased," they announced in a statement last month.

But Chinese authorities will have none of this mourning and instead is trying to show the world how wonderful things are in Tibet -- without any foreigners witnessing it firsthand.

All foreigners have been banned from entering Tibet, with the earliest date they can enter the region being in April.

The Chinese are trying to launch their own campaign, organizing concerts, fireworks, horse-races and archery competitions. They've even declared a week-long public holiday in Tibet that started yesterday, and free admission to museums and parks.

They've also handed out coupons worth $120 each to 37,000 low-income families to shop for the holidays.

China Radio International features reports of excited Tibetans busy shopping for the holiday and eager to celebrate the New Year.

"They want to show that the Tibetan people are happy, that they have returned to normal life. But by intervening, they're making them unhappy," the Los Angeles Times quoted Tsering Shayka, a Tibetan historian now living in Canada. "They are trying to come up with gimmicks instead of solving the problem."

And apparently if people don't comply, there are some 20,000 additional soldiers and paramilitary troops deployed in Tibetan areas, and in Qinghai Province, village leaders were threatened with arrest if they didn't urge people to celebrate.

There are reports tensions are high in the area... and with the Year of the Ox, both parties are stubborn and determined to have it their way...

At Loggerheads

Later today the massive art collection of the late French designer Yves Saint Laurent will go under the hammer.

He and his partner Pierre Berge amassed some 733 items, from paintings by Picasso to ancient Egyptian sculptures. They started collecting in the 1950s and their Paris apartment was stuffed with all kinds of beautiful objects that inspired Saint Laurent in his fashionable designs.

However, there are two highly prized objects that China is demanding back.

They are the bronze heads of a rat and a rabbit, which were part of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing when it was looted by French and British forces in the Second Opium War in 1860.

There are 12 animals altogether and in 2007 casino magnate Stanley Ho was declared a hero for buying back the horse's head at an auction for about $9 million.

It's now displayed in the Lisboa Grand hotel in Macau, encased in a glass box with a bust of Ho in his younger years.

But back to the current auction. Christie's says the selling price is 10 million euros ($12.6 million) each, but China won't shell out for them.

It is demanding the animal heads be returned since they were stolen in the first place.

However Berge won't even entertain the idea, saying China would have to greatly improve its attitude on human rights before he would even consider handing them back. That doesn't help repair China-French relations...

China is now taking the legal route and a ruling is expected today on whether the bronzes should be handed back or included in the three-day sale.

Apparently some 80 Chinese lawyers are involved in the case, and they have even persuaded the Global Aixinjueluo Family Clan, a civil society registered in Hong Kong to be the plaintiff. The group consists of descendants of the emperors in the Qing Dynasty who were Manchus.

“The Old Summer Palace, which was plundered and burnt down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860, is our nation’s unhealed scar, still bleeding and aching,” Beijing lawyer Lui Yang said. “That Christie’s and Pierre Bergé would put them up for auction and refuse to return them to China deeply hurts our nation’s feelings.”

Why does China always use the argument that its nation's feelings is hurt? It just weakens its case.

Nevertheless, some experts in cultural-property issues say that items looted decades or centuries ago don't necessarily have to be repatriated if the country involved did not sign the 1995 UN Convention on the repatriation of stolen or illegally exported cultural relics.

While it may be legally impossible to get back, the experts suggest perhaps something like the bronze heads should be returned because of their historical significance.

However it seems both parties are adamant about getting their way with these prized items.

We'll have to see how it goes.

In the meantime, to be honest -- these animal heads are hardly beautiful in their artistic quality, but rather crude and generic... does China really want them back? And are they really worth $10 million each?

Stay tuned.

Waiting for Hillary

This morning I had an opportunity to see US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The ideal was actually scenario would be to shake her hand, pass on my condolences about Socks the cat passing and hope she had a productive Asian tour.

But this was how I spent my Sunday morning:

8:20am Meet my colleagues in the office. Two of them aren't here yet! One doesn't answer my call...

8:40am We head over to two company cars waiting for us, black Audis. The driver of the car I'm in starts moving the car before we've closed the back right door and there's a horrible crunch sound. Part of the siding is ripped out. Brilliant.

8:55am We arrive at the south gate of the US Embassy. We've been told to arrive by 9am, but again my missing colleagues still aren't there! Oh wait... we see them coming out of the car now.

9:20am It's cold standing outside the US Embassy. Another coworker points out to me the US Embassy emblem that features the eagle's claws, the one of the left holding an olive branch, the other a bunch of arrows. So it's either war or peace with the Americans.

9:30am We're finally allowed inside the security area where we must give up all electronic equipment that was not previously registered with the embassy. So that means no digital cameras, no cellphones, no iPods... so much for taking a picture of Clinton. The security staff hold our things like a coat check area and we must wear a red badge that indicates we're visitors and must be escorted at all times.

9:42am A Chinese staff member leads us to a holding room and tells us to wait for an American to take us further in. Really extreme security. Meanwhile my other colleagues are fussing over how to present Clinton some gifts we've prepared for her, including a framed blown-up picture of her, Bill and Chelsea during their 1995 trip to Xian where they visited the Terracotta Warriors up close in the pits.

10:09am We're now led into another area where Clinton will engage with 20 female leaders in China invited to have a discussion with her about women's issues. It's a room that has broadcasting equipment good for press conferences and translation. In the front cream-coloured sofas have been set up, with a lacquered wooden screen as a background. The Chinese carpet on the floor is a nice touch.

10:40am I'm dying for the loo and find it around the corner with no lock on the door! How strange is that.

10:46am As we're not part of the women's forum, we're ushered out into the public affairs offices and literally sit around and shoot the breeze with our US embassy contact. I ask him if the US ambassador to China has been named yet and contrary to speculation in the Chinese media, no one has been chosen yet. There was talk Clinton would make the announcement on her trip here, but she explained to the media that they have yet to decide who will take this important post.

Our contact has already planned out what President Barack Obama would do if he were to visit Beijing. He says he'd arrange for Obama to play basketball with the Chinese team and then to have a webchat with young people, answering any questions they have about him, even his favourite NBA team.

He also explains he's anxious because Clinton needs to leave the embassy by 1pm for a police escort to the airport. The airport have cleared a certain time frame for her plane to take off. If she misses it, she'd have to wait until after 4pm to take off.

11:20am Some of us need to go to the washroom again and a woman staffer escorts five of us to the loo. She politely waits for us outside and only after all five of us come out -- and she even checks the women's washroom -- before taking us back to where we were.

11:32am Our contact decides to move us closer to the room where the forum is being held as we will meet Clinton there at 11:50am. Other security staff keep pushing our group around saying this space has to be clear or that space can't have people congregating... we stand around waiting and still finalizing our logistical procedure for giving Clinton our presents.

11:46am One of my colleagues complains that we should already be in the room setting up but the discussion still isn't over yet.

11:55am Our contact hears clapping, signalling the end of the forum discussion, but Clinton has yet to come out for her breather before meeting us. My coworkers are getting antsy because they worry we will have less time with the Secretary of State.

12:07pm Clinton is finished and we are finally allowed into the room, escorted of course. My other colleagues are already busy moving furniture and getting lights and cameras ready. Clinton's handlers are giving explicit instructions that photographers can only take pictures for the first minute, but then after that no photographs allowed. They demand to know why there are three video cameras when they had been told there would only be two. One is quickly wisked away before more complaints arise.

12:12pm Wires are running all over the floor and there's concern someone may trip. Tape is brought out and two coworkers are taping down wires until the last minute. The rest of the wires are shoved under the carpet... which isn't really a good idea.

12:18pm Where's the microphone for Clinton? One of her handlers says Clinton wants to put it on before walking in. Makes sense. Then in the back we can hear her voice as the mic broadcasts it into the room.

12:20pm We're asked if we're ready because Clinton is coming. There's a hush in the room as she emerges, smiling in a dark navy suit and turquoise top underneath. She sits down and puts on her own microphone, the old pro that she is. She's only 10 feet away from me...

12:21pm A Tsinghua University professor chats with her about climate change, asking her what she, Bill and Chelsea do about protecting the environment. She answers that they use compact light bulbs, recycle and insulate their house.

She regurgitates a lot of what she said the day before, about how she is hoping China will not repeat the same mistakes as the US in its wasting of natural resources. She stresses it's not about per capita emissions -- something China constantly prides itself on -- but on absolute emissions. Clinton says China and the US are the two top emitters of greenhouse gases so the two countries must work together, raising the profile of climate change to a higher level in their dialogue so that things can get better.

There are no specifics, but she praises the good start the two countries have in their relationship and hopes to build on that to include climate change. She also hopes something constructive will come out before December when the countries will meet to discuss the next step after the Kyoto Protocol.

12:37pm The chat ends and we quickly gather, hoping for an opportunity for a group photo with Clinton. However her two handlers, two young women are tough gatekeepers and try to stop photographers from taking more pictures and us giving her gifts. However, when one of my colleagues shows her the large framed photo she exclaims with excitement and thanks us for it.

We also wanted to ask her to write a congratulatory note to our company, but one of her handlers was physically pushing the paper away. Clinton sees this and says, "Jessica, I'll sign it."

Definitely a star diplomat.

12:47pm Clinton is already out the door, wearing an overcoat and flanked by her entourage and the Washington press corps following her.

12:52pm I and a few others leave but we have to be escorted by a staff member all the way to the security area and out the door. We get our stuff back and then exit the embassy.

One of the world's most powerful women has left the building.