m law

From The Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl to the Building of Political Democracy

Yesterday, for the first time in history, the Information Office of China's State Council issued a whitepaper on political democracy, titled Building of Political Democracy in China.  A noteworthy recurring theme in this 12-part whitepaper is the claim that the type of socialist political democracy that China has, “enables people in China to become masters of their own country and society, and enjoy extensive democratic rights.”  However, it is “only under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) did they really win the right to be masters of the state.”  The whitepaper stresses the importance of cultural relativism when considering the appropriate type of political democracy for China.

The whitepaper further sets out the following principles that China will follow in building political democracy:

• Upholding the unity of the leadership of the CPC, the people being the masters of the country and ruling the country by law.
• Giving play to the characteristics and advantages of the socialist system.
• Being conducive to social stability, economic development and continuous improvement of the people's life.
• Facilitating the safeguarding of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and state dignity.
• Being in accord with the objective law of progress step by step and in an orderly way.

Regarding judicial democracy, it underlines the Party’s commitment to the rule of law.  The paper acknowledges and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of its system such as the call for open trials as prescribed in the Chinese Constitution and relevant laws. Dovetail with the strong commitment to the rule of law are impressive statistics such as “in 2004, procuratorial organs turned down requests for arrest warrants in 68,676 cases, reversed prosecution decisions in 26,994 cases, corrected 2,699 cases that had been improperly placed on file by investigation organs, allowed appeals in 3,063 criminal cases and 13,218 civil administrative judgments, demanded retrials in 4,333 cases, placed 5,569 criminal appeal cases on file for re-investigation, and changed 786 original decisions.”

The paper points out areas that the CPC must improve to achieve political democracy.  The major ones include: “the democratic system is not yet perfect; the people's right to manage state and social affairs, economic and cultural undertakings as masters of the country in a socialist market economy are not yet fully realized; laws that have already been enacted are sometimes not fully observed or enforced, and violations of the law sometimes go unpunished; bureaucracy and corruption still exist and spread in some departments and localities; the mechanism of restraint and supervision over the use of power needs further improvement; the concept of democracy and legal awareness of the whole society needs to be further enhanced; and the political participation of citizens in an orderly way should be expanded.”

Back in September, the Chinese version of American Idol sponsored by Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt created much uproar.  Li YuChun, the “Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl” was popularly elected by eight million voters sending in their text messages.  Li, is far from the typical beauty that is featured in the Party’s propaganda, she even looks a bit boyish and lanky.  There was rumor that she is a lesbian.  After the election, China Daily commented on the result saying, “How come an imitation of a democratic system ends up selecting the singer who has the least ability to carry a tune?"  It is questionable that contest of this genre will continue in the future.

All in all, this whitepaper on democracy building is an encouraging and exciting sign to show that the government is becoming more transparent and accountable.  It remains yet to be seen if the commitment to the principles set forth in the paper will endure the subculture of “guanxi” and self-interests among other things.  Perhaps a good indicator is whether there will be a popularly elected Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl in 2006.

The Case of Sheng 475 B.C. v. iPod 60GB

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and the Hong Kong Association of New York co-presented the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra last night at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center.  The ancient musical instrument Sheng was heard throughout the evening.  It finally performed solo on the third piece of the evening: Fire Ritual, a very haunting piece about mourning those who have left us and celebrating those who are with us.  It is one thing to hear a Requiem and another to hear something like the Fire Ritual.  The Fire Ritual embodies the dichotomy of life and death, tangible and the intangible, hope and hopelessness and more importantly what we can still hold on to versus what is lost forever. 

When the music of Sheng took the center stage, it fulfilled its obligation to close the gap between that dichotomy.  Sheng is an ancient free reed instrument dated back to around 475 B.C.  It started as a pastime of ancient herdsmen and became very popular in Qin Dynasty (255-206 B.C.)  Sheng is a commonly used musical instrument for folk songs, particularly along the Silk Road.  In ancient China, before maps were drawn, voyagers and herdsmen found their way by following the music coming from the distance village.  It was a nostalgic moment to see and hear a Sheng at the same time knowing that most of the audiences had an iPod nano in their pockets.  The music that comes from the Sheng carries more than 2,000 years of history of mankind, and the music that comes of an iPod carries the hopes and dreams of our generation.

What will be the heirloom that we can bequeath to our family in the future?  A strand of pearl necklace, a grandfather’s clock, a first edition of a book, a peach tree or an iPod Video?  What will still be in the family treasure chest centuries from now?  Perhaps it will be impossible to find the right type of charger that makes the iPod works again.  Innovation should not replace tradition but to cohabit with its older brother.

State of Play III: To Some a Conference, To Me Heaven*

The wisdom Charlie Nesson imparted at the  State of Play III struck the core of the reason for all the intellectual and constructive exchanges during the three-day conference.  At the Law in Virtual Worlds panel on Saturday, October 8, Nesson took the audience into a different realm of the law in virtual worlds.  Other panelists discussed the common theme they drew from the holdings of seminal cases like Grokster, BrandX and Marvel v. NCSoft.  Nesson refrained from discussing the ‘excrement’ of the Supreme Court, instead he contemplated on the relationship between games/game builders and the law.  He quoted journal entries from Edward Castronova’s famous paper on Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier to illustrate the emotional experience of learning, such as

Journal entry, 20 April, I have made my first kills, mostly rats.  They did me a great deal of damage and I have been killed several times.  I do return to life but it is a pain to go through.  Nonetheless, I have to attack the rats.  I need money to buy edible food and water, and rat fur, and other similar junk, is about the only thing I can get my hands on that the vendors will pay money for.

Nesson also believes that learning is addictive. To him, the Avatar is learning and the game builder is teaching.  So it is as important for court decisions to be correct as game builders building what is right.  He further cautioned law makers and judges to make law slowly so that they can catch up with their understanding of the virtual world.  He stressed that it is of utmost importance to teach children the difference between real and virtual world because there seems to be an increase in acceptance of the merging the two.

In times when courts are still struggling in their quest out of the maze of the virtual world, where monstrous game builders are hiding behind the veil of the notion of business model to defend themselves, and savvy gamers are stealing copyrighted materials, Nesson’s idea of social responsibility rests not solely on the courts but also that of the game builders, and that is what makes him a visionary.  Undoubtedly, the comments of the rest of the panelists were more than insightful, especially that of Susan Crawford and Ann Bartow,  Nesson’s wisdom is axiological to the discussion of law in the virtual worlds.  Foresight like that of Nesson is appropriate to be found in SOP III because it is itself a colloquium filled with dialogues ahead of its time.

* Luck
Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)

Sometimes a crumb falls
From the tables of joy,
Sometimes a bone
Is flung.

To some people
Love is given,
To others
Only heaven.

Reasons for a Drop in Applicants from China to U.S. Colleages, a Bliss or a Grief?

The recent article by Matt Williams and Jerome Cohen titled To Strengthen Ties with China, Speak the Language First is a very appropriate and honest alert for the US to encourage immigration as a means of keeping itself abreast of a fast-growing China and the world.  More often than not, trade and commerce are the main focus in US-China relations, but it is reckless to disregard a meaningful cultural exchange in academia because it has a much longer-term and wider impact on the country as a whole.

One of the reasons why Chinese students are choosing other countries to further their studies is because of the quota shortage of the employment-based visa, such as an H-1B visa.   Tuition is no longer a major problem for those who want to come to the US to study. Most Mainlanders who are in business these days are extremely affluent.  The problem is that students often want to have an option to stay or practice their trade after graduation. But the employment-based work visa for professionals (this is the type of visa college or grad students apply in order to stay here after their F-1 expires or after graduation) is in terrible situation.  According to the State Department, current employment-based preference visa for Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability are only available for those with a priority date of Jan 2000. The quota for this year is used up for Chinese as well as for applicants from India and the Philippines. When the quota re-opens in 2006, the Center for Immigration Services will be processing applications filed in previous years.  So, if it is so difficult to apply for a work visa to stay in the US to work for a while, not to mention the possibility of applying for a PR status, it thus diminishes the attractiveness of studying here.  Another drop of applicants to US colleges may be attributed to the rise of nationalism in China.

Are Online Gamers in China a League of Their Own?

Singapore will be the only stop in Asia for the Cyberathelete Professional League (CPL) World Tour 2005.  The tournament will to be held at the Padang ( I was there for a Linkin Park concert last summer) from October 14 to 16; and Keystone Law Corporation is the offical law firm for the tournament.  The champion in each stop (host country) will receive US$ 15,000, while the winner of the grand final enjoys a $150,000 bounty.  The sport of professional gaming has entered the mainstream without a hiss.  Perhaps this is the beauty of a free world where anything is possible. Compare to the new regulations on gaming in China, gamers around the world seem to enjoy a type of freedom that they do not know it could be lost. 

According to the General Administration of Press and Publication in China, Chinese online gaming market generated RMB 3 billion (US$304m) in sales revenue last year, and the forecast for 2005 is RMB 11billion (US$1.4bn).  On August 23, new regulations were promulgated by China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Information Industry to prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from playing online games involving killing others.  This might not have disappointed most gamers, but the new regulations further targeted the players of  massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) such as World of WarCraft and Legend of MIR II. by requiring online game operators to install timing mechanism to automatically log players off of online games once they have exceeded a set number of hours of continuous play.  For example, gamers’ in-game characters will be severely limited as well as the value of their virtual goods if continuous play time exceed five hours.  There are situations where gamers will be forced to take a three-hour break before they can login again.

The saying, “do everything in moderation” is applicable in most things we do in life.  Parents of teenage gamers in South Korea and Japan maybe overjoyed if their governments will impose limit on continuous playing time.  So, what is the role of the government in regulating the “freedom to play”?  Is China over-regulating the gaming industry? Should the government play a parental role?  If not, will gamers have the discipline to protect their well-being?  What a fine line to draw and who can draw it well?