posted
My Time as a Hostage, and I’m a Business Reporter
By DAVID BARBOZA Published: June 24, 2007
SHANGHAI
AS an American journalist based in China, I knew there was a good chance that at some point I’d be detained for pursuing a story. I just never thought I’d be held hostage by a toy factory.
That’s what happened last Monday, when for nine hours I was held, along with a translator and a photographer, by the suppliers of the popular Thomas & Friends toy rail sets.
“You’ve intruded on our property,” one factory boss shouted at me. “Tell me, what exactly is the purpose of this visit?” When I answered that I had come to meet the maker of a toy that had recently been recalled in the United States because it contained lead paint, he suggested I was really a commercial spy intent on stealing the secrets to the factory’s toy manufacturing process.
“How do I know you’re really from The New York Times?” he said. “Anyone can fake a name card.”
Thus began our interrogation, which was followed by hours of negotiations, the partial closing of the factory complex and the arrival of several police cars, a handful of helmet-wearing security officers and some government officials, all trying to free an American journalist and his colleagues from a toy factory.
Factory bosses, I would discover, can overrule the police, and Chinese government officials are not as powerful as you might suspect in a country addicted to foreign investment.
I shouldn’t have been surprised by the reception. The last time I arrived at a factory under suspicion for selling contaminated goods (toothpaste), they quickly locked the gate and ran. A month earlier, I walked into the headquarters of a company that sold tainted pet food to the United States, and the receptionist insisted the owner was not in. When my translator called the owner, we heard his cellphone ring in the adjoining room. I peeked in and saw the boss scamper out the backdoor.
For American journalists, there’s a tradition of showing up at a crime scene, or visiting a place that has made news. But in China, where press freedoms are weak, such visits can be dangerous.
Last year, a young man working for a Chinese newspaper was beaten to death after he tried to meet the owners of an illegal coal mine. Local officials later insisted he was trying to extort money.
My colleagues at The Times have been detained several times. And one of our Chinese research assistants is now serving a three-year prison term for fraud. He originally had been accused of passing state secrets to The Times, a charge this paper has denied.
But life in China is generally much easier for business reporters like me. Usually, I’m welcomed at factories. State-owned companies often treat me like a visiting dignitary. I’m seated in a kind of royal chair next to the chairman. We drink tea and the chairman makes welcoming remarks while the company’s official photographer snaps our picture.
On the walls of many of the factories I visit are portraits of the powerful: Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and others whose images signal to anyone visiting that a factory is “connected” and has the blessing of the Communist Party.
But my toy factory visit made me wonder: who really holds the balance of the power in that relationship these days?
Many experts have told me that one of the most serious problems in China is that the government lacks the power to control the nation’s Wild West entrepreneurs, deal makers and connected factory owners.
Bribery is rampant, and government corruption widespread. Just a few weeks ago, the top food and drug regulator was sentenced to death for taking huge bribes from pharmaceutical companies. But it’s not clear that strong messages like that will stop the anarchy.
“China effectively has no oversight over anything,” said Oded Shenkar, a business professor at Ohio State University and author of “The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the Global Economy, the Balance of Power and Your Job.”
“People have this idea they are Big Brother and everyone is under watch,” Mr. Shenkar said. “But this is not China. In China, local authorities often turn a blind eye to problems because maybe they’re invested in it.”
Indeed, the impotence of local officials was clear to me from my visit to the RC2 Industrial Park in the city of Dongguan, which is thought to be the largest toy manufacturing center in the world.
The private plant is the main supplier to the RC2 Corporation, an Illinois company. And the Hong Kong or Chinese entrepreneurs who run the facility seemed to hold great sway over the government. We had no problem entering the complex or looking around until we met “Mr. Zhong,” a rough-looking factory complex supervisor. He scolded us for entering the grounds and taking photographs, and then invited us to a small villa on the campus, a stylish house filled with luxurious rooms, black leather chairs, a giant-screen TV, a huge stock of Cuban cigars, even a massage parlor.
This would be our prison. (Business correspondents are a more fortunate breed than war reporters.) Mr. Zhong offered an interview and a tour. But he later changed his mind and issued an ultimatum: hand over the pictures or we call the police.
Confident we had signed in properly with the security guards, who had allowed us onto the campus, we opted for the police. After over an hour, the police failed to show up, and we tried to leave, only to be nearly tackled by the factory’s ragtag army of security officers.
My translator then called the police.
The scene was farcical. We were locked inside the factory gate, surrounded by 16 security guards and 4 or 5 factory bosses. All trucks trying to bring supplies in or out of the complex were rerouted. Inside, large crowds of factory workers in blue uniforms were gawking. A crowd had also gathered outside the gates.
The police arrived an hour later, listened to both sides and then stood around. More police officers came. And more police officers stood around. It was clear they had no power to intervene.
So we called government officials, who suggested other government officials, who offered up more.
Finally, after hours of waiting, a higher-level government official arrived to settle the dispute.
He was a friendly man who admitted that he could not release us, that he didn’t have the power. We should negotiate, he said. For the next five hours, he shuttled between rooms in the villa trying to negotiate a settlement. There were shouting matches. There were demands that pictures be turned over.
After hours of squabbling, Mr. Zhong demanded we write a confession saying we had trespassed. He settled for a few sentences explaining why I had come and that I had not asked his permission to take any pictures.
The fight between government and factory during our detainment seemed to underscore the dysfunctional relationship the Chinese government has with industry.
In the endless back and forth, it was apparent that the government I often imagined as being all powerful and all seeing could be powerless and conflicted when it came to local businessmen and factory owners.
When we were released early Tuesday from a local police station, where we were sent to fill out a report, we noticed that while our translator was giving an account of the day to the police, the factory bosses were laughing and dining in another room, making the nexus of power in these parts and in this age ever more clear.[/i]
Posts: 919 | From: AFRICA | Registered: Apr 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ A perfect description of Player13's utopian government! LOL
This wasn't really about the government, it was about the factory bosses. I didn't say that communism is utopian, just that it's better than capitalism.
Posts: 118 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
^ So you still think Communism is better than Capitalism. Well tell me, do you know what the situation is for many common North Koreans in their communist society??
Posts: 26286 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
The situation for many poor people in capitalist societies is definitely not better. Since India's transition to a democratic capitalist state in 1949 more have died every 8 years as a result of poverty, malnutrition, lack of basic healthcare etc than the total number of people who perished in the Chinese Great Famine. That's 100 million deaths every 8 years as a result of the inadequacies of the capitalist system. Or should we say that capitalism 'murders' more than 100 million impoverished Indians every decade. Since the Industrial Revolution in England more than 300 million people have died as a result of capitalist governments (due to a combination of poverty and imperialist wars). That's 300 million 'murdered' by capitalism- and the death toll is still rising!
Posts: 118 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
^^In fact, India has the greatest gap between rich and poor of any place on earth. There is also continued slave labor, child labor and other abuses of the peasant classes. A lot of these people happen to be the darkest of all Indians.
Posts: 8897 | Registered: May 2005
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Critics of communism say that communist governments murdered 100 million victims but by using this logic it can be said that capitalism or non-socialism murders 1,000,000 people through starvation every year around the globe. Because according to the World Health Organization, 30,000 people die daily from hunger-related illnesses not in China, Cuba, and Vietnam, but in India, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America . A decade long total of deaths from the sort of inadequacies that occurred in the socialist countries would easily exceed 10 million deaths from starvation in the non-socialist world. A twentieth century total would therefore surpass even this flatulent 100 million figure of communism.
posted
^ I never said capitalist societies are perfect, but do you really think North Korean society is better than say the US?!!
Posts: 26286 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ So you still think Communism is better than Capitalism. Well tell me, do you know what the situation is for many common North Koreans in their communist society??
Or better yet, compare 2 bordering nations such as the aforementioned (a nation that practices communism) with south korea(a country that practices capitalism). Posts: 214 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
Communism is state capitalism compared to the market capitalism practised by individual capitalists with the support of the state.
State capitalism tends to spend more on education and health than market capitalism. Market capitalism tends to provide a variety of consumption items for those who can afford them.
So when one compares North Korea with South Korea one should also compare Cuba with Haiti.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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So when one compares North Korea with South Korea one should also compare Cuba with Haiti.
True, but would the fact that both nations aren't composed of the same ethnicity, culture, and language pose any relevance to their difference in developement? Wouldn't the better analogy perhaps be china and taiwan, since both populations are ultimately the same? Just as south korea and north korea. It is the fact that both peoples of their respective nations are essentially one, that narrows the gap for petty excuses for lagging or lesser progress, compared to their capitalistic counterparts.
Posts: 214 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
OK compare Cuba with Dominican Republic then....
You cannot compare Taiwan with China because the capital-owning Taiwanese bourgeoise fled to Taiwan to escape the Mao and his communist revolution. The same for China and Hong Kong. And furthermore Taiwan is tiny compared to China plus the fact that the U.S. pumped in lots of capital to build up Taiwan as a capitalist showpiece.
If North Korea is that bad then why haven't its citizens not revolted against its 5 foot 4 inches video-obsessed "Dear Leader", Kim? And again many South Korean have migrated to the U.S. because life at home was much too hard--e.g. parents of recent 35 person massacre Korean student at Virginia Tech.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote: OK compare Cuba with Dominican Republic then....
Or perhaps all capitalistic nations and all communist nations. One obviously has a higher prevalence of success, not to mention countries that are far above the economic pedestal.
quote:You cannot compare Taiwan with China because the capital-owning Taiwanese bourgeoise fled to Taiwan to escape the Mao and his communist revolution. The same for China and Hong Kong.
Care to explain how that makes them wrong to compare? Are you saying that they're unfair to compare because china is disadvantaged by what you stated, or that taiwan isn't necessarily a nation of its own?
quote:And furthermore Taiwan is tiny compared to China plus the fact that the U.S. pumped in lots of capital to build up Taiwan as a capitalist showpiece.
A communist economy is definitely ideal for a nation of 1 billion, but none of the above changes the fact that taiwan is doing better than china economically. The U.S. might as well ironically represent an excellent biproduct of capitalism.
quote:If North Korea is that bad then why haven't its citizens not revolted against its 5 foot 4 inches video-obsessed "Dear Leader", Kim? And again many South Korean have migrated to the U.S. because life at home was much too hard--e.g. parents of recent 35 person massacre Korean student at Virginia Tech.
That's empty rhetoric. We also shouldn't ignore any immigration via north korea. If an immigration statistic exists, I foresee with great confidence that north korea would witness more of its people leaving the country, compared to south korea. Based on what i heard south korea is actually making much progress as a nation(i've heard otherwise for NK).
Posts: 214 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
The truth, in my opinion, is that capitalism is not much more than the economic expression of Western culture. Apart from its success in the West--though with much modification in the more humane Western countries such as those of Scandinavia--it hasn't succeeded anywhere else except in 3 or 4 East Asian nations. And even there, it has been much modified to conform to local tastes--e.g. Japan.
Capitalism is at base a moral system of exchange and interaction between human beings. In this system of exchange all human interaction is based on gains and losses and all objects are exchange commodities. In its rawest terms capitalism is about winners and losers in cruel Darwinian world. The winners become rich at the expense of the losers many of whom end up in jail or homeless.
Frustration at the unhumanity of the system is expressed by drowning ones brain with drugs and alcohol, soothing ones pain with more and more commodities as possessions, spontaneous violence and crime. Capitalism--with its intrinsic inhumanity--also feeds off perceived "racial" and ethnic differences. Think of the life of the average person in the world's 3 biggest capitalist countries: India, Brazil and the U.S. The Chinese authorities seem enthusiastic about adopting this cultural export from the West.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
The truth, in my opinion, is that capitalism is not much more than the economic expression of Western culture. Apart from its success in the West--though with much modification in the more humane Western countries such as those of Scandinavia--it hasn't succeeded anywhere else except in 3 or 4 East Asian nations. And even there, it has been much modified to conform to local tastes--e.g. Japan.
Capitalism is at base a moral system of exchange and interaction between human beings. In this system of exchange all human interaction is based on gains and losses and all objects are exchange commodities. In its rawest terms capitalism is about winners and losers in cruel Darwinian world. The winners become rich at the expense of the losers many of whom end up in jail or homeless.
Frustration at the unhumanity of the system is expressed by drowning ones brain with drugs and alcohol, soothing ones pain with more and more commodities as possessions, spontaneous violence and crime. Capitalism--with its intrinsic inhumanity--also feeds off perceived "racial" and ethnic differences. Think of the life of the average person in the world's 3 biggest capitalist countries: India, Brazil and the U.S. The Chinese authorities seem enthusiastic about adopting this cultural export from the West.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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