China's Air Quality Debate Continues

The US Embassy in Beijing -- where's the monitoring station?

The war of words continues between Beijing and the United States consulate over air quality.

Since 2008, the US embassy has posted air quality readings in the capital on Twitter, stating the PM 2.5 reading and advising if it was safe or not for people to go outdoors. It has more than 19,000 followers.

The postings led to local residents wondering who was correct as there was a big discrepancy between the American and Chinese air quality readings. And only this year did China start releasing its PM or particulate matter readings of less than 2.5 micrometres in size, about 1/30th the width of a human hair.

In the end, this past March, the Xinhua News Agency reported the Chinese government aimed to cut PM 2.5 levels by 15 percent by 2015 compared with 2010 levels.

But will China meet its own targets?

Which is perhaps why it has fired the latest salvo in the air quality debate by telling foreign embassies to stop publishing data on air pollution levels in the country, saying only the Chinese government has the sole authority to do so.

In a briefing today, Wu Xiaoqing, a vice minister of environmental protection said foreign embassies releasing such data were interfering in China's internal affairs. He did not specify the US, but its consulates publish hourly pollution readings in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Wu said the monitoring and publication of data on air quality involves the public's interests and falls under the "authority of the government," Wu said. "We hope that individual consulates in China respect China's relevant laws and regulations and stop publishing the unrepresentative air quality information."

In response, US Embassy spokesperson Richard Buangan said in a statement the readings are "an unofficial resources for the health of the consulate community."

Meanwhile Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin waded into the debate, saying in a briefing in Beijing that embassies can measure air pollution and give the information to their staff, but not broadcast it on the internet.

The US Embassy readings are taken from one monitoring station within the consulate and follows the pollution level rating according to the US Environmental Protection Agency which is more stringent than the Chinese one.

It's quite amusing to see the Chinese government trying to use the "authority" card in this latest round of the air quality debate.

But really, whose readings are people going to believe? China or the US?

Strange Coincidence

An interesting side note to June 4 was that China's censors blocked the term "Shanghai stock market" on weibo or popular microblogs yesterday because the index fell to 64.89 points on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Another bizarre twist is that the Shanghai Composite Index opened at 2346.98 points, which is June 4, 1989 backwards.

Perhaps the Chinese markets are trying to tell us something?

We Remember 23 Years Later

A sea of candles in Victoria Park

I just came back from attending my second Tiananmen candlelight vigil at Victoria Park tonight, marking the 23rd anniversary.

Participants inching their way into the park

My friend and I got there a bit later than last year so there was already a massive crowd trying to get into the park. There was no pushing, but very orderly despite the throngs of people.

We were thinking mainland Chinese who came out of the shopping malls in Causeway Bay might be wondering why there were hordes of people and go follow them to see what all the fuss was about.

Along the way we saw some strange performance art and activists trying to make an extra buck with T-shirts and cloth bags; the new one this year was a tic-tac-toe and the numbers "6" and "4" in various squares.

There were also politicians on the democracy band wagon. First we saw Longhair Leung Kwok-hung appealing to people for donations, and after passing him the next loud voice was People Power activist Wong Yeung-tat, who was recently released from jail for three weeks for civil disobedience. He was sentenced in March for gate-crashing a public forum on a government proposal to scrap Legco by-elections.

Watching some curious performance art along the way

Instead of asking for money, Wong incited the crowd saying "F*** off Leung Chun-ying!" and many eagerly followed his chants. It seemed he was keen to create more trouble again.

We finally made it into Victoria Park and got our requisite candle and paper cone holder and set off to find a spot to sit down. The place quickly filled up and we sat to the right of the stage, but way back.

The event was similar to last year with the same songs, and speeches, but a few different things to the program.

Exiled Tiananmen leader Wang Dan gave a video message and widow Guo Liying, who lost her husband in the crackdown, both saying how thrilled they are that Hong Kong was still commemorating the event and that the fight for vindication of June 4 was still not over 23 years later.

Activist Fang Zheng, who lost both his legs when he was run over by a tank came to Hong Kong for the event from San Francisco.

Fang Zheng was able to attend the event this year, his first

He thanked the crowd for coming and admitted he was at a loss for words of what to say and shed some tears after his speech.

Perhaps most moving was seeing the news footage of Tiananmen at the time, watching the tanks rolling in, people running in all directions, doctors with blood-stained lab coats trying to save people and people carrying bodies in sheets. It was a vivid reminder of the time and why we had all gathered together.

Very heartening was seeing so many young people, many of whom were not even born 23 years ago, eagerly taking part in the event.

While we were glad we went, my friend and I wondered why there weren't more stirring speeches to get the crowd whipped up with emotion. It would have been good to have a short, but emotional speech in English, Cantonese and Mandarin so that everyone was covered.

Participants chant demanding for vindication of June 4

Nevertheless, it was amazing to see so many people stop and reflect -- and vow to never forget those who lost their lives 23 years ago today.

A Defector in the Evil Empire

The Asia Society is putting on its summer film series featuring several movies and documentaries from around the region.

I watched on this afternoon called Crossing The Line that was released in 2006.

In 1962, an American soldier, James Dresnok was sent to guard the demilitarized zone or DMZ in South Korea, but then crossed the border and became a North Korean citizen.

He told his story for the first time on film recalling why he defected to one of the United States' biggest enemies.

The documentary is narrated by Christian Slater and we soon meet Dresnok, well into his 70s. He's a large man, round face and very straight forward.

We soon learn that he grew up in a family that fell apart -- his mother wanted out of the marriage and took him with her where they basically slept in the car every night.

He returned home to find his father had remarried and Dresnok was not welcome into his father's new family.

The boy ended up in a series of foster homes and didn't quite fit in.

Having dropped out of high school, he looked for another "home" where he would be looked after and joined the army a day after his 17th birthday.

However Dresnok didn't like it too much -- he felt the rules were even stricter than the ones in the foster homes and found it difficult at first.

Nevertheless he made the best of it and got married at a young age, thinking he would be able to start fresh again with his own "home".

Then he was posted to West Germany for two years but when he came home his wife told him she'd taken a lover and their marriage was over.

Dresnok was devastated -- he said he never once cheated on his wife during his posting but she couldn't handle his absence at all.

Private James Dresnok

He reenlisted again and this time was posted to South Korea.

The DMZ was a very dangerous place -- the border was marked by flimsy tape and the Americans claimed the North Koreans would create trouble by moving the tape and then start shooting at the US soldiers, claiming they had wandered into North Korean territory.

Being there was literally a war zone and there were casualties.

For Dresnok, he felt his life had no meaning and that there was no way out -- he could live or die and he wouldn't care.

One day he disobeyed orders and visited a Korean woman he was in a relationship with and his superior was ready to court marshall him.

This propelled Dresnok to walk away from his post and enter the DMZ armed with only a shotgun. The area was apparently littered with mines and it was then that the young soldier wondered if he would make it out alive let alone be captured.

When he made it to the other side he was surrounded by North Korean soldiers and was almost killed by them when their superior ordered Dresnok arrested as a prisoner of war.

It turns out not only Dresnok had defected, but three others as well in quick succession. This was a major coup for North Korea and the government used them as propaganda to prove that communism was something Americans thought was good.

They even acted in movies directed by the then young Kim Jong-il. He got them to portray evil American characters who had to be destroyed by the North Koreans.

In the end Dresnok worked hard to fit in, learning Korean and was invited to lecture students periodically in English.

Did he feel used by the government? He doesn't seem to think so. Or was he saying this because he was being filmed in North Korea?

Then there is the interesting topic of marriage. Three of the four men married non-Korean women because North Koreans wanted their race to remain pure. Some of the non-Korean women were allegedly kidnapped and sent to North Korea to mate with these Americans. The fourth man did marry a Korean.

Dresnok today in Pyongyang

As a result Dresnok's two children by his second marriage are blond and brunette. Watching his eldest son James speak English is strange, as he talks with an accent because he was born and raised in North Korea and speaks more Korean than English.

After his wife died from an illness, Dresnok took a third -- a half Korean, half Togolese woman and they have a very young son.

Talk about a Bennetton family in North Korea of all places.

Throughout the documentary, Dresnok is seen smoking and drinking often, which leads to the the final scenes of him visiting his doctor who tells him many times to cut his smoking and drinking as his health is failing, but he continues these habits anyway.

Crossing The Line was a fantastic documentary, not just in the way it was told, but also the various subplots and how the film crew was able to have pretty much free access to make the film in North Korea.

After we viewed the film, one of the researchers present at our screening suggested that because this film would not be shown in North Korea the government didn't seem to care so much and this was the third film the group had done there and had a pretty good track record.

Nonetheless, with such powerful political undertones in the documentary, one would think the government would have completely shut down any possibility of making this film.

But we're glad it was and executed well, revealing complex characters and motivations, historical context and meaning.

Crossing The Line
UK, 2006, 90 minutes
Director: Daniel Gordon
www.