Tuesday, 8 September 2020

Australian Journalists Flee China Amid Foreign Media Crackdown

Following threatening behavior from Chinese security offices, two Australian journalists have left China. Bill Birtles of Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Michael Smith of The Australian Financial Review both received simultaneous visits from security officers at their homes in Beijing and Shanghai, respectively, last week, and later went under Australian consular protection until they departed Tuesday. Matthew Doran and Stephen Dziedzic report for ABC News:

Bill Birtles, the ABC’s correspondent based in Beijing, and Mike Smith, the AFR’s correspondent based in Shanghai, boarded a flight to Sydney last night after the pair were questioned separately by China’s Ministry of State Security.

Birtles had spent four days sheltering in Australia’s embassy in Beijing, while Smith took refuge in Australia’s Shanghai consulate as diplomats negotiated with Chinese officials to allow them to safely leave the country.

The saga began early last week, when Australian diplomats in Beijing cautioned Birtles that he should leave China, with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade giving the same advice to ABC’s managing director David Anderson in Sydney.

Subsequent advice prompted the ABC to organise flights back to Australia for Birtles. He was due to depart last Thursday morning. [Source]

Both men were questioned about Australian Cheng Lei, a reporter for the official Chinese overseas broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN), who was recently detained. From Damien Cave and Chris Buckley of The New York Times:

Their exit, which occurred after negotiations between Australian and Chinese diplomats that led China to revoke a ban on their departure, added another conflict to the deteriorating relations between the two nations. It also highlighted Beijing’s increasingly heavy-handed tactics to limit independent journalism in the country.

“Their rushed departure from China marks a new low in a relationship which had already seemed to have reached rock bottom,” said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think tank, and a former China correspondent.

[…] The Australian Financial Review reported that Chinese investigators sought to question Mr. Birtles and Mr. Smith about Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian business news anchor for China’s CGTN television service who was detained in August.

Both men reported extensively on the case, including the detail that Ms. Cheng was being held under “residential surveillance,” a sweeping detention power that can keep people in custody for up to six months, denied visits by relatives or lawyers.

On Tuesday, hours after the two journalists had returned to Australia, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed for the first time that Ms. Cheng was under investigation for national security crimes, a broad category that can include espionage, illegally obtaining state secrets or subverting Communist Party power. [Source]

Birtles and Smith wrote personal accounts of their departures upon their arrival in Sydney, in which both denied any close connection to Cheng. From Birtles piece for ABC:

Eventually they arranged for a night-time interview at a mid-range hotel in Sanlitun — a buzzing nightlife district not far from my apartment.

I wasn’t going there alone — there were arrangements in place — but the police wouldn’t permit anyone else I was with to go beyond the lobby.

[…] Then the interview turned to the case which I’m supposedly involved in — the national security investigation of Ms Cheng.

She is someone I know, but not particularly well. I certainly wouldn’t be the first person you would interrogate about her.

I suggested to the interrogators that this discussion was related to the Australia-China relationship, and I was asked my opinion on the current state of ties. [Source]

Cheng’s detention marked an escalation in the deteriorating relations between Australia and China. On Tuesday afternoon, the Foreign Ministry announced that she had been detained on suspicion of endangering national security, though gave no further details. Birtles and Smith were the last two Australian journalists officially accredited in China. The Australian’s China correspondent Will Glasgow cancelled a planned return to China following the departure of his compatriots and the detention of Cheng Lei.

Overall, the environment for foreign journalists in China has been steadily deteriorating in recent years, and the Chinese government has expelled or failed to renew the visas of several foreign correspondents this year. According to the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, 17 foreign journalists were expelled just in the first half of this year:

The crackdown on foreign journalists comes as several countries, notably the U.S., increasingly restrict the actions of Chinese state media operating overseas. The official Global Times reported that Chinese journalists working in Australia had their homes raided in June, though there is little other information available about this incident.


The U.S. earlier put a visa cap on on employees of Chinese state media, after it had ordered two state media, Xinhua News Agency and CGTN, to register as foreign agents. Soon after the visa cap was announced, the Chinese government expelled 13 American journalists. Last week, the Chinese government announced it would stop renewing credentials for foreign journalists working for American publications if the U.S. proceeds with expelling Chinese state media workers now in the country. Edward Wong reports for The New York Times:

The actions and threats raise the stakes in the continuing cycles of retribution between Washington and Beijing over news media organizations. Those rounds of retaliation are a prominent element of a much broader downward spiral in U.S.-China relations, one that involves mutually hostile policies and actions over trade, technology, education, diplomatic missions, Taiwan and military presence in Asia.

American news organizations immediately affected by China’s latest actions are CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and Getty Images. Journalists from all four organizations tried to renew press cards with the Foreign Ministry in the past week, but were told the cards, which are usually good for one year, could not be renewed. In total, at least five journalists in the four organizations have been affected so far.

One journalist said Foreign Ministry officials told him that his fate depended on whether the United States decided in the fall to renew the visas of Chinese journalists working in America who are under new visa regulations imposed by the Department of Homeland Security in May. Other journalists have received similar messages. [Source]

Foreign reporters still operating in China can face official interference in the course of their reporting. While covering ongoing protests in Inner Mongolia last week, a Los Angeles Times’ reporter was briefly detained:

A Times reporter who visited the Mongol school in Hohhot was surrounded by plainclothes men who put her into a police car. They took her to the back building of a police station, where she was interrogated and separated from her belongings despite identifying herself as an accredited journalist. She was not allowed to call the U.S. Embassy; one officer grabbed her throat with both hands and pushed her into a cell.

The reporter was detained for more than four hours. She was then forced to leave the region, with three government officials and a policeman accompanying her to a train and standing at the window until the train left for Beijing. [Source]

In a statement, Human Rights Watch raised concerns about the treatment of Chinese journalists in such an environment:

But for Chinese journalists and activists, there is no foreign embassy to come to their rescue. Journalists and bloggers in China take enormous risks to investigate and report on stories that the China government deems to be sensitive. In February, citizen journalists Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin were forcibly disappeared in Wuhan for reporting independently on the Covid-19 pandemic. They haven’t been heard from since. [Source]


Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin, mentioned in the HRW statement, were among several Chinese citizen journalists detained for reporting on the initial coronavirus outbreak.



source https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/09/australian-journalists-flee-china-amid-foreign-media-crackdown/
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Photo: Rice fields of Yuanyang, by mzagerp

Rice fields of Yuanyang, by mzagerp (CC BY-ND 2.0)



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Friday, 4 September 2020

Czech Official’s Taiwan Trip Complicates Beijing’s European Ambitions

As tensions with the U.S. have been escalating in recent years, Beijing has been increasingly looking to Europe as a platform for new trade deals and expanding global influence. While the larger economies of Western Europe responded to China’s courting with regulations limiting FDI and foreign takeovers, Beijing has made more progress in Central and Eastern Europe. Amid this drive, the Czech Republic, led by pro-Beijing President Milos Zeman, has declared the goal of becoming “an unsinkable aircraft carrier of Chinese investment expansion.”

This week, in opposition to President Zeman, head of the senate and second highest-ranking Czech official Milos Vystrcil traveled with a 90-member delegation of political and civic leaders to Taiwan, a move that alone would surely meet backlash from Beijing—as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar did earlier this month when he became the first high-level American official to visit the island in 40 years. (Vystrcil becomes the highest-ranking Czech official to visit since the nation’s first president Vaclav Havel, himself a close and public friend of the Dalai Lama.) Delivering a speech in Taipei on Tuesday, Vystrcil directly invoked the Cold War battle against Soviet communism by declaring “I am Taiwanese” in Mandarin, drawing quick and virulent anger from Beijing. At Reuters, Ben Blanchard and Joseph Nasr report:

Addressing Taiwan’s parliament, Vystrcil said Kennedy’s declaration he was a Berliner was an important message for freedom and against communism.

“Please let me also express in person my support to Taiwan and the ultimate value of freedom and conclude today’s speech … with perhaps a more humble, but equally strong statement: ‘I am a Taiwanese,’” Vystrcil said, receiving a standing ovation.

[…] Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in 1963, telling the frightened people of West Berlin who were surrounded on all sides by Communist East Berlin that he was also a Berliner, is an address often called Kennedy’s best.

Vystrcil has said his Taiwan visit underscores the “values-based” foreign policy put in place by late President Vaclav Havel, an anti-communist dissident and personal friend of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.

While the Czech government has not supported his visit, it has been upset by China’s strong condemnation and has summoned the Chinese ambassador. Beijing on Monday also summoned the Czech ambassador for a telling-off. [Source]

As tensions between Beijing and Western governments have steadily ratcheted up in recent months, some commentators have described an emerging Cold War, while others have warned against using that term.

At the South China Morning Post, Sarah Zheng reports on seething backlash from China’s foreign ministry and state press:

While on a trip to Germany, Wang told reporters early on Monday that the Chinese government would not sit idly back after the “public provocation” by Milos Vystrcil, the president of the senate, and slammed “anti-China forces backing him”.

“To challenge the one-China principle on Taiwan is to make an enemy of 1.4 billion Chinese people, and is an international breach of trust,” Wang said. “We must make him pay a heavy price for his short-sighted actions and political opportunism.”

His trip comes at a time when Taiwan has sought to shore up international support, and as concerns have grown in Europe over how to address Beijing’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.

[…] Chinese state media also criticised the visit, with the nationalist tabloid Global Times writing in an editorial on Sunday that Vystricil was a “rule-breaker who is trampling on diplomatic civilisation”, swayed by the United States.

“His gilding for his evil deeds is a manifestation of being a political hooligan,” it said. “Vystrcil is attracting eyeballs and promoting his status by visiting Taiwan.” [Source]

The angry threat from Wang Yi has drawn criticism from Czech leaders and from across Europe. Reuters’ Ben Blanchard reports on statements from Taipei, where on Thursday Vystrcil met with President Tsai Ing-wen, unsurprisingly drawing further ire from Beijing:

China’s “vulgar threats” over a visit by the Czech Republic’s senate speaker to Taiwan are like a cold, unwelcome winter wind and contrast with the courteous words the speaker offered while in Taiwan, a senior Taiwanese politician said on Thursday.

[…] Speaking with Vystrcil by his side Taipei, Taiwan parliament Speaker You Si-kun praised his “stirring” speech at the legislature.

Vystrcil “was gentle and elegant, a paragon of a cultured country, like spring sunshine, splendid and warn – Taiwan’s people were deeply moved”, You said.

“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s vulgar threats however were like a cold, unwelcome winter wind that cause discomfort.”

Vystrcil said he had invited You to lead a delegation to Prague for what he termed a “working visit”, and dismissed China’s criticisms. [Source]

The trip to Taipei was originally planned by Jaroslav Kubera, Vystrcil’s predecessor as Senate Speaker who died of a heart attack in January. At Bloomberg, Lenka Ponikelska and Andrea Dudik report that Ponikelska’s family has cited government pressure against the Taiwan trip as a contribution to his death, and describe how the sharp rift in Prague over its approach to China has created a new arena of great power influence :

Senate Speaker Milos Vystrcil, who headed to Taipei this week, is not just facing threats from Beijing but is also ignoring opposition to his trip from China-friendly President Milos Zeman. It’s that level of politically induced stress that his 72-year-old predecessor, Jaroslav Kubera, endured before a fatal heart attack in January.

While the Czech Republic tends to toe the EU line on foreign policy, the nation of 10.7 million has entered an unlikely and worsening spat with China, its fourth-biggest trading partner. In reality, though, politicians are Division over relations with Beijing, where some favor close economic ties and others are appalled by China’s human-rights record.

That’s opened a fault line that China can exploit as it grapples with the U.S. for influence in Europe. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo toured Europe last month, including a stop in Prague, where he labeled China a greater threat than Russia.

Some of those tensions have been translated to Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province — Beijing condemns any outside diplomatic activity related to Taipei as interference in its affairs. U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar became the most senior American official to go there in decades when he visited last month. […] [Source]

In a report briefly outlining the history and geopolitical significance of the rift between Prague and Beijing, the Nikkei Asian Review’s Yu Nakamura and Tsukada Hadano note that the trip has “push[ed] cross-strait relations to the diplomatic forefront.” The report also notes President Tsai’s establishment of historical solidarity with Vystrcil in their Thursday meeting:

“Like the Czech Republic, Taiwan has traveled a difficult road, opposing authoritarianism and fighting for democracy and freedom,” Tsai told Vystrcil during their meeting.

“Senate President Vystrcil and his delegation members have taken a major step that will set off a different sort of new wave,” she said.

Vystrcil responded that the Czech Republic will “lead the European Union” on Taiwan.

[…] The Czech Republic in 1989, called Czechoslovakia at the time, forced out its communist leadership through nonviolent protests in what came to be known as the Velvet Revolution. Former President Vaclav Havel, who led that movement, had advocated for Taiwan’s acceptance by the global community.

China has been ramping up pressure on Taiwan, especially after a trip there last month by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the highest-ranking American official to visit since Washington cut diplomatic ties to the island in 1979. Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said on Aug. 27 that China is conducting large-scale war exercises in the Taiwan Strait. […] [Source]

See also a 2017 CDT interview with Czech-based Project Sinopsis’ foundert Martin Hála and editor Anna Zádrapová on the relationship between Beijing and Central and Eastern European countries, and a series of CDT guest columns by staff exploring the China-CEE relationship.



source https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/09/czech-officials-taiwan-trip-complicates-beijings-european-ambitions/
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Viral Content: “There Should Be More Than One Voice in a Healthy Society”

 is a new CDT series introducing terms coined and used by Chinese  during the 2019-2020 COVID-19 outbreak. These terms include both subversive critiques of government policies and nationalistic support of them. Similar terms are being compiled and translated at China Digital Space, CDT’s bilingual wiki, as we expand it beyond the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon to include short biographies of people pushing for change in China, topical resource pages, and special projects.  

There Should Be More Than One Voice in a Healthy Society

Remembering Dr. Li Wenliang in his own words (Source: Douyin/CDS Chinese)

yīgè jiànkāng de shèhuì bù gāi zhǐyǒu yīzhǒng shēngyīn 一个健康的社会不该只有一种声音

Wuhan Central Hospital ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang was officially reprimanded in early January 2020 for spreading “fictitious discourse” about the outbreak of a “SARS-like virus” that would lead to the COVID-19 pandemic. While working on the frontlines in Wuhan, Li later contracted the virus. On February 7 it took his life. Prior to his death, Li made a statement about the relation between transparency and societal health in an interview with Qin Jianhang and Timmy Shen at Caixin on January 30, 2020, which he gave from an isolation ward in Wuhan:

Caixin: On Jan. 28, China’s Supreme People’s Court published a commentary on its official WeChat account on whether the punishment of the eight Wuhan “rumormongers” was appropriate. You were probably not one of those eight. What did you think when you read that article?

Li: After reading the Supreme Court’s article, I felt a lot of relief and didn’t worry too much about how my hospital would deal with me. I believe there should be more than one voice in a healthy society. I don’t agree with the use of public power to overly interfere. I also agree with the Supreme Court’s article that each case should be treated separately. I don’t care too much [about whether I am one of the eight], as the post most widely circulated online and cited in the Supreme Court’s article was a screenshot of my original post. [Source]

Dr. Li’s death from the virus on February 7, 2020 was initially covered up, but he was quickly vindicated as the authorities finally acknowledged the severity of the pandemic. As lockdowns radiated out from Wuhan across the country, Dr. Li’s words became a rallying cry for netizens, many of whom celebrated the doctor as a martyr:

@八管传说: Dr. Li, China is finally coming around the bend of the pandemic. You said that there should be more than one voice in a healthy society. Now they won’t even let an interview in Renwu get published. I hoped the epidemic would change some things in China, but in the end nothing has changed at all. [Chinese]

@阿专的围脖: I just thought of something: What do people think should be written on Dr. Li’s gravestone? Hero? Martyr? Those words don’t mean a lot. The most meaningful thing to write is “There should be more than one voice in a healthy society.” [Chinese]



source https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/09/viral-content-there-should-be-more-than-one-voice-in-a-healthy-society/
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Thursday, 3 September 2020

Photo: Inner Mongolia, by Rokkor.G

Inner Mongolia, by Rokkor.G (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)



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Wednesday, 2 September 2020

Photo: Teacher, by Gauthier DELECROIX

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Tuesday, 1 September 2020

Translation: 300 Million People Abandoned by “Smartphone Society”

In China, the smartphone has quickly become the key to unlocking public transportation, medical care, and entrance into restaurants or other public spaces. The coronavirus crisis has only accelerated the shift, with QR health codes on WeChat and Alipay now tracking users’ COVID-19 test results in order to green light public movement and activity. The rapid shift to this modern system of “convenience” has essentially locked out the poor, elderly, disabled, and anyone else without the means or ability to use a smartphone and have it linked to a high-speed network and a bank card at all times.

The locked-outs and the locked-ins are closer to one another than this new, ultra-convenient “smartphone society” makes it seem. In June, a Douban blogger who tried, in vain, to help a migrant worker and the child accompanying him pay bus fare, reflected that “I felt a sense of humiliation, like I’d been raped by technology.”

In the hybrid poem/think piece translated below, WeChat user @拾遗 (meaning, roughly, “Lost and Found”) warns that this over-reliance on the latest technology means that everyone could someday find themselves left behind for the crime of growing old. The original WeChat post has been removed, but has been archived by CDT Chinese.

300 Million People Don’t Deserve to Live Among Us

Description of Lost Items: Old people who don’t have / can’t use smartphones.

1.

On April 17, 2020,
an old man in Harbin
tried to get on a bus.
Since he didn’t have a smartphone,
he had no health code to scan,
and so he couldn’t get on.
The driver said,
“It’s company rules,
if you can’t scan I can’t let you ride.”
The passengers said,
“Get off, don’t make us late for work.”
“Don’t disrespect your elders, get off already.”
Soon the police came
to take him off the bus:
“If you don’t scan, you don’t ride. It’s government regulation.”
Tell me,
was the driver wrong?
No, those are in fact the company rules.
Were the passengers wrong?
No, they were enforcing the rules.
Were the police wrong?
No again, they were following the rules.
None of them were wrong,
but that poor old man.

 
2.

This story really made me think.
Since February, this kind of thing
has happened to my Mom a few times.
There’s no procedure to leave
our residential compound,
but there is for coming back:
one, they take your temperature,
and two, you show them your health code.
My Mom likes to go get groceries,
but she doesn’t know how to use a smartphone,
just the same old phone she’s had for years.
So if she leaves, she can’t get back in,
and calls me to come help her,
and I run home from the office.
After the second time,
she didn’t leave the compound for two months.
“I don’t want to trouble you,” she said.
Last week her coronary heart disease flared up,
and since she didn’t want to bother me at work
she took herself to the hospital.
But no one would see her.
They said,
“Didn’t you register before you got here?
You have to take a number on WeChat.”
Stunned, my Mother asked,
“Can’t I get a number here?”
They said,
“In theory, yes,
but the numbers have all been taken for today.”
All she could do was go home, clutching her chest.

 
3.

Today’s society
is a smartphone society.
You scan to take the bus,
you scan to buy groceries,
you scan at hotels,
you scan at hospitals,
you scan to get a bank card,
you scan to order food,
you scan to travel,
you scan to do government business…
If you don’t have a smartphone
or you can’t use one,
you really can’t do anything.
On April 28, 2020,
CNNIC released its Statistical Report on China’s Internet Development:
As of March 2020,
China has 904 million netizens
and an internet penetration rate of 64.5%.
In other words,
500 million people are not online.
These 500 million
besides children and certain groups (like the disabled)
include 300 million elderly.
These 300 million
have been abandoned by our smart society.
The more efficient society gets,
the less hospitable it is to the old.

 
4.

The internet lit up
about the old man in Harbin.
A lot of people said,
“Why can’t he use a smartphone?”
“He can’t even scan a code?”
“Those old folks have figured out how to keep dancing in public squares, how come they can’t figure out cell phones?”
“Technology won’t wait for you. Get with it or get left behind.”
“If you can’t keep up with the times, the times will run you over.”
All this talk reminds me
of a fable.
When Emperor Hui of Jin ruled China,
there was a terrible famine that lasted two years.
The people had no rice to eat,
only grass roots and tree bark,
and many people starved to death.
The emperor was pained to hear the news
and wanted to do something for the people.
He racked his brains, then finally
told his ministers,
“The common people cannot eat like me,
a daily feast of rich and rare foods.
Why not ask them to save up
so they can have meat porridge every day!”
Clearly, he’d never felt a hunger pang.

 
5.

Why are there so many people who can’t use a smartphone?
Because they can’t afford it.
Premier Li Keqiang said not long ago,
“600 million people in China are low- or middle-income,
“living on just 1,000 yuan per month.”
Lots of people don’t even have broadband,
and they can’t afford the costs that come with a smartphone.
Why are there so many people who can’t use a smartphone?
Because they can’t read.
While we’ve made great progress to end illiteracy,
there are still 80 million Chinese who can’t read.
Maybe you think that’s not a lot,
but 80 million is more people
than the population of most countries.
Why are there so many people who can’t use a smartphone?
Because they are disabled.
More than 85 million Chinese are disabled
and many of them are unable to use a smartphone.
Why are there so many people who can’t use a smartphone?
Because you lose mental sharpness as you age.
I bought a smartphone for my mom
and taught her how to use it,
but she turned around, took a nap, and forgot.
“Aiya, I can’t use this toy,
I’m too old, I don’t have the brains for it.”

 
6.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.
Let’s say the old do have the brains for it,
but they’re just not interested,
or maybe they don’t want to make the effort.
Do they not deserve to get on the bus?
Do they not deserve to see the doctor?
Do they not deserve to eat at a restaurant?
Do they not deserve to leave the house?
Just because they can’t use a smartphone,
they don’t deserve to live among us?
They were young, once.
They bled and sweated for China.
They sacrificed their youth to China.
Whatever the reason they can’t use a smartphone,
should they then be tossed aside
and banished from all public space?
It’s like it’s a crime
not to have a smartphone.
But where in the world is the law
that says we all must move in lockstep?

 
7.

We grovel at the feet of the youth,
our every move is made for them.
Smartphones pay unending dividends
to the young among us,
but they have also dug a moat
to keep the old folks out.
Is that what the old deserve?
No,
that’s not how civilization works.
What does it mean to be civilized?
China Youth Daily said it best:
“To be civilized is for one generation to consider the other.
When those who now have the power of speech
think of those who have lost that power–those who once spoke for them–
only then will civilization spread unbounded.
To be civilized is for the majority to think of the minority.
When the powerful many
remember the powerless few,
only then will civilization grow without limit.”
True civilization
doesn’t cast aside those who can’t keep up
but protects their right to choose “slow.”
True civilization
doesn’t mean that the few obey the many,
but that the many look after the few.

 
8.

We’re moving too fast.
We should wait for our elders.
Zhou Daxin once wrote,
“In this world,
when it comes to age,
there are three types of people:
those who are already old,
those who are about to become old,
and those who are finally old.”
Every single one of us will get old some day.
Treating our elders with kindness
is treating ourselves with kindness.
Today, the older generation doesn’t understand the internet,
they don’t get Didi,
they don’t get Meituan,
they don’t get Dingding.
But when we are old,
maybe we won’t get 6G,
maybe we won’t get VR,
maybe we won’t get AI,
maybe we won’t get blockchain,
maybe we won’t get quantum mechanics.
If we always have to give up
on the people who can’t keep up
then who’s to say in ten or twenty years
we won’t be tossed out, too?
When we ask if the old have a right to not use a smartphone,
we’re talking about
them today,
and us tomorrow.
I really like this saying:
“Don’t be too hard on children–
after all, they are who we once were.
Don’t dismiss the elderly–
after all, they are who we will become.”
We should treat the old well,
because treating them well is treating our future selves well.

 
9.

How do we take care of the stragglers
in our “smart” society?
Actually, it’s simple:
just keep some of the old ways.
It’s fine for restaurants
to promote QR codes,
but why not keep the menus, too?
Buses can scan health codes,
but at the same time,
can’t they check papers, too?
Patients can queue on WeChat,
but at the same time,
can’t the hospital spare some numbers?
Cabs and Didis can take WeChat Pay,
but at the same time,
why not have some change and receipts on hand,
in case someone wants to pay with cash?…
It will be a little less convenient,
it will take a bit more effort,
it will eat up some resources.
But it’s what a civilized society should do!

 
10.

My Mom barely leaves the house now,
because she can’t use a smartphone:
“I can’t do it, it’s too complicated.
I don’t want to cause trouble.”
I’m pretty busy at work
and I can’t walk with her all the time.
So she sits at home all day.
Just eating, sleeping, using the toilet,
and sitting. That’s her day.
Seeing her like this
makes me sad in a way that I can’t describe.
I saw this piece of news the other day:
“Elon Musk declares success
installing chips into brains.
The bionic human is on the horizon.”
A surge of fear
went through me:
“When we cross that horizon,
will I be one of those olds who can’t keep up?”
I read something that worries me:
“Perhaps you think
that smartphone-less old people stuck at home have nothing to do with you.
But just think, one day
you won’t have a chip in your brain, and you’ll be stuck at home,
and it’s you the young people will be laughing at.”
Ten or twenty years from now,
we’ll be old and irrelevant in the eyes of the young.
How we treat the old right now
is how the young will treat us, someday. [Chinese]

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