Chinese vs. Carrefour

As I blogged about before, the Chinese are taking it out on the French. On Carrefour.

Chinese Nationalism on the rise - Taiwan, Tibet, Olympics, etc.

Mainland Chinese are mad and they aren't going to take it anymore. Invigorated with new-found wealth (largest foreign exchange reserves in the world since 2006, per capita income up by a CAGR of 11% over the last half a decade, largest carbon polluter in the world, world's 3rd largest economy, etc.), the Chinese are responding as best they can to what they perceive as perfidious foreigners trying to break apart their historic Union (Taiwanese and Tibetan separatists).

For example, I received a chain e-mail from Chinese friends about Tibet, the French and Carrefour (a large, French supermarket chain that has expanded aggressively into Asia and China over the last decade and a half). It calls for a boycott of Carrefour:

5月8日-24日正好是北京奥运会的前三个月.请您不要去家乐福购物.因为:

1. 家乐福的大股东捐巨资给达赖

2. 法国支持藏独者甚众

3. 法国总统声言抵制奥运会.

那么我们现在就抵制一下家乐福.为期与北京奥运会同长.前后17天,让他们看看中国民众的力量. 请转发.

It reads:

May 8th - 24th is exactly three months prior to the Beijing Olympics. Please do not go to Carrefour to shop / purchase. Because: 1. Carrefour's largest shareholder has given money to the Dali Lama. 2. France supports Tibetan Independence severally. 3. The French President declared a boycott of the Oympics. Now, therefore, let us boycott Carrefour for a bit. For a period of time as long as that of the Olympics themselves. For these 17 days, make them see the strength of the Chinese people. Please forward this.

(Point 3 refers to President Sarkozy's demand that China open talks with the Dalai Lama, etc. as a condition for Sarkozy to attend the Opening Ceremony.)

China now has the world's second largest Internet population and we will see Chinese netizens being increasingly proactive in using the Web to further their agendas.

Taiwanese with their lights off

Just another venting of the spleen in terms of Asians driving with lights off.

Way around the Great Firewall o' China

Found a neat way around the Great Firewall of China! E-mail me for more info. Better not post it here otherwise the Chinese Net Nannies might get wise, see?

Driving with lights on

In North America at the moment, sure enough, people drive with their lights on - even more so than I remember. Relevant to previous posts about Asians in Taiwan and China driving with their lights off.

China's Brown Cloud of Death invading Taiwan

With a chest cold (obtained in Nanjing, China), certainly not fun to head back to the relatively clean air environment of Taiwan only to be followed by China's brown cloud o' air pollution.

David blogs quite elegantly about the bout of Mainland particulates hitting the island with the cold spell.

I blogged quite extensively about China's air quality and did analysis comparing the Pearl River Delta's air pollution index with that of the US -- the point being "so so" air in the PRD seems to be equivalent to "extremely hazardous" air in the USA.

Great Asian Internet disruption of 2006 continued

Although 90% of the sites I visit are not affected, I have noticed that sites hosted in Hong Kong or Mainland China are loading VERY slowly indeed. Sites and e-mail accounts hosted over there.

Furthermore, many friends in Hong Kong and China continue to complain that maybe they can get Skype to work, but not MSN Messenger and that foreign sites (such as blogspot blogs) load very, very slowly for them if at all.

Great Asian Internet Disruption of 2006

The earthquake last night near Taiwan seems to have caused quite a lot of Internet access issues.

My colleagues in China report huge problems accessing foreign sites and Hotmail and Yahoo mail. I, in Taipei, Taiwan, however, have had absolutely no problems today accessing any of the "usual suspect" sites such as Yahoo, Google, Gmail, Blogspot, Techcrunch, etc.

One friend in Taiwan indicated that he is accessing Web sites rather slowly though.