Ren Zhiqiang: Why Foreign Business is Eyeing the Case of China's "Cannon"

Many people are in trouble in China for expressing dissent online; the case of real estate tycoon Ren Zhiqiang is of special interest to foreign business.

The Economist on Twitter: "Since when has the people's
government been turned into the party's  government?"
- Ren Zhiqiang, Chinese property tycoon and microblogger.

I've been amazed to read the stories in the Chinese language press about Ren Zhiqiang. Whole lists of China Communist Party (CCP) jargon that I had long ago forgotten -- Party discipline, Party line, anti-Party, censure, probation --  are suddenly relevant again. (See "China Puts a Tycoon, Ren Zhiqiang, on Probation for Criticizing Policies")

Ren Zhiqiang - looking defiant

Ren Zhiqiang is a Chinese real estate tycoon who also happens to be an outspoken Internet celebrity -- publishing on Chinese micro-blogging platforms like Sina Weibo and earning the nickname "the Cannon" -- and a son of a prominent member of the first generation of People's Republic of China (PRC) leaders. Oh, and he's a member of the Party . . . .

In February, China's leader Xi Jinping made a fundamental pronouncement to Chinese press outlets: in effect, "remember, your middle name is 'Party.'" (Xi used play on words, relating the Chinese word for "media" (mei - intermediary, go-between) to the word for "surname group" (xing), as if to say, "Sure, in theory you're neutral but let's remember whose family you really come from."

"The Cannon" fired back in cyberspace, asking if this meant "the People" had been left forgotten in a corner, and saying, "Since when has the people's government been turned into the party's government?"

China: it's no longer "shut up and take what you're given" . . . .

The brought the Cyberspace Administration of China down on Ren's head; and it has just been announced that Ren has been put on probation for one year by the Party. He's been told to behave himself, and the Party promises to keep an eye on him.

Foreign business is starting to keep an eye on him, too, and on related goings on in China. People who invest in China are finally starting to realize that it matters to them whether there is freedom of speech and freedom of press in China.

As I have been saying for a long time, when you've got a lot of money sunk into investments in a place, you really don't want to be the last one to find out when there's a problem.

What happens when more and more people in business start to stand up for the free flow of information?

Don't get me wrong -- I think China is an important state and worthy of our thoughtful attention. We need to be able to maintain seemingly contradictory views in our minds at the same time. For instance: we need to stand up for rights of people in China vis-a-vis the state; but we also need to recognize China's rights as a state within a world system in which states like the the US behave as if certain countries are more entitled than others.

Free speech and free flow of information is the great equalizer.


Other related posts

Free speech and human rights: The Price of Freedom in China? Four-and-a-half years ....

Free speech and human rights: CHINA: What's Black and White and Lives Behind Bars?

Foreign affairs: SOUTH CHINA SEA FACE OFF: Does this make ANY sense?

Foreign affairs: The Secret to Understanding the "New" U.S. "Pivot to Asia"

Climate crisis and economics: How Do You Say "Suicide Narcissus" in Chinese?

Climate crisis and economics: China and USA - Like a Moth to the Flame

MALAYSIA: What Might a Yellow T-Shirt Signify?

Supporters of pro-democracy group Bersih gathering outside the Dataran
(Photo credit: REUTERS/Edgar Su )

I've been interested to read about a yellow t-shirt that's been stirring things up in Malaysia.

The Malaysian government has banned supporters of the Bersih ("clean") movement from wearing their signature yellow shirts in public. I had not been paying attention to what Bersih has been up to -- but I sure will be now!

Bersih leader Maria Chin (Source: Astro AWANI/Shahir Omar)

Bersih has a 5-point platform:

1) A transparent government

2) Clean and fair elections

3) The right to demonstrate

4) Strengthening the parliamentary democracy system

5) Saving the economy of Malaysia

Clearly, threatening stuff.

Perhaps part of what makes Bersih so threatening is that they know how to organize -- globally:

In August, 2015, Bersih 4.0 demonstrations took place globally.

I think it's important for us to be in solidarity with people working for peace, justice, and human rights around the world; to be informed about what they are doing, learn about what they're doing successfully, and walk with them.

(To be continued . . . . )

Related posts

Can you think of a concrete symbol of a social protest movement that has gained as much traction?

(See HONG KONG'S UMBRELLA: An Icon for the Ages )

The resistance art on the West Bank wall has become iconic for the movement to resist the Israeli occupation of Palestine. As a part of our preparation for this prayer justice walk on Good Friday, we created some sign boards that replicate art found on the Wall (also known as the Separation Barrier) in Israel. Palestinians and visitors from throughout the world have added their own street art, graffiti, and public art to the Wall, as a sign of protest, an invitation to peace, and a critique of the lack of global intervention. We are posting pictures of our recreations of some of these sign boards in honor of those amazing artists (some known and others anonymous). These signs should help each of us consider what our own role could be in ending the injustice in the Middle East – whether gaining further personal awareness about the Wall, writing to a legislator, reading more about the plight of Palestinian people, or supporting a justice organization working in the Middle East.

(See Completed "Wall" sign boards - for Good Friday event)

It seems to me that that folding cranes -- and folding cranes together with other people -- is very similar to prayer. It's a simple, discrete activity that anyone can participate in. It can be very brief. It can be very private. But it can also open up all kinds of possibilities.

(See FOLDING FOR PEACE: How many uses can you think of for a crane? ) 

CHINA: What's Black and White and Lives Behind Bars?

Bei Bei (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A legendary character in our family was the cat we had in the years before I was born. It was black and white, and was named "Newark News."

My father's father -- also Joseph Thomas Scarry -- had been an editor at the once-prestigious Newark Evening News, and so I guess we felt a kind of protective instinct for the Fourth Estate.

I thought of our beloved Newark News when I saw a picture of another black and white critter this morning -- the newest panda at the National Zoo, Bei Bei.

I guess Newark News leaped to mind because I was holding a clipping entitled, "China Is Leading Jailer of Journalists, Group Says," by Rick Gladstone in yesterday's New York Times, and I had been wondering what to say about it on my blog. I had come up with several ideas, but this crystallized it all for me.

When you hear "panda," think "China jails journalists" . . .

China is brilliant at conducting diplomacy and promoting friendship in "soft" ways. By providing breeding pandas to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, China has assured intermittent reinforcement of the notion that when you think "China," you should think "soft, cuddly, cute, adorable" . . . .

That's fine as far as it goes. I think China's "soft and cuddly" PR provides a necessary counterweight to the idea that China is a military threat, and that the US needs to be an even bigger military threat to "contain" China.  At the same time, it's not fine if people can't also hold in their heads the opposing idea that the Chinese government harms individuals and its whole society by persecuting journalists.

And pandas? The inconvenient thing about symbols is that they can cut both ways.

Yes, pandas are soft, cuddly, cute, and adorable . . . .

They're also black and white and live behind bars.

So, I would suggest, when you hear "panda," think "China jails journalists" . . .

Read the Committee to Protect Journalists 2015 report, and specifics about the 49 journalists who have been jailed in China.

I'll be using social media to spread the story of one of these 49 journalists every day. (Updates to follow . . . . )

Liu Xiaobo

Update: December 17, 2015

Number 4 on the CPJ list is the Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, imprisoned in China since 2009. I wrote about him at that time.

There is a robust social media campaign working for justice for Liu. See, for instance: @free_liu_xiaobo @liuxiaobo and @freeliuxiaobo.




Update: December 18, 2015

There is an especially urgent need today for the world to be able to be able to receive frank reporting about the conflict between people in the western region of China and the Chinese government. Of particular concern to people in the US and Europe is the way in which the Chinese government more and more invokes the "global war on terror" and growing Western anti-Muslim sentiment to get away with abrogating civil rights and trampling press freedoms. (See CHINA: Where Minority Nostalgia is One Thing, Minority POLITICS Quite Another )

Eight of the journalists on the CPJ list are involved in reporting on developments in western China - the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region:

Ilham Tohti

Ilham Tohti
Perhat Halmurat
Shohret Nijat
Luo Yuwei
Mutellip Imin
Abduqeyum Ablimit
Atikem Rozi
Akbar Imin

Tohti is the founder of Uighurbiz/UighurOnline; the other seven are students of Tohti imprisoned after a secret trial for working on Uighurbiz/UighurOnline.

Connect to the social media effort in support of these prisoners via Ilham Tohti's daughter @JewherIlham; the writers' groups @pen_int, @PENamerican, and @chinesepen_org; and human rights organizations like @hrw_chinese and @amnestyHK.

(More on China's state repression of news about Uyghur affairs: "China didn't like Ursula Gauthier's reporting — so it is kicking her out of the country. . . . " see Emily Rauhala in the Washington Post, December 26, 2015: "China expels French journalist for terrorism coverage.")


Update: December 19, 2015

Yesterday I wrote about eight of the imprisoned journalists on the CPJ list who are associated with reporting about the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region via Uighurbiz/UighurOnline.

Gheyrat Niyaz (Hailaite Niyazi)

There are seven more who are also involved in reporting on Xinjiang and Uyghur affairs:

Ekberjan Jamal
Memetjan Abdulla
Tursunjan Hezim
Gulmire Imin
Niyaz Kahar 
Nijat Azat
Gheyrat Niyaz (Hailaite Niyazi)

The common thread in most or all of these cases: reporting about demonstrations in Xinjiang -- including instances of rioting. Apparently reporting about protest is treated as "incitement," and transmitting reportage out of the country is "revealing state secrets."

The silencing of this large number of journalists raises a very fundamental question: What is really happening in Xinjiang? People and businesses with interests in China need to be concerned . . . .

The cases of all of these journalists are monitored by the @UyghurCongress. The Uyghur American Association / Uyghur Human Rights Project (@uaauhrp) is also an advocacy organization in these cases.


Update: December 20, 2015

My principal involvement with China has been through business, and I think the most likely advocate for press freedom in China ultimately should be the business and investment community. That's why I asked several years ago, "Will the global investment community continue to yawn at developments in China? Sadly, they seem to think Liu Xiaobo and a few stray intellectuals are the only victims. Unfortunately, the real prisoner's dilemma is theirs . . . ." (See Merry Christmas, Mr. Liu: The Prisoner's Dilemma in China)

Nine of the journalists on the CPJ list are associated with a specialized business and investment media group - 21st Century Media Group. To be clear: business needs to support all journalism, because all journalism bears on the knowledge needed for business. In any event, if influential businesses need any prodding to push for press freedom in China, the case of these 21st Century Media Group journalists is it.

Shen Hao

The names of the jailed journalists are:

Liu Hui
Zhou Bin
Liu Dong
Wang Zhuoming
Xia Xiaobo
Shen Hao
Chen Bin
Xia Ri
Luo Guanghui

It seems like an appropriate place to mention that a major Chinese corporation, Ali Baba, has purchased the leading English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post. It's time for businesses around the world to read the handwriting on the wall: their sources of truth about China are drying up, and that places them in a position of unacceptable risk.

Want to advocate for these journalists in China? Start by asking your investment adviser whether s/he has any confidence in the news they're receiving about China and its business developments . . . .


Update: December 21, 2015

Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang

Five of the journalists on the CPJ list are associated with Tibet:

Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang
Gartse Jigme
Dawa Tsomo
Druklo
Lomig

Tibet is a very important place. The government of China has long thought so, and observers in the West are beginning to develop a deeper understanding of this fact, as well.

However, Tibet gets intermittent attention in the Western media, at best, and the coverage it does get usually focuses on the exotic aspects of Tibetan culture and religion. Add to that the fact that numerous journalists who might otherwise be reporting on dissent in Tibet proper (as well as ethnic Tibetan areas in other parts of China) are in prison, and it becomes clear that the story is not getting to people.

Advocacy for the cases of the Tibetan journalists is carried out by organizations like @tchrd_, @SaveTibetOrg, @icpc_eng, and @CHRDnet.


Update: December 22, 2015

Jiang Yefei

Today, as the world learns of the devastating mudslide in Shenzhen that has buried dozens, it is an appropriate time to lift up the names of two of the journalists on the CPJ list who symbolize the importance of freedom of the press to report on and question government handling of disasters, and to report on environmental issues.

Number 45 on the list is journalist Ye Xiaozheng. He was prosecuted specifically for reporting on protests about environmental issues in Guangdong -- the southern province of China of which Shenzhen is a part. You can read more about Ye Xiaozheng on the Independent Chinese PEN Center website.

Number 49 on the list is cartoonist Jiang Yefei. A key aspect of his case is that he moved away from his home in Sichuan province after being persecuted for his criticism of the government's handling of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.  You can read about his case in a Human Rights Watch letter and in an Amnesty International campaign.

Yao Wentian

Update: December 23, 2015

At the opposite end of Guangdong province from Shenzhen, in northern Guangdong, lies the city of Shaoguang. Two of the journalists on the CPJ list -- Liu Wei'an and Hu Yazhu -- are jailed in apparent retaliation for their reporting on mineral extraction in Shaoguang.

Also imprisoned in Guangdong is Yao Wentian, head of Morning Bell Press in Hong Kong, which publishes books about government figures in China.


Update: December 24, 2015

It is time to speak of the Epoch Times.

In my neighborhood of Berkeley, California, there are newspaper boxes on many street corners with free copies of the Epoch Times. I read it every week.

Yang Tongyan

The Epoch Times is a publication of Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a group which combines meditation and Buddhist thought, holistic health practices, antagonism to the government of China, and extremely determined devotion. There is a significant history of conflict between the government of China and Falun Gong.

Two journalists who have been jailed in China and are part of the the CPJ list -- Yang Tongyan and Qi Chonghuai -- have apparently been targeted (at least in part) because of pieces they have written for the Epoch Times.

I plan to write in more detail about the Epoch Times and Falun Gong. For now I'll just say: the suppression of voices like those of Yang and Qi underlines the fundamental difference between China and the US with respect to freedom of expression. The government of China doesn't like the message of the Epoch Times, so it seeks to silence it. In the US -- at least in theory -- all kinds of messages get to see the light of day, and audiences get to use their brains to sort it all out.


Related posts

Despite the difficulties associated with engaging in effective solidarity with dissidents in China, it is important to make the effort. A fundamental tenet of all peace and justice activism is that if we have the power to speak we can do anything, and if "they" succeed in shutting us up, it's the beginning of the end.

(See What is the US Peace and Justice Movement Doing for Dissidents in China?)

Beijing has an intuitive understanding that, in a way that is determined by conditions of unequal information, it can monolithically dictate terms, and that other, "distributed," parties will be hard-pressed to stand up to those terms. Specifically, Beijing observes a cynical cost/benefit calculus which says, "Sure, a few players will always wise up and exercise their options to move away from us; but, by and large, everyone else is too paralyzed to move."

(See Merry Christmas, Mr. Liu: The Prisoner's Dilemma in China)

"There's one thing you don't understand," he said. "What you are calling 'the best and the brightest,' the leaders in China call 'troublemakers.; A hundred thousand Ph.D.'s stay behind in the U.S.? Two hundred thousand? A million? Fine! Let them! There's more where that came from! China's got nothing if not people!"

(See Why Beijing Always "Wins")











Make no mistake: Sandy was a high-powered lawyer with a high-powered lobbying firm. In that setting, Sandy was a big mahoff. But what made him really big was his ability to help the rest of us have the confidence to raise our voices.

(See REMEMBERING SANDY: Samuel Berger, 1945-2015 )

The Wrong 3,000,000 Covers: Quel dommage!

I was saddened to see the news today that Charlie Hebdo chose the occasion of its post-massacre issue to manipulate an image of the prophet Mohammed.

I think Charlie Hebdo was right when they judged that their publication, which usually distributes 50,000 copies, was in a position to enjoy wide dissemination of what they had to say on this occasion. They printed 3 million copies of the new issue.

Unfortunately, they blew it.

The cover is described as portraying "the Prophet Muhammad holding a sign saying, 'Je suis Charlie' ('I am Charlie'), with the words 'All is forgiven' in French above it on a green background."

The 3 million covers presented the opportunity to make a statement about why free speech is so important. How can anyone think that a crude depiction of the Prophet Muhammad accomplishes that? Especially when graphically depicting Muhammad is considered by Muslims to be profane?

Don't get me wrong -- I'm an advocate of free speech. But that doesn't mean I think speech that profanes people shows courage or has value. Especially when people in a position of relative power profane those who experience prejudice and oppression.

Here's something that would be courageous and valuable, in my opinion: zero in on the handful of people in the world who have their fingers on triggers of the massive nuclear arsenals that threaten us, and bring them to heel. That would be impressive.

Let's see 3 million covers that take on the really worthy targets of our antagonism.

Empire, Chinese Style ("Why the Leung Face?")

"Look Left"
Since Hong Kong uses a British-style left-hand driving
set-up, flaneurs are grateful for ubiquitous reminders that can
save pedestrians from being blind-sided -- e.g. by a double-
decker bus barreling down the narrow streets. (Do those
signs foretell HK's future political orientation as well?)

I'm right there with the protesters in Hong Kong - in my mind, anyway.

I traveled frequently to Hong Kong during the '80s and '90s, and the streets the demonstrators are currently occupying are some of the most familiar to me in the world. I look at the online maps showing the main areas of the occupation, and I can summon up the details of these places, block by block, from memory.

Back in those days, I often stayed in a hotel on the Kowloon side, and I loved starting the day by walking the few blocks to the ferry pier. The Star Ferry boats shuttle back and forth continuously between the Kowloon and the Hong Kong side, and it's exhilarating to take the short 5-minute ride that weaves through the fantastic harbor traffic and deposits you in Central. You walk out of the ferry building on the Hong Kong side, and you're looking up at the futuristic Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building - symbol of British colonial control of the territory.

50 HK Dollar note, featuring the Norman Foster-designed HSBC building
Currency in Hong Kong is supplied by banks as bank notes. During the period
of British control, the notes were supplied by the two large British banks
in Hong Kong - Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Corporation, and Standard
Chartered Bank. Today there is a third supplier: the Bank of China.

Next to the HSBC building is the old Bank of China building - once the center of the People's Republic of China presence in colonial Hong Kong, and now superceded by the new BoC building by I.M. Pei, several blocks to the east. (The old building now houses the "China Club" -- a celebration of all things Chinese, from retro Shanghai style to Mao nostalgia -- conceived shortly before the 1997 handover by Hong Kong impresario David Tang.)

A few steps to the west . . . well . . . you get the picture . . . . With each step, you're traversing ground rich with meaning.

As I say, in my mind, I'm traversing those same blocks with the demonstrators.

I've thought about it and I have one thing to say about the current protests, as well as a few questions to ask. 


One Thing: "The emperor is far away . . . . "

Like everyone else, I am concerned about what is going to happen in Hong Kong, and I worry that there may be violent repression as there was against the student demonstrators in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

I'm holding out hope that this situation is different because of geography. Although it may seem like an arbitrary distinction, I think it is, in fact, significant to the leaders in Beijing that this group of students is far away in Hong Kong and that other group of students was right in their faces in the central square of the seat of power, Beijing.

A truism from Asian History 101 is conveyed by the expression, "Heaven is high and the emperor is far away." In other words, China is a big place, and it makes a difference whether you're at the "center" or in some relatively distant corner of the empire.

Broadly, this translates into a sense in traditional elite Chinese culture that south China is almost like another country. (This was reinforced by the elaborate centralized government bureaucracy that enabled the development of an "inside-the-Beltway" mentality in China long before Washington was born.)

Occupy Hong Kong, October 2014
This gathering centers on the government buildings of the Hong Kong
administration. The building in the near distance (right rear) with the glowing
triangle outlines and twin antennae is the Bank of China building.

Substantial scholarly effort has been devoted to analyzing the characteristics of "empire, Chinese style." I have found the collection of essays edited by John K. Fairbank, The Chinese World Order: Traditional China's Foreign Relations, to be especially helpful. To summarize, the historians observed that in many different examples of relations with (nearby) neighbors, traditional Chinese rulers exhibited little interest in outright control or even material advantage, but did angle successfully to obtain nominal submission, accompanied by explicit, universally readable symbolism. The classic form this took was the tribute mission, in which ambassadors came and offered gifts to China -- frequently resulting in the receiving of substantially greater gifts from the rulers of China. (Hey, it's the thought that counts.)

I think this is particularly valuable as we watch what happens in the months and years ahead in numerous areas of China, as China seeks to hold its empire together.

It also bears comparison with what we observe in the months and years ahead about how the United States behaves as it seeks to hold its empire together.


Some Questions

There are questions that are worth thinking more about and discussing.

What is the relationship between Occupy Hong Kong and the U.S. occupy movement? Are they siblings? Cousins? Or is this OINO ("occupy" in name only)?

What's with those Hong Kong students? I have known lots of young Hong Kong people, and I always knew they were smart and sophisticated. And worldly. So how did this current crop of students -- en masse -- get so political?

"HK you are not alone!"
"A student protester walks past umbrellas with words of support
written on them at the pro-democracy protest site near the
government headquarters in Hong Kong on Saturday, Oct. 4.
The protesters' use of umbrellas — among other equipment — to
shield themselves from the potential pain of tear gas and
rubber bullets has helped earned the movement the name the
'umbrella revolution.'" CBCNews (Wong Maye-E/Associated Press)

What's the 100-year plan? Great Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Most Westerners applied a Western approach to understanding what this meant: "Well, that's over with." China, on the other hand, stated that it was the beginning of a process. Maybe now would be a good time to try to imagine how they are seeing things.

Make that "100-year plans" (plural). As indicated above, there are numerous areas of China that are contested territory (physically and politically). I touched on one of them -- the Uighur area of Xinjiang -- in a recent blog post. How can we get our heads around what governance means for a China that has a half dozen pots on low boil?

What's the U.S. role in all this?  I was startled to see an analysis from Russia and other sources suggesting that the U.S. had instigated the student protests in Hong Kong. My own experience has always led me to believe that the last thing the U.S. cares about is political rights in any part of China - it's all about "what's good for business." (See "Remember June 4") What's the truth?


In the days and weeks ahead, we have an enormous opportunity to better understand how people in one of the most important places in the world think and operate. It is tempting to get caught up in the momentary play-by-play -- What will Hong Kong Chief executive C.Y. Leung's next move be? (Is he just a tool of Beijing?) -- but what would be truly valuable would be for us to convene many more conversations about the underlying issues, and the big emerging directions.

"Students march to the Government House in Hong Kong to push Chief 
Executive C.Y. Leung to acknowledge their grievances, Sept. 25, 2014."
 The banner translates as "Hope lies in the people" (The poster of Leung -- bearing
vampire fangs -- requires no translation.) Source: Radio Free Asia

Related posts

Can you think of a concrete symbol of a social protest movement that has gained as much traction?

(See HONG KONG'S UMBRELLA: An Icon for the Ages )












Large protests in Hong Kong have been occuring in Hong Kong for decades. Street demonstrations at the beginning of 2010 exhibited a new high in diversity, expression, and energy.

(See #0101hk: Visual Imagery of Hong Kong Protests Jan 1 2010 )






"The idea of following up their momentary contact hardly crossed his mind. It would have been inconceivably dangerous even if he had known how to set about doing it."

(See When Did "Free Assembly" Become "Inconceivably Dangerous"? )

It may be difficult to see today that the success of our movement in the future will depend on Chinese activists having the same freedoms that activists in the West enjoy. But, I predict, that is precisely what will make all the difference.

(See What is the US Peace and Justice Movement Doing for Dissidents in China?)




Doesn't politics and diplomacy call for the deft engagement with figures such as Ilham Tohti, in order to find breakthroughs that accommodate everyone, rather than a scorched earth approach? One answer that comes to mind: power holders in China are much more familiar with other ideas about how to "send a message."

(See CHINA: Where Minority Nostalgia is One Thing, Minority POLITICS Quite Another )

"What good is a tweet?" (The Packing and Unpacking of Meaning and the Steven Salaita Case)

Everyone will get a chance to meet and listen to Steven Salaita in Chicago next week.

There's a temptation to treat the Salaita case as a straight-up free speech case. (Perhaps tinged with outrage about the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.)

But I think that Salaita has accomplished something very important -- though difficult to unpack -- and so I'm going to try to bring together and organize some thoughts.


(1) Speaking quite openly

I'll begin by saying that I think Salaita has acted as a provocateur to force us to talk about what we often won't talk about: the confusion among several categories related to the Israel/Palestine situation, and the way that that confusion shuts down communication.

"He was speaking about this matter quite openly. " (Mark 8:32)

I believe we are called to speak openly about important matters.

(How many of us are in the closet about important questions like Israel/Palestine?)


(2) "What good is a tweet?"

I was at a family event about a year ago when a very smart (but somewhat skeptical) retired businessman challenged met to explain what the excitement about Twitter is all about. "What good is a tweet?"

The tweet that launched a thousand blog posts:
"Zionists: transforming 'antisemitism' from something horrible
into something honorable since 1948. #Gaza #FreePalestine"
7:15 p.m. July 19, 2014 @stevesalaita

Put aside for the moment the answer I gave him at the time; I'm realizing in the context of thinking about Salaita (e.g. what I am about to say in sections 3 ff. below) that what's really important is that sometimes the conversation doesn't get started with 14,000 words -- it needs to be 140 characters or less.

Short and sweet. And provocative.

(I'm reminded of Winston Churchill: "Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.")

Now . . . if I could sum up in 140 characters what makes a provocative and effective tweet . . . .


(3) The Venn Diagram

What is Salaita forcing us to confront when he tweets: "Zionists: transforming 'antisemitism' from something horrible into something honorable since 1948. #Gaza #FreePalestine" ?

In my opinion, he is forcing us to speak quite openly about three rather distinct things that get treated (incorrectly) as if they were the same thing:

* the state of Israel (and whether you criticize it or support it)
* the ideology of Zionism (and whether you criticize it or support it)
* the religion of Judaism (and whether or not you share in its values and beliefs)

I say these are "rather" distinct because I believe they are more like the Venn diagram at right -- we can discuss the degree to which they intersect and overlap, but they are certainly not totally overlapping.

I confess that it was less than two years ago that I saw a presentation by Joel Finkel from Jewish Voices for Peace in Chicago, and I first learned that Zionism is a distinct ideology and one that is not only not supported by every Jew, but is, in fact, felt to be in contradiction to Jewish values by some Jews.

As many people would readily agree, I came by my confusion honestly. Rabbi Brant Rosen was quoted in The New York Times a few weeks ago observing, “For many Jews, Israel is their Judaism, or at least a big part of it. So when someone challenges the centrality of Israel in a public way, it’s very painful and very difficult, especially when that person is their rabbi.” ("Talk in Synagogue of Israel and Gaza Goes From Debate to Wrath to Rage" -- of which more later . . . )

I suppose this encourages us to point out a fourth thing -- one that is not so distinct:

* the ethnicity called "Jewishness"

In my opinion, this fourth thing is like a fourth circle plopped down on top of our neat 3-circle Venn diagram, overflowing all the edges.

And so it gets more and more difficult to talk openly about these issues . . .


(4) A big "container": antisemitism

Now here's the hardest part of all: there is this thing called "antisemitism" which results in violence against people whose ethnicity is "Jewishness," but really can't be explained in terms of anything that has to do with that ethnicity -- even as multitudinous as that ethnicity is.

" J  E  W  "
Charlie Chaplin spoke quite openly
about the rising tide of virulent
antisemitism in Europe in the 1940
film, The Great Dictator.

Antisemitism is a fifth thing -- a kind of derangement. It is a uniquely insidious kind of derangement that finds expression in events ranging from the fleeting (e.g. the unconscious, offhand, unexpressed slur) to the personal (e.g. bias) to the society-wide (e.g. blacklisting) to the epic (the Holocaust).

As a derangement, antisemitism may have all kinds of nominal association with feelings about Jewishness, or Judaism, or Zionism, or Israel, but it doesn't bear any logical relationship to ideas about Jewishness, or Judaism, or Zionism, or Israel. Derangement arises in spite of -- not due to to -- logic.

And so here is what I think Salaita is forcing us to talk openly about: there is often an implicit (and sometimes explicit) suggestion that criticizing Israel or Zionism is antisemitism, and/or that it can lead to antisemitism.

So when we unpack a statement like "Zionists: transforming 'antisemitism' from something horrible into something honorable since 1948. #Gaza #FreePalestine," the main question I believe we need to be asking is, "Who is encouraging (or at least tolerating) the confusion between all these categories? What would be different if the confusion didn't exist?"

Is it possible that the "antisemitism" that we know as a derangement (horrible) has been substituted for some other "antisemitism" that we now confuse with logical (and thereby conceivably honorable) postures such as anti-Zionism and criticism of  -- even opposition to -- the state of Israel?


(5) View from the faith community

Christian communities have, I believe, an important role to play in working for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine, and throughout the Middle East.

It is important for Christians to speak openly about the issues and about possible paths toward solutions.

It may feel like a very "Christian" thing to do to insist on civility, and deplore the sharpness of Salaita's provocations. It would be the easiest thing in the world to simply avoid the Salaita case (and even shun Salaita).

But perhaps the much bolder and more Christian thing to do is to acknowledge that many of us fear to speak openly about issues in Israel/Palestine, lest we anger Jewish friends, colleagues, and counterparts.  (And that, by the way, by allowing our actions to be constrained by low expectations of these other people, we hurt them in the process, too.)

So: I believe the "Christian thing to do" is to follow the example so courageously set by the many Jewish activists who have spoken out to say "the actions of the state of Israel and the adherents of Zionism do not jibe with my Judaism!" We need to speak openly to criticize Israel when it needs criticizing and renounce Zionism if we think it needs renouncing, and walk shoulder to shoulder with righteous Jews.

We made it this way 
A Peace to End All Peace: 
The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and 
the Creation of the Modern Middle East
by David Fromkin

(6) Israel/Palestine war: Who benefits?

In all of this conversation and inquiry, I believe it is very important to remember that there is another entity that has a role in all this.

When people can't speak openly about Israel -- because of all the confusion about categories like the state of Israel, the ideology of Zionism, the religion of Judaism, the ethnicity of Jewishness, and the derangement of antisemitism -- it tends to support the maintenance of the status quo in the Middle East. That is a status quo that satisfies the leading imperial power in the world -- the United States.

We sometimes stumble into saying things along the lines of "Israel and AIPAC make the U.S. . . . ." Anytime we hear ourselves heading in that direction, we should hasten to say quite openly, "In the Middle East, the power calling the shots is the U.S."


These are my thoughts on the Salaita case, and why I think it should cause many more -- not fewer -- people to speak openly about the situation in Israel/Palestine.

What are you prepared to speak openly about?


Related posts

Just imagine the effect of qualifying the usual blanket statements about "what Jews think" or "what Jews say" with specifics about which Jews are under discussion. I believe 2015 will turn out to be the year that people everywhere begin to tease apart the the notions of "Jewish" and "unconditional supporter of Israel."

(See The End of the Myth of Monolithic Jewish Support for the Actions of the Israeli State )





I wonder if, years from now, we will be thinking back to today and feeling surprise at how little we thought about some of the developments in our world, and in our country, and how we talked about them even less. Someday will I have to explain to my kids, or to my kids' kids, why it was that "people just weren't talking about it" . . . ?

(See Why Weren't People Talking About It? )





The big takeaway for me from this panel was the message conveyed by Ali Abunimah: people in Gaza say now that there is a ceasefire, and the summer 2014 massacre in Gaza is behind us, please don't let up on your advocacy. Don't drop it! I left convinced that Christian congregations -- including congregations of the ELCA, of which I'm a member, as well as others -- are one of the key places that continued faithful attention to issues of peace and justice in Israel / Palestine must be carried out.

(See PRAY, LEARN, ACT: Congregations Need to Stay Engaged on Palestine )


When someone asks you, "Does it really matter whether you sign up for those Facebook events?" or "Why go out and participate in those rallies and marches?" this is what you can tell them . . .

(See Stand Up and Be Counted )

Why is the U.S. in a permanent state of war? More than anyone else, the beneficiaries of permawar are the politicians who thrive on the power to make and control wars.

(See J'ACCUSE: The Beneficiaries of Permawar)











It can be confusing because we engage in so much public expression -- lots and lots of self-disclosure on Facebook, for instance -- that it may not seem true to say that there are limitations on free expression.

(See Building Metropolises of Self-Censorship )







Other related links

October 19, 2014 - "Anti-semitism charge is increasingly being leveled against Israel’s mainstream critics" by Philip Weiss on Mondoweiss: "As Israel grows more isolated in world opinion in the wake of the Gaza slaughter, the anti-Semitism charge is being thrown around in a new way, at a new crowd. It’s now slung whenever westerners are too critical of Israel."

"You're NOT alone!" (Ziggy the Subversive)

David Bowie IS . . . Ziggy Stardust!

Last night I finally saw the Spiders.

I'm referring, of course, to the Spiders from Mars - and I "saw" them in the Pennebaker film of their performance at the Hammersmith Odeon (London) on July 3, 1973.

I originally expected to see the Spiders -- together, of course, with Ziggy Stardust -- when I went with friends to the David Bowie concert at Radio City Music Hall on or about Saturday, November 2, 1974.  Yes, yes, I knew Bowie's material would be somewhat different than the Ziggy persona -- but I somehow hadn't gotten the memo that Bowie was on to a totally new phase - epitomized by the cool nostalgia of "Young Americans."

So, though last night's film outing was a kind of baptism for me, I did come with some background (different, I couldn't help musing, than the background brought, for instance, by the enthusiastic fan in the front row of the theater who seemed to know all the routines yet certainly was born long after the Hammersmith Odeon performance) . . .

(a) On the one hand, I didn't really know what Ziggy was about: I knew some bits of lyrics, but they didn't really make sense. ("suffragette city"?)

Glam rock artist, c. 1973, Chatham, NJ
(Note transgressive fringed guitar strap!)

(b) On the other hand, I totally knew what Ziggy was about: in high school I played in a band, and not only did we cover a lot of the songs from the Ziggy Stardust album, we were devoted students of a very talented local band whose covers of those songs inspired us to cover the Ziggy oeuvre.

(c) As a member of a rock band, I was alert to alternative outlooks and yearning to go somewhere else and be someone different. (Personally, I was hoping to be Jimi Hendrix.)

(d) I grew up a conventional boy in a conventional (white affluent suburban American) community. In fact, when I went to that David Bowie concert in November, 1974, I know it had to be the Saturday night performance because I was playing high school football at the time and that was the only day of the week that I could possibly have gone to a concert in NYC.

So as I watched Ziggy for the first time last night, I asked myself, "What is it? What is it? What is the frisson that one feels? It's part charisma, part sexuality, partly the thrill of gender-bending, partly adolescent rebellion . . . . But what is it that Ziggy did (and does) for so many people?" (It can't be a single thing, can it?)

Ziggy: sui generis

One reason the Pennebaker film is worth taking the time to watch (e.g. on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLihS7KVvqI ) is for the shots of the fans. The emotional reaction is powerful. And yet all those thousands of people can't all be reacting for the same reason, can they?

I know it is the business of every rock star to connect to with the audience, and yet . . . .

"I'm an alligator!"

The audaciousness of Bowie's skimpy blouse, exposing his stringy legs, takes you to a number of places, but ends up landing on simple intimacy, I think.

And the timing of his saucy grins and winks and twerks are hard to interpret as anything other than in invitation. (Again, this doesn't come through in the stills - you've gotta see the film.)

Making love with his ego Ziggy sucked up into his mind
Like a leper messiah
When the kids had killed the man
I had to break up the band

As a past practitioner, I felt a sublime pleasure at the transcendent feeling accomplished with a few lights shone on a mirrored disco ball and an unconventional chord progression:

"Here am I sitting in my tin can"

I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

By the end, I'm not sure I was any more clear on what it was all about, though I had lots of snippets of impressions.

There's a starman waiting in the sky
Hed like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds

As the performance draws to a close, Bowie tells the audience that he and the band will remember the Hammersmith Odeon concert in particular because it's the last stop on the tour; and . . .

Not only is this the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do.

(Hey, we'd barely got started? And you're talking about finality and impermanence?)

I don't know if the term "queer studies" existed in 1973, or if people had begun to think about the connections between social convention, sexuality and gender, individual expression, and political power. My initial impulse is to say "I certainly wasn't" and "My peers in Chatham certainly weren't" . . . but then maybe that's not right . . . .

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
RCA Records, 1972 ("TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME")

Maybe the truth is that it is exactly through inchoate expressions and acts of subversion of the conventional that we are given permission to start the process of thinking different.

So now a journey begins: trying to remember, how has my thinking evolved? What are the stepping stones toward freedom.

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars ends with a performance of "Rock and Roll Suicide" and with remarkable interaction between Bowie and the crowd as wave after wave of the chorus washes over the hall:

You're WONderful!

Gimme your hands!

You're NOT alone!

What is Ziggy saying to you?

David Bowie, July 3, 1973, Hammersmith Odeon: "Gimme your hands!"

Check out the show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago through January 4, 2015: David Bowie Is


Related posts


"Zhang’s performances always involve his body in one way or another, usually naked, occasionally involving masochistic actions. For example, an exhibited photography showed him as "a naked man, his head half-shaved, sitting in a prisonlike space. His skin was wet and covered with flies. His face looked blank but tough, as if he were trying to meditate his way through pain."

(See The New Face of Social Protest In Hong Kong )










The song's lyrics alternated between "talking about the passion" and "carrying the weight of the world," over and over again. It was as if to say, "This is something we are going to keep working through, again and again, until we come to grips with it."

(See Thoughts Before Holy Week: Talk About the Passion )






If the Occupy movement has taught me one thing, it is that every time I hear some person or group of people being described as "different," I should stop and think. And think again.

(See Why OWS Should Lead the "No Iran War!" Resistance )

SOUND: "All the while that they were talking the half-remembered rhyme kept running through Winston's head: 'Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's, You owe me three farthings, say the bells of St. Martin's!' It was curious, but when you said it to yourself you had the illusion of actually hearing the bells, the bells of a lost London that still existed somewhere or other, disguised and forgotten. From one ghostly steeple after another he seemed to hear them pealing forth. Yet so far as he could remember he had never in real life heard church bells ringing." (p. 88)

(See Ambient Sound - Lifeline to Liberty?)




The fourth thing Cloud Gate had going for them was that they operated a dance school. (This seemed marvelous to me at the time -- babe in the woods that I was -- though now I guess I understand that that's de rigeur for a dance company.) Invited/challenged by some of my (female) classmates to come check it out, I rode the bus up to the Cloud Gate studio northeast corner of Taipei, and thus began my short-lived career as a student of modern dance.

(See Taiwan Kinaesthetics: Cloud Gate Dance Theater )

We need vagrants, misfits, rebels, and liumang. And that while anxiety is worth noticing, that's not the same as saying it's undesirable, or should be shunned.

(See In Praise of Nonconformity: Vagrants, Misfits, Rebels, and Liumang )