RE-UPDATED: Shots fired at Chinese consulate in Los Angeles

You just know this place is filled with lead paint.

UPDATE 2:
AFP is reporting that the person arrested was not Korean but, in fact, a Chinese-born activist:

A Chinese-born activist has been booked for attempted murder over a shooting at China's consulate in Los Angeles after a human rights protest there, police said Friday.

Jeff Baoliang Zhang, a 67-year-old originally from Shanghai, turned himself in to police a few hours after Thursday's shooting, which left a number of bullet holes in the front of the diplomatic building.

"A lone gunman fired several shots at the local Chinese consulate after participating in a protest at the location earlier in the day," the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.

"Acting independently from the other protesters, he opened fire on the consulate building and then drove away in his car."

The LAPD said it appeared the suspect was acting alone.

So the possibility I mentioned turned out not to be the case. And for that, I'm glad. It would be very, very, very bad if South Koreans or Korean-Americans are avenging someone's death by attacking or trying to kill random people who have nothing to do with the murder.

Don't get me wrong, the ROK Coast Guard and the ROK Navy need to use adequate force to patrol and protect South Korean waters and South Korean people, but shooting up the consulate has nothing to do with that. We must take the high road, and I'm glad we can still do that.

UPDATE 1:

LAlate.com is reporting that the person who turned himself in is "a 65-year-old Chinese man with grey or white hair." Frankly, I don't know if they wrote Chinese because they know his specific ethnicity or if they are assuming so because the police description was of an "Asian" man and there have been ongoing protests involving mostly Chinese people. Having been in journalism for a while, I'm skeptical: we hope it would be the former but it is, more often than not, something like the latter.

I'm not saying I'm right, that it is a Korean angered by the Coast Guardsman's murder; I think it is equally possible that it's a Falun Gong protester or even a random drive-by. But the timing with the recent Korean-Chinese tension makes it quite a coincidence. Frankly, though, despite having written this post, I'm hoping it's not a kyopo or KoKo.

ORIGINAL POST:
Though I haven't seen the person identified yet, reports are saying a white-haired Asian in his 50s or 60s is being sought was arrested after turning himself in (for earlier pre-arrest reports, see here, here, here, and here). He had apparently been protesting in front of the building before shooting at a consulate security guard named Cipriano Gutierrez. Nine shots were reportedly fired.

Given the escalation of tension* between Beijing and Seoul over the murder of a ROK Coast Guardsman by Chinese fish pirates, including something being fired at the ROK embassy in Beijing and someone trying to ram the PRC embassy in Seoul with his car, one can't help but wonder if this is related to all that.

Seriously, if this is the case, this is getting out of hand. China has behaved badly when it comes to this whole issue of Chinese boats behaving violently when they're caught illegally fishing in ROK waters or the South Korean EEZ, but none of that warrants shooting at the consulate. The folks at the PRC consulate in L.A. have nothing to do with any of this.

* Tensions include a Chinese protester peeing on a flag, though I'm not convinced that wasn't just a coincidence that the flag happened to be where he was peeing. I mean, in Seoul there are flags everywhere, and that's exactly where Chinese pee. Ha ha! I keed! I keed! I keed because I love... to keed!

South Koreans protesting in front of Chinese embassy in Seoul.
Their signs read, "Forget Dorothy... Surrender Toto!"
There, no one can accuse me of not providing
equal time on the whole national mockery thing. 

...

"Like a G20" by Far Eastern Resentment

Apologies for two lame puns in the title. With a hat tip to Wangkon at The Marmot's Hole, this video from Taiwan is probably our best bet for explaining currency issues and macroeconomic trade policy to the nation's young:

Is there an Exxon-Valdez on the other side of the Yellow Sea?

A former University of Alaska expert on marine conservation is warning that China's recent oil spill in the coastal city of Dalian, which is only a hop across the Yellow Sea from the fishing grounds and coastal areas of the Korean Peninsula, may actual be dozens of times larger than China is letting on.

From AP, via the Washington Post:

China's government has said 1,500 tons (461,790 gallons) of oil spilled after a pipeline exploded two weeks ago near the northeastern city of Dalian, sending 100-foot- (30-meter-) high flames raging for hours near one of the country's key strategic oil reserves. Such public estimates stopped within a few days of the spill.

But Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska marine conservation specialist, estimated 60,000 tons (18.47 million gallons) to 90,000 tons (27.70 million gallons) of oil actually spilled into the Yellow Sea.

"It's enormous. That's at least as large as the official estimate of the Exxon Valdez disaster" in Alaska, he told The Associated Press. The size of the offshore area affected by the spill is likely more than 400 square miles (1,000 square kilometers), he added.

That's a thousand square kilometers in a shallow sea (an average depth of 44 meters and a maximum depth of 152 meters) that itself is only 338,000 km in size. Who knows if that slick will eventually hit the South Korean EEZ with its important fishing grounds? If North Korean landmines in wooden cases can get washed out to the Yellow Sea and then float to South Korean islands, why not tar balls?

above: In 2004, fifteen years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Dr Rick Steiner shows how oil is still present at Rua Cove in Alaska.

Though Dr Steiner is obviously an activist working with Greenpeace and has been a vocal critic of BP for progressive institutions, the foundation of his claims rings true:

Steiner said his estimates came from the fact the oil storage tank that was destroyed had a capacity of about 90,000 tons (27.70 million gallons) and reportedly had just been filled by the tanker.

He said his lower estimate of 60,000 tons (18.47 million gallons) came from the rate of oil recovery by thousands of fishing boats dispatched for the cleanup.

"They've already collected more oil than the official estimate of the spill size," he told The Associated Press.

He praised the makeshift cleanup efforts: "Very low-tech. The thing is that it worked."

But he said the thousands of cleanup workers face possible health concerns after being told to help out, receiving no protective gear and being coated in crude.

If it is even close to accurate, this report is disturbing and alarming, but wholly unsurprising. China has a history of strenuously trying to keep unpleasant things under wraps (including previous major environmental disasters), even when the deliberate failure to disclose important information to the public leads to health risks, injury, and even death.

China has already tried to remove the spotlight from this nasty incident, with the mayor of Dalian declaring victory over the oil spill. I guess they had a bunch of made-in-China "Mission Accomplished" banners left over, and they had to use them for something.

What was that about Olympic spirit again?

Well, I'd be happy if I were Lee Hosŏk (이호석, the South Korean skater who blew the ROK team's chances of sweeping the 1500-meter men's race when he decided to sneak past his own teammate to snag the silver), I'd be happy that a new controversy is coming to eclipse his own.

That would be the South Korean women's skating coach throwing a bottle of water into the stands at someone from the Chinese team videotaping his skaters' practice despite repeated protests. From AFP:

South Korea's short-track head coach threw bottles of water at a Chinese team official as Asian rivalry in women's short-track skating boiled over at the Winter Olympics, it was claimed on Sunday.

The Chinese was filming a South Korea training session from the stands, despite repeated protests from Korean coach, Choi Guang-Bok, who was standing on the ice at the Pacific Coliseum venue, eye witnesses said.

"Stop it," "Don't do that," Choi yelled before hurling a couple of bottles which hit seats below the Chinese cameraman, they added.

The Chinese team trained next in a 50-minute session, three days before the women's competition was to begin with the 500m in which China's defending Olympic and world champion Wang Meng is a strong favourite.

I wasn't there, but that smells like bad conduct on both sides, but especially from the guy who threw the object at the other guy. My mom really drilled it into my head about everyday objects being like missiles that could poke an eye out.

Anyway, this is all an interesting side show to third-party witnesses:

The team's American assistant coach, Paul Marchese, said: "I think it's much ado about nothing. We smile and continue with our business."

"There's just a very, very strong rivalry between China and South Korea. That sort of showmanship might intimidate a lesser team, but it doesn't make a dent in China."

Can't we all just get along? Frankly, I'd rather South Koreans' be remembered for being spectators that pick up after themselves (à la at the World Cup in Germany in 2006) rather than bottle throwers.

When it comes to bad South Korean imagery, why does it always have to be bottle throwing?

Do Chinese sheep dream of being jingdroids?

The New York Times has an interesting article on the culture of hacking in China. An excerpt:

In addition to independent criminals like Majia, computer security specialists say there are so-called patriotic hackers who focus their attacks on political targets. Then there are the intelligence-oriented hackers inside the People’s Liberation Army, as well as more shadowy groups that are believed to work with the state government.

And what do the patriotic hackers focus their socialism-with-Chinese-characteristics thoughts on? Their main political ideology being to make Korea look bad, ridiculous, stupid, and inhumane so that China and its system of extinguishing independent political thought that might threaten the Beijing regime will look good by comparison.

Some of them, of course, are also focused on things like this (where I'm still #23 in the world, baby! In your face, MetaProscrastination!).

[above: This Chinese hacker should concern himself less with historically subservient Korea's insolent behavior toward Big-Brother China, and worry more about scoring some Rogaine™ for that budding bald spot.]

When you roam...

When Americans traveling abroad want something familiar, they visit McDonald's*.

When Korean presidents traveling abroad want something familiar, they visit Hyundai factories.

I'm hoping to see South Korean companies get more involved with India, a country that has the same potential as China in terms of providing a reasonably well-educated, disciplined, and affordable labor source, but with the added benefit of not being wholly evil (the government, that is; not the people, except some of the netizens... and the ground troops).

* This isn't true for every American, but it's true for a lot of them. I think the travel industry must have made a deal with McDonald's to get them to set up their chain throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America, because without the Golden Arches to fall back on, there'd be hella many Americans who would just stay home.

Has Google grown a pair?

Well, after helping Beijing channel Google searches toward state-friendly websites, it looks like Google has sprouted a conscience. After finding that an attack originating in China may have been aimed at tracking down human rights activists, Google has suggested they may pull out of China:

Google said Tuesday that it may pull out of China because of a sophisticated computer network attack originating in China and targeting its e-mail service.

The company said it had evidence to suggest that "a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts" of Chinese human rights activists. The attack was discovered in December.

Based on its investigation to date, Google said it does not believe the cyber attack succeeded. "Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves," the company said in a blog posting.

But David Drummond, Google senior vice president and chief legal officer, added that the attacks "have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China."

And not only that, they said they may review their policy of providing "censored search results":

Google has further decided it is no longer willing to continue censoring its search results in Chinese Google sites, Drummond said, and over the next few weeks it will discuss with the Beijing government how it may operate "an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all," he said.

"We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China," he said.

Privacy advocates applauded Google's move to disclose the attack and reverse its stand on censorship of its China search engine results.

Good on them, if they actually go through with this (more on how I feel about global corps kowtowing to China found here).

And in honor of Google and their newfound cojones, may I suggest the following artwork for tomorrow's Google home page?

Three-armed baby proof that efficient keyboard usage is driving human evolution

We all knew this was going to happen sooner or later.

A baby named Jie-Jie was born at a small local hospital in China's Anhui Province, armed with, well...three arms. All of them functional to some degree.

Clearly this is a sign of human evolution and the 144-hour Creationists* need to just shut the fuck up right now. This mutated baby will grow up being able to type out his blog and sip his Starbucks... simultaneously! How genetically developed is that?! It's like when the first giraffe had a long neck or the first elephant developed a trunk long enough to scratch its private regions.

In true egalitarian, communist fashion, doctors at a medical center in Shanghai are plotting how to take one of these arms away from the infant. In all seriousness, I say let him keep them all — he's not a freak, he's the future: an ergonomic infant.

Besides, the poor kid is missing one kidney, so shouldn't the extra arm be left intact to make up for his renal deficiencies? Won't someone think of the children?

If Jie-Jie could talk, I'm sure he'd be saying:

What the hell is wrong with you people? I've got an extra arm...think of how many things I'll be able to do that others can't, from sports to cheating at poker to clerical duties to intimate activities with my wife and/or girlfriend. Leave my arm the fuck alone! Oh, and why did you give me a name that sounds like I'm a fucking panda?! Were you high or something? I should take my third arm and go Cultural Revolution on your asses!

Yes, I'm certain that's the way babies would talk if they could speak.

UPDATE:
Doctors did in fact go and remove one of Jie-Jie's two left arms. He is in stable condition and doctors expect a full recovery. They removed the arm closes to his chest, the one which could have been used to hide contraband.

SITEMETER UPDATE:
Thanks to Space Nakji's foray into discussion of gender re-assignment gone awry, someone linked to this post while searching for (and how could I make this up) ambiguous genitalia island. Just what this person was looking for, I have no idea. Dare I say I hope he/she found it?


*That's people who believe in a literal six-day creation. I myself am a hexa-eon creationist, which is pretty much the same as a theological evolutionist, and we kick ass.

The five mascots of the apocalypse

Are all the good mascots already gone?

Japundit posted news about the supposed-to-be-cute-but-actually-kinda-scary mascots Beijing has chosen for the 2008 Olympiad. I don't know if it's intended or not, but in cartoon form they seem to be drawings of characters from Chinese opera.


From left to right the five of them are:
Beibei, a fish who plies the waters of the Taiwan Strait in order to spy on China's counter-revolutionary enemies. Beibei also appears from time to time near the Spratly Islands.

Jingjing, a giant big brother panda that is so large and oppressive it can omnisciently keep a watchful eye on every conceivable activity in the People's Republic of China to make sure that no one will accidentally threaten the existence of the Communist Party and its control of China.

Huanhuan, a flame of fire that Beijing promises to rain down on Taiwan if the "renegade province" ever declares independence.

Yingying, a Himalayan antelope that uses its antlers to round up and imprison Tibetans who dare speak out against Beijing for its brutal occupation of their ancient kingdom and its attempts to destroy Tibet's indigenous religion and culture.

Nini, a swallow who flies around northeastern China looking for North Korean citizens who have managed to escape the murderous grip of the Hermit Kingdom, so it can fly them back to the DPRK for certain impisonment and torture and possible death, both for them and their family.

The names were selected so that if you string together the first syllable of each name, you get bei-jing huan-ying ni, which means Beijing welcomes you.*


* Welcome not applicable if you are a North Korean refugee, a Tibetan or Uighur  or Taiwanese who does not wish to be under Beijing's thumb, a religious person of any kind, someone who wishes the Chinese people to enjoy the fruits of democracy, an advocate of free speech and press freedom, a whistle-blower of Chinese corruption or Party wrongdoing, or anyone who might seem like even a minor threat to the Communist Party's unchallenged control of China. American, Japanese, and South Korean businesspeople with their fistfuls of dollars, yen, and won are encouraged to keep 'em coming; Beijing continues to promise cheap products for Walmart, the 100-yen shop, Lotte Mart, Carrefour, and Daiso if Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul continue to look the other way.