Archives for February 2009

This time of year sees a semi-ritualised exchange between China and the United States.

On Wednesday, the US State Department published its 2008 Human Rights report. The report includes a 47,000-word section on human rights problems in China:

"The government's human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas. During the year the government increased its severe cultural and religious repression of ethnic minorities in Tibetan areas and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), increased detention and harassment of dissidents and petitioners, and maintained tight controls on freedom of speech and the Internet."

Late on Thursday, China delivered its reply. The Information Office of the State Council released its 10th annual report on human rights problems in the United States.

China's 9000-word report paints a bleak picture of life in America:

* "Widespread violent crimes in the United States pose serious threats to its people's lives, property and personal security."

* "Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed country, ranking 42nd in terms of life expectancy."

* "Drugs, suicide and other social problems prevail in the US."

* "Many young Americans have personality disorders."

* "Racial discrimination in the judicial system is appalling."

China then reaches its conclusion:

"The US practice of throwing stones at others while living in a glass house is a testimony to the double standards and hypocrisy of the United States in dealing with human rights issues, and has undermined its international image. We hereby advise the US government to begin anew, face its own human rights problems with courage, and stop the wrong practice of applying double standards on human rights issues."

Tough words from both sides. But this yearly exchange of human rights reports appears to have very little practical impact on US-China relations.

Just a few days ago, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks in Beijing with all of China's leaders - the issue of human rights was barely mentioned (in public at least). The US and China have also just started two days of military talks in Beijing. And the two countries continue to rely on each other's business to get out of the world's recession.

What do you make of the two reports?

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A bit more information on Wednesday's report of three people setting themselves on fire in downtown Beijing. I want to take you through the early stages of this story - so as to give you an idea of how a breaking story unfolds in China ...

At 4.31pm, the official Xinhua news agency publishes a news flash on its English-language wire service : "Three men set themselves on fire in downtown Beijing."

In practical terms, Xinhua operates as the Chinese government's press office (the official government chart lists Xinhua as an "office directly under the State Council.") All foreign journalists in China need to keep an eye on what Xinhua reports - it's often the only way we'll find out what the Communist Party wants us to know.

China has often been criticised for hiding negative or inconvenient news (in January, for example, Chinese websites censored references to Communism in Chinese transcripts of President Barack Obama's inaugural address).

But in this case, Xinhua itself breaks the news of a dramatic demonstration in China's capital.

Xinhua's English language flash is immediately picked up by international news agencies. This alerts a wider audience to the story. But we still don't know exactly where the incident happened.

At 4.44pm, Xinhua in English publishes a short update, including information from an unnamed government spokesman, "The three sat in a vehicle and ignited the fire at 3 pm at the crossing of the Wangfujing and Chang'an avenues."

Now we know where it happened - at a busy intersection just a few minutes walk from Tiananmen Square. My colleague heads straight there. When she arrives, she finds that everything has already been cleared away. Police officers wandering by do not get in her way. The only thing that makes the street unusual is a collection of foreign journalists walking about looking for people to talk to.

Eyewitnesses are reluctant to speak. But one street vendor agrees to talk, so long as we don't use her name, "The three were in a small van with flags fixed to its roof," she says, "They set fire to themselves, but within a very short time, the fire was put out."

The woman's husband says that the people in the car looked like Uighur Muslims from the Xinjiang region of western China - one of the most sensitive areas in the country. Witnesses who speak to other journalists say that the car had number plates from Xinjiang and that the three people inside were Uighur Muslims.

Later on, we get hold of this photo, taken from someone's mobile phone shortly after the fire was put out.

At 5.55pm, Xinhua in English publishes a further wire service update, saying that two of the men were taken away by the police, the other in an ambulance. "The motive of the self-immolation and the men's identities were not available at the moment."

By the early evening, then, we've been able to build up a reasonable picture of what happened.

But it's important to point out an unusual fact that you may already have noticed. All of the official updates so far have come from Xinhua's English-language wire service - not its Chinese-language wire service (it's a bit like the Press Association in the UK deciding to break news of a demonstration in the middle of London in French, but not in English.)

So, up to this point, most people who only speak Chinese - and who rely on the government for their news - will probably be unaware that anything unusual has happened in Beijing (during this time, though, Chinese speakers will have been able to find translations of the English-language reports on the Internet.)

Finally, at 6.55pm, Xinhua in Chinese publishes its first wire service report on the subject. It says that the police went to check a suspicious looking vehicle. "When police came up to make a check, the vehicle suddenly caught fire inside" (our translation). Xinhua also reports that the three people had come to Beijing to make a complaint.

What should we make of the fact that Xinhua waited for more than two hours before breaking the news in Chinese on its wire service ?

I put this question to a Chinese journalist who works for a government-sponsored publication. The journalist has asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from his employers. The journalist says that Chinese media organisations have to take much greater care when they publish stories in Chinese, because the authorities are worried about the danger of social unrest. Breaking a story in English, the journalist says, doesn't carry the same risks, and it even helps China to show the (English-speaking) world that it is taking steps towards greater press freedom.

The journalist also reports that media organisations in China have specifically been ordered not to use the words "Muslim" and "Xinjiang" when reporting on this story.

And, to my knowledge as I write this post, pictures taken at the scene have not been published widely.

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A couple of heads - one of a rabbit; the other of a rat - are making quite a racket. The heads used to be part of a display at the Old Summer Palace here in Beijing. But in 1860, this palace was looted by French and British forces. The two bronze heads eventually ended up in the collection of the French designer, Yves Saint Laurent. Now they're set to be auctioned in Paris.

China believes that the two bronzes belong right here in Beijing - at their former home in the Old Summer Palace in the north of the city.

Earlier today, a colleague and I went to have a look at the ruins of the Palace. A 25 rmb ($3.65) ticket allows you to wander through the grounds, past frozen lakes and fallen columns. We bumped into several tour groups, doggedly making their way around in the cold (each tour leader had a loudspeaker and a green flag; many tour members had identical orange baseball caps).

Everyone we spoke to believed that the bronzes should be returned to China. It's worth saying that the entire way in which this country views the West is coloured by the looting and destruction of the Old Summer Palace in the 19th century. Many here feel that a failure to return the figures almost 150 years after they were taken away shows a (continuing) lack of regard in the West for China and its heritage.

We had been planning to meander about the ruins for a little longer in order to track down the exact place in which the bronzes used to be displayed. But we got word that three men had set themselves on fire in some kind of protest in downtown Beijing - so we had to get back into town. For a reporter, breaking news has to take precedence over archaeology.

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I'm not sure whether or not Hillary Clinton likes being reminded that she lost last year's presidential race. But this morning in Beijing, on the last day of Mrs Clinton's tour of Asia, one Chinese activist didn't mind raising the subject.

At a women's leadership forum held at the US Embassy, Mrs Clinton went round the room asking the 22 panellists about the obstacles facing women in this country (the event was open to the media, but we weren't allowed to film it.)

When it came to Xie Lihua, the founder and chairwoman of Rural Women, Ms Xie had a story from the 2008 campaign trail.

"I tried to memorise an English phrase my daughter taught me : 'I hope you win!' But when I got to see you [during the campaign] I forgot to say it. If I had said it, you probably would have won!"

Everyone in the room, including Mrs Clinton, laughed out loud.

There was more laughter a few minutes later.

"This is the first time we've met," said another panellist, "But a couple of years ago I went to the US and had my picture taken next to your waxwork. So it's fate that we should finally meet."

During the hour-long meeting there were also some more serious moments. Eighty-two-year-old Dr Gao Yaojie spoke about her lengthy campaign for the rights of Aids patients, during which she has been obstructed by the authorities.

"This is an important issue," Dr Gao told Mrs Clinton, "I am not afraid!"

There were also complaints about a lack of progress for women in China. Mrs Clinton asked whether or not girl babies were more respected than they were 10 years ago, when she was last in China. Several women in the audience shook their heads.

There was even some delicate criticism of China's political structure - one of the most sensitive subjects in this country.

"I think we need more women in our very high leadership in the government," one panellist said.

"Well, I certainly believe every government needs more women," Mrs Clinton replied with a smile.

While this forum was taking place, another group of women gathered near the old US Embassy in a completely different part of town. They hadn't been invited to any official events, but they wanted to catch Hillary Clinton's attention while she was in Beijing, so they decided to go the US Embassy. The trouble is - the Embassy moved to a new location last summer. The women had gone to the wrong place. Despite this, they decided to go ahead with their protest. They raised a banner with words printed in English :

"Dear Clinton, Secretary of State,
13 years ago, you in Beijing with emphasis on all the Government to respect the basic human rights of women and men obligations. You once said that respect for human rights means that "not only because the citizens of the peaceful expression of views and ideas, so citizens from their loved ones taken away while in custody, abuse them, denied their freedom and dignity." I love Bill Clinton Hillary. We are all witnesses of human rights in China!"

(The quote attributed to Mrs Clinton appears to be a slightly garbled retranslation from Chinese into English of a speech she gave in Beijing to the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.)

After about 10 minutes the police arrived. The women put down their banner and dispersed. Several of them were taken away by the police for questioning.

At about the same time, Hillary Clinton left the new US Embassy in her motorcade and was driven to the airport.

During her 42 hours in this country, Mrs Clinton met all of the Communist Party's main leaders, she went to church, visited a power plant, held talks with female activists, gave interviews and a webchat.

But she had very few spontaneous meetings with ordinary Chinese citizens. In the end, some of those trying to attract her attention to remind her of her own words had simply gone to the wrong place.

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Hillary Clinton began her first full day in Beijing in the most beautiful part of this city - a 100 acre compound of parks, frozen lakes, and ancient villas. The compound houses the Diaoyutai State Guest House - you can only get inside with an official invitation.

This morning I had one, so I joined the US travelling press corps in a grey minibus and we drove into the grounds. Signing up with the travelling press entitles you to a number of things: access to a filing centre at the delegation's hotel; a seat on the minibus; an official State Department booklet with details about China (the booklet describes the non-political interests of the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, "When he worked in the Communist Youth League Central Committee, he occasionally danced solo at parties. He also plays table tennis fairly well."); and a turkey sandwich for lunch (cost: 51 rmb or £5.)

We were escorted into a main hall two hours before a press conference with Mrs Clinton and her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. The two were holding talks in a room nearby (it was so close that officials had to go round our room asking us all to be quiet, because our chatter was disturbing the official bilateral talks.)

The main hall was equipped with a grand piano (used this morning as a useful surface for folders and laptops) and had a view over a frozen lake.

At 11.47am, Mrs Clinton and Mr Yang came down the steps and started their news conference. Plenty of heavy-calibre diplomatic words were deployed - bilateral relations, strategic dialogue, issues of mutual interest and so on. But the translation was simple : Hillary Clinton came here to ask China to form a 2-member How-To-Save-The-World Club.

The Obama Administration wants to tackle the global financial crisis, climate change, and security issues including North Korea's nuclear programme. These are dusty subjects - but they are actually the kind of lie-awake-at-night worries that superpowers have - can we afford to give our people a better life ? Will the world get too hot to live in ? Will we be blown up in a nuclear war ?

The US believes that it cannot solve any of these problems unless China is involved. That's why Mrs Clinton is here in Beijing. Human rights were mentioned at the press conference - but only briefly. Yang Jiechi insisted that human rights in China were respected, "Although Beijing is chilly," he said, "I'm confident that you will see the biggest number of smiling faces here."

The press conference went on for 49 minutes. After a private lunch with a State Councilor, Mrs Clinton then headed off to a low-emission Chinese power plant which uses hi-tech American equipment. The message : This is how the US and China can tackle global warming together.

She spoke to an audience of Chinese students. Mrs Clinton came alive at one particular point, when she was talking about global warming :

"What we hope is that you won't make the same mistakes, because I don't think either China or the world can afford that. When we were industrialising and growing we didn't know any better. Neither did Europe. Now we're smart enough to know how to have the right kind of growth."

For China, these are interesting words. China has always insisted that the West is to blame for climate change - because of the Western industrial revolutions. Hearing America's chief diplomat come close to making the same point will be welcomed by many here.

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Hillary Clinton is here.

On Friday evening, in the ice of the Beijing winter, I went to the airport with a group of journalists to watch her plane arrive.

We were allowed into the VIP terminal - a kind of miniature palace lined with red flags and chandeliers. I was told that the building was equipped with specially ornate showers for its guests (which I did not get to see).

We were escorted out of the building and onto a semi-frozen metal press stand on the edge of the tarmac. Twenty minutes later, we saw Mrs Clinton's plane taxi towards us.

A group of Chinese officials - led by the assistant Foreign Minister Liu Jie Yi - came out of the terminal. Two sets of mobile steps - one lined with red lights, the other with blue lights - were driven towards the secretary of state's plane.

All the non-newsworthy passengers quietly got out of the back door. Then, a few minutes later Mrs Clinton walked down the steps from the main door.

From where I was standing - at least 50m away - I could see that she had an overcoat on - the same level of winter protection that her Chinese hosts were wearing.

Incredibly enough, this is an important subject. Overcoat etiquette is a big thing in the world of diplomacy. US presidents, in particular, like to go out in the freezing cold without much wrapping in order to demonstrate their vigour. This habit has sometimes embarrassed hosts who've come to welcome them in sensible winter clothes - only to end up looking like they're too weak to stand their own cold weather. No overcoat embarrassment tonight though.

No elaborate welcoming ceremony either. It was far too cold for national anthems, guards of honour, and folk dances. Mrs Clinton shook hands with the assistant foreign minister, and was escorted the five or six paces into her limousine.

A few moments later, her 23-vehicle motorcade drove away.

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On Friday, Hillary Clinton comes to Beijing for talks with China's leaders. Hers is the first visit to China from a senior member of the Obama Administration. Many are interested to see whether or not Mrs Clinton will publically address the subject of human rights while she's here.

In the past, US officials have often preferred to speak softly (in public at least) during their visits in order to avoid embarrassing their hosts. They save their harsher words for before and after their trips. President Bush did this last August when he delivered a critical speech on China from Thailand, just before he arrived on Chinese soil to watch the Olympics.

But Mrs Clinton has a precedent to follow. It is her own.

In September 1995, during her husband Bill Clinton's first term of office, she came to Beijing. She was the main speaker at the Fourth World Conference on Women. Mrs Clinton delivered a 20 minute speech (you can listen to it here) in which she made some pretty direct statements:

"Both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms from the right of personal security to the right to determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear [applause]. No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture."

There was even a direct rebuke:

"It is indefensible that many women in non-governmental organisations who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend - or have been prohibited from fully taking part."

But now Mrs Clinton has a new job - having traded the post of first lady for secretary of state. It's not clear whether or not this will mean a change of tone when she gets to China. But one group of human rights organisations has just sent her a letter reminding her of some of the comments she made in Beijing in 1995.

Aside from human rights, there's plenty for Hillary Clinton to discuss when she meets China's leaders.

1) The Economy
China and America are stuck together on this one. China's economic growth has been fuelled by its exports - the US is its biggest export market. So, in order to keep going, China needs Americans to keep buying. But the US has a few complaints. The US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently accused China of "currency manipulation" - of keeping the value of the Rmb artificially low in order to gain an advantage over its competitors. China denies this charge and points out that the Rmb has appreciated 21% since China partially floated its currency in 2005.

2) Climate Change
Recent figures show that China has overtaken the US as the world's largest single producer of carbon emissions. In December, the world will go to Copenhagen to negotiate a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol. Any global climate change deal which does not address China won't last all that long. But China says that it cannot accept a cap on its emissions, since it's still a developing country. China also points out that - per capita - Chinese people are responsible for about one-sixth of the amount of carbon emissions produced by each American. It's something to talk about with the US Special Envoy for Climate Change, Todd Stern, who's coming to Beijing with Mrs Clinton.

3) North Korea
Since 2003, Beijing has hosted six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The US has taken part in these discussions along with Japan, Russia, South Korea and North Korea itself. Many believe that China has more influence on the regime in Pyongyang than any other country. So, the road to a nuclear deal with North Korea may begin in Beijing.

There are other issues as well. The US military says that it's hoping to restart high-level military exchanges with China. These ties were broken off last October after the US sold arms to Taiwan.

I'll be covering Mrs Clinton's visit amid the Beijing snow.

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The man who will one day lead more people than any other person in history isn't even the most famous person in his own household.

Xi Jinping is China's vice-president - he's expected to take over as China's leader in 2012/13. To many Chinese people, though, he's been more famous as the husband of the folk singer Peng Liyuan [not in English].

For many years, Peng Liyuan has appeared on Chinese state TV's New Year Gala - the most watched TV programme of the year. She also performs in Chinese opera (I sat high up in the stalls of the newly opened Beijing Opera House a year ago to watch her sing.)

We've tried to interview Peng Liyuan many times, without any luck. Our interview application has been complicated by the fact that she's also a major general in the People's Liberation Army - an organisation which doesn't usually let its soldiers speak to foreign news organisations (we ran into the same problem when we tried to interview China's first astronaut Yang Liwei - who is also a major general).

Anyway, Peng Liyuan's husband is currently in Venezuela - his latest stop on a tour of Latin America. Since he took over as vice-president almost a year ago, Xi Jinping has been sent on a number of official trips abroad. These tours are partly designed to introduce him to the countries and leaders he'll be dealing with over the next few years. They're also partly aimed at showing the audience back home that the man they've known as the obscure husband of a popular singer has now become an international statesman.

Establishing Xi Jinping as China's next leader is an important subject for the Communist Party. The premise is simple: an undisputed succession will help the Party to stay in power.

A quick history of Communist regimes across the world reveals a major weakness in the Communist system: how do you go from one leader to another? Democracies have elections, monarchies have heirs apparent, Communist parties tend to have a mess.

For many years, the Chinese Communist Party struggled with the question. Chairman Mao's first two picks as his successor- Liu Shaoqi and Lin Biao - didn't work out (the first was condemned as a traitor, the second was killed in an unexplained plane crash).

Eventually, Deng Xiaoping took over. He then ran into exactly the same problem. Deng tried out two potential successors - Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang. He removed both of them.

Then, in 1989, Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union collapsed. The Chinese Communist Party was determined to learn the lessons from the fall of similarly run Communist Parties. Among its conclusions - don't let yourself be ruled by a collection of elderly leaders who stay in power for too long, don't indulge in years of uncertainty and chaos about who takes over from the leader.

So, the Chinese Communist Party came up with a set of four clear rules in order to avoid any more of its own succession problems:

1. Each leader will stay in power for 10 years - aiming to retire at about the age of 70.
2. The most talented figure from a generation 10 years younger will be designated as the current leader's successor well in advance.
3. An uncontested transition between the two will be respected by everyone.
4. Repeat the above.

These rules were tested in 2002 when the current President, Hu Jintao, took over from Jiang Zemin. This marked the first successful, non-chaotic transfer of power in the Communist Party's history.

The process has now moved onto its second cycle. In 2007, Xi Jinping was chosen as the most talented figure of the next generation. He was appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee and then made vice-president. In 2012/13 he is expected to take over as the General Secretary of the Communist Party and the President of China. A few years after that, the Party will pick his successor. And so on.

So far, the Party's rules have worked.

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In the history of the last century, some years immediately stand out: 1914, 1917, 1918, 1939, 1945, 1968, 1989.

In retrospect, it may be worth having another look at a five-month period from 1978 to 1979. During this short time, a number of events laid the foundations for the way the world works today.

  • 18 December 1978:
China's leader Deng Xiaoping announces the reform and opening up of China's economy. At the time, the announcement receives little notice in the West. But it marks the beginning of the transformation of China from an isolated agrarian society into a global superpower.
 

  • 1 January 1979:
The United States and China re-establish formal diplomatic relations after US President Jimmy Carter switches recognition to Beijing from Taipei. The relationship between these two countries may define the course of the 21st century.
 

  • 1 February 1979:
Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran, marking the no-turning-back point of the Iranian Revolution.
 
Relations between Iran and the West come to dominate events for 30 years, provoking the downfall of one US President (Carter) and the biggest crisis of another (the Iran-Contra affair in the Reagan years).
 

  • 14 April 1979:
The Afghan government requests helicopters from the USSR. By the end of the year, the Soviet Union invades. The fighters who resist Soviet forces eventually go on to form the nucleus of the Taleban.
 

  • 4 May 1979:
Margaret Thatcher is elected prime minister of the UK. Her election starts to shift the ground of Western politics and foreshadows the election a year later of the US President Ronald Reagan. The current UK and US leaders acknowledge their debt to the Thatcher-Reagan revolution.
 

Today marks another anniversary from that five-month period.

  • 17 February 1979:
China invades North Vietnam and fights a brief border war. This conflict is inconclusive. But, in retrospect, it marks the last time that China sends troops into a foreign country in anger. This anniversary has barely been marked in China (when asked about it, a foreign ministry official told a briefing that China and Vietnam experienced "an unhappy part of history").

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Apologies matter to China. A few from recent history...

• In 2001, a US navy aircraft collided with a Chinese military fighter jet off the southern coast of China. The Chinese pilot was killed in the collision and the US aircraft was forced to land on Chinese territory. The US crew was detained and only released after the United States wrote a letter in which it said it was "very sorry" both for the death of the Chinese pilot and for entering China's airspace without verbal clearance (whether "very sorry" was an admission of responsibility or an expression of sympathy was left unclear in the original English text).
  


• In 2008, a pro-Tibetan protestor tried to grab the Olympic flame from a disabled Chinese athlete during the torch relay in Paris. Shortly afterwards, the French president said sorry in a note hand-delivered to the athlete.
  


• And earlier this month Cambridge University apologised after one of its students threw a shoe at China's Premier Wen Jiabao, during a speech the leader delivered to the university (Mr Wen subsequently asked the university to forgive the student).

Now the most successful athlete in Olympic history has joined the apologisers' club.

The US swimmer Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, has appeared in an internet video addressed to his fans in China. It comes after the swimmer was photographed smoking marijuana.

During the 51 second video Mr Phelps speaks over Chinese subtitles, "To my Chinese friends, as many of you know, I recently engaged in behaviour that was regrettable and not what people have come to expect from me ... To the young people of China, please learn from this lesson, be positive in life, and do the right thing ... I look forward to returning to China soon."

The fact that Mr Phelps chose to address his fans in China may reflect an attachment to the country which made him famous. More realistically though, it's a sign of the importance of the Chinese market to his remaining sponsors - particularly Mazda. The swimmer recently signed a contract said to be worth more than $1m to promote Mazda cars in China - it's the largest ever sponsorship deal for a western celebrity in China. An apology may help to protect the company's investment.

Some of you may debate whether or not Mr Phelps's video statement to his Chinese fans is a real apology - he doesn't actually say sorry at any point. But his sponsor believes that it counts. In a statement, Mazda says that the athlete "apologized to the Chinese public through a videocast."

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Tonight in China the loudest two weeks of the year come to an end. Chinese new year celebrations finish with a last round of fireworks to commemorate the Yuan Xiao or Lantern Festival. China invented fireworks - so it seems appropriate that this country shows the rest of the world how to make a bang.

Every night for the last two weeks in Beijing people have set off fireworks. Imagine Guy Fawkes Night or Fourth of July celebrations every night - that's what it's like.

It is an incredible spectacle. But for outsiders the bangs can take a bit of time to get used to (animals have similar problems - I know someone whose dog has been so scared by the fireworks that it refuses to be taken for a walk).

I'm writing these words in the BBC bureau as fireworks are set off on the street outside. A few minutes ago one set of rockets got knocked over and started firing off into parked cars and shops across the road. Nobody seemed to mind.

Many here enjoy the bangs. But they can be pretty dangerous. So far, official figures show that 481 people have been injured in firework accidents in Beijing (mainly caused, apparently, by badly made fireworks and drunkenness.)

UPDATE 1730 GMT: For several hours the skies of Beijing echoed with bangs. Then, shortly after 9pm, I was texted by a colleague. She told me that a large building - the 44-storey Mandarin Oriental hotel - had caught fire.

I ran the few blocks from my house to have a look. I joined a crowd on the 3rd Ring Road in East Beijing. Everyone was pointing their mobile phone cameras in a single direction.

My colleague filmed these pictures with her digital camera.

The Mandarin Oriental was unfinished and had not yet opened to the public. It's part of a complex which houses one of Beijing's most dazzling new buildings - the headquarters of the state broadcaster, CCTV. This complex was designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. It has become an icon of this city's architectural ambitions (protesters scaled it during the Beijing Olympics knowing that they would attract plenty of attention.)

As I write this post, there have been no reports of any casualties. It's not yet clear how the fire started. But many in the crowd were sure that it was caused by stray fireworks.

I left the scene a few minutes ago. As the fire carried on burning, the sound of fireworks continued to echo across the city.

SECOND UPDATE TUESDAY 0945 GMT: Another update on the fire which destroyed the hotel in the new complex built for the state broadcaster, CCTV.

The official news agency, Xinhua, is reporting that one fireman was killed and several others were injured when they tackled the fire. CCTV itself has issued a statement on its website (we've translated it from the original Chinese) :

"On the morning of February 10th, the Beijing Fire Department carried out an investigation and confirmed the cause of the fire. The person in charge of the construction of the new building project of CCTV hired staff without permission to set off fireworks that violated regulations. The fire caused serious damage to state property. CCTV is deeply remorseful."

So it was fireworks that did it.

This morning the blackened shell of the hotel stood out amid the collection of mirrored skyscrapers in Eastern Beijing.

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Before I came to China, I tried to learn a bit about Chinese etiquette. The one thing I remember learning is this: when it comes to clinking wine glasses at a formal reception, it's polite to make sure that the rim of your glass is lower than that of the person you're clinking with.

The other day I was at a Chinese new year reception hosted by the state broadcaster, CCTV. At toasting time, the CCTV executives fanned across the room with their wine glasses held out at about waist level - making it impossible for any of us to get our glasses lower than theirs. They won the politeness battle.

But don't confuse etiquette with a lack of ambition. This year CCTV is planning to open Russian and Arabic language channels. Reports also say that the state-run news agency Xinhua has plans to start up its own international news channel. China is determined to project its own image and perspective as far as it can.

So this country's image-makers may be interested in the results of an opinion poll conducted for the BBC World Service. The poll suggests that global attitudes towards China - and Russia - are worse than they were a year ago (although clearly there are a huge number of caveats to throw at a single poll which takes broad conclusions from a limited number of interviews - as I'm sure many of you will be keen to tell me).

But how the world sees China and how China sees the world matter quite a bit. An American writer, Joshua Kurlantzick, goes through some of China's image-making efforts in his book, "Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power is Transforming the World".

The writer lists the things that China's done in order to win friends around the world: it's ended border disputes with its neighbours; it plays an active part in global institutions such as the UN and the World Trade Organization; it doesn't intervene unilaterally in other countries' internal wars (and it stopped funding Maoist-style revolutions a long time ago). Mr Kurlantzick also argues that China's model of authoritarian capitalism provides a tempting alternative to governments unsure of the benefits of Western-style democracy.

The Chinese government has come up with a phrase to explain what it's doing and why no one need worry: "Heping Jueqi" - Peaceful Rise.

Have China's efforts won you over?

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So, Wen Jiabao survived his assault by flying shoe.

The Chinese government has reacted angrily - it's called the shoe-thrower's actions "despicable". (Compare this to China's more light-hearted response after a shoe was thrown at former US President Bush in Iraq.)

Perhaps China's Premier should have seen it coming. After all, Mr Wen was welcomed to the UK on Saturday by the patron saint of the Semi-Attacked Politicians' Club - John Prescott.

Mr Prescott was Britain's deputy prime minister during the government of Tony Blair. He was also a tempting target for protesters.

In 1998, a singer from the group Chumbawumba threw a bucket of icy water over Mr Prescott during an awards ceremony. Then, during the 2001 general election campaign, a farmer threw an egg at Mr Prescott as he walked by. Mr Prescott responded with a hefty left hook ("John is John," Tony Blair later commented.)

Wen Jiabao's response was much more restrained. But China is a country which is acutely sensitive to insults - particularly from the West (as I've written here before, all Chinese schoolchildren are taught about this country's "Century of Humiliation" from 1842 to 1949, in which China was occupied by Western powers).

One of the most famous insults is The Jilted Handshake. A widely-told story says that, at the Geneva Conference in 1954, the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai offered his hand to the US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. At the time, the two countries had no diplomatic relations, and the US Secretary of State was particularly well-known for his anti-Communist passion. So, Mr Dulles refused to shake Mr Zhou's hand. This insult was keenly felt in China. (America made up for it in 1972 when President Richard Nixon landed in Beijing and came down the steps of Air Force One with his hand outstretched.)

And a colleague of mine has just come across a link which reports on the efforts of one blogger to count how many times China has been offended over the years. Out of interest, Japan comes top with 47 insults.

PS: I wonder whether that shoe was made in China.

PPS: A fascinating update. When the news first broke, the Chinese state media skirted around the story, referring to the shoe-throwing obliquely as a "disturbance." But I've just watched the main evening TV news bulletin broadcast by CCTV (the state broadcaster). The bulletin featured a prominent, detailed report on the incident - complete with the protester's shouts, Wen Jiabao's reaction to the shoe landing nearby, and footage of the protester being removed from the hall.

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China's Premier, Wen Jiabao, is in London. He is one of the world's most influential politicians. But we very rarely get the chance to interview him - or to find out much about his life beyond politics. Chinese politicians aren't in the habit of inviting lifestyle magazines into their homes.

Once a year, in March, Mr Wen gives a formal news conference at the annual session of China's parliament in Beijing. Occasionally, he grants interviews when he travels abroad (during his trip to Britain, he's given one). But apart from that, we have to watch him from afar.

So, if I ever got the chance to speak to the premier, there'd be plenty of serious policy questions to ask. (Some of your suggestions are in this previous post.)

But there are also some other things that I'd like to find out...

• There's a famous picture of you visiting the students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 before the army was sent in. Twenty years later, what do you think of that photo?

• How - if at all - do you plan to commemorate 4 June this year (the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square shootings)?

• What are Politburo meetings like?

• You're a trained geologist. Do you ever miss studying rocks?

• Do you have your own e-mail address?

• Do you ever look at the page dedicated to you on Facebook?

• Do you watch TV? If so, what do you watch?

• What is your government salary?

• Your poetry has been published in Chinese newspapers. Do you plan to write any more poems?

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