Uyghur soccer boys at an elementary school near Kashgar

At least two football tournaments were cancelled in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region following last month’s knife attacks and explosions in China’s far west.

The two tournaments, which are scheduled to take place in August and October in Urumqi and Artux, were called off by the local party committees due to security concerns.

The tournament in Urumqi invited teams from Kazakhstan,  Tajikistan, Kirghistan, Turkey and Russia to play against a local team and the organizers told us they may have to wait another year for these matches.

Maintaining stability has always been a top priority on the local authorities’ agenda  in Xinjiang, and this is certainly not the first time football matches are revoked there.

In his book The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land, Gardner Bovingdon, professor of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, noted what maybe the earliest football ban in Xinjiang since the Communist Revolution:

In 1994 a number of Uyghurs in Ghulja decided to revive a traditional social organization, the masrap, in order to combat endemic alcoholism and drug abuse in the region. The masrap met regularly, with memberships of several dozen, to share music and dance, learn more about Islam, and hold one another to account for their public behaviors. Leaders of the gatherings had both ritual and religious authority to punish participants in front of their peers for violating the group code. The groups were quite successful at reducing alcohol and drug use and also at giving Uyghurs a sense of collective capacity to help themselves. They multiplied quickly.” In spring of 1995 the heads of all the masrap in Ili gathered and elected as the leader of all the groups one of the founders of the movement, Abdulhelil. He was detained for questioning soon after, and following this the government banned masrap, although the organizations continued to operate underground. An anthropologist living in Ghulja during spring 1995 concluded that what the party most feared about the groups was that they were organizations that “it did not initiate, supervise, [or] control” (Dautcher 1999:326).42.

In July and August, Abdulhelil and other leaders organized a youth soccer league in Ghulja, and many youngsters joined. On August 12, several days before the tournament was to begin, military officials occupied the playing field, parked several tanks there, and announced that it would henceforth be needed for military exercises. Officials also reportedly removed the goalposts from the fields at all schools in the area to ensure that the tournament could not take place. On August 13 Abdulhelil was again taken in for questioning. The following day, hundreds of men marched peacefully through the streets and then dispersed, an event that officials later referred to as the “August 14 illegal march.” Remarkably, though there was no hint of violent intent in the march, by noon that day snipers stood conspicuously on the roofs of buildings in the center of town, and the People’s Armed Police (PAP) controlled the main intersections with barbed-wire barriers (Amnesty International 1999; Dautcher 1999:325-27; 2004:285-87; Roberts 1998a::686). Abdulhelil and others, angry at the government’s heavy-handed action to squelch a very successful social organization, went on to plan and lead the protest in 1997…

While traveling in Xinjiang this spring, we discovered oftentimes “security” has been cited by the local authorities as a reason not to host any kind of sports events, even when the situation is not tense. In fact, a local source told us this has been the hardest part of hosting any sports event there. They do have the fans, fund and stadiums, but all is not enough without a go-ahead from the local government.

This is cross-posted on Wild East Football.

Wang Meng celebrating another victory on the short track

At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, short track speed skater Wang Meng became the talk of the sports world after claiming her third gold medal in the women’s 1,000 meter event. Like fellow gold medalists Yang Yang, who was the first Chinese athlete to win a gold medal at the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City, Wang became the face of China’s winter sports program. This also gave the Heilongjiang native the status as the country’s most decorated Winter Olympics athlete. To top off her accomplishments over the last year, Wang was awarded the Female Athlete of the Year award at the 2010 CCTV Sports Personality Awards ceremony.

However, this summer has not been a good one for neither Wang Meng nor the short track speed skating team. Two incidents over the past two months have put the team in a negative spotlight.

First, some team members were involved in a brawl with security personnel in Lijiang, Yunnan Province which brought about conflicting stories as to who was responsible for the fracas. Apparently, the problem was reconciled by both parties although there has been no confirmation from any members on the team.

Second, with the national team moving their training base from Kunming to Qingdao in Shandong Province it would have seemed that any past incidents would be forgotten so the team could get back on track with preparations for the upcoming short track season. However, a reported brawl between the former captain and the team’s manager, Wang Chunlu, has put them back in a spotlight they have been trying to stay out of since the incident in June.

The most recent incident has not only led to Wang Meng’s expulsion from the national team, but is has also put the team into disarray as it has been reported that some of her teammates, including fellow Vancouver gold medalist Zhou Yang, have quit the team in protest over Wang’s punishment.

Wang Meng shows injuries after most recent altercation

While there is no question that the Winter Sports Administrative Center (WSAC) of the State General Administration of Sport had no choice but to punish Wang, male speed skater Liu Xianwei and others who broke curfew, there are still a few questions that need to be answered.

First of all, national team Head Coach Li Yan mentioned that the expulsion of Wang does not solve the deeper problems within squad. So, what are specifically the deeper problems? As Li did not go into specifics, it is anyone’s guess as to what might be the other problems within the team.

Second, why was team manager Wang Chunlu not punished for her actions? While the former world champion speed skater claims that Wang Meng threw the first punch in the altercation, the Olympic champion fired back by accusing the manager of throwing the first punch.

No matter who threw the first punch, athlete and coach should not be in altercations such as this. Punishment should have come down equally on both sides as those involved in the fracas disgraced not only themselves, but also the team.

Some are questioning why team manager Wang Chunlu went unpunished

Third, does this expulsion spell the end of Wang Meng’s short track career? It is highly unlikely that she will be gone for long. Wang is the best and most experienced skater on the team. Of course, she may not be on the national team in the coming months, but it is doubtful this is the last anyone will hear from the veteran skater. Perhaps the public will learn more about the incident should she follow through with her promise of a press conference.

It should also be noted that Wang Meng is no stranger to being kicked off the national team only to be brought back later. In 2007, she was expelled for openly criticizing her coach’s tactics at the Asian Winter Games in Changchun, Jilin Province. Therefore, it is uncertain how long this expulsion will last.

It is no question that whatever problems that have happened within the team have finally exploded out in the public eye. Morale is at an all time low and it is uncertain as to what measures the WSAC will take to prevent incidents like this from happening again.

What is desperately needed by the short track speed skating is for the summer period to come to an end quickly so that they can return to competition. Perhaps this could put the attention back on their accomplishments on the ice than what goes on off it.

Additional Articles

• China Daily – Wang Meng’s timeline of fracas
• CCTV – Wang Meng Expelled from National Team
• China Daily – Chinese differ over Olympic champ’s expulsion from national team
• Xinhua – Expelled Olympic champ could strap on skates again

Photos

• The Telegraph
• China.org.cn
• QQ Sports

From Xinkuaibao via Xinhua:

After the meeting, Sohn Hak-kyu gave a football autographed by Park Ji-Sung to Vice President Xi as a present.  As a football fan, Xi expressed that China’s World Cup qualification, hosting of the World Cup and winning the World Cup are his three wishes.

Previously:

•  Xi Jinping Wants Chinese Football to Go Top

In the video, Harvey Davis, vice president at ESPN’s Events Management Group, reckons that “these [action] sports are now recognized in China as real sports, with real committees and real organizations reporting up to the top government organizations in Beijing” and concluded that as “one of the biggest things for the growth of sport in China.” With that comes, as in the case of Shanghainese BMX rider Shen Jian and his friends, a clash of interest between government organization and athletes/brands.

China has definitely been picking up actions sports in the past five years. But just because promoters established ties with the government, doesn’t mean the sports become mainstream in the country. And I think part of the image of the sports, as manifested in tattoos and piercings for most of the athletes, may be the main reason why Chinese parents would not want their children to practice in it.

In the Shen Jian story, we had a chance to talk with Chen Jie, CEO of SMP Skate Park in Shanghai. The world largest skate-park now has about 2,000 members and over ninety percent of them, according to Mr.Chen, are foreigners.

“It looks now we’re turning into a club catering exclusively to foreigners,” said Chen. “Some wealthy Chinese send their kids here to play only because they want their children to be more international, as the children could speak English with kids from other countries in the park.”

“They focus on language exchange, not the sports themselves, which again turned practitioners of extreme sports into a minority group.” Chen is cutting down on the ticket prices this June in hopes of bringing more local kids in, but he opines the results might not be fruitful.

Also in the video, PT Black commentates on sports participation in the country and why Chinese are more likely to watch than actually play sports.

Part of the reason, PT noted, comes from “a legacy of centralized sports planning” which “takes all the kids who’re good at sports out of the mainstream school system, therefore depriving their classmates of the chance to actually play with the good kids.”

Parents are the “biggest obstacle” and another reason to the lack of participation in PT’s opinion. “When the exam system is so important, parents look at any moment dedicated to sports as a moment that should have been spend studying.”

Any other reasons? This is actually what we look forward to finding out at Sports Illustrated China as the magazine is rolling out a cover feature on the topic. So more later on this.

a) Participate in government organized activities, e.g. , group watching event of the opening ceremony live broadcast.
b) Do govt-arranged trips
c) If a resident insists on staying at home, city govt will have security personnel keep his/her company during the period.

Though they’re asked to leave, residents are encouraged to keep their lights on during the ceremony, a sign indicating these people are at home, and each household will receive over 300 yuan for their absence.

The recent decree came after an operation from the beginning of 2011 staged by Shenzhen police, whose aim was to expel 80,000 ‘high-risk’ people from the city, mainly the migrants without a hukou.

The 2011 Shenzhen Summer Universiade will be held from August 12-23.

Related:

• WSJ – Unease in ‘Happy Guangdong’
• South Metropolis Daily – Residents asked to leave homes for 5 hrs during the Universiade opening (Chinese)
• Shenzhen News Net via Sina – 80,000 ‘high-risk’ people to be expelled from Shenzhen (Chinese)

MANILA—The territorial dispute in the Kalayaan Islands between the country and China has also affected the sports relationship between the two nations.

Philippine Sports Commission chair Ritchie Garcia yesterday said the volatile situation has stalled the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the government sports agency and the Chinese embassy.

Under the MOU, top Filipino fencers and weightlifters athletes will be allowed to train in China and boost their quest for medals in the 2012 London Olympics.

Athletes from shooting, table tennis, wushu and diving have also been scheduled to receive foreign training in top-notch facilities in the world’s most powerful nation in sports.

“We’re just waiting for the result of the dispute,” said Garcia.

This is the 2nd part of the post on 2011 Kia X Games Asia. Read the 1st part here.

“It is what it is. I’m going back to play for a while, just to take it in.” Shen Jian squeezed a smile at me and then walked back onto the stage. Only less than 10 minutes left for him to “play.”

Minutes later, Shen stepped down from the stage with Li Haoran and watched the elimination match with his team in athletes’ area. Behind him, there were a few DJs, organizers and media people scattered on the stand. Looking from afar, a middle-aged man stood out from the others. He wore a blue shirt and khaki pants. The pants seemed a bit short that you could see his legs. The man, as I later found out, is Wei Xing (魏星), general secretary at the CESA.

Shen watching the game after being pulled out at the last minute

“It’s not the association doesn’t want him to compete. We have a set of rules that the athletes need to follow.” Wei told me when I asked him about Shen Jian’s last-minute pullout, and said Shen was out for “a multitude of reasons” that he ” has no time to go into details.”

The details about the incident, as I later heard from a friend close to an ESPN staffer, was that people from the association asked this ESPN guy right before the match to remove all Chinese athletes who’s not from the national teams from the list. If failed to cooperate, the CESA would not give them the permit to host the X Games Asia in China next year.

“The X Games has always been an open playing field and the qualifications is done on ranking systems,” said Harvey Davis, vice president at ESPN’s Events Management Group. “We work with government agency, the Chinese Extreme Sports Association, to make sure we have the best local athletes compete. So if that’s the case (Shen and other cn athletes barred from participating) that’s something we need to look into, but it’s not something that we’re aware about.”

A feature story on Shen Jian’s pullout is published on the May 13 issue of Sports Illustrated China.

At the beginning of April, a month ahead of ESPN’s 2011 X Games Asia in Shanghai, Shen Jian (申剑), arguebly China’s best BMX rider, was worried about his eligibility for the Games.

Born in 1988 along the Yangtze River, Shen grew his interest in bicycles since middle school and began practicing BMX when he was 16. With hard training and perseverance, it only took him less than a year to get the Street BMX Champion in Huzhou, Zhejiang, one of the top trophies in BMX in the country. Shen then flourished in competitions in the coming years and, in 2008, Nike came to him to sponsor gears and outfits.

That year, Shen was dominant in street BMX competitions and won nearly all major domestic prizes. In 2010, the handsome young man signed with Vans to become the company’s first and only sponsored BMX athlete in China to date.

Shen Jian, one of China's best BMX riders

“The prize money in our country’s very limited, though you have several good sponsors here. The big money goes to the Chinese Extreme Sports Association (CESA,中国极限运动协会),” Shen complained.

“Sportswear maker X-Step pours 7 mln yuan into the China X Games competition (全国极限精英赛) every year. ” said an informant asked to remain anonymous. “But an athlete can get only about 15,000 RMB of prize money at most if he wins all the champions from its 10 races, a sum one can barely compensate his travel expenses.”

Founded in 2005, the Chinese Extreme Sports Association now manages competitions and events around the country in inline-skating, skateboarding, BMX, bike trailing and parkour.

“They established a BMX national team, and asked us to wear their sponsor’s jersy,” said Shen. “If you’re not a national team member, you’re out of the X Games.”

“A national team athlete gets very little from the association’s sponsorship,” said Wen Qiang (温强), a Nike sponsored BMX athlete. “The CESA has done nothing for us and their sole aim all these years has been making money by using these players.”

Unlike other tax-payer funded national teams, CESA teams provide no stipend, zero training or overseas competition opportunity for its members. But these are not Shen’s top concern at the moment. As his sponsorship deal with Vans forbids his profile linked with other sponsors, Shen’s worrying about whether he can actually compete in the X Games Asia.

“The X Games Asia is valued the most in all the competitions to us riders,” said Shen. “The sport really took off since they (X Games) came here in 2007, but there’s no way you can compete in the Games as a non-national team member now.”

Shen’s friends at ESPN wanted him and his friends in too. It’d be such a shame if the country hosts the event without some proper home-grown athletes participating.

In the afternoon of April 28, I met Shen in Jiangwan Sports Center, where the Games would be held. The 23-year-old was overjoyed to tell me that he can finally participate, as ESPN granted him a ‘wild card’ by which he’ll be able to compete in the Games for Shanghai. Li Haoran (李浩然) and Wen Qiang, two Nike sponsored athletes, were also granted the opportunity.

Gearing up for match play

“Maybe the association didn’t do this out of malice. It’s good to play for Shanghai anyway, as I was born and raised here.” Shen Jian’s optimistic about tomorrow’s elimination match.

The next day, I accompanied him to Jiangwan Sports Center. The match would start at five and we’re an hour early. Shen began practicing in street park with his buddy Li Haoran as I made my way to the stands.

By 16:45, Shen shouted to me from the park, “they cancelled me again!” The stadium was so noisy that I wasn’t able to make sure of his words. And I waved to ask him to step outside the park for talk.

“They say I can’t compete in the Games anymore. There’s nothing I can do now. Mei banfa.”

“What reasons did they give you?”

“The association didn’t agree.”

“But your name’s on the list, I saw it on the screen already. Didn’t you talk to people at ESPN?”

“I told them. They said there’s nothing they can do now and had to cancel us.”

“What about Li Haoran?” I asked about the Nike-sponsored athlete.

“He got cancelled too, both Wen Qiang and him. Only Zhang Zhiyong (张智勇) can play, as he’s wearing the national team jersey.”

Lu You, sports journalist with CCTV

It’s my third time meeting Lu You this Monday at the gate of Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court.  The result of her second trial against Huang Jianxiang, her former colleague at CCTV, a football commentator, was to be announced that day.  As the last two meetings with her, she seemed upbeat and spirited, like on the screen as a sports reporter.

The Lu You v. Huang Jianxiang case began with a piece Huang wrote on his Sina blog in June, 2008, which titled “Let’s say the ugly things up front.” In the blog post, Huang critised Ratomir Dujković, then headcoach of China’s national football team, ahead of a South Africa World Cup qualifier match with Qatar. Below are our translation of two paragraphs of the article.

You can play around as you wish, but better play it well and qualify. Otherwise, don’t blame me for settling a score with you afterwards. Even a god-like figure, your predecessor was bombarded by fans and media after conceding nine goals in the World Cup (refering to Bora Milutinović at the 2002 World Cup), let alone you didn’t make it outside of Asia. I didn’t say anything after China’s World Cup lost before, because there were so many people targeting him. Of course there’re people who tried to stir things up or follow others blindly, and also people who wanted to take vengeance for giving exclusive interivews to “zero distance”(refering to another female journalist). But I won’t be polite to you this time. I’m now self-employed and don’t need to represent the will of the leaders in my work unit or organ, and can fully enjoy the freedom of speech of Chinese football.

To be honest, you are far worse than your predecessor. He at least gave “zero distance” a good result, by not only [let her] enjoy wealth and rank and, until now, let her be an agent of any of his business cooperations in China. He did what was humanly possible and acted manly. What about you? [You] caused her an extra-uterine pregnancy and a scandal in the work unit, and you’re now faint-hearted. She was ousted as the top reporter who follows the national team and lost it all, making many fans wonder and miss her beautiful figure in the reporting of the national team. From this point alone, you’re far worse than your predecessor, are you?

At the time, most fans who closely followed the national team news knew who Huang was referring to in his article. Though Huang later deleted the  “extra-uterine pregnancy” part, it’s already too late for Lu. Hundreds if not thousands of netizens started leaving comments on Lu You’s blog, some of them using false language, describing her as a “bitch” or “stupid cunt,” some voiced their support of her, others considered both Lu You and Huang Jianxiang reaped “fame and attention” from the incident.

Later that year, Lu filed the case against Huang for defamation, because she thought she’s the person Huang mentioned in his blog post. She told press that her ultimate regret was that the case was not being heard in public. She lost the first trial on May 8, 2009 and appealed for a second trial on May 25, 2009. The second trial was started on Nov.20, 2009 and for some odd reason it protracted for over a year until now.

“It’s definitely not normal if a case’s been protracted for this long,” said Pu Zhiqiang, Lu’s main lawyer. “Legally speaking, judicial interpretation and General Principals of the Civil Law made it fairly clear about this situation, that if a third person presumes the person Huang mentioned was Lu You and caused a damage to her reputation, we can make sure that it’s this specific person [Huang referred to]. Other than this, we need to look at whether Huang’s words are based with evidence. He needs to prove that he wrote them unintentionally, which Huang failed to do.”

According to Mr.Pu, the key to this case is a contract between Huang Jianxiang and Sina, that Sina takes care of promoting Huang’s blog and Huang is responsible for writing eye-catching articles to attract more visitors to the site.

“During the first trial, Lu’s lawyer asked Chaoyang court for retriving the contract from Sina. But Sina said it cannot be provided because it involves commercial secrets,” said Pu. “Isn’t it contempt of court? The contract is held by both Huang and Sina. The court should order Huang to bring it out if Sina fails. If Huang declines, we should deduce the contract works to his disadvantage.”

“But the situation we encountered is the court considered it’s meaningless to look at the contract. They think the reputation dispute has nothing to do with Huang and Sina’s contract,” Pu Zhiqiang disclosed. “I think this [contract] has significant importance in deciding whether Huang [intentionally] damaged Lu’s reputation. I want to raise Lu’s case to the height of the New York Times Co. v. Sullivan case. I can prove the defendant’s actual malice in the case. But Chinese laws has no stipulation about the relations between public figures and actual malice.”

“This case is very helpful in standardizing citizens’ lives and behaviors in the Internet age. But the first trial verdict means that you can say anything about anyone without mentioning the person’s name. The whole world thinks [the person Huang mentioned] is Lu You and the court told her ‘you can’t prove it’s you.’ Isn’t this absurd?”

“Both Lu You and Huang Jianxiang are public figures. You can’t deny this person is not a public figure if he or she’s less known than another person. Lu You actually holds public resources when she covers Chinese football for CCTV. So it is reasonable if others think she has special channels to acquire information than other reporters. The key is people should say things based on their own judgements. If a contact for boosting your click-rate comes before, it’s way out of line.”

Outside the court, Lu You had a smile on her face and stamped on her feet against the cold.

“I think a win is not enough for feeling happy and a lost not enough for feeling sad,” said Lu. “This society, law and people’s understanding to things all need to improve. The important thing is I’m a journalist and doing a meaningful judicial practice.”

“If I lose then let it be. Countries will keep submitting bids to host the World Cup even if they failed before. Even China has tried two times to be granted the opportunity to host the Olympics. Think about the “black whistle” England experienced in the South Africa World Cup (In China, “black whistle” refers to a referee who intentionally makes wrong judgements after taking bribes). It’s definitely unfair. But will them choose not to participate in the next World Cup?”

The court dismissed Lu You’s claim of defamation, considering the person Huang mentioned in his blog post was not her. But weirdly, the court verdict criticized Huang for his “misconduct,” an act that was described as “nonsensical” by lawyer Pu.

Lu You was calm during the process and smiled when the judge read the decision.

“I nerver read other verdict and it’s the first time that I know that the law can criticize someone,” said Lu. “But I think citizens do not hope it can only criticize people, but to be able to punish them. Laws are the bottom line of a society and if it fails to promote good and punish evil, I don’t really need to file the case.”

Lawyer Pu lit up a smoke outside the courtroom when Lu You said these words. He finished the cigarette, paced slowly into the room after Lu finished and told us “it’s good they let us use this room.”

“I first want to thank the judge Liu Haidong. He did everything he can about this case,” said Pu. “He made it clear that the court ruling is decided by collegiate panel and, more important, by ‘leaders’. We often say our country’s freedom of speech and press is limited. Huang Jianxiang can, in an age when freedom of speech is striding backwards,  wins outrageously in this case. I think it says he has something that excels. But this something does not benefit the rule of law of a civil society. We’re lost, but only temporarily. We will turn things over one day. So Huang Jianxiang will be Lu You’s defendent for life. This is also a case lawyer Fu Minrong (the other lawyer representing Lu You) and I will reverse for the rest of our lives.”

Lu You drove me back to Pu’s law firm where we first met each other last year, when my colleague and I bumped into her in an interview with Pu Zhiqiang for an anniversary story.

In the car, Lu was no longer restraint and turned very emotional at some point. She told me female reporters in the “sports circle” are a “rare breed” and often prejudiced. Before the South Arica World Cup, she was invited for an interview with QQ, Tencent’s news portal site. During the interview, Lu recalled, the Tencent journalist asked her if she would bring condom for the trip. And for a minute she didn’t know how to react.

“So in the end I told him that I won’t bring ‘that thing,’ as I think the interview woudn’t be presentable if answering it directly,” said Lu.

But QQ Sports made a splashy headline out of her answer anyway, which titled “South Africa Reporting Safe, I Don’t Have Condoms in My Pocket: Lu You.”

A few days before the court ruling was announced, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang posted a message on his micro-blog that read: “Lu You did experienced an extra-uterine pregnancy, but it’s unfortunate privacy only between her and her boyfriend and had nothing to do with Ratomir Dujković. In order to become more popular and make money, Huang Jianxing violated a female colleague’s privacy and fabricated a sex scandal out of her and Ratomir Dujković. Huang’s words and deeds constituted defamation according to the law.”

Lawyer Pu said they’ll appeal the court ruling to Beijing People’s High Court soon.

Update Dec.28: If you speak Chinese, go here to check a video interview Lu You, Pu Zhiqiang and Professor Xu Xun from China University of Political Science and Law, did with People’s Daily Online today.

Related:

ESWN: Female Sports Reporter Files Libel Case

Photo: ESPN Star

Two years after renovaton, Beijing Mentougou Sports Center is now being demolished. The Mentougou district goverment plans to replace it with a bigger, fancier stadium.

New seats in the stadium

Municipal and district officials attending the ceremony