Gao is baffled by the fact that the US makes all the most advanced technology, but our government won't allow him to buy it. He asked me to explain that fact. I didn't suppose that haranguing him about human rights would get me anywhere, so
I mumbled some kind of rambling shit about politics.
He explained to me, through his interpreter, that the slogan of Shanghai PTA is "destroy the users on the waiting list." Indeed, it's the job of people like Gao to extend the net into every cranny of the society, making sure everyone gets wired. When nobody had phones, he says, nobody really missed them; thevery few people who had them in their homes viewed them primarily as a symbol of status and power. Now, 61 percent of his customers are residential, everyone views it as a basic necessity of life, and Gao's company has to provide them with more services, like direct dial, pagers, and so on. Cellphones, he said, are so expensive that they're only used by businessmen and high-ranking officials. But the officials are uneasy with the whole concept because they have to answer the phone themselves, which is seen as a menial chore. I told him that in
Hong Kong, businessmen walk down the streets followed at a respectful distance by walking receptionists who carry the phones for them. Gao thought that was pretty funny.
In one Chinese city, a woman spends all day running a sidewalk stand and keeping one eye on a construction project across the street. The construction project is backed by a couple of people who were running a software counterfeiting operation to the tune of some tens of millions of dollars until they got busted by Microsoft.