Today's Links: Kashgar to be demolished, diabetes on the rise for youth in Asia, and China addresses climate change
- To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It [NYT] "Over the next few years, city officials say, they will demolish at least 85 percent of this warren of picturesque, if run-down homes and shops. Many of its 13,000 families, Muslims from a Turkic ethnic group called the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs), will be moved."
- Diabetes more likely to strike the young in Asia [AP] "Without strong government policy, education and good clinical care, Asia's escalating epidemic could "erase economic gains made in recent decades," said Hu, one of the authors. Trends of diabetes in the region are influenced by everything from genetic makeup and cultural differences to smoking and degrees of urbanization, the JAMA study showed. But the most startling findings — which tended to vary from country to country — related to body mass and age."
- China Said to Harass Rights Lawyers [NYT] "Many of the lawyers have taken on cases, involving issues like Tibetan political activism and police brutality, that gained national and even international attention. The advocacy groups, Human Rights Watch and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, called the actions by the legal authorities part of an effort to intimidate the lawyers and their law firms into avoiding sensitive cases."
- China Plan Unlikely to Spur Spending [WSJ] ""It's merely a message from the government about its intention to boost domestic consumption," said an official at a Beijing-based major state bank, who declined to be named. "But who will go into debt to buy just a television?"While China has seen recent growth in mortgage lending, going into debt to buy a stove or a vacation trip traditionally hasn't been the Chinese way."
- China has no other choice but to pursue sustainable development [The Guardian] "China is making huge efforts to combat climate change despite the fact that it remains a low-income developing country with a per-capita GDP of around $3,000 (£1,876). By United Nations standards, China still has 150 million people living in poverty. China has no other choice but to pursue sustainable development in order to meet the basic needs of its people and to eradicate poverty. In this process, the world is assured that China will make every effort to address climate change."
- China: June 4th Related System Maintenance [Global Voices Online] "As the 20th anniversary of June 4th incident is approaching, university aggregated forums (貼巴）at Baidu (a major search engine and portal site in China), have been suspended. Users cannot create new posts and cannot post comments since May 23th. According to the official notice of Baidu, the reason for the suspension is related to “national regulations” and “forum's term of agreement”."
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