Don't Watch This: Confucius
You're hot then you're cold. What gives, North Korea?
China's sick healthcare system breeding antibiotic-resistant "superbugs"
Meet the Spanish pavilion's Miguelin: the first female Expo mascot?
Video: Riding down Da Jing Lu
- Learning from Billboards [WSJ] "Hangzhou may have reminded Marco Polo of his native Venice. What grabs 38-year-old American artist-curator Mathieu Borysevicz about Hangzhou is its signs. And signs and signs. In thousands of photos in his new book, “Learning From Hangzhou,” Mr. Borysevicz documents “the pluralism” of a dynamic Chinese city. It’s a study of how low-brow advertising and other visual messages inundate residents in Hangzhou, and truly, all of urban China."
- Shanghai growth glitters but lacks weight [MarketWatch] "There is scant evidence the financial crisis has dampened Shanghai's ambitions, as new subways and buildings are built at a record pace to be in time for the Shanghai Expo next year. Could this be the equivalent of London's Great Exhibition of 1851, except this time it will be China parading its industrial might? Small wonder so many visitors to Shanghai leave in a maximum bullish mode. But one thing that struck me driving past the impressive skyscrapers of Pudong was the muted neon. I had to ask my host whether they had turned all the lights on full, or if there was simply no one home. The Shanghai World Financial Center, also known as the "Mori Building" after the Japanese architect who designed it, is reportedly only 30% rented, while the nearby residential towers have even fewer signs of life (or light) in them."
- Obama's Tire Tariff Draws Beijing's Ire [BusinessWeek] "A Chinese government outburst in response to a stiff tariff imposed by the Obama Administration on Chinese-made tires appeared to raise the specter of trade protectionism at a time of a fragile global economic recovery. In official statements over the weekend, Beijing strongly protested the 35% tariff imposed by President Barack Obama in response to a complaint by the United Steelworkers. Beijing said it would investigate alleged dumping of U.S. automobile parts and chicken products in China and study the possibility of filing an unspecified trade complaint with the World Trade Organization."
- Thailand beats China in final of Asian women’s volleyball championship [Danwei] "The large photo shows China’s women’s volleyball team in their losing match in the Asian women’s volleyball championship final that took place yesterday in Hanoi, Vietnam. They lost 1:3 to Thailand. Women’s volleyball has had a special place in many Chinese people’s hearts since the 1980s when China’s women’s volleyball team won five World Cup titles as well as the 1984 Olympic gold, so this loss comes as a disappointment."
- Before Urumqi: the 2002 needle attacks in Tianjin and Beijing [Black & White Cat] "There’s nothing new about the use of hypodermic needles to threaten and rob people. It happens all over the world. What is unusual is for an entire city like Urumqi to be gripped by fear, with hundreds of people claiming to have been stabbed, and rumors swirling about separatists deliberately spreading AIDS. But this is not the first time panic over needle attacks has filled a city in China. In January 2002, shopping areas in Tianjin were deserted and people on the streets were in a state of constant vigilance. Everyone knew some version, or versions, of the rumor: that people with AIDS from Henan were taking revenge, either for being infected or for being abandoned by society. Then the rumors spread to Beijing. None of them were true."
- China: Blue Dam activated [Global Voices Advocacy] "Beijing government has recently required all Internet service providers (ISPs) and data centers to install a software called Blue Dam in all their servers. According to today's Taiwan Apple Daily News, the Blue Dam has to be activated by today (September 13) or the companies have to subject to punishment. The Blue Dam software can be downloaded from here. The Blue Dam is developed by Shanghai Andatong Information Safety Technology Company and ccording to a report back in July 2009, the Blue Dam is 20 times more effective than the Green Dam as it is a combination of software and hardware."
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Trouble accessing Wall Street Journal this morning. Had to use VPN to get to www.wsj.com
Can it be that the comrades at the State Information Office have decided to block Wall Street Journal?
A new low, if true.