Results tagged “aljazeera”

One report we've enjoyed is Melissa Chan of Al Jazeera's highlight on the Long March (on Youtube, unfortunately), when Mao led his forces on a strategic military retreat through China away from the pursuing Kuomingtang forces. The march, which started in Jiangxi, helped propel Mao Zedong to the forefront to the party.

So apparently the controversies in international media this summer over China and the Olympics came as a bit of a shock to the Chinese people. While the government's retained tight control over its own media, it's been less able to harmonize those pesky news outlets abroad. Not one to take perceived insults to its national image lying down, Beijing is now throwing RMB 45 billion into targeting global audiences.

Melissa Chan of Al Jazeera reports from Beijing of the discrimination that Hepatitis B carriers in China have to deal with — in school and at the workplace. Most of this discrimination, of course, is rooted in the widespread ignorance about the virus throughout society, and results in Hep B carriers being shunned in the same way as HIV/AIDS carriers are shunned in China.

The Dalai Lama has been keeping the guys at the Chinese Foreign Ministry working overtime lately with his eight day tour around Europe. Last week, after telling Nigerians in Lagos that "sex invariably spells trouble", the Dalai Lama flew to Prague to meet Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and democratic hero Vaclav Havel. He then hopped over to Brussels to meet Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and to address the European Parliament, which led China to scrap a summit with the EU at the last minute. Two days ago in Warsaw, the D.L. was given a rousing welcome by Polish anti-communist hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa, as well as Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz. We're not sure if the Polish premier Donald Tusk got to meet the Dalai Lama eventually but he did say he "would be honoured" if he had the opportunity to do so. And then this latest image of the Dalai Lama draping French President Nicolas Sarkozy with the traditional Tibetan kata totally had the Chinese foreign ministry and media railing against France. It will be interesting to see how French businesses in China will suffer from the new fallout and whether there will be a fresh round of anti-French boycotts. While it's unlikely that China would penalise the entire European Union for the warm welcome it gave to the D.L., it's not hard to imagine all the above-named nations taking a hit, with France bearing the brunt of it all as it currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

The latest data shows that China's output has fallen to a seven year low. The forecast for China's economic growth has been revised downwards to between 9.5% to 10% this year and 8.8% to 9.3% in 2009 — news that makes you go awwwww shucks we know, but economists are saying the reduction of even 1% in economic growth in China will have a massive impact and we're getting a glimpse of that right now. Even the ayi at our local All Days convenience store has been lamenting over poor sales, believe it or not. All across Guangdong province and elsewhere, factories are shuttering down and people are getting laid off. Jobs are a lot harder to come by and consumer sentiment is down. As usual, it is the people at the lowest rung of society who will be hit hardest, and China's greatest challenge now will be to tackle the growing social divide.

Tony Cheng of Al-Jazeera continues on his journey in Sichuan province, talking and spending time with quake victims who are still struggling with putting back the broken pieces of their lives. For some, getting back to work has proven easy enough, but the spiritual and emotional anguish they continue to experience on a daily basis remains deep six months on.

Tony Cheng of Al-Jazeera follows up on the Sichuan earthquake refugees and finds many of them running out of patience because the aid that was promised to them never arrived due to suspected corruption. Many of these refugees are still living in temporary shelters in massive camps (which to the credit of the Chinese government was an incredible feat), but with no job, no land to till, and no place to really call their own, they don't see any light at the end of the tunnel.

From Al-Jazeera:

General Laurent Nkunda, rebel leader of the National Congress for People's Defence (CNDP), has said he wants to re-examine a $5bn dollar deal the Congolese government has struck with China.

Continue reading "Congo to re-examine its US$5bn dollar deal with China?"

File this under "Only in China". This report by Melissa Chan of Al-Jazeera has intrigued us with how Chinese buyers are now banding together to shop for apartments so as to bargain for better prices with developers. The practise, known as tuan gou (团购) or 'group purchases', has long been used to buy anything from apparel to household items, but this really is the first time we've heard of apartment buyers using the same tactic. And apparently, the practise is growing.

China is the country most feared by Americans as a potential military threat, according to a recent survey by the Financial Times. While China and the United States both appear to at least be interested in engaging each other to secure peace in the Asia-Pacific region, they are also sizing each other up for the possibility of some kind of military confrontation in the future. Shortly after this high level military exchange was conducted in Hawaii, China announced it would suspend all such future exchanges as a way of protesting the supply of military weapons to Taiwan by the U.S.

China is helping to build a spanking new home for the President and Foreign Ministry of East Timor, but apparently not everyone is happy. The Timorese workers Al-Jazeera interviewed say they are paid only $3 per day while their Chinese counterparts are paid $36. This works out to about RMB7,560 monthly according to our calculations — a ridiculous figure even for "expatriate" construction workers. Al-Jazeera then goes on to lambast China for not delivering its aid in a way that benefits the average Timorese citizen, suggesting that China is in it all for Timor's oil as well as its potential multi-million dollar fishing industry — old tired arguments that we're getting tired of hearing.

Al-Jazeera takes another look at children, this time at the 150,000 homeless children that the government estimates roams the streets of China. Our hearts are drawn to Wang Pan who wandered the streets alone for a year after his mother was put on death row for murdering his father (while he watched), and Guo Jianhua who himself was once an absent father and is today the founder of an orphanage in Shaanxi province.

Tony Birtley of Al-Jazeera reports that between 70,000 and 200,000 babies, children and women are kidnapped each year around China. Baby boys are sold for as much as US$5,000 to desperate childless couples, and some of the abductees even end up overseas in the hands of foreign adopters. Police have had some success in breaking up child trafficking rings, but most of the anxious parents, like the ones interviewed in this report, can only wait.

Tony Cheng of Al-Jazeera visits an old woman in Tokay village in Xinjiang who is only now experiencing electricity in her home for the first time in her life, thanks to the new solar cells that have been installed in homes around the region.

Tony Cheng of Al-Jazeera pays a visit to Zhongdian County (中甸县) — which was renamed Shangri-La (香格里拉县) in 2001 to attract tourists — and finds that it is far from the mystical, harmonious valley as described by the British author in his 1933 novel Lost Horizon. Although the town is located hundreds of miles away from Lhasa, where riots earlier this year threatened to spoil the show for the Beijing Olympics, a heavy, military presence is on hand to ensure that violence doesn't break out again.

From Al-Jazeera:

China's staunch support of Sudan's government has led some to question Beijing's involvement in the UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur.

Continue reading "China sends troops to Darfur, Sudan"

From Al-Jazeera:

China is on course to join Japan and the US as a leader in the art of animation.

Continue reading "China the next animation leader?"

Last Wednesday's episode of The Riz Khan Show on Al Jazeera English dealt with Chinese industries in Africa. Khan hosted a debate among three experts on the subject: Richard Behar, an investigative journalist and author of an article this month in Fast Company titled "China Storms Africa;" John Afele, former director of the International Program for Africa at the University of Guelph; and David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia. The question on the table:

Is China exploiting African nations and reflecting colonialism, or is it offering them real economic growth and opportunity?

According to Khan's guests and several callers, Chinese nationals are "enslaving" Nigerians, forging corrupt partnerships with African party leaders, using up the world's natural resources like there's no tomorrow, and possibly forming an "upgraded replay of colonialism" in Africa. On the flip side of things, one caller demands to know why China is being demonized when Western countries have been doing similar things in Africa for years, and Shinn points out that China is offering long-term low-interest loans to African nations without attaching the political conditions that Western nations stipulate. While the show is pretty one-sided (it's not really a debate without a representative from the other side) it offers a window into the psyche of Western nations who are clearly afraid that China will contaminate Africa. "They're not in Africa to spread democracy," Behar states in the beginning of the episode. Towards the end, he adds: "We must keep in mind that China is at a different level here and at this point in China's economic development it has a corrupt business culture that can't be denied."

This latest piece of excellent work from Tony Cheng of Al-Jazeera has some eye-opening footage of what life looks like in Nanjie village (南街) in Henan province, supposedly the last place in China that is run along Maoist lines, where everything has been renationalised and collectivised. The clip reveals that the "village" is really a town that doesn't look all too bad at all, but it also does leave us with a few questions in our minds because the last time Nanjie hit the news, it was said to have finally succumbed to capitalism after it was revealed by the Chinese press to have chalked up arrears of 1 billion yuan and went into bankruptcy.

The last installment of Al Jazeera's series on China in the program People and Power investigates the Lhasa Express, the 4000 km train line linking Beijing with Lhasa. Exclusive interviews with members of the Tibetan government in exile and recently escaped Tibetan prisoners echo the familiar refrain that the Chinese government is encouraging a massive influx of Han Chinese to Tibet, but zero coverage of the flip side.

China's new ban on plastic bags came into force on Saturday, June 1, but as Gerald Tan of Al-Jazeera finds out, the ban is not without its social cost. The Huaqing Plastic Factory, what used to be China's largest plastic bag manufacturer has closed its doors weeks after the ban was announced in January, and with that, 20,000 people lost their jobs.

• The official death toll in the Sichuan earthquake has been revised upwards to 32,477. Deaths have also been recorded in Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Henan, Hubei and Yunnan. Within Sichuan, the Mianyang and Deyang regions suffered the most fatalities, with estimated deaths of 11,874 and 10,341 respectively. 209,900 people are reported injured, and the final death toll is expected to exceed 50,000
• Four foreign teams from Russia, Singapore, Japan and Korea have been allowed in to take part in rescue efforts. Teams have also been dispatched from the Greater China regions of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
• A lake with a volume of 1.6 million cubic metres formed after the quake in Pengzhou City burst yesterday and residents have been evacuated with no casualties reported. A similar lake in Beichuan is expected to burst very soon, causing thousands of residents to run to the hills while paramilitary officers, rescue workers, journalists and troops have been ordered to evacuate.

Al-Jazeera: The scenes of destruction and devastation, and the smell of death. Melissa Chan wins our thumbs-up once again with this report:

Melissa Chan of Al-Jazeera is one of several foreign correspondents currently in Sichuan Province and files this story from Juyuan Middle School at Dujiangyan (都江堰) where Premier Wen Jiabao was earlier.

Leading political scientists Kishore Mahbubani of the National University of Singapore, Prof Barry Sautman of the University of Hong Kong, and Dr Chandra Muzaffar of the University of Science Malaysia provide much food for thought in this latest discussion on how China is dealing with the pressure of protests as the Olympics draws ever nearer on Al-Jazeera's 101 East.

From Al-Jazeera: "The Olympic flame has landed in Hong Kong, arriving back on Chinese soil, but it hasn't yet outrun the controversy that disrupted much of its journey around the world."

Al Jazeera: "Transformed from being the land of bicycles into a land of cars, China's booming economy is driving up demand at a time when car sales are slow elsewhere in the world. Al Jazeera's Tony Cheng visited the Beijing motor show which showed much promise in making China the future of the automotive industry."

This Sunday, kick back and enjoy this discussion on press freedom in China on Al-Jazeera's 101 East. The show begins with an excellent backgrounder on the current state of press freedom by Tony Chen who interviews people like Melinda Liu, Newsweek's Beijing bureau chief and president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of China; former CCP official Bao Tong who is now under house arrest, and Huang Tianliang, the former chief editor of Bai Xing magazine 《百姓》who was dismissed for a report on farmers who lost their land due to corrupt party officials. The second part of the show features a discussion between Shi Anbin, journalism professor at Tsinghua University and Stephen Vines, former president of Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents Club.

From Al-Jazeera:

The UN has said that emerging economies face challenge in achieving growth without damaging the environment.

Continue reading "Al-Jazeera: China's environmental economics"

From Al Jazeera English:

Tenzin Wangmo Dunchu, EU representative of the Tibetan government in exile, joins Sir David and discusses the Tibetan protests, violence and deaths that resulted from them.

Continue reading "Al-Jazeera: Interview with Tenzin Wangmo Dunchu"