Results tagged “billclinton”

With China's tech industry becoming increasingly sophisticated and profitable, it comes as no surprise that the powers that be have pulled out all the stops to jump start the industry. This weekend, the city of Hangzhou hosted a forum for small and medium businesses, featuring heavyweight speakers such as former U.S. president Bill Clinton and executives from Lenovo and Alibaba, two of China's most successful IT companies. But who stole the day? None other than Basketball legend cum technology expert Kobe Bryant. The Lakers star gave businessmen tips on how to succeed using his inspirational "basketball stories are just like life" gospel. Best of all, the crowd gave a roaring ovation when he gave Jack Ma, the CEO of Alibaba, an oversized pair of sneakers. We guess nothing says "reach farther, jump higher" better than a fresh pair of Nikes. Photo: Daylife

• Despite Banning Twitter, 92% of China Netizens Use Social Media [Read Write Web] "According to a recent report, Chinese netizens are twice as likely to use chat and three times more likely to micro-blog, blog and use video conference than American users. The Netpop Research study shows that mainland Chinese citizens are "more likely to share information broadly and openly." This comes as a surprise as the country's censorship has been such a topic of contention. Nevertheless, the study estimates that up to 92% of Chinese netizens use social media, meanwhile, only 76% of US netizens do the same."
• Xinjiang Crackdown and Changing Perceptions of China in the Islamic World? [The Jamestown Foundation] "While it is clearly in China’s interest to resolve the crisis in Xinjiang on terms that promote long-term reconciliation and stability and address the legitimate grievances of the Uighur community, the recent violence will have little impact on Beijing’s relations with the Middle East and wider Islamic world. Turkish and Iranian criticism of China, which at this point has amounted to little more than rhetoric in the first place, will likely prove to be an exception rather than a precursor of future trends. In the long run, China’s diplomatic and economic clout is too important to ignore."
• Beijing Softens Stand on Emissions Cap [Wall Street Journal] "China and the U.S. are still miles apart. China, driven by a historically unprecedented wave of urbanization and industrialization, has recently surpassed the U.S. as the top emitter of greenhouse gasses. But Beijing insists that rich industrialized countries have a responsibility to clean up first. On the other side, countries like the U.S. say big countries like China and India are growing so fast that, unless they accept absolute limits on their greenhouse gasses, the extra pollution from all of their new factories obliterate gains made elsewhere, gutting the value of any deal."

Bill Clinton worked his magic and now Kim Jong-il has granted "special pardon" to Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two jailed U.S. journalists. According to the official KCNA news agency, "Kim Jong-il issued an order of the chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission on granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labor in accordance with Article 103 of the Socialist Constitution and releasing them." So five months after they were first trapped in the Northern peninsula, Ling and Lee are finally able to return home to see their families. The Washington Post has a teary feature on that... and just for controversy's sake, they also have an editorial by former U.N. ambassador John Bolton arguing why Clinton shouldn't have gone.

China’s party officials have been learning the niceties of diplomatic protocol according to this recent FT report:

“The person tasked with transforming these officials into Little Mr and Miss Manners was Laura Efurd, deputy assistant to former US president Bill Clinton. Unsurprisingly, one of Efurd's presentation slides instructs her students on the art of The Hug, as made famous by Clinton.”

By JFK Miller

Yesterday's copy of the Wall Street Journal has a very interesting observation: that few of China's top political and business leaders these days have white hair:

It is possible that could have something to do with genes, but something else is involved, too. For aging men of influence here, the dye job appears to have become as commonplace as the Mao suit once was.

Continue reading "WSJ: Nary a white strand of hair in the Politburo Standing Committee"

This has nothing to do with Shanghai, or China for that matter. But we can't get enough of these Japanese television commercials for Suntory Boss coffee drink featuring Oscar-winner and Harvard-grad Tommy Lee Jones. Jones has been appearing in Boss ads for a year now, we think, but we first learned of the campaign recently after a friend returned to Shanghai from Japan confused about the billboards he saw all over the place featuring huge, and not particularly flattering, head shots of the craggy-faced Mr. Jones.

think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for?

No wonder the Chinese love Bill Clinton -- because he loves them back. The former president loooooooves China. Always has. Ever since he was a little boy in Arkansas, playing around in his uncle Buddy's munitions factory. How do we know this? Well, it was printed in the illegal and erroneous Chinese version of Clinton's My Life memoir, which hit China's streets in July 2004. Harper's Magazine was nice enough to translate and publish some of the more Sinopurfluous sections in a hilarious piece they called "Bubba Tea." An excerpt:

Former American President Bill Clinton -- no stranger to downloading porn, we're sure -- will visit Hangzhou on September 10 to address the 2005 China Internet Summit. The theme of the get-together organized by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will be "Connecting China To The World" ... well, just the parts of the world the Chinese government deems suitable for the Chinese people. Also expected to speak are CEOs from industry lightweights like Google, Amazon, Yahoo and Sohu. Hopefully one of the seminars will be entitled "How We Can Make Shanghaiist's Internet Connection Less Shitty."