Results tagged “foreignministry”

Qin Gang, do you have children?

It's good to know that despite us being bosom buddies, China is still “resolutely opposed” to North Korea's nuclear weapons test. A Foreign Ministry statement called Pyongyang's test in defiance of the international community and its own commitments against nuclear weaponry. It called for North Korea to avoid actions that would raise the tension between it and other nations, and return to dismantling its nuclear programs. But will stern words from their compatriots (and aid providers... and tickets to the 60th Anniversary bash providers) be enough to stop Kim Jong-Il from going ahead with his atomic vision? Nobody puts Dear Leader in a corner! Source: AP

We found on the Foreign Ministry website a question that was posed to Jiang Yu regarding Jack Cafferty's China remarks at a Tuesday press briefing and her response:

Q: In covering the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay in San Francisco recently, CNN's commentator Jack Cafferty attacked China, saying that Imported Chinese products are "junk", Chinese people are "basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years." How do you comment on that?

Continue reading "Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Jack Cafferty's China remarks and CNN's apology"

Taiwan has formally recognised Kosovo:

Taiwan said on Wednesday it is recognizing Kosovo, in a move certain to anger diplomatic rival China which has resolutely opposed the Balkan region's independence from Serbia.

Continue reading "Taiwan vs China on Kosovo"

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's meeting with the Dalai Lama [Reuters]:

"It's gross interference in China's internal affairs. The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition... This disgusting conduct has seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and undermined Sino-Canadian relations... The Chinese side demands the Canadian side ... correct its mistaken conduct, immediately adopt effective measures to eliminate adverse impact (from the meeting) and stop winking at or supporting anti-Chinese activities by Tibetan forces."

China issued a sweeping denunciation of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian on Thursday, accusing him of stirring animosity between the sides to divert attention from his personal scandals.

Gosh. With the third allegation of hacking by the Chinese military into government computers in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom surfacing within two weeks, the guys at the Foreign Ministry have been kept busy! Fons Tuinstra points to past cases of bored teenagers who have successfully hacked into other governments and surmised that the German government could not have said that they had an issue with millions of bored Chinese teenagers! Richard Spencer made the erudite argument that if the "US and other western governments are busy infiltrating the computer systems of foreign governments... it is disingenuous to complain too vigorously when those same foreign governments become good at doing it back". Hmm...

Earlier this year, the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada suffered a huge diplomatic embarrassment at the inauguration of a US$40 million China-financed stadium built as a gift from Beijing when its police band decided it would perform the Taiwan anthem instead of the March of the Volunteers.

It's true, the outdated but once beloved term "W.C." is going to be flushed down the crapper of history (at least in Beijing) before the Olympics, to be replaced by the more widely-used "toilet." But more interesting than that is what they are planning on doing with road signs:

Also on the list are road signs. Use of the romanized form of Chinese, known as "pinyin," will be replaced by the actual English word, except for proper names, the newspaper added. Out will go Dong Changan Jie and in will come East Changan Avenue.

Although we always liked the ring of "avenue" and are even more partial to "boulevard," these words would sound strange in the context of China, and even more so in Shanghai. Here we have a plethora of "roads" but no "avenues," and come to think of it, we don't even know what lu, if any, would qualify as an avenue. But perhaps that's just the peculiarities of our city, which for the most part is composed of small winding streets and a handful of major arterials.

Kaesong, North Korea: The managers of this capitalist enclave in communist North Korea are appealing for the world's support, saying their experiment in free markets can pave the way for regional peace. Kaesong supporters are aiming for the city to emulate Shenzhen, the special economic zone bordering Hong Kong, which kick-started China's economic boom, and say this will narrow the huge economic gap between North and South Korea with the help of foreign support.

"A local education official who organised the song and dance performance, Kuang Li, locked herself in the toilet, keeping out children who suffocated, according to Chen's blog. Kuang was jailed for four years."

On Friday, Chinese protesters clashed with Japanese coast guard ships and helicopters off the coast of the East China Sea islets, known as the Diaoyutai (钓鱼岛) in China and the Senkakus in Japan. The islands are located 170 km (100 miles) northeast of Taiwan and 410 km (250 miles) west of Japan's Okinawa island are a long-standing source of dispute between China and Japan. In brief, Japan claimed the islands in 1895 when it colonized Taiwan, but the United States controlled them after World War II and returned them to Japan in 1972. While they are currently administered by Japan, the Diaoyutai are independently claimed by Japan, China, and Taiwan. The islands are uninhabited but surrounded by rich fishing waters, and it is believed that they sit above vast underwater oil and gas deposits.

As you, our ever vigilant readers are well aware, Shanghaiist is currently in the market for a new liver. Naturally, we prefer a human liver, but after reading this article from the AFP, we'll settle for anything that compliments onions nicely. $125,000!!! They had better include installation, because if this is like IKEA, then you can forget it!

Local police said the lecture was "unacceptable", the newspaper said.

At approximately 4:22 pm Beijing time today, North Korea test launched yet another missile amidst a sea of international furor and condemnation after six fired earlier in the day.

Shanghaiist recently saw this RFA report (in Chinese, and not normally accessible within China) about the continuing struggles of the property rights protesters and hunger strikers in Shanghai. It says that on February 17 five protesters left Shanghai for Beijing, where they planned to continue their housing related petitions. On the 24th, they were caught and forcibly taken back to Shanghai, where they have been held in administrative detention since. Among them was Liu Xinjuan, who was sent to the Minhang district mental asylum shortly after arriving back in Shanghai. According to someone the RFA interviewed, Liu is actually not crazy, despite what seems to be patent evidence to the contrary: her actions reveal a (delusional) belief that social justice and political liberties exist in China.

Seems the long withheld story about the suicide of a Japanese consular diplomat in Shanghai in May 2004 has legs. No surprise there since it seems to involve all the right ingredients -- a Chinese mistress and blackmail threats by Chinese officials pressing the diplomat for classified information. Until now, the official position on both sides was that the diplomat's death was due to an "unspecified diplomatic incident," though Japan maintained that the suicide was still China's fault. Late last week, the Japanese Foreign Ministry changed its tune, confirming it believed the sordid story of sex, espionage and blackmail was behind the diplomat's suicide. The Foreign Ministry also shared details of the suicide note the diplomat left, specifically highlighting China's use of "honey traps":

For those who think that The Bund is a one-trick pony of drinks and fine dining, it might be worth taking a quiet stroll inside the newly renovated Shanghai Municipal Archives for a taste of something different.