Hong Kong is known to produce some of the most gung-ho reporters and cameramen around. When these guys cross over to the mainland and come face-to-face with Chinese police, interesting things happen. Yesterday, over 30,000 people queued up in the sweltering heat just outside the Bird's Nest to get their hands on the last 250,000 Olympic tickets available. After a series of queue-jumping incidents, scuffles broke out at around 2pm. The Standard (HK) reports [h/t......

"Yesterday, Beijing News published an interview with former Associated Press Beijing-based reporter Liu Xiangcheng. The story appeared in page C15, and belongs to the series about thirty years of reform. The title was I used photographs to record the path that China went through. Next to the story is a photograph that Liu took during the June 4th incident in 1989. The photo showed a couple of wounded civilians being spirited away in a tricycle......

The state-owned asset regulators are now considering a merger of China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines, broke the Caijing magazine yesterday, saying the discussion was only among government agencies so far, while spokesmen with the two airlines pled ignorance of any such plans. Great hopes ahead for improved competitiveness in China's aviation sector.2004 bronze medalist Kendra Zanotto, who was set to work as an expert synchronized swimming reporter for the Olympic News Service, an official arm......

Foreign ministers of China and Russia signed a treaty in Beijing on Monday ending a 40-year-long territorial dispute to finally determine their borders. The treaty addressed the eastern part of the two countries' 4,300 km-long border, with Russia returning all of Yinlong Island (Tarabarov) and half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoi Ussuriyasky) to China. The islands are at the convergence of the Heilongjiang and Wusulijiang rivers that form the natural border between China and Russia. The......

Shanghai Scrap brought us an interesting tidbit over the weekend on the results of the Pope's landmark letter to Chinese Catholics released a year ago on June 30, 2007. The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN) reports that the Pope's call for reconciliation between "underground" and "open" Catholic communities has seen some positive results. UCAN cites open and underground priests engaging in dialogue with each other, and Shanghai Scrap's Adam Minter points out a significant......

"A top aide to Gordon Brown has been a suspected victim of a “honeytrap” operation by Chinese intelligence agents. The aide, a senior Downing Street adviser who was with the prime minister on a trip to China earlier this year, had his BlackBerry phone stolen after being picked up by a Chinese woman who had approached him in a Shanghai hotel disco. The aide agreed to return to his hotel with the woman. He reported......

The China Digital Times leads us to a story in Jianghua, in Hunan Province, where local party officials are hanging signs throughout the city claiming that some forms of petitioning the government are illegal. The signs declare, "If you petition illegally, the penalty is imprisonment," or "Attack those who don’t petition legally," or “Wage a war for standard, orderly petitioning." The Digital Times suggests that this is the local government's response to a central government......

A Beijing family is refusing to vacate their home despite a court order to throw them out. The Yu family has been living in the same house (located on Di’anmennei Street, a main road in Beijing) for 60 years, selling roast chestnuts and other snacks to passerby. When they were ordered to move out by last Sunday in an effort to "clean up" the neighborhood before the Games, the family defied the order and have......

The Beijing-Shanghai rivalry received some international media attention earlier this week, and the prognosis wasn't good. The Washington Post writes that while Shanghai has the global industry, business and sophistication stemming from early European colonialism, Beijing has the upper hand, at least in this round. The two reasons: the government and the Olympics. The historic city of emperors, modern capital and center of CCP power, Beijing's status as China's political hub is undeniable. As for......

In the wake of political decisions by Western heads of state to attend (U.S. President Bush and French President Sarkozy) or not attend (British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel) the opening ceremony in Beijing next month, the New York Times's Lynn Zinser reminds us of a political statement that China made to send its team to the Olympics for the first time, twenty-four years ago. On May 8, 1984, the Soviet......

Despite both China and Taiwan having agreed way back in 1989 that the latter would compete at the Olympics under the name "Chinese Taipei" and “Zhonghua Taipei" (中华台北) as the designated Chinese translation of that term, spokesman Yang Yi of China's Taiwan Affairs Office has suggested that "Zhongguo Taipei" (中国台北) is just as valid as an Olympic designator, sparking a protest from Taipei's Mainland Affairs Council because the name implies that Taiwan is a part......

Trouble with visa renewal is one thing, but forced deportation is quite another. Foreigners whining about the former should take a look at the recent case of Dechen Pemba, a Brit of Tibetan descent who was detained, driven to the airport, and expelled from the PRC for five years when she walked out of her Beijing apartment last Tuesday. The seven plain clothes policemen who escorted Pemba allowed her only time to pack a bag,......

The runup to the Beijing Olympics has had its share of political drama—torch relay protests, calls for a boycott and tussles over which world leaders will attend the opening ceremonies. All the while, Beijing has protested that politics has no place in sports. If you still harbor any illusions that the Olympic games are a politics-free zone, this recent program from Public Radio International should set you straight. In "Power, Politics and the Olympics," Deborah......

President Sarkozy, the first world leader to say he would not attend the Beijing Olympics as a way of protesting China's handling of the Tibetan protests in May, has eaten his words after meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao at the ongoing G8 summit, saying he would attend the opening ceremony after all.......

You go first... no you go first! One might imagine this kind of bickering taking place near the swings during recess, but at a gathering of world leaders? According to PBS's Thirteen/WNET, that is exactly what is happening at this year's G8 discussions. China and India say it is up to the developed world — the biggest polluters — to take the lead in the fight against climate change. But President Bush has said that......

With constant building demolition, commercial clutter and disapproval from Chinese authorities, it's no wonder graffiti in Shanghai is generally a rare sight. Juxtapoz features some exceptional masterpieces around Moganshan Road.Peking Duck's Richard analyzes the "iconic" theory applied to the CCP in China: "the main fault lies with the local authorities, not with the central party, which is trying as best they can to control their local counterparts." Richard quotes from an article in the Washington......

After Xinhua reported that county officials in Weng’an—including its Communist Party secretary, Wang Qin, and head of the county government, Wang Haiping—were fired on Friday following the June 28 riots, Western media has hailed Weng’an as a turning point for China. Both WSJ and TIME remark that Xinhua’s handling of the Weng’an incident is remarkable in itself; not only did state media report the riots almost immediately, but quickly produced "unusually long investigative stories." Adding......

Chairman of China Southern Airlines, Liu Shaoyong (刘绍勇) piloted the inaugural flight from Guangzhou to Taipei yesterday carrying 258 passengers. On landing at the Taoyuan International Airport, the 100 or so mainland tourists were given a warm welcome including this lion dance and an Taiwanese aboriginal dance you see in the video, but later in the day, they were also greeted by Falun Gong members at a popular tourist site. This first encounter remained civil......

While the American flag has always been surrounded by its share of regulated stipulations (lighting it at all times, always flying it in fair weather, never letting it touch the ground), a new one has been ushered in by the state legislature of Minnesota. Effective this year, selling Chinese-made American flags within Minnesota is a crime punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a US$1,000 fine. As the Minnesota Star Tribune reports, Rep.......

不是“爱来不来”，而是根本“不欢迎你来”！ ~ It's not 'Come if you want,' it's basically 'You're not welcome." That's the response of Chinese netizens to French President Sarkozy who said he will decide next week whether to attend the opening of the Beijing Olympics, with his choice depending on how talks go between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys this week. Sarkozy reiterated Monday that the events in Tibet were "not acceptable," but he also warned against angering a power......

While yet more versions of the Weng'an, Guizhou riot have surfaced on the internet, the Guizhou provincial government has also finally given its version — which, believe it or not, has sparked off a new pop phrase on the Chinese internet — "I'm here to do push-ups" (我来做俯卧撑的). Netizens are now suddenly flooding the forums with pictures of TV host Ou Zhihang (区志航) doing push-ups in his birthday suit by famous Chinese landmarks such as......

This PBS documentary on the underground church movement produced by the Chicago Tribune's Beijing Bureau chief Evan Osnos can now be watched online here, and it is as we said it would be — groundbreaking.......

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......

At this point, this is only an unsubstantiated rumour but a highly plausible one given what we've seen and heard in the last few months. Here is an email sent to us by one teacher at an international school in Shanghai, and we quote verbatim: "I don't know anymore specifics, but I received an Email from my principal warning us about our online behaviour after an international school teacher was deported from China. I don't......

Among driving rain, rough winds and other remnants of yesterday’s tropical storm, the streets of Hong Kong are teeming today with the usual bustle of high-powered businessmen and equally serious shoppers. But there’s something new on the streets of the island metropolis: Chinese patriotism. According to a recent survey by the Public Opinion Program at the University of Hong Kong, a 58% of Hong Kongers of Chinese descent now identify themselves as Chinese or Chinese......

A new study shows that China has a long way to go before it achieves respect as a multi-faceted power among its Asian neighbors. Conducted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the East Asia Institute of South Korea, the study surveyed five East and Southeast Asian countries as well as the United States. It found that perceptions of China's "soft power" abilities (indirect and non-military) were considerably lower than that of the U.S.......

Less than a month after airing this commercial featuring Richard Gere driving the new Fiat Delta from Hollywood to Tibet, Italian automaker Fiat has been forced to withdraw the ad, and issue a statement extending its "apologies to the Government of the People's Republic of China and to the Chinese people". Readers of this blog (a group which no doubt excludes anyone from Fiat or their agency) will be aware that Richard Gere is a......

China releases 1,157 involved in Tibet unrest [Channel NewsAsia] “BEIJING - China has released a total of 1,157 people who were involved in riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in March, the official Xinhua news agency reported Friday, quoting a senior Tibetan official.”Opening the flood gates: airlines allowed to fly between China and Taiwan [flightglobal.com] “In a long-awaited political breakthrough, Chinese and Taiwanese carriers will receive a much needed boost with the launch early next......

has been revealed by Thomas Crampton on his blog. Anyone know anything about these guys?......

A recent survey by the PEW Global Attitudes Project shows favorable opinions of China on the decline worldwide, with positive opinions falling significantly in nine of 21 countries over the past year. The growing anti-China movement cites unilateralism, poor treatment of human rights and environmental abuse as the major strikes against the nation. Approval may be down, but respect is certainly up: majorities in a number of countries think China has “a significant amount of......