Confucius rolled in his grave yesterday as the media trainwreck surrounding the peace prize given in his name culminated for the year with a quiet ceremony honouring this year's winner, Russian prime minister (and soon-to-be president) Vladimir Putin. more ›

The Chinese national team's elation from its 4-0 thrashing of Singapore yesterday was quickly dampened by news that Iraq had edged out Jordan in Group A, dashing China's hopes of qualifying for the 2014 Brazilian World Cup. more ›

“We have only heard about the award from the press. We do not know much about the prize.” more ›

The Confucius Peace Prize public relations trainwreck continues with the announcement of Russian prime minister (and soon-to-be president) Vladimir Putin as the winner of the 2nd annual Confucius Peace Prize. Known around the world for his dictatorial ways, forcible silencing of his critics, and for being the "Butcher of Chechnya", the Russian beacon of peace (according to the judges anyway) beat seven other nominees -- Gyaltsen Norbu (the "Chinese Panchen Lama"), Bill Gates, South African President Jacob Zuma, former UN chief Kofi Annan, Yuan Longping, a Chinese agricultural scientist known as the "father of hybrid rice", German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Taiwanese politician James Soong (宋楚瑜) -- to clinch the highly-uncoveted title. more ›

The soccer team of an elementary school in Beijing was demolished by its Russian counterpart in a friendly match 0:15, according to Beijing Times journalist Zhang Bin. Zhang said over Sina Weibo yesterday: more ›

Russia's arrest of a Chinese national charged for espionage actually occurred on October 28 of last year but the information was only released recently. The man in question, Tong Shengyong, allegedly tried to obtain documentation for Russian S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile systems on behalf of Beijing, all while posing as an interpreter for "official delegations." more ›

China's Confucius Peace Prize, unveiled hastily last year after a bunch of cantankerous Scandinavians had the nerve to award the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese citizen, is back! Among the shining beacons of peace in the running for the highly-uncoveted prize this year is Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, known around the world for his dictatorial ways, forcible silencing of his critics, and for being the "Butcher of Chechnya". more ›

The Guardian has a most fascinating exclusive interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, the former paramount leader of the Soviet Union, on his role in the fall of the empire two decades ago. more ›

South Korea's embattled Lee Myung Bak administration has named former ambassador to Russia Lee Kyu-hyung new ambassador to China, the third in as many years. more ›

Only a few weeks after CCTV was caught trying to pass off Top Gun scenes as military footage, Russia has been caught in a blunder of their own. In preparation for Defenders of the Fatherland Day, hundreds of posters like the one above were printed and distributed throughout St. Petersburg sporting images of Russian military might. But instead of displaying Russian fighter jets alongside their tanks and ships, the plane pictured is the Chinese Chengdu J-10. Whoops! more ›

A post on the Guardian’s Environment Blog today laments over Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s weak showing at the unprecedented International Tiger Forum happening in Russia this week. Contrasting him with Russian president Vladimir Putin (the environmentalist’s Rambo who shoots at whales with crossbows and traps polar bears, all in the pursuit of science!) Wen appears not only timid but apathetic: more ›

Adding yet another superlative to its ever growing "World's leading" list, China has now been declared the world's leading "space polluter." more ›

On May 9, Shanghai's Russian community gathered in the St Nicholas Church on 16 Gaolan Road, for a special Victory Day service. Built in 1934, the Orthodox church was once used as a washing machine factory and later hosted a French restaurant, Ashanti Dome, on the upper floor, and a Spanish tapas bar on the ground floor called Boca. During the Cultural Revolution which sought to destroy the ‘four olds’ (old customs, old habits, old culture and old thinking), public worship was prohibited but quick-thinking believers of various religions posted images of Mao over their places of worship to prevent overzealous Red Guards from bursting in to destroy the buildings. The St Nicholas Church was one of such buildings -- and the image of Mao kept watch over the building until it was taken down in the early 2000s. According to zinka who shared these pictures with us, the Russian community rented the church for this special event (note the worshippers standing under the disco ball), and it still remains unclear if and when the building will be converted back into a church. more ›

The Russian references were not political in nature. They were innocuous nods to the nationality and spoken language of Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, the villain portrayed by Mickey Rourke. (More information on that character's background here ... be careful, that link features some spoilers.) While most of the censorship consisted of altering the audio track, one scene — during a dinner in a hangar, Vanko asks Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) to fetch his pet cockatoo — appeared to be cut short. more ›

Imitation may well be the greatest form of flattery but China have failed to charm Russia with their new J11-B Fighter jet. Of course, it doesn't help that China rejected the Russian Sukhoi-Su-27 design, challenging its ability to meet their requirements. Good job the latest Chinese release looks nothing like the original Russian version then...
more ›

• A car in Shuijing was pasted with the slogan "The head of the Public Security Bureau is my father, I can commit murder and arson without fear!" in an attempt to attract attention to a murder case in the driver's hometown. [ChinaSmack]
• One columnist discusses the differences between Russia and China in terms of business and corporate governance... and China comes out on top. That makes us feel bad for Russia. [The Moscow Times]
• Speaking of regulatory policy, here's a couple of signs of things to come... kind of, since it's really hard to figure out what's to come even when you're listening to everything the government's saying. [WSJ]

On Wednesday we told you about how the recent comments of Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew made during his latest trip to the US have caused an uproar among Chinese netizens. Aside from his more controversial statements that Asia needs the United States to counterbalance a rising China and that the US needs to be "an important part" of any new East Asian architecture, Lee also gave a wide-ranging interview to the Charlie Rose Show of the PBS network. China featured heavily in the 60 minute interview which kicked off with Lee's proclamation that the United States may have half a century left as the world's dominant power. In the new world order, said Lee, the US would have to make space for China and India at the top table of the world. For the next hour or so, sit back with us and gaze into Lee Kuan Yew's crystal ball as he looks back into the past and divines the future. As always, if you're in China and still not able to watch Youtube videos, now is the time to get your VPN. Meanwhile, a full transcript of this interview is available here. more ›

What if the U.S. broke up (much like the Soviet Union did in the early 1990s)? According to one Russian professor, it means that Governer Ahnold may need to learn Chinese. more ›

• On Foot in the Mystical Mountains of Yunnan [NYTimes.com] "It was for a moment like this that I had made the long journey last fall to northern Yunnan Province from my home in Beijing — which has the dubious distinction of being both one of the most polluted and one of the most populous cities in the world. Back home, looking at a map of the rugged Tibetan areas of western China, my eyes had fallen on the deep river valleys of Yunnan, where three of Asia’s great waterways come tumbling down from their glacial sources in the mountains of the high Tibetan plateau."
• Getty’s $100,000 Tab for Chinese Photos Signals Bargain Time [Bloomberg.com] "Wang Qingsong’s theatrical, large- scale photographs have been a hit with collectors, rising in price to $864,943 from $40,000 since 2006. Now, with prices for Chinese contemporary art eroding, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has purchased three prints by Wang and six by Hai Bo, who contrasts photographs of friends and relatives taken during China’s Cultural Revolution with their recent portraits."
• Sichuan Earthquake Memorial Museum To Cost 2.3 Billion [chinaSMACK] "The complete plans for the Beichuan National Earthquake Ruins Museum that has been the subject of much attention by citizens from all walks of life have been released, with a preliminary budget requiring a ~2.3 billion yuan total investment/cost. The moment the design plan was introduced, it immediately caused huge amounts of heated discussion from all walks of life in society. Some netizens have questioned whether using vast amounts of money to construct a museum amounts to an “image project.”"

• Deadly sex story puts 2 bloggers in court [Shanghai Daily] "The widow of the late Chinese film director Xie Jin has filed a libel lawsuit against twin-brother bloggers for claiming her husband died while having sex with a prostitute."
• Beijing teen hot-wires bus, causes chaos [AP] "A 13-year-old boy apparently hot-wired a public bus and took it on a joyride in downtown Beijing and crashed it into a dozen vehicles in a scene witnesses likened to a blockbuster movie, state media reported Monday."
• China plans to launch its own 'Google Earth' [China Economic Net]"Compared with Google Earth, the pictures provided by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping feature higher resolution and cover a wider range of national territory. As long as the place is not subject to significant security restrictions, online users can search wherever they want in the country."

Russia Today reports that the end of a 40 year old border dispute that's seen 340 square kilometres, or half of an island called Bolshoi Ussuriyasky (or Heixiazi island in Chinese) being officially ceded to China has warmed up bilateral ties and boosted trade. BBC cites unnamed Chinese reports that say Russia will also return all of Yinlong island (or Tarabarov in Russian) — a detail which was not mentioned in this report. In the first five months of this year, Sino-Russia bilateral trade rocketed ahead by 60%. more ›

Despite getting docked 10 points by Xinhua (the state-run news agency is reporting a score of 79-68), the U.S. Olympic basketball team cruised past Russia in the team's first defensive struggle leading up to the Beijing Games. Kobe Bryant led the U.S. with 19 points, much to the delight of the crowd at Qizhong Tennis Center in Pudong. The AP reports: "The sellout crowd of 14,523 at this arena built for tennis clearly favored the U.S. team, and Bryant clearly was the fans' favorite. Besides the familiar 'MVP!' chants, fans booed when he was called for an offensive foul in the second quarter, and generally oohed and aahed whenever he squared up to take a shot." Team USA plays Australia at 8 pm on Tuesday, also at Qizhong. Tickets appear to be available, starting at RMB 500 a pop. more ›

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 two countries fought border wars over this part of the territory nearly 40 years ago, but have readjusted their relationship since the end of the Cold War, in what BBC describes as warmer ties between "Russia - a big energy exporter - and China, a big energy consumer." The Moscow Times reports,

political analysts said the move was positive for a Russia looking to secure its eastern borders in the face of its increasingly powerful Communist neighbor.

President Hu Jintao recently hosted some very special guests at the Zhongnanhai compound, the Party and government headquarters. A group of young school children from Wenyuan, the epicenter of the earthquake in May, were flown to Beijing for a grand tour of the capital and to meet with none other than Grandpa Hu (胡爷爷). more ›

The Chinese contemporary art craze is still in full swing and this time it has hit Russia. A show called 'China, Forward!', is currently being staged at TSUM -- a luxury department store (similar to Plaza 66, we reckon) in Moscow, reports Russia Today. more ›

This report from the Russian town of Navashino in the Nizhny Novgorod region offers a fascinating glimpse at how cheap Chinese labour is changing the face of its neighbours. From Russia Today:

As Russia's economy changes, many locals are coming to terms with the need for thousands of unskilled, foreign workers. Business owners say foreign workers often work long hours and for little money.