Results tagged “taiwan”

• Taiwan and China [NYTimes] "Taiwan’s position as a de facto independent state seems to be morphing very slowly toward the “one country, two systems” status of Hong Kong. The process is not irreversible but the sentiments of those of mainland origin in the governing Nationalist Party, along with the self-interest of business groups and a widespread sense of economic vulnerability are all pushing the island toward accommodation with Beijing. The trend could mean an erosion in the support Taiwan gets, albeit erratically, from the United States and Japan."
• North Korea ready for six-party talks - with caveat [Christian Science Monitor] "North Korea's new readiness to return to stalled international talks about its nuclear program - if prior negotiations with the United States go well - puts the diplomatic ball in Washington's court. "This is a test for the Obama administration's policy on North Korea," says Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. Initial signs suggested that the US was prepared to pick the ball up. "We, of course, encourage any kind of dialogue that would help us lead to … the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly."
• Internet Blackout in Xinjiang? What blackout? [Xinjiang: Far West China] "Greetings world. If you’re reading this note, then my message in a bottle has somehow made it from this secluded island I live on to the shores of your country. Xinjiang is still under complete blackout and there is no end in sight. As a result, my knowledge of world events has vanished and my sanity has suffered primarily due to the fact that we are the only westerners in our city and I can’t contact my friends at home."

Gosh, we really have missed the antics of Sarah Palin ever since she stepped down from her post as Governor earlier this year. But we're holding out against all odds for a 2012 presidential run: can you imagine all the sound bytes? In any case, Sarah was in Hong Kong yesterday for her first commercial speaking engagement, a keynote address at the CLSA Investors' Forum. And to say the least, it was key-noteworthy.

Sometimes we wonder if China Daily isn't trying to take the piss out of us with these kind of stories.

Here's an eye opening, but perhaps not that surprising, consequence to expanded tourism between China and Taiwan - many mainland visitors go to the island and just... disappear. According to CRI English, roughly ten people have pulled this vanishing act in recent months. Travel agencies are now being pressured to keep better track of their wards by the Cross-Straits Tourism Exchange Association, which said it will deport these missing persons if it finds them, but they will not be charged. In return, agencies have begun doing background checks on clients, holding onto personal documents during the vacation and asking for large deposits (to be refunded after the tour),. Yes, but are those deposits more than the cost of a Snakehead?

• More Battles Ahead for IPhone in China [PC World] "Apple has emerged from winding negotiations with an iPhone deal in China, but the handset will still face government pitfalls and look-alike competitors in the country. Local carrier China Unicom said Friday it had reached a three-year iPhone distribution deal with Apple, ending months of rumor about an impending agreement. The carrier will offer the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, with the first handsets going on sale in the fourth quarter."
• Taiwan seeks to smooth ruffled Chinese feathers [AP] "China has canceled or postponed several events meant to underscore improving relations with Taiwan, apparently to show anger over the Dalai Lama's visit to the island, Taiwan's governing party said Tuesday. The visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader — aimed at offering comfort to the victims of Typhoon Morakot — has created the most serious challenge for relations between the democratic island and the communist mainland since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou took office 15 months ago on a platform of ending 60 years of hostility."
• An unlikely victim of China's censorship [UPI Asia] "It is well known that Internet access is not unrestricted in China. But who would expect that New Threads (Xin Yusi, www.xys.org), an overseas Chinese-language website, would be among the inaccessible sites? A search of the term “New Threads” at Google inside China and at Baidu, a Chinese-language search engine, did not even generate links to the website. New Threads is not anti-Chinese government, nor is it pornographic or related to the banned Falungong cult. It is not about Taiwan independence, Tibet or Xinjiang. It simply reveals academic misconduct in China."

• On the Rarity of Foreign Women and Chinese Boyfriends/Chinese Husbands [Speaking of China] "When I’m in China, I tend to turn a lot of heads, especially in the countryside — and that’s not just because I’m a foreigner. It’s because I’m often seen holding hands with my Chinese husband. It’s true — the sight of a foreign woman and Chinese boyfriend or Chinese husband is much rarer than its counterpart, the foreign man and Chinese woman."
• Tim’s Texas Roadhouse, R.I.P. [WSJ] "Roadhouse proprietor Tim Hilbert, who arrived before 9 a.m., was barred from entering, forced to watch the preparations from outside. Since the Journal’s article on Hilbert Aug. 24, he’d been forced to cancel his planned “beer, barbeque, and blues” party - which he billed as a good-will gesture to local officials - because police were afraid it would turn into a mass protest. Hilbert received several inquiries from Chinese reporters about his predicament since the Journal article ran, and articles were published, but he continued to be frustrated in his efforts to seek more compensation from local courts and other government offices."
• China's newest lead poisoning investigation underway in Kunming [Go Kunming] "More than 200 children in Kunming's Dongchuan district have been found to have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, the third major case of child lead poisoning in China this month. During routine blood testing in Dongchuan's Tongdu county, more than 200 out of 1,000 children tested were found to have blood lead levels of more than 100 micrograms per liter."

Surprising no one, China's pretty nonplussed about the Dalai Lama's visit to Taiwan, letting it be known yesterday that they "resolutely oppose" it "in whatever form and capacity." Said a spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, "The Dalai Lama is not a pure religious figure... Under the pretext of religion, he has all along been engaged in separatist activities." It accused the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, known for its pro-independence platform, of stirring up trouble by inviting him. The situation makes us feel sorry for Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, who's kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place this time around - on one hand, you've got a populace that already accuses you of being useless and a China butt kisser and on the other hand, you've got... well, China. Source: Xinhua Photo from Taiwan Guide

• Taiwan to Allow Dalai Lama Visit [NY Times] "The president of Taiwan said Thursday that he would allow the Dalai Lama to visit the island next week, a move likely to infuriate China and jeopardize rapidly improving relations between Taipei and Beijing. The Tibetan spiritual leader is expected to arrive Monday for a six-day tour of southern Taiwan, which was ravaged by a typhoon three weeks ago that left at least 650 dead."
• Thousands of Myanmar refugees flowing into Yunnan [Go Kunming] "An attempt by Myanmar's ruling military junta to bring rebel ethnic fighters under its control has led to escalating tensions, reports of fighting and a looming specter of war, with thousands of refugees fleeing into southwestern Yunnan, according to a Reuters report. China- and Thailand-based media outlets have reported that on August 8 the Myanmar army sent hundreds of troops to the region of Kokang in the country's northeastern Shan State. Kokong, which has held to a 20-year ceasefire with the Myanmar government in Yangon, is home to many ethnic Chinese as well as other ethnic groups."
• Conrad Black: Much ado about China [National Post] "Overblown announcements heralding the supposed coming of the Age of China have become a staple of journalistic futurism in recent years. When Maclean's magazine banners across the top of its cover "When China Rules the World," as it did last month -- and it is not a Monty Python send-up of swarms of incomprehensible people in Mao suits -- I know it is time to raise a peep of dissent."

Yes, we know that Youtube hasn't been unblocked yet, but this video was too good not to show and we couldn't find it on Youku or Tudou. We suggest using either a proxy or a VPN (our new favorite while we wait for Freedur to work out its kinks is this one).

• China's secretive military launches Web site [AP] "China's Defense Ministry launched its first official Web site Thursday, part of an effort by the normally secretive military to be more transparent. The launch of the site — including an English version — comes as the U.S. Army's top general visits Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterparts. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey was to visit the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army on Thursday and meet PLA Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde."
• More parents protest against lead poisoning in China [Reuters] "The number of Chinese children found with excess lead in their blood near a metal plant in central China has reached 1,354, state media said on Thursday, with new clashes between police and parents over pollution. The rise in initial diagnoses of poisoning around the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant in Hunan province adds to a recent rash of such cases, which have exposed growing tensions between local governments and residents over pollution, often by poorly regulated plants and factories with ties to local government."
• China bans petitioners in Beijing [BBC News] "The Chinese government has issued a new regulation to stop petitioners from travelling to the capital, Beijing. Legal officials from Beijing will now visit people with complaints in the provinces in order to hear their cases. Petitions can also be filed online and a response or solution is to be given within 60 days."

• Rape and beatings in a Beijing “black jail” hotel [Black and White Cat] "Last week’s edition of Southern Weekly (Aug. 6) carried an extraordinarily rare article on a subject that is usually off-limits for the mainstream media in China: the “black jails” that operate outside of the law in Beijing, detaining people who have committed no crime and have simply come to the capital to exercise their legal right to petition the central government. The report avoids the term “black jail” and does not discuss the widespread use of these illegal places of detention. Nevertheless, it gives a graphic account of life inside one of them. The spark for this article was the rape of a girl from Anhui province in the middle of the night, six hours after she arrived, by one of the thugs employed by a Henan local official to guard the petitioners in storeroom in the Juyuan Hotel near Beijing South Station."
• U.S. Helicopters to Join Taiwan Typhoon Relief Effort [Bloomberg] "Four U.S. helicopters that can airlift earth-moving equipment may help with relief efforts from tomorrow in Taiwan, where hundreds of people are believed buried under mudslides caused by Typhoon Morakot. A U.S. team is due in Taiwan today with two CH53 heavy-lift helicopters and two SH60 medium-lift models en route, said Chris Kavanagh, a spokesman for the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei."
• China Halts Steel-Firm Sale Amid Worker Protest [WSJ] " Protesting steelworkers in China have forced the government to abandon privatization plans for the second time in a month, in a sign of increasing labor activism. Officials in Henan province on Sunday called off the sale of state-owned Linzhou Iron & Steel Co. after some 3,000 workers, demonstrating since Tuesday, briefly blocked a government mediator from leaving the plant, according to the state-controlled Xinhua news agency."

Despite weather reports that Typhoon Morakot would swing by our way (which triggered a rush of preparation for floods and damage) it... simply didn't. Yesterday was rainy and gross, but not any rainier and grosser than Shanghai weather normally tends to be. The same could not be said for other areas around Asia.

Man the sails, Typhoon Morakot is heading our way! It hit Taiwan this morning and should be in China by Saturday, according to Reuters. Across the strait, Morakot is a category 2 storm (from a scale of 1-5), meaning it's medium strength, but whether it will stay that way before hitting China still seems to be unclear.

• Xinjiang Info-War [RConversation] "Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer mistakenly made prominent use in interviews of a photo that turned out to be from riots in Shishou, Hubei province, in late June. Roland Soong at ESWN has a full account of how the photo came to be misconstrued and misused. Apparently, the source of the error was Reuters, who had sourced the photo from Twitter and put it out on the wire before recalling it."
• China's Urumqi tense after police shooting [AFP] "URUMQI - A mosque was closed and many businesses were shuttered near where police shot dead two Muslim Uighurs, as ethnic tensions simmered in China's restive Urumqi city."
• Drawing Critics, China Seeks to Dominate in Renewable Energy [NewYorkTimes] "BEIJING - When the United States’ top energy and commerce officials arrive in China on Tuesday, they will land in the middle of a building storm over China’s protectionist tactics to become the world’s leader in renewable energy."

Recently, after pressure from sex workers for protection rights, the government in Taiwan has taken steps toward legalizing prostitution. In six months' time, sex workers in Taiwan will no longer be prosecuted for their trade, and a red-light district may be set up in the capital, Taipei. While it is obviously controversial, we thought we would take a look at the debate for decriminalized prostitution, and what legislation in our neighbor across the strait might mean for us mainlanders.

Thanks to the somewhat softened relationship between Taiwan and China, a new film festival opened up last week and will continue into late July. The Cross-Strait Exhibition - a very formal title indeed - marks the first time in history that mainland China and Taiwan are collaborating on a film promotion event. At the same time, new rules for subsidy within the Taiwanese movie industry have just been made official.

For a bustling Chinese city, Shanghai has a pretty pitiful night market in the form of Wujianglu (especially when compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan). Now, the Shanghai government is thinking of overhauling the market right before the World Expo.

• Learn English with Obama [Sinosplice] "The book [link on DangDang] claims to teach English using nine of Obama’s famous speeches, teaching you how to speak English like Obama. It even comes with an MP3 CD of audio content. Interesting! (Meanwhile), Here’s another one...that simply takes Obama’s speeches and translates them on the opposing page..."
• US House Speaker Pelosi in China for climate talks [Yahoo News] "US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime critic of Beijing's rule over Tibet and its rights record, arrived in China on Sunday for a trip focused on energy and climate change. US embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson confirmed Pelosi had arrived in Shanghai but could not say who the top US official was going to meet in the country's financial hub."
• NAO: Ten Chinese Provinces Embezzled Farming Aid Funds [ChinaCSR] "The National Audit Office of China has released a report which shows that ten Chinese provinces and municipalities had illegally spent a total of CNY2.693 billion from farming aid funds, of which CNY5.8374 million was used to purchase houses and cars. It is learned that NAO audited the use of farming-aid fund in ten Chinese provinces and municipalities: Henan, Gansu, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Fujian, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Chongqing; and found that there was a general problem in the allocation, use and management of farming aid funds in these regions."

• China's state broadcaster under fire: The pathetic fallacy [The Economist] "ITS charred hulk looms over Beijing’s central business district, a monument to recklessness. The building is part of a colossal, architecturally extravagant complex being built for the state broadcaster, China Central Television (CCTV). A fire gutted it three months ago, creating an embarrassing eyesore, for which a senior head has now rolled."
• chinese digital love [56minus1] "Meeting people online is not hard: online acquaintances can be made in general-interest BBS forums, through SNS websites, or over IM software. But finding love in these online relationships might be a little awkward, so a wide range of websites have sprung up to help Chinese netizens meet a special someone to spend the rest of their life with, or just to get together for a quick roll in the hay."
• A Peek Into China's Tech Sector (Long Circle) [Web Newswire] "A look at why western companies are seeking support from China's high technology sector companies. Brian Schwartz, a western journalist granted rare access to one of China's offshore development centres in the eastern city of Shanghai shares his impressions. Seizing on the growing outsourcing trend, China has built a number of offshore development centers (ODC). “As a western business journalist, ODCs seemed mysterious. Questions filled my head, such as how an ODC actually operates and how two teams of engineers on opposite sides of the globe can be able to work together to create a successful product.”"

• Kashgar's Old Town Bulldozed; Is Uyghur Culture in Danger? [FarWestChina - gfw] "Within the narrow alleyways of this Old Town lie thousands of years of Kashgar’s history. Aged wooden doors and cobblestone paths have witnessed the passage of innumerable donkey carts, small Uyghur children and, in recent times, many foreign tourists. On the outside, these mud-brick walls seem at peace with their place in history but just beyond the padlocked door a crippling truth emerges. Squinting through the cracks in the doorway it is possible to see that these walls no longer house Uyghur inhabitants. Instead, they hide the heartbreaking destruction of Kashgar’s Old City. Over two-thirds of the city has already been leveled. History has been replaced by rubble; donkey carts by bulldozers."
• Chinese Singing Show To Go On, With a New Name and Conditions [WSJ] "While hugely popular, the shows also triggered hot debates. Some celebrated them for representing the victory of grassroots culture over official or elite culture, while others believed the show just encouraged young people to seek out overnight fame. Along with popularity came increased government scrutiny. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) released a series of specific measures to regulate entertainment programs (particularly talent shows) in 2007 and a planned 2008 season of Super Girls was cancelled. A spokesman for Hunan Satellite Television told the media late last month that a revival of the televised singing competition had been approved by the Sarft, though not without several conditions attached."
• Singapore promotes Mandarin [Danwei] "According to a survey conducted on incoming primary students by the Singapore Department of Education, the number of Chinese-language households in Singapore has been declining since the 1990s. Today, only 40% of households use Chinese as a primary language, while English-language households have climbed from 26% in 1990 to 60% today. To reverse this trend, the Singapore Promote Mandarin Council launched The Chinese Challenge on March 30, fun quizzes that let Singapore citizens and permanent residents personally experience the breadth and depth of Chinese culture, deepen their understanding of Mandarin, and improve their grasp on the language."

• In Memory: 1 Year Anniversary Of The 5.12 Sichuan Earthquake [CN Reviews] "As expected, the Chinese media and internet is crawling with content commemorating the one-year anniversary of the devastating 2008 May 12th Sichuan Earthquake (often also referred to as the Beichuan/Wenchuan Earthquake) that killed a reported 68,712 people, including 5,335 students, with around 18,000 people still listed as missing. We’ve compiled six of the most popular “512″ videos on Youku."
• The Eight Star Government Office Building [Netease - translated by ESWN] "Linyi city has three districts and nine counties, of which five of those counties are classified as "impoverished." But under the leadership of the Linyi city Party Committee and Government, a world-class government office building has been constructed. This building has an area of 120,000 plus square meters spread over 23 floors (including two basement levels) serviced by 18 elevators. The building was constructed for 38.2 billion RMB at an average cost of 3,200,000 RMB per square meter. Today it was announced by Guinness (China) proclaimed that this to be the only eight-star government office building in the world."
• China should release a critical earthquake preparedness document [China Media Project] "In early 2005, more than three years before the Wenchuan earthquake struck, a number of cities and provinces, including Sichuan and Shaanxi, participated in a wide-scale action for earthquake preparedness. That action responded to a series of central government demands, including the strengthening of dangerous and old school buildings. The time has come for China’s government to make public the critical national document behind that 2005 push."

    

The Chinese name of Whitemen Toothpaste is 白人牙膏 (bái rén yá gāo or "white people toothpaste").

The Chinese junk ship Princess Taiping, which was on a trip across teh Pacific to show how Asian sailors might have been able to reach North America before Columbus, has come to a tragic end. Just 30 miles off the coast of Taiwan, it's final destination point, the junk was run down and sunk by a 560-foot-long Liberian tanker. The tanker did not stop to help. "In the dark of night, I could see that dark hull. ... I could hear our people screaming, 'No! No!' I just couldn't believe it," The captain of the junk, Nelson Liu, told SF Gate. Luckily, Princess Taiping was equipped with an emergency beacon, and the coast guard swooped in to rescue all 11 crew members. They were shaken, but happy to be alive. No investigation into the matter is currently planned. Source: SF Gate

• The Tiananmen Protestors, Then and Now [China Beat] "China Beat sent out a note to a few scholars and journalists who have carefully watched and written about the events of 1989, asking them to send in short commentaries detailing what they wish more people knew, associated with, or remembered about that spring. We ran the first piece in this limited series, by John Gittings, last week. This is the second piece."
• CNN's Kristie Lu Stout on media and technology [Danwei] "Kristie Lu Stout presents the CNN Today program from Hong Kong on mornings. Prior to that Stout was CNN’s technology correspondent and host of the daily Tech Watch... Danwei talked to the popular anchor about using Twitter live on her show, and her view of technology's use in the media."
• China and Taiwan boost financial ties [Financial Times] "China and Taiwan signed a new set of agreements on Sunday, taking a big step towards opening up their financial services industries to each other and allowing direct investment in Taiwan from mainland China. Negotiators from both sides of the Taiwan Strait met in the Chinese city of Nanjing over the weekend for formal talks aimed at normalising relations between the two former civil war rivals who, before last year, had not held talks for more than a decade."

If you've ever been curious about the failures of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, Taiwan is set next month to declassify confidential documents on his many attempts to take back China. Visitors, including us mainlanders, will be allowed to visit Back Tzuhu, a previously restricted section of Chiang's Mausoleum in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. The area was a wartime command center during the 1960s. From 1964 to the early 1970s, Chiang tried repeatedly to launch naval attacks, only to have each of them fail spectacularly. With each failure, Chiang's confidence in retaking the mainland eroded, and by 1972 the project had been abandoned. Source: South China Morning Post

Kung fu movie-star Jackie Chan stirred up international outrage and accusations of racism Saturday with his comment that the Chinese people can't handle too much freedom.

• Child sex scandal involves teachers, officials [Shanghai Daily] "Eight people, including six government officials and teachers, will go on trial for their involvement in a child prostitution scandal affecting a dozen primary and middle school students in southwest China. The Guizhou police launched an investigation after receiving a complaint on August 15 last year from a mother who said her 13-year-old daughter, Li Yu, had been raped after being duped by a classmate, Wang Qing, in Xishui County. The investigation then uncovered a conspiracy which saw girl students being forced into prostitution."
• Mainland tourist apologizes for graffiti in Taiwan under public pressure [Xinhua] "A Chinese mainland tourist who has been lambasted on the Internet for carving his name on a rock face in a Taiwan scenic area apologized to the public on Thursday for his misbehavior. Zhao Genda, a 63-year-old pensioner from Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, gained instant notoriety after Taiwan TV reported that he carved his name and that of his hometown on the rock face at Taipei Yeliu Geopark on Friday."
• Can China be green by 2020? [BBC] "China's unprecedented economic growth over the past 30 years has come at a huge cost to the environment. The damage has not only been to the air the Chinese breath or the water in their rivers, but also to its reputation across the world. But there are signs that China may now be serious about tackling pollution to prove to the world that it can develop while causing less damage to the environment."

• As China shouts its line on Tibet, is anybody listening? [China Media Project] "These numbers actually pale in comparison to coverage in March and April last year, when Chinese media heaped scorn on the 'Dalai clique' and the 'hostile foreign forces' sowing unrest in China after large-scale riots in the region. But last month, even as the CCP was gearing up for the sensitive anniversary of the 1959 uprising, there were half as many articles with 'Tibet' in the headline as there have been so far this month — with days yet to go until the 28th, which the CCP has designated 'Tibetan Serf Emancipation Day'."
• Taiwan’s Former President Goes on Trial for Corruption [NYTimes.com] "Prosecutors have since charged that he stole or took bribes totaling more than $30 million, sometimes in return for political favors involving land deals. His wife, Wu Shu-chen; his son; and his daughter-in-law pleaded guilty last month to money laundering, and Ms. Wu also pleaded guilty to forgery."
• Filthy hospital responsible for deaths of 5 infants [Xinhua] "Five newborn children from north China's Tianjin Municipality died from hospital-acquired infections, and the hospital's sub-standard hygiene conditions and flawed management were to blame, said experts with the Ministry of Health (MOH) Wednesday."

• Arrests made over audio porn [Shanghai Daily] "City police approved the arrest of a Shanghai native surnamed Gong, 30, the general manager of ilisten.cn, for allegedly making a profit by spreading pornography. Other suspects in custody include two of Gong's employees - a local in charge of the company's technical department, and an Anhui Province native who worked in the department. A 23-year-old Shandong Province woman surnamed Ma was caught in Beijing. She was allegedly hired to record some of the audio books, police said."
• The world’s most lucrative social network? China’s Tencent beats $1 billion revenue mark [VentureBeat] "A billion dollars in revenue in a single year? Not even MySpace, currently the most profitable social network outside China, has managed to accomplish that. But publicly traded Tencent, a leading Chinese web portal, instant message client, social network, game developer and more has done it, and largely through the use of virtual goods and other 'Internet valued-added services,' like avatars, dating services, online memberships, music and community sites."
• Dissident warns Taiwan on China [Taipei Times] Yuan Hongbing (袁紅冰), a Chinese democracy activist living in exile in Australia, yesterday warned Taiwanese to beware of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “two-faced” approach to diplomacy. Yuan made the remarks at a press conference in Taipei after 15 Chinese academics were blocked from leaving the country to take part in a conference on the development of liberalism in China, despite calls for more cross-strait cultural and intellectual exchange by the Chinese leadership.

Weird Expo-related news of the day: members of a local Shanghai qipao club will be taking their favorite dresses to Taiwan to promote the World Expo there. Qipaos first came into fashion in 1920s Shanghai and were worn mostly by socialites and upperclass women. The qipao-clad ladies will spend a week walking around Taiwan in qipaos as a way to “show the traditional Chinese styles as well as the modern Shanghai style.” Their qipao club, founded in 2007, now contains over 270 members and has parties twice a week. Source: Shanghai Daily