21 years ago today, students in Beijing launched an unusual bicycle demonstration, probably the first of its kind, to call for press freedom. A week prior to this day, on May 4, 1989, about 100,000 students and supporters had staged a successful demonstration on Tiananmen Square to celebrate the 70th anniversary of China's first student movement. Today, they would enter the square again but on bicycles, many with huge banners and red flags strapped to them. Of an estimated 10,000 bicycle protestors, 5,000 were said to be from Peking University (Beida) and 2,000 from Jiaotong University. On the square, they shouted slogans such as "The People's Daily is deceiving the people!" Many of the over 1,000 journalists who had signed a petition to the Party Central Committee to call for press freedom the previous day were also present in this demonstration. Read the account of May 10, 1989, by Philip J Cunningham, author of the book Tiananmen Moon, here. more ›

@laowu1989 tweets: "June 4 exiles, do you dare to declare your personal assets and income? How were the astronomical donations spent? How much of those have you given to the families of those who died, and to those who spent time in jail? We still have a debt to settle! If I dare to offend the CCP, you bet I will offend you too!" more ›

Christian NGO ChinaAid has announced that Chai Ling (柴玲), one of the student leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, has embraced Christianity. Her new goals in life? To bring "God's love and freedom to the Chinese people" and to fight the One Child Policy:

"I stumbled on this idea that if only I could become a very successful entrepreneur, like Bill Gates, I could make lots money and set up a giant foundation, then I could once for all overcome and free China," Chai Ling said. Despite her fruitful actions, she began to lose hope, feeling too weak to accomplish her goal of bringing freedom to China. more ›

Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square (French: Le jour se lève sur la place Tienanmen) is a 1998 National Film Board of Canada short animated documentary directed by Shui-Bo Wang which received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. Consisting of a colourful collage of personal and archival photos and original artwork, this fascinating documentary is one man's autobiographical look back at the turbulent Cultural Revolution and the subsequent years. An exceptional piece of work that is well worth 29 minutes of your time this Sunday: more ›

One of the three students who captured global attention in the Tiananmen incident of 1989 by kneeling on the steps of the Great Hall of the People in a plea for CCP leaders to acknowledge student calls for political reforms, has been jailed in China -- but not for "inciting subversion of state power" or any such similar crime, but for fraud. more ›

Jackie Chan may be an adorable and well-liked kung fu superstar, but he sure doesn't seem to know when it's time to stop talking. We've recorded several of his gaffes before, including one made earlier this year when he insinuated that Chinese need to be controlled... but this latest interview really takes the cake. more ›

What's up with all this Tiananmen-styled commemorative hair? We've been trying to burn the image of the hair replica of Tiananmen from our memories for quite some time now, but with only two weeks to go until the big day, we're bracing ourselves for more China-related hair. It just seems like human hair sculptures are the most fitting way to celebrate an occasion as important as the 60th anniversary of the PRC, for some inexplicable reason. more ›

Perhaps Umbrella Men will become the newest internet meme out of China! Today, Black and White Cat compiled the footage we'd featured on our site into one neat lil' video! For some reason, watching the Umbrella Men's campaign against foreign camera people looks even sillier when its shown back to back to hilarious old timey Umbrella Man music. more ›

• The New York Times brings us in depth with the various photographers (yes, there was more than one) that captured the lone man standing in front of a line of tanks - possibly the most damaging photo(s) to China's reputation ever taken.
• CNN talks to former student leader Xiong Yan, who describes meeting senior government leaders before the government crackdown.
• In case you wanted a play by play run down, the BBC has a timeline of the protests - including the tulmultuous month before the final showdown at Tiananmen.

Earlier today, CNN anchor and Beijing correspondent John Vause was filming in Tiananmen Square, Beijing when he suddenly encountered a man holding an umbrella who won't step away from his cameraman's lens. Maybe it's the matching umbrella and pants, but this goes down in our book as the silliest censorship effort ever.

UPDATE: Video footage of the "umbrella incident" here: more ›

Censors are cracking down hard on any non-harmonious behavior before the upcoming 20 year anniversary of... you know. All media outlets are heavily censored, access to places such as Tiananmen Square in Beijing is becoming more restricted, so various campaigns are spreading for ordinary people to express themselves in one of the few ways still open to them: fashion. more ›

• In China, a new breed of dissidents [WSJ] "Political consciousness is beginning to spread," says Merle Goldman, professor emerita of history at Boston University and associate at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. "Ordinary people use the term 'rights' now," she says. "The problem is, of course, that there's not much they can do about it at this point. But the concept is there."
• Nine cases added to mainland total [Shanghai Daily] "The Guangdong Health Department said last night that three new cases in Shenzhen had been confirmed. They were two Chinese sisters aged 18 and 20 who flew in from New York on Thursday and a 13-year-old Canadian girl who arrived in Shenzhen from Canada on Saturday."
• 'Mass hysteria' in Jilin: Fair call, or fog? [Caijing] "More than 1,000 workers at the Jilin Chemical Fibre Group Co. Ltd. in the northeastern city of Jilin reported dizziness, nausea and other symptoms during a three-week health crisis that so far has defied clear explanation."

• Secret Meeting Between U.S. and China Broke New Ground on Climate Change [NYT] "Loy said the group was able to delve into the positions of both countries and gain better understandings about the political realities both countries face. Yet as to reaching a global deal in Copenhagen, Loy said, little progress was made."There were things that we learned, but it wasn't a totally radical or surprising conversation. We knew a great deal about China's views before," he said. The discussions were "more informal and occasionally more substantive and frank, but Mr. Xie is a cautious person"."
• Students protest in lead-up to June 4 Tiananmen anniversary [The Australian] "Thousands of students are reported to have protested in the streets of Nanjing, in central eastern China - one of the centres of protests in 1989 - following an incident on Monday night in which government security guards enforcing restrictions on peddlers allegedly attacked classmates who had set up footpath stalls."
• China's top legislator meets with Italian premier [Xinhua] "The Italian leaders expressed the willingness to expand cooperation with China in various fields, saying China's economic growth will hopefully provide new energy for the recovery and rally of world economy. Both sides agreed that the two countries should coordinate their stance on reform of the international financial system and work for an early recovery of global economy from the financial crisis."

Mark MacKinnon, Beijing Bureau Chief of the Globe and Mail wrote about this screenshot, sent to him by his Chinese friend of the most searched terms on google.cn during May 19, 2009. What looks like a string of bad arithmetic is... well, we're sure you can guess. It seems that all the efforts of the 50cent army and net nanny can't dampen the curiosity of certain internet-going segments of the population. more ›

"Our Party and government long ago reached a clear conclusion about the events in China of the late 1980s, the political disturbances then and all related issues... Facts prove that the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics we have traveled accords with China's national condition, and the basic interests of the majority of the people, and reflects the wishes of the people." more ›

Just two weeks before the 20th anniversary of... you know... that event, China has reportedly freed the last activist that was jailed for "hooliganism" in 1989. Liu Zhihua had been jailed for life after leading a strike at a factory as part of the June demonstrations. He was accused of inciting crowds with anti-government speeches. According to the BBC, he was actually freed in January but news of his release had only now been confirmed. more ›

On the Washington Post is an amazing amalgamation of audio clips and transcripts of former CCP Premier Zhao Ziyang about the tragedy-that-must-not-be-named. Zhao, who fell out of favor partially because of his comments against Deng Xiaoping, was largely ignored for the last 16 years of his life and almost erased from history. When he died four years ago, the party reacted by forming an "Emergency Response Leadership Small Group" and declaring "a period of extreme sensitivity. more ›

• Girl dumps boy, boy posts naked pictures [Shanghai Daily] "About 30 pictures of a naked woman together with her personal information including her name, age and family address had been posted on a popular online forum by a person claiming to be her ex-boyfriend. The person, identified as "Garros," said that he had been recently dumped by the woman surnamed Yin after his business failed."
• Dongguan lifts ban on nightclub pole dancing [szdaily] "DONGGUAN lifted a ban on pole dancing performances at city nightclubs in a revised rule formulated to regulate local recreational businesses last week. The ban, which has been a controversial issue since it was listed in a draft rule, was groundless because of lack of legal support, the city’s cultural bureau told the Guangzhou Daily."
• Ted Turner: China a Good Example of Population Control, Despite Forced Abortions [Lifenews] "Billionaire broadcast magnate Ted Turner is causing guffaws from observers with his latest comment on family planning in China. He lauded the Asian nation for its population control program and said it was a good example even though it is rife with forced abortions and sterilizations. During an interview with the Diane Rehm Show gave China as a model for how to handle growing populations. “We do have the example of China, and they've done it without, uh, draconian, as far as I can see, draconian steps," he said. Observers of the quote are surprised that Rehm let it go unchallenged and without any mention of the human rights abuses that accompany the Chinese family planning program."

"When I set off to cover the Sichuan earthquake last May, I did not know my life and the lives of the families of quake victims would acquire a strange symmetry: of lost hopes, and the struggle to find a space to mourn. Three days after the quake struck, I found a group of migrant workers in the Beijing West railway station. They carried all they had -- bedrolls, thermos flasks, plastic basins, cooking oil -- to travel a distance equivalent to that between California and Minnesota, on badly damaged roads and rails." more ›

• 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."

• Chavez says world 'center of gravity' now Beijing [AP] "The world's center of gravity has moved to Beijing, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told his Chinese counterpart Wednesday during a visit focused on boosting Chinese oil purchases. The frequent U.S. critic also praised China's response to the global financial meltdown that has sent prices of his South American nation's key export, oil, down sharply."
• Auto Makers Flock to Web to Woo Chinese Buyers [WSJ] "Global auto makers think the Internet is the way into the hearts of a new generation of Chinese car enthusiasts. Both foreign and domestic auto makers here are pouring ad money into online ventures, even as their overall spending remains flat. Market-tracking firm iResearch expects outlays for online auto marketing to reach 1.75 billion yuan, or roughly $256 million, this year, up from 1.38 billion yuan in 2008."
• Professor beaten ahead of Tiananmen anniversary [ABC] "The approaching 20th anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square crackdown has brought tensions to a head, with a 75-year-old, retired professor brutally beaten for trying to honour the memory of a Chinese leader who supported the students in 1989."

• 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."

This shirt was originally featured on a Sohu.com blog, which was then shut down for being "unhealthy" as soon as the net nannies got wind of it. Any guesses as to why? China Rises has the answer, but we'd prefer if you take a few stabs at it before clicking through. more ›