Results tagged “todayslinks”

• Washington Post lies [China Daily] "How can the Washington Post choose to project the good being done by the Chinese government for the Uygur ethnic group to convey the exact opposite? It must be an obsession to ensure that every report about Xinjiang after the Urumqi violence in early July should be an attack on the Chinese government and its policy. How else can such groundless reporting and accusations be explained?"
• China says Falun Gong ban 'works' [BBC] "A Chinese official says the country has been successful in efforts to crack down on the spiritual movement Falun Gong, 10 years after it was banned. Li Anping, from the China Anti-Cult Association, told a national newspaper that people now realised the true nature of the movement. But Falun Gong still exists, and has organised protest events outside China to mark the anniversary."
• Amazing Stat: California Uses More Gas than China [Wired] "Given all the news coverage about the rise of the Chinese economy, you could be forgiven for thinking that the world’s most populous country is hogging all the world’s resources, while the developed nations are fighting for scraps. But, at least with transportation fuel, you’d be wrong. California alone uses more gasoline than any country in the world (except the US as a whole, of course). That means California’s 20 billion gallon gasoline and diesel habit is greater than China’s! (Or Russia’s. Or India’s. Or Brazil’s. Or Germany’s.)"

• Barack Obama and Bill Gates endorse real estate in Xi'an [Danwei] "The developer erected four giant 10x6m billboards around the building, each displaying the portrait of one "spokesperson" coupled with a quote in English and Chinese. In the Obama sign, the quote of choice is 'The values upon which our success depends have never changed,' a slight adaptation from a line in his inaugural address: 'Our challenges may be new....but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old'."
• Red tape to test transsexuals' desire [Eastday] "It was revealed last month officials at the Ministry of Health plan to set clear criteria for people who qualify for the surgery, as well as the hospitals and staff allowed to carry it out. Some in the transgender community, however, have raised concerns the new rules could be too strict [...] His fears center on the fact that, if the rules are approved, patients will have to prove they have had the desire to swap their gender for at least five years, and have lived full-time as their chosen gender for two years."
• A Virtual Game to Teach Children Languages [NYTimes Bits Blog] "Kids choose an avatar and pick a scene, like a castle in a fantasy land or a supermarket in the United States. They are confronted with challenges, like dodging flying monsters or buying fruit, all of which ask them to use English. If they hit a ceiling in their language capabilities, they go to the wizards’ library and read so-called magical books that teach them lessons. The company is initially focusing on kids age 7 to 12 in China but plans to expand globally, eventually teaching many different languages to kids all over the world."

• China halts £18bn hydropower dam project over environmental concerns[guardian.co.uk] "China's environment ministry sought to reassert its authority on Friday by blocking a 200bn yuan (£18bn) cascade of hydropower dams near Shangri-la that would generate as much electricity as the Three Gorges Dam. Despite pressure from local governments that want to push ahead with big ticket development projects to offset the financial downturn, the ministry suspended approval of the project along the Jinsha iver in Yunnan province for failing to carry out adequate assessment of the environmental impact."
• All Eyes Inward [Newsweek] "Until recently, the way Chinese artists got famous was to talk politics. The generation that grew up during the Cultural Revolution and the difficult years that followed was highly politicized and gained global recognition for its tongue-in-cheek images of Mao Zedong and Tiananmen Square, often rendered in eye-popping color... Though still hot, those new-wave artists are giving way to a very different group: the "me-first" generation, whose members talk about each other and themselves."
• New tax plan sparks China protest [BBC] "Protesters in the south-eastern Chinese city of Nankang have overturned police cars and blocked roads over plans to more strictly enforce payment of taxes. Officials in Nankang said several hundred protesters blocked a major road while others delivered a petition to a local government office."

• To Protect an Ancient City, China Moves to Raze It [NYT] "Over the next few years, city officials say, they will demolish at least 85 percent of this warren of picturesque, if run-down homes and shops. Many of its 13,000 families, Muslims from a Turkic ethnic group called the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs), will be moved."
• Diabetes more likely to strike the young in Asia [AP] "Without strong government policy, education and good clinical care, Asia's escalating epidemic could "erase economic gains made in recent decades," said Hu, one of the authors. Trends of diabetes in the region are influenced by everything from genetic makeup and cultural differences to smoking and degrees of urbanization, the JAMA study showed. But the most startling findings — which tended to vary from country to country — related to body mass and age."
• China Said to Harass Rights Lawyers [NYT] "Many of the lawyers have taken on cases, involving issues like Tibetan political activism and police brutality, that gained national and even international attention. The advocacy groups, Human Rights Watch and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, called the actions by the legal authorities part of an effort to intimidate the lawyers and their law firms into avoiding sensitive cases."

• 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.”"

• Readings on 1999's "May 8th Tragedy" [The China Beat] The China Beat compiles readings on 1999's "May 8th Tragedy," when NATO missiles were fired into the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three PRC nationals and sparking protests all around the world from angry Chinese citizens. Included are two news accounts from the time - one by the BBC and one by CNN, a Salon.com piece by a Beida foreign student and two later analysis of the situation.
• China eyes regular Olympic show [Financial Times] "Less than a year after China hosted the Olympics, Beijing is planning to put its stunningly choreographed opening ceremony back on as a regular evening show at the “Bird’s Nest”, the main stadium built for the games... Zhang Hengli, vice-president of the National Stadium Company that now runs the Bird’s Nest, said: “We want to put on a regular evening show like the opening ceremony. But that will take longer to realise [than other performances in the works for the stadium] because it requires a huge amount of money. We need to find an investor and deal with potential issues of intellectual property of the International Olympic Committee.”"
• Communists Can’t Outspend Capitalists as China Jobless Increase [Bloomberg] "Demand for work is so high that 5,000 students jostled at a Shanghai employment fair in March for 400 jobs available in the funeral industry. One woman with a management degree applied for a position as a mortician’s assistant to “make up the faces of the dead,” state media reported. The attraction: It paid 4,000 yuan ($585) a month, equal to what she might have earned in an office job two years ago."

• The fortunate lives of reunited Beichuan Earthquake families [QQ News] A series of photos on the Chinese web of 20 or so families that are now living, reunited and happy, in Sichuan province a year after the devastating earthquake hit.
• Year After China Quake, New Births, Old Wounds [NYTimes] "One year after the earthquake in Sichuan Province killed about 70,000 people and left 18,000 missing, mothers across the region are pregnant or giving birth again, aided by government medical teams dispensing fertility advice and doing reverse-sterilization procedures. Because of China’s policy limiting most families to having one child, the students who died were often their parents’ only offspring. Officials say they hope a wave of births will help defuse the anger that many grieving parents harbor over the collapses of so many schools on May 12, 2008, while nearby buildings often remained standing."
• Report: 10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger [Committee to Protect Journalists] "Relying on a mix of detentions, regulations, and intimidation, authorities in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt have emerged as the leading online oppressors in the Middle East and North Africa. China and Vietnam, where burgeoning blogging cultures have encountered extensive monitoring and restriction, are among Asia’s worst blogging nations. Cuba and Turkmenistan, nations where Internet access is heavily restricted, round out the dishonor roll."

• China database to track children [BBC] "China is setting up a DNA database to help trace missing children, as the authorities struggle to tackle people trafficking. By the end of the month, a network of more than 200 DNA centres is due to be set up. Thousands of children in China are stolen or sold each year."
• More on Beijing doping: cyclist, runner, walker join list [LA Times] "Five down, one to go." On the list of athletes at the Beijing Olympics who doped: German cycler Stefan Schumacher, Croation 800-meter runner Vanja Persic and Greek race walker Athania Tsoumeleka.
• China announces regulations for financial information in settlement with US, Europe [AP] "Beijing announced rules that ease controls on foreign financial information providers Thursday under an agreement with the U.S., Europe and Canada, but said those already operating in China must apply for permission to continue. The rules eliminate a requirement that foreign providers must work through a Chinese agent and reduce the amount of information they must disclose about their operations."

• A hotel room that has stories to tell [Danwei] "But to see the photos as a realistic reflection or criticism of the social morbidity is not the only angle to appreciate them; take a closer look, you may find these photos do resemble a mystery/detective movie."
• China's navy turns 60 [Straits Times] "China's navy will mark its 60th anniversary with a ceremony starting on Thursday dubbed the 'naval Olympics' that will display the country's nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, state media said. The four-day event involves 21 vessels from 14 countries in the eastern city of Qingdao and includes a fleet review to be held Thursday - the fourth one in China since 1949."
• China Blog Guide: Ten Eclectic China Blogs You Should Follow [CNReviews] "The answer to English China blog fatigue is to start following some Atypical China Blogs. And, yes, some of the best are authored by “white dudes” (although some of them may in fact be “fake foreigners“…Adam Schokora comes to mind). Here they are..."

• France probes degree fraud [Straits Times] "FRANCE is investigating claims that hundreds of Chinese students bribed officials to secure diplomas in a corruption scandal at a French university... Prosecutors in Toulon launched an investigation last month after receiving a tip-off alleging that Chinese students were being sold degrees at the Institute of Business Administation (IAE) in the south-eastern town of Toulon."
• U.S. again declines to brand China FX manipulator [Reuters] "The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday declined to label China a currency manipulator, retreating from tough talk last year when a campaigning Barack Obama said Beijing had kept its currency's exchange rate unfairly low. In a semiannual report to Congress on currency practices of key trading partners, the Treasury said all were suffering from the current global economic downturn, but said none manipulate their currencies for trade advantage."
• Pirate Bay Loses A Lawsuit; Entertainment Industry Loses An Opportunity [Techdirt] "Well, the verdict has come down in the trial against The Pirate Bay in Sweden, and it appears The Pirate Bay has been found guilty and each of the defendants has been sentenced to a year in jail and told to pay $3.6 million in damages (less than a third of what the entertainment industry asked for)... The ultimate problem, of course, is that the entertainment industry still (amazingly) thinks this is a legal issue, not a business model one. It can win as many legal battles as it wants, but in thinking it's a legal issue, it will never recognize how its business models need to change."

• 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."

• 'Slumdog' opens as Boyle says he'll helm Shanghai film fest [Shanghai Daily] "Danny Boyle will be the jury president for this year's Shanghai International Film Festival, the Oscar-winning director confirmed at the Chinese mainland premiere of 'Slumdog Millionaire' in Beijing yesterday. 'It's fantastic to be in a film festival,' Boyle said, adding that the Shanghai event will be his first jury assignment."
• Report Says Executions Doubled in 2008 [NYTimes.com] With at least 1,718, China was responsible for 72 percent of all executions in 2008, the report stated. After China were Iran (346), Saudi Arabia (102), the United States (37) and Pakistan (36), according to the group. 'Together they carried out 93 percent of all executions worldwide,' the report said. The Chinese authorities also handed down at least 7,003 new death sentences last year, although the report said the true total of both executions and death sentences 'remains shrouded in secrecy.' Some countries, China and North Korea among them, do not disclose the number of executions they carry out."
• China Unicom should quash iPhone launch date rumors to secure best deal - expert [Interfax TMT China] "Xiang Ligang, CEO of domestic telecom news portal Cctime.com and guest columnist for Interfax, told Chinese magazine PC Home that he is concerned over the widespread rumor that China Unicom is, for reasons of prestige, determined to strike a deal with Apple in time to allow it to release the iPhone in China by May 17. He said that if true, the rumors reveal China Unicom's bottom line in the negotiations, vastly strengthening Apple's hand."

• Rumor: MySpace to Close China Doors [JLM Pacific Epoch] "Recent rumors have said MySpace China may close down and withdraw from the Chinese market, reports DoNews. Unnamed sources said on Thursday that MySpace China may undergo major restructuring in the near future and adopt media as its new orientation."
• 'Reactionary' Ringtones Spark Arrests In Tibet [NPR] "Police in Tibet have swept markets in recent months looking for banned music. Chinese state media report that police have arrested several suspects for allegedly downloading to their cell phones music that the government considers 'reactionary.'"
• How much are those bronze heads really worth? [Danwei] "I have been studying China's old palace architecture for over 70 years. I think that two out of so many parts of the palace's enormous structure, the zodiac animal heads from the Old Summer Palace don't have much value in themselves. There is nothing remarkable about their cost or craftsmanship. They were just water faucets, and very coarse compared with other artifacts from the Old Summer Palace kept at Peking University and other places. These days, they can be easily manufactured at small factories in Beijing or Guangzhou. The artistic value is just not very high."

• 70 sick in China after eating tainted pig organs [The Associated Press] "At least 70 people in southern China fell ill after eating pig organs contaminated by a banned animal feed additive, state media said Monday. Three people were in the hospital, while the rest were discharged after being treated for stomach aches and diarrhea over the weekend."
• Beijing's Olympic building boom becomes a bust [Los Angeles Times] "By Rodman's calculations, 500 million square feet of commercial real estate has been developed in Beijing since 2006, more than all the office space in Manhattan. And that doesn't include huge projects developed by the government. He says 100 million square feet of office space is vacant — a 14-year supply if it filled up at the same rate as in the best years, 2004 through '06, when about 7 million square feet a year was leased."
• The flaws in Chinese business: Time to change the act [The Economist] "The rapid collapse of economic activity around Dongguan indicates that China’s private companies are being subjected to the same battering as their counterparts in many other countries. Yet it also raises questions about the long-term survival of many of these companies. They have been among the most dynamic components of China’s fast rise towards prosperity. Their turmoil may be transient. Then again, there are also worries that it is in fact tied to profound flaws in the Chinese economy."

• Boy Killed Anally When Office Chair Explodes [Gizmodo] "Well, stories don't get much worse than this. A 14-year-old boy in China was killed when his chair exploded, sending chunks of metal into his rectum. The bleeding this caused killed him."
• Is anything made in the U.S.A. anymore? You'd be surprised [International Herald Tribune] "The United States remains by far the world's leading manufacturer by value of goods produced. It hit a record $1.6 trillion in 2007 - nearly double the $811 billion of 1987. For every $1 of value produced in China factories, the United States generates $2.50. So what is made in the U.S.A. these days?"
• More than 20 dead in N China coal mine accident [Xinhua] "The accident occurred at about 2: 00 a.m. Sunday at the Tunlan Coal Mine of Shanxi Coking Coal Group in Gujiao City near Taiyuan, the provincial capital, when 436 miners were working underground."

Photo from arndalarm

• About 30,000 cleaners swept up 1,200 tonnes of fireworks debris left over from Sunday night's big celebrations.
• Originally scheduled for launch in August 2008, the much-touted luxury hotel Jumeirah HanTang Xintiandi Shanghai, will now be open for business sometime this year.
• Chinese government officials have denied U.S. Treasury secretary nominee Timothy Geithner's allegations that China is manipulating its currency.

Photo from Laurence&Annie

• The Spring Festival migration has started in earnest, with an estimated 9.2 million railway passengers having already headed home this past weekend. Follow the latest on Xinhua's new "Travel Rush" website.
• Little-known Chinese car manufacturer BYD has upped the ante in the electric car race with the world's first production plug-in hybrid. The F3DM will be unveiled tomorrow at the International Motor Show in Detroit.
• Land disputes are again cropping up in China: villagers in Jilin are forming an independent farmers' union to collect funds from appropriated lands, while the Economist reports on a potentially "revolutionary" land auction outside Beijing that turns out to be "little more than a typical story of a rural official trying to make money from land." The apparent problem in the latter case is that some 50% of the farmers in the area can't provide evidence of their land rights.

Photo from fateless_gypsy

"Nearly 1,000 workers staged a rare sit-in protest outside a Shanghai factory Tuesday in the latest sign of strain in China's manufacturing industry, which has been hit hard by the economic crisis."

• China says AIDS sufferers led attack on Belgian TV crew [China Media Project]
• The Chinese government is now offering a 13% subsidy to farmers in rural areas for the purchase of basic household appliances like washing machines, cell phones, color TVs, and refrigerators. Will the plan work? [WSJ China Journal]
• Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou spoke directly to a mainland Chinese audience for the first time since he took office yesterday. Live broadcast in Chinese here.

Photo from fiverlocker.

• Taiwanese ex-President Chen Shui-bian was hospitalized on Monday when it was discovered that he had an irregular heartbeat. He had been on a five-day hunger strike to protest his detainment. [AP]
• A Uyghur woman in Xinjiang is being forced to have an abortion on what would be her third child. China's family planning laws forbit urban members of ethnic minorities from having more than two children. The fine for going through with the birth would have been a prohibitive RMB 45,000. [RFA]
• A UN Human Development Report on China suggests that the divide between the rich and poor is slowing growth by holding productivity and consumption down. "While Beijing and Shanghai have reached the development level of countries such as Cyprus and Portugal, provinces such as south-western Guizhou are comparable to Namibia or Botswana." [The Guardian]

"At least three people have been killed and 18 more are missing after the collapse of a half-built tunnel in Hangzhou in eastern China."

• Taiwan's ex-president Chen Shui Bian has gone on a hunger strike to "protest the death of his justice and the regression of democracy". He hasn't eaten since Wednesday, when he was arrested and put in detention in Taipei to await persecution on various corruption allegations.
• China gets called up by the UN to defend its human rights record, but refuses to answer questions on the alleged mistreatment of dissidents and prisoners.
• Google China promises that it, unlike Baidu, will not manipulate its search results. Still, that doesn't stop Rebecca MacKinnon, former CNN China correspondent and a few educated others from musing, "Did Google sell out in China?" China also agrees today to give foreign financial news providers better access to information.

Photo from fateless_gypsy