From The Christian Science Monitor For the first time Friday, it will be a crime to damage China’s ancient Great Wall. For a national symbol so intimately linked to China’s international image, the Great Wall is in a pretty sorry state. Crudely rebuilt in places to resemble a Disneyland attraction but mostly left to crumble […]
Read MoreFrom the Washington Post: The wife of a blind legal activist was detained by police for eight hours Tuesday, then dragged out of a police minivan and dropped on the ground at the entrance to her home village, sobbing uncontrollably, lawyers and a relative said. Yuan Weijing was held a day after her husband was […]
Read MoreFrom the International Herald Tribune: In recent weeks, the Chinese government has demonstrated its hostility toward the emergence of a credible source of reference material that escapes its control by frequently blocking access to Wikipedia, whose Chinese version, though still far smaller than its English-language counterpart, is growing by leaps and bounds. But on sensitive […]
Read MoreFrom China Daily: Sucking heavily on a cigarette, Hong Qiankun’s father signed a cremation application form for his 26-year old son. The young man’s father was shaking and tears were streaming down his face. Hong committed suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of an apartment. He left a simple note for his family, “I […]
Read MoreFrom Christian Science Monitor: “I never meant to stay in China…. I never even meant to go to China.” The contradiction defines Sidney Rittenberg‘s life and world. Mr. Rittenberg knows China’s epic Communist revolution intimately, not as a witness, but a participant – often on the wrong side of history. Not many people can still […]
Read MoreFrom The New York Times: The American company says it was a legitimate cost of doing business in China, the price it had to pay to help secure a large software contract with one of China’s biggest banks. But a Chinese company that says it got pushed out of the deal has a different version: […]
Read MoreFrom Financial Times: A senior Chinese official intervened to block the $7bn sale of PCCW telecommunications group’s assets to foreign investors in the most flagrant breach of the territory’s commercial autonomy since Beijing resumed sovereignty in 1997, a Financial Times investigation has established. The veto was exercised by Liao Hui, head of the State Council’s […]
Read MoreFrom Mark’s blog on sina.com, translated by CDT: Two months after the downfall of Chen Liangyu, Shanghai’s former chieftain, 42 municipal-minister-level (ÂâرÄÁ∫߉ª•‰∏ä) officials were put in place to run a post-Chen era financial capital of China. Analysts say, according to Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao (§ßÂÖ¨Êä•), this round of reshuffle was publicized on the web, […]
Read MoreAn immigrant worker gets beaten while asking for his unpaid wage, via fengniao.com
Read MoreFrom Shanghai Daily: Police have arrested a man they say allegedly tried to extort Shanghai government officials by pretending to be an investigator looking into the city’s pension fund scandal, a Hebei Province newspaper reported yesterday. The suspect, identified as 50-year-old Li Hailing, sent blackmail letters to more than 100 Shanghai government officials, claiming he […]
Read MoreIn this edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series, seven-year China veteran Mary Kay Magistad of Public Radio International in Beijing talks about rural challenges such as health care and a lack of...
Read MoreFrom Reuters via the Washington Post: At the bottom of a deep pit gouged by a bulldozer, a Chinese soldier in a protective visor shovels aside earth to reveal an unexploded bomb left over from Israel’s war with Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon. Sweating at his perilous task in Zebqin village, 2nd Sergeant Liu Sinpshi […]
Read MoreFind an unexplainably dead peasant in a small Chinese town. Add a strong element of police involvement and a bit of haggling over the corpse. Let news begin to percolate by word-of-mouth, have big-name agencies get into the mix, and let intransigent local cops and cadres try to stand in their way. And there you […]
Read MoreFrom BBC News: China has named a new Catholic bishop in a move likely to increase tension with the Vatican. Father Wang Renlei will be ordained on Thursday, a Chinese official said. China and Rome do not have diplomatic relations and in May the Vatican excommunicated two bishops who were ordained without its approval. There […]
Read MoreFrom Shanghaiist: …We went, and saw this man (pictured here), making one last stand on the roof of a building where he lives and which is slated for destruction. He’d been there since early in the morning and policemen on motorcycles were on the street monitoring the situation…. …A couple of things to notice: zoom […]
Read More
Click on the image to download Firefly for circumvention
CDT is a non-profit media site, and we need your support. Your contribution will help us provide more translations, breaking news, and other content you love.
