From Asia Pulse, via Asia Times: Turning China’s abundant coal reserves into oil to help close a widening supply gap might once have seemed a little more than a dream, but synthetic fuels may soon be a key part of the country’s energy mix. Optimists say China could be making up to 1.2 million barrels […]
Read MoreThe Vancouver Sun reviewed the book Song of the Azalea by Kenneth Ore, and interviews Ore about his experiences as a secret agent for the CCP. The review is by subscription only but excerpts are available on the Song of the Azalea website. The Simon World blog has also reviewed the book.
Read MoreFrom Reuters, via ABC News: China wants to take the Olympic torch to the top of the world and across Taiwan on its route to the 2008 Beijing Games, one of the top organizers said on Thursday. Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games, told Reuters he hoped the […]
Read MoreFrom Reuters, via ABC News: Most of the Yellow River, the second-longest in China and the cradle of early Chinese civilization, is so polluted it is not safe for drinking or swimming, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. Nearly three-quarters of the river, which supplies water to 12 percent of China’s 1.3 billion people and […]
Read MoreFrom AP, via Taipei Times: From Afghanistan to East Timor, human rights were trampled with impunity in Asia last year by governments and armed rebel groups, Amnesty International said yesterday… In China, authorities used the threat of terrorism to justify a crackdown on minority Muslim Uighurs, closing many unofficial mosques, arresting imams and restricting the […]
Read MoreFrom The New York Times: China honored Islam A. Karimov, the president of Uzbekistan, with a 21-gun salute and a private meeting with President Hu Jintao on Wednesday, courting him shortly after his army led a violent crackdown on dissent. The meeting underscored China’s emphasis on maintaining stability on its Western border and supporting leaders […]
Read MoreFrom Radio Free Asia, via Asia Times: In a grass-roots exercise in democracy, about 18 cities, provinces and districts throughout China are gearing up for elections to change their village chiefs. There is no room for the brother of a former Tiananmen democracy activist, though.
Read MoreFrom the Guardian: Most of the world’s attention is still focused on China’s economic miracle. The country’s national growth rate last year of 9.5% has prompted several international aid organisations to scale back or withdraw their operations there. When the World Food Programme announced recently that it was pulling out, its executive director, James Morris, […]
Read MoreFrom the BBC: It is only four years since China dropped homosexuality from its list of psychiatric disorders. Now, gay activists in China are using the internet and other high-tech methods to try to create gay communities. But even as China’s gays come tiptoeing out of the closet, they admit they are fighting an uphill […]
Read MoreAdAstra, the magazine of the National Space Society, has issued a special edition titled “Emerging China, Engaging China,” which contains several articles that “examine China’s emerging space prowess, its...
Read MoreFrom the Guardian: In 1980, three brothers in Qiaotou started up a business by picking buttons off the street. Twenty-five years on, this remote town makes almost every zip and button we wear. Just down the road, another has become a global centre for toothbrush-making, while a third is now the world capital of socks.
Read MoreFrom the New York Times: Not long ago, shopping in China consisted mostly of lining up to entreat surly clerks to accept cash in exchange for ugly merchandise that did not fit. But now, Chinese have started to embrace America’s modern “shop till you drop” ethos and are in the midst of a buy-at-the-mall frenzy. […]
Read MoreFrom Beijing Youth Daily, via the Press interpreter, translated by Joseph McMullin: Air quality trends are not promising. The Environmental Protection Agency will increase enforcement of environmental laws. May 20 – Yesterday, Beijing’s Environmental Protection Agency announced that so far this year there have been 88 days where the air quality met or exceeded level […]
Read MoreFrom Xinhua,via China Daily: Experts estimate that China will consume 2.2 billion tons of coal by 2010, causing a shortage of 330 million tons, Wang Xianzheng, vice director of the State Administration of Work Safety, said Tuesday at an annual exposition… He said China’s current coal production capacity, with all types of coal mines included, […]
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