Chinese president in unprecedented criticism of Hong Kong leadership

From AFP, via Yahoo News: “Chinese President Hu Jintao has given an unprecedented public dressing down to Hong Kong’s leaders, a day after the territory’s government was forced to postpone a major public property sale. At ceremonies to mark the fifth anniversary of the return of the former Portuguese colony of Macau to Chinese rule, […]

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Pollution rising in China’s problem river

From UPI, via China National News: “Water quality is deteriorating in China’s most polluted river, the official Xinhua news agency reported Sunday. The quality of water in the Huaihe river, one of the largest in China deteriorated in November, with only 57.8 percent of it considered safe for domestic, industrial or agricultural use, Xinhua said. […]

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Tom and Jerry at Heart of China’s Linguistic Storm

Via the LA Times, Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen wrote: “Thousands of years of Chinese linguistic heritage have come down to this: a squabble over Tom and Jerry. Dubbed into regional Chinese dialects, the warring cat and mouse have been huge TV hits — and a good way to pass home-grown culture down to the […]

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China embraces yet restricts Net

From the New York Times, via Houston Chronicle: “Last December, China’s minister of foreign affairs, Li Zhaoxing, sat down for a remarkably candid online chat with Chinese Internet users. The exchange was the first time that a senior Chinese official had talked online with ordinary citizens, but its occasion belied the restrictive government’s tenuous relationship […]

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Violent ethnic clashes plague China

From The Boston Globe: Since the government has only recently withdrawn from many spheres of public life, Chinese society has not learned how to manage competing social interests, the analysts say. Hence the grass-roots mechanisms that open societies rely on to sort out similar ethnic or social tensions must be given time and support to […]

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Winter of China’s discontents

Catherine Armitage published this article on The Weekend Australian: “Who knows what might happen? said one of China’s most famous dissidents, tucking into a plate of preserved green eggs at a suburban Beijing restaurant last week. As evening commuters scurried past outside with heads bowed to the cold, we were discussing the political climate in […]

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China rules on religion ‘relaxed’

From BBC News: “The state-run Xinhua news agency says the rules are designed to keep up with ‘rapid socio-economic development’. This transformation has sparked a flurry of religious activity, which human rights groups have accused the Chinese authorities of repressing. But analysts say the wording of the new rules suggest no change in policy in […]

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Robert B. Reich: The Topic Should Be China

From TomPain.com: “Been to Wal-Mart or Target for some Christmas shopping? Paying too much for gas to go shopping? Lose your manufacturing job? China. Robert Reich just got back from Australia where he heard Aussie CEOs say Beijing is more potent than America. What should be Bush’s priority #1 is not. ” Robert B. Reich […]

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China eviction protester ‘jailed’

Ye Guozhu has been sentenced to four years in prison on charges of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” after he publicly protested forced evictions in Beijing as the city prepares for the 2008 Olympics, according to the BBC. Ye’s family’s house was destroyed in 2003 to make way for new construction.

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A Trip Through China’s Twilight Zone (Story of Liu Di)

Philip Pan has written a very good piece in the Washington Post about Liu Di’s search for the man who she fears may be a government informer who turned her into police two years ago: “Liu was bewildered by the conflicting information. Over a quiet dinner one night, her father proposed a theory: Li might […]

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We mustn’t miss the boat on China

From the Guardian: “The rapid growth of large emerging economies, particularly China, is shifting the global balance of economic activity. China is already the world’s second largest economy on one economic measure and, by 2015, could account for around 20 per cent of world output in real terms. It is therefore vital to the UK’s […]

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Chinese crackdown on media stirs debate about repression

Ching-Ching Ni from the Los Angeles Times wrote: “China recently shut down newspapers and detained academics, sparking a debate here on whether the government has launched a new era of repression or merely is sending a message to the country’s burgeoning media that they need to practice more self-censorship. Authorities last week shut down the […]

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Hong Kong Lawmaker’s Protest Thwarted

From AP, via the Washington Post: “Immigration officials on Saturday barred a maverick Hong Kong lawmaker from entering Macau, blocking his plans to launch pro-democracy demonstrations during a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao. In televised remarks, Leung Kwok-hung, popularly known as ‘Longhair,’ said immigration officials denied him entry at Hong Kong’s ferry pier and […]

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Taiwan Says China Setting Out Legal Basis to Attack

From Reuters: “Taiwan condemned China’s proposed anti-secession law on Saturday, calling it a move to establish a legal basis to attack the island. Chinese state media said on Friday that Beijing planned to send the draft law for deliberation during a parliament session on Dec. 25-29. It was seen as a move to head off […]

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World Bank vows to work with China to fight poverty

From People’s Daily: “The World Bank President said at an ongoing meeting in Beijing that the bank will continue to work with the Chinese Government to eradicate poverty. ‘Although China has made extraordinary progress reducing poverty over the last 25 years, we are all aware that there are still 30 million poor people in the […]

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