China is exerting an increasingly strong influence over Cuba and other Latin American countries, according to this report in the Chicago Tribune (Via the Miami Herald): “Experts say the Chinese investments could undercut the Bush administration’s efforts to isolate Cuba and symbolize China’s growing influence throughout Latin America, a region long known as America’s back […]
Read MoreAs Christmas approaches, AFP reports that the plastic trees, toys, and other consumer products of the season are increasingly being imported to the West from China: “China exported 1.6 billion US dollars worth of Christmas products in 2003, of which more than half went to the United States — including seven artificial trees erected in […]
Read MoreFrom Poynter E-Media Tidbits, Fons Tuinstra reports from Shanghai that “Chinese strikers use weblogs for their struggle. ” The worker’s blog is here. The first article on the blog is the New York Times report on their strike. This is not the first time that blogs have been used as a communication and publicity tool […]
Read MoreFrom the New York Times: “The Chinese police have detained a leading human rights advocate who represented farmers in lawsuits against the government, expanding a crackdown on writers, intellectuals, lawyers and journalists who challenge the Communist Party authorities. The advocate, Li Boguang, was detained by the police while visiting Fujian Province last Tuesday, his family […]
Read MoreFrom the Washington Post: “President Hu Jintao declared Monday that Macau’s booming economy and trouble-free politics prove the wisdom of China’s ‘one country, two systems’ arrangement and suggested the policy should ‘live on’ as Beijing deals with Hong Kong and Taiwan in the future. Hu’s comments, made in Macau on the fifth anniversary of its […]
Read MoreHere is today’s NPR report about Chin’s policies on its vast underdeveloped rural areas. NPR’s Rob Gifford reports: “Beijing launches a program called the Great Western Development to raise the standard of living in the rural west, and capitalize on the area’s natural resources. The country’s economic development policies over the past 25 years focused […]
Read MoreFrom AFP, via Turkish Press: “Fifteen workers died and five are missing after gas explosions at two separate coal mines in China, officials and state media said. Fourteen workers died Sunday in an explosion at a mine in Shilin town in southwest China’s Sichuan province, workplace safety officials said. ”
Read MoreFrom ABS-CBN.com: “Japan said Monday it would issue a visa as scheduled for former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui to visit for sightseeing despite angry protests from China. Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have already been chilled by a string of disputes, including one over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s regular visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where […]
Read MoreFrom BBC News: “Jurors will be elected to serve a five-year term and must have at least two years of university education, court officials were quoted as saying. Under the current system, judges are the sole arbiters in China’s courts, which have been widely criticised for their lack of independence. The number of judges will […]
Read MoreFrom Asia Times Online: “Though the timing may be surprising to some, China’s decision to go ahead with the legislative procedure to enact an anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan has been widely anticipated in recent years, given that the Taiwanese authorities have led the island further away from the Chinese mainland politically and culturally. ” […]
Read MoreFrom Asia Times Online: “If Chinese legislators cared to learn a bit more about their own product lines, they wouldn’t have bothered with writing a bill duplicating part of the Chinese constitution on China’s unity.” Read the full commentary here.
Read MoreFrom 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, […]
Read MoreFrom 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. […]
Read MoreVia 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 […]
Read MoreFrom 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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