China promulgates safety statute for its army
Hu Jintao, chairman of China's Central Military Commission, has approved a set of regulations designed to strengthen safety measures in the People's Liberation Army.
« July 6, 2008 - July 12, 2008 | Main | July 20, 2008 - July 26, 2008 »
July 18, 2008
Buffalo BMW protest
Disgruntled Chinese BMW owners staged protests against the car maker's unsatisfactory after sales service.
A court house for the Olympics
The Olympic Village People's Court is a Beijing court, specially set up to deal with Olympic legal issues.moved into hih tech new digs.
Beijing architecture fest
A round up of recent articles about Beijing's new architecture.
Digital nationalism: more bark than bite
Li Datong at Open Democracy:
The latest cyber-assault on a western target suggests that the super-patriotism of China's 'angry youth' may be less substantial or enduring than it can appear.
Not enough electricity for China?
In The Financial Timesby Jamil Anderlini and Geoff Dyer:
China faces its worst power shortage in at least four years as soaring coal prices and government-set electricity tariffs force dozens of small power plants to shut down rather than face mounting losses.
Nearly half of China's provinces have started to ration electricity as the country enters the peak summer season, facing what analysts describe as its worst coal shortage.
Beijing new subway lines open this weekend
The China Daily reports:
The new subway Line 10, with air-conditioned and spacious compartments, will open this weekend.
A 4.3-km length of the Olympic line and a shuttle train between Dongzhimen and the airport terminals will also open for test runs at the same time. They will extend Beijing's underground railway to 200 km.
July 17, 2008
China's GDP growth 10.4%, inflation 7.9%
This Chinese news story on Xinhua notes that China's GDP growth in the first half of 2008 was 10.4% while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) went up by 7.9%.
For some reason, the CPI figures are not included in Xinhua's English version of the article.
For some reason, the CPI figures are not included in Xinhua's English version of the article.
The story behind the closed doors of Maggie's
On the Newsweek blog, Jonathan Ansfield has written about the closure of Maggie's, Beijing's infamous meeting place for entrepreneurial young Mongolian ladies and lusty expatriate men who favor big belt buckles and tucked in polo shirts:
Whatever the substance of its much-discussed police connections, the 'protective umbrella' of the local Public Security Bureau has kept Maggie's covered, along with countless Chinese take-out places of a similar nature.
Except not during the prelude to the Beijing Olympics. In late March, police moved in on Maggie's on orders from top Public Security authorities in the capital, and abruptly closed it down, say sources briefed by local police on the situation...
The turbulent pull of African politics
The Economist has published an opinion piece on July 11 China's veto (together with Russia) against an American-led resolution in the U.N. calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe. The sting is in the last sentence:
Zimbabwe may well remind China that it is plying choppy waters in Africa. It will not be able to ignore the domestic politics of its friends there forever.
July 16, 2008
The mark of the gentleman
Fool's Mountain blog has posted a collection of calligraphy by Chinese leaders from Sun Yat-sen to Mao to Deng.
NOlympics T-shirt
From Global Voices:
Always a cynic and hardly a hater, humor blogger Wang Xiaofeng posted a picture of a black T-shirt with 'NOlympics' on the front with the title 'noise games', a play on the Chinese word for the Olympic games.
The Securolympics: record breaking security
With new toys and rigorously trained personnel, Beijing's security teams should be well prepared to beat records at their own set of Olympic events.
Beijing tourist numbers down
From Tim Johnson's blog:
In August 2007, Beijing received 420,000 overseas visitors.
For this August, one would reasonably think the figure would go way up because of the Olympic Games Aug 8-24. In fact, it may not bump up at all.
At a press conference this morning, Xiong Yumei, a deputy director of the Beijing Tourism Administration, said, 'We expect to receive 400,000 to 450,000 overseas tourists during the Games.'
Olympic sailing venue algae destroyed
From The Guardian:
A massive algae bloom that threatened the Olympic Games sailing venue at the Chinese coastal resort of Qingdao has now been almost all cleared away, state media said on Wednesday.
Zhang Ziyi engaged to Israeli billionaire
The China Daily reports that actress Zhang Ziyi said 'yes' to the marriage proposal of Vivi Nevo, her boyfriend of one year:
Nevo, 41, a New York-based Israeli venture capitalist, has been called an 'international multi-millionaire of mystery' by the media in the United States.
The low-key billionaire made a rare high-profile announcement of his engagement while attending the annual conference of Allen & Company in Sun Valley, Idaho, according to the Associated Press.
China to buy African ivory stockpile
From The Guardian:
China has been approved as a buyer for a one-off sale of elephant ivory, with experts now believing the sale could go ahead within months. An international meeting judged that China had put sufficient measures in place to regulate ivory sales and crack down on the illegal domestic trade.
The decision is severe blow for conservation organisations which argued that both the sale to and the approval of China, the world's biggest black market for ivory, would be a disaster for Africa's elephants and would lead to more poaching.
July 15, 2008
Reality TV woes
Chinabounder is back, with a name and a book
A British English teacher calling himself 'Chinabounder' blogged about his sexual exploits in Shanghai, then disappeared after a Chinese professor launched an Internet man hunt for him.
Now he's back, with a book and a real name.
Now he's back, with a book and a real name.
What is it with the pandas?
An American professor at Peking University has demonstrating outside a cinema, saying that Chinese children should be seeing the Fuwa in the runup to the Olympics, not Hollywood's Kungfu Panda.
Western ad industry as bad as Western media?
A series of outdoor ads are circulating on China's Internet forums and have the potential to cause a new round of anti-Western prejudice and conspiracy theories.
The blog of the cop killer
The MySpace page of Yang Jia, the 27-year-old man who murdered six police officers in Shanghai on July 1.
Weng'an riots, push-up protests, fifty-cent party and astroturfing
Former CNN Beijing bureau chief and Internet researcher and teacher Rebecca MacKinnon rounds up recent happenings in the war for the hearts and minds of the Chinese Internet.
No banners at Olympic events
From Xinhua:
Banners, such as those saying 'Go China,' will not be allowed in Olympic venues. While such posters have been frequently seen during the Olympic torch global relay, the tendentious banners violate the fairness principle of an Olympic event, according to Olympic venue rules.
Yes, most unfair.The rules, promulgated on Monday, 25 days ahead of the Games, by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), advise spectators not to bring into the venues support banners and leaflets of commercial publicity, religion, politics, military, human rights and environmental and animal protection, among others.
A hah.First Olympic ticket lawsuit in Beijing court
From The People's Daily:
The first case of Olympic ticket dispute reached a Beijing court on Monday, looking for its judgement on the ownership of four tickets...
...A court source said Wang, the manager of a trade company, asked one of his employees surnamed Wu to book him four Olympic tickets via the Internet. Wu used her own ID for the booking but left Wang's contact phone number on the application.
On June 28, Wang accused Wu of collecting the tickets without his noticing. He then demanded Wu either return his tickets or payback the money.
July 14, 2008
100 people detained for Weng'an riot
From Reuters:
Police in southwest China have detained 100 people, including 39 gang members, for their roles in a riot last month that saw the torching of government buildings and official cars, state media said on Monday.
The violent protest brought 30,000 residents on to the streets of Weng'an, in Guizhou province, in an unnerving outburst of discontent as China prepares to host the Olympic Games in August.
Crowds stormed police and government headquarters on June 28 after allegations spread that police had covered up the rape and murder of a local teenage girl, seeking to protect the son of a local official.
The new That's Beijing and stench management
From Imagethief:
I am trying to understand the strategy behind the creation of the new That's Beijing. It appears to be the following:
Seize the trademark, throw together a makeshift staff and publish a rushed, unreadable issue just in time for hundreds of thousands of Olympic visitors to arrive and be utterly appalled by it. Gnash teeth as few remaining advertisers flee.
Exporting universal values
ESWN has translated a blog post by Phoenix TV journalist Rose Luqiu (闾丘露薇), considering the term 'universal values', which pro-government commentators in China have been using as an insult for those they think pander to the West:
Some people seemed terrified of hearing the words 'universal values,' as if these words represented western forces. Actually, if they are universal, then they are applicable to the human race regardless of whether they come from the west or east. And they can even come from China.
Working hours changed for Olympics
The working hours in Beijing will change from July 20 for the next two months to ease traffic pressure on the roads in the run up to and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Public institutions will open an hour later, at 9:30 am, and close at 5:30 pm, while working hours for companies will be between 9 am and 5 pm, says a Beijing municipal government notice, released on Saturday.
Shopping malls will open at 10 am and close at 10 pm or even later.