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The real metric by which China judges itself against the rest of the world isn't the discus or the decathlon. It's not even our record-beating economic growth rate or our postmodern skylines. It's soccer. And when it comes to our beloved sport, China is not just the sick man of Asia. It's the sick man of the world.
Shanghai's tax bureau will investigate Groupe Danone SA's China chief executive for suspected tax evasion, a bureau official said on Thursday, adding to a series of tax probes and lawsuits embroiling the French food giant and its estranged Chinese partner Wahaha.
The official Shanghai Securities News reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources, that the tax bureau had already started a probe against Qin Peng, who had received more than 60 million yuan ($8.8 million) in remuneration from Danone since 1996.
According to the [new CNNIC] report, by June 2008, there are 253 million Internet users in China, making China the World's largest Internet market by users...
...CNNIC said that over 107 million users in China own blogs/spaces
Modern Beijing, Becker notes, is an attempt to realise Le Corbusier's dreams. 'Just as Le Corbusier wished, the inhabitants no longer live in individual houses with private courtyards but in immense collective housing projects.'
Police: Someone reported you had a bomb here. We're here to search your room. Foreigner: Nonsense. I'm working as a cook. Why would I keep a bomb? Go ahead and search. Police: Stay where you are while we are searching. Foreigner: Ok. I'm an honest man. I can only make Indian pan cake. I've never seen a bomb. Who gave you this time?
Internet television service Joost and Chinese media conglomerate TOM Group will launch a joint venture on Wednesday to court viewers in China, even as the government tightens restrictions on such services.
When people began rioting in Lhasa in March, Tang followed the news closely. As usual, he was receiving his information from American and European news sites, in addition to China's official media. Like others his age, he has no hesitation about tunnelling under the government firewall...
...He's baffled that foreigners might imagine that people of his generation are somehow unwise to the distortions of censorship.
'Because we are in such a system, we are always asking ourselves whether we are brainwashed,' he said. 'We are always eager to get other information from different channels.' Then he added, 'But when you are in a so-called free system you never think about whether you are brainwashed.'
Rising coal prices are aggravating a power shortage in China that's more serious than expected - and likely to worsen soon.
This echoes a recent Financial Times report: China on brink of electricity shortfall.
In a speech made before thousands of swimmers ventured across the Pearl River on Saturday, [Guangzhou] Mayor Zhang Guangning (张广宁) encouraged more media coverage of environmental problems in the Pearl River Delta. He said: 'The more the media nitpick, the more we can get people behind the effort to clean up the Pearl River.'
'Three weeks before Beijing hosts the Olympics, two weeks after Zheng Jie stormed Wimbledon, and the same week that Yao Ming returned to action with the Chinese national team, Sports Illustrated China put on its cover a tennis player who hasn't played a professional match in four years and never won a Grand Slam.'
'A new series of posters on the neighborhood propaganda bulletin boards about etiquette to be observed during the Olympics...[includes] one poster with a list of rules for how to act around foreigners. Most delightful was a list of eight questions Chinese are not to ask us, which if observed, would leave these curious and enthusiastic hosts with essentially nothing with which to make conversation.'
'You might further think that giving McCain's three torturers stereotypically exaggerated Asian features would only further fuel the outrage. Sorry to disappoint you, but the cartoon involved appeared last month in Rolling Stone. As far as I can tell, what you are about to see has produced not a single ripple of protest.'
The central government has set up a special department to safeguard the rights of migrant workers, help them get training and ensure safe working conditions.
The aim of the department of migrant workers' affairs, under the newly formed Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, is to achieve social harmony.
It will help the workers get their wages in time, sign labor contracts with employers and get proper training, as well as work for their social security. Arranging for large-scale flow of laborers will be part of its job too.
Russia will soon return 174 sq km of territory on the northeast border to China, ending more than 40 years of negotiations.
The two countries will sign an agreement to this effect during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's two-day visit to Beijing that starts today.
According to the agreement to be signed, Russia will return Yinlong Island (Tarabarov Island) and half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island).
The islands are at the confluence of the Heilongjiang and the Wusulijiang rivers that serve as the natural border between the two countries.