« September 20, 2009 - September 26, 2009 | Main | October 4, 2009 - October 10, 2009 »
A profile by Richard McGregor in the Financial Times of a key government organ that rarely speaks its name:
Little known even within China, the body ... known as Zhongzubu – the Central Organisation Department – has emerged from the country’s economic upheaval of the past three decades as indispensable to the party’s hold on power.
Tell It Like It Is (实话实说) goes off the air. Is this the end of truth on state television?
China Film Group head honcho Han Sanping discusses Founding of a Republic and the role of a state-owned film production company.
A move intended to foster local talent, I'm sure. China Music Radar reports, and relays the statement from Modern Sky:
Modern Sky regrets to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances, the 14 international acts originally scheduled to perform at the 2009 Modern Sky Festival will be unable to attend. We offer our sincerest apologies for the disappointment.
However, the organizers are determined to move forward as planned. The time and place of the festival – October 4-7 at Beijing’s Chaoyang Park – has not changed.
Andy Best notes that International Noise Conspiracy has been pulled from a show at Yuyintang in Shanghai, and suggests that foreign bands are off stages nation-wide.
Tom Burgis writing from Lagos in The Financial Times:
A Chinese state-owned oil company is in talks with Nigeria to buy large stakes in some of the world’s richest oil blocks in a deal that would eclipse Beijing’s previous efforts to secure crude overseas.
The attempt could pitch the Chinese into competition with western oil groups, including Shell, Chevron, Total and ExxonMobil, which partly or wholly control and operate the 23 blocks under discussion. Sixteen licences are up for renewal.
CNOOC, one of China’s three energy majors, is trying to buy 6bn barrels of oil, equivalent to one in every six barrels of the proven reserves in Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest crude producer and a major supplier to the US.
Kirk Semple writes for the New York Times about Ghost Town by Zhao Dayong, an independent film-maker. The film is set to appear at the New York Film Festival:
Over the course of six years Zhao Dayong, an independent filmmaker from Guangzhou, China, spent many months living among the residents of Zhiziluo, an impoverished and forgotten village in the rugged mountains near the Myanmar border, and filming their lives...
Mr. Zhao, 39, said getting the approval of the censors was never a consideration. “It’s like asking to be raped,” he said this month in an interview here. “The government certainly has its own agenda. They want us to stop. But at the same time we know we’re doing something meaningful.”
From China Daily:
A new subway line will start operation in Beijing just before China's National Day on October 1. But the exact date remains unannounced.
With a total length of 28.2 kilometers, the Subway Line 4 runs through the city from the northwest to the south.
It will help relieve the pressure of old tube lines by offering an alternative access point to some of the most crowded stations such as XIDAN, which is the center of many shopping malls and is also a rising financial centre.
In The China Daily:
Tian'anmen closes as countdown begins
The Forbidden City and other popular tourist venues will begin closing to visitors from Tuesday, just two days out from National Day holiday...
...
On Wednesday, the capital's 7,000 traffic police, equipped with GPS devices, will be in charge of clearing a path for thousands of servicemen and women, armed vehicles and 200,000 performers for the parade.
A command center has been set up at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, just east of Tian'anmen Square, to monitor security during the celebrations. From there, military, police and officials will monitor live footage from 40,000 cameras in Beijing.
Major hotels along Chang'an avenue, where the parade will be held, will be closed from Monday until Friday.
Michael Rank wrote an article for the Asia Times in August about the loneliest grave in North Korea. On his blog he posts more photos, a letter, and additional information on Flight Lieutenant Desmond Hinton, whose aircraft was shot down in the DPRK during the Korean War:
Letter from Desmond’s C.O. who said he believed Desmond had survived. Colonel Mitchell said Desmond was on a strafing run on some trucks a few miles northeast of Pyongyang.
He called that his plane was hit and he would have to bail out. He jettisoned his canopy and two pilots saw the seat was empty which makes me beleive [sic] that Des got clear of the seat.
His parachute was not seen, however, he was wearing an all white shute and the ground was completely covered with snow. This would have made it difficult to see the opened parachute.