Must-read China news by Danwei

Edward Wong at the New York Times reports:

In what appears to be a coordinated assault, the e-mail accounts of at least a dozen rights activists, academics and journalists who cover China have been compromised by unknown intruders. A Chinese human rights organization also said that hackers disabled its Web site for a fifth straight day.

The infiltrations, which involved Yahoo e-mail accounts, appeared to be aimed at people who write about China and Taiwan, rendering their accounts inaccessible, according to those who were affected. In the case of this reporter, hackers altered e-mail settings so that all correspondence was surreptitiously forwarded to another e-mail address.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 7:34 PM | Permalink

The Associated Press reports:

The bodies of 21 babies, believed dumped by hospitals, have washed ashore on a riverbank in eastern China, state media reported Tuesday.

Video footage showed that the bodies — stashed in yellow plastic bags, at least one of which was marked "medical waste" — included some infants several months old. Some wore identification tags with their mothers' names, birth dates, measurements and weights. The official Xinhua News Agency said there were also fetuses among the bodies.

Residents discovered the remains under a bridge in the city of Jining, Shandong province, over the weekend. Tags on the feet of eight of the babies traced them back to a hospital in Jining, according to the People's Daily Web site. Three of them had been admitted earlier to the hospital in critical condition, the report said. It did not say when.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:56 PM | Permalink

From The Times, on yesterday's Google blockage:

Google said that the problems were due to a technical glitch on its part. In the past 24 hours, the letters "gs_rfai" started appearing in Google’s search parameters worldwide. A Google spokeman said: “because this parameter contained the letters rfa the great firewall was associating these searches with Radio Free Asia, a service that has been inaccessible in China for a long time - hence the blockage. We are currently looking at how to resolve this issue."

However Techcrunch also has word from another Google spokesperson:

Having looked into this issue in more detail, it’s clear we actually added this parameter a week ago. So whatever happened today to block Google.com.hk must have been as a result of the change in the great firewall. However, interestingly our search traffic in China is now back to normal—even though we have not made any changes at our end. We will continue to monitor what is going on, but for the time being this issue seems to be resolved.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:14 AM | Permalink

This afternoon Internet users across China reported that Google searches were being blocked on Google.com.hk and all other Google domains. Gady Epstein on Forbes:

All searches on Google appeared to be blocked starting late Tuesday afternoon, the latest indication that tensions between the Internet giant and the Chinese government have mounted since Google shut down its mainland search engine earlier this month.

Searches of innocuous terms like "Beijing Olympics" returned error messages on Google.com.hk, Google.com in the U.S. and other international Google ( GOOG - news - people ) sites beginning at about 5 p.m. in Beijing. Users in many other major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, shortly reported the same problem.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:20 PM | Permalink

Chris at Gokunming writes about a minor clash:

The already poor image of Kunming's chengguan has been further tarnished after a clash between the city management officers and Wuhua district residents last Friday.

The confrontation culminated in a small mob overturning and setting fire to law enforcement vehicles after an altercation between chengguan and a street vendor.

The incident began shortly after 8pm when Wuhua district chengguan officers approached a group of four unlicensed street vendors outside the Beicang Cun farmer's market on Hongyun Lu.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 5:26 PM | Permalink

DeluxZilla reads a pull-out section of the Shanghai Morning Post devoted to the upcoming Expo:

For newspaper purists out there, I realize removing the individual section of the paper, then opening it up four times to a length that is longer than some people’s arm spans is a little much, especially if you’re riding the subway or in any type of confined space. But I found the “origami” newspaper to be an interesting design scheme.

The aim of the pullout map and “complete guide” to the Expo is for people outside of Shanghai, which seems a little counterproductive because I don’t believe the Shanghai Morning Post is distributed that far out of the city. Nonetheless, I never thought I would be able to say a physical newspaper was “interactive” with its readers, but the Shanghai Morning Post figured out a clever method.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:28 PM | Permalink

In an essay in The Wall Street Journal, Hugo Restall looks at the real reasons behind Stern Hu's fall.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:39 PM | Permalink

From the wonderful 'In the footsteps of Joseph Rock' blog:

The strange life and mysterious death of Margo, Aussie 'queen of the Tiger Leaping Gorge'

I never met Margo Carter, or at least I don't think I did. She took up residence in the Tiger Leaping Gorge in the mid 1990s, whereas my one and only visit to this scenic wonder of the world was in 1994, presumably before she arrived. I am glad I visited when I did, before the road was put through and it became a must-do feature in the Lonely Planet guidebook for China.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:48 AM | Permalink

Danwei interviews Zhao Dayong, director of The High Life (pictured), Rough Poetry, Ghost Town, Street Life and My Father's House.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:29 AM | Permalink

Below is the original text of an article originally posted on Netease dated March 28, 2010 (at this link), subsequently deleted, and translated into English here.

The original text is also cached here.

马化腾等四高管抱怨互联网监管一刀切
2010-03-28 07:58:35　来源: 网易科技报道　跟贴 262 条 手机看新闻

网易科技讯 3月28日凌晨消息，近期的互联网严打风暴造成十几万家网站被关，除了中小网站外，一些互联网大佬对此也有看法。在昨日的一个公开会议上，马化腾、王志东、丁健、王维嘉四位高管都抱怨互联网一刀切的监管方式应改进，王志东、丁健还建议深圳成为互联网监管特区。

大佬们的集体抱怨

2010年中国 IT领袖峰会今日将在深圳开幕，作为本次峰会的一项活动，深圳市互联网产业发展咨询会昨晚在深圳举行。多位互联网及IT产业的高管参加了咨询会。这次咨询会最让人印象深刻的是，有四位IT行业的企业家抱怨互联网一刀切的监管方式。

美通无线董事长兼CEO王维嘉最先提起这个话题。王维嘉不久前参加了《创业家》杂志社举办的一个论坛，主题便是国内互联网创业环境的讨论，其中包括几家本次互联网严打波及到的企业代表。

王维嘉在咨询会上说，对于互联网公司而言，最重要的是公平竞争，十几万家网站被关闭，这里面可能会有阿里巴巴、腾讯、百度这样的巨头被扼杀了。

紧接着王维嘉的发言，国内互联网巨头腾讯创始人、董事局主席兼CEO马化腾在发言中也提到了一点，他说，相关“因为管理的便利性”，在监管中对一些网站实行了一刀切的方式，特别是深圳又处在南方，与政策中心的北京较远。

在马化腾之后，新浪网创始人、点击科技CEO王志东也声援前两位嘉宾。王志东也参加了上文提及的互联网创业环境研讨会，他对此也深有感触。王志东说，中国网民有近4个亿，这需要监管，而互联网又是一个需要革命性的、不断创新的行业，这两者之间存在一些矛盾。

金沙江创业投资董事总经理、美国亚信公司董事长、联合网视文化发展有限公司董事长丁健在发言中也对这一话题进行了回应，他说，互联网要鼓励创新，要允许犯错误。

王志东、丁健建议深圳成为互联网监管特区。

上述四位企业家作为深圳市政府发展互联网产业的高级顾问，对于他们提出的互联网监管问题，他们都向深圳市政府提出了自己的建议。

王维嘉建议深圳市政府给当地的互联网企业创造一个公平竞争的环境，不要让他们受到不必要的干扰。

王志东认为，解决互联网监管与创新难题的最佳方法就是深圳。他说，“深圳一直有特区的文化和血液，一些互联网的创新与现有监管模式的矛盾在全国解决起来不容易，但深圳作为特区，是不是可以搞一个大的试点？”

丁健的建议更是大胆，他建议深圳应尝试成为互联网监管特区，“互联网在深圳可以完全放开，应该看看再更加自由的环境里，互联网是更乱了还是怎么样，这样才可能探索出一个适合中国的互联网监管方式。”(熊立)

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:17 PM | Permalink

For the Daily Telegraph, Peter Foster and Zhang Wei write about the Drum and Bell tower renovations:

The 30-acre development around the ancient Drum and Bell Towers, which were used to tell the time in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, will see traditional crooked courtyard houses and winding alleyways replaced with a themed 'Beijing Time Cultural City".

"As a result, there will be extensive evictions, demolition, and construction in this ancient area, and gone will be the traditional courtyards, hutongs, and local residents," warned the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center, an independent conservation group.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:33 PM | Permalink

At Shanghai Scrap, Adam Minter reminisces Guibei, a recycling zone that he visited:

During my first afternoon there, I got some sense of the latter industry, of which I wrote:

Guibei’s infrastructure is still primitive, thus we’re grateful for a fourwheel-drive vehicle that can negotiate the muddy potholes that run between farm fields. As we pass one village where plastic bags twist and swirl in the wind and get tangled in the trees, our driver begins to laugh with his colleague in the passenger seat: Apparently, some of the businesses in this area manufacture plastic bags that they market as suitable for food use, when they’re most definitely not.

Minter carries on to talk about Jonathan Watts' article in The Guardian about waste management.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:18 PM | Permalink

The New York Times reports:

In a brief telephone interview on Sunday, Mr. Gao said that he was no longer in police custody, but that he could not give any details of his predicament. “I’m fine now, but I’m not in a position to be interviewed,” he said from Wutai Mountain, the site of a well-known Buddhist monastery. “I’ve been sentenced but released.”

Since Mr. Gao disappeared into the custody of public security personnel in February 2009, the Chinese government has provided a series of contradictory and cryptic explanations of his whereabouts, despite entreaties by the United Nations, the White House and the European Union.

The Guardian's report is here.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:13 PM | Permalink

Uln at Chinayouren examines the ad-blanketed front pages of some of Shanghai's newspapers:

Today I asked my Shanghainese friend Mary Fu why she thinks the Oriental is better than the Metro Express, and she answered, literally: "they are similar, but the Oriental has less adverts".

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:05 PM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, China's No 10 automaker, sealed a binding deal on Sunday to buy ailing Swedish luxury car brand Volvo from US giant Ford for $1.8 billion.

"Today represents a milestone in the history of Geely," Geely Chairman Li Shufu told a news conference, adding that Volvo will remain a separate company with its own management team based in Sweden.

The agreement was signed between the two automakers in Goteborg, Sweden.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 8:59 AM | Permalink

The Granite Studio offers a glimpse into the Shanghai Daily's editorial about "Superpower Responsibilities:"

Yesterday’s installment in “How the dung beetle turns crap and calls it writing” was called “Superpower Responsibilities” and after a luke-warm rehash of bad history, we come to this little turd nugget:

After the Roman Empire collapsed because of the massive migration of Germanic people, the spiritual legacies of its civilization were inherited by the succeeding European world. In comparison, even after the Chinese empire was conquered by other ethnic regimes, like the Yuan (1271-1368) and the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, those ethnic groups were eventually assimilated into the Chinese civilization and subsequently became the driving forces that carried forward that civilization.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 5:41 PM | Permalink

Cnet reports on government regulations for reporting on Google's departure from China, obtained by China Digital Times:

The list of instructions, obtained by China Digital Times and published by The Washington Post, underscores the degree to which the Chinese government attempts to control the spread of information more than anything Google has ever said about search censorship.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:53 PM | Permalink

The L. A. Times writes about Cui Weiping, who was denied leaving the country to attend an academic conference:

A pixie-ish literature professor is the latest person to run afoul of China's government, denied permission to travel to a prominent academic conference in the United States this week.

Cui Weiping had her Chinese passport, U.S. visa and airplane ticket to Philadelphia in hand when, she said, officials at the Beijing Film Academy where she works called her in Sunday and told her to cancel the trip. Though they gave reasons for the denial — she has classes to teach, her conference panel was not related to her academic discipline — those were excuses, she said.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:14 PM | Permalink

China Daily reports on the latest food safety concern:

According to an IFPA report released this month, the Chinese use 15 billion disposable food boxes - either made of foam, plastic or paper pulp - each year.

The latest case of unsafe disposable dishware Dong's team detected was on March 3. The researchers visited two famous restaurants - the 170-year-old Laobian dumpling restaurant and the Dong Laishun restaurant - in Beijing and requested some disposable dishware.

The samples were then sent to the Beijing Center for Physical and Chemical Analysis, where tests indicated that the boxes contained excessive amounts of minerals, such as talcum powder and ceresin wax, which contains a substance that can cause cancer.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:11 PM | Permalink

China Daily reports:

The police ruled out the possibility of Zheng, 42, being mentally ill, saying his confession is "logical" and he seemed clear minded during interrogation.

"He killed those children on purpose because he was depressed and hated the world," Xu Jingping, deputy director of the Nanping police bureau, said at a news briefing late on Wednesday night.

He said the procuratorate of Yanping district in Nanping had approved Zheng's arrest on charges of intentional homicide.

At present, five of the injured children are still in the hospital, with three of them in critical condition.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:57 PM | Permalink

ChinaSmack translates a selection of Chinese Internet user comments about Google's shut down of Google.cn, noting that "many Chinese netizen comments have been deleted or hidden and most comments that remain visible clearly support the government or are critical of Google."

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:12 AM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

China has announced more investment in Afghanistan and pledged to continue aiding reconstruction efforts in the war-torn neighboring country.

President Hu Jintao and his visiting Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai witnessed the signing of three deals on Wednesday, which cover economic cooperation, technical training and the granting of preferential tariffs for some Afghan exports to China. Details were not disclosed.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:10 AM | Permalink

China Daily continues their Beijingers video series by Xu Shumin & DJ Clark, this time about a man who knows everything about the cat business in Beijing.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:03 PM | Permalink

The China Daily follows the Rio Tinto case:

The four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto charged with taking bribes and stealing commercial secrets appealed for lenient punishment in court on the second day of their trial after pleading guilty to bribery charges, their lawyers said on Tuesday.

Zhang Peihong, a lawyer for one of the accused, said Australian Stern Hu and three Chinese employees of the world's second largest miner asked for mitigated punishment from the court after they admitted to taking bribes and returned part of the money.

The four altogether are charged with accepting bribes exceeding 86 million yuan ($12.6 million) according to the court indictment, but the defendants all contested the amount as specified by the prosecutor, according to their lawyers.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:20 PM | Permalink

Charles Custer translates at China Geeks:

As if being a reporter in China weren’t hard enough already, the government is planning to enforce more stringent requirements to ensure that journalists “learn socialist and Marxist theories of journalism and media ethics.” But even when you do become a reporter, the path is not an easy one. Getting comments or even information at all for stories can be difficult, as evidenced by this recording of a Hong Kong reporter trying to confirm Google’s retreat from China with Chinese government officials.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:15 PM | Permalink

China Daily reports:

he latest probe into a vaccine scandal in north China's Shanxi Province showed violation of rules by the provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the vaccine producer, an official said Monday.

Ju Xianhua, deputy secretary general of the provincial government, said at a press conference that the former director of the provincial CDC, Li Wenyuan, violated rules while cooperating with the vaccine producer, Beijing Huawei Company, and was blamed for embezzling 270,000 yuan from the company's 500,000 yuan safety guarantee deposit.

Ju said the government will investigate all vaccine cases reported by the public and release the results as soon as possible.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:08 PM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

Another eight to 10 sandstorms are expected to hit North China in April and May as a result of the frequent cold spells, meteorologists predicted on Monday.

The forecast came as sandstorms whipped across the country, shrouding cities in a cloud of sand, with winds carrying the dirt as far as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:44 AM | Permalink

At 3am Beijing time this morning, Google announced the end of Google.cn: the search engine will cease censoring Google.cn, and redirect search traffic to their Hong Kong website at Google.com.hk.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:12 AM | Permalink

Greenpeace writes about throat cancer and China's water pollution.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:28 PM | Permalink

Micah Sittig highlights a wrong in an New York Times article about birth planning:

No, they are not illegal. It is illegal to use them to tell the sex of the fetus. The hospital will gladly give you an ultrasound if the equipment is available and you can pony up the cash/insurance/社保卡, but the nurse administrating the procedure is prohibited by law from telling you what she sees "down south."

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:21 PM | Permalink

At R Conversation, Rebecca MacKinnon translates an open letter to "relevant Chinese government ministries and Google Inc."

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:43 PM | Permalink

The Far West China blog investigates an AFP article on access to email and other blockages in Xinjiang:

There is one more thing that the AFP and many people don't realize about this situation. While Twitter, Facebook, and international publications may be buzzing over this "breaking news", the truth is many people in Xinjiang aren't aware that they can send and receive emails.

Every time I break this wonderful information to my friends here they first go through a moment of disbelief ("I don't think you're right") and then slowly transition to shock ("Really?! I didn't know that!"). The government has done a superb job of leaking the information to the international community who will blindly regurgitate it, as the AFP and others have proven.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:22 PM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

The country will probably see a "record trade deficit" in March thanks to surging imports, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said on Sunday, while warning that Beijing will "fight back" if Washington labels China a currency manipulator.

Speaking at the three-day China Development Forum that ends on Monday, Chen said: "I believe there will be a trade deficit in March" - which will be the first since May 2004.

John Pomfret interviews Chen Deming for the Washington Post.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:05 PM | Permalink

The New York Times translates a list of guidelines issued by the Chinese government on censorship:

6. In articles on the two meetings, do not use wording such as “thundering person,” “thundering proposal” or “thundering delegate.” Do not use the concept of “thundering” to define contents of the two meetings. [Thunder has become a trendy Chinese slang term to describe something shockingly ridiculous or embarrassing.]

7. Delete news related to the youtan poluo flower. [Buddhist lore says this rare and auspicious flower blooms once every 3,000 years. Reports that a nun at a temple in southern China found a cluster of the tiny flowers under her washing machine set off a recent stir in the press. Chinese officials are concerned about the spread of superstition.]

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:56 AM | Permalink

The Chinese Law Prof Blog examines the decision made by Chinese authorities to hold a closed trial for Rio Tinto's Stern Hu:

Finally, it's worth looking at what the Chinese government has to say about this. Regrettably, it has offered no serious, reasoned defense. On March 18th, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Qin Gang addressed some of these questions in a way that should forever put to rest accusations that Chinese government bureaucrats don't have a sense of humor. When asked about the closing of the trial, he insisted it was being handled in accordance with the Australian-Chinese agreement on consular relations and added this bizarre observation: "China has from ancient times stressed silence in the courtroom because the courtroom is a dignified place; one can't make a lot of noise before the trial has begun, one can't interfere with the independent handling of the case by China's relevant departments". What this has to do with excluding Australian diplomats from the trial is not clear. Perhaps it is the Aussies' reputation for loving a good party. Are they afraid the diplomats will try to interrupt the trial with a barbecue?

When asked again about the matter, he responded, "Please don't mix up the relationship between a country's sovereignty, particularly its judicial sovereignty, and the Chinese-Australian Agreement on Consular Relations. The Chinese-Australian Agreement on Consular Relations must be premised on respect for China's sovereignty and judicial sovereignty". Um... I hate to be the one to break the bad news, but the right to do exactly as you please is precisely what you give up when you enter into an international treaty. It is your sovereignty that makes your promise meaningful. Does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs really back Mr. Qin's interpretation of what it means to sign a treaty - that any obligation can be waved off by saying the magic word "sovereignty"? Does China expect those with whom it signs treaties to treat their obligations similarly? This would certainly be a new direction in Chinese foreign policy.

In a second post, Jerome Cohen offers his analysis. And in a third post, the blogger wonders why the Australian government acquiesced so easily rather than demanding an open trial.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:30 AM | Permalink

The China Study Group attempts to counter some misconceptions about Chinese film in the years from from 1949 to 1966:

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:51 PM | Permalink

On Qingdaonese: Tombstones of Europeans from Qingdao's old graveyard that were used to line a ditch during the Cultural Revolution were recently rediscovered and some names have been identifie, including the wife of a man who invented German Pinyin.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:02 PM | Permalink

From GoKunming:

village near Baoshan is in shock after the arrest of a man who stands accused of murdering two children and eating their brains, allegedly to cure his epilepsy.

29-year-old Wang Zhaoxu (王朝旭), a resident of the village of Xianqi, is awaiting trial in a local detention center for the grisly murders of a three-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy earlier this year.

Another villager reportedly discovered Wang crouching over the boy's corpse in a field on January 23.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 2:51 PM | Permalink

The Global Times reports:

More than 70 State-owned enterprises will be withdrawn from the real estate sector once their current development projects are complete, China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Com-mission said Thursday.

The latest attempt to cool the red-hot real estate sector would be of little use, analysts say.

The super-wealthy centrally administered enterprises are blamed for a land-acquisition frenzy that is seen as having further pushed up soaring housing prices.

The latest such lavish purchases were made in Beijing at a record price of around 11 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) by three State enterprises Monday, a day after Chinese lawmakers closed their annual assembly, which intensively discussed how to contain property prices.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:44 PM | Permalink

On ESWN:

Sexy Photos Gate ruined Gillian Chung while Sexy Video Gate made Shoushou famous. This made the post-90's young girl named Feng Yangyan jealous.

So she decided to set up "Defloration Gate" to make herself famous.

At the high school attended by Feng Yangyan, the in-crowd happened to lead "alternative" lifestyles. But as everybody knows, a virgin could not very well be "alternative"! Therefore, Feng Yangyan spent money to hire a man to deflower her!

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 1:37 PM | Permalink

The AFP reports:

US Internet giant Google will close its business in China next month and may announce its plans in the coming days, Chinese media reported on Friday, after rows over censorship and hacking.

The China Business News quoted an official with an unidentified Chinese advertising agency as saying Google would go through with its threatened withdrawal on April 10, but that Google had yet to confirm the pull-out.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:54 PM | Permalink

From The Economist:

Millions upon millions of women are trapped in loveless and often miserable marriages to homosexual men...

...They are known as “tongqi”, combing the words “tongzhi”, or comrade, Chinese slang for “gay”, with “qizi”, meaning “wife” in Mandarin...

...the number of tongqi in China may be as high as 25m.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:50 AM | Permalink

In Shenzhen, some live in cargo containers. From China Hush.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 7:05 PM | Permalink

Zaichina: A promising new Spanish language blog about China and Chinese media.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:42 PM | Permalink

Jonathan Watts reports on tigers in captivity in China, and the closure of Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo (or Bingchuan Wildlife Park):

The authorities have launched an investigation into the Shenyang Forest Wildlife zoo, a semi-private operation that slashed rations for its animals after running into financial difficulties.

They will also examine the structural problems facing the country's massive captive-breeding business, in which – the Guardian has discovered – more than 1,000 other tigers are at risk of malnourishment. The Shenyang zoo, which is partly owned by local government, came into the spotlight after 11 Siberian tigers starved to death in the space of six months. It emerged that the keepers were feeding the animals cheap cuts of chicken because the zoo was short of money.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:06 PM | Permalink

A short post about two very similar films about three taxi drivers in Beijing. Co-incidence or something else?

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:55 PM | Permalink

The Far West China blog lists other Xinjiang orientated websites.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:47 PM | Permalink

In the wake of several high profile and messy closures, we ask: Why are so many foreigners fleeing China in the wake of language school bankruptcies?

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:41 PM | Permalink

The Jing Daily interviews Jia Zhangke at MoMA:

JD: Can you tell us a little about the current state of film production in China? What changes in particular have you noticed in the last 5-10 years?

JZK: In terms of the industry side, we’re in the midst of the rapid development of the Chinese film industry. Why do I say it’s a period of rapid development? Because in the not-so-distant past, in the 1990s, for a while there a lot of screens simply disappeared, lots of theaters closed down, especially in medium- to small cities. Basically there were no [movie] screens. After 2003, however, development of the movie industry really sped up, particularly in big cities. The number of screens skyrocketed. Last year, I saw a figure that every day 1.7 new screens are opening up [in China]. That’s a pretty big deal. It really is developing quickly.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:39 PM | Permalink

CNN runs with a rush transcript of an interview with artist Ai Weiwei, failing to note that Weiwei is his first name, not surname, in the transcript:

WEIWEI: My father studied in Paris in 1930s. So in his 20s, he come back to China and he was put in jail immediately.

AMANPOUR: Why was he put in jail?

WEIWEI: Those young -- young artists, he was studying art, so they are prepared for a kind of demonstration. So the nationalistic party just put them in jail, just -- and he spent years in jail. And later, he joined the communist struggle.

AMANPOUR: And he was a hero of the Communist Party?

WEIWEI: For a while, he was. He was, because the Communist Party used his influence to really take a lot of young people to join the Communist Party.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 5:22 PM | Permalink

The Waffles and Steal blog writes about roadside turtle deals in Guangdong:

A couple weeks ago, as the weather started to get consistently warm, I began seeing the turtle sellers on the roads again. When I first wrote about them last fall, I noted that I had never seen anyone stop to buy one of the reptiles. I wondered why they were being sold in my neighborhood, mostly populated by expats, Hong Kongers and nouveau riche Chinese. Surely, the foreigners weren’t buying them. Were the well-heeled locals eating them?

Well, I got my answer on Sunday. I was finishing a 105-kilometer ride and was just a block away from my apartment complex when I saw a guy crossing the street with a bamboo pole with a turtle hanging from a string from the end of it. I stopped, fished out my camera from my back jersey pocket and got into position to shoot.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 3:49 PM | Permalink

China Daily's multimedia team gets a peek into a Beijinger's life after forming a family.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:22 PM | Permalink

From The New York Times:

In the middle of a terrifying desert north of Tibet, Chinese archaeologists have excavated an extraordinary cemetery. Its inhabitants died almost 4,000 years ago...

... And where tombstones might stand, declaring pious hope for some god’s mercy in the afterlife, their cemetery sports instead a vigorous forest of phallic symbols, signaling an intense interest in the pleasures or utility of procreation...

...“The whole of the cemetery was blanketed with blatant sexual symbolism,” Dr. [Victor] Mair wrote.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 5:11 PM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

Zhang Ziyi has vehemently denied accusations that she committed fraud in the name of charity, but admitted to inexperience when organizing a donation drive for the relief of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 4:59 PM | Permalink

The New York Times chief film critic A. O. Scott evaluates Zhao Dayong's documentary Ghost Town:

From the start Mr. Zhao’s camera is an acknowledged, if discreet, presence. In the opening shots, unseen residents of the town are heard commenting on how their familiar world looks as they peer through the lens. Later some of their neighbors address it directly and with minimal self-consciousness, talking about their personal histories, religious practices and the hardships they have faced.

What they have to say is fascinating — in particular the reminiscences of an elderly preacher who serves as the patriarch for the local Christian population — but Mr. Zhao has an exquisite ability to balance words with images. The life stories and household interactions that fill out the film’s three chapters take place against a natural background that is shot beautifully, though never ostentatiously. Green mountains and deep, shadowed valleys frame the desultory daily routines of the villagers, while the nonhuman population of dogs, chickens and pigs receives a proper and proportional share of attention.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:57 PM | Permalink

The Guardian reports on the household registration system:

"I wish my kids could go to a state school," says Hu. "Parents always wish their children could receive a better education."

The contradictions of the hukou system, designed for a 1950s planned economy, become more painful with every year of China's development. About 140 million rural migrants are now working in the cities, where average incomes are more than three times than those of the countryside. Migrants have fuelled the country's spectacular growth but not reaped the benefits. And once they become parents, they face an unpalatable choice.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:02 PM | Permalink

The Associated Press reports:

Chinese authorities have ordered the closure of a lead ingot factory in the country's southwest after 94 people, including 88 children, in nearby villages were found to have lead poisoning.

Reports of lead poisoning have emerged around the country since last year, highlighting the heavy environmental cost of China's rapid economic development.

Authorities organized medical tests for some 1,600 residents in four villages within an 2,600-foot (800-meter) radius of the Zhongyi Alloy Co. in Longchang county of Sichuan province's Neijiang city, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. Ninety-four residents were found to be suffering from lead poisoning, while 745 others were waiting for their test results.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:51 PM | Permalink

Sports authorities are blaming Dong Fangxiao for lowering her age after winning the bronze in Sydney. The Absurdity, Allegory, and China blog finds a few other examples of people whose official age is incorrect:

The young man in question was not legally registered at birth, though everyone knew how old he was. If his family had tried to get a birth certificate when he was born, they would have put themselves in a position to be officially audited at some other, higher level beyond their village. As it was, it remained a village issue, and the extra land was allotted and everyone had enough food to eat.

Jump ahead a few years and the family finally gets a certificate that records the boy’s age as being three or four years younger than he actually is. No big deal. He’s the son of farmers, and what does age really matter as long as you have a certificate, even if it is off by a few years?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:40 AM | Permalink

The Global Times reports on a female reporter's ways to get interviews with top ministerial officials:

Instead of waiting in the reporters' zone in front of the microphone stand, the video reporter stands beside the officials as if she is their assistant. On some occasions, she has even held an official's arm.

Reporters from other media organizations don't seem to resent the long-haired reporter using her feminine wiles to coax high-ranking officials into interviews. They actually support her use of "physical contact" to drag senior officials in front of the TV cameras. Once the officials are cornered, the entire press corps of news-hounds can call out questions.

The China Daily also has a gallery of reporters at the Two Legislative Meetings who are making the news.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:27 AM | Permalink

Neocha EDGE speaks with Beijing-based photographer Little Bird about her work:

Sometimes people’s vision and memory can play tricks on them. There isn’t any special story about this photo. I just placed a plate on the carpet, and when I finished eating the grapes I thought it looked nice, so I shot it.

To me, it doesn’t look like an ink and wash painting, rather more like a decorative plate hung on the wall.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:27 AM | Permalink

Adam Minter at Shanghai Scrap writes about advertising for the Expo in New York:

Some of the blame for that ignorance falls squarely on Americans being Americans – we simply don’t take much interest in international events like Expos, World Cups, and UN Security Council meetings; but some of it, I think, falls on whoever the Expo organizers hired to promote their multi-billion dollar urban coming out party to Americans. Put differently, if you’ve never heard of the Expo, does that dour Times Square billboard make you want to learn more? Or as one friend in the US media emailed: “It looks like a billboard for a tourism industry expo focused on travel in your Golden Years.” That is to say – Shanghai isn’t going to attract much US media to Expo 2010 if this is the approach they’re committed to taking.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:01 AM | Permalink

A newspaper's meme-chasing report on a homeless man who is a regular at a local bookstore is redeemed by a more sensitive follow-up investigation that reunites the man with his family.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:58 AM | Permalink

Waffles and Steel snaps a photo of a heavily-laden bicycle:

This looks like a circus act. But it’s just another guy making a living on a bike in Guangzhou. Maybe two or three times a year, I’ll see one of these scrap collectors pedaling down the road hauling a couple air conditioners, a computer monitor or two, three or four processors – all precariously strapped on the back of the bike.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:04 AM | Permalink

Wen Tao in The Global Times:

A group of citizens led by renowned artist Ai Weiwei sent a letter Tuesday to all 35 delegations attending the annual session of the NPC, calling for transparency regarding the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

This letter says that last year the so-called "citizen investigators" had sent 113 letters to government departments at all levels, requesting the disclosure of information. But "none of the departments directly answered a single question raised by us," the new letter said.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:26 PM | Permalink

Dan Washburn writes about China's "golf police" for Slate magazine:

Ironically, it was the Chinese government's reluctance to embrace golf—or at least come up with a set of regulations intended to standardize its inevitable growth—that allowed things to get out of control. China doesn't even know how many golf courses exist within its borders. At the press conference in November, officials at the Ministry of Land and Resources said they were using satellite imagery to get a handle on the number. Back in 2004, when the moratorium was announced, state media reported that only 10 of China's then 176 known courses had received proper approvals from Beijing.

There is also a photo slide-show of a course that got bulldozed at Dan Washburn's site, PAR for China.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:22 PM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

The Great Wall ruins of the ancient Chu state are seen in Yexian county, Pingdingshan, Central China's Henan province. The province's cultural heritage bureau said ... the ruins of Chu Great Wall mostly belong to the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC to 476 BC) while some were built during the Warring States period (403 BC-221 BC), and they mainly lie in the province's southern cities of Pingdingshan, Nanyang, Zhumadian and Xinyang.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:17 PM | Permalink

Adam Cathcart translates Chinese responses to Portland's decision to allow a Tibetan Awareness Day over the objections of local consular officials:

The big story, however, is that the Global Times in Beijing has picked up on the incident and has thrown it like a dry log on the narrative pyre whereby China is all things reasonable and the United States is all things aggressive.

Here is the heart of the Huanqiu Shibao/Global Times article entitled 美国一城市为“藏独”设纪念日 遭中美民众谴责, or, roughly, “One American City’s Plan to Commemorate ‘Tibetan Independence’ Provokes Condemnation from the Chinese and American People” [ed.: and by "the American people," the headline presumably refers to this person, the author of the above dissenting comment on the Oregonian website!]

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:42 AM | Permalink

The Chinese Mirror looks back at the career of character actor Liu Jiqun.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:37 AM | Permalink

On Asia Times Online:

An agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and China in 2008 to swap 10 million tonnes of copper ore for US$9 billion worth of mine and civic infrastructure looked like a genuine win-win.

But ever since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demanded renegotiation of the deal in May 2009, China and the DRC have been on a roller-coaster ride of risk. Today, Beijing anxiously eyes a growing list of major dysfunctional problems - and a $100 million adverse judgment in a Hong Kong court - that could derail the "deal of the century".

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:41 AM | Permalink

On CNBC.com:

Google and China will resolve their differences over censorship and an alleged attack on Google's service "soon", Eric Schmidt, the Chief Executive of Google, told reporters in Abu Dhabi where he takes part in the emirate's first ever Media Summit.

Schmidt did not give details of the nature of the talks or an exact timetable.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:03 AM | Permalink

At The China Beat, Peter Hessler shares some photos from his travels through China and describes how they were involved in the writing of his new book, Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory:

From my perspective, the digital camera is most significant in how it’s changed the way I organize and use my notes. Digital voice recorders have never played the same role — it might be great in other places and other situations, but recording an interview in China makes people nervous. I learned that they’re far more comfortable if I’m taking handwritten notes, so that’s what I’ve always done.

But a digital camera is quick, unobtrusive, and easy to keep in a pocket. It’s great for signs and notices — infinitely faster than my terrible Chinese handwriting. Sometimes a picture captures a key moment, and later, when I’m ready to write about the scene, I’ll put the image alongside my notes.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:57 PM | Permalink

The Wall Street Journal Real Time blog prints the English version of "I'm a Moderate Advisor," an editorial by Zhang Hong, who was one of the parties behind the joint-editorial calling for the abolition of the household registration system:

After the joint editorial was published, the reactions to it went far beyond what we initially anticipated, so to speak. We expected it would get some response, but we didn’t think it would be so great. It actually echoes an old Chinese saying, “In a world without heroes, ordinary people can make a name for themselves.” I don’t dare to take credit for the work of others, but at the same time I am not willing to put the blame on someone else, so I removed all the names of both media and individuals who participated in the editorial, leaving only the name of myself who has nothing to lose. As a matter of fact, every reader understands that the reason why this joint editorial has attracted such widespread attention is not because the media is so powerful, but because it shows the fervent anxiety of the people’s expectations!

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 10:01 PM | Permalink

Malcolm Moore reports at the Telegraph blog:

China is in negotiations to build a high-speed rail network to India and Europe with trains that capable of running at over 200mph within the next ten years.

The network would eventually carry passengers from London to Beijing and then to Singapore. It would also run to India and Pakistan, according to Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a senior consultant on China's domestic high-speed rail project.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:37 AM | Permalink

The Lost Laowai Blog writes about toilets all over China, from a woman's perspective:

Why are there urinals in the women’s bathroom?

I’ve come across this a couple of times and had to do a double take to make sure I went through the right door. Yes, there are sometimes male urinals in the women’s bathrooms in China. I’ve asked around and they are for women who have to take their sons to the bathroom. I guess it makes sense.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:22 AM | Permalink

The China Study Group seeks out responses to the joint editorial calling for a reform of the urban/rural household registration system:

It’s unfortunate that discussions of such issues tend to become polarized between the left and right in China, so that if the right advocates something the left feels compelled to simply oppose it – rather than supporting a modified version of the proposal, for example. If you ask Chinese leftists their views about the hukou system, many will say they also feel that it’s unjust and should be abolished or at least reformed, but before that can be done, rural residents’ access to farmland needs to be secured in some other way.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 11:13 AM | Permalink

Liuzhou Laowai finds a possible "coffee brothel" currently under construction in the city.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:31 PM | Permalink

Chinayouren looks at today's Shanghai papers:

Finally, after a long week of intense NPC-CPPCC coverage, the first signs of the spring are starting to bloom in the press of Shanghai. The Oriental Morning Post opens with a picture of the large billboards promoting the EXPO on New York’s Times square, while its archrival, the more conservative Shanghai Morning Post, shows the two Big Bosses of the city speaking to a congress of Haibaos.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:03 PM | Permalink

The Washington Post reports on Bo Xilai:

Named "Man of the Year" by a People's Daily online poll, the subject of an adoring home video being circulated on the Internet and revered in countless blogs, Bo is in contention to be named to one of the top jobs in China in 2012, when many of the country's current leaders are expected to retire.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:42 PM | Permalink

Xinhua reports:

Eleven highways in north China were closed early Monday, as overnight snow became heavier, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Guo Hu, director of the Beijing Meteorological Station, said the urban area of Beijing had received 4.2 millimeters of snow Monday. The snow is expected to stop in the evening.

The station issued an icy road warning early Monday. The city government also sent text messages warning the public of the snow and the cold snap.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:38 PM | Permalink

From The China Daily:

A second bridge linking China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will be built in Dandong, Liaoning province, a local official has said.

Zhao Liansheng, mayor of Dandong, said construction work on the bridge linking Sinuiju in the DPRK will begin in October and take three years to complete...

...The existing bridge was built in the 1930s and cannot meet the traffic demand as a result of rising commercial exchanges between the two countries, said Lu Chao, a researcher at the Liaoning Academy of Social Science...

...Ma Xiaohong, director of the Dandong Hongxiang Development Co Ltd, a leading Sino-DPRK trade company, welcomed the project...

...In 2008, two-way trade reached a record $2.79 billion, up 41.7 percent from 2007.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:24 AM | Permalink

Xinjiang, the PRC, and Egypt come together at Chuck Kraus's blog.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:03 AM | Permalink

The China Media Project finds some reactions to the news that CPPCC delegates get to keep their session-issued laptops this year.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:06 AM | Permalink

March 5 is Lei Feng Day. Do people still perform acts of altruism and dedication? Or is the Lei Feng Spirit being exploited for other purposes?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:22 PM | Permalink

People can't get tickets to Beijing! The real-name ticket system enables ID theft!

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:35 PM | Permalink

An entrepreneur in Xingtai, Hebei Province.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:32 PM | Permalink

Han Han accuses Louis Chen of stuffing his magic act with shills. Louis strikes back. And Ma Weidu tries to teach CCTV a lesson in manners.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:30 PM | Permalink

A campaign to replace dirty jokes and satiric comments with positive, uplifting, patriotic "red snippets."

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:28 PM | Permalink

Xinhua reports that nurses and doctors get kickbacks from manufacturers for steering new mothers away from breast feeding and toward infant formula.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:25 PM | Permalink

dGenerate films asks documentary film insider Zhang Xianmin about his favorite documentaries:

Using directed by Zhou Hao.
Zhou Hao always cross-produces several projects at the same time. When this documentary was made, he was also working on other subjects, such as the cotton industry and Olympic youths. The central character is known as Brother Long by other social outcasts. Originally from Northeast China, he makes his living by dealing drugs in Guangzhou, and eventually he is trapped in drug addiction himself. He helps others, but also requests help from others all the time, especially from the filmmaker Zhou Hao. But what Zhou Hao offers cannot save him. The story is astonishing and thrilling.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:40 PM | Permalink

Parents are angry at one San Gabriel Valley school:

Parents and community members who are upset by a Chinese language and culture classroom slated to open at Cedarlane Middle School next year say they're planning to voice concerns at Thursday night's Hacienda La Puente Unified School District board meeting.

They allege that the Confucius Classroom, which is sponsored by the Chinese Language Council International, will become a vessel for political propaganda.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:24 PM | Permalink

The I Love China blog talks about money-taking at the Japanese chain:

It’s lunch time so there’s a fairly long line. The woman in front of me has ordered food that comes to 27 and passes 30 rmb to the cashier. Now this is one of my pet peeves coming up right here. In England if it came to 9 pounds and 1 penny the cashier might ask if you happen to have a penny so she can give you back one pound change from 10. But here they take it to extremes for the simple reason that many establishments cannot seem to get the hang of preparing small change in advance. So the cashier pulls a funny face and asks the customer if she has 2 rmb coins so that she can give her a 5 rmb note back rather than use up precious coins. So the customer opens her back and rummages around for 5 minutes trying to scrape together a couple of 1 rmb coins while the queue gets longer behind me.

From experience I can guarantee you the cashier had 3 rmb but wanted to conserve the coins and therefore decided it was better to try and squeeze a few more coins from the customer.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 2:11 PM | Permalink

China Daily reports:

The 6.7-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan at 8:18 a.m. Beijing Time on Thursday has left 64 people injured, according to the latest statistics from local fire department.

Those injured have been taken to local hospitals, it said, without identifying them.

A blackout caused by the earthquake affected some 540,500 households. Electricity was restored at 2 p.m.

According to a separate report from education authorities, some 340 school buildings were damaged and classes were suspended in some schools Thursday. The report did not specify on the names of the schools.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:44 AM | Permalink

At the Financial Times, Jamil Anderlini sums up the opening of the CPPCC by looking at its celebrities:

Among the proposals this year was one from delegate Zhang Xiaomei, editor of the China Beauty Fashion newspaper, who proposed legislation to force husbands to compensate their wives for doing housework.

One delegate suggested banning internet cafés because of their bad influence on the nation’s youth, while another wanted to outlaw sales of dog or cat meat.

Liu Xiang, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist hurdler and CPPCC delegate, suggested that top athletic coaches should get better training and more pay.

But Mr Liu, 26, admitted that he had been too busy training to write the proposal himself, adding that a self-penned suggestion would have focused more on the welfare of athletes.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:07 AM | Permalink

At CNReviews, Elliott Ng asks questions about the term Xiao Zi (小资):

小资 (Xiao3 Zi1) – people who enjoy fashion, brands, hobbies, and free thinking that is inspired by Western commercial and artistic culture. Similar to “yuppies” in the sense of youthful materialism, the term also carries a overtones of the creative, free-thinking state of being “hipsters.” However, this creativity and free-thinking is only within the bounds of what is socially acceptable within the xiaozi norm. There are many positive attributes of Xiaozi. To some it is a put-down. But to others, it is a compliment. Still others might use the term in a self-deprecating way to describe themselves.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:00 AM | Permalink

Alec at 6 comments on 1978 essay by Zhang Yifan, who criticizes the students of that era for being of poor quality.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 9:25 AM | Permalink

Reporting from Bloomberg UTV:

The Obama administration is weighing the merits of taking China’s censorship of Google Inc. to the World Trade Organization as an unfair barrier to trade.

The US Trade Representative’s office is reviewing legal arguments advanced by two groups with links to Google, spokeswoman Carol Guthrie said. The Computer & Communications Industry Association and the First Amendment Coalition say China’s restrictions on Web access and content discriminate against US Internet companies and online commerce.

Going to the WTO is “well worth consideration,” Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel of Google, operator of the most popular Internet search site, told reporters after a congressional hearing in Washington yesterday. Using censorship “in a manner that favors domestic Internet companies goes against basic international trade principles,” Wong told lawmakers.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:02 AM | Permalink

The Telegraph reports:

"Diageo now has a valuable opportunity to build a substantial presence in super-premium Chinese white spirits and it will enable us to bring one of the leading Chinese white spirits brands to international markets," said Paul Walsh, Diageo's chief executive. "This is an important and unusual transaction."

The maker of Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Guinness already owns a 39.7pc stake in Chinese white spirit company Shui Jing Fang , through a holding company called Quanxing.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 3:47 PM | Permalink

Tormod C. Endresen " is trying to get to know Guangzhou better by commuting to work by bike, subway, bus and taxi." He blogged about his biking experience yesterday:

In general, I must say the journey was a better experience than I thought – I also noted that there are a lot of more fellow cyclists out there than I had noticed from my car window. One of them kindly told me that my back tire was a bit flat before he pushed on. Next time I go, I think I will find an alternative route through the Zhujiang Xin Chang, and look for more designated bicycle lanes. I would like to commend Guangzhou government for making them. Lastly – let me appeal to car drivers – be considerate towards the cyclists – if they all quit their bikes and got into cars the Dadao will be even more crowded in the rush hour, remember.

via Waffles & Steel

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:54 PM | Permalink

Veggie Discourse translates the latest scandal from Guangxi Autonomous Region － an official's "sex diaries" are being republished all over the Internet:

On the evening of March 1st, a spokesperson for Guangxi's Tobacco Monopoly Bureau (广西烟草专卖局, Guangxi division of China National Tobacco Corp) told the press that branch director Han Feng (韩峰) from Laibin city (来宾市) has been suspended from his duties and is now under formal investigation for possible illegal conduct. Han Feng recently came under fire when his explicit diary entries about personal sexual encounters somehow leaked to the internet.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Xinhua reports:

Chinese government has decided to offer emergency humanitarian aid of 1 millon U.S. dollars to Chile to help relief work in areas hit by Saturday's earthquake, Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce said Monday.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:01 PM | Permalink

China Daily reports:

More than a dozen metropolitan newspapers covering 11 provinces in China have made a rare joint appeal for accelerating the reform of the country's household registration, or hukou, system in a co-signed editorial.

The editorial, published on Monday in 12 newspapers, said the household registration regulations issued in 1958 should be abolished as soon as possible.

The household registration system limits rural migrant workers' access to services in China's prosperous cities, the editorial said.

Tania Branigan's story for The Guardian is here.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:37 AM | Permalink

Jonathan Watts writes for The Guardian:

The first Siberian tiger cub to be found in the wild in China in at least 20 years has died less than two days after being discovered, the Guardian has learned.

Authorities have moved covered up the death, which casts a shadow over what is potentially the best conservation news the country has had for decades.

It also raises questions about the handling and timing of the discovery, which comes as China celebrates the start of the lunar year of the Tiger and a major financial push to save the biggest cat on the planet.

Early on the morning of 25 February, Han Deyou, a forester in the Wanda mountains in the northern province of Heilongjiang claimed to have discovered a wild tiger cub trapped in a pile of firewood in his yard.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:13 AM | Permalink

To better compete with the Global Times, writes Sky Canaves for the WSJ's China Real Time Report blog.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:38 PM | Permalink

ESPN reports on the short track racer:

Wang Meng of China has won her third gold medal at the Olympic short track, holding off American Katherine Reutter in the women's 1,000 meters.

Wang will go down as the biggest short track star of the Vancouver Games, besting teammate Zhou Yang for that honor. Both had two golds apiece going into the final women's event, the 1,000 meters, but Zhou was disqualified for a daring move with three laps to go and she finished last anyway.

Wang has been suffering from a cold in recent days. She had a hacking cough, was sweating heavily and drinking from a water bottle as she spoke to reporters, somewhat breathlessly.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 1:13 PM | Permalink

From the Seattle Times:

China should be stripped of its bronze medal from the 2000 Olympics because one member of the squad has been found to be underage, international gymnastics officials said Friday.

Dong Fangxiao was 14 during the Sydney Games, according to an investigation by the International Gymnastics Federation. Gymnasts must be 16 during the Olympic year to compete.

"Young gymnasts cannot be manipulated," FIG president Bruno Grandi said.

A second gymnast on the 2000 squad, Yang Yun, also was suspected of being underage. But there was insufficient evidence her age had been falsified, and FIG said it was giving her a warning.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:54 PM | Permalink

ESWN translates an article about a Guangdong fireworks mishap that killed 20, created a 7-meter-wide, 2-meter-deep crater and destroyed 8 luxury cars.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 12:33 PM | Permalink

CNN reports on Du Haibin's new documentary, 14:28, on the Wenchuan earthquake, edited by Mary Stephen:

Little more than a year after the quake, Du Haibin's film "1428" won the Orizzonti prize for Best Documentary at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.

Without judgment but with a deep compassion for their subjects, the filmmakers of "1428" bring us a myriad of individual stories of absurdity, confusion and grief.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:20 AM | Permalink