Must-read China news by Danwei

A video and translation on China Study Group, with the following introduction:

Apparently a number of people have been meeting in a public square in Luoyang for some time to ‘publicize Mao Zedong Thought‘, most of the time without incident. Recently, however, the city government in Luoyang has taken a dim view of their actions, and begun to crack down on the participants, urging them not to gather. It is not entirely clear, but the precipitating event may have been an anti-GMO rally earlier this year, wherein the introduction of GMO grain was viewed as an example of the collusion between foreign interests and ‘traitors’ (the officials that approved the deal).

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:48 PM | Permalink

Should the media hold off on reporting on school attacks for fear of inspiring copy-cats?

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:37 PM | Permalink

The BBC reports on the latest incident, this time in Shandong:

Five young children have been hurt at a school in north-eastern China after a man attacked them with a hammer before killing himself.
...
The man, said to be a local farmer, grabbed two children before setting himself on fire at the pre-school in Shandong province's Weifang city.

The children were pulled to safety, and all five - plus an injured teacher - were said to be stable in hospital.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 5:31 PM | Permalink

China Geeks translates a China Youth Daily editorial that puts part of the blame for high housing prices on corruption among government officials.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:38 PM | Permalink

Xinhua has published an article about the new state secrets laws, explaining them from the Chinese government's point of view:

China's parliament on Thursday adopted a revision to the Law on Guarding State Secrets which narrowed the definition of "state secrets," in an effort to boost transparency...

...Local officials often use the excuse "state secrets" to avoid answering inquiries from the public properly.

After the amended law takes effect in October, governments under the county level will have to respond to public questioning with more openness and without the power to classify information as a state secret, Wang said...

...The amended law requires Internet operators and other public information network service providers to cooperate with public and state security departments and prosecutors in probes of state secret leaks.

Prof. Wang said, "Such stipulations are necessary," as fast information transmission can easily cause leaks of state secrets and many countries have similar requirements on network operators.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 11:59 AM | Permalink

Malcom Moore in The Daily Telegraph:

The most entertaining event in Shanghai at the moment is not the humourless Shanghai Expo.

Instead, head for the north end of the Bund and the old Royal Asiatic Society building, which has been taken over by an army of creaky robots, rickety helicopters, homemade submarines and even a makeshift aircraft carrier.

Cai Guoqiang, the artist curating the exhibition ... is one of China’s most famous artists, and ... responsible for the fireworks at the Beijing Olympics, has toured the country collecting the inventions in order to put them on show.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 6:41 PM | Permalink

Wallflower Dispatches interviews Helen Lee, one of China's primary designers.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 4:07 PM | Permalink

ChinaSMACK has some before and after Photoshopped images showing the sisters Kong who are legendary for their long thin legs.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 3:53 PM | Permalink

On the personal website Linshu's Translations are digital interviews with new music masters such as Yan Jun.

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

Nels Frye at Stylites gives retro fashion a name and a shop.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 3:14 PM | Permalink

The USA Today reports:

China was stripped of a bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics on Wednesday for fielding an underage gymnast, with that women's team medal now going to the United States.

The International Olympic Committee acted after investigations by the sport's governing body determined that Dong Fangxiao was only 14 at the 2000 Games. Gymnasts must turn 16 during the Olympic year to be eligible.

"I'm really just proud to know that justice prevailed," said Dominique Dawes, a member of the U.S. squad in 2000. "My teammates are very well-deserving of the bronze medal, and I'm sure each and every one of us will be thrilled. We will cherish it."

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:16 AM | Permalink

The domestic film industry pits itself against Hollywood blockbusters.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 6:27 PM | Permalink

Cfensi translates some press coverage of Daniel Wu, who is appearing with Yuan Quan in Clara Law's Like A Dream:

He’s also wary of acting in any type of costume movie....“To put it simply, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon succeeded because it was a love story, not a historical movie or a complicated cultural movie. In fact, it’s just a simple wuxia movie with a love story added to it — two very simple things added together. But now it’s become that no one is clear what constitutes a costume movie and what constitutes a wuxia movie, to the point where foreigners don’t know what Chinese movies are saying.”

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 3:11 PM | Permalink

The Chinese Law Prof Blog discusses how debt hostages are treated in Chinese law:

Remarkably (to me, anyway), even the formal legal system treats hostage-taking as less reprehensible when it's coupled with a demand for debt repayment. Although the 1979 Criminal Law curiously did not directly prohibit kidnapping for ransom, it did prohibit kidnapping for sale, and made unlawful detention punishable by up to three years' imprisonment. The 1997 Criminal Law contains a new provision punishing kidnapping for ransom by up to life imprisonment (Art. 239). The taking of debt hostages, however, is not considered a type of kidnapping for ransom. Instead, it is assimilated into unlawful detention (Art. 238) and punished by no more than three years' imprisonment. (I suppose this is progress; the specific mention of debt hostages is new to the 1997 Criminal Law, and presumably is there to make clear that hostage-taking is still unlawful even when you think you've got a good reason for it.)

Previously on Danwei: Hospital holds newborn hostage when parents can't pay their bill

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 1:14 PM | Permalink

A New York Times story on Expo-related papering over of Shanghai's trade in bootleg DVDs includes this interesting juxtaposition:

When asked last week what was going on, clerks at Even Better Than Movie World (across the street from its rival Movie World) readily acknowledged to a visitor that they had been told to hide the illegal goods, and that inspectors would pretend not to notice the clandestine backroom operation.

After a few months, they say, the wall will come down and the store will go back to selling illegal DVDs out in the open.

But later, when the same visitor returned, identified himself as a journalist and asked the same question, the clerks pretended there were no secret rooms.

“I don’t know about the existence of that small room,” a clerk at Movie World said last week. Pressed, she said: “I’m not the boss.”

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 10:35 AM | Permalink

From The China Daily

The Chinese government announced Tuesday the lifting of the 20-year-old ban on entry for foreigners with HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and leprosy.

According to a statement released Tuesday by the State Council, after gaining more knowledge about the diseases, the government has realized that such ban has a very limited effect in preventing and controlling diseases in the country. It has, instead, caused inconvenience for the country when hosting various international activities.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 10:26 AM | Permalink

For the last three months, a hospital in Dongguan has refused to release a newborn whose parents have made no payments on their 40,000 RMB hospital bill.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:39 PM | Permalink

A translation of a Southern Weekly report on the work of monks in the earthquake relief effort.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:37 PM | Permalink

A Q&A with Karen Smith, whose book Shanghai, A History in Photographs 1842 - Today, co-authored with H.S. Liu, was just released.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 2:31 PM | Permalink

CNN talks to Wang Jun, author of two best-selling books on urban history and planning in China about urbanization, the mistakes made in Beijing's development since 1949 and prospects for the future of the city of enternal tranquility.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 2:19 PM | Permalink

AP reported via The Independent:

A Tibetan writer who signed an open letter critical of the Chinese government's earthquake relief efforts in western Qinghai province has been detained by police, according to a family friend.

The writer, who publishes under the name Zhogs Dung but whose real name is Tagyal, was among eight signatories of a letter that expressed sorrow for the disaster – which left more than 2,000 people dead – but urged wariness of Chinese government relief efforts.

Last Friday, six police officers arrived at the Qinghai Nationalities Publishing House in the regional capital of Xining, where he worked, and escorted him away, according to a blog written by a friend. They searched his home and confiscated his computers.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 12:03 PM | Permalink

The Asia Society has a feature on the melting glaciers of the Khawa Karpo, in Shangri-la.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:48 AM | Permalink

China Hush has the story.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:29 AM | Permalink

From China Daily:

'Tangjialing Brothers' Li Liguo and Bai Wanlong perform in an underpass in downtown Beijing to raise money for the quake-struck Yushu on April 24, 2010. The two artists live in Tangjialing on the outskirt of Beijing. They are part of the "ant tribe", recent college graduates who live in suburban villages of big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. They work in various jobs and their income is lower than the average for graduates working in big cities.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:24 AM | Permalink

GoChengdoo has a story on Wang Chongchong, the woman who survived two earthquakes.

Posted by Alice Xin Liu at 11:09 AM | Permalink

The Global Times reports that following the April 5 rescue of 115 trapped miners, the remaining 38 have been found dead.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 8:49 AM | Permalink

Digicha, a blog about digital media in China by Bill Bishop, has a good post on Baidu's launch of Qiyi, a Hulu clone, and the prospects for online video companies in China.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:48 PM | Permalink

Not be outdone by CCTV, the state-owned news agency Xinhua is upping the ante. From The China Daily:

The National Financial Information Building is set to become the tallest in Beijing, extending 360 m and edging past the capital's highest structure - the 74-story China World Trade Center III - by some 30 m.

Xinhua News Agency, owner of the building that started construction at the weekend, said it will serve as a center for the collection of information, as a data center and as a site for research and development and be used by Xinhua 08, a computer terminal-based financial information service.

"The National Financial Information Building will reach a height of 360 meters and be the landmark building in Lize business district," Qiu Ming, director of the finance office in Fengtai district, was quoted as saying in Beijing Evening News.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 12:42 PM | Permalink

From The New York Times:

NIAMEY, Niger — For China, the transition seems smooth.

Just a few months ago, China was widely derided here as the financial backbone propping up an autocratic president, Mamadou Tandja, giving him the confidence to ignore international condemnation as he chopped away at Niger’s democratic institutions.

But now that Mr. Tandja has been overthrown, China appears to be settling into a new role: business partner to the good-government-preaching military officers who ousted Mr. Tandja under the banner of restoring democracy.

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn at 9:57 AM | Permalink

Xinhua reports on the long-rumored sacking of Wang Lequan, who was criticized for his handling of the Urumqi riots in July 2009:

Zhang Chunxian has been appointed as the Party chief of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to a decision of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee announced Saturday.

Former secretary of the CPC Xinjiang regional committee Wang Lequan has been appointed as deputy secretary of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee.

Wang Lequan, 65, had held the post since December 1995. Wang was transferred from east China's Shandong Province to Xinjiang in 1991.

Before the appointment, Zhang served as the secretary of the CPC Hunan provincial committee starting from December 2005.

More analysis at The Times and the BBC.

Background at East Asia Forum.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:48 PM | Permalink

At the Washington Post, John Pomfret describes how the Chinese state media's efforts to expand its influence outside of China have not been entirely successful:

Much of the $6.6 billion budget hasn't been allocated because Chinese media companies have come up with unworkable ideas, Chinese government sources said. For example, a scheme to place TV screens showing pro-China content in European supermarkets hasn't materialized because China is having difficulty finding a firm to downlink the satellite feeds.

Beijing bureaucrats ended a program that allowed reporters on the recently relaunched U.S. edition of the China Daily, a Chinese state-owned newspaper, to do original reporting and not simply reprint stories provided by headquarters.

But even reprinting the party line has caused problems. Chinese journalists broadcasting to overseas markets have been punished for repeating reports of state-owned media in China. Chinese diplomats complained that those reports -- in one case about China's mining disasters -- were hurting China's image abroad.

Posted by Joel Martinsen at 4:36 PM | Permalink