Tag: china (last 300)
Xinhua suppresses news
(NYT) Uighur Muslim rioters burned bus passengers alive, displayed Han children’s heads on a stick, says official re: Xinhua censorship.
Retweet
Reddit thisTriple-cross
(New Yorker) PC network for dissidents used by Chinese hackers vs. foreign countries [like India]. WikiLeaks running Tor exit node, decrypted docs and posted some. Triple-cross.
Learn about animals, and how to cook them
(Guardian) Beijing Zoo used to post signs about which parts of animals were tastiest, still sells exotic meat.
China plans massive Brahmaputra dam
(Guardian) China planning Brahmaputra dam in Tibet, half as big again as Three Gorges dam. Could divert sediment from Assam, Bangladesh.
The far pavilion
(Expo2010) Renders of the India pavilion at Shanghai World Expo ’10. Other countries’ pavilions: [via]
India scuppers Chinese telecom purchases
The Coming Sino-Pak Nuclear Deal
(Carnegie) China justifies export of 2X650MW reactors to Pakistan: political developments in South Asia, U.S.’"India deal and India’s NSG exemption. NSG reps expect Obama administration will accept Sino-Pak nuclear commerce as price for support on Iran sanctions.
Demographic challenge for China
(NYT) China’s population is projected to decline in 15 yrs so its one child policy may be relaxed. [India’s will remain young IIRC.]
Tibet quake victims cremated
Don’t anger the premier
(Hill) India says Dell wants to move from China to better legal system, Dell denies, India backpedals. More: [via]
Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger
(Wilsoncenter) Prem Shankar Jha launches book of same name. Wilson Center, yesterday... Shows how both countries will encounter a future less certain, more complicated, and potentially conflicted, than previously recognized.
Butting heads in Asia
(Time) Chinese Netizens’ views of India are very negative. They never seemed to expect India to climb up to the ranks of the great powers.
China’s Pan-Asia Hi-Speed Rail Project
(Hindu) China wants to build a high-speed rail line connecting its south-western city of Kunming to New Delhi and Lahore, part of a 17-country rail project...in the best-case, by 2025, a train journey from Beijing to London would only take two days.
Tibetan uprising day
China wooing Nepal
(NYT) China’s wooing Nepal to police its borders after Tibetan expat protests embarrassed China in the media.
China outpacing India at Sri Lankan port
(NYT) Sri Lanka offered the Hambantota port to India, which turned it down, before China, which offered the best terms for developing it into the 2nd most developed area after Colombo.
As goes Tibet, so goes Google
(AP) Chinese nationalist who backs gov’t on Tibet now running anti-Google site. He earlier launched anti-cnn.com claiming press bias in coverage of beatings of Tibetan protesters.
U.S. sending message with arms to Taiwan
(NYT) Chinese PM climate meeting with India, Brazil seen as Obama snub because underling sent to meet U.S.
‘Avatar’ in China
(NYT) Forget Indian dithering! China seizes property, and people immolate themselves. The thrill of China is the short distance between words and action.
Asia’s true shopping powerhouse
(BusWeek) India is less state-controlled than China, where profits end up in state coffers, not consumer wallets.
Tibetan Stanford student’s Gmail hacked
(Merc) Stanford student Tenzin Seldon’s parents, Tibetan farmers, fled to India. ‘That the Chinese government is intimidated by a 20-year-old is kind of sad.’ Gmail hacked but no malware found on laptop.
Where they’re efficient II
Buddhist Gaiman
China will need to liberalize
(Slate) Any centralized economy can build impressive hardware. China’s moved peasants to manufacturing, but services require a free flow of information.
China hacked Tibet activist’s Gmail
(NYT) India-born Tibetan activist told by Google her Gmail had been hacked by China, asked to turn over laptop for forensic investigation. China wanted Google.com main site censored too.
Google threatens to exit China
(Googleblogspot) Google: China hacked dissidents’ email accounts, so we won’t censor Google.cn any longer. [Likey includes Tibetans. Will they stop censoring Orkut in India?]
India 12-14 years behind China
(BusWeek) India’s GDP is 12-14 yrs behind China, not decades-- the gap from when the two countries’ reforms started.
Targeting a Tibet film
(NYT) Chinese officials called Ritu Sarin’s Tibet doc ‘The Sun Behind the Clouds’ ‘all lies.’ Two traveled to Palm Springs to lean on the curator.
China pulls Palm Springs films
(NYT) China throws film fest tantrum over Ritu Sarin’s Tibet doc ‘The Sun Behind the Clouds,’ made with Tenzing Sonam. Gripping trailer shows Indian cops dragging away protesters: [via]
Fruit complicity
(Yahoo) Apple blocks apps on Dalai Lama and Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer from Chinese iPhone app store.
China executes 4x as many as any other nation
(Reuters) Shaikh case: China executes 4x more people than any other country, 1,718 in ’08. Iran executed 346 and the U.S. 111. It doesn’t return the bodies to the families.
Shaikh case’s political effects
(Guardian) Shaikh execution delighted Chinese nationalists. The last European to be executed in China was an Italian shot by firing squad in ’51.
Delusional man to be executed in China
(Guardian) Briton Akmal Shaikh is either bipolar or has schizophrenia. But China is about to execute him. (ht: Joolz)
Colorstruck China
(WaPo) Chinese love white models. Word for trendy also means foreign. One client never hires black models. ‘It’s an issue of Chinese people’s aesthetic view.’
The ‘Jungle Book’ syndrome
(Time) China is trying to reclaim the Mulan fable from Disney with the 10th filmic version of the tale. [‘Jungle Book,’ ‘Aladdin’...] via @angryasianman
Climate Change in Chindia
(HT) Jairam Ramesh doesn’t get startled easily. Last Friday, the Chinese startled Ramesh. Chinese PM Jiabao told him: you will get a draft by tonight; read it overnight, and if it’s fine, let’s tell the world tomorrow. India had no option but to sign on.
Talking back to your banker
“India #1 in GDP in 2109"
(Bentley) Contrarian argument on why India could have the largest GDP by 2109. “The truth is that no one has any idea what each country’s population will be 100 years from today. But nevertheless we do know more than you’d think..." [via]
Lou Jing should be glad she’s not a Tibetan
(WSJ) China’s public dialogue on racism is limited to foreigners and blacks, not Tibetans and Uighurs.
Also, there are no gays in Iran
(Time) China requires race registration; there’s no mixed race category. Last year, African-Chinese volleyball player Ding Hui caused a stir when he was called up to the national volleyball team.
Chinese idol wouldn’t do it again
(NPR) Jing Lou: ‘I’ve always thought of myself as Shanghainese. But after the competition, I started to have doubts about who I really am... If you beat me to death, I wouldn’t take part in that competition again.’
No love for Obama in China
(WaPo) Black-Chinese singing contest winner Lou Jing was attacked mercilessly for being black. China is colorstruck, while the number of Africans living in China has exploded due to trade. Vid of Lou Jing: [via]
Racism in China
(LAT) An African-American-Chinese woman faced racist invective after she appeared on a Chinese singing contest. Racism is a real issue as Obama visits.
China, Pakistan swapped nuke tech
(WaPo) A.Q. Khan ate barbecued lamb while waiting for the Chinese military to pack small uranium bricks into lead-lined boxes for the flight to Islamabad. (ht: P-I)
The karma of yellow folk
(Forbes) It’s hard to imagine China welcoming millions of hard-working Nigerians and Bangladeshis with open arms. China saw itself as a leader of the global proletariat of Africans and Asians. Now its notion of solidarity is gone.
China View on India View of China
(Outlook) India is a country where opinions are freely expressed...these are presumptuous and agenda-driven. Indian media does fellow Indians a disservice by reporting on China with dogmatic simplicity bordering on contempt. Time to rethink China reportage.
Dibanker Gets His Ass Handed to Him By Neville Maxwille
(Eastasiaforum) MP3 below article
Debate on new IndiaChina clash
Neville Maxwell an old anti india hand comes out ahead and coherent on nearly everything.
History has proven NM wrong wrt india...
Yet “scholar" Debyesh failed miserably.
Small border incidents point to China-India rivalry
(WSJ) China chafes at being hyphenated with India, largerly agrarian with 1/3rd China’s per-capita income. While the U.S. has banned weapons sales to China, it has ramped up such sales to India.
Indochine
(Wiki) Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand are influenced mainly by the culture of India. Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore are more influenced by China with some input from the Champa civilization that Vietnam conquered.
Rolled by China
(Forbes) Sri Lanka played off India against China, Pakistan. Indian foreign policy drifts with whoever’s in power, has no long-term focus. Despite Indian aid, China’s the one building a key Sri Lankan port. (via @tunkuv)
To the neighbors, the spoils
(NYT) The Afghanistan war benefits India and China more than the U.S. China wins either way: with stability it mines resources, without India is distracted from economic growth.
Elephant vs. dragon
(BBC) In 2010, the Indian economy may grow faster than that of China. What is more, experts contend that South Asia could expand at a more rapid pace than East Asia.
India’s China Policy
(Express) India talks loudly, nonstop, and carries a small stick. China may be more sensitive to India’s concerns if it finds out that New Delhi actually has the will to power. C. Raja Mohan, the Henry Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress, writes.
Chinese talk of India war
(ToL) The enemy Chinese most often speak of is India. The censors permit discussing war against India ‘to pay them back for hosting the Dalai Lama.’ ‘Our equipment is much better [since ’62]’ but army corruption is worse. (ht: @tunkuv)
The kite banner
Rattling with fear
(Time) Indian press alarmed by Chinese saber rattling, but real danger is in being outstripped by navy.
The Dum Dum shipment
Hot border
(NYT) The Indian military recorded 270 border violations and nearly 2,300 instances of ‘aggressive border patrolling’ by Chinese soldiers last year. Chellaney: China border hotter than Pakistan.
Syringe stabbings in Xinjiang
(CNN) Uighurs in China allegedly stabbed 400 Han with contaminated syringes over the past few weeks in Urumqui, capital of Xinjiang.
Using RAW against Uighurs
(FP) China wants Indian intel on Uighurs in Waziristan, calling them terrorists. But Indian intel focuses on Pakistani Punjab and Kashmir.
The China-Pakistan Equation
(Outlook) China, irked by Uighur-Turkestani separatists’ links to Pakistan mujahideen, gave a measly $500M at Pakistan’s 2008 near-bankruptcy. Wary of Indo-US gang-up, it will not antagonize India. Pakistan needs to wake up, writes Aparna Pande, Boston U.
Lean on India re: Burma
(TNR·L) Re: Webb’s Burma op-ed, we have more leverage with India than with China, which is a far more brutal regime.
Big John mixed up India with China
(ToI) Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) says he mixed up India and China when he called India an armed threat to the U.S. like Iran and North Korea. [From the mouths of babes with nukes.]
California apologizes for Asian discrimination
(LAT) California’s Assembly expressed regret for the Asian Exclusion Act and the persecution of Chinese immigrants who built the railroads. [Now onto U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind.] (via @shashwati)
Town of spies
(NYT) Kashgar, Xinjiang, is full of gov’t informers and journalist ‘minders’ like N. Korea or the old USSR for fear of Uighur Muslim nationalism.
The Mujahideen Strategy: Again?
(Hindu) Islamist fighters surging all over Central Asia — from the Caucasus north of Turkey all the way to Xinkiang. In Kabul, Ghani may replace Karzai; the good-bad Taliban may blur; Turkmenistan-Xinkiang pipeline may start up. Is it the dragon this time?
Big-spendin’ Sanford
(AP) SC gov Mark Sanford bought Nikki Haley a $7K ticket to China. She claims she can’t remember whether she flew first class. Both pols claim fiscal responsibility as campaign points. More: [via]
Lawmakers barred from meeting Gitmo detainees
(ABC) Members of Congress are prohibited from meeting with Guantanamo detainees, even as intelligence officials from China interrogate them.
Anglo-phoneys
(Atlantic) Many a native English speaker has flown to China only to find the job could ‘only’ be performed by a white person, becase a person with darker skin could not possibly make a good teacher.
Cow worship in Xinjiang
Dear Hu Jintao
(AFP) Uighurs and supporters protest in Japan, sending letter to Chinese premier, like ‘The White Tiger.’
India in the rear-view mirror
(WSJ) India spends just 5% of GDP on roads, China almost thrice that. Some new highways aren’t yet on Chinese maps — the best directions come from the tollbooth.
A history of pearls
(VF) In Ceylon, pearl harvesting began with incantations to ward off sharks. The Chinese inserted lead images of Buddha into mussels, creating Buddha-like mother-of-pearl shapes.
McNamara Wanted China Nuked
(IBN) If it attacked India again. “Any large Chinese Communist attack on any part of that area would require the use of nuclear weapons by the US, and this is to be preferred over the introduction of large numbers of US soldiers" — RS McN to JFK, May 1963.
Uighur riots evoke Tibet grievances
(WSJ) Uighurs and Tibetans both complain of religious suppression and discrimination by Han who’ve been settling their lands.
India doing better with villages than China
(WSJ) India’s urban-rural income disparity is narrowing faster than China’s. Shanghai was built on the backs of peasants forced to deposit into state-owned banks, getting little return.
Good enough to counterfeit
(EconTimes) Counterfeit Chinese meds and clothes with ‘Made in India’ labels are being sold in Nigeria. (ht: Arzan)
China, India border dispute heats up
(WSJ) China developed its infrastructure along the disputed India border, littering the barren terrain with transport which can move many troops. On 6/11 it taunted India in a state newspaper.
Study ties savings to sex ratios
(NYT) Study: Chinese parents save competitively because scarce girls will want to marry rich boys. India also has high savings rate [but no causal link attempted].
3 high-profile monks escape China
(NYT) The Tibetan monks learned of a guide in Lhasa who could smuggle them into Nepal. Using fake IDs, they boarded the new high-altitude train to Lhasa. A driver snuck them past checkpoints to the Nepal border, where they crossed a river on logs.
Uighurs bask in Bermudan waters
(NYT) Bermudans shook Uighurs’ hands and wished them well as the men basked in the sun. Other Chinese Muslims will be released in Palau in the Pacific.
Chinese censorship color-struck
(Zonaeuropa) Chinese gov’t-mandated Net trojan blocks light-skinned nudity but not dark-skinned. Pigs are banned, naked African women are not.
Shah Rukh in Chinese
(Vid) Chinese dude sings ‘Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai’ (I Can See God in You) from ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ on ‘Chinese Idol.’ Meiyang Chang is much better, having grown up speaking it. (ht: @Shashwati) The original: [via]
China’s version of rendition
(Mattsteinglass) Chinese plainclothes men are allowed to harass journalists in Nepal. The 2 U.S. reporters convicted in N. Korea were picked up on the Chinese side with their help.
China’s Green Dam
(NYT) China is forcing PC makers to preinstall a censorship Trojan. [India merely blocks YouTube upstream when someone jokes about Shivaji.]
China too asks for Aussie protection
Rickshaw heroes
(NYT) During the Tiananmen massacre, it was the rickshaw drivers who risked their lives to bring back the wounded.
20 years ago today
(Vid) Today is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, evoking a domestic Jallianwala Bagh. The tank-stopping protester at 2:15 was likely executed.
Economies head-to-head
(Wolframalpha) Wolfram Alpha: India GDP still declining versus China’s. But making sharp progress vs. U.S.: [via]
Asha Huntsman’s dad new China ambassador
(WaPo) The adoptive father of Asha Huntsman, Utah gov. Jon Huntsman, is Obama’s Chinese ambassador nominee. He’s fluent in Mandarin from being a Mormon missionary, and also adopted a Chinese girl.
Jimmy’s Chinese
Fareed and the Lama
(CNN) Zakaria interviews the Dalai Lama about China and reincarnation. The Lama’s accent sounds part-desi, part-Chinese.
Burmese minorities watch Chinese pipeline warily
(NYT) Ethnic rebels in Burma control timber, jade, gems, heroin and methamphetamines. They are loath to surrender to the Burmese junta.
Chinese billions fund fight vs. LTTE
(ToL) Ever since China gave Sri Lanka $1B for a naval port in Hambantota, the country’s had all the money it needed to fight the LTTE. China’s encircling India with ports at Gwadar in Pakistan, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Sittwe in Burma.
The name’s Du Xiao, but you can call me Steve
(Slate) I was surprised that urban professionals in China use English names, because it’s more egalitarian. Most forms of address reinforce pecking orders, such as ‘Third Uncle’ and ‘Second Daughter’ at home or ‘Old Wang’ or ‘Little Hu.’
India upset with China over Sri Lanka crisis
(ToI) While India has a much more nuanced position over the issue owing to its domestic compulsions, an unfettered China is supporting Colombo and, in the process, authenticating India’s fear about Beijing extending its influence in the Indian Ocean.
China makes noises about carriers
(WaPo) China may be 5 years out from building an aircraft carrier for ‘sea-control capability’ in northeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.
Emerging from the Lincoln Tunnel
(WaPo) The Dalai Lama’s nephew completed a four-week walk from Indianapolis to a rally before the Chinese consulate in New York to publicize the Tibetan crisis and the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising.
The black chuddi campaign
(WaPo) 9 Tibetan students protesting 2 Tibetans’ death sentence stripped and chained themselves to barbed wire fencing outside the Chinese Embassy in Delhi.
Gargantuo Buddha
(Zatpw) The tallest statue in the world is the 420 foot tall, $55M Spring Temple Buddha in China. It’s a reply to the Taliban’s blowing up the Bamiyan Buddha. [via]
Chinese hunger for sons fuels kidnappings
(NYT) A Chinese toddler boy was lured away by someone with a slice of mango. Most of the boys are purchased domestically by families desperate for a male heir. Cops won’t even open cases because it makes them look bad. [Like Noida serial killings.]
Indian Embassy, DC hacked by Chinese botnet
(NYT) Chinese botnet penetrated Indian embassy in Washington, Dalai Lama’s email servers, Tibetan exile organizations.
Mandela, Tutu to boycott over Dalai visa
(WaPo) After South Africa denied the Dalai Lama a visa, saying it was worried about protests before the ’10 World Cup, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela said they would probably boycott the peace summit.
China blocks YouTube over Tibet
Tibetan suicide sparks attack
(AP) Hundreds of Tibetans attacked a police station in China after a man arrested for unfurling a Tibetan flag asked cops to go to the bathroom, then committed suicide by jumping into the Yellow River.
Real-life ‘White Tiger’
(WaPo) A real-life Balram Halwai, a soldier who wrote to the Chinese premier expressing regret for killing someone (during Tiananmen), was arrested within the week.
Tibet protest on Brooklyn Bridge
(AP) Several thousand protesters waving Tibetan flags walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and through Times Square, some in the crimson robes of Buddhist monks. They called out ‘shame on China’ and converged near the nation’s consulate.
Lockdown in Lhasa
(ToL) Armed paramilitary police have surrounded Tibetan monasteries across China. Inside, frightened monks have hidden away their illegal photographs of the Dalai Lama. Text messaging is blocked. Sandbag bunkers in town squares.
50th anniversary of Tibetan uprising
(AP) Chinese rule in Tibet has created a ‘hell on earth’ that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans, the Dalai Lama said Tuesday in a speech to mark the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent him into exile.
Burned Tibetan monk shot
(AP) A Tibetan monk protesting Chinese suppression of a religious holiday set himself on fire and was then shot by Chinese police.
Burning Jintao in effigy
(WSJ) A protest in Dharmsala will burn effigies of Mao Zedong and Chinese President Hu Jintao, as part of the traditional ‘sweeping away of evil spirits’ ahead of the Tibetan New Year.
‘Human flesh engines’ enforce mob rule
(ToL) Chinese online lynch mobs issued death threats to a Chinese student at Duke who backed Tibetans and a Tibetan protesting the Olympic torch relay. The student’s family went into hiding. (ht: Kerim)
Suffer the children II
(Atimes) After Pakistan gave China a ‘blank check’ to resolve its 11/26-caused diplomatic row with India, India imposed a 6 month ban on toys made in China.
Chindia Complementarity
(Mckinseyquarterly) Harvard Prof. Tarun Khanna is optimistic about cooperation between the two Asian economic leaders. Anecdotes of cooperation in business and symbolism in state visits.
Mongrel feast
(CBC) A friend might serve baba ghanouj, tacos and sushi. ‘Chandni Chowk’ is the filmic equivalent of his mongrel feasts. The producers are hell-bent on bragging they got access to a small stretch of the Great Wall.
‘Chandni’s’ lifts
(TO Star) ‘Chandni Chowk’ director Nikhil Advani has ripped off all the best scenes in Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Surely Bollywood’s first zombie comedy can’t be far behind.
The origin of Shaolin
(Voice) Shapeless, shameless, and slapdash. Sizable chunks of it were actually filmed in Thailand.... Legend: itinerant Indian monk Bodhidharma devised exercises to help lethargic Chinese monks stay focused — thus shaolin.
‘Chandni’ no ‘Slumdog’
(Philly) 30 min of entertainment and 2 hrs of agony... not terribly PC cultural caricatures... The potato is a running joke, and the filmmakers run with it like they are in a marathon.
The legend of drunken mister
(Variety) Production values are topnotch. The fight scenes choreographed by the martial-arts director on “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and “Kill Bill’ take off; Kumar’s homage to Jackie Chan’s “Drunken Master" is a real tickle.
Stop it. Just stop it.
(Startribune) “Chandni Chowk to China" is the “the first-ever Bollywood kung-fu comedy," which makes me pray it will also be the last: a Frankenstein’s monster of a film that references everything from ‘Kill Bill’ to ‘Goldfinger."
Audience will accept
(Rottentomatoes) ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ scores a relatively high 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. The soft bigotry of low cultural expectations?
‘Chandni’ doesn’t shine
(EW) Akshay Kumar carries on in the hysterical fashion of a Hindi Roberto Benigni. It all makes you want to see a Bollywood movie, all right — a good one.
Impressionist Ganesha
(Suntimes) Ebert: This is the first Bollywood movie to get a N. American release from a major studio, because it is a slapstick comedy containing a lot of kung fu. The Ganesh potato makes the Jesus portraits on sandwiches look like Norman Rockwells.
Potato magic
(BoGlobe) ‘Chandni Chowk’ requires Americans to accept an action hero who talks to potatoes. Sporting a ponytail and a handlebar mustache and looking like a cross between Adam Sandler and Borat, Kumar dials his overacting up to 11.
Into the Pu’er house
(NYT) A Chinese region which makes Pu’er fermented tea lived through a mania which then collapsed. Even cabbies were hawking tea. Pu’er tastes better with age; 19th century vintages sell for $thousands per wedge.
‘Chandni’ Chindia
(NYT) ‘Chandni Chowk’: Sidhu has a kung fu move from years of cutting vegetables... An interpreter called Chopstick... Asia’s two superpowers meet in pop culture. The point: don’t be afraid of China’s accomplishments.
Chindia cinema
(SF Chron) After the effervescent, mad ‘From Chandni Chowk to China,’ with Ganesha embodied in a potato, how about Jackie Chan and Akshay Kumar in ‘From Panjiayuan Market to Punjab’? (ht: Tania)
Xinhua sticks up for Pakistan
(Xinhuanet) Official Chinese news agency claims Pakistan is taking 11/26 dossier seriously, quotes only Pakistan side calling Indian version propaganda.
Better born Indian or Chinese?
(FP) ‘The Hindu’s’ Chinese correspondent says best: high-caste Indian man with political freedom. 2nd best: wealthy Chinese woman. If poor: an Indian latrine cleaner may get to vote, but a Chinese one is less likely to be viewed as subhuman.
How China would’ve handled 11/26
(NYT) Gurcharan Das: My Chinese friend was shocked as much by the transparent and competitive minute-by-minute reporting of the attack by India’s dozens of news channels as by the ineffectual response of the government. (ht: Dad)
Do not molest your monkey
(Telegraph Photo) Angry Chinese monkeys turn on their cruel trainer and beat him senseless with his own stick.
China comes to ISI’s aid
(McClatchy) China has blocked UN blacklisting of ex-ISI chief Hamid Gul... LeT sent jihadis to attack U.S. troops in Iraq... If there’s an India-Pakistan war over 11/26, the worry is over the Afghanistan war. [Never mind the 1.2 billion in the subcontinent.]
The red cover district
(Indep) A German science journal wanted a classical Chinese text for its cover. Instead it got a flyer for a Macau brothel. [Remember Beckham’s ‘Vhictoria’?] [via]
Bolly-kung fu
(Traileraddict) Extended ‘From Chandni Chowk to China’ trailer with Ranvir Shorey made up to look Asian, because Indians can do Long Duk Dong too. Trailer doesn’t airbrush wires.
Did Britain sell out Tibet?
(NYT) In exchange for getting China to give money to the IMF, Britain just dropped its insistence that Tibet is a suzerainty rather than part of China.
Tibetans continue ‘middle path’
(NYT) Tibetans meeting in Dharamsala decided to continue the Dalai Lama’s nonviolent methods but suspend negotiations. Unlike British and Portuguese colonies, Tibet was not offered autonomy.
Dalai bowing out in Dharamsala
(NYT) Posters around Dharamsala advertise rangzen, Tibetan for independence. Tibetans are losing international support because of China’s growing economic clout. This week’s conclave may mark a handover from the Dalai Lama to civilian leaders.
China wary of Islam
(NYT) Wary of a pan-Islamic identity in Xinjiang, China tries to block Uighur Muslims from going on hajj, fasting or growing beards without permission. One university locks students in during iftar.
Zardari rebuffed by China
(NYT) After China, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia turned down Pakistani requests for cash, Zardari may have to return to the IMF.
China’s chamcha
(WSJ) On his first official visit abroad since taking office [not counting D.C.], Asif Zardari promised to return to China every 3 months. China’s foreign-exchange reserves are the world’s largest, $1.9T.
Pakistan asks China for cash
(WaPo) After being cut by S&P to the lowest debt rating, Pakistan asked China for $3-6B in aid. Musharraf had subsidized fuel prices so as not to be turned out of office. Pakistan has frozen short selling and could freeze foreign funds.
Lal Masjid seige at behest of China?
(NYT) Lal Masjid mullahs kidnapped seven Chinese masseuses. The subsequent masjid raid was seen as a result of pressure from China, which built a deepwater port in Pakistan.
Great WSJ story on CIA-funded Tibetan resistance
(WSJ) The Dalai Lama’s brother was involved in the CIA-funded Tibetan resistance. Disgusted by infighting, one man eventually opened a dumpling restaurant in Darjeeling. Others committed suicide rather than disband.
Dalai Lama accuses China of killing 140 Tibetans
(AFP) Dalai Lama: ‘The Chinese army again fired on a crowd on Monday in the Kham region in eastern Tibet. 140 Tibetans are reported to have been killed, but the figure needs to be confirmed.’
iTunes ‘banned’ after Tibet album
(Zmemusic) Songs for Tibet compilation on iTunes with tracks by Alanis Morissette, Sting, Moby apparently got iTunes partially blocked in China.
Chopsocky Bollywood
(Wiki) ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ is a Bollywood action-comedy about a simple cook from Chandni Chowk mistaken for the reincarnation of an ancient peasant warrior Liu Sheng by residents of an oppressed Chinese village.
Tibet protest in LED
(NYT) China arrested five Americans after they spelled out ‘Free Tibet’ in blue LEDs in both Chinese and English. Perhaps they know MIT student Star Simpson. With cool photo.
More slit-eyed photos emerge
(Telegraph) Four members of Argentina’s Olympic women’s football team made slit-eyed gestures before Beijing. Spain’s Olympic women’s tennis team made the same gesture earlier this year. Spain insists it’s not a racist thang there. [via]
Tibet activist arrested in Hong Kong
(Gettyimages Photos) Hong Kong U student arrested after unfurling Tibet flag outside Olympic event in HK. More photos: [via]
Tibet protesters clamber up pylon
(ToL) Two Americans and two Brits unfurled a ‘Free Tibet’ banner from a 120 foot pylon in Beijing. The Brits were greeted by cheering supporters at London City Airport after they were deported from China.
The outline of a Tibet deal
(NYT) Kristof: Young Tibetans say the Dalai Lama is too conciliatory and violent liberation is needed after his death... China’s hot-headed secretary for Tibet, Zhang Qingli, brightens any room by leaving it.
Beijing taxis are bugged
(WSJ) For the last 3 years, Beijing taxis have been outfitted with wireless microphones run by state security, GPS tracking and remote engine cutoff. [I’m skeptical a Big Brother econ will outpace Indian democracy in the long run-- stifles creativity.]
Tibet still blocked at Olympics
(NYT) China unblocked Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Radio Free Asia and BBC Chinese for foreign press but kept topics like Tibet and Tiananmen blocked.
IOC knuckled under to China
(Reuters) International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China censor Web sites for foreign press, admitted an IOC official. The sites include an Amnesty Int’l report which discusses Tibet.
China censoring foreign media at Olympics
(Reuters) China has broken an Olympics promise to give foreign press uncensored Net access. At the press venue, it is blocking an Amnesty Int’l report on human rights and Tibet and sites related to Falun Gong.
Why India will beat China
(BusWeek) Authoritarian systems often deliver impressive results in the short ter, but in the long term India’s superior rural property rights, legal system and IP protection will propel it past a destabilized China.
China reneged on openness promises
(NYT Op/ed) At least 10 foreign journalists have received death threats since they reported on Tibet. Corporate sponsors for the Games look the other way. Dubya too has been silent.
China’s young neocon nationalists
(New Yorker) Young nationalist: ‘Do you live on democracy? You eat bread, you drink coffee. Indian guys have democracy, but they can’t feed their own people...’ A Chinese Tibet mediator was called a race traitor. Her mother is in hiding.
California uses more gas than India
(Wired) California’s 37M people use more gas than India, China, or any non-U.S. country in the world. China will catch up this year.
China screening concert set lists
(Guardian) China is requiring artists to submit set lists and even encores in advance after Bjork cried, ‘Tibet, Tibet!’ at a concert. [via]
Bjork spooks China
(BBC) After Bjork shouted ‘Tibet, Tibet’ at a Shanghai concert, China will ban performers who make similar political statements. It banned Taiwanese pop star Chang Hui-Mei for a year after she sang the Taiwanese anthem. [via]
Ad agency plays both sides in Tibet spat
(WSJ) A large ad agency created Adidas ads backing Chinese nationalism at the same time it made Amnesty Int’l ads showing athletes attached to shooting targets and tortured by Chinese cops.
Beijing harkens back to Berlin Olympics
(FP) Like this year’s ‘Festival of Peace’ in Beijing, Hitler did everything possible during the Berlin Games to project the best possible image of Germany. [via]
Obama would not attend Olympics
(AP) Barack Obama said as president, he’d attend the Beijing Olympics only if he saw Tibet progress. Dubya and Sarkozy are attending the opening ceremony.
Oil shock crimps Chinese manufacturing
(Telegraph) China relies on Ricardian trade with thin margins. Any low-tech product shipped in bulk is facing the ever-rising tariff of high freight costs. The Asian manufacturing outsourcing game will be hurt. [Services outsourcing doesn’t rely much on oil.]
Tibetan monk accused of being Indian spy
(NYT) China accused a Tibetan monk of being an Indian spy. When Gyatso refused to denounce the Dalai Lama, soldiers hung him ‘naked like a light bulb from the ceiling’ and beat him with iron bars. ‘Fire Under the Snow’ is a Japanese documentary on him.
The five deadly Olympic mascots
(LAT) China is worried about a locust swarm during the Olympics. Superstitious Chinese have linked the five Chinese Olympic mascots to inauspicious events. Yingying, a Tibetan antelope, is tied to the unrest in Lhasa. [via]
Gitmo torture designed by China
(NYT) Guantanamo personnel lifted a torture manual from a ’57 study on torture committed by Chinese Communists.
Beijing Olympics prop up repressive regime
(NYT) Tibet is irrelevant — the Beijing Olympics are for domestic consumption, justifying the autocracy’s power to its own people... Chinese police interrogated a Korean fan of Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park for a sign reading ‘Park is No. 1.’
The new hyphenated relationship
(WaPo) Bill Emmott, author of ‘Rivals’ about China, India and Japan competition, thinks the U.S.-India nuclear agreement is ‘an act of grand strategic importance’ as a counterweight against China.
IOC complains China politicized torch relay
(WSJ) The Int’l Olympic Committee complained about China politicizing the torch relay with this closing ceremony statement: ‘The sky above Tibet will never change. The red five-star flag will always fly above this land.’
Olympic torch passes through Lhasa
(NYT) The Olympic torch stepped in Lhasa for just two hours Saturday, with bellicose rhetoric: ‘Tibet’s sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it.’
Beijing prevents lawyers from defending Tibetans
(NYT) Two prominent Chinese human rights lawyers have lost their licenses after volunteering to defend Tibetans charged in the violent anti-China protests in March.
Daughter? You get a do-over
(WaPo) Chinese officials are happy at quake aid after Tibet protests. Quake victims will be exempt from the one-child policy. In rural parts, many are already allowed a second child, especially if the first was a girl.
Save a yuan, kill a child
(NYT) Like quakes in Pakistan and Iran, the China quake seems to have killed thousands because of construction which cut corners. Rebar had too few supporting rods and watered-down concrete.
Quake pushes Tibet to sidelines
Lama gets cold shoulder
(NYT) To avoid angering their trade partner China, Germany and the UK have sent low-level flunkies to meet the Dalai Lama on his current foreign tour.
China blocks Shiva pilgrimage
(NYT) After Tibet protests, China has retracted visas and barred thousands of Hindus from visiting Mount Kailash in Tibet, considered Shiva’s home.
China using facial recognition vs. Tibetans
(Rollingstone) The Tibet debacle was a boon to the Communist Party in China. When the Olympics begin, much of the Tibetan movement will be behind bars... A U.S. company, L-1, supplies facial recognition software which enables the police state. [via]
Fed up with peace
(NYT) Kristof: We may see a Tibetan equivalent of the IRA. The Dalai Lama has played a waiting game, but as China gains global power — and as more Han Chinese flood into Tibet — that has been a losing strategy.
Tibetan monks hiding in mountains
(NYT) China loses far more face from repressing Tibetans than from anything the Dalai Lama has ever done. Monks have been systematically beaten. ‘There won’t be any more protests before the Olympics. The pressure is too great.’
China, Burma slow to react to disasters
(WSJ) In democracies, public pressure pushes elected officials to act. In nondemocracies like China and Burma, after nature kills people, delay and incompetence kill the rest. [But what of Katrina?]
Cheap buildings killed thousands
(Insidebayarea) As in previous earthquakes in India, Pakistan and Iran, the Chinese quake killed people largely because of builders who cut corners and concrete buildings which didn’t assume seismic activity. [via]
Chinese quake set off by plate tectonics
(NYT) Where Asia and India collide, the Tibetan plateau is pushing southeast against the flat Sichuan basin. On Monday afternoon, an upward thrust fault broke, generating an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.9.
Lama resuming negotiations with China
(NYT) The Dalai Lama is scheduled to resume negotiations for China to relax repression in Tibet. Meanwhile the German president and the foreign minister are refusing to meet him, fearful of angering China.
Expel Burma from UN
(WSJ) The Burmese junta seized UN aid while bodies still float in water. If the UN doesn’t suspend Burma’s membership, then clearly nothing is forbidden. If China tries to veto, let them do so on the eve of the Beijing Olympics.
A thousand deadly sickles
(WaPo) By Tibetan writer and blogger Woeser: ‘Having been born and raised under the bugles of the PLA, / I am a suitable inheritor of Communism. / Egg under the red flag, suddenly cracked and broken.’
Blogging in a police state
(WaPo) The best-known modern Tibetan writer, Woeser, blogs in Chinese about her homeland. Her U.S.-hosted blog was hit with a denial of service attack. She’s been arrested, warned not to write, her books and blog have been banned.
Tibet sign costs climber Everest shot
(WaPo) A Virginian climber was deported before he could drop a Tibet banner into an Everest crevice. Tibetan pilgrims inching on hands and knees were seared into his mind. ‘I just wanted to take a picture at the top and put it on my wall, man.’
Jackie Chan carries Olympic torch
(WaPo) Jackie Chan carried the Olympic torch in the resort city of Sanya, China, where Tibet protesters were invisible. Coca-Cola, Lenova and Samsung passed out flags and T-shirts with their logos alongside the Olympic rings and China’s six stars.
Tibet protests could turn on Chinese gov’t
(Economist) The appearance of Chinese people united behind the government is an illusion. China, like India, is a land of a million mutinies now... Popular anger, once roused against Tibetans, can easily turn on the gov’t.
Sniper enforces Everest ban
(Wired) One young American climber was found with a ‘Free Tibet’ sign and deported. Others are banned from Everest until after the torch relay. A sniper stands by. ‘The Chinese bribed the Nepalese to make the mountain a police state.’
China insecure and frosty over Tibet
(WaPo) A WaPo reporter in China was pushed around and threatened. An American shopper at Carrefour in China was roughed up, perhaps confused for being French.
Dark matters
(NYT) Turning against the Western media they praised during Tiananmen, Chinese students in the U.S. are growing thuggish at Tibet forums, yelling, ‘Stop lying!,’ issuing death threats and throwing water bottles at speakers and monks.
Hong Kong turns illiberal on Tibet
(NYT) Hong Kong, normally more liberal than mainland China, detained 3 Danish Tibet protesters and deported them to London. A Tibetan monk was also turned away. In Kuala Lumpur, China backers took swings at Japanese Tibet protesters.
Even Tibetan flags are made in China
(BBC) A Chinese factory owner making Tibet flags said they were ordered by exiles in Inida, and he did not know they represented independence. Workers spotted the flags on TV and checked the meaning online. [via]
New torch protests not about Tibet
(NYT) Chinese counterprotesters in S. Korea hurled rocks, bottled water and plastic and steel pipes at protesters who were demanding better treatment for N. Korean refugees in China. Two N. Korean defectors were stopped from immolating themselves.
Chinese activists pivot on propaganda
(WaPo) Taking their cue from gov’t propaganda, Chinese activists are no longer calling for a boycott of Carrefour over Tibet protests in Paris.
Chinese-American student at Duke threatened over Tibet
(WaPo) Chinese-American backing dialogue with Tibet was threatened, her parents in China went into hiding, windows smashed, bucket of feces emptied on their doorstep, their citizen #’s from Chinese police posted online.
China to Dalai: Stop harshing my mellow
(NYT) China appeared to bend to international pressure on Friday as the government announced it would meet with envoys of the Dalai Lama.
Chinese to boycott French retailer over torch
(NYT) Chinese mobilizing month-long Carrefour boycott because of poor Olympic torch security in Paris. ‘Tibet is our country’s territory. You have no right to interfere. We have to teach the French people a lesson.’
China arrests up to 100 monks
(NYT) Up to 100 Tibetans were beaten and arrested in Tongren, Qinghai, a province bordering Tibet, after they protested against... monk arrests.
Beijing Tibet museum toes party line
(NYT) A new Tibet museum in Beijing edits the Dalai Lama out of the narrative and rewrites Tibetan history Soviet-style. Scholars are regularly searched at airports for books which contradict the official line.
Zakaria: Don’t boycott Olympic party
(WaPo) Fareed Zakaria: In almost all cases — Turkey, India — granting autonomy to groups that press for it has created more peace. But that is a lesson the Chinese government will have to learn for itself. [via]
Aussie PM chides China in Mandarin
(ToL) Speaking in fluent Mandarin to students at Beijing University, Australian PM Kevin Rudd criticized China’s treatment of Tibet.
China attempted damage control in SF
(SF Chron) Thousands of Chi-Ams bused into SF by the Chinese consulate and Chinese orgs waved identical placards and flags which blocked Tibet signs from news cameras.
Burmese squeeze
(WSJ) Mandalay used to be half Indian. Now it’s full of Mandarin pop and Chinese pagodas gaudier than Indian Buddhist ones. Gurudwaras and Indian merchants have vanished. China sold arms to woo the Burmese junta.
Monks disrupt Chinese presser
(NYT) Buddhist monks interrupted a gov’t propaganda tour in western China, waved a Tibetan flag and told reporters they were deprived of human rights. They draped their faces in red cloth to avoid police retaliation.
Torchbearer’s awkward metaphor
(Google) SF canceled the Olympic torch ceremony at its ballpark... After being given the Olympic flame, Majora Carter pulled out a Tibetan flag that she had hidden in her shirt sleeve. ‘The Chinese security and cops were on me like white on rice.’ [Touche.]
Tibet through Chinese eyes
(Atlantic) Chinse students: ‘I will use my friendship to help the Tibetans. But if they refuse, I will use war to develop them, like the Americans did with the Indians.’ [via]
Chinese students drown out Tibet protesters in SF
(AP) A Sunnyvale software engineer took a day off from work and waited 4 hours until he heard the route was changed. 200 Chinese students from UC Davis mobbed a car full of Tibet protesters. Ben and Jerry, the ice cream entrepreneurs, protested.
Nose of the rising sun
(LAT Photo) Child with Tibet flag painted on his face and his nose as the sun. From San Francisco protest.
Flame meets flaming
(NYT) The Golden Gate Tibet protesters smuggled in the banners in baby strollers. The SF city council voted to condemn China. ‘We got monks tomorrow, Desmond Tutu and Richard Gere here today, and a nude torch relay trailing the torch. It won’t be boring.’
Brits complain of Chinese Olympic heavies
(Tabloid) Konnie Huq on Chinese heavies from the ‘Sword of Flying Dragons’ unit [commandos, or cosplay?]: ‘They were very robotic, skirmished with our own police, barked orders at me, like ‘Run! Stop!’ They kept pushing my hand up.’
Tibet protests a new phase of the Olympics
(Crookedtimber) Political elites used to decide whether to boycott the Olympics. But now grassroots protests are preventing leaders from keeping China happy at all costs, forcing them to meet with the Dalai Lama and mutter about boycotts. [via]
No Chinese security for torch in Delhi
(IBN) India has turned down China’s request for its Red Guard commandos to accompany the Olympic torch on its short, 3 km jaunt through Delhi.
Tendulkar to carry Olympic torch
(DNA) Sachin Tendulkar refused to comment on Tibet protests and said he was looking forward to carrying the Olympic torch from Lal Qila to India Gate in Delhi.
Eiffel protesters unfurl Tibet banner
(BBC Photo) At least 5 Tibet protesters scaled the Eiffel Tower and unfurled a banner with the Olympic rings as handcuffs. So when Nepal shut down the Everest ascent, this is where all the mountaineers went.