China

There’s no doubt that China suffers from some horrible food adulteration problems because of lax control. My colleague Jodi Xu notes that in the last few months there have been a slew of stomach turning cases. In November, for example, the Shanghai authorities issued a warning about buying farmed Turbot after the local health bureau …

On my previous Food Fears post, Mimi and Wildgame commented that if Hong Kongers are worried about what they eat, maybe they should look farther afield and get their food from somewhere else. I’m not sure that’s the solution. For starters, it’s much more expensive. You can see that clearly in some of the high-end grocery stores here that …

Further on the subject of what piques the interest of the evolving Chinese blogosphere, my colleague in the Time bureau Nicole Qu points out that what REALLY gets netiziens stirred up is actually exactly the same as what seems to preoccupy most webheads in the U.S. and elsewhere: which movie star/celebrity is doing what with whom. In …

The China Digital Times has an interview with Wang Keqin by Jonathan Ansfield.
For those of you who are in the mainland and can’t access the site, Wang basically says he doesn’t think that Lan’s case should be discussed in the context of watchdog journalism or “media supervision” as I did yetserday. He argues that the fake journalists …

A few of you have rightly commented that I shouldn’t have called Lan a “rookie reporter” when he really was a “fake” reporter in the sense of deliberately trying to extort money from the mine bosses. You’re right. Special thanks to Ginger, who wrote in:

In this case, maybe you should also include in your argument the fact that Lan was

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Eating is a constant adventure in China these days, and I’m not talking about the ever-growing variety of cuisines you can find in the major cities. I’m referring to the ever-growing number of foods that can make you sick. In Hong Kong it’s a weekly refrain that some product or another has been found to be potentially bad for you. …

Sad indeed. I received word today that fellow reporter Jonathan Napack died in a Hong Kong hospital on Jan. 20th. Genial and wry, Jonathan was a talented writer on many subjects, penning articles for everything from the New Yorker to the old Far Eastern Economic Review (where I was an editor and often commissioned stories from him). He …

Writing that last post made me think about excellent Chinese film Blind Shaft (盲井) which I reviewed for TIME Asia few years ago. It’s a fictional but very realistic thriller set in an illegal coal mine. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.

I just finished reading veteran investigative reporter Wang Keqin’s piece on Lan Chengzhang, the Chinese journalist who was killed two weeks ago while trying to investigate an illegal coal mine. It will make you sick, but you should read it too. (Roland Soong has translated it into English with his usual speed and skill.)

What sets …

China’s vast and opaque system of government sometimes makes it difficult for even experienced China hands (a category by the way to which I sadly cannot claim membership) to agree on what’s going on. There has been debate for some time, for example, over whether a deliberate, central government ordered crackdown on dissent is underway. …

Still bringing you things to love about Beijing in winter.
Number 3: The Flower Market Goes Insane

There’s no better time to go orchid peeping in Beijing than in the period leading up to Chinese New Year. The Lai Tai Flower market near my house has been packed these past few weeks with pre-holiday shoppers. The offerings on sale seem to …

Picking up a point from Austin’s comments, the issue of whether the top Chinese leadership knew about the test of the anti-satellite missile before it was fired. President Bush’s National Security Adviser Stephen Handley suggested in a comment to the New York Times earlier this week that they might not have. That has drawn widespread …

Crisis management types call it the “I am not a crook” denial. It occurs when an accused unnecessarily repeats an allegation, thereby reinforcing it the listeners mind. Richard Nixon is the most famous case of this. Had he merely said, “I am an honest guy,” the phrase might not have had such legs.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu …