World

I asked for and got some smart, considered replies on the rubber stamp issue (and a fair amount of abuse, too, for the record). The thrust was that I was probably right in being uneasy using the term because of all the baggage it carries: Bottom line is that the NPC does do important work but that it isn’t anything like a representative, …

In my last entry I succumbed to the reporter’s original sin and referred to the National People’s Congress, the annual meeting of some 2800 or so selected delegates that is a sort of Chinese parliament, as China’s “rubber stamp” parliament. So today, reflecting, I thought maybe that I was being was lazy, using a cliche …

So China is to raise its official military spending by nearly 18 per cent. According to a spokesman at the National People’s Congress, the rubber stamp parliament whose annual session begins today, military spending in 2008 will reach 417.8 billion yuan ($57.2 billion). This comes on the heels of a Pentagon report which sounds the alarm …

Back in June, the people of the coastal city of Xiamen came out onto the streets for two successive days to protest plans to allow a billion-dollar chemical plant to be built within city limits. It was an unprecedented but entirely peaceful demonstration and, after considerable twists and turns, eventually resulted in the municipal …

Anyone who is wondering what the future holds for China might take a close look at what happened in Russia over the weekend. As was widely predicted President Valdimir Putin’s choice for a successor Dimitri Medvedev handily won presidential elections and will make Putin his prime minister. According to the New York Times,”The election of …

When I first came to China 12 years ago, I walked through the Beijing Capitol International Airport and wondered what I had gotten into. I had flown from San Francisco via Tokyo, and the contrast between the two airports I passed through and my destination was stark. Unlike those efficient, modern hubs, Beijing’s airport was cramped and …

To follow on Simon’s post below about Zeng Jinyan, it’s worth noting what Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had to say yesterday regarding human rights. During a joint press conference with U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Yang said, “The Chinese people enjoy extensive freedom of speech,”

Where’s My Daddy?

Human Rights watch in New York have issued a call for Beijing to release activist Hu Jia, whose case we have followed closely. “The case of Hu Jia, who will as of February 27 have been detained for two months, has become emblematic of Beijing’s broad attempt to suppress dissent ahead of the Olympic Games,” the …

We’ve been having a glorious early spring in Beijing with a series of clear days, temperatures in the low 60s (or mid teens, depending on your orientation). With only five months to go before you-know-what, the rumor mils have started grinding. Apart from the speculation about how the …

China has a new Olympic worry that could leave protests and air pollution in the shade: will Yao play? The hoops superstar suffered a stress fracture in his left foot that will end his NBA season. Now the question is whether the Houston Rockets center will be well in time for the Games. His injury is expected to heal in June, just two …

At the Olympic media center this afternoon Beijing environmental officials defended the city’s record on reducing air pollution. When asked about allegations that emissions recording locations were shifted to less polluted areas as part of an effort to cook the numbers, Du Shaozhong, deputy head of the Beijing Environmental Protection …

News today that three managers received life terms for an explosion that killed 105 miners in early December of last year. Thirteen other heavy sentences were handed out to other executives who were running the mine at nearly double approved production rates, totally ignoring safety regulations and all …

The Steven Spielberg affair rolls on. He announced in mid-February that –because of China’s lack of action in stopping the killing in Darfur– he was resigning as adviser to the committee that is staging the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, but the news is still generating considerable heat and light. Danwei has a good round up of …