Noisy Neighbors – China’s Global Times reacts to the Hong Kong election Sunday, by a small elite circle, of Leung Chun-ying as new Chief Executive with an opinionated ode for the region and the mainland to improve their sometimes …
Environment
Snow Falling on Smog: Is There Any Hope for Beijing’s Air?
During the 2008 Olympics, there was hope. The prospect of China’s coming-out party being swathed in a choking haze prompted Beijing to take major steps to clean up its notoriously bad air: moving factories out of the city, …
Planet 7 Billion: Five Crisis Hotspots to Watch
The following is a guest post from TIME contributor Joe Jackson.
As the planet’s population climbs towards a new U.N.-projected peak of 10.1 billion by the turn of the next century, competition for resources within and between states will likely intensify. So too, goes the logic, will the number of resulting conflicts over oil, …
After Protest, Chinese City Says it Will Move Chemical Plant
After the heavy-handed reaction this spring to the calls to being Jasmine Revolution-style demonstrations to China, it’s easy to think that the authorities’ only response to popular protest is to crack down. But as events in northeast China this weekend indicate, the government can be remarkably receptive to demonstrations, especially …
The Dead Sea: Deader Than Ever
There is dead and there is dying. The Dead Sea manages both.
It’s dead because the water in it contains way, way too much salt — eight times as much as the oceans — for virtually any living thing to survive. With a shoreline at the lowest land point on the globe — 1,388 ft. (423 m) below sea level — and no outlet, millennia of …
Woes Continue in China for an Apple Parts Manufacturer
Apple products are so popular in China that a riot broke out in early May when the new iPad 2 was first sold in a Beijing store. But Foxconn, one of its biggest parts manufacturers operating in China, has suffered a far more turbulent year. In the latest of the Taiwan-run company’s ongoing labor woes, three workers were killed and 15 …
Before the Flood II
Though I haven’t seen Li Yifan and Yan Yu’s first documentary Before the Flood (淹没), I just watched Before the Flood II at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. The last couple years have produced a fair amount of cinematic attention on the impact of the Three-Gorge Dam, with films like Jia Zhangke’s 2006 feature Still …
Breathtaking Stuff
If you have an idle moment, visit the Hedley Index. It tracks air pollution in Hong Kong and is run by the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health. The Hong Kong Government has its own widely criticized Air Pollution Index, which is not based on current international understanding as to what constitutes healthy or unhealthy …