Li Tiantian, a Chinese human rights lawyer who went missing in February, re-emerged this week. She announced her release in this evocative (if entirely allegorical) post:
It’s been a while since I’ve been in touch. First, let me tell you a story.
One day, a hornet worried unreasonably that a little bird would stir up its nest. (As
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Neo-Isolationism — Clyde V. Prestowitz asks why America is upset by China’s overtures in Pakistan. Let them have it, he argues at Foreign Policy. Instead of trying to increase its geo-political influence, America ought to invest in education at home, retrain workers and encourage FDI, he says.
Dear Visitor — So, what was Kim Jong …
Three coordinated explosions rocked a southern Chinese city Thursday morning, injuring at least five people, according to state media reports. The bombs exploded near municipal buildings in Fuzhou, a city of 3.9 million in Jiangxi province, injuring at least five people. (Update: State media now say two people have died and seven are …
I thought my colleague Tim Padgett – and everyone else interested in the 35th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris – might want to hear a little more about the charming Steven Spurrier, who organized the infamous blind tasting in which “California defeated all Gaul.” Spurrier, as it turns out, is still seeking out new frontiers in wine …
President Barack Obama — in a speech before the British parliament that drew approving nods rather than the aerobic repeat ovations that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had elicited on Capitol Hill a day earlier — sought to reassure Britons that the transatlantic relationship remains “special”. More importantly, he wanted …
What leader of a hungry, isolated regime wouldn’t want to enjoy a little vacation in China? On Wednesday, an armored train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his 70-person entourage is believed to have arrived in Beijing, where the man known as the Dear Leader is presumably in town to meet with Chinese President Hu …
Not everyone welcomes the visit by the leader of the free world to London. There was the smartly dressed woman who found herself prevented from crossing Whitehall. “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she said. “Do I look like a terrorist?”
On the opposite side of the road, some 30 demonstrators protested for a different reason. At nearby Downing …
Anglo Unity: Fresh from his late Monday night arrival in Ireland, President Obama meets U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron in London today, as the White House steps up its efforts to rekindle the much-touted “special relationship” between the across-the-pond allies. As Catherine Mayer writes, they do have a lot to discuss.
Bursting the …
As news emerged Monday about the attack on a naval base in Karachi, it appeared that Pakistan’s ally China might also be caught up in the mayhem. Some initial reports suggested that Chinese military personnel were being held hostage. That news was later denied by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. My colleague Omar Waraich’s story …
The President was supposed to arrive for his two-day state visit to the U.K. on the morning of May 24. Instead, a plume of volcanic ash from Iceland forced a change of plan that saw POTUS curtail his trip to his ancestral homeland, Ireland, and head for London before Air Force One could be grounded. As officials scrambled to find him a …
After several interruptions, I’ve finally finished the best book to land on my desk this year: “It Happened On The Way To War,” by Rye Barcott, a former Marine who has devoted his life to bringing development to one of the world’s worst slums. The book (published by Bloomsbury) chronicles the creation of Carolina for Kibera (CFK), a …
On Saturday, the leaders of the world’s second, third and 15th largest economies got together in Fukushima City and ate veggies to demonstrate how safe it is to do just that. I think it’s always a little embarrassing to observe politicians in orchestrated eating and/or drinking events (see Obama’s three-guys-just-having-a-beer moment …
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 …
