The current issue of TIME’s Asian and South Pacific editions features this cover package: Can China Save the World? by Bill Powell and Into the Unknown by Michael Elliott.
Asia
Leading Chinese Rights Lawyer Detained
Beijing authorities have detained the head a legal research and advocacy group, the latest blow in a continued drive against China’s activist lawyers. Police took Xu Zhiyong, a human right lawyer who runs the recently shuttered Open Constitution Initiative (or Gongmeng in Chinese), from his Beijing apartment early Wednesday morning, …
Farcical Case Concludes
The conclusion of the hearing into the disputed estate of late tycoon Nina Wang comes as a relief to Hongkongers, who no longer have to be confronted, on a daily basis, with even more tales of baseness, superstition and venality than already fill our lives. Those unfamiliar with the story—it is hard to think who they might be, given …
Tearing Down Old Kashgar: Another Blow to the Uighurs
My colleague Ishaan Tharoor writes here about how Beijing has begun bulldozing the old city section of Xinjiang’s Kashgar, the ancient center of the Silk Road, in a move that critics worry is aimed at further dismantling local Uighur heritage.
Is China’s One-Child Policy Heading for a Revision?
Here’s Simon’s recent piece on how a comment by a Shanghai family-planning official, which made headlines around the world, was nothing more than a reiteration of a long-held policy allowing parents who are only children to have more than one child. And here‘s a brief history of China’s one-child policy.
California Apologizes to Chinese Americans
And here’s my piece on California’s landmark apology to Chinese Americans for the racist laws enacted against them as far back as the Gold Rush era. The laws, some of which were not repealed until the 1940s, barred Chinese from owning land or property, marrying whites, working in the public sector and testifying against whites in court.
The Yuan vs. the Dollar
Here’s Michael Schuman’s piece on China’s plans for replacing the dollar.
Spot The Parody
Proving that some things are possibly beyond satire, here’s a question: Was the headline and blurb below taken from a real English-language Chinese paper or from the Onion parody?
Lucky ethnic minorities let good times roll
The 55 ethnic minorities of China have been benefiting from decades of kindness and generosity by the ethnic
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Eclipses and Superstition
Here’s a bit of trenchant analysis from today’s Global Times on this morning’s eclipse (all over now in case you were planning to catch it):
In ancient China, people thought a heavenly dog swallowed the sun or moon when an eclipse occurred. They believed the event bode misfortune.
Although many people today, especially youngsters,
…
This Is A Joke II
Readers point out that the website of the company that “bought” the onion is actually funnier than the Onion China spoof.
Humor Alert: This Is A Joke
Thanks to the folks at China Digital Times (here, but blocked by GFW of course) for a heads up that the satirical online magazine The Onion has apparently been sold to a Chinese fish oil manufacturing company and is carrying a special issue devoted to China that bears a strange resemblance to, well, you have a look. Here’s the link …
Pioneering Law Group Faces Closure II
Just to add to Austin’s post below, Teng Biao, who with Xu Zhiyong co-founded the Open Constitution Initiative , sent out a text message yesterday. In it he describes how the group (actually a registered company because, as he says, the laws restricting restablishment of NGOs are so tight they had no choice but to set up a private …
Pioneering Chinese Lawyer Group Faces Closure
These are difficult times for Chinese lawyers. Several lawyers who handle difficult human rights causes have been unable to renew their licenses. Now the Beijing-based Open Constitution Initiative, a legal think tank that is involved in several sensitive cases, is under threat of closure due to $208,000 in tax penalties that landed this …