Asia

In Shanghai for Christmas I ate at Stiller’s, an excellent continental restaurant run by an affable German chef. It is located in a new development called “Cool Docks” (more prosaically “Old Docks” in Chinese, Lao Matou). Lot’s of new restaurants and trendy little boutiques selling fripperies and accessories. All more or less empty, …

From our colleague Natalie Tso in Taipei, a look at the pair of pandas Beijing sent to Taiwan this week and their significance in cross-strait relations.

A group of writers, scholars and Nobel laureates have signed an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo, one of the authors and signers of the human rights manifesto Charter 08. Here’s my latest story on the government’s response to the document, which was issued earlier this month during several …

A blast of frigid air has enveloped Beijing from the north. Top temperature Saturday will be 15 F or -6 C. Happily, as you’ll see below, Beijingers are used to this sort of thing and make sure everyone who goes out doors–everyone–is dressed for the weather.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece speculating that the gathering gloom and doom about China’s economic performance in 2009 might be overblown, in part because some of those making the predictions like perennial pessimist Nouriel Roubini of New York State University weren’t China specialists and therefore might well have missed some …

Today is being marked by speeches (like this one by President Hu Jinato) to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the ‘reform and opening’ drive launched by Deng Xiaoping, the moment China took its first step on the road to the present day. For a amazingly prescient look at the future from the man himself though,take a look at this section …

A follow up on Du Daozheng, who fought the law (or city hall I guess in a more appropriate cliche) and won, at least for the moment. We’ve mentioned before feisty Du and his (relatively) liberal publication, Yanhuang Chunqiu, usually rendered as Annals of the Yellow Emperor. According to the good folk at the China Media Project at Hong …

My colleague Lin Yang writes:

Being a member of the “working class” in the People’s Republic (aka “workers’ paradise”) is no longer what it was 50 years ago. The “iron rice bowl” has been broken, many have been laid off during the reform of the huge state enterprises a decade ago and those who do have jobs usually labor long

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At Global Voices Online, Oiwan Lam has a roundup of comments from opponents and backers of Charter 08, the pro-democracy manifesto issued by a group of Chinese scholars, lawyers and former officials last week.

More horrible numbers for China’s economy. Steel production in November: down 12.4 per cent year on year; Electricity production: down 9.6 %; fixed assset investment growth: declined to 26.8% in Jan-Nov from 27.2% in the first 10 months of 2008. The last figure is particularly relevant as FAI accounts for 42 % of GDP growth. Most …

I am taking some accumulated leave before it runs out at year end. I decided yesterday to visit one of the numerous small ski slopes that surround Beijing, catering to a nascent but enthusiastic group of mostly young Chinese who have taken up the sport. I went to Nanshan, probably the largest of the resorts, located about three quarters …

Earlier this month we related the story of a Belgian television crew that was roughed up by thugs in Henan province while covering a story about AIDS patients. As bad as things can be at times for foreign correspondents in China, they are far worse for Chinese reporters. Consider the case of Guan Jian. The Beijing News reported (here via …