Blog commenter Jong has pointed out (on numerous occasions actually, but I suppose he wanted to get his point across; for future reference I wasn’t ignoring you, it just took time to get the fix made) that a caption on a photograph accompanying one of my web stories about the Tibet protests (here) was open to misinterpretation. Actually, …

So. One month to go to the big day. At eight minutes past eight on the eighth day of the eighth month of, yes, ’08, this Olympic Games will finally start. I for one will be hooting with joy. I am thoroughly sick of the build up. Can’t imagine what it’s like for the organizers, tho I suppose the fear of some looming cock up is bracing …

Saw a wonderful documentary the other day. Really moving and funny, but also gives great insight into how China and the Chinese are changing. It’s called My Beijing Birthday and the prime mover (and shaker, quite literally in this case) is Howard Snyder who, apart from being a great guy and living in my compound also speaks just about …

Forgot to mention that we put up our take on the Weng’an protests over the weekend. Link here. I hesitate to call anything in China a turning point, but it is certainly a major milestone. And as we all know, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, grasshopper.

Today is the 73rd birthday of the Dalai Lama. That’s significant as it is now becoming increasingly clear that Beijing’s approach to the Tibet issue is to stall until he dies. The Beijing talks between representatives of the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials last week appear to have been dire despite the fact that pretty well the only …

As I mentioned earlier, I ate at the new Beijing outpost in the growing empire of New York-based super chef Daniel Boulud. The food actually exceeded my expectations, which were pretty high, classic, unfussy dishes highlighting the ingredients. Not an atomiser in sight (or molecularizer or whatever it is they use at Bulli, the …

Multiple rain delays surely kept millions of Zheng Jie’s Chinese fans up late watching the Wimbledon women’s singles semi-final Thursday. Sichuan native Zheng lost to Serena Williams in straight sets, but made history as the first Chinese tennis player to reach a grand slam singles semi-finals. (An estimated 100 million viewers tuned …

Well, amazing as it may seem to some, I may have made a misjudgment: the Dalai Lama’s representatives are here in Beijing meeting with Chinese officials for the next couple of days and there are some signs that they may actually achieve something. In a earlier, rather gloomy post, I opined that there was little chance of success for what …

It is becoming clear that the tightening on entry visas by the Chinese authorities has been much wider than previously suspected. Austin is writing a story on the issue that will be out soon on the time.com website, but the point was forcefully brought home to me a couple of days ago when I was chatting with a senior person in the …

In response to my post about the Weng’an riots below, commenter Zhangshan made this observation:

…I will not be so quick to agree that there is ‘no way’ for the central government to reassert control. If we look at the past few years, that is exactly what the central government has slowly been doing. The sacking of (former mayor) Chen

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