From the indispensable Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at Cal Berkeley’s School of Journalism, comes the following classic exchange between a reporter and Wang Min, the governor of Jilin Province, on the role of the press in present day China. How odd to have a provincial governor compare his fellow government …

This is for the readers who asked for more pandas and fewer vivisected pigeons. It is Huamei, who is indeed as several people pointed out, U.S. born (hence the name: 中华 的 华, 美国的美). Lastly, a link to what is definitely going to be the last Panda post for a while, a video clip of Huamei which is a bit better than the …

A number of people commented on my double standards in posting the Robo-pigeon picture and expressing my disgust. As I said in the post, admittedly in a slightly weasely hedge, I was aware that this goes on in the rest of the world. Apparently, I wildly underestimated just how much, having not really thought this through. Mea culpa. Or, …

This purports to be a picture of a pigeon which has had electrodes implanted into its head by scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center the Shandong University of Science and Technology in Qingdao. The idea is they can send signals and direct its flight. This is called vivisection, a 19th century sort of word but …

Five Questions for Jim Mann

Jim Mann, who was Beijing Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times from 1984 to 1987, is the author of Beijing Jeep, a classic tale of one of the early Sino-American joint ventures after China opened up its economy. More recently he wrote the Rise of the Vulcans, a superb early account of the George W. Bush …

Click here Download file to download what I admit is a pretty bad video, but it makes a point. You’ll see the long bamboo pole being wielded from above giving this female panda Huamei the odd whack. (you can hear her making a mewling sound of displeasure) This was to correct her “bad habits” I was told. Firstly she likes to play with the …

Here’s the first piece I’ve seen on the publication of the late Zhao Ziyang’s memoirs in Hong Kong, a book based on conversations with a close friend of his during his many years under house arrest. It sounds as if it will live up to its advanced billing as something that will, to put it mildly, cause great discomfort among the Chinese …

I was lucky enough to visit the Panda Protection and Research Center at Wolong outside of Chengdu in Sichuan Province. As you see, the Center is located among some pretty spectacular hills..

And in fact those resident there (around 120, though it varies) lead a pretty good life as Joe Six Pack here can testify.

The two chief …

It’s about time someone made the connection between the Japan economic hysteria in the U.S. of the late 80s and early 90s and how China is being talked about now. In the United States we have a Presidential election campaign that is going to be covered for two full years, 24/7 on cable news, the Internet etc. China and its big bad …

Flying back to Beijing from Sichuan, I come across a jolly group of
newly minted parents in the Chengdu airport. It’s a familiar sight to anyone
who has traveled in China in the last decade or more, a bunch of middle-aged
westerners oohing over Chinese babies, some awkwardly cradling them, others chasing after
toddlers, their faces …

Taiwan’s Vice President Annette Lu is upset at the Associated Press and CNN. The issue? An AP story on Lu’s presidential run, which quoted a old slur from Beijing that Lu was the “scum of the nation.” Apparently CNN (which, like TIME, is owned by Time Warner) used the quote as the headline of the story on their website.

This whole thing …

Give Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing credit: at least he’s honest! An exchange between him and a Taiwanese reporter at the opening ceremony of the CPPCC…

Li Zhaoxing exchange with a Taiwanese reporter on democracy:

At the opening ceremony of the CPPCC annual meeting, foreign minister Li Zhaoxing was surrounded by reporters. …

An interesting survey just out from McKinsey on how executives in Asia perceive the China market. I’m amazed that only 30 per cent of the respondents’ companies have operations in China. I’d have thought at this point the percentage would be higher. I’ll try to clarify what the sample base is, ie are they surveying only large …