An actually good story from Xinhua: On November 2, a 17-year-old high school student in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province named Xu Lihan was biking to school when he collided with a parked BMW, breaking a rearview mirror and causing paint damage. Xu waited for the owner to return, but when no one showed up, he scribbled... Read more »
Part of the reason I thought Jon Huntsman made for a strange presidential candidate -- if not an outright bad one -- is the same reason, in retrospect, Al Gore didn't win: he was too sensible. And as a result -- like Gore -- Huntsman is much better suited for a position that doesn't require egomania, knavery, and lies. Taking nothing away from Gary Locke, but Huntsman should be the US ambassador to China forever.
Ultimate Fighting Championship held its first show in China on Saturday when it put on UFC Macao in front of a capacity crowd of more than 8,000 at the The Venetian's Cotai Arena. This wasn't the first time China has hosted mixed martial arts, but the UFC is the top promotion in MMA, so this was a big deal. Among the highlights was a win by Vietnamese middleweight kickboxing champion Cung Le in the main event.
In a 3,600-word piece, Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy of Britain’s The Sunday Times lay bare the myth of Neil Heywood. They argue that far from being an intrepid power broker living astutely within the inner circles of China’s elite, the murdered Briton was a “failed businessman,” a “chancer,” an “irritant,” and a liar who... Read more »
Lingering effects from September’s Diaoyu Islands row have caused organizers of the November 25 Beijing Marathon to take the unprecedented step of barring Japanese competitors. Not explicitly, of course — rather, “Japanese” isn’t listed in the nationality section of the online registration page. If you’re from Japan, you can run, technically, just not as a... Read more »
Last Friday, before all-world basketball phenom Maya Moore’s first game in China, I wrote: Let’s play a game: how many points will Maya Moore score in her WCBA debut tomorrow for Shanxi Xingrui Flame vs. Bayi? I’m going to set the over/under at 59.5. She did not score 60 that game, topping out at 37. The next game,... Read more »
Winston Lord, who served under Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush as ambassador to China from 1985-89, recently spoke to Asia Society about this country's current leadership transition. The three-part interview is on Asia Society's blog. The first part is embedded above, in which Lord offers this soundbite:
Yesterday, China took down Google, the decision of a Net Nanny who gets off by watching Internet users like you squirm and suffer. But the collective howl of pain and rage that emanated from behind the Great Firewall was actually heard, because this morning, authorities unblocked Google’s services, including Gmail. So what happened? The website GreatFire.org – which... Read more »
Organizers of an auto show in Guiyang, Guizhou province has decided hiring topless models isn’t enough to attract attention, since everyone is doing it. They’ve upped the ante with snakes. We have no idea what cars are being displayed, but Car News China does. Pictures taken Thursday; more after the jump.
