The Two-Day Trial Of Wang Lijun Is Over

Wang Lijun trial in Chengdu
The “open trial” of Wang Lijun, on charges of bribe-taking and “bending the law for selfish ends,” according to Xinhua, began this morning. It is now over, having taken place “under tight security before a carefully selected audience,” according to the Guardian, from which the above picture is taken. “Foreign journalists were not permitted to... Read more »

And Now For Something Completely Different: People’s Daily’s Bathing Advisory

Bathtub
While significant things happen outside the offices of People’s Daily, and other people do real work (like censoring videos — Youku, looking at you), People’s Daily Online has teamed up with Xinhua to bring you important, possibly life-saving tips on dangerous bathing, in a not-at-all tongue-in-cheek article called, “Danger: Don’t bathe under the following conditions.”... Read more »

You Can Protest The Diaoyu Islands All You Want, But Hell No To Democracy

Democracy
Global Voices reports that according to the Chinese NGO Canyu, “three human rights activists were arrested in September 16, 2012, during the anti-Japan protest.” Quoting a translated Canyu post: (Canyu’s news brief on 16 September 2012) This morning, the grand anti-Japan rally took place in the Shenzhen downtown area, around Huaqiang North and Citizen Center. Shenzhen... Read more »

Here’s How Various Chinese Cities Expressed Their Anger At Japan

Diaoyu Islands protests across China featured image
No two protests are ever the same, as the above video will show. In Changsha, people flip cars. In Dali, they sing the national anthem. In Qingdao, they chant. (Actually, they sing and chant everywhere, but you know what I mean.) There are a lot of banners that read “Japanese Devils,” a term that originates... Read more »

What Does Former Porn Star Sola Aoi Think Of This Sino-Japanese Spat?

Sola Aoi's Diaoyu message
Tea Leaf Nation has this amusing story of former Japanese AV star Sola Aoi, who has more than 13 million followers on Sina Weibo, trying to placate fans on both sides of the sea: Ms. Aoi recently tweeted two images via iPhone from her account (@苍井空)… the first reads “Japanese-Chinese Friendship,” with Ms. Aoi commenting... Read more »

China’s Anti-Japanese Protests Are, Quite Simply, Getting Out Of Hand

SCMP reporter Felix Wong
We’ve gone way beyond civil disobedience. Who are the Chinese attacking? Chinese-owned Japanese restaurants, and Japanese people who may call China home, and now journalists. It is, as the proverb goes, shitting on your carpet to spite the neighbor. We’ve seen this line of indiscriminate violence in this country before — it was called the... Read more »

The Best Cartoon On The Diaoyu Islands Protests Yet

Diaoyu Islands comic
Anger remains in the air. While a man living in Tokyo who we’ll refer to as Doug tells me that the majority of Japanese people are more concerned about issues other than Diaoyu, such as nuclear power, the average Chinese person would as lief see the two countries go to war than let Japan “own”... Read more »

Xi Jinping Has Been Found!

Xi Jinping surfaces
Guess who showed up this morning! After rigorous searching and days of speculation, China’s president-in-waiting made a public appearance at China Agricultural University to mark National Science Popularization Day, according to Xinhua. South China Morning Post adds: Teachers and students at the university said Xi stayed at the campus for about 30-40 minutes. They said... Read more »