A mere two days after 21 were killed in violent attacks in Bachu county, Kashgar, including six police and six ethnic Uighurs, Beijing has politicized the incident, using it to call out the United States for failing to condemn the attacks as "terrorism." Reuters: But the U.S. State Department on Wednesday merely expressed regret at the loss of life and urged China to "provide all Chinese citizens, including ...

Ed's note: On April 19, the US Department of State published its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which included a section on China. It was typical, mundane, and features nothing you don't already know, including restriction of Uighur and Tibetan movement, harassment of journalists and dissidents, prison labor, discrimination, extrajudicial killings, etc. On April 21, the State Council Info ...

There are moments in the history of this blog when a joke would be superfluous. Gaze, as a zealot might upon his god. Via China Daily. ...

Peng Liyuan, who's warming up to her role as China's "First Lady" -- a term that, lest you forget, has basically never been applied to the wives of Chinese leaders -- is currently traveling with her husband in Africa as part of Xi Jinping's first overseas trip as Chinese head of state, and it'd be an understatement to say she's kind of stealing the show. The New York Times called her "glamorous, fashionable ...

Xi Jinping sat down with foreign media yesterday for the first time since becoming CPC chairman, speaking with reporters from BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa -- ahead of the BRICS summit later this month. This historic occassion drew almost no English-language media coverage, leading Foreign Policy's Isaac Stone Fish to ask, "What if Xi Jinping gave an interview and no one cared?" ...

We've read enough stories about Li Keqiang's inaugural press conference as premier, and there's not much more that can be said. But apparently what happened after he spoke may be more interesting. After Li and the other vice premiers left the venue, many reporters rushed to the stage to snatch up pencils and papers used by top officials. At the same time, several female reporters aimed for things bigger tha ...

The Ministry of Railways (MOR) is as old as New China, having been in operation since October 1949. But on March 10, toward the construction of a newer China at the 12th National People’s Congress, the government announced a series of reforms and reconstructions, which included the decision to dissolve outdated ministries. The Ministry of Railways, for one. The question that was immediately on everyone's mi ...

It's been said before by many commentators -- e.g., Eric Fish of Sinostand ("The Catholic church and CCP: estranged brothers?") and Adam of Visions of Paradise ("Several times in the past I've read quotes stating that Communist governments learned how to manipulate their citizens by imitating the Catholic Church") -- that the Chinese Communist Party bears uncanny resemblances to the Catholic Church. So what ...

Wen Jiabao gave his final speech before the National People’s Congress on Tuesday among a crowded room of delegates, then bowed three times to the audience and took his leave. At the end of the 12-day session, he, Hu Jintao and other party leaders will step aside as new leadership takes the reins, led by Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang as the new president and premier. Despite criticism and a dip in popularity, W ...

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang made an unexpected visit to a farmer's family in Baotou, Inner Mongolia earlier this week. How unexpected? According to Sina Weibo, the farmer's son was still sleeping (half-)naked in the room, so the father told him to go hide in the cupboard. With CCTV cameras rolling, the kid ran out of oxygen, jumped out of the cupboard, and crawled under the blankets, exposing his bare a ...

Anything the New York Times can do, the Wall Street Journal can do better. Reporting: The Wall Street Journal said Thursday that its computer systems had been infiltrated by Chinese hackers for the apparent purpose of monitoring the newspaper's China coverage. If you're not being hacked and monitored by the Chinese, you're just not important enough. Somewhere, NBC News sheds a tear. Paula Keve, chief spokes ...

Chinese hackers, possibly using phishing software, reportedly broke into the New York Times's computer network four months ago and installed malware that enabled them to access the personal computers of 53 employees. All indications are that the attack is a response to the paper's investigation, led by Shanghai bureau chief David Barboza, into premier Wen Jiabao's family fortunes. The NY Times says its comp ...

Search "actress Diana Pang" on Google, and right under the hit for her Wikipedia page, you'll find images such as the above. We're not just skin-baiting here. This busty buxom, star of such softcore porn films as Erotic Ghost Story - Perfect Match and Evil Instinct, known as the "divine bosom," according to Want China Times, might be entering the one arena that's dirtier than porn: politics. ...

For the first time in more than 20 years, according to SCMP, a major newspapers's editorial staff in China has gone on strike to protest government censorship. They were on the streets this afternoon in Guangzhou, outside Southern Weekly's offices, scattering chrysanthemums and other flowers, periodically chanting for democracy and human rights. It's been basically peaceful and without incident. ...

On the footsteps of an AP article about a petition warning against "revolution and chaos," Reuters has just reported on an open letter signed by 73 scholars calling for reform, or else. "If reforms to the system urgently needed by Chinese society keep being frustrated and stagnate without progress, then official corruption and dissatisfaction in society will boil up to a crisis point and China will once aga ...

Petar Kujundzic - Pedja has just posted the only video we've seen that shows the anteroom of the main auditorium inside the Great Hall of the People. As chief photographer of Thomson Reuters, he and his team captured several other images as well, providing unique looks at an event -- the 18th National Congress -- most often described as boring. ...

Hate it as I do, I understand why some things are censored. You can't have a perpetually restless populace in the countryside, for instance, believing that an alien overlord will descend from heaven and deliver them from misery if only they'll overthrow the current regime. You can't have top leaders exposed as hypocrites. You can't have porn. What I don't understand for the life of me, however, is why THIS ...

Xinhua via People's Daily (h/t Alex Wang) We've been waiting for this. Caption: "Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan, Zhang Gaoli, who have been elected members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), arrive to meet with Chinese and foreign journalists at the Great Hall of the People in ...

[WHICH NEWS ORGANIZATION WILL BE FIRST TO PUBLISH A PHOTO OF THE NEW SEVEN? WE'RE STILL WAITING. Reuters at 3 to 1 odds, I think. Rolling updates after jump.] (UPDATE, 12:41 pm: Mark MacKinnon wins! We're tired of waiting for an official photo though. The image above has been appended.) (UPDATE, 12:55 pm: Xinhua wins, of course.) China's seven highest leaders: Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zheng ...

Twenty minutes past time, and no sign of Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, et al. But don't freak out: join in on the fun. Twitter is at #WhyXiJinpingIsLate, and it's lively. Featuring... Andrea Yu Mikhail Gorbachev The ghost of Mao Zedong The ghost of Jiang Zemin -- even though he isn't dead George W. Bush Clint Eastwood Zhou Yongkang Jill Kelley ...