This lead by Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin is pretty much the perfect example of an online magazine lead: Echoing the laments of pundits like Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued Saturday that China outpaces the United States in building major transportation infrastructure like high-speed rail because of its authoritarian system and... Read more »
I imagine a Chinese cadre seeing this is having heart palpitations at the moment. The picture comes from the site Hong Wrong, which is where you should be paying attention if you’re interested in developments in Hong Kong’s handover protests.
Chinese president Hu Jintao was in Hong Kong over the weekend as part of the 15th-year anniversary celebration of Hong Kong's handover from the UK. Yesterday, he dropped by the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center to swear in the somewhat unpopular Leung Chun-ying as new chief executive, but before he could, a demonstrator tried to interrupt his speech with pro-democracy slogans such as, "Vindicate June 4 [referring to those killed near Tiananmen in 1989]" and "End one-party dictatorship, establish a democratic China." Hu, we imagine, didn't even blink -- because he never does, since he is a robot.
Here is the perfect example of a Chinese state mouthpiece spinning cock out of bull. Attention: this piece, “President Hu picks up China’s dignity,” published on People’s Daily at 1:05 pm today. Scene: G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico; as leaders walk off after their photo op, Chinese president Hu Jintao bends over to pick... Read more »
Video of that citizen's arrest attempt on Tony Blair, which we alluded to yesterday in our links post (via Huffington Post), has surfaced on several media, notably Telegraph and ITN, but the above video has the best sound quality, so you're getting that.
Last Friday, the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China published a report called The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011. It was in response to the US State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011, which featured information on about 200 countries, China included.
China's report, published on Xinhua, et al., was about 8,000 words. We read it so you don't have to -- and brought in TAR Nation to explain what it all means.
By Valentina Luo It looks like someone not only watched last year’s The Founding of a Party, but actually paid attention. A group of Chinese scientists are rumored to have “founded” the Chinese Scientist Liberal Democratic Party [中国科学家自由民主党], news of which we first noticed in the Chinese edition of Epoch Times on May 1. The Epoch Times, as parlance goes, is... Read more »
Isaac Stone Fish over at Foreign Policy has a fitting tribute to Mike Wallace, journalist, with a post titled "Is Mike Wallace the reason Chinese leaders don't give interviews?" To Wallace, who passed away on Saturday -- and to any journalist, really -- I can't think of a better compliment.
Wallace's genius was the ability to unblinkingly chastise power. Even during the aired pleasantries, Wallace looks unimpressed with Jiang [Zemin]. During minute 2 of the hour-long interview, aired days before Jiang's 2000 U.S. visit, Wallace tells Jiang "shorter answers, please. More concise" and a touch of panic breaks through Jiang's placid smile.
