Click on the link to get the full story. These are published by China Digital Times which reports on China particularly with regard to business and economic developments from major news reporting services.
| German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in China, sowing potentially advantageous diplomatic relations in the midst of the EU’s current economic situation. An article from NBC News’ Behind the Wall explains how, in addition to economic relief, Merkel addressed long contentious issues of domestic and international conduct. As the leader of the strongest economy in the European Union, the chancellor has called for more “Europe,” a stronger union as an answer to the Eurozone crisis. And China with its massive $3.2 trillion in foreign currency reserves is seen as a potential source of critical support for any European bailout program. [...]“I will advocate, that if Europe, for example, imposes sanctions (on Iran), that China still uses the influence it has to tell Iran that we do not need, and cannot allow, another power with nuclear weapons,” [Merkel] told the assembly at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The German leader has raised a wide range of issues with the Chinese side, including human rights, intellectual property protection, and improved market access. The ABC piece cites a China Daily article, which discusses the possible intentions of visits by Merkel and her European counterparts: As a Chinese saying goes, one does not visit the temple for nothing. Public... Read more China and Merkel do Diplomatic Euro Debt Dance |
| A deep rift in cultural identity has come into the spotlight through public expressions of the tension that exists between residents of Hong Kong and those of the mainland. The Economist outlines the beginnings of the most recent series of events: On January 15th a young Mandarin-speaking girl dropped some dried noodles she had been nibbling on a Hong Kong underground train. Perhaps her family, from mainland China, did not know that eating and drinking is banned on the spotless metro. When a local Cantonese speaker objected to the noodle-eating in bad Mandarin, a quarrel erupted. The whole incident, recorded on a mobile phone, was soon viewed online by millions in Hong Kong and in China. “That’s what mainlanders are like,” was perhaps the nastiest thing said by any Hong Konger in the metro carriage.In a televised and characteristically nationalistic public admonishment of Hong Kongers, Peking University’s Kong Qingdong added fuel to the fire:Kong’s comments sent a shock of rage through many Hong Kongers, and led to the commissioning of a full page anti-mainland ad in a Hong Kong publication. The ad, which characterizes mainlanders as ‘locusts,’ is reposted and described in a Wall Street Journal blog post: The full-page ad, which shows a... Read more Running Dogs and Locusts |
Li Guosheng posted this to his Sina Weibo on January 8 with an image of the letter to the Kaifu Discipline and Inspection Commission. The message was reposted 420 times and received 98 comments. Li’s Weibo account no longer exists, but his Sina blog is still online (last updated November 18 2011). Read the original weibo here. @Journalist Li Guosheng: Hunan Provincial Discipline and Inspection Commission Order to Detain Petitioner: Li Xiang is from Kaifu District in Changsha. In 2006, her village land was reclaimed and her house was demolished. She then began to petition. In July of 2011, she once again petitioned the Hunan Provincial Discipline and Inspection Commission. Shockingly, the provincial Discipline and Inspection Commission’s petitioning office sent the following letter to the Kaifu District Discipline and Inspection Commission: “If she goes to Beijing to petition, you may detain her.” After this news got on the web, the head of the petitioning office found Li Xiang and implored her to delete the post, saying, “I beg you as you are my grandpa and grandma.” Translation by Harriet Xu. © fionasmith for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to... Read more Weibo: Order to Detain Petitioner |
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.usPost tags: Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall Photo: Chinese New Year Parade in New York Chinatown, by May S. Young |
| Radio Free Asia has posted video that reportedly shows a protest in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, where large-scale demonstrations erupted last week, resulting in the shooting of one or more protesters by security officials. Read more about the protests on CDT. Tensions have been high in Tibet and Tibetan regions of Sichuan with numerous self-immolations by Tibetans protesting Beijing’s policies and an ongoing crackdown by security forces. Students for a Free Tibet have obtained an audio file that is reportedly a final statement by Lama Soepa, a spiritual teacher and community leader from Golok in the Kham region of Tibet, who died after setting himself on fire on January 8. Listen to the recording here. From SFFT’s translation:This is the twenty-first century, and this is the year in which so many Tibetan heroes have died. I am sacrificing my body both to stand in solidarity with them in flesh and blood, and to seek repentance through this highest tantric honor of offering one’s body. This is not to seek personal fame or glory.
I am giving away my body as an offering of light to chase away the darkness, to free all beings from suffering, and to lead them –... Read more Tibetan Protests Caught on Video |
| Facebook’s pending IPO is a hot topic in Chinese cyberspace, even though (or maybe because) Facebook is blocked inside the country. The following conversations and comments are translated from Sina Weibo:- A female colleague just came back from a blind date. She is quite excited. She said to me, this man is quite accomplished. He is just over thirty and is already the Chief Manager of the China Office of the Facebook. I said to her: grab him, don’t miss this one. Following are some of the comments under this post:- We are in the same business then. I am the CEO of the China office of Youtube*. - I won’t tell you that I am the chief representative of the China office of Twitter*. - I am exactly 30 this year. My father is the Commander-in-Chief of Mongolia’s Navy. - Facebook’s prospectus has listed four countries which limited their citizens to visit their website: Syria, Iran, China, and North Korea. These are what in history books will be called the “four ancient civilizations.” - The acronym [of the "four ancient civilizations"] is SICK. - The sin of Facebook is that it lets people meet whom they want... Read more Humor: Facebook & the “Four Ancient Civilizations” |
| A new documentary produced by the USC US-China Institute and reported by Mike Chinoy looks at the history of foreign correspondents in China. The segment below focuses on the period surrounding President Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing in 1972:Watch also a discussion hosted by the Asia Society’s Orville Schell with Mike Chinoy, Richard Bernstein and Bruce Dunning about their experiences reporting from China in the early days after China allowed foreign correspondents to work from the country. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.usPost tags: documentaries, foreign correspondents, PRC history, Richard Nixon, U.S. relations Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall Vivid Memories of Nixon’s 1972 Visit to China |
| Twenty-nine Chinese workers who were kidnapped in Sudan earlier this week have not yet been released, and the Chinese government is considering its options, including appealing for help from South Sudan and possibly the African Union. From Reuters:A team of officials China sent to seek the release of the workers will conduct negotiations with South Sudan’s officials in the South Sudan capital of Juba, according to an “authoritative source” cited by the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. “At the same time, (the group will) go through the African Union and other third or fourth parties to mediate,” the report said. “The purpose is to ensure fully that the 29 compatriots will be able to come home safely.” China has sought to maintain good relations with both Khartoum, a long-time ally, and newly independent South Sudan, home to investments by state-owned Chinese oil giants China National Petroleum Corp and Sinopec. As the biggest investor in oilfields in South Sudan, Beijing could wield some clout in the negotiations. See more about the kidnapping via a previous CDT post. Also related, China’s gift of a new $200 million African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa has generated controversy. China Seeks Help on Kidnapped Workers |
| When Global Times’ editor Hu Xijin went on Twitter he generated quite a buzz among foreign correspondents and activists in China. The Council on Foreign Relations looks at Hu’s tweeting as part of a new paradigm shift in Chinese politics and diplomacy:A very long discussion in the December 2011 issue of Foreign Affairs Review, the journal of the Foreign Affairs University, provides some context for what Hu’s tweeting might be about. The article, entitled “Global Politics in the Web 2.0 Era” is a discussion about how communication technologies are changing politics. The cases cited are the usual ones—the protests after the Iranian elections, the Arab Spring, SMS being used to organize protests against Philippine President Joseph Estrada, the Obama campaign’s use of Facebook and other social media—and political dynamics described are also now well known—web 2.0 empowers the individual to spread information, flattens hierarchies, and lowers the cost of mobilizing groups. Democratization and the growth of civil society are trends difficult to control, and as a result China must have a strategy for bringing about gradual change. Online expression by Chinese netizens, according to the article, can be “immature, aggressive, or empty.” But if China can develop an effective legal system... Read more China’s Diplomacy 2.0 and Hu Xijin |
| China’s gift of a new $200 million African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa has generated a great deal of warmth among high-ranking officials, but many in both China and Africa feel decidedly chillier about the project. From The Globe and Mail:Col. Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator who was overthrown and killed last year, had been the biggest donor to Africa’s political alliance for years. But at its latest summit this weekend, the AU made it clear that Beijing is its new Libya. The 54-nation African organization is holding its summit in its gleaming new $200-million marble-and-glass headquarters, financed and built by the Chinese government on the site of a former maximum-security prison in Addis Ababa. It’s the tallest building in the country, and all of it – even the furniture in its spectacular 2500-seat Grand Hall – was supplied by China as a gift to the world’s poorest continent …. “The people of China and Africa are good friends, good partners and good brothers,” Mr. Jia told the summit. “Our friendship is as solid as the towering Mount Kilimanjaro and as vibrant as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.”The continent, said Jia, “boasts a time-honoured history, rich natural... Read more China’s African Union HQ a Trojan Horse? (Updated) |
These news items are copied from external news sources. The items are not edited or filtered by SACU in any way. The facts and views expressed in these items are those of the source organizations and not those of SACU. If you have any comments, updates or corrections please let us know via our Contact page.