On June 5th, Chinese officials made clear that foreign embassies had better cease publishing their ownreports and estimates on the air quality of China. Beijing has been especially irritated by the increasingly high-profile U.S. Embassy Twitter feed, which tracks pollution in Beijing and has accumulated more than 19,000 followers. Such numbers have garnered much official…
Category: China
CHINA: Cyber Crime Surveillance Increases with Internet Use
The Internet is extremely vast, virtually limitless. This fact makes cyberspace starkly different from the physical world, particularly when it comes to crime, and begs the question: Can a government successfully regulate the Internet? According to Shanghai police, the number of online crimes in China is growing quickly as online…
CHINA: Playing ‘Not Nice’ With Al Jazeera
How did a journalist wind up in the headline herself? Al Jazeera’s Beijing correspondent Melissa Chan has become the first foreign journalist to be expelled from China in 14 years. In her recent interview with the LA Times, Chan stated that she is ‘not exactly sure what prompted her expulsion after five…
CHINA: Cheap Brothels, Expensive Societal Bill
Sex trafficking is one of the most discussed topics in China today, but does prostitution fall under the same category? Sex trafficking is a form of business that illegally trades and sells human beings, predominantly women, for commercial sex exploitation. The victims of sex trafficking have no control over their fate. Prostitution, on the…
CHINA versus PHILIPPINES: Media Reports of Tension
Since April, China and the Philippines have been involved in a tense dispute over Huangyan Island in the South China Sea, and the Filipino media has been quick to defend its nation’s legitimacy in the region. The quarrel was initiated with the recent Philippine harassment of Chinese fishermen who sought harbor on the…
CHINA: A Whole Lot of Shaking Going on
No wonder China appears to be undergoing so many changes all at once. Technology ventures of all sorts are bursting out everywhere. Consider entrepreneur Joseph Chen, who would very much like to come China’s version of Mark Zuckerberg: He is is the founder of Renren.com, a social networking site that…
CHINA: Press Shocked, But Not Overly So
The recent early-morning slaying of two University of Southern California students made headlines in newspapers across Asia, of course. USC boasts the largest international student population in the U.S. – and many are from China, as were the murdered Ying Wu and Ming Qu in what may have been a…
GOOD JOURNALISM ALERT: On China — ‘My Country Is Not Good Enough’
The fact of the matter is neither is the U.S.! Much less Britain (or for that matter almost any other country). Even so, the ‘Lunch with the Financial Times’ conversation between Chinese novelist Han Han (Triple Door) and FT ‘s Asia editor and columnist David Pilling is suitably entertaining and…
VIETNAM: Dramatically Reaching Out to Japan’s Kyodo News
Vietnam has had a tortured relationship at best with once-aggressive Japan, as it has had with the United States. But one thing both Tokyo and Washington have learned about this large, thinly vertical, well-populated and exceptionally feisty Southeast Asia country: Invading, occupying or even trying to “save Vietnam from communism”…
CHINA BLOG BLOTTER: Scandal, Crackdown and Coverup!
Backtrack to the dismissal of Bo Xilai, a top Chinese leader. A few months ago, scandals surrounding Bo began to surface and subsequently led to an explosion of discussion within the Chinese blogging community. The central government attempted to censor these posts one by one, but Netizens proved more than…
CHINA: Blogging Community Reaches Out, But Too Late
Wang Shanshan, a senior student at Nanjing Technology College hanged herself in her dorm on March 17. A frequent blogger on China’s popular Sina Weibo site, Shanshan left a suicide note on her blog that automatically uploaded 12 hours after her death. It stated: “I have depression, so I want to…
CHINA MEDIA: The Mad Scramble to Arrest a Key Keyword!
Opinionated Chinese Netizens have long blogged and slogged Chinese leaders for being corrupt. But last week’s sacking of Bo Xilai, a top Chinese Leader, ignited an explosion of blogging activity about official corruption that topped anything anyone has ever seen. At first, perhaps surprisingly, the Chinese government allowed the eruption…
CHINA: Not “Lovin’ It”
In another major McDonald story: Chinese media outlets have pounced on a major McDonald’s slip-up. On March 16, a Chinese television station revealed that a branch of McDonald’s restaurants had been selling expired food products. The nation’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) “invited” executives of McDonald’s China to a “discussion”…
CHINA: Media Star Uncle Wen – the Life of the Party?
Los Angeles– What was most amazing, to Westerners at least (and perhaps especially to the Chinese people), was that his comments were broadcast live on official China TV. After all, his official observations weren’t exactly pretty. Here is the back-story: In every historical movement and moment, there are good guys…
CHINA: People’s Blogs Push Authorities to Police Tourism Industry
The Chinese city of Sanya, in Hainan province, is catching heat from bloggers and critics alike due to the price-gouging occurring within its tourism market. Sanya received more than 500,000 tourists for this year’s Spring Festival. Tourists complained that they were overcharged “extremely irrationally” during the traditional Chinese holiday. Beijing-based…
CHINA BLOG BLOTTER: Netizens Noodle Around Obama
Chinese Netizens are blocked from using Facebook. What else is new? But now there is another (albeit less popular) American social networking website that the Great Firewall does not block: Google+. Ever since February 20, 2012, the Chinese government lifted its censorship of Google+. Ever since, Chinese Netizens have been…