"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
- 美国传奇主持人华莱士逝世 曾采访邓小平江泽民_新闻_腾讯网 – death of mike wallace is big news in china, since he interviewed both deng xiaoping and jiang zemin
- 抵制网络谣言高校教师吁建用户“信用档案”-搜狐IT –
- ‘Worse Than the Cultural Revolution’: An Interview With Tian Qing by Ian Johnson | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books – The real problem is modernization. It’s worse than the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was forced on people. But modernization is yearned for by people themselves, it’s their own desire. You can’t force the Miao girl to wear traditional garb. If she wants to wear jeans, she will.
- 大连万达否认王健林被调查 称其将赴中南海领奖_财经_凤凰网 – 万达声明称，集团早已从制度上杜绝了行贿。“目前万达业务扩展到全国28个省、市的80多个城市，万达在发展过程中，打过交道甚至关系良好的各级官员成千上万，其中也有少数官员因腐败被查处，但从未有一人牵扯到万达。”
- Is Burma having its Mandela moment? – The Globe and Mail – Their meeting on Aug. 19 would dramatically alter the course of the country better known as Burma. It set the stage for this week's celebrated by-elections, which saw Ms. Suu Kyi's long-banned National League for Democracy (NLD) claim victories in 43 of the 45 parliamentary seats that were up for grabs.
It is a result that will soon make the democracy icon the official opposition leader in a parliament still controlled by military and ex-military men. The balance of power hasn't tilted yet, but by joining hands to bring the NLD into the system, Ms. Suu Kyi and Mr. Thein Sein put Myanmar on a course for something like real democracy, perhaps as early as the next general election in 2015
- Chytrid Fungus in Frogs Threatens Amphibian Extinction – NYTimes.com – A clerk serving Cantonese-speaking customers at a cluttered market in San Francisco’s Chinatown reached into a tub of American bullfrogs. She drew a one-pound frog from the top of the pile. She whacked its head, sliced its neck and placed its body in a plastic grocery bag.
The frog cost about $4. If it was sautéed, stir-fried or cooked in a clay pot and served with rice and vegetables, it could provide enough poultry-flavored white meat for a meal for at least two people.
Tests on the bullfrog by Raul Figueroa, a researcher at San Francisco State University, confirmed that it was infected with an invisible but virulent fungus. The chytrid skin fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or B.d., is harmless to humans but may have wiped out hundreds of amphibian species. Two other bullfrogs that The Bay Citizen bought from other Chinatown markets also tested positiv
- U.S. intelligence gains in Iran seen as boost to confidence – The Washington Post – CIA stealth drones scoured dozens of sites throughout Iran, making hundreds of passes over suspicious facilities, before a version of the RQ-170 crashed inside Iran’s borders in December. The surveillance has been part of what current and former U.S. officials describe as an intelligence surge that is aimed at Iran’s nuclear program and that has been gaining momentum since the final years of George W. Bush’s administration.
The effort has included ramped-up eavesdropping by the National Security Agency, formation of an Iran task force among satellite-imagery analysts and an expanded network of spies, current and former U.S. officials said.
- Growing Number of Fake Antiques in China – Video – Bloomberg – March 28 (Bloomberg) — A Chinese Imperial jade seal and album of calligraphy are being re-offered for sale this week after their Asian bidders failed to pay. The sales in France are the latest sign of auction houses clamping down on slow payments and nonpayments. Amid a growing appetite by wealthy Chinese for art, wine and other collectibles, sellers are demanding deposits by bidders on top lots and, in some cases, suing the non-payers.
- Eric X. Li: Toward a New Equilibrium — China Before the 18th Party Congress – guest by wang wen, editor of a big, unnamed chinese paper//
Those who have predicted China's imminent collapse have done so continuously since 1999, only to have had to postpone such eventuality year after year. After so many years, their prediction sounds more like a wish than a theory. Any sign of political discordance, such as this one, is quickly used to revive their wish. In this politically sensitive year, with the apparent fall of a major political figure, they are busy at work attempting to provoke a Beijing version of the Arab Spring.
As a long-time close observer of China's politics, I'm afraid the provocateurs will be disappointed again. The current conditions of China are fundamentally different from those that prevailed in Egypt in the spring of 2011. They are not even close to the conditions that precipitated significant social movements in London in the summer, Wall Street in the autumn, and Moscow in the winter. Regardless of the noise, stability remains the overwhelming consensus of Chinese society.
In my discussions with those in Beijing's elite circles I find a wide range of opinions. Some are resentful of Bo's removal and even feel betrayed. Some are euphoric as they see the central government has finally made the right decision. Regardless of the seeming intensity of their views, no one wants to take to the streets. On the contrary, they seem all worried that such a controversial event might drive others onto the streets. In China, without the instigation of the elites, it is impossible for ordinary people to have the channel and willingness for meaningful political protests. As for the Chinese elites, the memory of the Tiananmen Square incident 22 years ago is still fresh in their minds. Radicalism, in the name of any political ideal, has no appeal in reality.
- My ‘Confession’ by Fang Lizhi | The New York Review of Books – Fang Lizhi, translated from the Chinese by Perry Link. 2011
- China’s Despair and China’s Hope by Fang Lizhi | The New York Review of Books – Fang Lizhi, an internationally respected astrophysicist, is China’s most prominent dissident. Formerly the vice-president of the University of Science and Technology in Anhui province, he was dismissed from his job and expelled from the Communist party in 1987, after being accused of encouraging student demonstrations in favor of democratic rights. Recently he was barred by the authorities from leaving China to visit the United States. Andrei Sakharov, along with other scientists in Europe and the United States, has appealed to Chinese government leaders to permit him to travel abroad.
- The New Banks in Town: Chinese Finance in Latin America – PDF of book full text
- U.S. Alert as China’s Cash Buys Inroads in Caribbean – NYTimes.com – China’s economic might has rolled up to America’s doorstep in the Caribbean, with a flurry of loans from state banks, investments by companies and outright gifts from the government in the form of new stadiums, roads, official buildings, ports and resorts in a region where the United States has long been a prime benefactor.
The Chinese have flexed their economic prowess in nearly every corner of the world. But planting a flag so close to the United States has generated intense vetting — and some raised eyebrows — among diplomats, economists and investors.
- China Said to Detain Returning Tibetan Pilgrims – NYTimes.com – Hundreds of Tibetans who attended an important Buddhist ceremony in January in India have been detained without charge by Chinese security officers on their return to Tibet, according to family members and friends living in exile in India, international human rights groups and officials with the Tibetan exile government.
- 【你有1条新私信】 隆胸产毒奶婴儿脑瘫 | 新浪微博-随时随地分享身边的新鲜事儿 – woman poisons her newborn with breast milk mixed w leaking chemicals from her breast enlargement