"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner
- Chinese Regime Demanded NASDAQ Eject Network, Wikileaks Cable Says | International | World | Epoch Times – Serene Lee, a reporter with the New York-based New Tang Dynasty Television, used to do daily financial reports from the NASDAQ studio in Times Square. One day her security card stopped working. It had been canceled. She didn’t need to come anymore; there was no more space.
That was five years ago. But a diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks late last year may shed light on what lay behind Lee’s ejection.
On Jan. 26, 2007, NASDAQ’s chief representative in China, Lawrence Pan, was called in to the China State Security Bureau for questioning. He was interrogated about NASDAQ’s “supporting Falun Gong” in the United States, and by the end of the session had promised to do something about it, according to the leaked cable. - Chinese soothsayer sees economic storms ahead – FT.com – As the Chinese world bid farewell to the year of the rabbit and entered the year of the black water dragon on Monday, I went to ask this oracle what he thought was in store for the global economy and for China in the coming months.
- China breaks 30-year tradition with Davos – FT.com – China will break with a 30-year tradition by not sending high-level officials to the World Economic Forum at Davos, which falls this year in the middle of Chinese New Year festivities.
Beijing approached WEF organisers early in 2011 and suggested they move this year’s gathering to an earlier date, making it possible for senior Chinese officials to attend the event. “Can we imagine that this event takes place in Christmas?” asked Cheng Li, a China specialist at the Brookings Institution in the US. “A more telling point is that nowadays an international economic forum without the presence of China is an embarrassment, not for China, but for the forum organisers.” - Ex-U.S. spy chief says may take crisis for new cyber law | Reuters – Reuters – U.S. intelligence agencies have unique capabilities that can help protect American companies from cyber espionage and attack, but it will probably take a crisis to change laws to allow that type of cooperation, a former spy chief said on Monday.
Intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency are authorized to operate abroad but generally are restricted from working within the United States,"Until we have a banking collapse or electric power goes off in the middle of a snowstorm for eight weeks, or something of that magnitude, we're likely just to talk about it and not do much," Mike McConnell, former director of national intelligence, said.
- In Thailand, A Rare Peek At His Majesty’s Balance Sheet – Forbes – Thailand’s King Bhumibol, who turned 84 last December, is the world’s longest serving ruler. He is also the richest – by a comfortable margin. Last year Forbes estimated his net wealth in excess of $30 billion, beating oil-rich Brunei’s Sultan Bolkiah into second place. A gaggle of Gulf potentates and European royals round out our list. Bhumibol’s top ranking is controversial in Thailand, to say the least. Republicans grumble that the monarchy is wasteful and inefficient. Others are horrified that foreigners have the gall to turn a lens on their deified ruler. Royal courtiers insist that Forbes has it all wrong, that the billions on the balance sheet belong to the crown, not the man. They also contest the property valuations on which much of our estimate is based. Yes, they say, the monarchy is sitting on prime tracts of land in Bangkok and central Thailand. But it leases land and rent properties at subsidized rents that no commercial agency would tolerate. So the king isn’t loaded, just landed (and a value investor, as we’ll see).
- 无话可说：大学校长拆迁亲历 – 鲍昆的博客 | 鲍昆的博客 | 博联社 –