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Olympic terrorists arrested in Shanghai
Police in Shanghai have confirmed that they have cracked down on a terrorist cell planning attacks at Olympic football matches. This report comes after the Kunming bus bombing earlier this week, the police killing of five alleged Uyghur terrorists in Urumqi earlier in this month and the government’s announcement that it has detained 82 suspect terrorists in the northwest part of China this past year.
No wonder Beijing is so jumpy with security this year, even taking into account the usual jumpiness expected with the influx of foriegn media... Police in Shanghai have confirmed that they have cracked down on a terrorist cell planning attacks at Olympic football matches. This ... more -
Epic quest for an Olympic ticket
The 250,000 remaining tickets to the Olympic games went on sale this morning in Bejing, though some have already queued over 40 hours for their ticket. Buyers in the 3k-long queue include enthusiasts, average interested citizens... and the off office employee sent to buy tickets as 'special gifts' for important patrons... The 250,000 remaining tickets to the Olympic games went on sale this morning in Bejing, though some have already queued over 40 hours ... more
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Three children jailed for armed robbery
Three children from Hong Kong have been sentenced to more than three years for the armed hold-up of a jewellery shop.
Disguised with masks and caps, the two boys and one girl, all aged 14, threatened staff at the shop with knives in September last year, grabbing jewellery valued at more than HK$1 million ($128,200).
According to the court, the severe sentence was in the public interest. The judge said the offence was too serious to warrant a training centre term despite the age of the three. Three children from Hong Kong have been sentenced to more than three years for the armed hold-up of a jewellery shop. ... more -
Chinese police in religious training ahead of Olympics
"SHENYANG, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Police in the Olympic football co-host city of Shenyang, northeast China, have been boning up on religions in a bid to understand foreigners and avoid insulting their feelings during the Games.
More than 5,000 police officers have learnt the origins, forms, taboos, and classic works of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism in class since the municipal public security bureau launched the campaign in March.
Besides theories and China's religious laws and policies, they also practiced etiquette and ways to solve emergency situations concerning religion affairs, said Yang Tao, training teacher.
"They enjoy the arrangement, saying the content was interesting and helpful," said Yang, professor with China Criminal Police University based in Shenyang.
"Such training could help them to better understand foreigners, make them feel confident in communications and effectively deal with emergencies while showing respect to foreigner's religious customs," he explained.
Religion was just a part of a comprehensive Olympic training scheme the bureau initiated since January.
More than 120 short-term courses on 19 subjects such as security check, foreign affairs management, oral English, media, anti-terror, and psychology, have attracted 7,000 participants over the past half year, according to Liu Xiujuan with the bureau's education and training department.
Experts, experienced police officers from Shenyang and Beijing were invited to give lectures.
"More than 10,000 policemen have received media training on English and techniques to communicate with reporters, and emotion control," said Liu Kejun, chief of the bureau's publicity department.
"China has pledged to aid the foreign media's coverage of the Olympics, and we must work better to create a favorable environment for reporters," said Liu. "
Interesting... "SHENYANG, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Police in the Olympic football co-host city of Shenyang, northeast China, have been boning up on religi... more -
Dalai Lama meets McCain
Republican presidential candidate John McCain planned to meet with the Dalai Lama today in a show of solidarity with the Tibetan spiritual leader and as a rebuke to China's treatment of the people he represents.
"I've been a great admirer of the Dalai Lama," McCain told reporters Thursday while campaigning in Ohio, calling the Dalai Lama "a transcendent international role model and hero."
McCain's remarks come two weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics.
China in recent months has imprisoned hundreds of Tibetans who held marches for greater autonomy and freedoms. China took Tibet by force in 1951, burning hundreds of Buddhist temples and killing many priests.
The Dalai Lama, the head of the faith in Tibet, went into exile in 1959 and has waged a campaign for decades in the West to have China loosen its grip on his country. He remains an immensely popular figure among the Tibetan people.
The Dalai Lama is attending a symposium in Aspen, Colo., on his homeland's culture. His planned meeting there with McCain comes four months after the Dalai Lama sent him a letter thanking him for his "concern" over the Chinese military crackdown in Tibet.
Support for Tibet and opposition to China's stifling of dissent are two points of agreement on foreign policy between McCain and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Both have said if they were president they would boycott the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies in Beijing.
The White House announced July 3 that President Bush would attend the opening ceremonies. He said on July 6 that he has often talked about religious freedom and human rights with the Chinese, and "I don't need the Olympics to express my concerns."
Bush said a boycott would have been an "affront" that may have made it harder to "speak frankly with the Chinese leadership."
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in October in a ceremony attended by the president. China issued a statement lashing out at Bush for taking part in the honor.
Regarding America's policy with China, McCain has said he supports cooperation on "a wide variety of strategic, economic and diplomatic fronts," but that Chinese leaders need to understand that "in our modern world, how a nation treats its citizens is a legitimate subject of international concern."
Michael Green, former top Asia adviser in the Bush administration, said he doubted that McCain would use the meeting with the Dalai Lama to bash China.
Green, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the McCain meeting and Obama's comments should send a message to China that Tibet will be an important issue to the next president.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain planned to meet with the Dalai Lama today in a show of solidarity with the Tibetan spiri... more -
Super fine hemp to rival traditional wool
A Western Australian farmer hopes to export super-fine 'baby hemp' that he claims gives merino wool a run for its money.
Kim Hough is growing hemp at a time of the year when it grows quicker and has longer fibres than conventional hemp, making it ideal for the premium textile market.
He says the export market is keen.
"A lot of people get the wrong idea that hemp is coarse like your bags and things," he says.
"Now hemp has been refined to an extraordinary degree and now we're looking at super-fine fibres with the baby hemp.
"Japan is the place we're looking at at the moment but also China is looking at more high quality fibre." A Western Australian farmer hopes to export super-fine 'baby hemp' that he claims gives merino wool a run for its money. ... more -
Sympathy for Tibet is because of Western Confusion
This is pretty wild!
"Dr. Qiu Zhenhai explains how the Beijing government can turn the public relations battle in its favor. Far more reasonable - even to the point of admitting error on the part of the Chinese government - the key, according to the author, is to understand the flaws and contradictions in Western thinking and to mount a massive new public relations campaign."
Excerpts :
"Tibet’s largest riot in 20 years has aroused international concern. Although over the past few days Chinese officials have released some news, they have yet to allow foreign reporters to interview the locals and the rumors are flying. Particularly European countries are of the belief that information from the Chinese government is wholly unreliable. This statement sounds harsh, but the Western world’s inherent thinking and feeling on the issue of Tibet is a reflection of this. If we carefully study the mentality behind this thinking and improve China’s international public-relations skills, we can try to overcome the limitations of the West’s political culture."
"On the question of Tibet, Western intellectuals have multiple overlaid and intertwined complexes. So when they speak with the appearance of “rationality” on the issue of Tibet, they merely give vent to their own confusion and demonstrate the vicious circle that they’ve gotten themselves into."
It's an interesting opinion piece! We'll see if China follows suit and starts tricking us into liking them with a huge public relations campaign!
This is pretty wild! ... more -
China claims they "foiled terrorist plot"
"Police in China have "cracked" an international terrorist group that was planning to attack Olympic venues in Shanghai, state media reported Thursday.
There were few specific details of group or what it was said to be plotting, with the Xinhua news agency quoting Chen Jiulong, the deputy Shanghai's Public Security Bureau, saying it had acted on information.
Chinese authorities have previously announced terror crackdowns in the run-up to the Olympic Summer Games, which kick off on August 8 in host city Beijing and other venues including the eastern financial capital of Shanghai.
It said two weeks ago that it disrupted five "terrorist" groups in the predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region in China's far west because it suspected them of plotting to attack the games.
The six-month crackdown netted 82 suspected terrorists and marked the end to the first phase of China's Olympic Security Protection, according to Xinhua.
A Human Rights Watch analyst raised concerns that China may be using the Olympics as an excuse to crack down on dissidents.
"It's clear that the police are simply adding cases of people who they think are engaging in activities that are critical of Chinese rule," Nicholas Bequelin told CNN.
The government has not produced any evidence of terror plots, and nearly all of the arrests are based on the confessions -- sometimes forced -- of those detained, he said.
"What the government appears to be doing is to conflate terrorism with criminal acts and other cases of dissent," he said."
So what do you think- did China foil a "terrorist plot" or are they using terrorism as an excuse for other things they want to crack down on? "Police in China have "cracked" an international terrorist group that was planning to attack Olympic venues in Shanghai, state media r... more -
Phony Mickey Mouse statues for China Olympics
To promote the Beijing Olympics, a city in China has erected several statues depicting a mouse athlete, who looks exactly like Mickey Mouse's acid-rain damaged poorer cousin. Copyright piracy is widespread throughout the country. For more information on China's 'fake Disneyland', see:
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1678
I don't have a problem with entrepreneurs siphoning off a little of Walt Disney Co.'s profits. Although, the classic characters, when the familiar features are removed and all we're left with is the concept, are disturbingly sinister-looking. To promote the Beijing Olympics, a city in China has erected several statues depicting a mouse athlete, who looks exactly like Mickey ... more -
Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics
Iraq cannot take part in the Beijing Olympics because it disbanded the country's Olympic Committee, a committee official said on Thursday, but a comment from the Games' organizers suggested the ban may not be final. Iraq cannot take part in the Beijing Olympics because it disbanded the country's Olympic Committee, a committee official said on Thurs... more
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China censors polite conversation with Olympic tourists
The Chinese Propaganda Department has issued a list of "eight don't asks", advising their citizens not to discuss certain topics with the Olympic tourists. The posters, stamped with the Olympic logo warn against discussing someone's home, age, income, love life, health, personal experience, religious beliefs, political views or profession.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/7671812 The Chinese Propaganda Department has issued a list of "eight don't asks", advising their citizens not to discuss certain topics with ... more -
Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics
Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced.
The team was already the subject of an interim ban after the Iraqi government replaced the country's Olympic committee with its own appointees.
Under the IOC charter, all committees must be free of political influence.
As a result the team of two rowers, two sprinters, one archer, one weightlifter and one judo competitor cannot attend.
"The deadline for taking up places for Beijing for all sports except athletics has now passed," said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.
"The IOC very sadly has now to acknowledge that it is likely there will be no Iraqi presence at the Beijing Olympic Games, despite our best efforts."
She added: "Clearly, we'd very much like to have seen Iraq's athletes in Beijing.
"We are very disappointed that the athletes have been so ill-served by their own government's actions."
The four Iraqi athletes that qualified could have competed under the Olympic flag
BBC Radio 5 Live's Gordon Farquhar
Hussein al-Amidi, the general secretary of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, said: "This morning we were informed of the final decision of the International Olympic Committee to suspend the membership of the Iraqi Olympic Committee.
"It's a final decision, there is no way to appeal. This means that Iraq will not take part in the coming Olympic games.
"It is a blow to Iraq and its international reputation, its athletes and its youth.
"I swear those athletes who have been training - they phoned me today and they were crying and were very upset."
BBC Radio 5 Live sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar added: "The four Iraqi athletes that qualified could have competed under the Olympic flag but the deadline for confirmation of places has passed."
The committee which the government dismissed was elected in 2004, in line with the Olympic movement's regulations.
Its chairman, Ahmad al-Samarra'i, and several other members were abducted by gunmen while attending a meeting in central Baghdad in July 2006.
They have not been seen since.
The Iraqi government said it took the move because the committee was corrupt and had not been functioning properly. Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced... more -
Survey: Olympics will be a great success
According to a new survey conducted by a US group called PEW, up to 93% of Chinese people believe that the Olympic games will be a big success and 'help China's image' in the world. This and similar statistics point to an enormous gulf between Chinese and Western perceptions of China, which has widened in the aftermath of the Tibet riots and Olympic torch relay. Interestingly, in a climate where the West is becoming increasingly critical of China, China's own country satisfaction rating also soared to 86 per cent from 48 per cent in 2002.
This disparity highlights the lack of understanding between the West and China, both due to China's own strict censorship laws but also (more often overlooked in the West) the Western media's tendency for bias and sensationalism against China. According to a new survey conducted by a US group called PEW, up to 93% of Chinese people believe that the Olympic games will be a big... more -
Big Love in China
In this episode of Sexy Beijing, Su Fei gets sick of the city life and goes to the countryside in search of love.
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The Pollution Map of Beijing
In Beijing this summer but worried about the smog? Want to know when it's safe to go outdoors without a facemask? Richard Spencer points us to a useful tool.
The Pollution Map of Beijing (linked in Spencer's blog) is a collaborative project between the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau and CERC (Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants) and gives a day-to-day forecast of pollution levels in the capital.
Of course, the scale has to be taken slightly into context for the average user, as the blue 'good' level of pollution still fails WHO standards. Green means 'slightly polluted', which doesn't sound too bad - until you realised that it means it has failed even the government's own definition of acceptability and may effect people with 'heart or pulmonary conditions', like asthma.
Now where's my oxygen tank... In Beijing this summer but worried about the smog? Want to know when it's safe to go outdoors without a facemask? Richard Spencer po... more -
'Olympic Security English': What lousy luck...
The Public Security Bureau in China has distributed a pamphlet to all security forces working during the upcoming Olympic games detailing key words and phrases, and likely dialogue scenarios, a policeman might encounter with English-speaking tourists...
Example exchanges include:
Police: Do you have your ticket for the boxing match?
Foreigner: No. I thought I could buy it when I got to the Gymnasium.
Police: Since you have neither passport nor other identification, you'll have to come along with us to the police station.
Foreigner: What lousy luck!
Have the interpreters been reading too much P.G. Wodehouse again? The Public Security Bureau in China has distributed a pamphlet to all security forces working during the upcoming Olympic games detail... more -
China presses grieving parents to take hush money on quake
HANWANG, China: The official came for Yu Tingyun in his village one evening last week. While clutching a contract and a pen, he asked Yu to get into his car.
Yu's daughter had died in a cascade of concrete and bricks, one of at least 240 students at a high school in Hanwang who lost their lives in the May 12 earthquake. He became a leader of grieving parents demanding to know if that school, like so many others, had crumbled because of poor construction.
The contract had been thrust in Yu's face during a long interrogation by the police the previous day. In exchange for his silence, and for acknowledging that the ruling Communist Party had "mobilized society to help us," he would get a cash payment and a pension.
Yu had resisted then, but this time, he took the pen.
"When I saw that most of the parents had signed it, I signed it myself," Yu, 42, said softly. He carries a framed portrait of his daughter, Yang, in his shoulder bag.
Local governments in southwest China's Sichuan Province have begun a coordinated campaign to buy the silence of angry parents whose children died during the earthquake, according to interviews with more than a dozen parents from four collapsed schools. Officials coerce the parents into signing the compensation contract by threatening that the parents will receive no money at all if they refuse the agreement, the parents say.
Chinese officials had promised a new era of openness and transparency after the earthquake and before the Olympic Games next month. But the silencing of the parents is causing some doubt on the matter.
Officials have come knocking on parents' doors day and night. They are so intent on parents' signing the contract that in one case a mayor offered to pay for the return airplane ticket of a mother who had left the province.
The amount of the payments vary slightly depending on the local government. Parents in Hanwang said they were being offered 60,000 yuan, or $8,800, in immediate cash and a per-parent pension of nearly 38,000 yuan.
The campaign to buy off the parents follows other efforts to quash questions over school construction: The riot police have broken up protests by parents; officials have ordered Chinese news media to stop reporting on the collapses; local governments have begun to bulldoze the remains of some of the schools, closing the door on any chance of a proper investigation; and a human rights advocate trying to help some parents, Huang Qi, has been jailed.
The latest tactic also appears to be working: Most of the parents have signed the contract, even if they are displeased with the terms and still furious at the lack of a real investigation into the school collapses.
"Most of the parents now feel tired of this," said Liu Guanyuan, 44, whose 17-year-old son died in the collapse of Dongqi Middle School, also the gravesite of Yu's daughter. "There's a Chinese saying: 'The people sue the government, and the government doesn't care."'
***Article Continues, Click Link To Read*** HANWANG, China: The official came for Yu Tingyun in his village one evening last week. While clutching a contract and a pen, he asked ... more -
China is paying off grieving parents
This seems to be a particularly cold-hearted form of cover-up by the Chinese government.
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Sichuan, China Hit With Another Earthquake
The southern city of Guangyang, in the already devastated Sichuan Provence was hit again by an earthquake, this one smaller than the previous 8.0. So far, no causalities have been reported.
The southern city of Guangyang, in the already devastated Sichuan Provence was hit again by an earthquake, this one smaller than the p... more -
China Bans Conversation during the Olympics!
"Don't ask a tourist's age or wage, steer clear of sex and avoid religion: what many Chinese consider idle chit-chat has now become the latest area of censure in Beijing as it prepares for an influx of Olympic visitors.
Posters displayed on bulletin boards in the neighborhood which includes tourist magnet the Forbidden City, and which will host Olympics boxing events, counsel locals against a wide range of potentially awkward conversation topics with foreigners.
The list of "eight don't asks" was issued by the Dongcheng district Propaganda Department as a guide for locals about how to show proper hospitality, a department spokesman said.
"Don't ask about income or expenses, don't ask about age, don't ask about love life or marriage, don't ask about health, don't ask about someone's home or address, don't ask about personal experience, don't ask about religious beliefs or political views, don't ask what someone does," the Olympics logo stamped poster advises."
Just DON'T TALK TO ANYONE about ANYTHING and everything will be fine... "Don't ask a tourist's age or wage, steer clear of sex and avoid religion: what many Chinese consider idle chit-chat has now become th... more
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