While Chinese President Xi Jinping is busy greeting world leaders this week at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing, here in the quiet, old Dutch town of Galle, Sri Lanka, Chinese tourists are visiting one of the best preserved colonial-era cities in Southeast Asia.
In a long overdue move, China’s highest court, top prosecution office and the Ministry of Public Security issued instructions last week on how to deal with cases of terrorism and religious extremism.
In the remote northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang, China authorities are certainly being exhaustive in their attempts to stem a spike in the long-running activity of Islamic militants. Recent attempts have involved the use of drones employed to locate, capture and kill suspected Islamic militants in the region, as well as restrictions being placed on the practice of Islam and the wearing of beards and veils in public.
On Jan. 5, 1930 Mao Zedong wrote the essay, “A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire.” Yet over 80 years later, the phrase still rings true in today’s fragile and fractured China. One such recent example, although not nearly as serious in scale to what Mao was contemplating, occurred when CCTV, the state broadcaster, […]
Local authorities in China’s restive Xinjiang region are going all out in their efforts to fight terrorism, including those in the northwestern city of Karamay, who are now banning people who wear veils, head scarves, a loose-fitting garment called a jilbab, clothing with the crescent moon and star, and those with long beards, from boarding […]
Chinese President Xi Jinping, certainly has a huge task before him – not only cracking down on rampant corruption, but attempting to change the mindset of a population which some say has lost its moral compass. A recent circular from the Communist Party’s powerful Organisation Department stated that party officials must be prevented from “being […]
In an apparent act of defiance, North Korea on Tuesday fired rockets several kilometers north of a popular South Korean tourist observatory near the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). North Korea has also threatened a fourth nuclear test, in violation of United Nations sanctions, and has test-fired short-range missiles and rockets four times in the past two […]
Russia and China last month agreed to a landmark natural gas deal nearly a decade in the making that will put the two in partnership for the next 30 years. Russia’s energy giant, Gazprom, and the China National Petroleum Corp. signed the much-anticipated $400 billion natural gas deal on May 21. The exact pricing remains […]
map: ChinaSmack Tensions escalated in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, as Ukrainian forces killed up to five pro-Moscow separatist rebels, and Russia launched army drills near the border in response, raising fears its troops would invade. The Ukrainian action took place to recapture territory from the rebels, who have seized swaths of eastern Ukraine since April […]
As the Ukrainian crisis escalates, President Barack Obama has been busy making the diplomatic rounds trying to build support against the unilateral attempts by Crimea to break away from the new government in Ukraine. President Obama said the United States is examining a series of economic and diplomatic steps to “isolate Russia,” and he called […]
In what local authorities are calling “an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack,” 10 assailants dressed in black and wielding long knives stormed the train station in the southern city of Kunming, indiscriminately slaughtering thirty-three people and wounding 130. Police fatally shot four of the assailants , arrested one and are still searching for the remaining […]
Ever since the restoration of U.S.-China diplomatic ties in 1979, Beijing has allowed American media organizations, newspapers, and magazines to establish bureaus on the mainland. Although these operations were initially quite small throughout the 1980s and 1990s, China-based newsrooms kept growing during the late 2000s to reflect China’s growing international stature as the “big story.” […]
Police detained this supporter of Xu Zhiyong who had gathered with other activists outside the court Human Rights Watch accused China on Tuesday of failing to meet its people’s demands for political reform and for its pursuit of anti-corruption activists — despite its declared crackdown on graft. The New York based organization accused the Chinese […]
Xi Jinping at the Steamed Bun Shop by Tutou Jueren (“Stubborn Baldy”) The Chinese Communist Party has a long tradition of using its state media as a tool to maintain its legitimacy and control its masses through party propaganda. While ancient China also used propaganda, Chairman Mao Zedong was the first Chinese leader to successfully […]
AP Photo: David Guttenfelder With the official death toll from Typhoon Haiyan topping 4,000 on Wednesday, nations from around the world are ramping up their efforts to help the Philippines deal with over 1,600 missing persons, 700,000 damaged houses and the nearly 10 million people affected. Australia, Britain and the U.S. have so far each […]