China in the News

[Anonymous]

In China, New Challenges Amid Traditions

By STEPHANIE SY
DALIAN, China, April 28, 2008 —

When Wang Qian told us he loves to read the works of Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald, we were surprised. English literature is not widely available in China, where the government still censors what people read.
21-year-old Wang Qian personifies China's rise with endless drive and hard work.

We were even more surprised when, during our interview, Wang quoted the fall of Babel, a Bible story. One of his former teachers at Dalian University of Foreign Languages had loaned him the Bible, which is commonly suppressed in officially atheist China.

During the two days we spent with Wang, we learned that despite all the government controls, China's young people are thinking for themselves and examining their society more objectively than ever before.

Check out this link:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Story?id=4732447&page=1

[Anonymous]

Here's the link,
learn more about the young generation of Chinese.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4742233

[Anonymous]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353961,00.html
I just posted something about the high hopes I have for China for the Olympics. Hoping it all goes well for them, shows the country in a bright light, helps their people, etc....then I see that they have a (possible) secret base for building and storing nuclear submarines w/nuclear warheads. Kind of scary for all those countries nearby that we have been talking about.

[Anonymous]

Fortunately when we were in Kunming last spring, the pilots weren't yet reduced to "dirty tricks." The LA Times reported that many of the flights leaving from Kunming to coastal China were never completed last week. Instead the pilots after leaving Kunming airport, reached their destinations, never stopped and returned to Kunming. This was a united protest to signal to the airlines how overburdened they felt. It seems with the huge increase in air traffic (34 per cent in two years) there is a huge shortage of pilots in China. Therefore, the airlines are not honoring their contracts, but requiring pilots to work burdensome schedules, often with no break for a week. Since pilots sign life-long contracts, they are finding the stress intolerable. However, this strange strike caused concern with Chinese citizens and many saw it as "rather scary," fearing a pilot's bad mood might be a safety risk. Also some customers were wondering what the pilots would try next!

[Anonymous]

I read a news article on a Chinese newspaper talking about the Milken Institute 2008 Global Conference. I was very curious about this conference. So I went on-line to check the information about this year's topics. I found out that The Milken Institute Global Conference brings together some of the most extraordinary people in the world - from scientists, business executives and philanthropists to journalists, academics and Nobel laureates - to discuss, debate and deliberate today's most pressing social, political and economic challenges. This year one of the topics on the first day was about China-China's Balancing Act: High Growth vs. Sustainability. In this panel several business executives discussed China's new commitment to a "Harmonious Society". For quite a long time since 1990s many people criticized China was the world's sweatshop for junk. Now the central government of China starts to take action to close down factories that use dirty old technology or pay below minimum wage, end export subsidies and prepare to take the economic hit that will come with restructuring industry. They start to develop environmentally friendly technology. The goal now is to aim for world-class innovative technology for global markets — and that will require more intellectual capital, intellectual property rights and venture capital. There is a summery of this panel on the website. If you are interested in this topic, you can visit:
http://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/gcprogram.taf?function=detail&EvID=1192&eventid=GC08

[Anonymous]

China inaugurated one of world's longest sea bridges on April 30. It is 22 mile long and connects Jiaxing, a city close to Shanghai, and Ningbo, a port city in the eastern province of Zhejiang. China loves to build some constructions that are "the most" in the world, such as the longest wall, the biggest dam, the biggest casino, etc. Although this bridge is not the longest, it's just few meters shorter than the longest one. It's worth to celebrate.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-05/02/content_6656954.htm

[Anonymous]

China is asking its 350 million smokers to take it easy during the Olympics, at least in Beijing and other official sites. Beginning last Thursday, smokers are now restricted to designated areas. In preparation for the Olympics there will also be strict regulations on littering, spitting, walking around without a shirt and cutting in line. However, many Chinese feel smoking is so rooted in the contemporary Chinese culture that it will be nearly impossible to curtail. As one gentleman maintained, "Those that don't smoke and drink aren't real men."

[Anonymous]

It seems that the protests of the Olympic torch were somewhat effective as the Chinese has requested a meeting today of the Tibetan representatives. With some Western nations having made such a meeting a precondition for attending the games, some see this as China bowing to international pressure. However, many experts on the situation do not expect China to make any significant concessions on the Tibetan problem. Last Tuesday, 30 Tibetans had been sentenced for their participation in the clashes, some to life in prison.

[Anonymous]

I agree that this article can lead to some great discussions. It's rather scary how so many people will be affected by this plan. It not only changes the lives of Chinese people who depend on the current geography of the river, but also other countries where the river normally flows. In addition to the internal issues/conflicts created by diverting the river, this plan has a lot of potential to create political conflicts between China and the other countries dependent on the same river for the survival of their own populations.

[Anonymous]

The article you mention sounds very interesting. It sounds like it brings up a lot of alternative view points about so called "progress." I have been thinking a lot about how China seems to be following in the same path that other industrialized nations have followed. Rather than learning from policies and actions that we are now realizing were irresponsible exploitations of resources, China seems to be taking these things even further. Although this strategy seems to be very short sighted, I can understand a little bit of their thinking because they are just trying to have what other devoloped countries have. It's interesting to consider that maybe the successful paths of other countries may no longer be as effective in the current global climate. (?) China has a lot of issues to confront as they move toward further progress and political power. As far as the "lack of originality" you sited from the article, it seems to be encouraged by the communist policies and strict control by the government. This could also lead to questions about the success of traditional instructional practices in the Chinese educational system. This sounds like another great article to raise questions and start some very interesting classroom discussions. I'd be interested in reading more about this. What issue of Vanity Fair was this article in, and/or is it available online?

[Anonymous]

Chinese central government officials and the private representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama met on Sunday, May 4. They met in the Shenzhen, a big city in southern China. According to this piece of official news from Chinese governemt, during the meeting, representitives from both sides pointed out that the riot in Lhasa on March 14 had given rise to new obstacles for resuming contacts and consultations with the Dalai side. The source said it was the hope of the central government that to create conditions for the next round of contact and consultation, the Dalai side would take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games.

Based on what I learned from Dalai Lama's philosophy, Dalai Lama has never agreed to use violence to make Tibet become independent. Actually, he has never wanted Tibet to be independent. He only want China government to respect what Tibetan people's wish, which is to have their own government and to keep their own language, traditions, and freedom in religion. If China government really understand what true Buddhism philosophy and what a ture Buddhist believe, they should not accuse Dalai Lama as the leader aiming at splitting China or plotting and inciting violence. A true Buddhist, like Dalai Lama, will never encourage violence and always wants to solve problems with a peaceful way. It can be proved by the history that Buddhists are the only group of people that has never cause any religious war in any region of the whole world. I suggest the China government to do some research about Tibetan Buddhism. Conflicts come from misunderstanding. Only when both sides really understand each other, their meetings in the future will become effective and meaningful.

China Daily Website: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-05/04/content_6660218.htm

[Anonymous]

This is the news released by the official website of Dalai Lama. They announced that their official representitives are going to go to China on May 3 and to meet the Chinese government official on Sunday. I am looking forward to seeing what they will say for this meeting. We can always compare both sides of story about the same news.

The official website of Dalai Lama is: http://www.dalailama.com/news.246.htm

[Anonymous]

Recently a dead disease has killed 24 children and infected more than 5000 in An-hui Province in China. The cause of this disease is a kind of virus called Enterovirus 71 (EV-71), which causes a severe strain of hand, foot and mouth disease, normally peaks in June and July. The World Health Organization is concerned this virus outbreak in China may be under-reported, but says a cover-up by officials is not suspected. The symptoms include fever, mouth sores, rashes, and blisters. Enterovirus is highly contagious, spread by bodily fluids, and mainly affects just children because of their weaker immune systems.

If you plan to go to China during the spring and summer time, I suggest you to be very careful about the food and water overthere. From my experience, it is better to take hand sanitizer with you and wash your hands all the time. It will reduce the chances of getting some contagious diseases.

The following websites are some news related to this disease:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-04-voa19.cfm (Voice of America)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j6YZgewXM0erJy6g9-0PWZo0unYAD90F2R1G0 (Google news)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/05/china.health (Guardian in UK)

[Anonymous]

Well said. The idea that the government does not understand the core principals of the Dalai Lama is a disservice to all, but when any group of people is blindly led by their party affiliation, it's hard to change that kind of radical thought. In esence, I'm not sure the Chinese government will ever want to, or even try to understand any other way of thinking. This is evident in the absurdity of the "necessary actions" they have stipulated to the Dalai Lama. What I do think will get them to expedite these peace efforts is the world stage and I do not think it is a coincidence that the Olympics happen to be coming up and the government is meeting with the Dalai Lama. But, if that's what it takes, at least it's a step in the right direction no matter what the motivation is to start the process.

[Anonymous]

On May 3, United Press International reports that an inspection of factories and other workplaces in China's richest province, Guandong (Kantong) found about 1,000 children working illegally. The children range from 9 to 16 years old were found working in some small factories. They all came from Sichuan Province, one of the poorest provinces in China. What a piece of sad news.

How did those people traffickers abduct so many children or teenagers from Sichuan to Kantong? I guess they might tell the parents or children that it’s easy to earn money in the big cities of Kantong than in the villages in Sichuan, so the parents were willing to let their kids to leave the hometown. I still remember the video we saw in the seminar about a young girl who is barely over 18 years old comes from Sichuan to work in Kantong for a job paying less than $0.20 an hour. One teacher asked that how come the girl is willing to come a long way for such a cheap labor job. The possible answer is that staying at small villages to farm may get enough food but may not earn enough money to support the whole family. At present the gap in economy and development between the east coastal cities and inland villages in China is huge. If the Chinese government doesn’t put more efforts to reduce the gap, the migrant workers from villages will keep going to big cities and may cause a serious social problem in the recent future. It might cause a chain reaction politically in China later on.
The website for this news is:
http:/www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/03/chinese_probe_finds_scattered_child_labor/2382/

[Author]

Posts