Da Mao gjorde kineserne til kannibaler

Millioner av kinesere deltok i feiringen av 120-årsdagen for formann Maos fødsel for to år siden. I Beijing bukket hele partiledelsen tre ganger foran kisten til den tidligere partiformannen. I Shaoshan, hans fødested, avduket partipampene en statue i rent gull av ham. Feiringen skal ha kostet det nette sum av to milliarder kroner. Tyrannen som brakte ulykke og død over et helt folk, lovprises ennå i Kina - takket være kommunistpartiets løgner, fortielser og omskrivninger av landets nære historie. Da spiller det mindre rolle at han drev sitt eget folk til vanvidd og gjorde de fattigste av de fattige til kannibaler. 

China targets foreign tech vendors with new trade rules

China has adopted new regulations requiring companies that sell computer equipment to Chinese banks to turn over secret source code, submit to invasive audits and build so-called back doors into hardware and software, according to a copy of the rules obtained by foreign technology companies that do billions of dollars of business in China. Read more

China is limiting high-ranking officials to offices the size of a shipping container

"Do you work for the communist party? Do you know the size limit for your office at work?" So begins an announcement from the Chinese Communist Party's Commission for Discipline Inspection.  Read more

Facebook har flere "innbyggere" enn Kina

Facebook har nå 1,3 milliarder brukere, eller "innbyggere", enda flere enn i Folkerepublikken Kina. Og forresten, i Kina er Facebook forbudt. Les mer

Excellent news for the planet – if it’s true

Talking about Chinese coal production would once have seemed as obscure as banging on about Soviet tractor output. No longer. Climate change is the biggest threat to life on Earth, China the biggest emitter of carbon, and coal the overwhelming culprit. Extraction in the People’s Republic has soared, up tenfold since the 1960s. Read more

Beijing smog makes city ‘unliveable’, says mayor

Beijing’s mayor, Wang Anshun, has called the city “unliveable” because of its noxious smog, according to state media. “To establish a first-tier, international, liveable and harmonious city, it is very important to establish a system of standards, and Beijing is currently doing this,” he said last Friday, according to the China Youth Daily newspaper. “At the present time, however, Beijing is not a liveable city.” Read more

The Sinocism China Newsletter, January 28, 2015

Get smarter about China. Read more

China: The Eclipse of the Politburo

Evidence suggests that the Politburo Standing Committee is in decline, while the central party bureaucracy gains more clout. Read more

As Visit Ends, Obama Presses India on Human Rights and Climate Change

Mr. Obama spoke forcefully about India’s responsibility to stop treating women as second-class citizens. “Every girl’s life matters,” he said, as his wife, Michelle Obama, watched from the audience. “Every daughter deserves the same chance as our sons." Read more

U.S. and India Share Sense of Unease Over China

When President Obama landed here for a three-day visit, he brought a long list of issues to discuss, like energy and trade. But when he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India sat down to talk, the first 45 minutes were dominated by just one: China. Read more

Indias friere står i kø

Fremtiden er lys, sa Indias statsminister Jawaharlal Nehru på uavhengighetsdagen i 1947. Men fremdeles venter inderne på at lyset skal skinne, særlig de 320 millioner som lever under den offisielle fattigdomsgrensen. Kan landets mange friere få fart på økonomien? Les Torbjørn Færøviks kommentar i Dagsavisen

Despite a Crackdown, Use of Illegal Drugs in China Continues Unabated

Last week, the Ministry of Public Security announced that the Chinese police had arrested 60,500 suspects on drug offenses and seized more than 11 metric tons of narcotics since the latest operation, called “Ban drugs in hundreds of cities,” began in October, according to the Xinhua state news agency. Read more

China to Force Authors to Provide Real Names When Publishing Online

In new guidelines on online literature made public this month by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the government called for a system that would require all authors to register their real names with publishing platforms on the Internet. 

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China’s slowdown means vigilance is key for UK firms trading in far east

Last week, London-listed brewer SABMiller was the latest company tobemoan “difficult trading conditions” in China. The company behind Peroni and Grolsch said poor summer weather was to blame, but analysts also pointed to the economic slowdown, as sales volumes in China fell 9% in the latest quarter and by double digits in some parts of the country. Read more

Hard times return as China bids to bring its economic miracle to an end

China’s president, Xi Jinping, calls it the “new normal” – but strikes are increasing, wages going unpaid and businesses are struggling to survive as the vast economy adjusts to a more sedate pace of growth after more than a decade of explosive expansion. Read more

Beijing's Xinjiang Policy: Striking Too Hard?

The Chinese government’s security apparatus is striking hard in Xinjiang, with increasingly frequent kinetic police actions and nearly weekly announcements of long prison sentences and death sentences being handed down to suspected “separatists.” The frequency of violent incidents has risen sharply in the past 18 months. Read more

The Sinocism China Newsletter January 26, 2014

Get smarter about China. Read more

China Leads the World in Media Corruption, says expert

As much discussion of media corruption inside China centers on rotten journalists, as though the only relevant dimension is moral, Zhan Jiang’s interview is refreshingly frank. He explains why media corruption is endemic and, you might say, institutionalized. Read more