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Washington Post
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May 29, 09 10:30 AM CDT
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Now might not be the best time to visit China: the country's aggressive swine flu screening policies have kept even healthy travelers in isolation, the Washington Post reports. One Virginia man was deemed a threat to public health and quarantined for three days because he got off a plane with a temperature of 98.9, not even a degree above normal.
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New York Times
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May 28, 09 6:57 AM CDT
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The Islamic city of Kashgar, in China's far west, has some of the best preserved traditional architecture on the ancient Silk Road, and more than a million tourists a year visit the rambling mud-and-straw buildings that Genghis Khan once passed by. Now, however, the Chinese government wants to tear down Kashgar's Old City, supposedly to "preserve the culture" of the city's Uighur minority. Beijing says it's worried about earthquakes, but as the New York Times reports, many are more afraid of a cultural disaster.
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New York Times
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May 27, 09 4:08 PM CDT
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Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will meet with Chinese officials, including the president, next week in Beijing, the New York Times reports. Before being confirmed for the position, Geither had charged China with “manipulating” its currency. The visit is intended to solidify the trading relationship between the countries, and Geithner is expected to push for reform on carbon emissions.
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Chronicle of Higher Education
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May 27, 09 2:59 PM CDT
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The Tiananmen Square massacre isn’t something the Chinese government wants the world to remember, and it's doing a good job keeping the matter quiet, writes Terrence Cheng in the Chronicle of Higher Education . In China, “those who dare to speak about it are swiftly silenced,” he writes. “The fading concern over Tiananmen, in China and around the world, has devolved into indifference in the face of economic and other priorities.”
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Washington Post
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May 24, 09 1:29 PM CDT
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Like Hillary Clinton before her, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will sidestep Beijing's human rights record on her weeklong trip to China that began today, reports the Washington Post . Pelosi, who has been a vocal critic of the Tiananmen Square massacre and Chinese policies on Tibet, says the focus of her trip will be climate change.
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BBC
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May 23, 09 9:00 AM CDT
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China’s Haizhu Bridge has attracted 12 would-be jumpers since April—none jumped, but all caused traffic jams. The latest, Chen Fuchao, was the final straw for Lai Jiansheng: After traffic was stopped for 5 hours by police, Lai broke through a barrier, shook Chen’s hand, and pushed him off the bridge himself—then saluted the crowd. Chen, who landed on an emergency air cushion, is recovering, the BBC reports.
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Los Angeles Times
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May 22, 09 8:12 AM CDT
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It's now been 20 years since the Chinese army rolled into Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds of students in the final push to put down a growing democracy movement. Beijing is anxious as the June 4 anniversary of the massacre approaches; Google "Tiananmen" in Beijing and you'll likely find pages blocked. But as the Los Angeles Times reports, apathy among today's youth, more than censorship, has made the events of 1989 recede.
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New Yorker
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May 18, 09 2:01 PM CDT
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After President Obama nominated Utah’s Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr as his ambassador to China, New Yorker correspondent Evan Osnos takes the pulse of the Chinese press. He found three matters of note: The press approved Obama’s personal announcement of Huntsman’s new post: It shows Obama takes the job “seriously,” even if Huntsman’s not a close personal friend, as his predecessor was to President Bush.
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BBC
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May 18, 09 4:39 AM CDT
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China's revolutionary sex theme park has been crushed before it could even get off the ground, reports the BBC. Just as the world press was touting "Love Land" and its giant plastic genitalia and sexual technique workshops, outraged Chinese officials were demolishing the park that had been slated to open in October. The owners were "interested only in profiting from sensationalism," a government official told the China Daily today. The park is "vulgar, ill-minded, and misleading."
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BBC
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May 17, 09 7:17 AM CDT
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China is about to topple taboos big time with giant plastic genitalia and sexual technique workshops at a new sex theme park, reports the BBC. "Love Land" is slated to open in Chongqing in October. "Sex is a taboo subject in China but people really need to have more access to information about it," said the park's manager. "But I have to pay attention and not make the park look vulgar and nasty." No rides planned yet.
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CNN
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May 13, 09 3:04 PM CDT
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A Pentagon employee has been charged with conspiracy to share classified information with someone he thought worked for the Taiwanese government who was actually an agent of China, according to documents unsealed today. James Fondren Jr. was allegedly party to an espionage conspiracy from 2004 to 2008. Fondren, 62, has been on administrative leave since last February and turned himself in this morning, CNN reports.
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Guardian (UK)
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May 13, 09 5:43 AM CDT
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A year after the quake that devastated China's Sichuan province, many survivors have new loves if not new homes, the Guardian reports. In Beichuan—where only 4,000 of the town's 22,000 people survived—some 600 widows and widowers have remarried, and the government hopes more will soon follow as the town rebuilds.
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Time
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May 12, 09 8:42 AM CDT
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China today marked one year since the Sichuan earthquake that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing. But the government has still not published results of an investigation, and parents whose children died in shoddily constructed schools have faced police intimidation. The parents have found an unlikely advocate, Time reports: Ai Weiwei, a star artist who has relentlessly pressed for information.
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AFP
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May 8, 09 4:12 PM CDT
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China’s efforts to save the giant panda from extinction haven’t recovered from last year’s earthquake in Sichuan province, AFP reports. The temblor swallowed up whole groves of bamboo, causing a food shortage just as breeding centers, whose efforts have caused a recent panda “baby boom,” have more mouths to feed than ever.
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BBC
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May 7, 09 4:34 AM CDT
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Two managers who scammed the Bank of China for nearly $500 million and fled to the US have been sentenced to more than 20 years each by a Nevada court, the BBC reports. The men's wives—who helped them launder the cash through Las Vegas casinos—were given 8-year sentences. Prosecutors said they hoped the sentences would send a message to foreign crooks seeking to live the high life in the US with their ill-gotten gains.
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Times (UK)
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May 6, 09 12:53 PM CDT
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Seeking to stem the flow of cigarettes over the border and bolster the local tobacco industry, a Chinese county has ordered local officials to puff only local cigarettes, the Times of London reports. In March, Gongan county mandated that civil servants on its payroll smoke 230,000 packs of locally made cigarettes this year or face a fine. Gongan residents prefer smokes made in neighboring Hunan province. The order has since been rescinded.
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CBS News
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May 5, 09 5:40 AM CDT
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Two American citizens have been placed under quarantine in mainland China over swine flu fears, CBS News reports. Another two have been held and released, according to a US Embassy spokeswoman who said the Americans were detained either because they showed flu-like symptoms or were close to "cases of interest to the Chinese authorities."
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Wall Street Journal
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May 5, 09 1:32 AM CDT
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The 300 guests and staff quarantined in Hong Kong's Metropark Hotel since Friday are getting used to life in captivity, the Wall Street Journal reports. The captives—confined since a Mexican guest tested positive for swine flu—complain about boring food and missed business deals, but some have organized beer and pizza parties to pass the seven-day quarantine period.
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Daily Telegraph (UK)
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May 4, 09 5:23 PM CDT
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Testosterone injections can render men temporarily infertile and function as a male contraceptive, Chinese scientists say. Their tests on 1,045 healthy, fertile men were 99% successful and left only two subjects less fertile than they were before the trial. “Our study shows a male hormonal contraceptive regimen may be a potential, novel and workable alternative,” one researcher told the Telegraph .
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Associated Press
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May 4, 09 9:54 AM CDT
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Mexico is sending a charter plane to China today to rescue more than 70 Mexican travelers who have been quarantined by the Chinese government regardless of whether they had symptoms of the swine flu. President Felipe Calderon protested what he called "repressive and discriminatory measures," AP reports. Other Mexican nationals have been taken into isolation after arriving on flights, and even the country's consul was detained after he returned to China.
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