At a press briefing today: Q What’s your advice to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline, a lot of people facing – THE PRESIDENT: Wait, what did you just say? You’re predicting $4 a gallon gasoline? Q A number of analysts are predicting – THE PRESIDENT: [...]
The big story right now in the NBA is that Houston Rockets star center Yao Ming has fractured his foot and will not play again this season. For Rockets fans, this is surely terrible news: the team has won 12 games in a row and were a legitimate championship contender. Without Yao, Houston’s hopes for [...]
Last week was one of those weeks in which everything seemed to come up at once. My Visa was due to expire, my rent was due to elapse, and I had to pay tuition for another semester at the language school. The first and third of these responsibilities were easy enough to handle, as the [...]
According to reports (via Go Kunming), a wealthy Hong Kong film producer has the ambitious goal of creating the Chinese equivalent of Hollywood right here in our fair city of Kunming. Before we get excited about celebrity sightings and star maps, however, such a project will require years before it is fully realized. Choosing Kunming [...]
I’ve been in China long enough to get past the point of having very many “bad China days”, but every now and then getting a few pet peeves off my chest isn’t a bad thing. Here’s the latest in an irregular series: 1. If for whatever reason I don’t answer my phone, it means (a) [...]
The March issue of The Atlantic, America’s best magazine, is now online (available with free registration). Included within is a fascinating piece by the magazine’s man in China, James Fallows, that unravels some of the mysteries behind what expats have dubbed “The Great Firewall of China”: China’s sophisticated method of censoring the internet. What’s notable [...]
That quote comes from a new study published by a leading Chinese think tank, urging greater political transparency and media freedom. Here’s the lede from the Guardian: China must embrace political reforms that would cut back censorship and curb the Communist party’s powers, its top thinktank says in a new report warning that the alternatives [...]
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the ailing Fidel Castro announced his resignation as President of Cuba. In practical terms, new President Raul Castro (Fidel’s younger brother) has been the de facto head of state for the past eighteen months, so very little will likely change. Cuba is one of the five remaining [...]
The world’s club of independent nations added Kosovo to its members list this week, to decidedly mixed applause. The US, Britain, France, and Germany immediately recognized the new republic, while Spain ruled out following suit. Serbia, having seen its territory further reduced, is incensed. Its long-time patron Russia also opposed the independence declaration, while other [...]
There’s quite a good thread going now at The Peking Duck, in which I’ve thrown my hat in, wondering when China will liberalize its political system and become a “democracy”. What struck me about the comments was not only the level of disagreement over what China can and should do but also what democracy itself [...]