China

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China's Ballplayers Prepare for First Olympics

There are low expectations for the team, but it has come a long way

(Newser) - China’s Olympic baseball team, under the guidance of an ex-Major League manager, has some hurdles to jump in its first Olympics. After Mao Zedong banned the Western sport in China, it never drew many fans–so the team uses second-rate facilities and generally faces overwhelming odds against other teams....

100 Surnames for 1.3B People Causes Chinese Confusion

Surname shortage causes identity mixups, bureaucratic chaos

(Newser) - The Chinese call them liaobaixing, or "old 100 names," and they are so partial to those 100 traditional surnames, Radio Free Netherlands tells us, that over 90% of the country's population of 1.3 billion share them. The profusion of Wangs, Chen, Lis and Wus creates powerful feelings...

Chinese Museums Confound Western Expectations

(Newser) - These days China feels "both older and newer than any place on the planet," writes  New York Times art critic Holland Cotter. And nowhere is that tension more palpable than in the country's museums, which use antiquities from the millennia-old civilization in service of a rising world power....

Historic China-Taiwan Flights Take Off

Tourists visit old nationalist stronghold

(Newser) - Commercial flights between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan resumed today for the first time in 60 years, with simultaneous flights landing at  the Taipei and Shanghai airports, the BBC reports. China Southern Airline's chairman described the first flight to land in Taipei as "a sacred moment." The agreement...

Bush Will Attend Beijing Opener

President dashes rights groups' hopes of an Olympic opening boycott

(Newser) - The White House has confirmed that President Bush will attend the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics—and he's likely to have plenty of seats to choose from in the VIP box, reports the New York Times. Brit Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not be...

Pragmatism Dictates China's Religious Policy

Strategic chip firm given leeway for Christian worship

(Newser) - China officially sanctions religious worship only at state facilities, but the Christian Science Monitor finds that plenty of wiggle room exists in the business world. It profiles one company whose Christian CEO is allowed to put up a church at every worksite. Why such accommodation in a formally atheist state?...

China Quake Beat the Odds
 China Quake Beat the Odds 
Jun 30, 2008 4:06 PM CDT

China Quake Beat the Odds

Unusual seismic conditions led to disaster, scientists say

(Newser) - The earthquake that leveled parts of China’s Sichuan province last month was a geological oddity arising from usually inactive faults, LiveScience reports. The bizarre seismological coincidences behind the quake explain why no one was able to predict the event, which claimed 69,000 lives.

'Rape' Girl's Death Sparks Chinese Riots

Family charges teen 'suicide' was killed by official's son

(Newser) - Furious Chinese mobs claiming authorities are covering up the murder of a teenage girl yesterday stormed government buildings in southwest China. Several thousand people set fire to county and party buildings and police stations in Wengan county in Guizhou, the BBC reports. Authorities have ruled the death of the girl...

China's One-Child Policy Leads to Nation of Angry Men

Huge gender imbalance spurs skyrocketing crime rate

(Newser) - China’s got a big problem, one of its own making. The nation's one-child policy, now 30 years old, has resulted in a land of angry, testosterone-filled young men unable to find wives, writes Mara Hvistendahl in the New Republic. Finally worried about the world's biggest gender imbalance and its...

North Korea Hands Over Nuclear Data
North Korea Hands Over Nuclear Data
Jun 26, 2008 7:36 AM CDT

North Korea Hands Over Nuclear Data

White House moves to remove Pyongyang from 'axis of evil'

(Newser) - The North Korean regime has submitted a long-awaited rundown of its nuclear program to China, 6 months after its due date. The report is expected to detail the nation's plutonium enrichment efforts, but will probably leave out details of its nuclear arsenal, reports the BBC. The White House responded by...

Daring Architecture Energizes Beijing
 Daring Architecture 
 Energizes Beijing 
glossies
Jun 25, 2008 5:30 PM CDT

Daring Architecture Energizes Beijing

Some buildings work, some don't, but overall vibe among residents is a good one

(Newser) - Some of the world’s most adventurous architects have found a gung-ho partner in Beijing, the most noticable payoff being the soon-to-be completed CCTV headquarters—"a dazzling reinvention of the skyscraper," writes Paul Goldberger in the New Yorker. Other creations, such as an ovoid peforming arts center dismissed...

China Reopens Tibetan Tourism
 China Reopens Tibetan Tourism 
Jun 25, 2008 12:13 PM CDT

China Reopens Tibetan Tourism

Torch relay demonstrated stability, state media says

(Newser) - China is allowing foreign tourists to enter Tibet for the first time since March protests, sources tell the BBC. The Olympic torch’s smooth reception in Lhasa over the weekend means "Tibet is safe,” a Tibetan tourism director tells state media. "We welcome the domestic and foreign...

Chinese Menus Retranslated for Olympics

Government mandates names as squeamish tourists descend

(Newser) - The Chinese government is issuing a list of revised names for some of the country's more obliquely translated dishes in preparation for the wave of tourists the Beijing Olympics will draw this August, the New York Times reports.
  • A disconcerting plate of “husband-and-wife lung slices” will be rechristened as
...

Axis of Wealth Shifting East
 Axis of Wealth Shifting East 
Jun 25, 2008 2:43 AM CDT

Axis of Wealth Shifting East

India, China claim biggest surge in new millionaires

(Newser) - Nations once known for extremes of poverty—China, India and Brazil—are now producing more of the world's millionaires and super rich than ever before, according to a new study of the globe's wealthiest entrepreneurs. The US is losing ground to emerging markets when it comes to producing personal wealth,...

Navy Ship Leaves Port —Without 100 Sailors

USS Ronald Reagan, fleeing typhoon, leaves 100 seamen in Hong Kong

(Newser) - A US aircraft carrier set sail from Hong Kong early Sunday with about 100 of its crew still on shore leave, the AP reports. The USS Ronald Reagan and its support ships left port early because Typhoon Fengshen was bearing down. Officials are scrambling to book flights to reunite the...

Tough Visa Rules Threaten to Slash Olympic Tourism

Visitors vanish as China boosts security

(Newser) - Heightened visa restrictions in China have shrunk tourism ahead of the Beijing Olympics, the New York Times reports. Numbers of foreign visitors to Beijing fell 14% last month when government officials tightened the rules to bolster security.

Breastfeeding Officer Sparks Debate in China

'Police mum' promoted for helping orphaned babies in quake

(Newser) - A policewoman has sparked debate in Beijing after breastfeeding nine orphaned babies during last month's earthquake, Reuters reports. Officials have promoted Jiang Xiaojuan, 30, calling her "hero and model police officer," but others argue that merit, not deeds, should lead to promotion. Xiaojuan left her baby at home...

Blogger Keeps Quake in Focus
 Blogger Keeps Quake in Focus 
Jun 21, 2008 8:30 PM CDT

Blogger Keeps Quake in Focus

Chinese graphic novelist tells stories from the disaster zone

(Newser) - A Chinese graphic novelist determined to keep the aftermath of last month's earthquake on the front burner is using her new blog to get the message out, and fellow citizen journalists on the other side of the world are catching on. "We love you, Coco Wang," a blogger...

Olympic Omens Worry Superstitious Chinese

An unfortunate 2008 has some talking of a 'curse of the Olympic mascots'

(Newser) - Superstitious beliefs the Communists once tried to stamp out have been making a comeback in China, the Christian Science Monitor reports, especially in this troubled Olympic year. The Games are set to begin on August 8, as 8 sounds like fortune in Mandarin, making 8/8/8 an especially lucky date, but...

Olympic Torch Arrives in Tibet
 Olympic Torch Arrives in Tibet 
Jun 21, 2008 6:17 AM CDT

Olympic Torch Arrives in Tibet

Amid heavy security, China slams Dalai Lama

(Newser) - Under tight security, the Olympic torch made its way through Tibet’s capital in the most controversial leg of its worldwide journey—a jaunt that ended with Chinese criticism of the Dalai Lama, Reuters reports. “We will be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama...

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