"A small group with ulterior motives", "the people unaware of the truth", "evil instigators behind the scenes"...Recently, shortly after large "mass incidents" one can always see the local government hastily determining in this way. Guizhou's "Weng'an Incident", Yunnan's "Menglian Incident", as well as Gansu's recent "Longnan Incident": early on...
The “50 Cents Party” (五毛党) an informal nickname given to the “army” of web users who defend the Chinese government in blog posts and BBS forums online (The name comes from what these people are supposedly paid by the government, 50 cents per post). Western discussions of this phenomenon tend to venture into hyperbolic...
This is an interesting month for US-China relations. January 1st was the thirtieth anniversary of formal relations between the two nations, celebrated with a variety of activities and various optimistic projections. Yet in a few days, Barack Obama will become the President of the United States, and some speculate he may provide more of...
58 years ago, Communist troops entered Tibet. What happened thereafter is the subject of much controversy; suffice it to say that some people feel things went badly. Chinese government mouthpiece the People’s Daily? Unsurprisingly, not among them. On January 11th, the People’s Daily reported that Tibet’s regional government was planning to set a date...
The excellent China site EastSouthWestNorth has just posted its translation of a fascinating article, originally written by Shen Minte and published in the Beijing Daily News. The whole thing is available at the ESWN link above, but here is an especially interesting passage: This leads to another piece of common knowledge: when a certain...
Though the holidays are over in America, ’tis still the season in China. As Spring Festival creeps closer, Chinese people everywhere are preparing to celebrate the nation’s most important traditional holiday, but some traditions are newer than others. New cars have begun to crowd the roads–what better way to impress one’s family and friends...
“Free Tibet” is a phrase with a bit of a history. More or less since the Chinese army entered Tibet in 1951, some people have asserted that Tibet should be its own country. Over time, the cause became popular among Westerners, especially students and celebrities. The intensity of the protesting comes and goes as...
Charter ’08 is a manifesto signed by over three hundred prominent Chinese intellectuals that was released in December of 2008. It caused an immediate stir in the Western media, but didn’t seem to get much response from within China, at least initially. For the curious, we have collected links to relevant reading, news, and...
Most people know about the horrors perpetrated by the sadistic heads of Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Many also know about the American failures to rescue Jewish refugees and the general lack of urgency about shutting down the camps. Fewer know of the atrocities committed by the Japanese during World War II...
