China

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China Pushes 'Hush Money' on Grieving Quake Parents

Pressured to stop questioning school toll

(Newser) - Officials in China's Sichuan province are buying the silence of parents who lost children in May's devastating earthquake, the New York Times reports. Grieving parents are being pressured to sign agreements accepting $9,000 in compensation if they stop asking questions about why so many schools collapsed. They are told...

Beijing to Set Up Olympic Protest Zones

City tense, locked down over fears of attack

(Newser) - Beijing will set up specially designated zones for protesters during next month's Olympics, a security official said today, in a sign that China's authoritarian government may allow some demonstrations during the games. "This will allow people to protest without disrupting the Olympics," said the director of the Shanghai...

Chinese Athletes Destitute After Glory Days

80% are jobless, injured, or impoverished

(Newser) - Zhao Yonghua was a Chinese national skiing champion and won several gold medals. But now, at 31, she is bedridden from diabetes, exacerbated by overtraining. With no hope of recovery or employment, the former star finally had to sell one of her gold medals to raise money for treatment. As...

Critics Make Sport of Olympic Mascots

'Fuwa' are in the firing line ahead of Beijing Games

(Newser) - The troubled run-up to the Beijing Games hasn't spared the cartoon mascots, the Wall Street Journal reports. China's critics have already created mock characters for the five—like "GenGen Genocide"—and superstitious Chinese fear a link between the "witch dolls" and the disasters the country has suffered...

Olympians Fearful of Chinese Food Chemicals

Athletes worried about mystery additives plan to pack their own food

(Newser) - In addition to concerns about air quality in Beijing this August, many Olympic athletes are worried about contaminants and chemicals in the food, ABC News reports. With many of China's agricultural products boosted by growth stimulants, or steroids, or amped by antibiotics, athletes are particularly concerned that they might unwittingly...

Beijing Forces Half of Drivers Off the Road

Move to clear noxious air in countdown to Olympics

(Newser) - Half of Beijing's drivers left their cars at home today and took public transportation on the first workday under new restrictions meant to clear the city's notoriously polluted skies before the Olympics. Under the plan that kicked in yesterday, half of the capital's 3.3 million cars will be removed...

US Athletes Weigh Wearing Masks in Beijing

Specially designed masks would blunt smog—and irk hosts

(Newser) - To protect its athletes from Beijing’s polluted air, the US Olympic Committee has secretly developed a mask for them to wear during next month’s Games, the Wall Street Journal reports. But if the 600-plus American Olympians decide to wear the high-tech filter, they risk insulting their Chinese hosts—...

Blacks Charge Harassment in China

Beijing's African residents targeted as part of pre-Olympic crackdown

(Newser) - African residents of Beijing say they are facing growing harassment from police ahead of the Olympics, reports the Globe and Mail. Bar owners near the city's Workers Stadium have reportedly been ordered not to serve "black people or Mongolians." The groups have been targeted as part of China's...

NBC Chafes Under Olympic Restrictions

Chinese government clamping down on media access ahead of games

(Newser) - NBC paid a record $900 million to cover the Beijing Olympics, but it and other networks are already nervous about how much Chinese officials will actually allow them to cover, reports the New York Times. If political protests erupt, networks will also face the dilemma of covering them and angering...

Chinese Artist Sues Over 'Insulting' Panda

Says Dreamwork disrespected national icon

(Newser) - Kung Fu Panda may not seem very controversial, but it sure offended Zhao Bandi, a Chinese performance artist who is renowned for using panda images in his work. Zhao is suing Dreamworks for the film’s “insulting” portrayal of China’s national icon, the Independent reports. “Designing the...

China's New Artist Policy Could Ban Spielberg

Director's Darfur protest stunt may run afoul of Beijing leadership

(Newser) - Steven Spielberg or his films could be banned from China under the new rules barring artists seen as a threat to national sovereignty, the Hollywood Reporter notes. Spielberg rankled Chinese leadership when he publicly withdrew from an artistic advisory board for the Beijing Olympics in protest of the nation’s...

Take That Bjork: China Bans Performers Deemed a Threat

Protests, incendiary artists will not be allowed in the country, the new rules say

(Newser) - Entertainers deemed a threat to China’s sovereignty will not be allowed to perform in the country, the New York Times reports. The Ministry of Culture warned it will conduct background checks and ban those who “advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition” or "take part in activities that...

China Bans Tibetan Flags At Olympic Event

Beijing leaders hope to head off protests in Hong Kong

(Newser) - Tibetan flags will be banned from all Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong under rules aimed at heading off political protests inside competition venues, organizers said today. While China has tightened visa restrictions to keep out protesters during the Olympics, activists could demonstrate in Hong Kong, which grants visa-free access...

Weak Dollar Scaring Off Foreign Funds
Weak Dollar Scaring Off Foreign Funds
ANALYSIS
Jul 17, 2008 4:18 PM CDT

Weak Dollar Scaring Off Foreign Funds

US policy has big China, Gulf spenders looking to divest

(Newser) - With the dollar declining and US economic outlook uncertain, some large sovereign wealth funds are looking to cut down on greenbacks, the Financial Times reports. One such Persian Gulf fund has cut its dollar-denominated investments from 80% to 60%, and China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange is aggressively exploring...

Rich Countries Getting Soaked for a Change
Rich Countries Getting Soaked for a Change
ANALYSIS
Jul 17, 2008 10:02 AM CDT

Rich Countries Getting Soaked for a Change

Developing markets faring better in current economic downturn

(Newser) - As the US and other developed economies feel the crunch of a housing collapse and credit crisis, emerging economies, especially those fueled by commodities, have yet to feel the pinch, the Washington Post reports. "We are overloaded with money, crazy amounts of money from the energy market," a...

McCain's Foreign Policy Could Ignite Cold War II

Republican's 'cowboy antagonism' would sow discord with Russia, China, others

(Newser) - John McCain’s foreign policy—“combustible” and “idealist”—could provoke a second Cold War, pitting the world’s democracies against its autocracies, John Judis writes in the New Republic—at best creating “gratuitous tensions” and at worst wholly “reproducing” the USSR-US “confrontation.” Mac’...

So-Called 'New Powers' Are Acting Spineless
So-Called 'New Powers' Are Acting Spineless
OPINION
Jul 16, 2008 10:03 AM CDT

So-Called 'New Powers' Are Acting Spineless

Time to show some leadership and stop coddling Mugabe

(Newser) - Critics of unchecked and amoral American power should be wary of prospective new world hegemons—especially China, Russia, and South Africa, Thomas Friedman warns in the New York Times. America's international popularity has plummeted under President Bush, but it's the more popular countries that have been acting unconscionably on the...

Air China Buys 45 Boeing Jets
 Air China Buys 45 Boeing Jets 
Jul 16, 2008 8:00 AM CDT

Air China Buys 45 Boeing Jets

Purchase is one of carrier's biggest buys ever

(Newser) - Air China plans to buy 45 Boeing 777 and 737 aircraft, reports the AP, a purchase the airline says will increase its capacity by about 35% and help reinforce Beijing's status as a transportation hub. The list price for the planes—one of China's biggest airliner purchases—is $6.3...

UN Approves China to Buy Ivory
 UN Approves China to Buy Ivory 
Jul 16, 2008 5:29 AM CDT

UN Approves China to Buy Ivory

Critics say allowing imports plays 'Russian roulette' with elephants' lives

(Newser) - China has been given a green light to begin importing African ivory by a UN body that banned the sale 10 years ago, a decision that has infuriated conservation groups, the Daily Telegraph reports. African states say they need to sell stockpiles of ivory from elephants that are culled or...

Booming China Flexing Its M&A Muscle

Chinese companies snap up $42B in foreign assets so far in 2008

(Newser) - Chinese companies are on a buying binge, snapping up $42 billion worth of foreign assets in the first 6 months of 2008. That's a 500% increase over the previous year, and equal to the combined value of takeovers from 2000 to 2006, reports DealBook in the New York Times. And,...

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