GALLERY In photos: The flash cars of Beijing's poorly paid public servants Globe and Mail Update Published Thursday, May. 24, 2012 6:52AM EDT Last updated Thursday, May. 24, 2012 7:45AM EDT The Chinese government is shocked – shocked, they say – to discover one of its own rising stars, Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party boss in the southwestern city of Chongqing, was deeply corrupt. Many ordinary Chinese were less surprised to read the lurid details of how much money Bo and his family allegedly embezzled. After all, while Bo was preaching socialist values in Chongqing, his playboy son, Bo Guagua, was spotted buzzing around Beijing in posh cars. (I won’t dare to wade into the debate over the model and colour of Guagua’s wheels, ... Continue reading →
In recent weeks, China has emitted glints of intensifying anti-Western xenophobia. Last week, following the announcement of a three-month crackdown on foreigners without valid visas, CCTV anchor Yang Rui (杨锐) encouraged police to “clean out the foreign garbage”. Yang seemed to revel in China’s recent decision to expel Al Jazeera reporter Melissa Chan (“that foreign shrew,” he called her), the first case since 1998 of a foreign journalist kicked out of China. Like the last wave of populist anti-Western sentiment to hit China back in 2008 (remember the “Cafferty Affair” and the controversy over the Olympic torch relay?), these recent remarks — including a number of editorials in state media — stem from a foundational sense of victimization at the hands of the West. And ... Continue reading →
By staff reporter Wu Jing 05.10.2012 14:33 China's Young, Burly Shipyards Sinking Fast An industry that expanded rapidly along the Yangtze River encounters rough going as orders plummet (Beijing)–There's plenty of water but the gold is disappearing along a strip of the Yangtze River that China's shipbuilders call the "golden waterway." A dramatic slowdown for the industry has reversed the fortunes of companies such as Jiangsu Jiuzhou Shipyard Co. Ltd., one of many yards that sprang up during a short-lived bull market for big ships such as oil tankers and container carriers. "We haven't received a new order in 2012, and we had only four orders for ships last year," company Chairman Chen Junfu told Caixin. Indeed, as of April only two oil tankers were ... Continue reading →
Police in Fuzhou arrest a 62 year old for prostitution, along with her 85 year old John Earlier this month, police received a tip-off that sex was being solicited along Taijiangyang Zhong Road in Fuzhou, Fujian, and that most of the prostitutes were in their 50s and 60s. Police followed some women who were suspected of being prostitutes, and discovered that they were even soliciting sex during the day on a stretch of the road. When police raided the building which the women were emerging from, they found that three rooms on the second and third floors were being used for prostitution. In one room on the second floor, two men and two women were found together naked on a small bed. A large stash ... Continue reading →
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The Chinese know, perhaps better than anyone else, how to eat. I’m not talking here about their exquisite haute cuisine, or their ancient tradition of gastronomy. I’m talking about the ability of ordinary Chinese home cooks to transform humble and largely vegetarian ingredients into wonderful delicacies, and to eat in a way that not only delights the senses, but also makes sense in terms of health, economy and the environment. Not long ago I was invited to lunch in a farmhouse near Hangzhou, in eastern China. In the dining-room, the grandmother of the household, Mao Cailian, had laid out a selection of dishes on a tall, square table. There were whole salted duck eggs, hard-boiled and served in their shells, fresh green soy beans stir-fried ... Continue reading →
Holding Pattern: Zhou Yongkang in the Public Sphere by Megha Rajagopalan This past week, China’s security czar Zhou Yongkang (周永康) returned to the spotlight amid reports he had already handed over much of his responsibility to a successor, seeking to evade further fall-out from the Bo Xilai scandal and activist Chen Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest. 71-year-old Zhou, who was once a party chief in Sichuan province under Jiang Zemin and is now the ninth-ranking official in the Standing Committee, is set to step down later this year anyway as part of a broader leadership transition. Regardless of the apparent relative safety of his political position, reports have circulated that Party officials have called for his early ouster, including a barbed public letter from retired ... Continue reading →
