Five days are left in the Beijing Olympics, or as they are called in the U.S., the Michael Phelps reality show. NBC surprised even itself at the enormous U.S. viewing audience that was generated by Michael Phelps every time he swam, though in China he is not much of a story. There the press talks about China’s record 43 gold medals, twice as many so far as they achieved in the Athens games.

It does look like China’s state-sponsored athletic training program, modeled on the old Soviet and Eastern European medal producing machines, is performing as requested by the Politburo (I didn’t know they still had one of these in China). China is destined to grab the gold medal lead from the United States, proving that collective national spirit ultimately trumps the American individualistic ethic. That may be what it proves, but a lot of questions have come up about how little a role the individual plays in China’s state-organized games.

Tania Branigan | Beijing | August 12

The Guardian - When nine-year-old Lin Miaoke launched into Ode to the Motherland at the Olympic opening ceremony, she became an instant star.

"Tiny singer wins heart of nation," China Daily sighed; "Little girl sings, impresses the world," gushed another headline, perhaps in reference to Lin's appearance on the front of the New York Times. Countless articles lauded the girl in the red dress who "lent her voice" to the occasion.

But now it emerges that Lin lent someone else's voice, following high-level discussions - which included a member of the Politburo - on the relative photogenicity of small children.

Jonathan Watts | August 10

The Guardian - A Chinese security guard locks the gates at the Drum Tower in Beijing, following the murder of a US citizen at tourist attraction. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

A gun battle and attempted tricycle bombing claimed eight lives in western China today in an apparent attempt by Islamic separatist groups to steal global attention from the Beijing Olympics.

Police shot dead seven alleged militants, a security guard was killed and two police cars destroyed in the pre-dawn attack in Kuqa, a city in the Xinjiang region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and several other central Asian states.

Jack Chang | August 7

McClatchy - While China has billed the 2008 Summer Games starting Friday as the coming-out party of a new world power, the United States enters the 18-day competition struggling to stay on top both in athletics and on the world stage. Many observers are predicting a second-place U.S. finish in the total medals count, a result that would be seen by many as symbolic of a shift in the global balance of power.

Jack Chang | Beijing | August 5

McClatchy - The new U.S. Embassy in the Chinese capital is a sprawling maze of glass and concrete that's the second biggest construction project in the history of the State Department. President Bush himself will inaugurate the complex Friday.

Last week, Chinese officials opened their own giant embassy in Washington, which, at 250,000 square feet, is the biggest embassy in the U.S. capital.

This is really saddening. It really breaks my heart to hear of this, and to know this is happening in a city I have very strong feelings for. From the article:

On Monday morning, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported what appeared to be the deadliest assault against Chinese security forces in recent memory: 16 policemen were killed and 16 others injured when attackers threw two grenades into a police station in the desert oasis town of Kashgar, in the far west, after driving a truck into the station at 8 a.m. Two men were arrested.

I can't say, however, that I am surprised. This would be the best chance the Uighur's would ever have to draw any serious news coverage to their plight--and a valid plight it is, what with the Chinese boot firmly lodged at their throats for so long and so hard. But what pains me the most is that this attention getting is being done the worst possible way at the worst possible time. They won't elicit any sympathy from anyone, no matter how deserved. The killing of innocents never does. Even if they are policemen, and in some sense legitimate targets. I still don't understand why people don't just lay down in the middle of the road sometimes. What power a protest like that would portray? Don't we all remember the lone man stopping a column of tanks in Beijing in 1989?

Stephen McGinty | Aug 2

Scotsman - THE Little Red Book, the sayings of Chairman Mao, has been replaced by a little red booklet that instructs Beijing's residents how to act and dress ahead of next week's Olympics.

** Don't mix more than three colours

** Do shake hands for three seconds only

** Don't wear your pyjamas in public

Like a totalitarian version of Trinny and Susannah, Zheng Mojie, deputy director of the Office of Capital Spiritual Civilisation Construction Commission, has penned a booklet posted to four million Beijing households stating acceptable standards of dress and behaviour.

Washington | July 31

AFP - The United States has decided to restore the status of a group of tiny islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan as territory belonging to South Korea, President George W. Bush said Wednesday.

Amid an escalating dispute over the islets between the two Asian neighbours, the US government's Board on Geographic Names (BGN) recently changed its classification of the islets from a territory of South Korea to "undesignated sovereignty."

"As to the database, I asked (Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice to review it and the database will be restored to where it was ... seven days ago," Bush told a group of Asian reporters at the White House.

He pointed out however that the dispute over the islets was a matter to be settled by Japan and South Korea.

July 30

dpa - The chairman of the International Olympic Committee's press commission, Kevan Gosper, has said he was 'disappointed' that the Chinese authorities were blocking websites deemed sensitive, but that the IOC cannot tell China what to do, according to a report in the South China Morning Post Wednesday.

Gosper's statements to the newspaper indicate the IOC apparently knew in advance that the websites would be blocked, despite having told the international media that the estimated 25,000 journalists who are in Beijing already or will arrive in coming days to report about the 2008 Olympic Games would be granted unfettered access.

'I have also been advised that some of the IOC officials had negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked,' the Hong Kong-based newspaper quoted Gosper saying.

'I would like it all to be open. I am not here to defend the Chinese decisions. I am here to ensure journalists can report on the Games. I am disappointed the access is not wider. But I can't tell the Chinese what to do,' Gosper said.

Anyone who thinks India is the next China (Flathead, I'm looking at you) is simply insane. It's just not going to happen. What India does best is make big promises and never, ever delivers. And American policy makers who put too much stock in an so-called Indian counter-weight to China are fools.

Seriously, if you think the French penchant for arguing philosophical points to absurd lengths is maddening, wait until you have to deal with an Indian IT professional who literally buries you in a barrage of questions on details so minute as to be utterly inane. And then come the price negotiations. Indians make a Persian bazaar or an Arab souk feel like a cakewalk or a sleigh ride on a snowy winter's eve.

This doesn't detract from how I feel about my Indian friends in particular. They are some of the kindest, most genuine people I know. But people who think doing business in India is or will be easy--other than call centers, that is--don't know enough about India to make a realistic decision. India will be an extremely difficult market for Western businessmen who are, by and large, unaccustomed to the day to day realities of life in India, the tremendous lack of effective infrastructure, much less the quirks of Indian business decision making. It can really be infuriating.

As for the call centers: I think the main reason certain jobs can be outsourced to India is their particular penchant for detail. Yeah, I know this is a broad generalization, and generalizations are so uncool to make, but it happens to be true. Call centers do well in India because Indians will take the time--and massive amounts of it--to learn a product inside and out. Radiology is another example of their amazing capacity for detail. Accountants? They better be very careful too.

But those executives who think India is the next China, the next untapped reservoir of millions of untapped middle class budgets and business capex are really fooling themselves. And they are in for nothing but bewilderment when it comes time to cut deals. Only those with the most patience will survive.

At least this has been my practical, hands-on experience so far with Indian business.

I don't think it is any secret how I feel about the Chinese and their policies in East Turkestan. (Needless to say I have a pretty complicated relationship with Chinese peoples the world over, especially as I live in Singapore now.) But having visited the region multiple times it's clear how oppressive the authorities in Beijing really are. As I mentioned on my first Silk Road journey and then during a subsequent trip to Kashgar three years later, the devastation of the old neighborhoods in the name of progress was intense. Ye old Kashgar is no more. It's been ripped to shreds by Beijing dictated development policies. Just look at a google satellite map of the city and you'll see. The old neighborhoods are vanishing.

Now it seems the Uighurs may have found a voice of sorts and a stage to use it on:

A Uighur separatist group has taken credit for a deadly bus bombing in Shanghai in May and warned of new attacks in China during the Olympics, a group monitoring threats by extremists on the Internet said.

As an Agonist contributor wrote me recently regarding this issue: "This might be a harbinger. The Uighurs are much more violence-disposed than the Tibetans. And they have links to al Qaeda."

And there's no doubt George Bush will be a Chinese sock-puppet too.

I'm certainly not advocating violence here, especially at the Games. I think people the world over would do well to learn from Gandhi and MLK's example of peaceful but forceful protest. If done properly the moral authority is almost always too powerful to overcome.

And yet, I've seen with my own eyes what is happening in East Turkestan (also known as Altishahr or Xinjiang) and it isn't pretty. People have their limits and when reached they push back, right or wrong. I won't deny any man or woman the right to defend his or her homeland in any way he or she chooses, violence or not.

Funny, the old hutong neighborhoods have been disappearing for the last thirty years. But leave it to the New York Times to put it on the front page and explain to us it's all the fault of the Olympics. Anything to sell the games, fraud that they are.

Let me add, before anyone gets into a tizzy: the games are a fraud not because they are in Beijing. They are a fraud because they lost the true Olympic spirit a long time ago, when VISA and MacDonalds and all the other commercial outlets weren't the 'Official insert name here" crap began. It's all a bunch of commercial garbage now.

Nabi Abdullaev | July 22

Moscow Times - Russia and China on Monday signed a pact demarcating their 4,300-kilometer border, an issue that has been a bone of contention for more than three centuries and that led to armed clashes as recently as the late 1960s.

And although Russia is returning one island and part of another -- 174 square kilometers of territory -- in the Amur River, near the regional capital of Khabarovsk, political analysts said the move was positive for a Russia looking to secure its eastern borders in the face of its increasingly powerful Communist neighbor.

The protocol was signed Monday in Beijing by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jeichi, bringing an end to more than 40 years of negotiations.

July 22, 2008
Bill Schiller, Asia Bureau

BEIJING–Building sites in this booming city usually teem with trucks, cranes and earth moving machines that roar from dawn until dusk.

But yesterday all of that was silent here and a major exodus was underway.

Over the weekend authorities shut down thousands of construction sites across Beijing forcing more than a million migrant construction workers into flight. It's all part of the grand effort to tame the city's pollution and reduce airborne dust before the Olympic Games.

With 17 days to go before the opening ceremonies, China is doing everything it can to put its best face forward – that includes making sure the dust settles.

July 22

Independent - Sophie Morris explains how it works - and nutritionists give their verdict

Chinese food has a bad reputation in the UK. The rice-heavy meals and fatty meat dishes are thought to lead straight to obesity and heart disease. But properly prepared, says Chinese food expert Lorraine Clissold, the very opposite is true: the Chinese way of eating is healthy and fulfilling, fights illness and prolongs life. She also insists, in her book Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories, that a real Chinese diet won't make you fat, and that the rising levels of obesity observable in China are in fact caused by sugary, overprocessed Western food. Here are some of her Chinese dietary secrets – and the verdict of two Western nutrition experts, Patrick Holford and Ian Marber.

1. Stop counting calories

The Chinese don't have a word for "calories". They view food as nourishment, not potential weight gain. A 1990 survey found that Chinese people consumed 30 per cent more calories than Americans, but were not necessarily more active. Clissold says their secret is avoiding the empty calories of sugary, nutrient-free foods.

Barbara Demick | Beijing | July 22

LA Times - In China, the preparations for the Olympics look more like a military deployment than arrangements for a sporting event.

The government is installing surface-to-air missiles near the stadiums and setting up checkpoints to stop out-of-town cars from entering Beijing. It has enlisted 110,000 security personnel and more than 1 million citizens to protect the Games against what it says are credible terrorist threats.

Unmanned drones are to patrol the skies above Beijing for the duration of the Games, from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24. The 800-mile border with North Korea will be sealed, according to reports from South Korea. Beijing's airport will be closed during the opening ceremony to enforce a "no fly" zone around the city.

Matthew Walter | July 21

Bloomberg - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez heads to Moscow today to shop for air defense systems, submarines and other weaponry as Latin America's arms race quickens amid signs that his regional influence is waning.

Past Venezuelan arms purchases from Russia have strengthened ties with Moscow as its rivalry with the U.S. intensifies over President George W. Bush's plans for an Eastern Europe missile defense system and other issues. Chavez, 53, also plans to visit Belarus, a Russian ally that the U.S. considers a dictatorship.

..

Chavez will order $2 billion worth of weapons, including Project 636 diesel subs, Mi-28 combat helicopters and airplanes made by Ilyushin Co., the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported May 12, without saying how it obtained the information. The Russian Interfax news service, citing an unnamed defense ministry official, said today Chavez may order $1 billion of weapons, including three Varshavyanka subs and up to 20 Tor-M1 air-defense systems.

Hmmm, what if Russia put in a missile defense system in Venezuela?

Related: Russian military "considering stationing bombers on Cuba"

Quito | July 20

AFP - China and Iran are interested in investing in a six-billion-dollar oil refinery Ecuador is building with Venezuelan help on the Pacific coast, President Rafael Correa said Saturday.

"That refinery is being built with (Venezuela's state giant) PDVSA although Iran and China also are interested," the Ecuadoran leader said in his weekly television address.

Correa said Iran could be involved and shrugged off any concern that might cause.

"Somebody may say: Iran, Axis of Evil. But what do I care what other countries think? We have to be masters of our own destiny. We have nothing against Iran. Iran has done nothing to us," Correa said.

Clifford Coonan & Arifa Akbar | July 19

Independent -
Few could have predicted that a big, burly cartoon panda called Po, who is versed in the finer arts of kung fu, could have brought anything but joy to the ancestral homeland of the creatures.

But just a month after China welcomed the blockbuster animation Kung Fu Panda into its cinema halls, the creators of the fictional character are being sued for their apparently "insulting" depiction of China's national symbol.

Zhao Bandi, a Chinese performance artist who is best known for using panda images in his art, including clothes designs, is suing Dreamworks, which launched the animation with the help of its star voice – belonging to Angelina Jolie – at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

The Beijing court drama, which began this week, includes a call for a full apology from the Hollywood studio for its apparent slur on the panda. Mr Zhao, who carries a stuffed panda in public and whose art revolves around motifs of the animal, has expressed his outrage at the fact that Po's father is a duck in the film. This, he interprets as offensive characterisation which amounts to an insult to the Chinese. Moreover, the panda's eyes are green, which, Zhao points out, represents an evil colour.

I am soooo evil mwahahahaa

Caroline Gluck | Taipe | July 18

BBC - Large groups of Chinese tourists are set to begin arriving in Taiwan as restrictions are further relaxed.

Most will fly in on newly inaugurated direct weekend charter flights, which began operating earlier this month.

China had promised that that from Friday it would allow up to 3,000 of its citizens to visit Taiwan every day.

The move is another sign of how ties between the two sides have warmed since the election of Taiwan's President, Ma Ying-jeou.

Nearly 2,000 Chinese tourists will arrive in Taiwan this weekend, all travelling in mandatory tour groups.

Mandatory?

Colin Brown & Michael McCarthy | July 15

Independent -

Britain is poised to approve China's application today to become a licensed ivory trader in spite of protests from environmental and animal welfare groups and nearly 150 MPs, and Labour MPs are pinning the blame on Gordon Brown.

The minister taking the immediate responsibility for the vote, at a UN meeting in Geneva, is Joan Ruddock, the junior minister responsible for wildlife in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). But Labour backbenchers were furious that Ms Ruddock, a highly-respected MP with a strong record on environmental protection, appears to have been given orders from No 10 not to risk upsetting China by opposing the bid, which critics say will lead to a substantial increase in elephant poaching across Africa and Asia.

Alan Simpson, an environmentalist and Labour MP, said: "This is obscene. This isn't a licence to trade. It's a licence to kill, and Britain should not be party to it."

Labour MPs said Ms Ruddock has been handed a "poisoned chalice" by Mr Brown. "Whenever there's dirty work to be done, he's never around, but his paw prints are on this," said one angry Labour MP.

Hilary Andersson | July 13

BBC - The BBC has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudan's government militarily in Darfur.

The Panorama TV programme tracked down Chinese army lorries in the Sudanese province that came from a batch exported from China to Sudan in 2005.

The BBC was also told that China was training fighter pilots who fly Chinese A5 Fantan fighter jets in Darfur.

China's government has declined to comment on the BBC's findings, which contravene a UN arms embargo on Darfur.

Clifford Coonan | Beijing | July 13

Independent -

Man's best friend is off the menu in China for the Olympic Games: Beijing officials, fearful of offending Western sensibilities, have ordered restaurants not to serve dog for the duration of next month's Games and September's Paralympics.

The Beijing Catering Trade Association (Beta) has forbidden all 112 specially designated OIympic restaurants to provide dog-meat dishes during the Games, and "strongly advised" other establishments to take canine cuisine off the menu too.

Dog is mostly eaten by Beijing's large Korean community, but the Chinese have eaten dog for 7,000 years, and it is widely believed to have medicinal qualities. Xiong Yumei, vice-director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau, told the Xinhua news agency that waiters should "patiently" suggest another dish if dog-meat was ordered. "Conflicts should be avoided," she said, adding that when eaten for medicinal purposes, the canine ingredient should be clearly listed.

July 7

BBC -

For the first time in nearly a decade China is issuing new banknotes without the image of Chairman Mao Zedong.

The 10 yuan ($1.5; £0.75) notes instead feature Beijing's new Olympic stadium on the front, with an ancient Greek statue of a discus thrower on the back.

Both are set against the backdrop of the Temple of Heaven, sited in Beijing.

Six million of the new banknotes will be issued, but most notes in circulation will continue to feature Mao - the founder of Communist China.

In Chinese wallets and purses, the former Communist leader still commands a presence, on everything from the smallest to the biggest banknote.

I don't say that about many places. I've simply seen too many that disappointed and too many that surprised to rave on and on about a place. But Dunhuang in Gansu province China? Oh, oh, how I pine for the wide swathes of desert, the lonely roads, the dunes, and the sand biting into my face.

And those caves? Are they really all they are built up to be? Can you trust the hype? Well, if I could return to any place in China today it would be Dunhuang in first place. (Yangshuo would be second.) The art in the caves is just too blessed, splendid, colorful and timeless to miss. Really, if you ever get the chance to go to China make Dunhuang one of your stops. You will not regret it.