National Guard Families Seek Compensation

The families of 58 national guards plan to lobby the central Chinese government in Beijing for greater compensation after their relatives were killed in a May earthquake, RFA’s Cantonese service reports.

Milk Scandal: Focus on Lhasa

Thanks to Danwei for this link.

First clip (woman): “As the child’s step-mother, you are going to need Sanlu milk powder. It is guaranteed to contain kidney stones. I know I can rely on it!”

Second clip (boy and mother): “We have never tasted milk like this before. The kidney stones really make a difference!”

Vietnam’s new crackdown

Authorities in Vietnam (nervous, perhaps, that skyrocketing inflation may make the country a powder-keg for unrest) have detained dozens of rights activists and anti-Chinese protesters in recent days, interrogating some while confining others to their homes or neighborhoods, according to my colleagues in RFA’s Vietnamese service.

Several activists, including writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia, college student Ngo Quynh, Pham Van Troi, and Nguyen Van Tuc, have been arrested. Others, including Phan Thanh Nghien, poet Tran Duc Thach, Nghe An, and schoolteacher Vu Hung, have been continually summoned to “working sessions” with police.

Saffron Revolution, One Year Later

A year after Burma’s beloved monks took to the streets to support a popular uprising, the junta is said to be working hard at keeping a lid on any expressions of dissent.

North Koreans Laugh Too

Is it possible to enjoy humor in a country as hopeless as North Korea?

There’s a lot of material, for sure, but do they get it? It seems they do.

China’s Empty Protest Zones

Chinese authorities set aside portions of three Beijing parks as “protest zones” to allow local residents to voice their grievances alongside the now-concluded Olympic Games. But protests, well, not so much. Instead, reports of intimidation, detentions, and disappearances have leaked out from those who trekked to the Public Security Bureau to apply for protest permits.

Mekong River flooding

Rain and floods killed more than 130 people in northern Vietnam and Laos last week and more bad weather is expected along the Mekong River until the end of September, according to the Mekong River Commission.

Bao Tong: Fortune-telling for the Beijing Olympics

Bao Tong at his Beijing home, April 2008. Photo: RFA

鲍彤：金牌
一定很多，不可乐而忘忧
替北京奥运算命之一

Fortune-telling for the Olympics
I see many gold medals but no carefree atmosphere…
Bao Tong

北京快办奥运，结局将会如何？
What kind of a Games can we expect in Beijing?

我不想预测中国奖牌的总数。奥运属于地球村。在某些国家里，国家的价值和作用，常常被无限放大。但奥运是和平，是友谊，是人与人互相学习的学校，不是国家与国家 “较劲”的舞台。把金牌数目，当作“国家崛起”的筹码，是幼稚的。 “国家至上”可以和慈禧太后或者义和团之类相匹配，不能体现奥运精神。尤其是主办国，一旦掉进“我国至上”的泥潭，就会在道义上丧失东道主的资格。我国的运动员和教练员，勤劳辛苦，这次奥运会，一定会得很多金牌银牌铜牌，但奖牌再多，不应该成为乐而亡忧的理由。

Bao Tong: Guizhou and the grandfather ghosts

So who has the power to “deploy police force” whenever they want to? It certainly isn’t ordinary Chinese people, nor is it a democratically elected government. It is a pack of bureaucrats nominated by the Communist Party, whose names have been picked out of a mechanical “election” process, who have been given a franchise on state power; with no competition.

— Bao Tong on the Guizhou unrest

2008-07-05
鲍彤评论：贵州省委书记一篇有普遍意义的讲话

On a remark by the Guizhou provincial Party secretary that merits everyone’s attention
by Bao Tong

瓮安县最近出了人命，案情离奇，众说纷纭。我也是一个”不明真相”的人，越听越糊涂。但是，贵州省委书记石先生7月3日的一席话，我听懂了。

Recently, a person died in Weng’an county. The details of the case are unclear, and many different versions are floating around. I too am one of those who don’t know what really happened. The more I hear, the more confused I become. But I did understand one thing, and that was a comment made on July 3 by Mr Shi, the Guizhou provincial Party secretary.

他的话，被公布出来的虽然只有寥寥几段，但是有重量，有深度，切合实际，对整个中国，有普遍意义。

Only a few fragments of his comments were actually reported, but those that were carry great depth and weight, striking close to the heart of the matter, and are worthy of the attention of the entire nation.

The Tibetans you’ve never heard of

Who hasn’t heard of Tibet? And who outside of Asia can even pronounce “Uyghur”?

Millions of Uyghurs (pronounced “WEE-ger”) live in China’s northwesternmost province, Xinjiang. They, like the Tibetans, are a religious as well as an ethnic minority; they have chafed under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule for the last six decades; and Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of repression and abuse against them. But the latest news is that Chinese authorities have closed a Web site aimed at promoting understanding between Han Chinese and ethnic Uyghurs following allegations that the site was linked to foreign “extremists,” the site’s owner said.