China Slams ‘Western’ Press Freedom Amid Solidarity Over Paris Attacks
January 13, 2015People holding banners reading ‘Je Suis Charlie’ (I am Charlie) take part in an event in Beijing, Jan. 8, 2015. Radio Free Asia, 09- 01- 2014 China’s official media on Friday hit out at “Western” notions of press freedom in the wake of attacks in Paris that left a dozen read more →
MSP adds voice to Scottish concerns over Confucius Institutes
January 12, 2015Herald Scotland | January 8, 2015 An MSP has added his voice to growing concern about Scotland’s network of Confucius Institutes. Conservative Alex Johnstone said he feared the language schools amounted to “infrastructure” to promote Beijing views on issues like occupied Tibet. Mr Johnstone, who chairs Holyrood’s cross-party group on read more →
Sri Lanka’s President Loses an Election—and China Loses an Ally
January 10, 2015Supporters of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on January 8, 2015 in Colombo, Sri Lanka By Bruce Einhorn, Business Week China has spared no effort to make friends with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The island nation has more than $ 4 billion worth of Chinese-backed investments, including a $1.4 read more →
People Around the World Are Voluntarily Submitting to China’s Great Firewall. Why?
January 8, 2015This photo illustration taken on March 12, 2014, shows the logo of Chinese instant messaging platform called WeChat, which has taken the country by storm in just three years/Photo/Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images By Nathan Freitas In the last few years, usage of the mobile messaging app WeChat (Weixin), developed by Chinese read more →
Political Crimes Making a Comeback Under Xi Jinping, Group Says
January 8, 2015[The Wall Street Journal] By Josh Chin Chinese Nobel Peace Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo is among the most prominent dissidents jailed on state security charges. AFP/Getty Images Back in March, China Real Time relayed findings from the human rights group Dui Hua Foundation that suggested China’s security forces had taken a read more →
More wiggle room on Tibet: Beijing reaching out to Dalai Lama
January 8, 2015[Hindustan Times] By Jayadeva RanadeIn the midst of reports of emissaries being exchanged between Beijing and the Dalai Lama’s set-up and positive references to Buddhism by Chinese leaders, recent developments suggest that Beijing has decided on a new initiative on the Tibet issue. At the same time, there has been no read more →
Beijing’s New Point Woman for Tibet Affairs
January 8, 2015[TPI] January 7, 2015 By Tenzin Tseten* Sun Chunlan, one of the two-female members of the current 25-member Politburo was appointed head of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) after a widely anticipated purge of Ling Jihua. The UFWD is an agency under the command of the Chinese Communist Party read more →
Book review: ‘Meltdown in Tibet,’ on China’s eco-destruction, by Michael Buckley
January 5, 2015[The Washington Post] By Kapil Komireddi January 2 has written from South Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. MELTDOWN IN TIBET China’s Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems From the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia By Michael Buckley Palgrave Macmillan. 248 pp. $27 Mahatma Gandhi delivered a trenchant read more →
Trip Tips: A glimpse of little Tibet in southern India
January 3, 2015By Debarati Dasgupta BYLAKUPPE, India (Reuters) – It is the last prayer before lunch at the monastery and novice Buddhist monks are giggling and fidgeting with their bowls in a hall overflowing with maroon robes. Flatbread and vegetable soup are soon served, even to visitors, and the chatter dies down. read more →
The Year the Training Wheels Came Off China
January 2, 2015(Foreign Policy.Com) Economic reforms are transforming this burgeoning superpower, but Beijing needs to get used to the world watching and judging its every move. A mini-milestone is upon China: It is likely to end 2014 with a $10 trillion economy, making China only the second country after the United States read more →