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Did China's state news agency forge a photo? China media photojournalism A Chinese blogger has exposed the official news agency Xinhua for what appears to be a forged image. He noticed that two of the people present in the photo look remarkably similar. The photo was taken during a visit from President Hu Jintao to the official Olympics site in Qingdao, where the watersports contests will take place. The site has been under the spotlight since it was overrun by a dangerous and polluting algae not long before the opening of the games. Hu Jintao came to the site to...

The only uncensored Chinese-language TV network broadcasting in China says its satellite company has shut down its signal because of pressure from the Chinese government. The satellite company, Paris-based Eutelsat, says the signal to China was cut because of a technical problem. But New Tang Dynasty Television, an independent station with offices in 70 U.S. cities, including Palo Alto, says Eutelsat cut its signal at the request of government officials in China. NTDTV covers a number of human rights issues, including the Falun Gong spiritual movement, repression in Tibet and China's underground Christian movement. In China, news is controlled by...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's efforts to clear the skies over its polluted capital are having an effect, officials said on Friday, insisting that Beijing's air would be safe for Olympic athletes despite persistent smog over the city. Beijing authorities have taken cars off the road and opened new subway lines in the past week, in addition to halting some construction and suspending factory production, in a last-ditch effort to ensure clear skies when the Games open on August 8. "For the effects of the measures we have taken to be increasingly felt, we will have to make continued efforts," Du...

As the mainstream media is dominated by its attention to the preparations for Beijing Olympics being held August 8-24 this year, an obvious truth is being ignored or going unaddressed. The more important story is that China is on a mission to dominate the United States and the rest of the world militarily by building nuclear weaponry meant to defeat the United States on the world stage. The actual Olympics pale in comparison to this upcoming event. And while our people continue to be distracted by a variety of “shiny things” meant to divert their attention, the Chinese continue their...

While Mao’s body has been amazingly preserved since his death in 1976, it seems that his spirit has not survived the test of time. He may lie in eternal peace inside his Mausoleum but the world around him has changed considerably; China is no longer the gray and drab country that it was during Mao’s time. It is now a place where people can dream and then go out and make that dream come true. It is not like the old days. People other than just high government officials can drive cars. Chinese people can do business and store up...

Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics Seven Iraqi athletes from five different sports qualified for the Olympics Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced...

Falun Gong Protests China Policy by: Rachel Paulk, July 24, 2008 Falun Gong practitioners met on Friday, July 18th, near the Washington Monument to protest Communist China’s treatment of the peaceful religious sect. Holding signs with statements such as “If you don’t believe what the Communists say about Tibet, why would you believe what they say about Falun Gong?” and “Support 40 Million People Resigning from Chinese Communist Party,” over two thousand people met to raise awareness of the group’s persecution by the Chinese Communists. Officially outlawed July 20th, 1999, the Falun Gong practitioners have weathered a brutal crackdown in...

You're not the only one unhappy about the Olympic mascots, collectively known as the Fuwa. If the Beijing Olympics' five cuddly mascots go down in history as a dud, their creator wants no part of the blame. After China's Olympics organizers gave him the assignment, folk artist Han Meilin initially sketched out five children representing the traditional Chinese elements of fire, wood, water, gold and earth. Then the bureaucrats got involved. "There had to be a panda, even though you'd think the public would have had enough of them," says the 72-year-old artist. Alas, mankind will never get enough of...

OLYMPICS PART THREE: CHINA–LET THE GAMES BEGIN, BUT WHY THERE? Published July 24th, 2008 If all the hype about the meaning and reasoning behind the Olympics ever meant anything, (See Part One), why, just a few generations after the inception of the modern Olympiad, was Hitler’s Germany awarded the 1936 Games? Why were the 1980 Olympics held in the U.S.S.R., a nation which had an obscene record of terror, international intrigue, militarism, and repression in Eastern Europe, and which had invaded Afghanistan less than a year earlier. And why in the name of God were this summer’s Olympics bestowed upon...

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- It's official. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads.

The renowed French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine has shot three videos related to the Beijing Olympics. In the first video, a Tibetan lama sits on the track and a bunch of police officers and "goons in blue/white track suits" rush over to remove thim. In the second video, an European diver loses his concentration when he spots a human rights protestor removed by the police. In the third video, the backs of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife are shown when a protestor waving a Free Tibet is shot right in front and blood is splattered on the arm...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have arrested a prominent Internet dissident for violating his probation terms, a rights group said, as the country steps up a pre-Olympic crackdown on dissent to ensure the Games go smoothly. Du Daobin, from the central province of Hebei, was given a suspended sentence for subversion in 2004 having been detained by police in Wuhan for posting online essays in support of fellow dissident, Liu Di. Du was then released into house arrest, Reporters Without Borders said in an emailed statement, but was arrested this week having been accused of posting articles on overseas websites...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US lawmakers Wednesday accused China of reneging on a commitment to improve human rights when it won the right to host the Olympics, saying it had instead intensified a crackdown on dissent. "There were early indications that China was prepared to improve its behavior as the games approached," said Howard Berman, the Democratic head of the House of Representatives foreign affairs panel. But "the hope was short-lived, as China failed to honor these commitments," he said, citing as examples Beijing's "failed" pledges to allow greater press freedoms and improve its general human rights situation. Reporters Without Borders...

As a volunteer of the 29th Olympic Game that will be held in Beijing soon,I gave up my summer holiday and have been working in the Olympic village since 20th this month.Every day,we work really hard to prepare well for the coming of the big event,and I'm wondering if anyone here will come to Beijing.

BEIJING - Three separate bus explosions killed at least three people and injured 14 in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming on Monday, media said, amid a security clampdown ahead of next month's Beijing Olympics. The causes were not immediately clear, but the blasts came within a matter of hours of each other in the capital of Yunnan province and less than three weeks before the Beijing Games, which China has warned could be a target of terrorist attacks. An explosion on one bus happened at the Panjiawan stop at 7.10 a.m. and the second blast was nearby, the official...

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - For "reasons of safety", bars are forbidden to serve "blacks"" and Mongolians or place tables in the street. Street musicians are being banned, and so is buying medicines containing "stimulants" without a prescription. Prohibitions are on the rise for the Olympic capital, while the first leaks reveal a grandiose fireworks display for the inauguration. Bar owners around the Workers' Stadium in downtown Beijing say that public security officials are telling them not to let in "blacks" and Mongolians, and many of them have even had to sign a pledge. The official reason is the fight against drugs...

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - For "reasons of safety", bars are forbidden to serve "blacks"" and Mongolians or place tables in the street. Street musicians are being banned, and so is buying medicines containing "stimulants" without a prescription. Prohibitions are on the rise for the Olympic capital, while the first leaks reveal a grandiose fireworks display for the inauguration. Bar owners around the Workers' Stadium in downtown Beijing say that public security officials are telling them not to let in "blacks" and Mongolians, and many of them have even had to sign a pledge. The official reason is the fight against drugs...

Threat of ‘no-fun’ Olympics By Mure Dickie, Geoff Dyer and Jamil Anderlini Published: July 18 2008 20:47 | Last updated: July 18 2008 20:47 Just three weeks before the Beijing Olympics, concerns are growing that China’s sweeping security measures could end up sucking all the fun out of the world’s biggest sportsfest. Pre-Olympic jitters are almost a tradition but a Chinese visa crackdown that has sent visitor numbers plunging, heightened security checks, dire warnings of terrorist attack and curbs on Beijing nightlife have led to some observers dubbing the 2008 Olympics the “no-fun Games”. Michael Payne, the International Olympic Committee’s...

On June 5, 1873, in a letter to The Times, Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin and a distinguished African explorer in his own right, outlined a daring (if by today's standards utterly offensive) new method to 'tame' and colonise what was then known as the Dark Continent. 'My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race,' wrote Galton. 'I should expect that...

Though this story was written nearly 2 years ago, Bishop Su's whereabouts are still unknown. The search continues. Perhaps you or someone you knows, can help solve this mystery. Searching for Bishop Su: Persecuted Chinese bishop gone but not forgottenTheresa Marie Moreau  (TMMoreau@yahoo.com)From the back seat of the gypsy cab, Ming-Chuan “Joseph” Kung watched Beijing blur by. Everything had been pre-arranged. Everything. As the hired driver steered through the streets of the capital city of the People’s Republic of China, the seven passengers – a small delegation of Americans in town for a human rights conference – rode mostly in...

Tibet is in the news. Chinese troops in Lhasa are violently suppressing demonstrations that commemorate the rising 49 years ago which forced the Dalai Lama into exile. Meanwhile, on the country's northern edge, six months of snow and record low temperatures have created a catastrophe in the Chinese province of Chingai. According to China's official news agency, 500,000 animals have died and three million people face starvation. When a similar if much smaller crisis 10 years ago hit Ladakh, in northern Kashmir, thousands of lives were saved by the expert intervention of a British charity, ApTibet, working with the Dalai...

Chinese impose blackout over new Tibetan monk deaths Jane Macartney in Beijing Two monks at a monastery in western China were killed in a clash with paramilitary police last weekend, three Tibetan sources have told The Times. The monks, at a monastery in western Sichuan province, which borders Tibet, were killed in a clash on July 12. For monks of what are popularly known as the “red hat” sects, the date marks one of the most auspicious festivals of the year. It is the first report of the lethal use of gunfire against Tibetan protesters demanding the return of the...

Veteran German shooter Ralph Schumann, who is counted among the present day shooting legends, is looking to extend his feat in the Olympic Games that starts next month. At the Munich World Cup this May, the 46-year-old bettered the world record of men’s 25-meter rapid-fire pistol from 788.8 points to 790.0 points. Before that he had held the record with 786.4 and 787.7 points. “My main motivation is to always prove, not that I’m the best, but that I’ve practiced what I’ve learned to the best of my ability during the competition,” he said. Born in Meissen in Saxony, Schumann...

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- If bad weather threatens the August 8 opening of Beijing's Olympic Games, then meteorologists may change the weather, according to a Chinese meteorology official.

Justus Nduwugwe Abuja China's drive into Africa's financial services sector has taken a fresh turn, with China Development Bank entering a partnership with United Bank for Africa, one of Nigeria 's biggest banks. The deal, sealed last month is expected to expand the Chinese bank's ability to finance infrastructural projects in Africa . News of the agreement follows last week's announcement that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, another state bank, was buying a 20 per cent stake in South Africa 's Standard Bank for $5.56 billion. CDB has not bought equity in UBA, which is listed on the Nigerian...

Beijing 2008: China invites Sonia, not PM or Prez 14 Jul 2008, 0006 hrs IST,TNN NEW DELHI: Eighty heads of state and government will grace the Beijing Olympics in August but PM Manmohan Singh will not be among them. Not because he is too busy, but because he was not invited. In fact, neither India's head of state nor government have been invited, with the invitation going to its most important politician, Sonia Gandhi. The Congress chief is unlikely to attend, leaving that job to sports minister M S Gill. But even if you are really charitable, it can't be...

Beijing's forthcoming Olympic Games does not appear to be drawing as many people to the capital as expected this year. Figures show the number of international tourists visiting the Chinese capital fell by more than 14% in May compared to the year before. Officials had hoped the Olympics would help attract increasing numbers of foreign tourists to Beijing throughout the year and beyond. But tougher visa requirements, and concerns that officials are more worried about security than organising a party, appears to have dampened demand. Figures from the Beijing Tourism Bureau show there were far fewer visitors from Japan, South...

"Canine cuisine is being sent to the doghouse during next month's Beijing Olympic Games. Dog meat has been struck from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. "

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 "Live" Olympic Broadcast Will Be Delayed 10 Seconds to Avoid Airing any Embarrassing Political Episodes By chinafreepress.org Jul 8, 2008 - 11:41:36 PM To avoid broadcasting any undesirable incident, China's government has instituted a 10-second delay on the "live" broadcast of the Olympics. According to sources, the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party has ordered all regional television stations to implement a 10 second delay on their "live" Olympic broadcast. This delay order is meant to protect against any political protest--whether shouting a slogan or unveiling a banner--being broadcast, including any by foreign athletes in competition or...

In the end, the Chinese government does not really care about the escalating violence in Sudan. As long as its investments and workers in Sudan are protected, it views the human rights issues as an internal Sudanese matter. In fact, the CCP is most likely sympathetic to the Sudanese government; after all, China has also been a victim lately of what the CCP would consider to be international ‘meddling’ in the case of Tibet. The CCP’s failure to promote positive change in Sudan is simply a manifestation of its own failures in China. Until China can improve the human rights...

Cross over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, head north for half an hour, and you'll reach Mount Tamalpais State Park, home to redwood groves and, a little ways up, panoramic views of the bay. As it turns out, though, the park is also home to large amounts of pollution from Asia--dust, sulfur, trace metals--blowing in from across the Pacific. "We call it the persistent Asian plume," says Steven Cliff, an atmospheric scientist currently working with the California Air Resources Board. On some days, one-third of the state's background air pollution can be traced to Asia, and researchers are now looking...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games next month despite an earlier threat to boycott over a crackdown in Tibet... Sarkozy told Chinese President Hu Jintao he would go to Beijing during a half-hour meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Eight industrialised nations summit in northern Japan. "The president confirmed to the Chinese president that he intends to go to Beijing on August 8 to take part in the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympiad,"... Sarkozy had threatened to boycott ... "The head of state consulted all of his European counterparts...

As I wrote about a few months ago in an article entitled Why Bush is Quiet on Tibet, Mr. Bush is simply adhering to a foreign policy towards China that was in place long before he was elected to office. Since 1979, when the United States officially switched diplomatic recognition of China from Taipei to Beijing, Washington has seemed to have had a special place in its heart for the Communist giant. The unique and yet often tumultuous relationship that the U.S. and China have shared over the past almost thirty years is not based soley on economic incentives as...

"President Bush on Sunday defended his decision to attend next month's Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, saying that to boycott "would be an affront to the Chinese people."" "Speaking to reporters ahead of this week's summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Japan, Bush said he did not need to skip the ceremony to show his position on religious freedom and human rights in China. "

President Bush on Sunday defended his decision to attend the opening ceremony of the Summer Games in China, saying he does not “need the Olympics” to express his concerns regarding the country’s human rights record. While some world leaders have stated that they would skip the ceremony to highlight a Chinese crackdown in Tibet, Bush argues that he does not need to take such a step to address the issue. “I had the honor of dealing with the Chinese -- two Chinese presidents during my term, and every time I have visited with them I have talked about religious freedom...

Sarkozy not welcome at Olympics, say China media Thu Jul 3, 2008 6:35am EDT By Chris Buckley BEIJING (Reuters) - China made a barely veiled swipe at French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday and state media warned he can expect a cold public shoulder if he attends the Beijing Olympics after he threatened not to go over Tibet. Sarkozy has said he will decide next week whether to attend the opening of the Games in August, with his choice depending on how talks go between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys. China often lashes out at foreign leaders for meeting...

It is interesting to see the world’s worst human rights abuser call for a wall to stop people fleeing from their human rights abuse. "Tibetans fleeing from China come to Nepal on way to India through this open border," officials in Beijing were quoted as saying by ''Nepal'' weekly. They want Nepal to stop the common people flee Tibet and take refuge under Dalai Lama in India. But how about treating Tibetans like human beings? How about stopping illegal occupation of Tibet? How about allowing Tibetans worship their God and choose their leaders? The Chinese occupation of Tibet must come...

David Neal, NBC's executive producer for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, says the event will be a "signature moment" for High-Definition TV. NBC has the rights to broadcast all 17 days of the 2008 Summer Olympics from China, which begin August 8, 2008. In a keynote speech today to the HD World conference in New York, Neal said it will be the first Olympics ever that will be produced "100 percent in HD." He said the extensive high-def coverage will help "get HD out of the niche and fully into the mainstream." Approximately 30 million U.S. homes now have...

China has always been very quick to demand apologies from countries that say or do things that “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.” This year, companies like Carrefour and CNN, and people like Nancy Pelosi and Sharon Stone have experienced the wrath of the Chinese public when their actions or words were perceived to be inflammatory or damaging to China’s reputation. Is it now not time for China to issue an apology of its own for hurting the feelings of the world with the statements that were made by Comrade Zhang in Tibet? After all, the 2008 Olympic Games,...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has bolstered its Olympic security effort by deploying a battery of surface-to-air missile launchers a kilometre south of the showpiece venues for the Beijing Games. At least two camouflaged Hongqi 7 missile launchers were visible from a public road close to the stadium built for the 1990 Asian Games, which is just across the city's fourth ring road from the Bird's Nest arena and Water Cube aquatics centre. Radar dishes and other military vehicles along with uniformed air force personnel were also visible through a fence on which was posted a notice reading "Military Administrative District,...

THE TORCH IN THE WILD WEST Faking the Olympic Spirit in China's Muslim Region By Andreas Lorenz The Olympic torch is in China's far West and security is tight. Still, there are some who came out to celebrate the event -- 200 invited guests and a handful of well-trained Uighar schoolchildren. Journalists were watched closely. A gigantic statue of Mao waves to the people who have gathered in his shadow on Wednesday morning to celebrate the Olympic flame. But despite the size of the stone figure, there aren't many milling about on Kashgar's main square: Perhaps 200 invited guests --...

The parents of the diver, Hu Jia, had surrendered him to trainers from the Chinese sports establishment at the age of 10, and had seen little of him since then. In an interview with a Chinese newspaper after the diver's injury, his father suggested that this was sacrifice enough. Had he known his son risked blindness, the father said, "I would never have sent him off to dive..." If it is true that the system pushes athletes hard, many athletes are just as demanding of themselves. Since the 1980s, when the commercialization of sports began in China, money has become...

Though the Democratic candidate's campaign is keeping mum about whether it will definitely run spots, the presidential hopeful is exploring options for Olympics advertising. Those tuning in to NBC Sports' Olympics coverage this year will see spots from General Motors, McDonald's, Budweiser, Nike and -- just maybe -- Sen. Barack Obama. Though the Obama campaign is keeping mum about whether it will definitely run spots, it has asked NBC Universal about Olympics advertising including $500,000, $2 million and $4 million packages of ads. (NBC presented those along with a $10 million package.) It's not only a sign that the Obama...

More Tibetan Protests 2008-06-12 Five Tibetans are arrested for protesting in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, amid sporadic demonstrations against Chinese rule. RFA HONG KONG—Small groups of Tibetans in the southwestern province of Sichuan have staged more protests against Chinese rule despite a major security clampdown after protests and rioting by anti-Chinese protesters this year. "There were about four or five protesters [Wednesday]," a resident of Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in western Sichuan said. "They are at the intersection of two roads downtown. There were no such protests during the past few days, but there are...

China said discouraging tourist travel to France By HENRY SANDERSON – 11 hours ago BEIJING (AP) — France seems to be falling off the itinerary of Chinese tourists, in a display of China's pique at French support for protesting Tibetans and angry demonstrations against the Olympic torch on the streets of Paris. Some Chinese travel agents have stopped selling tours to France in recent weeks, in some cases removing offerings from their Web sites. Others said demand for such trips had plummeted by 20 percent or more. "Our business as a whole is now 33 percent lower than that of...

WASHINGTON - Multiple congressional computers have been hacked by people working from inside China, lawmakers said Wednesday, suggesting the Chinese were seeking lists of dissidents. Two congressmen, both longtime critics of Beijing's record on human rights, said the compromised computers contained information about political dissidents from around the world. One of the lawmakers said he'd been discouraged from disclosing the computer attacks by other U.S. officials.

USA Today. Gannett. See URL below.

A new report released on Sunday, exactly two months ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, details the current Chinese Government’s crackdown on unregistered Christians, including the funding of a campaign to eradicate house churches throughout China. The report, entitled “China: Persecution of Protestant Christians in the Approach to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games”, by Christian Solidarity Worldwide and China Aid Association, provides information on different tactics used by the government to restrict the religious freedom of Christians. CAA said that in May, two independent sources reported that the Chinese Central Government was providing funding to the Ministry of Public Security...

EXCLUSIVE: The Bush administration has approved the export of sensitive equipment and expertise to China's military and police forces to bolster security at the Beijing Olympics, according to a number of private and public interviews and documents. The support includes security and military equipment that is restricted for export under the Export Administration Act, prompting some critics of the policy to question its legality. The FBI and other U.S. security agencies also are helping China to develop sensitive counterterrorism coordination techniques, such as creating joint security operations and intelligence centers, according to Bush administration defense and national security officials. The...