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"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. "

......China deployed roughly the same number of soldiers after the May earthquake in southwestern Sichuan Province as the United States has stationed in Iraq. Approximately 130,000 troops from the army, navy, air force and Second Artillery scrambled to the mountains of Sichuan, China's broadest deployment of its armed forces since it fought a border war with Vietnam in 1979...... James Mulvenon, an expert on the Chinese military, said the earthquake showed the army's best and worst sides: It mobilized quickly, but the troops were unprepared to save lives in the first 72 hours, when thousands were buried under toppled masonry...

The issuance of pollution emission permits will be delayed, as more time is needed to gauge public opinion, an official with the Ministry of Environmental Protection said yesterday. "There is no timetable for issuance of the permits," the official, who refused to be named, told China Daily. He denied media reports the permits would be issued at the end of the year. Twenty-first Century Business Herald yesterday quoted a source also from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, as saying "the pollution emission permits will be officially released at the end of this year, or next year, by the State Council"....

Pollution around the Olympic stadium in Beijing could be five times worse than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organisation. Chinese officials admit they can no longer guarantee that the air quality will match international standards as pollution tests by The Sunday Times revealed the full extent of the challenge facing British athletes...... ......Even the Chinese government’s official air pollution index — which monitors a range of pollutants, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — is running at double the level recommended by the WHO. Du Shaozhong, deputy director of Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau, said: “We made a commitment...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

A bomb-laden van found on a Brooklyn street by a car thief was wired to detonate by remote control, and had likely been sitting there for more than five months... Investigators believe the homemade explosives found Thursday night in the Ford Econoline belonged to Yung Tang, 39, a Chinese national. He has been behind bars since he was caught Jan. 29 in Wallingford, Conn., with nearly identical bombs in his Mazda MPV minivan. Also found in the MPV were two silencers, four hollow-point bullets and two radio-controlled detonators. Days after that arrest, the NYPD searched his Brooklyn house and found...

Taiwan parliament restores budget for cruise missile production Jul 3, 2008, 22:35 GMT Taipei - Taiwan's parliament has restored the budget for mass-producing Hsiung Feng 2-E cruise missiles which reportedly can hit Shanghai and Hong Kong, a newspaper said on Friday. The parliament's Diplomatic and Defence Committee restored the budget for mass-producing Hsiung Feng 2-E Thursday evening, the United Daily News said. Taiwan developed Hsiung Feng 2-E several years ago and planned to start producing them last year. But opposition parliamentarians slashed two-third of the 5.7 billion Taiwan dollar (178 million US dollar) budget, for fear of raising tension with...

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...

North Korea in bid to recycle toxic waste By Michael Rank Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 30/06/2008 North Korea is planning to recycle waste that is so polluted other countries refuse to handle it. The Stalinist regime, which is reputedly a significant poppy grower for the world heroin trade, is now tendering for bids to process toxic waste at a refurbished port close to the capital Pyongyang as part of its desperate efforts to earn foreign currency. Through a Chinese-language website the country is seeking supplies of plastic and electronic waste which "can be processed in the port but which other...

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 the exiled Dalai Lama or criticizing its policies in Tibet, which it calls an internal affair. In...

Hollywood, CA (BANG) - Sharon Stone has been offered a free brain scan. Animal rights group PETA are determined to discover why Sharon "demonstrates a lack of empathy" towards animals by wearing fur, and so have written her a letter telling her they would be willing to pay for the scientific scan.The letter reads: "Scientific studies suggest that the prefrontal regions of the brains of people who lack empathy might be underdeveloped. Here's our offer - would you allow PETA to pay for a scan of the prefrontal region of your brain to determine if comments and actions that seem...

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama has ruled out hosting a U.S. military base to replace one in Ecuador which is being reclaimed by the Quito government, a senior Panamanian official said on Friday. Panama -- along with Peru and Colombia -- had been tipped as a possible site to replace the Manta air base in western Ecuador, a key strategic asset in Washington's campaign to stop Latin American cocaine from reaching the United States.

Last summer, it was Chinese-made toys, pet food and meat that caused concern. This July 4th holiday, there are new worries about the overly explosive nature of its fireworks. This week, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a report saying it found that nearly half of the shipments they inspected coming from China do not meet Federal safety guidelines. That's especially worrying since, according the American Pyrotechnic Association, 98 percent of fireworks used in backyards and front lawns across America are manufactured in China. NEWSWEEK's Caitlin McDevitt spoke with Scott Wolfson, a chief spokesman for the Commission about its...

A new state law is now in effect requiring all restaurants in Mississippi to clearly display the specific country of origin of the catfish they serve. While supermarkets have previously been required to display “Country of Origin Labeling” for catfish, restaurants have been under no such mandate until House Bill 728 went into effect Tuesday. According to a statement recently released by Roger Barlow, president of the Jackson-based Catfish Institute, “This is possibly the most significant piece of legislation the Mississippi Catfish Industry, or for that matter, the entire U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish industry has ever had. “Since Mississippi is the...

A senior Ministry of Agriculture official on Thursday dismissed foreign media reports about China hoarding overseas farmland, saying the country is fully capable of ensuring its own food security. "Such reports are groundless and not factual we have not hoarded any farmland overseas and have taken no steps to introduce any such policy," Li Zhengdong, director of the ministry's international cooperation department, told a press conference held by the Foreign Ministry on the agenda of President Hu Jintao's visit to the outreach session of the G8 summit in Japan next week. Li was responding to a report in the Financial Times on...

"We know that reunification with China is inevitable," a Taiwanese friend told me recently. "The economy in Taiwan is not so good and many of our jobs are being transferred to China," he explained. "Taiwan will have to cooperate with the mainland in order to maintain a healthy economy." My friend told me these things with little conviction in his voice. While the Chinese government has consistently claimed that most Taiwanese people are in favor of reunification with the mainland, my friend, like many others I have talked to around the world, has stated that the vast majority of Taiwanese...

July 04, 2008 Members of China’s armed police demonstrate a rapid deployment during an anti-terrorist drill held in Jinan, east China on Wednesday, roughly one month ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games. [AP/XINHUA]

China in major battle against locusts; hopes to prevent migration to Beijing BEIJING - More than 33,000 exterminators have been dispatched to battle a locust infestation in northern China. The official Xinhua news agency says officials hope the effort will prevent a potentially disastrous migration to the Beijing area during next month's Olympic Games. The insects, which devour crops, routinely plague Inner Mongolia, which is home to one-fifth of China's grasslands. Xinhua quotes one top agriculture official as saying China has launched a `full prevention plan' to prevent locust migration during the Games. Under the plan, some 200 tonnes of...

While most governments are reacting to the global food shortage by growing more food, the Chinese have decided to grow the same amount of fruits and vegetables, but with A TWIST: giant versions of standard food staples: 210-pound pumpkins, 2-pound tomatoes, and cucumbers that are over 2-feet long -- that are currently feeding families in 22 of China's provinces, and governments in Europe, Japan and elsewhere are taking notice. This weird, believe-it-or-not scenario becomes even more fantastic as it turns out that the reason these foods can grow so huge is because they've been sent to outer space. The seeds...

Last year, more than 20 workers at a factory in Wuxi, Jiangsu province that produces nickel-cadmium batteries for electronic products giant Panasonic were found to be suffering from high levels of cadmium, a toxic and cancer-causing chemical. Two of the workers were diagnosed to be suffering from cadmium poisoning, an affliction high on health authorities' danger list of occupational diseases. Such poisoning is said to be able to cause kidney failure, lung cancer and bone disease. "For the safety of workers and environmental protection, this kind of battery, which is cheap to produce and safe to use but hazardous to...

(GUILIN, Guangxi) -- More than 60 children who fell ill in a suspected deliberate poisoning at a south China primary school are all out of danger and stable, say doctors. "The children are all out of danger and are recovering well," said a doctor with the People's Hospital of Guanyang County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where the incident happened. Zou Xin, vice head of the county government, said the children were possibly poisoned with organic phosphorus, a pesticide widely used by local farmers. The children, all at the boarding school at Dengjia Village, Xinjie Town, suffered stomachaches, headaches and nausea...

Tibet and China by: Melinda Zosh, July 03, 2008 Dr. Warren Smith Jr., author of China’s Tibet?, recently said that the March 14 riots in Tibet were the largest since 1989 and the bloodiest since 1959. With the Olympic games quickly approaching, China is trying to cover up its acts of violence. Smith, a New Age thinker, spoke at the Heritage Foundation on June 17 about Chinese-Tibetan relations, Tibet’s bloody past, and the country’s uncertain future. “….The popular Tibetan reaction has had an air of finality, even desperation, about it, as though 2008 is the last chance Tibetans may have...

Gasoline would be cheaper if countries ended their oil subsidies and let markets rule. In China, the government caps gas prices. Drivers there pay about half of what Americans pay. In many countries, oil prices are held artificially low, either by fiat or subsidy. The result? Consumption keeps rising, boosting global prices. About half of humanity, from India to Chile, now benefits from cut-rate petroleum prices. In 2008, these countries will account for all the growth in world oil demand, or an additional one million barrels a day, according to Deutsche Bank. Their consumption will be the highest in eight...

China Bulls Get Shanghaied Howard Gold, MoneyShow.com 06.27.08, 10:53 AM ET If history is any judge, stocks on the Shanghai Stock Exchange will likely fall a lot more before reaching their ultimate lows. Hong Kong, too, which has declined a lot less so far, also stands to lose much more ground before the bear loosens its grip. That's bad news for the millions of Chinese investors who shoveled their savings into the Shanghai market in the frenzied months before its slow-motion crash. It's also likely to hurt thousands of Americans who loaded up on Chinese stocks, mutual funds and ETFs...

Chinese security forces are putting pressure on angry parents to abandon demands for a full investigation into why so many schools collapsed in the May earthquake in Sichuan province and have rounded up human rights workers in the earthquake-ravaged region. In tent cities that have sprung up throughout the region, soldiers carrying batons patrol the streets and security agents and police have stepped up efforts to muzzle any sign of “social instability”. An atmosphere of anxiety reigns among the parents of children killed in school collapses in the towns of Mianzhu and Dujiangyan as government and security officials apply increasing...

Coal, steel, oil — we think of these old-economy industries, and we picture pollution. Smoggy skies, fouled rivers, toxic waste. As we make the transition to a new economy, we imagine that industrial pollution will become a thing of the past. Mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players — they conjure images of spotless semiconductor factories and the eternal summer of Silicon Valley where the digital economy was born. But the tech industry has a dirty little secret: it has toxic waste of its own. Phones and computers contain dangerous metals like lead, cadmium and mercury, which can contaminate the air and...

(CNSNews.com) - As the White House moved closer to confirming that President Bush will attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing next month, China's foreign ministry slammed two visiting Republican lawmakers who again raised the possibility of a boycott. Reps. Chris Smith of New Jersey and Frank Wolf of Virginia should "stop their arrogance" and actions that undermine U.S.-China relations, ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Tuesday. Liu warned that the lawmakers were acting outside the bounds of the purpose of their visit, which he said was to hold "internal discussions" with American colleagues at the U.S. Embassy....

　　　　　　 　　　　World Journal, Posted: Jun 30, 2008 　　　　 　　　　BEIJING – One person was killed, 150 injured and 200 arrested when the Guizhou Province government cracked down on rioters in Weng’an County June 28, the World Journal reports. Over 500 high school students and local people started the insurrection because a 16-year-old girl had been raped and killed, and local government and police turned a blind eye on it. According to the World Journal, it all began when the victim refused to help one of her female classmates cheat on a test. Later, the girl was raped and killed by three...

While China introduced lethal injections in the late 90’s as a method for carrying out the death penalty, my friends and students tell me that most offenders are put to death by a shot to the back of the head from an assault rifle. I have also been told that the families of the offenders are often compelled by the government to purchase the bullet that is used in the gun. While various reasons for this have been put forward by my friends, it is likely that these families must pay for the bullets in order to demonstrate that they...

China's premier urges US to stabilise dollar AFP - Tuesday, July 1 BEIJING (AFP) - - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has again called on the United States to stabilise the dollar, warning the greenback's decline was posing threats to the global economy. "China is taking measures to safeguard its stable economic development," Wen said during a meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday, according to a statement posted on the foreign ministry's website. "(We) hope the US will overcome its subprime crisis soon and stabilise the exchange rate of the US dollar, which is significant to...

Boeing Co., the second-largest U.S. defence contractor, will pay a $3-million fine for exceeding the value limits of imported parts used to build military aircraft. Boeing's own audit found it had imported more than what was allowed under manufacturing licenses, spokesman Tim Neale said today. The license agreements cover the C-17 transport plane, the Apache attack and Chinook transport helicopters and F/A-18 fighter plane

Caterpillar continues to make major capital investments in China BEIJING, People's Republic of China (PRC), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) announced today plans to build world-class small-sized (less than 20 tons) hydraulic excavators in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China. This facility fits into Caterpillar's China and emerging markets, strategy, and it will be a key element of the company's worldwide excavator manufacturing footprint. The announcement follows the signing of an investment agreement between Caterpillar and Jiangning Science Park Administrative Committee (JSPAC). The proposed facility will be located in the Jiangning Science Park district (JSP) and wholly owned and operated by Caterpillar. This...

China's Export Machine Threatened by Rising Costs Orders Drop, Shops Idle in Sweater City; Losing Wal-Mart By JAMES T. AREDDY June 30, 2008; Page A1 HONGHE, China -- As a sign over its main boulevard proclaims, Honghe is "China's Famous Town for Sweaters." But the economy of sweater town is unraveling, providing an early sign that China's manufacturing sector may be entering middle age. WSJ's James Areddy details the decline of a sweater-making town in China that's suffering due to falling demand from a key market: the U.S. (June 30) Over the past two decades, this city about 90 minutes'...

Wang Cheng has the perfect remedy for athletes struggling to recover from injury during the Beijing Olympics. “Deer's penis,” she said, proferring a desiccated sample across the counter of the Tongrentang traditional Chinese medicine store in central Beijing. “Mix it with some alcohol, take it every one or two days, and you'll soon feel better,” Ms Wang, a graduate in Chinese traditional medicine, said.

BEIJING: With less than six weeks before it plays host to the Olympic sailing regatta, the city of Qingdao has mobilized thousands of people and an armada of small boats to clean up an algae bloom that is choking large stretches of the coastline and threatening to impede the Olympic competition.Local officials have initiated an all-out effort to clean up the algae by mid-July. Media reports estimate that as many as 20,000 people have either volunteered or been ordered to participate in the operation, while 1,000 boats are scooping algae out of the Yellow Sea. The official news agency, Xinhua,...

Refugees shot fleeing North Korea Michael Sheridan in Hunchun, China North Korean guards, newly armed with Russian Dragunov sniper rifles, have shot dead refugees attempting to ford the river that divides their hungry homeland from China, according to human rights campaigners. On the Chinese shore alone, two bodies, marked by several bullet holes, were found by a local activist, said Tim Peters, an American pastor who runs a Christian group supporting the fugitives. The shootings indicate a coordinated change in tactics by North Korea and China to deter refugees from crossing. They want to stamp out bribery among border guards...

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...

Every attempt so far to get emissions under control turns out to be about money. Let's examine an important question. Are the major schemes created by global politicians to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, ostensibly to combat global warming, effective? The answer is no, because they aren't about addressing global warming. They're about making more money for governments and large corporations. Let's start with the Kyoto accord. Will it be effective in lowering global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? No. It wasn't meant to be. Kyoto, a United Nations treaty, exempts the developing world -- 143 of 180 nations which ratified it...

Girl's death sparks rioting in China: reports By Chris Buckley Sat Jun 28, 3:50 PM ET Rioters torched a police building and vehicles in southwest China on Saturday, in unrest triggered by allegations of a cover-up over a girl's death, according to Chinese accounts on the Internet. The reports of the clash in Weng'an County, Guizhou province, could not be immediately verified and government and police did not answer phone calls in the early hours of Sunday. But the accounts spreading on the Internet, despite China's state censorship, depicted a violent outburst involving thousands of people and lasting several hours.

See my translation below

Beijing's water supply in state of crisis Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:12am EDT By Chris Buckley BAODING, China (Reuters) - China's ambitious hopes for a "green" Beijing Olympics have magnified, not relieved, the city's reckless dependence on water from strained underground supplies and a mammoth canal project, a critical report says. Beijing has promoted its 2008 Games as a nature-friendly festival of sport, but water for the expanses of greenery and sparkling waterways greeting visitors in August will be pumped from sources already battered by over-use and over-engineering, says Probe International, a Canada-based conservation group. "With each new project to...

Deep in China’s heartland is a region known as “The Bethlehem of China,” where, more than a thousand years ago, Western missionaries first brought Christianity to the area. It is here, in a series of caves hidden in the hills, where members of China’s underground Christian Church tell FRONTLINE/World and Chicago Tribune reporter Evan Osnos how they have kept the religion alive. For years, they moved from place to place to avoid government detection, until they found safety in these hills. “When we were in an underground state, we would gather here to meet,” Zhang Yinan, a pastor who’s chronicling...

Beijing is running out of water, an environmental group has claimed in a report which raises more questions over the costs of China's rapid development. Such is the extent of the shortage that the city might have to start shutting down industry and moving population out within the next decade. Six weeks before the Olympics, the report said preparations were making matters worse despite claims that they would be the first "Green Olympics". Water was being diverted to new expanses of greenery and waterways around the city even as rivers across central and northern China were being diverted to the...

PLA's rapid reaction capability in Tibet By Andrei Chang Published: June 27, 2008 Hong Kong, China — The eruption of riots in Tibet in March reflected an increasingly complicated political situation there, involving both internal and external factors. Internally, the peaceful and nonviolent approach of the Dalai Lama toward China has encountered greater resistance from the young generation of Tibetans, and the Dalai Lama’s political relevance has been gradually marginalized as a result. Externally, India’s China policy is now at a critical point, and India-China relations are likely to slip backward if they fail to quickly progress. India is adjusting...

Communist China Protecting Obama Add to the list of people who love Obama -- the despotic, communist regime of China. We received information which we verified that the Chinese government has our site, and several other NOBAMA-type websites, blocked in their country. That's right, the despotic communist regime there in China doesn't want its people reading what we write here. They love Obama and all far-left people such as his buddy George Soros, because they represent what China and all other enemies of this country hope is the future of America -- despotism and total government control over the lives...

The material about Communist China rooting for Obama -- and the call for donations to John McCain appeared on one of the best sites on the Internet: http://clintons4mccain.com. It's a site with nearly 1700 members (and perhaps 10,000 visitors per day), and it's an essential part of the NoBama! Network. I have urged everyone who supports John McCain to join and participate in this organization. They're former supporters of Sen. Clinton who now strongly back Senator McCain. Their material is hard-hitting, as you'll see below. Add to the list of people who love Obama -- the despotic, Communist regime of...

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,...

They have battled dense smog, strong tides and no wind but now British sailors training for the Beijing Games are contending with mutant seaweed that has invaded the Olympic venue in China. The bright green algae, described as “thick as a carpet”, is making it impossible for dinghies to navigate the course that will host the Olympic regattas in less than two months. Wrapping itself around keels, bringing the boats to a standstill, the seaweed is believed by experts to have drifted in from the Yellow Sea to the eastern coastal city on the back of bad weather during the...

You buy organic because it's better for you and the environment because the produce is grown without pesticides or other potentially-harmful chemicals. But what if those organic vegetables came from China? Would you serve them to your family? It turns out you may already have. I found packages of frozen organic veggies from China at many local grocery stores, including PCC Natural Markets and Whole Foods. Whole Foods, the country's leader in organics, sells a variety of frozen organic produce from China - peas, spinach, asparagus - under its "365 House" brand. People who buy organic expect something special, but...

When Iran sought to strengthen its relations with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization earlier this year, it found a willing friend in Imomali Rahmon. The president of Tajikistan assured his hosts on a visit to Tehran in February that Iran “had a real possibility” to become a full member of the organization. Now, Rahmon has taken that pledge one step further. Earlier this month, the Tajik president sent a letter addressed to SCO heads of state. In it, according to Iranian Ambassador to Tajikistan Ali Asghar Sherdust, the president supported Iran’s possible bid for membership at the August SCO summit in...