Free Republic

The Chinese Supermodel has nice lips, but she really needs to eat. And did you hear about her famous brother? Don Juan...

The great heave forward...  Chinese passengers are forced to get out and push their broken passenger plane   By John Garth  Anyone who has ever used budget airlines know only too well how uncomfortable it can be: long queues, cramped seats and every tiny extra costs you.  But at least they are never told to get out and help push their plane.That is exactly what happened to a group of passengers in China who were asked to get out and push after their plane broke down shortly after landing.      The Chinese Shandong airlines flight CRJ7 arrived safely...

Australia and New Zealand issued recalls Thursday for an imported Chinese candy that was found to contain the industrial chemical melamine. New Zealand Food Safety Authority spokesman Geoff Allen said Thursday morning that he expected the White Rabbit Creamy Candies to be off shelves within 24 hours. "This product contains sufficiently high levels of melamine which may, in some individuals, cause health problems such as kidney stones," deputy chief executive Sandra Daly said in a statement posted Wednesday on the agency's Web site. "The levels we have found in these products are unacceptable."

Albania's government said on Friday it was looking into the sudden death of an arms industry figure who was helping prosecutors investigate a weapons sale to the United States and an explosion that killed 26 people. Television pictures showed businessman Kosta Trebicka, his head covered in blood, sprawled on his back on a dirt road in a remote area of eastern Albania, where he had been hunting. His off-road car was nearby, and appeared to be damaged.

As Britain's magnificent Olympians returned home on Monday, they left behind a fierce debate in China over London's eight-minute contribution to Beijing's glittering ceremony - and in particular, the performance of Mayor Boris Johnson. While some Chinese media and bloggers praised the creativity of London's segment, others were damning with Johnson described as 'arrogant, rude and disrespectful' when accepting the Olympic flag. There were mixed opinions too about the cameo performance featuring a London bus, David Beckham, singer Leona Lewis, rock guitarist Jimmy Page, dancers and singers which was very different from the rest of the spectacular show staged by...

Athletes sacrificed dearly -- one was separated from her toddler, one was banned from eating dinner, one missed a parent's funeral. While Americans spoke of fun, the Chinese were on a 'sacred mission.' If anybody feels a pang of jealousy over China's haul of Olympic gold medals, they need only pause to consider what the athletes went through to get them. The only mother on China's team, Xian Dongmei, told reporters after she won her gold medal in judo that she had not seen her 18-month-old daughter in one year, monitoring the girl's growth only by webcam. Another gold medalist,...

Beijing, China — While praise for the splendid opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing on Aug. 8 has reverberated around the world, Chinese citizens writing on the Internet have cast a more critical eye upon the event. Still, an online poll shows that more than 60 percent of the Chinese people graded the opening ceremony over 90 out of 100. According to netizens, the two top issues on the Chinese mind at present are the Games’ opening ceremony and concern over whether or not best-known Chinese athlete Liu Xiang will win a gold medal in the 110-meter hurdle...

[UPDATE: The Spanish Olympic basketball teams are sponsored by Li-Ning, the Chinese footwear company sometimes called “the Nike of China.” See bottom of post.] Thanks to a comment by a reader named Will, on an earlier post about Spain’s basketball team, we were alerted to an article in The Guardian by Sid Lowe — a Madrid-based correspondent for the site’s excellent Football Weekly podcast — about the photograph above. As Lowe explains: Spain’s Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Taiwan-born American who admitted spying for China was given more than 15 years in prison, the US Justice Department said Friday. Tai Shen Kuo, 58, of New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced by federal court in Virginia to 188 months in prison, and required to forfeit 40,000 dollars, after he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to deliver US military information to China. Kuo was charged as a part of a small ring that included a Chinese woman, Yu Xin Kang, and former Pentagon analyst Gregg Bergersen, that obtained secret information mainly on US military sales to...

Sixteen Chinese policemen have been killed in an attack on a border post near Kashgar city in the western region of Xinjiang, state media say. Two men drove a lorry into a group of jogging policemen before attacking them with explosives and knives, according to the Xinhua news agency. Police say both attackers - ethnic Uighur Muslims - have been arrested.

BEIJING (AP) _ Attackers rammed a dump truck into a patrol station in China's restive Central Asian border province Monday morning, tossing grenades in a raid that killed 16 officers and wounded others, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported...

BEIJING (Reuters) - A police station in China's restive Xinjiang region was attacked on Monday morning, four days before the Beijing Olympics begin, killing 16 officers and wounding 12, state media reported. "Rioters drove two vehicles to break into the border patrol armed police division" near Kashgar and threw two grenades, Xinhua reported. The brief report did not describe the attackers. But the Xinjiang region in the far northwest has been at the heart of China's security fears leading up the Olympics, which begin in four days. Xinjiang is home to a large Uighur Muslim population, many of them discontent...

A bizarre series of incidents during last year's Women's World Cup in China is raising questions about the security of visiting delegations in China at the upcoming Olympics. In the days before their World Cup opener against host China last September, members of the Danish women's soccer team say they faced ongoing harassment that culminated in the discovery of two men attempting to secretly videotape a team meeting at their hotel through a two-way mirror. Breaking an 11-month silence about the incidents, Danish coach Kenneth Heiner-Möller told SI.com that he discovered the two intruders behind the mirror as he prepared...

KUCHING: A misunderstanding over a small pet dog saw three stallholders attacked by a group of youths, resulting in one of the victims losing a part of his finger and sustaining a broken arm on Friday night. Prior to the 9.30pm incident at a parking lot in Kota Sentosa, where a number of foodstalls operate, a young couple and a friend went to a stall selling fried kuey teow accompanied by their small pet dog. The stall was operated by a 35-year-old man and assisted by his ‘mentally-challenged’ younger brother who is also in his 30s. Although it was unclear...

China named its Olympic women’s gymnastics team on Friday, and the inclusion of at least two athletes has further raised questions, widespread in the sport, about whether the host nation for the Beijing Games is using under-age competitors. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=world

A car thief who broke into a van - parked in a residential Brooklyn, New York City neighborhood - discovered that the van was loaded with explosives. Reports say the thief realized that he was driving a potential bomb, so he drove the van out of the residential neighborhood it was in to a remote waterfront area, then called the police. According to the New York Daily News, he told police that he thought the explosives may have been planted by terrorists to coincide with the Fourth of July celebrations. However, police are investigating a possible connection between the van...

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...

When I said I would give a pleasant surprise to Brityank, I meant I would like to paint a painting for him. Because I would like to thank him for his kindness towards me. Maybe he doesn’t think its anything, But I really care. Because I think I must keep my promise, and do my best, I will do it, and I’m free now. I hope Brityank feels free about this too. Because it is just a painting, and I just need an excuse to exercise my drawing skills. I am so lazy sometimes you know, I like to relax...

Ninety percent of white Americans say they have no problem with a black president. A significant part of the other 10 percent state that they have no problem with African-Americans, but worry that the how others – especially abroad – will react if Barack Obama becomes president. Meanwhile, the people around the world are crossing their fingers for anything but another white guy with military ambitions. When it comes to identifying traits, forget race. A three-digit IQ will be considered a victory from Tehran, Iran to Lima, Peru. Luckily for the 10 percent, race is negotiable. For example, last week...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two House members said Wednesday their Capitol Hill computers, containing information about political dissidents from around the world, have been hacked by sources apparently working out of China. Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf says four of his computers were hacked. New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith says two of his computers were compromised in December 2006 and March 2007. The two lawmakers are longtime critics of China's record on human rights. In an interview Wednesday, Wolf said the hacking of computers in his Capitol Hill office began in August 2006. He says a computer at a House committee office...

LA JOYA, Texas (AP) -- Local police are accustomed to dealing with illegal border crossings but were astounded by the video of 15 Chinese immigrants unfolding themselves from the back of a sport-utility vehicle near this small border town. The SUV appeared abandoned when police rolled up early on a recent Saturday morning. But when Border Patrol agents arrived and swung open the double rear doors, the Chinese immigrants tumbled out, squinting in the sunlight. "They were in bad shape," La Joya Police spokesman Joe Cantu said. The immigrants were silent, able to communicate only with hand gestures. They did...

SANTA ROSA - Border Patrol officials picked up a group of nine illegal immigrants from China early Tuesday in Santa Rosa, officials said. "It was first thing in the morning somewhere around 7 a.m.," Border Patrol Public Affairs Officer Daniel Doty said. The office of Precinct 7 Constable Cesar Diaz received a report of suspicious persons on Pomelo Road south of FM 107 East in Santa Rosa, according to a news release Diaz. The group was near a vacant barn and scattered as officials approached them, the news release states. Officials from the Precinct 7 Constable's Office, the Cameron County...

Hollywood, CA (BANG) - Sharon Stone has been dropped from Christian Dior's Chinese adverts. The 'Basic Instinct' star - who suggested the devastating natural disaster in the Sichuan province on May 12 was "karma" for their government's treatment of Tibet - will no longer appear in the French fashion house's campaign in the Far East country even though she has now apologized. Stone said in a statement released by Dior: "Due to my inappropriate words and acts during the interview, I feel deeply sorry and sad about hurting the Chinese people.""I am willing to take part in the relief work...

To: All I want to let the chinese that are really here for support know that I am sorry for being so rude,and crass during this time. Now I do not like the CCP at all and belive in democracy for everyone. I feel angry and jaded at the world at this moment in my life because someone really close to me in my family died a few weeks ago. I have had a rough year and can be very snappy and mean at times. I do apologize and my prayers go out to all the innocents lost. I was...

Chinese nuclear submarines prompt 'new Cold War' warning By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent Last Updated: 5:30PM BST 02/05/2008 Tensions in the Far East could reach "Cold War levels" defence analysts warned, following evidence that China had secretly developed a major nuclear submarine base. Satellite photographs passed to The Daily Telegraph this week showed that the secret base at Sanya on Hainan island will house up to 20 of the latest 094 Jin-class nuclear ballistic submarines that could be capable of firing anti-satellite missiles and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The construction showed that China was “ramping up its operational capability” and developing...

Has anyone pondered the best way to spend your inbound stimulus package checks? "Geeks On Caffeine" shows us all why it's best to keep the money in the good 'ol U.S. of A.!

SAN FRANCISCO - Thousands of people carrying Tibetan and Chinese flags packed the relay route of the Olympic torch Wednesday and police sought to keep demonstrators from disrupting the flame's symbolic journey to the Beijing Games. Farther along the six-mile route, about 200 Chinese college students mobbed a car carrying two people waving Tibetan flags in front of the city's Pier 39 tourist destination. The students, who arrived by bus from the University of California, Davis, banged drums and chanted "Go Olympics" in Chinese. "I'm proud to be Chinese and I'm outraged because there are so many people who are...

Prosecutors called Chi Mak the "perfect sleeper agent," though he hardly looked the part. For two decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in a Los Angeles suburb, buying a house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered him as a hard worker who often took paperwork home at night. Eventually, Mak's job gave him access to sensitive plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons. These he secretly copied and sent via courier to China -- fulfilling a mission that U.S. officials say...

Chinese companies invested more than $30 billion in foreign firms from 1996 to 2005, nearly one-third in 2004-05 alone, according to an analysis by Usha Haley, a professor of international business at the University of New Haven. Computer maker Lenovo Group helped launch the frenzy in December 2004 by announcing it would acquire IBM Corp.'s personal computer unit for $1.75 billion. _ In the United States and Canada, Chinese firms now have about 3,500 investment projects, compared to 1,500 five years ago, according to an estimate by Maryville University professor Ping Deng. Large state-owned companies jumped ahead; medium and small...

The case echoes last year's scandal involving brick kilns Police in China have rescued 33 mentally disabled men who were forced to work as slaves at a building site, Chinese media report. The men were said to have been discovered in a filthy 30sq m (320sq ft) room in Hulan, a city in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang. At least three people were detained, suspected of keeping the slaves. College students reportedly saw a man jump to his death from a seventh-floor window, and raised the alarm. Last year, one man was sentenced to death and 28 others were...

DHARMSALA, India - The Dalai Lama offered Thursday to meet with Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao, but said he would not travel to Beijing unless there was a "real concrete development" in relations between the government and Tibet. Chinese officials said they would talk with the Dalai Lama on condition he "stopped separatist activities" and recognized Tibet and Taiwan as parts of China. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly offered to meet with Chinese leaders and has long maintained he is not seeking independence for Tibet but wants dialogue aimed at giving Tibetans autonomy under Chinese rule. Beijing, however, has...

Their weapons may not sound like much: two belts, a newspaper and a rose-pattern blanket. But six Chinese immigrants from Chamblee all but gift-wrapped an international fugitive for authorities recently, ending a five-month manhunt for a self-described martial arts expert twice featured on "America's Most Wanted." Nai Yin Xue had sought cover in Atlanta's Mandarin-speaking community. There, he encountered a scrappy band of cooks and deliverymen whose possessions, though few, include a good memory and a keen sense of justice. Now the "Chamblee Six" await final details of a sizable reward from New Zealand police. Today, the five men and...

China fabricated terror plots: Uighur leader by Jitendra Joshi WASHINGTON (AFP) - Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer Monday accused China of fabricating alleged plots against the Olympics, and even of scheming to carry out its own terror attacks, to blacken her community's name. ADVERTISEMENT "It's completely untrue. All these allegations are falsified," the separatist figurehead, who joined her US-based husband in 2005 after six years in a Chinese jail, told AFP through an interpreter. "The real goal of the Chinese government is to organize a terrorist attack so that it can increase its crackdown on the Uighur people," the 61-year-old...

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games. Doomed: Terrified cats crammed tightly into cages are hauled off to a meat market in Guangzhou Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around. Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city. Secretive: The compound at Da Niu Fang which is...

Defense-related think tanks and contractors, as well as the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies, were the target of repeated computer network intrusions last year apparently originating in China, the Department of Defense said this week. In its annual report to lawmakers on China's military power, the department said the intrusions "appeared to originate in" China but added, "It is unclear if these intrusions were conducted by, or with the endorsement of" the Chinese government or military. The report gave few details, but one China expert who works in the private sector told United Press International that in the last 18...

I like the Chinese. I've eaten their food for years. I even like the idea that they are growing to be a world power economically now, are going to host a future Olympics, and are taking their rightful place in the world. They have lots going for them in terms of commerce, development, and business growth. Their population is beginning to experience in small doses what the rest of the world has been enjoying for years. I wish them the best but I also wish they would do the following before they come to the world's table as an arm's...

The Yomiuri Shimbun Three members of a group of burglars who have been arrested on suspicion of theft told police that they broke into apartments in the Kanto area managed by a major commercial landlord about 500 times from January 2007, the police said Thursday. The police suspect they stole cash and other assets worth tens of millions of yen, they said. According to the police, the three said all the apartments had the same type of doors, which were easy to open with a wire. Lan Sen, 27, and Wang Xing, 24, from Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, and Su Xin,...

BEIJING - Pollution has turned part of a major river system in central China red and bubbly, forcing authorities to cut water supplies to 200,000 people and close schools, a government news agency reported Wednesday. Some communities along tributaries of the Hanjiang River — a branch of the Yangtze — in Hubei province were using emergency water sources, while at least 60,000 people were relying on bottled water and limited underground sources, Xinhua News Agency said. Five schools were closed in Xingou township, while others could not provide food to students, the report said without elaborating. Gao Qijin, head of...

China has an estimated 350 million smokers Health officials in the Chinese city of Chongqing are urging people to report their family members to the authorities if they violate a smoking ban.The initiative is part of a campaign in two districts of the city to tackle the effects of passive smoking. Those who are accused of smoking will have their names posted on a warning list on community notice boards. As well as the campaign within families, a workplace smoking ban is also being tried in public buildings. A hospital boss whose organisation is taking part in the trial...

Confucius, he has many descendants By Richard Spencer in Beijing Last Updated: 1:27am GMT 19/02/2008 More than a million people around the world have responded to an appeal for people who think that they are descendants of the Chinese sage Confucius. The appeal was made by Kong Deyong, a 77th generation descendant of Confucius who founded the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee and is based in the family's home town of Qufu, eastern China. Confucious: founding father of Chinese political and ethical thought Mr Kong, a senior member of the Confucius clan, fled to Hong Kong after the Cultural Revolution, when...

the cat is called " fortune-bringing cat"(招财猫)!

NACOGDOCHES — The rows of extra chairs brought into the The Fredonia's biggest meeting room Thursday night were not enough to accommodate more than 750 people who attended an open house and public hearing on the proposed TTC-69 highway. Texas Department of Transportation officials heard hours of public testimony that continued late into the night overwhelmingly opposed to the construction of new roadways through East Texas. Applause throughout the hours-long meeting never swelled as loudly as it did when the first speaker of the night, state Rep. Wayne Christian, told TxDOT representatives emphatically that "our answer is 'no' on the...

Mary Landrieu’s hypocrisy and alleged corruption continues to rear its ugly head this cycle. Next on the list of questionable Landrieu campaign tactics and decisions – taking $1,500 from Jane Kuo (PDF), who is associated with Tai Shen Koi (when giving political contributions, both use the same addresss) who was arrested in conjunction with a Chinese espionage case yesterday. Admittedly, this donation occurred during Landrieu’s first run for Senate, but taken into account with the string of more recent and ongoing questionable political activities and decisions by Landrieu, it is leading some people to sense a pattern developing. Some notable...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2008 – A Defense Department employee was among three people arrested today for espionage after allegedly passing classified U.S. government documents and information to the People’s Republic of China, Justice Department officials announced. Gregg William Bergersen, 51, a weapons system policy analyst at the Arlington, Va. -based Defense Security Cooperation Agency, is accused of being the source of the classified information. Much of the information related to U.S. military sales to Taiwan, Justice Department officials said. Bergersen allegedly passed the information between January 2006 and this month to Tai Shen Kuo, 58, a naturalized U.S. citizen and...

"Look! There's Colonel Wen Ho Do with more campaign cash! "

DETROIT — Two Chinese companies are planning to sell cars and trucks in Canada next year and promising rock-bottom prices in a move that will ratchet up the already fierce competition in the Canadian market. Representatives of China America Cooperative Automotive Inc. (Chamco) and Geely Holdings Group said Sunday at the Detroit auto show that they plan to sell vehicles in Canada in 2009, with Chamco claiming an ambitious sales target of 15,000 vehicles. A pickup truck and a sport-utility vehicle will be sold by Chamco at prices 20-per-cent lower than similar models now on the market, chief executive officer...

China's intelligence service gained access to a secret National Security Agency listening post in Hawaii through a Chinese-language translation service, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The spy penetration was discovered several years ago as part of a major counterintelligence probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) that revealed an extensive program by China's spy service to steal codes and other electronic intelligence secrets, and to recruit military and civilian personnel with access to them. According to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, China's Ministry of State Security, the main civilian spy service, carried out the operations by...

Tan Dailin lets out an audible gasp when he is told that he was identified in the U.S. as someone who may have been responsible for recent security breaches at the Pentagon. "Will the FBI send special agents out to arrest me?" he asks. Much as they might want to talk with him, though, FBI agents don't have jurisdiction in Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan province, where Tan lives. And given that he has been lauded in China's official press for his triumphs in military-sponsored hacking competitions, Tan is unlikely to have problems with local law enforcement. But Tan...

. And so the deluge of highly educated Chinese is challenging Japan to re-evaluate its attitude toward foreigners — particularly those who hail from what was once dismissed as a communist backwater but today is crucial to Japan's economic prospects. In 2004, trade between the two countries reached $205 billion, with China for the first time overtaking the U.S. as Japan's largest trading partner. With their bilingual skills and transnational degrees, Japan's new class of Chinese immigrants is poised to profit from this new East Asian reality.

The drills are about to begin. With his right hand, Zhang Ran hoists a yellow flag above his head, much like a sailor directing traffic on an aircraft carrier. He's facing 150 salesclerks sitting in tidy rows, handpicked by their labor union to learn the approved cheers and chants for next year's Beijing Olympics. It's all good-humored without the slightest whiff of swearing or boorish behavior. Nobody doubts that TV-friendly venues will glitter when the Olympics open in eight months. It's other matters that cause worry — people's manners, their knowledge of many unfamiliar sports and the government's promise to...