Free Republic

BEIJING (Reuters) - A melee in Tibet's capital appeared to have been sparked by attempts by police to carry out security checks, indicating the tension and volatility remaining in Lhasa weeks after an anti-government riot. A mobile phone text message to Lhasa residents from the local police said security checks carried out on Saturday had "frightened citizens" and caused panic in the city centre. "Please obey the law and please follow the rules, don't create rumors, don't believe rumors, don't spread rumors," read the text message, which was reprinted by the Free Tibet Campaign and International Campaign for Tibet. "Severely...

Currently, the Japanese public is talking about China all day, not for going to the Olympics, but for avoiding tainted gyoza dumplings made in China, after ten Japanese got sick and more gyoza packs were found with pesticide. Japanese and Chinese officials are now meeting and discussing how to deal with this serious problem between the two countries, but have yet to find the source of contamination. In the meantime, there seem to be increasingly uneasy feelings about imported food from China on the part of Japanese consumers, and this could develop into a kind of "China-free" movement, as recently...

HONG KONG (AFP) - The Year of the Rat threatens to see a build-up of international tensions, natural and air disasters, and a more turbulent stock market, soothsayers and analysts say. ... The rodent is also seen as a "flower of romance" which means the year will stimulate romance, but also sex scandals. ... Lee said there would be a big change in Hillary Clinton's health and career but that doesn't necessarily mean she will hold political power. In contrast, Clinton's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, "has an in-born talent for leadership and is expected to be in an extraordinary political...

Readings for the Year of the Rat Published on December 29, 2007 The Year of the Rat is for the opportunist, the proactive, the profiteer and the politician. This, indeed, will be a year to keep a watchful eye on those who run the world financially, intellectually and dictatorially. The Rat year is also one of change, reform and the year to put well-thought-out strategy to work. Worldwide, it's a time when security will count and when political giants will want to protect what's theirs. As for the average Joe, the Year of the Rat means 12 months to turn...

An aggressive, non-stop campaign by China to penetrate key government and industry databases in the United States already has succeeded and the United States urgently needs to monitor all internet traffic to critical government and private-sector networks “to find the enemy within,” SANS Institute Director of Research Alan Paller told SCMagazineUS.com. “They are already in and we have to find them,” Paller said. Paller said that empirical evidence analyzed by researchers leaves little doubt that the Chinese government has mounted a non-stop, well-financed attack to breach key national security and industry databases, adding that it is likely that this effort...

June Vanity Fair's profile of hyperkinetic Bill Clinton is titled "Bill and His Shadow" but might have instead appropriated a phrase from Jack Kerouac, "running to stand still." If life's a buffet table, the former president can't keep his hands off any dish or condiment

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. A human rights activist whom the U.S. government helped free from a Chinese prison in 2001 pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally sending US$1.5 million worth of high-tech items to China. Gao Zhan entered the plea in federal court, to one count of unlawful export and another count of tax evasion. Her husband, Xue Donghua, also pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Gao, a permanent U.S. resident, was arrested by Chinese authorities in February 2001 and convicted of spying for Taiwan. She was released after five months in jail under intense pressure from...

<p>Official Washington is about to welcome Hu Jintao, 59, vice president of the People's Republic of China, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party and head of the Party School of Chinese Communist Party Central Committee.</p>