Worldcrunch
-OpEd- BEIJING – Since late last year the way Chinese people cross the road has been receiving particular attention. Dubbed Chinese-style Of Crossing The Road, this phenomenon refers to the behavior of Chinese pedestrians, who cross an intersection not based on red and green lights, but on whether or not there are enough pedestrians to […]
JINAN – How to “surf” anonymously on the Web, in a country – China – where cybercafés ask for proof of ID before you are allowed to log onto the Internet? In order to circumvent this requirement, Mr Guo, owner of a cybercafé in Jinan city, northeastern Chinese Shandong Province, had found a perfect solution: […]
Decades of unbridled industrialization has left much of China’s soil badly contaminated. Some are set to make millions cleaning it up.
Global Trade Alert has just published its 2013 report on international trade, and raised the alarm on “Protectionism’s Quiet Return.” In the cross-hairs of this free-trade advocacy group are the G20 countries, which have been taking more and more protectionist measures since the financial crisis broke out in 2008. From the anti-dumping EU measures on […]
-OpEd- BEIJING – On June 6, the Guardian newspaper in Britain and the Washington Post in the United States revealed the American government’s ongoing efforts to monitor the activities of people all around the world. They did so only after verifying the authenticity of the confidential documents they had obtained. The top-secret documents showed that […]
-Op-Ed- BEIJING – It would seem that police brutality is not just for ordinary – powerless – citizens in China. A policewoman from central China’s Henan Province was recently arrested when visiting her daughter in the provincial capital Zhengzhou. Mistakenly accused of being sex workers, the woman and her daughter were beaten, tortured and detained […]
Last week, the city government of Wuhan, in central China, published a draft law on population and family planning management that quickly became national news. The bill charges “social maintenance fees” against unmarried woman who have given birth to a child but could not provide valid identification of the child’s father, or those who have […]
Since the 2008 melamine-tainted milk scandal, little has changed in the Chinese dairy industry. Interest groups and nationalism are to blame.
Worldcrunch Over the past year, China’s outbound investment set new records. Although North America jumped to the forefront of Chinese business activity, it is likely to be temporary: Chinese companies move as a group from region to region, from sector to sector, according to a survey by the Heritage Foundation. Wine, treasury bonds, soy, ports… […]
Ever since 2002, when the first batch of students graduated after national expansion of university enrollment, the difficulty for educated young people to find employment has become a hot topic each summer. The total number of graduates has grown every year. With 6.99 million fresh graduates this year, the number is hitting another record high. […]
A school sex-abuse scandal has reignited concern for those left most vulnerable by China’s rapid migration and industrial expansion.
In modern China, some go to great lengths to look or sound like they hail from the West. One of the quickest, and quirkiest, ways to do this is to give yourself an English name. Scott Kronick, president of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, had some fun with this phenomenon in a piece for the The […]
Several women inmates from China’s infamous Masanjia reeducation-through-labor camp have decided to come forward to recount the torture they sustained.
This week’s selection of magazine covers from around the world.
BEIJING – Who are the happiest people in China? In a survey conducted by Xiaokang (meaning basically well-off) magazine last year, in the eyes of the public, civil servant comes top of the list as a profession. However, the newly published 2012 China Workplace Mental Health Research Report has shown that officials’ own sense of […]
For the past six months, the Chinese media has been reporting that rice grown in the south-central Hunan Province contains unacceptable levels of cadmium, a carcinogenic heavy metal. Last month, an inspection of samples in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, revealed that more than half the batches of cadmium-tainted rice came from three rice mills in the […]
NEW DELHI – Dreaming with BRICs, the study published in 2003 by Goldman Sachs that traced the rise of four emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) also marked the birth of a concept that has yet to disappoint. Between 2004 and 2011, average growth in China was 10.8%, in India 8.3% — to mention […]
A recent visit to Beijing by a top Pyongyang envoy may be the precursor to reigniting of negotiations between the two Koreas. Eyes now on Xi Jinping’s visit with Barack Obama.
GLOBAL TIMES, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – “My fellow Chinese citizens, it brings me no pleasure to report to you this terrible news. A great calamity has befallen our nation. Our pride, our dignity, nay, the very integrity of our national soul is at stake,” writes the South China Morning Post in […]
Local environmental concerns could undermine big Chinese economic ambitions. That tension, well-known in the West, is playing out near the site a petrochemical plant in Yunnan province.
The first generation of entrepreneurs who built their businesses after the 1978 Chinese economic reform are giving way to their children, just as resentment against the rich explodes.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014 FIGHTS CONTINUE IN EASTERN UKRAINE Pro-Russian fighters in Donetsk have shot down a drone, self-appointed local authorities said, amid reports of ongoing fighting outside the building of the Security Service of Ukraine in the center of the eastern city, seized by the rebels. According to RT journalist Paula Slier, fights have […]
REUTERS, BBC NEWS (UK), SBS, ABC (Australia) Worldcrunch CANBERRA – Australia’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Chinese Hackers allegedly stole the digital blueprints of a $630 million spy agency headquarters, according to an ABC report. The news comes on the heels of the US reporting that classified military designs were compromised by Chinese hackers on […]
By 2015, Hunan Province alone plans to build seven new airports, joining the existing five that are losing money each year. What’s driving the boom.
GENOA – How do you bring the Dolce Vita Italian lifestyle to the Chinese without actually landing in China? Well, the Costa Cruises company will be offering all the top Made-in-Italy food, fashion and style with a new around-the-world “Italian” cruise geared to a Chinese public. The Italian cruise line opened its doors to the […]
Editor’s note: Following Beijing, the municipality of Guangzhou introduced passenger car purchasing restrictions last June in order to ease the traffic pressure. Each month a free lottery system is used to decide the lucky ones who get to buy cars. Another parallel system allows people to pay more by bidding for a car license. Public […]
BEIJING – “So,” says Ai Weiwei: “Now they get to listen to this.” By “they” he means his jailers. “My voice may not be perfect, and may not even sound good. I admit I was a little inhibited at first. But it’s a voice and now it’s out there.” As of this week, Beijing avant-garde […]
BEIJING – Last month, this city’s Human Resources and Social Security Bureau introduced an administrative circular that stipulates “in principle” municipal government departments should impose age restrictions when hiring graduates settling in Beijing who are not officially residents holding local household registrations. Those with undergraduate degrees who have moved to Beijing shouldn’t be hired if […]
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (China), AFP Worldcrunch BEIJING – Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei has released a foul-mouthed heavy metal music video entitled Dumbass that parodies his months in police detention. In the video for the top single from his upcoming debut album The Divine Comedy, Weiwei tells the story of his 81 days […]
LEIYANG – After working for many years in Foshan, a city in China’s manufacturing heartland of Guangdong, Zi Xiaohu and his wife recently decided to move back to his hometown in the central province of Hunan. The couple’s child, who remained behind in the village while the parents worked, is about to start preschool. The […]
Moscow allowed for observer status for additional countries that don’t border the Arctic, but will grant them virtually no voice whatsoever on policy.
CAIXIN (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Of the 8,619 children adopted by American families last year, including kids from more than 40 countries, more than 30% came from China, Caixin media reports, citing data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Because of toughened regulations, 885 fewer children overall were adopted internationally by Americans compared with […]
Patriarch Kirill is trying to expand Russian Church’s influence in West and East. But Beijing is tricky terrain for religious head.
The some 10 million Catholics in China remain divided between those loyal to the Pope and those in step with the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy.
In spite of the economic growth and rising living standards in many Asian countries, the status of women has strangely stagnated, and even regressed. If women’s status is only measured by remuneration, Asia surely wouldn’t be the only place where there is a marked disparity between the sexes. For instance, according to the United States […]
After five long years of battle in court, Adidas has finally settled with Adivon, a Chinese sportswear company. The latter is to transfer its Chinese trademarks and the triangular logo to the German multinational and will not be allowed to use them again, in any store. Meanwhile, another unfinished lawsuit has aroused even more attention. […]
XINHUA, GLOBAL TIMES (China), AFP Worldcrunch WUXI – Zhang Yimou, one of China’s top film directors is being investigated over claims he has fathered seven children, the Chinese media reported on Thursday. The Wuxi City Population and Family Planning Commission, in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, is investigating the Xi’an-born director, after it has come to […]
XINHUA NEWS, CHINA BUSINESS TIMES (China) Worldcrunch SHANGHAI – Not so long ago, the world’s luxury brands were enjoying the rapid development of the Chinese market, but since the end of 2012, this trend has taken a sharp downwards turn. As Xinhua News pointed out, even though in 2011 the GDP per capita in China […]
Excessive feasting by public officials has a long and wide history in China. The fundamental source of its prevalence is actually not even the hearty appetites of the officials in question. These people are sacrificing a lot themselves in this banquet culture. On the lighter side, people may just lose a previously slim figure. In […]