DAILY YOMUIRI, JAPAN TIMES, ASAHI SHIMBUN, (Japan) SKY NEWS (UK), WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA) Worldcrunch TOKYO– After three years in the opposition, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) crushed the left-wing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in this Sunday’s House of Representatives election, reports the Daily Yomiuri. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda suffered a harsh defeat […]
Tag: china
As he did last year, Charles Landow draws highlights from a range of democracy and development indexes for this year-end edition of Missing Pieces. The UN Human Development Index and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy are not included this time because they were not published in 2012. Enjoy the reading and the holiday […]
SOUTHERN PEOPLE WEEKLY (China), MING PAO (Hong Kong) Worldcrunch HONG KONG – Martial arts star, Jackie Chan, has kicked up a fuss this week when suggesting that Hong Kong authorities should crackdown on the nation’s burgeoning protest movement. Chan, who was born in Hong Kong, told China’s Southern People Weekly: “Hong Kong has become a […]
XINHUA (China), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch CHENGPING – Twenty-two school children and a villager were injured in a knife attack at the outside a primary school in central China’s Henan Province Friday morning, reports Xinhua. A police officer said the attack occured in the village of Chengping in the province of Henan, shortly before 8 […]
CHINA TIMES (Taiwan), XINHUA (China) Worldcrunch XIAMEN – Recently, a 17 year-old boy from the Chinese northeastern city of Changchun, in Jilin Province, secretly sold the four tires of his parents’ sports car to buy an iPhone 5. He sold the tires for about a sixth of their real value. His mother had previously refused […]
-Essay- BEIJING – “Eat, drink, man and woman – the greatest human desires reside in them…” It is an ancient Confucian proverb, meaning that food and love are basic to human nature. Were the public invited to vote on what they’d like most to know about their nations’ leaders I’m convinced it wouldn’t be their […]
KCNA (North Korea), THE KOREA HERALD (South Korea), NHK (Japan) Worldcrunch North Korea’s state-run news agency has announced the country has successfully put a satellite into orbit Wednesday. Pyongyang says the three-stage, long-range rocket was successfully launched off the west coast of North Korea Wednesday morning, after its previous attempts failed earlier this year. “The […]
Is the American-born Wang the Jeremy Lin of the fashion world?
In November, both the U.S. presidential election and China’s change of leadership took place. They were the two most watched events of the year. China’s transfer of power within the party has become increasingly institutionalized. Meanwhile, America’s history of democratic election is deep-rooted and continues to play a fundamental role in its national and social […]
Life of Pi shows the Taiwan-born Lee in total command of his storytelling talents.
MOSCOW – Seeking to guarantee greater energy and food security for its population, China is coming up against serious limitations. Just look at the basic numbers: the country only has 8% of the world’s energy reserves, and only 11% of the world’s arable land – yet, it is providing for 19% of the planet’s population. […]
UNITED DAILY NEWS (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BEIJING- There’s a new iPhone app circulating in Beijing that breaks a new barrier in cool convenience, and it comes with a rather awesomely descriptive name: “Yaoyao-zhaoche,” which translates from Chinese as shake-shake cab-calling. According to the United Daily News, after downloading the app and establishing a paypal minimum balance, […]
-Analysis- BEIJING – Zhang Lan, founder of restaurant chain South Beauty, is one of China’s richest women and a symbol of the country’s booming economic success. Thus it is not surprising that the recent news that the billionaire has renounced her Chinese citizenship to take on a foreign nationality has been met with some significant […]
ASSOCIATED PRESS Worldcrunch BEIJING — Liu Xia trembled uncontrollably and cried Thursday as she described how her confinement under house arrest has been absurd and emotionally draining in the two years since her jailed activist husband, Liu Xiaobo, was named a Nobel Peace laureate in 2010, the AP writes in an exclusive report. Breathless from […]
PEOPLE’S DAILY (China) Worldcrunch GANSU – What’s the best way to handle the unpleasant view of decrepit roadside housing and poverty? Hide it! is the answer from officials of China’s northwestern province of Gansu. According to China’s People’s Daily, the local authority in Zhang County in Gansu has begun to build walls to hide the […]
-Analysis- BEIJING – The “Made in China” export label is by now an integral part of the entire Chinese economy. With Japan as its fourth-largest trading partner, Bejing is starting to ask what weight the ongoing China-Japan islands dispute will have on the Chinese economy. China’s Ministry of Commerce reports that direct investment by Japanese […]
CAIXIN MEDIA (China) Worldcrunch HAMBURG– Accusations that China has been stealing other countries’ intellectual property are nothing new — and increasingly annoying to Chinese officials. Here’s how one described the situation at a conference last week in Germany: “China just wants a child. China would have liked to adopt one, but you won’t give it […]
CHANGSHA – When the Dazehu village chief told his constituents that a company was planning to build the tallest skyscraper in the world right there, in the swamps in front of the village, Mrs. Tan’s only reaction was: “All right then…” It takes more than that to overwhelm this 60-year old woman, who has become […]
-Analysis- BEIJING – Most agree that state-owned enterprises, which have long been at the core of China’s economy, must be reformed. That begins with fundamental changes in the way that such entities are managed, both by increasing the separation between state oversight and individual management, and the separation between management and ownership. The establishment in […]
YANZHAO URBAN DAILY (China), NEW TANG DYNASTY TELEVISION (US) Worldcrunch BAZHOU – In this small northern Chinese village, seven strangers, all dressed in black, arrived on a mission. They would force a family out of their own house, and then swiftly demolish it. It was one of the few houses still occupied on a street […]
GLOBAL TIMES (China), CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BEIJING – As a recent wave of corruption has been denounced in China, we have heard of the important role played by bloggers and a progressively more open press. But there’s another segment of society that has been absolutely crucial in busting bad politicians: their mistresses. And […]
Worldcrunch PARIS – Get it!? Ok, we know our pronunciation of both French and Mandarin is less than perfect…But this is the sort of stuff that gets mashed together at Worldcrunch HQ, where the continents converge, cultures cross and alcohol is not forbidden. So we hope you like our super-fresh bottle of Bo Xilai Nouveau […]
CAIXIN MEDIA, CHINA DAILY (China), BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP (USA) Worldcrunch BEIJING– China’s middle class will triple in the next 10 years, according to a new report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). By 2020, it should have 280 million affluent consumers, representing 35% of the country’s consumption and 5% of the world’s total consumption. Photo […]
-Essay- After Mo Yan won this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, many Chinese people predicted that this would contribute greatly to the expansion of Chinese culture in the world. I sincerely hope so. However, in peaceful times the transmission and penetration of a culture are extremely slow. The Italian Jesuit priest, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), was […]
SINA WEIBO (China), TEALEAF NATION (China), LE MONDE (France), ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan), NPR (U.S.A.) Worldcrunch BEIJING – The Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Congress concluded with 59-year-old Xi Jinping being officially chosen as head of state. The decision at the weeklong meeting was in no way a surprise but came as the culmination of the months […]
BEIJING – Men conquer women by conquering the world; women conquer the world by conquering men. This ancient Western proverb is often cited by Chinese in reference to Cleopatra, and her conquest of Julius Caesar. In 2000, I was responsible for covering the story of Cheng Kejie, the former vice chairman of the National People’s […]
MACAU DAILY TIMES (Macau), CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY (Taiwan) Worldcrunch MACAU – Not far from Hong Kong, a small island off the coast of southern China attracts 28 million visitors a year. The tourists, hailing mostly from Mainland China, come here to gamble. It is the only place in China where gambling is legal, and with […]
TOKYO – The conflict between Japan and China over the sovereignty of the inhabited Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu in Chinese) is symptomatic of Tokyo’s diplomatic weakness. In its duel with Beijing, Japan appears isolated in its claim and abandoned by its allies. The United States announced that the islands were covered by the U.S.-Japan security treaty, […]
BEIJING – First you have to get through the police cordons, four or five of them. Tourists on their way to the Forbidden City are asked to remove their hats and open their coats for inspection. On the steps of the Great Hall of the People, a Tibetan woman in traditional dress and other delegates […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch In his latest book, American National Geographic photographer and reporter Michael Yamashit writes about the Yartsa Gunbu miracle mushroom that could also be called Himalayan gold. Die Welt’s Bettina Seipp reports that depending on the quality of the shriveled Caterpillar Fungus, Chinese buyers are prepared to spend tens of thousands of […]
BERLIN – Two of the world’s economic superpowers have spent the past days picking their leaders for the future. Barack Obama and the Democrats are now ensconced in the U.S. while China’s big political show began with this week’s opening of the National Congress of the Communist Party, where over 2,000 delegates will decide on […]
AUSTAR, SOUTH WEEKLY (China), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BEIJING – For some time now there has been talk in China about “naked officials.” These Chinese Communist Party officials work in Mainland China while their families live abroad, out of harm’s way. The idea is that, if need be, the (corrupt) official can escape the country […]
His name is Xi Jinping (pronounced Shee Jin-ping). The future Chinese leader was born into privilege as a child of the “red dynasty.” His father was an old revolutionary companion of Mao’s. But after his father’s fall into disgrace, Xi experienced poverty, prison and the hardships of peasant life. What kind of leader will he […]
Beginning this week, there will be a new generation of Chinese leaders. The world’s media are all highly attentive to China’s coming changes and the policy direction of China’s new leaders. I’d like to share my personal views, focused on the domestic issues such as the economy and the government. I believe the focus of […]
XINHUA, GLOBAL TIMES, PEOPLE’S DAILY (China) BBC (UK) LA STAMPA (Italy) Worldcrunch BEIJING – Barack Obama’s hard-fought reelection coincides with the once-in-a-decade handover of power in China, as the Communist Party Congress opens this week in the capital. But all this superpower politics has produced comparably little mainstream Chinese coverage — either of Tuesday’s noisy […]
SINA NEWS, E-TODAY (China) Worldcrunch BEIJING – A Chinese man recently divorced and sued his wife for giving him an ugly daughter. Not only did he win the case, his ex-wife was sentenced to pay him 750,000 Yuan ($120,000) in compensation, reported Sina News. According to the report, Feng Jian, the indignant husband, was shocked […]
BEIJING – At the final debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, which was focused on foreign policy, the subject of the rise of China was clearly on the agenda. But when the moderator posed the question: “What do you believe is the greatest future threat to the national security of this country?” Obama cited […]
XINHUA, ARROW OF CUPID (China), Worldcrunch BEIJING – China is not only the world’s most populous country, but also has a seriously packed “singles scene” of 180 million men and women eager to find their other half. Recently, a popular TV series called Time To Be Married, depicting Chinese bachelors in their 30s in a […]
CHINA TIMES (Taiwan), STOCK MARKET TREND WEEKLY (China), CNBC (USA) Worldcrunch BEIJING – The ranking of the world’s richest man has stayed relatively stable. There have been only three individuals who made it there in the past ten years – Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim. Over the same period […]
BEIJING – While many other luxury brands are facing a sharp decline in their sales in China, the American brand Coach is busy writing a different story. As a relatively more accessible luxury brand, its prices have always been 50-75% lower than the top luxury brands. Now for the first half of this year, it […]