The super-power in numbers: 540 million: Number of mobile phone users in China, with an increase of 44 million in the past six months. 30: The number of different animal penises on the menu at Guolizhuang, Beijing’s ”˜penis emporium’. A yak’s costs about …£15, while a tiger’s (which must be pre-ordered) will set you back…
Showing all posts tagged China
Cover thine eyes
How things have changed in China. The following article was written by the Daily Telegraph correspondent in Beijing in 1982: An official Chinese newspaper yesterday published a letter from an irate railway worker complaining that too many advertisements featured attractive women with outstanding figures. Such “titillating illustrations” were very unsuitable, the worker said. He went…
Just what can a multinational do?
First Google willingly signs up to assist the Chinese regime to censor the internet. Now, it’s possibly breached national security: China is to investigate Google and other websites for allegedly breaching state secrecy laws and showing “illegal” maps of the country. According to Min Yiren, vice head of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping,…
Reflections on China
My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: There are small signs that Chinese nationalism is being tempered by more thoughtful analysis of the motherland, writes Antony Loewenstein. The Olympic torch relay has arrived in China. Unsurprisingly, the route in North Korea was protest-free. Away from the…
Not too welcoming
Jin Jung-kwon, lecturer in German studies at Chung-Ang University in Seoul: “China seems to have no intention of making the Olympics a festival that people around the world can enjoy together.”
Not getting into the Olympic spirit
I’m working on Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about China and its human rights abuses in the year of the Beijing Olympic Games. Now, Amnesty in the UK has launched the first of a series of videos highlighting the Communist regime’s use of torture:
Let the news run free
A new global study by WorldPublicOpinion.org proves that a majority of people support the concept of press freedom and object to government interference with the internet: A new poll of nations around the world finds worldwide support for the principle of media freedom and broad opposition to government having the right to limit access to…
Human rights, boycotts and nationalism
My following article appears in the Amnesty International Australia’s Uncensor campaign about human rights in China: With only 100 days until the Beijing Games, human rights activists are continuing to pressure the Chinese regime and authorities may be starting to feel the pressure, writes Antony Loewenstein. After months of criticism of its human rights record,…