Maybe that title will overload the PRC censors…     Here’s what the Beijing leaders are thinking about (thanks to Daai Tou Laam): In a regular briefing in Beijing yesterday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the two… Continue reading

    The PRC government is trying to suppress information about the Dongzhou incident.   They are blocking websites (not to worry: this blog is already blocked in China, I believe).  They are not allowing reports in the domestic media about… Continue reading

    This just in from the People’s Daily: Top Chinese leaders including Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin have made donations to natural disaster victims and poverty-stricken people of the country, to help them spend the winter in warmth, sources… Continue reading

            For all of the stories about rapacious capitalism breaking out all over China (not to mention the US and elsewhere…), it was heartening to read to following caption for the picture above in today’s China Daily:… Continue reading

   Over the weekend Taiwan held municipal elections.  The opposition party, the KMT, which holds a slight edge in the national parliament, beat out the DPP, the party that controls the Presidency and the executive branch.  Some commentary is suggesting… Continue reading

                       There was a very large march/demonstration in Hong Kong yesterday, calling for political reforms that would allow for more direct elections of the city’s political leadership (at present there is… Continue reading

    The Singaporean government  says that it will allow convicted  drug runner Nguyen Tuong Van’s mother and brother to hold his hand before his death sentence, by hanging, is carried out today (I will not link to the Straits… Continue reading

    Simon sent me this link and asked for my comment.  In today’s Asia Times, Andrei Lankov asks if there is any realistic possibility for countries of East Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam), which share a tenuous connection… Continue reading

    My car crash (you’ll be happy to know that Maggie’s eye is getting better) shifted my attention away from this piece a couple of days ago.  It seems that a noticeable (by sociologists, at least) number of career… Continue reading

    I have not been keeping up with Singaporean politics of late (I had quite a run in with the ruling party, aptly named the PAP, some years ago) but this news story has caught my eye: a first-time… Continue reading