What is most amazing about the recent crackdown taking place in Beijing, China’s capital, is not the fact that the Chinese government is trying to make sure that foreign journalists will not talk to any disgruntled Chinese. No, what’s most surprising about the crackdown is that journalists and others actually seem to be surprised by the crackdowns. (more…)

Just days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Bejing, a small group of the city’s residents protested against their forced eviction from their homes. The Chinese government quickly broke up the protest, afraid that allowing it will result in even more negative attention. (more…)

The International Olympic Committee has responded to allegations that it has cut a deal with the Chinese government to censor the Internet during the Olympic Games in Bejing (which are about to start). According to the IOC’s chairman Jacques Rogge, no such deal has been agreed upon. (more…)

China continues to demonstrate why they have not earned the right to host the Olympic Games.

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‘Among the many challenges facing the United States in an election year is the issue of arms sales to Taiwan. Before he leaves office, President Bush must decide whether or not to approve various major sales to the island, including 60 additional F-16s, Patriot PAC III missiles and Apache and Blackhawk helicopters. At present, the Department of State and the National Security Council are holding up these sales. This is an issue which deserves President Bush’s immediate attention,’ Ed Ross writes for the Wall Street Journal. (more…)

The Chinese have a novel way of ensuring that their soldiers are picture perfect all the time:

Ouch.

Disclaimer: Item vía the Daily Mail.

An especially virulent form of hand foot and mouth disease has already killed some 24 children in China, WHO (World Health Organization) reports. Other Asian countries are also affected. More cases are expected to come up due to summer temperatures, though the representative of WHO in China doesn’t expect it to be an issue for the upcoming Olympic games, as the disease mostly affects very young children.

So I think maybe you’ll want to skip taking little Jimmy to see the games this summer.

This is why I believe that conservative women are often great national leaders. There is, of course, M. Thatcher, and now we have, in Europe, Angela Merkel. She is Germany’s Chancellor and not quite willing to give in to pressure from China: shortly after China tried to convince her not to meet with the Dalai Lama for the foreseeable future, she has said that she will most certainly meet with the Tibetan leader again. (more…)

Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General for the United Nations, has said he will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also said he will not attend.

Paging President Bush….

‘Athletes who display Tibetan flags at Olympic venues — including in their own rooms — could be expelled from this summer’s Games in Beijing under anti-propaganda rules,’ the Times (of London) reports. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) hilariously said that ‘competitors were free to express their political views but faced sanctions if they indulged in propaganda.’ (more…)

The Times (of London) has an exclusive report up: ” Chinese paramilitary police killed eight people and wounded dozens more when they fired on a protest by several hundred Tibetan monks and villagers, The Times has been told.” (more…)

The New York Times reports about a protest that disrupted an Olympic Ceremony last Sunday (when Greek officials handed over the Olympic flame to organizers of the Beijing Summer Games), but it seems to me that this is what they should have expected. China has one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and the communists have tried to completely destroy Tibetan culture. This is the opportunity for Tibetans to force the world to pay attention to its plight. (more…)

Those pesky Tibetans just won’t let poor old China alone, using an Olympic ceremony to remind the world that not all is well, no matter what China attempts to claim.

Protestor interrups speaker during ceremony. He was quickly hauled away.

The Chinese police say that this woman was painted in red as a sign of protest. I dunno, it seems kinda real to me.

That’s what Tibetans must have thought when they started protesting this March 14th. It seems that during the critical first day of the protests, Chinese riot police were nowhere to be found. They fled the scene “after an initial skirmish,” this even though some Chinese shopkeepers “begged for protection.” (more…)

“Buddhist nuns waved American flags and the Dalai Lama ordered his followers to offer a standing ovation Friday morning as Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, came to Dharamsala, the emotionally charged headquarters of Tibetan exiles, and seized the opportunity to stick a finger in the eye of China,” the NYT reports. (more…)

This is the kind of thing athletes need to do this summer, when they’re in Bejing for the Olympics: “German pole vaulter Anna Battke plans to protest China’s intervention in Tibet at the Beijing Olympics. Although Olympic regulations prohibit political statements, Battke wants athletes to dress up as Tibetan monks and Chinese officials and symbolically shake hands.” (more…)

Tibet’s true leader, the Dalai Lama, has said that he’s not going to tell his followers inside Tibet to surrender to the Chinese. This even though he fears that their protests may lead to “an imminent blood bath.” He fears this, but he also believes there’s nothing he can do to prevent it from happening. (more…)

Yesterday, the Tibetan people protested against the authoritarian and inhumane rule (read: oppression) put on them by China. Buddhist monks and others protested in Lhasa; the Chinese government decided to oppress the protests quickly and violently. All in all, ten people died. (more…)

Via Rick Moran comes the news that the Chinese government has found an easy, and quick, way to get rid of the population of cats (without a home): they’re simply killing them all. The reason: Bejing has to look clean and orderly for the Olympic Games this summer. (more…)

One of the beautiful things about the Olympic Games is, in my opinion, that it’s not just about sports. It’s about more than winning or losing. It’s about humanity. It’s about what it is to be a human being, and to share this planet with billions of other people. It’s about being the best you can be, while respecting the other. Or not? (more…)

Via The Hindu comes the following document: “A Shared Vision for the 21st Century of the Republic of India and the People’s Republic of China.” (more…)

Taiwan’s March 2008 referendum will evidently take place without much support from the United States.  Per the BBC:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Washington is strongly opposed to Taiwan’s plan for a referendum on United Nations membership.

Ms Rice said applying to the UN in the name of “Taiwan” was a “provocative policy” - it raised tensions in the Taiwan Strait “unnecessarily”.

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OK, this happened earlier this week, but in the spirit of my earlier post on this matter, I believe we should keep telling the world that the Dalai Lama is a welcome visitor. True to form, Beijing reacted with its usual bromides, ranging from ‘gross interference in China’s internal affairs’ to ‘disgusting behavior’. The latter of course would more aptly describe the act of shooting at refugees.