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The only uncensored Chinese-language TV network broadcasting in China says its satellite company has shut down its signal because of pressure from the Chinese government. The satellite company, Paris-based Eutelsat, says the signal to China was cut because of a technical problem. But New Tang Dynasty Television, an independent station with offices in 70 U.S. cities, including Palo Alto, says Eutelsat cut its signal at the request of government officials in China. NTDTV covers a number of human rights issues, including the Falun Gong spiritual movement, repression in Tibet and China's underground Christian movement. In China, news is controlled by...

Did China's state news agency forge a photo? China media photojournalism A Chinese blogger has exposed the official news agency Xinhua for what appears to be a forged image. He noticed that two of the people present in the photo look remarkably similar. The photo was taken during a visit from President Hu Jintao to the official Olympics site in Qingdao, where the watersports contests will take place. The site has been under the spotlight since it was overrun by a dangerous and polluting algae not long before the opening of the games. Hu Jintao came to the site to...

As the mainstream media is dominated by its attention to the preparations for Beijing Olympics being held August 8-24 this year, an obvious truth is being ignored or going unaddressed. The more important story is that China is on a mission to dominate the United States and the rest of the world militarily by building nuclear weaponry meant to defeat the United States on the world stage. The actual Olympics pale in comparison to this upcoming event. And while our people continue to be distracted by a variety of “shiny things” meant to divert their attention, the Chinese continue their...

While Mao’s body has been amazingly preserved since his death in 1976, it seems that his spirit has not survived the test of time. He may lie in eternal peace inside his Mausoleum but the world around him has changed considerably; China is no longer the gray and drab country that it was during Mao’s time. It is now a place where people can dream and then go out and make that dream come true. It is not like the old days. People other than just high government officials can drive cars. Chinese people can do business and store up...

Falun Gong Protests China Policy by: Rachel Paulk, July 24, 2008 Falun Gong practitioners met on Friday, July 18th, near the Washington Monument to protest Communist China’s treatment of the peaceful religious sect. Holding signs with statements such as “If you don’t believe what the Communists say about Tibet, why would you believe what they say about Falun Gong?” and “Support 40 Million People Resigning from Chinese Communist Party,” over two thousand people met to raise awareness of the group’s persecution by the Chinese Communists. Officially outlawed July 20th, 1999, the Falun Gong practitioners have weathered a brutal crackdown in...

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- It's official. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads.

The renowed French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine has shot three videos related to the Beijing Olympics. In the first video, a Tibetan lama sits on the track and a bunch of police officers and "goons in blue/white track suits" rush over to remove thim. In the second video, an European diver loses his concentration when he spots a human rights protestor removed by the police. In the third video, the backs of French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife are shown when a protestor waving a Free Tibet is shot right in front and blood is splattered on the arm...

As a volunteer of the 29th Olympic Game that will be held in Beijing soon,I gave up my summer holiday and have been working in the Olympic village since 20th this month.Every day,we work really hard to prepare well for the coming of the big event,and I'm wondering if anyone here will come to Beijing.

BEIJING: Deliberate explosions on three Chinese buses killed at least three people and injured 14 in the southwestern city of Kunming on Monday, media said, amid a security clampdown ahead of next month's Beijing Olympics. The official Xinhua news agency blamed the blasts on "sabotage" and said police had started roadside checks in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, to try to find the person or persons responsible. It did not elaborate. The attack happened less than three weeks before the Beijing Games which China has warned could be a target of terror attacks. An explosion on one bus happened...

Thousands of people who suffered severe allergic reactions after sitting on their sofas were victims of a toxic gas emitted by an anti-mould agent, a study has concluded. Hospitals across northern Europe have treated thousands of patients with symptoms which appeared to range from skin cancer and chemical burns to severe eczema. The British cases have been linked to an estimated 100,000 sofas sold by Argos, World of Leather and Walmsley Furnishing manufactured in China by a company called Linkwise. A study in Sweden has concluded that the skin conditions were a reaction to the gas created during the sublimation...

BEIJING - Three separate bus explosions killed at least three people and injured 14 in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming on Monday, media said, amid a security clampdown ahead of next month's Beijing Olympics. The causes were not immediately clear, but the blasts came within a matter of hours of each other in the capital of Yunnan province and less than three weeks before the Beijing Games, which China has warned could be a target of terrorist attacks. An explosion on one bus happened at the Panjiawan stop at 7.10 a.m. and the second blast was nearby, the official...

HONG KONG - CHINA has warned Exxon Mobil Corp to pull out of an exploration deal with Vietnam, describing the project as a breach of Chinese sovereignty, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources. The article, which cited 'sources close to the US firm", said Chinese diplomats in Washington had made repeated verbal protests to Exxon Mobil executives in recent months, and warned them its future business interests on the mainland could be at risk. The protests involve a preliminary co-operation agreement between state oil firm PetroVietnam and Exxon Mobil covering exploration in the South China...

Threat of ‘no-fun’ Olympics By Mure Dickie, Geoff Dyer and Jamil Anderlini Published: July 18 2008 20:47 | Last updated: July 18 2008 20:47 Just three weeks before the Beijing Olympics, concerns are growing that China’s sweeping security measures could end up sucking all the fun out of the world’s biggest sportsfest. Pre-Olympic jitters are almost a tradition but a Chinese visa crackdown that has sent visitor numbers plunging, heightened security checks, dire warnings of terrorist attack and curbs on Beijing nightlife have led to some observers dubbing the 2008 Olympics the “no-fun Games”. Michael Payne, the International Olympic Committee’s...

On June 5, 1873, in a letter to The Times, Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin and a distinguished African explorer in his own right, outlined a daring (if by today's standards utterly offensive) new method to 'tame' and colonise what was then known as the Dark Continent. 'My proposal is to make the encouragement of Chinese settlements of Africa a part of our national policy, in the belief that the Chinese immigrants would not only maintain their position, but that they would multiply and their descendants supplant the inferior Negro race,' wrote Galton. 'I should expect that...

Though this story was written nearly 2 years ago, Bishop Su's whereabouts are still unknown. The search continues. Perhaps you or someone you knows, can help solve this mystery. Searching for Bishop Su: Persecuted Chinese bishop gone but not forgottenTheresa Marie Moreau  (TMMoreau@yahoo.com)From the back seat of the gypsy cab, Ming-Chuan “Joseph” Kung watched Beijing blur by. Everything had been pre-arranged. Everything. As the hired driver steered through the streets of the capital city of the People’s Republic of China, the seven passengers – a small delegation of Americans in town for a human rights conference – rode mostly in...

Tibet is in the news. Chinese troops in Lhasa are violently suppressing demonstrations that commemorate the rising 49 years ago which forced the Dalai Lama into exile. Meanwhile, on the country's northern edge, six months of snow and record low temperatures have created a catastrophe in the Chinese province of Chingai. According to China's official news agency, 500,000 animals have died and three million people face starvation. When a similar if much smaller crisis 10 years ago hit Ladakh, in northern Kashmir, thousands of lives were saved by the expert intervention of a British charity, ApTibet, working with the Dalai...

Chinese impose blackout over new Tibetan monk deaths Jane Macartney in Beijing Two monks at a monastery in western China were killed in a clash with paramilitary police last weekend, three Tibetan sources have told The Times. The monks, at a monastery in western Sichuan province, which borders Tibet, were killed in a clash on July 12. For monks of what are popularly known as the “red hat” sects, the date marks one of the most auspicious festivals of the year. It is the first report of the lethal use of gunfire against Tibetan protesters demanding the return of the...

Justus Nduwugwe Abuja China's drive into Africa's financial services sector has taken a fresh turn, with China Development Bank entering a partnership with United Bank for Africa, one of Nigeria 's biggest banks. The deal, sealed last month is expected to expand the Chinese bank's ability to finance infrastructural projects in Africa . News of the agreement follows last week's announcement that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, another state bank, was buying a 20 per cent stake in South Africa 's Standard Bank for $5.56 billion. CDB has not bought equity in UBA, which is listed on the Nigerian...

Beijing 2008: China invites Sonia, not PM or Prez 14 Jul 2008, 0006 hrs IST,TNN NEW DELHI: Eighty heads of state and government will grace the Beijing Olympics in August but PM Manmohan Singh will not be among them. Not because he is too busy, but because he was not invited. In fact, neither India's head of state nor government have been invited, with the invitation going to its most important politician, Sonia Gandhi. The Congress chief is unlikely to attend, leaving that job to sports minister M S Gill. But even if you are really charitable, it can't be...

The BBC has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudan's government militarily in Darfur. The Panorama TV programme tracked down Chinese army lorries in the Sudanese province that came from a batch exported from China to Sudan in 2005. The BBC was also told that China was training fighter pilots who fly Chinese A5 Fantan fighter jets in Darfur.

In the end, the Chinese government does not really care about the escalating violence in Sudan. As long as its investments and workers in Sudan are protected, it views the human rights issues as an internal Sudanese matter. In fact, the CCP is most likely sympathetic to the Sudanese government; after all, China has also been a victim lately of what the CCP would consider to be international ‘meddling’ in the case of Tibet. The CCP’s failure to promote positive change in Sudan is simply a manifestation of its own failures in China. Until China can improve the human rights...

Cross over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, head north for half an hour, and you'll reach Mount Tamalpais State Park, home to redwood groves and, a little ways up, panoramic views of the bay. As it turns out, though, the park is also home to large amounts of pollution from Asia--dust, sulfur, trace metals--blowing in from across the Pacific. "We call it the persistent Asian plume," says Steven Cliff, an atmospheric scientist currently working with the California Air Resources Board. On some days, one-third of the state's background air pollution can be traced to Asia, and researchers are now looking...

"President Bush on Sunday defended his decision to attend next month's Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, saying that to boycott "would be an affront to the Chinese people."" "Speaking to reporters ahead of this week's summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Japan, Bush said he did not need to skip the ceremony to show his position on religious freedom and human rights in China. "

Sarkozy not welcome at Olympics, say China media Thu Jul 3, 2008 6:35am EDT By Chris Buckley BEIJING (Reuters) - China made a barely veiled swipe at French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday and state media warned he can expect a cold public shoulder if he attends the Beijing Olympics after he threatened not to go over Tibet. Sarkozy has said he will decide next week whether to attend the opening of the Games in August, with his choice depending on how talks go between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys. China often lashes out at foreign leaders for meeting...

It is interesting to see the world’s worst human rights abuser call for a wall to stop people fleeing from their human rights abuse. "Tibetans fleeing from China come to Nepal on way to India through this open border," officials in Beijing were quoted as saying by ''Nepal'' weekly. They want Nepal to stop the common people flee Tibet and take refuge under Dalai Lama in India. But how about treating Tibetans like human beings? How about stopping illegal occupation of Tibet? How about allowing Tibetans worship their God and choose their leaders? The Chinese occupation of Tibet must come...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - A US human rights activist on Tuesday warned China that it risked rebel attacks against its oil interests in Sudan unless it put pressure on its ally Khartoum to end the violence in Darfur and south Sudan. ADVERTISEMENT John Prendergast told reporters that Beijing, a veto-wielding council member which has close energy ties with Khartoum, has a "disproportionate responsibility" in helping find a settlement to the conflicts in Darfur and south Sudan. "They (the Chinese) must fulfil that or else we are going to see Sudan burn and one of the first things that is going...

More Tibetan Protests 2008-06-12 Five Tibetans are arrested for protesting in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, amid sporadic demonstrations against Chinese rule. RFA HONG KONG—Small groups of Tibetans in the southwestern province of Sichuan have staged more protests against Chinese rule despite a major security clampdown after protests and rioting by anti-Chinese protesters this year. "There were about four or five protesters [Wednesday]," a resident of Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in western Sichuan said. "They are at the intersection of two roads downtown. There were no such protests during the past few days, but there are...

China said discouraging tourist travel to France By HENRY SANDERSON – 11 hours ago BEIJING (AP) — France seems to be falling off the itinerary of Chinese tourists, in a display of China's pique at French support for protesting Tibetans and angry demonstrations against the Olympic torch on the streets of Paris. Some Chinese travel agents have stopped selling tours to France in recent weeks, in some cases removing offerings from their Web sites. Others said demand for such trips had plummeted by 20 percent or more. "Our business as a whole is now 33 percent lower than that of...

WASHINGTON - Multiple congressional computers have been hacked by people working from inside China, lawmakers said Wednesday, suggesting the Chinese were seeking lists of dissidents. Two congressmen, both longtime critics of Beijing's record on human rights, said the compromised computers contained information about political dissidents from around the world. One of the lawmakers said he'd been discouraged from disclosing the computer attacks by other U.S. officials.

A new report released on Sunday, exactly two months ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, details the current Chinese Government’s crackdown on unregistered Christians, including the funding of a campaign to eradicate house churches throughout China. The report, entitled “China: Persecution of Protestant Christians in the Approach to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games”, by Christian Solidarity Worldwide and China Aid Association, provides information on different tactics used by the government to restrict the religious freedom of Christians. CAA said that in May, two independent sources reported that the Chinese Central Government was providing funding to the Ministry of Public Security...

The bodies of dead civilians lie among mangled bicycles near Beijing's Tiananmen Square early June 4, 1989. Tanks and soldiers stormed the area overnight, bringing a violent end to student demonstrations for democratic reform in China. (AP Photo)

Sharon Stone is not welcome at this year's Shanghai International Film Festival, organisers said Wednesday, as anger continued to boil over her suggestion that China's earthquake was karmic payback for its handling of Tibet. Stone attended last year's edition of the festival to promote anti-ageing creams for Christian Dior, but the company removed all ads in China featuring the actress after she made the remarks at the Cannes Film Festival last month. The 50-year-old actress was not scheduled to attend the nine-day festival, which begins on June 14, but organisers made it clear on Wednesday that they do not want...

Tiananmen security tight for China massacre anniversary Tue Jun 3, 3:45 AM ET Security was tight in Beijing's central Tiananmen Square on Tuesday ahead of the 19th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests that left hundreds, possibly thousands, dead. Police vans were circling on and around the square, the focus of major bloodshed nearly a generation ago, as tourists were arriving in numbers on a grey, rainy day. The Tiananmen Massacre is a taboo subject in China and the country's state-controlled media was silent on the sensitive anniversary taking place just 66 days ahead of the Beijing Olympics....

Where Is the Dignity of the United States? Events in Flushing show Uncle Sam in a compromising position By Stephen Gregory Epoch Times Staff Jun 03, 2008 For over two weeks now, organized mobs have harassed Falun Gong practitioners in Flushing, New York. For over one week, we have known that those mobs have been incited by the Chinese Consul General for New York, Mr. Peng Keyu, yet Peng has not been expelled. The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) released a tape on May 23 of Peng talking with one of its investigators. In...

Now, as China prepares to showcase its economic advances during the upcoming Olympics in Beijing, Shenzhen is once again serving as a laboratory, a testing ground for the next phase of this vast social experiment. Over the past two years, some 200,000 surveillance cameras have been installed throughout the city. Many are in public spaces, disguised as lampposts. The closed-circuit TV cameras will soon be connected to a single, nationwide network, an all-seeing system that will be capable of tracking and identifying anyone who comes within its range — a project driven in part by U.S. technology and investment. Over...

Devastating China earthquake, Communist Chinese government Add even the earthquake news among China’s tainted products   By Judi McLeod     Wednesday, May 28, 2008 From before it even happened, the coming news of the devastating China earthquake was being managed by the Communist Chinese government. In fact, the cadres of the Earthquake Bureau of Communist China held a major conference in Hangzhou on April 28, 2008—two weeks before the Sichuan earthquake. Suppressing news of earthquakes from the outside world was number one on the Conference agenda.  The title of the conference was “Training Course for Keeping Earthquake Information...

I rarely write a column that receives more criticism from my conservative readers than from my liberal ones. And it is even rarer when the column in question approaches a topic from what is supposed to be a “conservative” perspective, as it usually does. Yet this is precisely what happened recently when I wrote a column titled “Memo to the Democrats: We Need Free Trade with China.” It targeted the leading anti-trade voices in the Democratic Party, particularly Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and continued by explaining why free trade with China does indeed benefit the United States, at least...

Christian Dior, the French fashion brand, has become the latest global company to learn a hard lesson about the danger of offending Chinese sensitivities. Facing the possibility of a boycott of its products, the luxury company said Thursday that it had dropped the American actress Sharon Stone from its advertising in China after she suggested last week that the recent earthquakes in Sichuan Province were karmic retribution for Beijing’s treatment of Tibet.

Over the weekend, the London Times gave us a foolish headline for a foolish story. The trumpeting headline read, "A seismic shift in China's relations with West?" This would be momentous news if true of course. But this supposed "seismic shift" was made up of whole cloth, not of any proof of actions by China otherwise. Instead of a story citing a series of decisions given a suitable amount of time to prove that China really has made some sort of shift in relations, it's all built on an ego stroke the Chinese gave western reporters. This "seismic shift" only...

(BEICHUAN, China) - Rows of body bags were laid out along streets for all to see. Sobbing parents furious about shoddily built schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children were able to speak freely. Military helicopters carried reporters to tour the disaster zone. The earthquake that flattened a wide swath of central Sichuan province May 12 has been a historic event for journalism in China. Never before have the nation's leaders allowed foreign reporters so much freedom to cover a major disaster. Chinese leaders haven't fully explained the new openness, and periods of thaw can be brief here. Only...

It was back to 'business as usual' for the Chinese government on Saturday when it condemned Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown and members of the British Parliament for meeting with the Dalai Lama. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing was quoted as saying that the meeting in Britain "interferes in China's internal affairs and hurts the Chinese people's feelings as well." Britain is just one country in a list of countries that China has criticized for meeting with the Dalai Lama.

"All Things Considered" hosts Robert Siegel and Melissa Block are in Sichuan Province covering the massive earthquake. They continue to report on the aftermath and recovery efforts. The hosts were in Chengdu with producers Andrea Hsu and Art Silverman when the quake struck. They were preparing for a special week of China coverage that had been planned for next week. Follow this blog for regular updates. ----From http://www.npr.org/blogs/chengdu/

International Games For China Lee Sands 05.21.08, 6:00 PM ET So far, 2008 has not been a good year for China.It was to have been the year of the Beijing Olympic Games celebrating China's emergence as a mature global player and the prowess of its gold medal-winning athletes. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A massive, crippling snowstorm in February stranded many of the 178 million migrants on their way home for the Spring Festival holidays, riots broke out in Tibet and China's reaction ... disrupted the Torch Relay. Finally on May 14, a massive earthquake in China's Sichuan province...

So why else might the CCP be more willing this time to share information with its citizens and the world? One word says it all. Tibet. Does anyone remember Tibet? It is a province in South Western China that up until last Monday was basking in the world spotlight as Tibetans and their supporters attempted to portray what they view as ‘cultural genocide’ and ‘religious opression.’ No one that I know of is suggesting that the Chinese government somehow artifically created the earthquake to take the world’s attention off Tibet and human rights or that they are happy with event....

I do not know if this article suit to be posted here, but I just want to speak something. Today when I went to NYT and an review attracted my attention, title "fed up with peace" (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/opinion/18kristof.html). This article frightens me. There it covered a monk who claimed that he( Dalai Lama) has been too peaceful over the China, and they should take some actions more violent, especially when he is gone. It depicts that this impatience seems widespread among young Tibetans , and remarks that the Dalai Lama should return Tibet as a spiritual leader and own more rights....

Japanese officials have said that the Tokyo’s zoo has been flooded with calls to refuse a pair of pandas offered by Chinese President Hu Jintao, fearing that the money from the lease would fund Beijing's clampdown in Tibet. "We have received many calls from ordinary citizens who sometimes hysterically condemn" the proposal, said Hidemasa Hori, an Ueno Zoo official. "There are others who call and say that Japan doesn't need to bow its head and pay money just to rent the pandas," he added. Many callers cited China's crackdown on protests in Tibet, saying that the issue "is not really...

Nepalese police have arrested some 560 Tibetan women, including many Buddhist nuns, after breaking up demonstrations against China's crackdown in Tibet. In the first example of all-women protests, three rallies in Kathmandu were quickly stopped by police. It was the biggest round-up since Tibetan exiles began near daily demonstrations in March. Protestors wearing black armbands wept and shouted "We want free Tibet" as they were dragged to police vans. Police said those detained were being held in detention centres around the capital, and would be freed later.

BEIJING - A Chinese mountaineering team took the Olympic flame to the top of the world Thursday, a spectacular feat dreamed up to underscore China’s ambitions for the Beijing games. The climbers could be heard struggling for breath in a live television broadcast as five torchbearers each shuffled a few feet before passing on the flame to the next person. A colorful Tibetan prayer flag lined the path and fluttered in the wind. The final torchbearer, a Tibetan woman named Cering Wangmo, stood silently on the peak with her torch while other team members unfurled small Chinese and Olympic flags....

Demonised in the West as goons guarding the Olympic torch along its chaotic world tour, these pictures show how China's paramilitary police learn their unwavering discipline. Officers of the People Paramilitary Police preparing for the Olympics are drilled on the parade ground with pins in their collars and crosses on their backs to ensure perfect posture. But instead of the blue tracksuits members wore while escorting the flame, they are kitted out in full dress uniform during the exercise at their base in Shenyang, Liaoning province.

But what's worse this time is that Gore's blundering attempts to blame global warming for Burma's agony distracts attention from the real causes of this catastrophe - despicable causes we may at least hope to do something about. If Cyclone Nargis had struck not Rangoon, but Melbourne or Tokyo, it is unlikely more than a few dozen people, if that, would have died. And that's because we are free, and rich - as free people tend to be with capitalism. Even Bangkok would have survived this far, far easier. But in Burma as many as 100,000 are now feared dead...