By David Goodman [New York Times] - The new president of China’s largest television network, the state-run organization known CCTV, drew fire over the weekend from Chinese press advocates and others online over comments urging journalists to drop their pretensions of professionalism and submit to being mouthpieces of the government.
Loretta Chao and Yoli Zhang [China Real Time Report] - The Chinese government is stepping up efforts to get Internet users to say no to rumors. A state-media anti-Internet rumor blitz appears to be the latest development in Beijing’s campaign against harmful information on the Internet, with the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily and the state-run Xinhua news agency running multiple pieces that draw colorful parallels between rumors and drugs.
By Tom Wright [India Real Time] - China was already irked by the Dalai Lama’s attendance at an international Buddhist conference in Delhi this week and called off a visit of a senior Chinese foreign ministry official to make that clear. What transpired at the conference is likely to add to Beijing’s annoyance.
By Thomas Glucksmann-Smith [China Beat] - On October 15-18th 2011 during the latest Plenary Session of the 17th CPC Central Committee, China’s leaders discussed ways to make China a ‘culturally strong nation’ (文化强国) and defined strategies to enhance China’s international soft power. This meeting coincided with tax evasion charges laid against China’s world renowned artist Ai Weiwei—charges he now plans to challenge.
By Dhondup Gyalpo [Asia Times] - No lie is too big or small for the paid posters of Chinese propaganda, especially when it comes to attacking His Holiness the Dalai Lama and discrediting the peaceful nature of Tibetan freedom movement. This is perhaps the only logical explanation for the Op-Ed piece published by China Daily on 25 November, which claimed that, following the recent spate of self-immolation in Tibet and outside, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people in exile have responded by ''publishing on-the-scene photos and a list of cash compensation available in the event of a death or injury through self-immolation.'' [1] The article does not find it necessary to offer even a modicum of evidence or facts to substantiate those serious allegations.
By 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje [Conservation Biology] - I was born into a Drokpa (Tibetan nomad) family and spent the first years of my life in the wild eastern part of Tibet. We traveled with our animals from summer to winter grounds, setting up our yak-hair tents at each site. It was a simple existence and my daily joy consisted of exploring the nearby mountains with my pet goat. If I was lucky, I would see wild animals such as nawa (Tibetan argali, Ovis ammon hodgsoni) and shaba (white-lipped deer, Przewalskium albirostris) at close range. Sometimes, I would watch herds of kiang (Tibetan wild ass, Equus kiang) running across the grasslands.
By Ben Carrdus [ICT Blog] - Considerable evidence exists that the Chinese authorities, rather than attempting to garner any true understanding of the mounting disquiet and disaffection in Tibet’s monasteries as so tragically evidenced by the self-immolations from Kirti Monastery, are instead continuing to dictate oppressive policy with no effort to consult or liaise with the monks and nuns most affected.
By Qiulin 邱林 [China Hush] - As millions of Chinese netizens mourned over Steve Jobs’ death, they also raised a question – why couldn’t China produce its own “Steve Jobs”? Former vice-president of Google global and president of Google China Kai-fu Lee explained on his weibo that it was because Chinese education puts too much emphasis on reciting and memorizing stuff instead of fostering critical thinking.
Bhuchung K. Tsering [ICT Blog] - I enjoy reading the articles by the Chinese “writer” who is having to comment on Tibet related issues under the fictitious name of Hua Zi. She seems to have some understanding of the Tibetan society and may indeed know more than she is willing to put in print.
By Woeser [High Peaks Pure Earth] - Heading eastwards from Yushu, we arrived in Sershül. This means that we had crossed the Qinghai border into Sichuan. Of course, this is according to today’s administrative subdivisions. Sershül’s name derives from the local Gelugpa Monastery: Sershül Gön (Sershül Monastery).
By Yan Xuetong [New York Times Od-Ed] - With China’s growing influence over the global economy, and its increasing ability to project military power, competition between the United States and China is inevitable. Leaders of both countries assert optimistically that the competition can be managed without clashes that threaten the global order.
By Bhuchung D. Sonam [Burning Tibet] - “Oh! You are still here,” said a monk, who I knew from my school days. “So good to see old Dharamshala faces who are still around.” He has come back for a short visit from the US, after twenty years. He fished out a five hundred-rupee note from his wallet, slipped it into my pocket and said, “Thi’i solja choe rog nang.” [have tea with this]. This made realize that I am now a pukka-Dharamshala-wallah or the ‘real Dharamsala resident’. Even the garbage can knows me, I fear.
By Murong Xuecun [China Blues] - I am a Chinese writer. Allow me to say a few words about my country. Everyone knows that in the past thirty years China has built countless skyscrapers, commissioned countless airports, and paved countless freeways. My country’s GDP is the world’s second largest and her products are sold in every corner of the planet. My compatriots can be seen on tour in London, New York and Tokyo wearing expensive clothes, chattering raucously. My compatriots also fill up casinos and line up to buy LV bags. People exclaim in amazement: China is rising, the Chinese are rich! But behind this facade of power and prosperity there are details of which many people are unaware, and it is precisely these details that make my country a very strange place.
By David Miller [Huffington Post] - It was a bright, sunny day as Chinese President Hu Jintao woke up for his first full day at the APEC summit in Hawaii last Friday. Everything seemed just perfect. Maybe it was the fresh, clean air coming off the Pacific. Maybe it was the tropical water, the sun, the aloha spirit of the Hawaiian people. Or, maybe it was the op-ed in theNew York Times, calmly proposing that the U.S. sell out Taiwan in return for China writing off America's $1.14 trillion debt.
By Peter Foster [Telegraph] - Even after nearly three years reporting in China, there is still something amazing about the fact that a man can set himself on fire in Tiananmen Square, in broad daylight, and then no one hears or says a word about it.
