“BEIJING — Some 200 senior Communist Party officials gathered behind closed doors in January to take up a momentous political decision: whether to abolish presidential term limits and enable Xi Jinping to lead China for a generation. In a two-day session in Beijing, they bowed to Mr. Xi’s wish to hold onto power indefinitely. But a bland communiqué issued …
“With all the focus on Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the damage done by China’s vigorous and continuing espionage against the United States has taken a back seat. The preoccupation with Russia, in fact, has obscured the significant inroads made by Chinese intelligence and cyberspies. In some cases, China has proved more skillful than …
America’s Other Espionage Challenge: China – The New York Times Read More »
“BRUSSELS — A year ago, the self-styled global elite gathered at Davos, shaken by the election of Donald J. Trump, who made no secret of his contempt for the multilateral alliances and trade that underpin the European Union. Then up stepped the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, promising that if America would no longer champion the …
Europe Once Saw Xi Jinping as a Hedge Against Trump. Not Anymore. – The New York Times Read More »
“Supporters of the Chicago Stock Exchange proposal said it could help bring more Chinese companies to United States financial markets. And it would also have helped revive a marketplace where activity was dwindling. The Chicago Stock Exchange handles only a small fraction of the stock trades that take place every day.” Source: S.E.C. Blocks Chinese …
S.E.C. Blocks Chinese Takeover of Chicago Stock Exchange – The New York Times Read More »
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Officials from the Korea Meteorological Administration sat behind microphones in front of an overflow audience of journalists. Interpreters converted the officials’ words through the headsets of those unable to speak Korean. There was anxiousness. People put their thumbs to their phones, ready to share the news on Twitter immediately. It was …
A Surprise (?) at the Winter Olympics: It’s Really Cold – The New York Times Read More »
“In 1988, the last time South Korea hosted the Olympics, North and South Korea were more alike than different, separated by an arbitrary line yet joined by history, language and the bonds of family. Both Koreas had come a long way, emerging from colonial rule and rebuilding their economies after a devastating civil war. But …
The Olympic Moment When South Korea Left the North Behind – The New York Times Read More »
Beautiful photography, heartbreaking story: Each sentence below has a photo video clip: “This is S. Periyanayaki in the rice field in southern India where her husband died. The worst drought in more than a century killed his rice crop, and he blamed himself. A farmer found Periyanayaki’s husband, K. Suresh, lying in the barren field. …
The Uninhabitable Village – by Geeta Anand and Vikram Singh – NYT Oct 26 2017 Read More »
NAGAPATTINAM, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Vinod Kumar remembers a time, not so long ago, when the fields in his village in the southern state of Tamil Nadu were green all year round. His family lived comfortably from its farmland of just over 2 acres (0.8 hectares), growing vegetables, coconuts and millet irrigated by the …
I am looking for evidence to support the report in the NYT last month, that 100,000 Indian farmers had committed suicide because of the drought in Southeast India. This old article in the BBC sheds some background light on the disaster. “At least 330 million people are affected by drought in India, the government has …
India drought: ‘330 million people affected’ – BBC News 20 April 2016 Read More »
Image by Brian Stauffer, NYT “I have researched Xinjiang for three decades. Ethnic tensions have been common during all those years, and soon after 9/11, Chinese authorities started invoking the specter of “the three evil forces of separatism, extremism and terrorism” as a pretense to crack down on Uighurs. But state repression in Xinjiang has never …
What It’s Like to Live in a Surveillance State – by James Millward – NYT Read More »