"China cracking down on reality TV shows" October 27, 2011|Associated Press
BEIJING - China plans to limit reality TV shows and other light entertainment fare shown on satellite television stations as part of a drive to wrest back Communist Party control over cultural industries that are fueling more independent viewpoints.
The order from the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television refers to shows that are vulgar or overly entertaining. It singles out programs dealing with marital troubles and matchmaking, talent shows, game shows, variety shows, talk shows, and reality programming.
Such shows must be largely phased out by the beginning of next year by the country’s 34 satellite TV stations, to be replaced with news and cultural programming....
The order follows a Communist Party meeting last week that asserted the need for strengthening social morality and boosting China’s cultural influence abroad - a recognition by the party that it is losing its power to dictate public opinion....
I'm sure the AmeriKan media can empathize.
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"45 Chinese miners rescued after 36 hours" November 06, 2011|Associated Press
BEIJING - Forty-five exhausted, grimy coal miners trapped in central China were rescued yesterday, ending a 36-hour ordeal in the industry’s most dangerous country. After Thursday’s cave-in in Samenxia that killed eight, about 200 workers dug a rescue tunnel 1,650 feet deep (AP)."
"20 killed, 23 missing in second mining accident in China in less than a week" November 11, 2011|By Associated Press
BEIJING - Hundreds of rescuers took turns descending into an illegally operated coal mine yesterday to search for 23 Chinese miners trapped by a gas leak that killed 20 others, in the country’s second deadly mining accident in less than a week....
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Does that mean COAL is canceled?
"School bus accident in China kills 15" December 14, 2011|New York Times
BEIJING - A school bus ferrying students home from a primary school in rural China rolled into an irrigation canal, killing 15 children and injuring eight others, officials said.
The accident Monday evening in Jiangsu province has revived public indignation over school bus safety and, more broadly, complaints about inadequate government spending on education.
Sound familiar, Boston?
Less than a month ago a coal truck in the northwestern province of Gansu slammed into an overloaded minivan that was being used as a school bus, killing 21 kindergartners and two adults. The loss of life, and the anger, were compounded by the nine-seat vehicle being crammed with 64 people.
At the time, many ordinary Chinese and a number of media outlets accused the government of miserly spending on school transportation while directing enormous sums toward the purchase of new cars for bureaucrats....
All governments are the same!
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Well, almost:
"China makes rare concession to protesters" December 22, 2011
BEIJING - Southern Chinese authorities have given in to key demands of protesting villagers after a nearly two-week standoff with police, agreeing in a rare compromise to release detainees and return some confiscated land to farmers....
The significance of the authorities’ unusual concession in Wukan depends on how the details are played out, but it could affect the way other protests are handled, particularly in the corner of coastal southern China that has seen periodic unrest over the last few years. To Wukan’s northeast, the coastal town of Haimen saw a second day of protests yesterday over a planned coal-fired power plant.
Conflicts over land disputes and other issues in much of Guangdong Province have been intense because the area is among China’s most economically developed, pushing up land prices.
Underscoring the government’s concerns about public discontent, China’s security czar Zhou Yongkang met yesterday with law and order officials and told them to improve the resolution of social conflicts and promote fair and honest law enforcement, state media reported....
Wait a minute. Communist China cares about their public mood while the AmeriKan government flips us the finger? WTF?
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"Yangtze River dam gets key approval" by NEW YORK TIMES | December 30, 2011
The projects are part of a frenetic and much-criticized rush into hydroelectric power by the Chinese government, which, with 26,000 such dams, already has more than any other nation.
Critics say the project makes little economic sense except as a temporary job creator. The reservoir will flood 18 square miles of prime farmland and displace 400,000 people....
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Maybe they could grab the next shuttle:
"China plans to boost space programs" December 30, 2011|By associated press
BEIJING - China plans to launch space labs and manned ships and to prepare to build space stations over the next five years, according to a plan released yesterday that shows the country’s space program is gathering momentum.
China has said its eventual goals are to have a space station and put an astronaut on the moon....
By the end of 2016, China will launch space laboratories, manned spaceships, and ship freighters, and make technological preparations for the construction of space stations, according to the white paper setting out China’s space progress and future missions.
China’s space program has already made major breakthroughs in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States and Russia in space technology and experience....
Well, they shouldn't lag behind AmeriKa's for much longer because we shut ours down.
China places great emphasis on the development of its space industry, which is seen as a symbol of national prestige....
Yeah, good thing AmeriKa never felt that way (as blog editor rolls his eyes).
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Time for a tattoo while we wait:
"Chinese army drops tattoo ban for recruits" November 03, 2011|By By Michael Wines, New York Times
BEIJING - Seeking to broaden its appeal to China’s better-educated and perhaps more hip youth, the People’s Liberation Army has dropped a longtime bar to enlisting in the service: Now, recruits can sport tattoos on their faces and necks.
Moreover, enlistees may be chubbier or thinner than the rules had previously allowed.
The Defense Ministry announced the changes yesterday, five days after China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, approved a relaxation of the rules for military service.
Recruits with facial or neck tattoos will now qualify for service if the decorations are no larger than two centimeters wide, or about 0.8 inches. The new weight rules permit a recruit to weigh as much as 25 percent more or 15 percent less than the army’s standard, as opposed to 20 percent and 10 percent in the past.
The ministry also initiated an effort to lure more university students to the military, offering them a discount on annual tuition of nearly $944 if they take a break from their studies to enlist.
Although military service is technically compulsory, the draft is seldom needed because there are more than enough volunteers to fill the ranks of the 2.3-million member force. Tattoos, in particular, were once scorned but have become faddish among the savvier urban youth that the People’s Liberation Army hopes to attract.
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Also see: US, China review military issues
China busts two rings trafficking in children
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