Sinofile - Times Online - WBLG

Justice is Blind

Why does China's exercise of justice this week seem far from blind? The courts sentenced two men who in their different ways had challenged the system. Both were convicted of crimes that appear to be somewhat petty. The jail terms handed down by the courts appeared to be rather long when considering the offences of which they were convicted, raising howls of anger from their lawyers.

Did the case of rural legal activist Chen Guangcheng and the case of journalist Zhao Yan in fact put the Chinese justice system itself on trial?

 

Seek Truth From Facts

Deng Xiaoping urged China to do just that.

The China Daily, the country's premier state-owned English-language newspaper, had a similar suggestion today. Although perhaps with a slightly updated approach. It is one that Deng appeared to espouse in an early youthful incarnation working in the media but which seemed to bother him less in later years. Is the newspaper hinting that his successors may not remember his maxim?

E Gao Ergo Parody

It seems a little too good to be true. From China to be able to amble around the Internet glimpsing videos of pretty much anything via YouTube. There's that glimpse of George W. Bush giving Angela Merkel a quick shoulder rub, or a view of the most famous head butt in modern sporting history and time to pore over clips of Asia's leading heartthrob, the bespectacled Korean star Bae Yung Joon.

Yes, it looks as if those days are numbered. And this young man, Hu Ge, and his passion for parody may have played a role.

Protesters, Police and Diplomacy

It was a beautiful day for a protest. The sun was shining for the first day in what feels like weeks, the smog had lifted, the sky was blue and it wasn't even too hot.

But the demonstration outside the Japanese embassy this morning drew a crowd of scarcely more than a dozen protesters. They were vastly outnumbered by plainclothes police, uniformed police, police cars, vans and buses. I would guess the ratio was around 15 to one. Were the police perhaps overdoing it?

Passagiata A La Mongolia

Nightlife in one of the remotest cities in China is clearly worth investigating.

And here it is.

Pull Up a Deckchair for a Hot Read...

Here it is, China's hottest new summer book.

The Selected Works of Jiang Zemin. It may not have the kind of cover that would be likely to lure buyers in their droves, but it does have the merit of following in the tradition -- at least in colour and calligraphy -- of the works of Chairman Mao.

Just 730 more days....

The Beijing News carried a front page picture today of the construction of the "Bird's Nest" -- the National Stadium that will showcase the 2008 Olympics. An astonishing and daring structure. But what about the weather on the eighth day of the eighth month -- two years to the day when the Olympics will launch?

There Goes the Neighbourhood

The bulldozers are gouging out the alleys around my home. Yet another ancient corner of Beijing is being trampled underfoot by the march of modernity. Only this time I can almost hear from my own small courtyard the sound of bricks tumbling as yet another once-proud aristocratic house and the grimy single-storey homes surrounding it disappear.

Flagging the Need for Education

Humiliation in front of the world's biggest television audience. That was the fate of Chinese shepherd Shi Zhanming when he took part in a popular singing contest on state-run television. His singing was fine, it was the quiz section of the competition that let him down.

And his failure to recognise the Chinese national flag has transformed him into a figure of fun and fury ever since.

Coffee and the Spirit of Enterprise

The spirit of the Chinese entrepreneur has materialised before my eyes and offered me a cappuccino. The name of this blithe spirit is Xu Bin. He is a young man who has seen an opening in the market -- literally -- and set up a tiny enterprise of great service to the weary Beijing shopper.

Mr Xu has opened a cappuccino stall in the great sprawling weekend flea market in the Panjiayuan suburb of Beijing.