Recently in On the lighter side Category
By Michael Bristow | BBC World News
20 March 2009
Local Chinese officials have been told to text their superiors for approval if they want to drink alcohol.
Officials in Hua County in Henan Province must text by 1700 [5 pm] on the day they want a tipple, according to a notice on a government website.
Teams of inspectors are being sent around the county with breathalysers to check the new rule is being observed.
It has been brought in to prevent corrupt officials using public money to "eat big and drink big".
Public exposure
"Government workers are strictly forbidden from drinking alcohol at lunchtimes on workdays," the government posting said of the rule, which came into force earlier this month.
"If there are special circumstances where officials need to drink on weekday evenings, they should text before 5pm," it added.
The notice says special circumstances include visits to the county by senior leaders or outside business people.
Officials working for local government or communist party organisations are also forbidden from getting drunk - anytime, any place.
Nine supervision teams will tour local government and party workplaces with breathalysers to check the rule is being kept.
These teams will also make sure officials are at their desks when they should be and are not wasting time by playing computer games, a local official said.
Anyone who fails to meet the new strict standards could face exposure on television.
Hua County appears preoccupied with improving the moral behaviour of its local officials.
Last year it held a conference that explored ways of "rectifying unhealthy tendencies".
Corruption is a major problem in China, where there are few checks and balances on what officials get up to.
China's Communist Party periodically launches anti-corruption campaigns in an effort to show it is serious about the issue.
By Henry Sanderson - Associated Press | via UNCENSORED Yahoo!News
February 03, 2009
China's foreign ministry and media on Tuesday denounced a man who hurled his shoe at the country's premier and called him a dictator on a visit to Britain -- all while avoiding explicit descriptions of the protest itself.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu called the disruption of Premier Wen Jiabao's speech "despicable" during a press conference but said it would not "stem the tide of friendly relations between China and Britain." She didn't mention shoes.
Unlike the now-famous incident when an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush in December, covered widely not only in China but around the world, state-run newspapers and Web sites in China carried stories on Wen's speech but did not directly mention the shoe-throwing.
China's state-run CCTV network reported Foreign Ministry comments, which acknowledged a "disturbance" during the speech, but made no mention a shoe had been thrown at Wen.
The official Xinhua News Agency issued a story saying that Britain apologized for an incident and that China had "expressed its strong feelings against the occurrence of the incident." However, it did not say what the incident was.
China keeps a tight grip on its media, blocking any content deemed as a challenge or insulting to the ruling Communist Party or the country's leaders.
In the live broadcast of the speech on CCTV's Web site, the camera remains fixed on Wen, not showing the shoe or the protester, although his remarks and the sound of the shoe hitting the stage can be heard. Wen pauses, glances sideways as the shoe hits the stage, and then continues his speech.
By Dave Itzkoff | The New York Times
November 24, 2008
It's no secret how the Chinese government feels about democracy. Now it has weighed in on "Chinese Democracy," too. The Associated Press reported that The Global Times, the official tabloid of China's Communist Party, published a withering critique of the new Guns N' Roses album, "Chinese Democracy." Without referring to the group by name, The newspaper headlined its story "American band releases album venomously attacking China" and described the record as part of a larger Western conspiracy to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn." After a delay of nearly 17 years, "Chinese Democracy" was released in the United States on Sunday, but with lyrics like "When your Great Wall rocks, blame yourself," it is unlikely to ever reach Chinese stores.
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By Jill Drew - The Washington Post | The Seattle Times
August 02, 2008
Ryan Horne loves living in China. He arrived in March from Los Angeles to manage the opening of a club in the heart of the city's night-life district. Drawn by the promise of wealthy investors and an ultra-creative founder, Horne set about trying to shape the "it" factor in Beijing, that quality of sophisticated culture that defines such places as Paris, Tokyo and Manhattan.
"Every aspect is history in the making," said Horne, 25, sinking back onto one of his club's black leather couches, dotted with delicate silk pillows. A chandelier lamp and modern sculpture sat to his left. "Some people here always had money, but money without curiosity means nothing. Now there's more willingness to explore."
But not everyone savors the adventure.
With the Olympic Games just six days away, Beijing is winding tighter each day, and visitors need wander no farther than the city's bar district to experience the preparatory fervor. Police are out in force, carrying out orders to increase security and clean up the district, called Sanlitun, with zeal.
Horne has been summoned to the local police station three times in as many months for somewhat bewildering and intimidating interrogations that last for hours and probe his views on topics from Tibetan separatism to whether Jackie Chan or Jet Li has the best kung fu moves.
The last time the police wanted to see him, an officer came to the club and told an employee to send "the black guy" over.
By BBC World News
April 28, 2008
Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.
The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.
But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.
Tibet independence
The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.
Workers who had grown suspicious checked the meaning of the flag by going online.
Thousands of flags had already been packed for shipping.
Police believe that some may already have been sent overseas, and could appear in Hong Kong during the Olympic torch relay there this week.
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