With the holidays I know that many of you have taken a break from the internet to spend time with your families, but the Chinese gov’t realizes this too, slipping 3 State subversion trials of dissidents into the final week of the year in the hopes that foreign media will miss the story (and one very mysterious broken probation). Due to the number of links this week, I’ve only added a few comments.
China jails dissident 10 years for subversive essays
Why isn’t the West reacting to China’s crackdown
Draft law prohibits citizens who may endanger national interests from leaving country – This story has not been widely reported on outside of People’s Daily, but would essentially allow China to keep any dissidents from speaking out abroad without even pretending to press criminal charges.
New real name rule for bloggers – As everyone expected, the real name registration requirements have quickly spread beyond Beijing, and people could be charged for simply re-posting someone else’s offending comments.
Journalist tells of police detention, beating after reporting riots
The last year of Hu’s leadership: Hu’s to blame
Initial probe supports villagers’ requests – It seems that the handling of the demonstrations in Wukan are being reported as a “success” of the Guangdong system (a more liberal approach to gov’t).
Blogger (Han Han) ignites debate over Chinese “revolution”
China Party Official warns members over religion
Chinese Internet takes on dairy giant hit by tainted milk findings
China improves education access for disabled
China restaurateur finds retention in overlooked corner: Intellectually disabled – An excellent reason to eat at Papa John’s and Dairy Queen while in China.
Shut down the Communist Party’s rest home villas
Gov’t orders limit on Cantonese – The gov’t has tried this before, but it lead to numerous protests and demonstrations. We’ll see what happens this time.
Where the mornings taste grey: living under a cloud of smog in Beijing – Peter Foster’s farewell column that wonderfully captures just how intrusive pollution is in daily life.
Finally I would like to recommend a very cool new website called “Weiboscope” which allows visitors to browse through the most popular images on Weibo. Most of it is completely understandable without reading Chinese!
Before the first day of 2012 is over (for me anyway:)), let me wish everyone who reads here, regularly or otherwise, a happy new year!
新年快乐，万事如意。
Tom & Yaxue –
Thanks for a year of great posts.
Happy New Year.
Happy New Year and many thanks for all the great posts and comments.