Beijing

By Melissa Chan in Asia on February 22nd, 2011
Sun Zhou, now 7-years-old, is still missing

On the afternoon after Peng Gaofeng brought his son, abducted and missing for over two years, back home to his family, Mr. Peng received a visit from the police.  The entourage of Shenzhen Public Security officers strode in to Mr. Peng's dingy Internet cafe with a couple of fruit and gift baskets, tied up in big red bows. 

They were there to congratulate Mr. Peng on his one-in-a-billion achievement, what none of them thought he could possibly ever do - find his lost son, Peng Wenle.

The visit was remarkable because Peng Gaofeng found his son not with the assistance of police - but despite them.

Over the past two years, police have threatened Mr. Peng and have demanded he stop speaking to journalists.  It's unclear why, but one possibility was that Mr. Peng's very public hunt for his son reflected poorly on the city's safety record.

By Melissa Chan in Asia on February 20th, 2011
Photo by Reuters

"Call me if there's a revolution."

That's what I told my friend, also a journalist, as he headed to central Beijing. I did not go. Not because I've become a lackadaisical journalist, but because I was pretty certain nothing would happen and that it would be a waste of my Sunday afternoon (instead, I started reading Richard McGregor's book, The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers).

By Abid Ali in Business on January 7th, 2011

Is this YouTube video proof that China has developed a stealth fighter jet? The origin of the video is unclear but the fact that Chinese censors allowed it to be posted on domestic websites indicates that it may have been leaked with the approval of the authorities.

The J-20 stealth bomber could challenge the US air force's F-22 Raptor. India and Russia recently signed an agreement to develop their own stealth fighter.

By Melissa Chan in Asia on December 10th, 2010
Photo by Reuters

Today is the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo for recipient, Liu Xiaobo. 

Today is also International Human Rights Day and two years ago today, Charter 08, the document Liu Xiaobo penned which is cause for his prison sentence, was published.

The last 48 hours in Beijing has seen quite a dramatic display of a government in overdrive because of this one man and this one award.

Most bewildering was the Confucius Peace Prize, which appeared to be a rather ad hoc event in response to the Nobel Committee's decision. 

The committee included a few university professors (including a Spanish professor), a psychologist, and a military attache.  Nominees included Bill Gates, Lien Chan, Nelson Mandela, Mahmoud Abbas, and Jimmy Carter.  Lien Chan was the lucky winner.  A former vice-president of the Republic of China (better known as Taiwan), his office did not know he had won until journalists called.

By Melissa Chan in Asia on September 25th, 2010
Photo from EPA

There were several moments when Japan had an opportunity to exit the dispute without looking like the losers. The first, on the day the incident happened, September 7th, when they picked up the Chinese crew after the confrontation in the East China Sea. They could have doled out a few words of admonishment, sent a curt message to Beijing, and then let the Chinese fishing boat go.

In the following days, as the Japanese ambassador was angrily summoned to the Chinese foreign ministry at all hours of the day, Japan had another face-saving chance to free the captain. On humanitarian grounds, perhaps using the common diplomatic excuse of the detainee in bad health. But Tokyo didn't.

When Japan finally blinked in the stand-off with China, it was badly-timed - and looked plain ugly.

Badly timed, because it came after a 48-hour flurry of developments that included the rumour China was holding off exports of rare earth minerals to Japan (

By Melissa Chan in Asia on July 9th, 2010
AFP photo

I recently blogged details of one of our reports out of China on the "cannon man" - the one-man stand against local authorities keen on kicking him off his property.

Today we've received word from Farmer Yang Youde that he will receive compensation - $25,000 dollars in cash, in addition to a modest apartment the government will provide him.

This would still be far below the amount Farmer Yang was hoping for.

There is a curious discrepancy in all this, which is that Farmer Yang's Beijing-based attorney is reporting compensation of $110,700 US dollars.

That's four times higher than what Farmer Yang is telling us he'll receive.

It's also the same number reported by state media newspaper, the China Daily.

Other media organisations have reported a compensation package of $112,000.

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on June 10th, 2010
Photo by EPA

The New York Times revealed yesterday why the Chinese changed their mind about yet another UN Security Council resolution that imposes new sanctions against Iran.

The resolution passed with 12 votes in favour, two against and one abstention is the fourth of its kind.

Like the Brazilians and the Turks, the Chinese leaned towards diplomacy and doubted the efficacy of another round of sanctions.

Along with Russia, China opposed tougher sanctions that would hurt Iranians and push Tehran into a corner.

Analysts believe Beijing and Moscow came on board after direct intervention by Barack Obama, the US president, and a pledge to water down the resolution and possibly other concessions some of which might be kept secret for long.

The end result is UNSC resolution 1929 that focuses primarily on the nuclear domain, avoids targeting the Iranian society, and dispel

By Gregg Carlstrom in Middle East on May 31st, 2010
Protesters in Istanbul wave Palestinian flags after the raid (Photo: AFP)

Early Monday morning, Israel attacked a flotilla of aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip; up to 10 people were killed in the pre-dawn raid, according to organisers and media sources.

We'll be live-blogging the aftermath of this incident throughout the day; keep checking back for international reaction, news from our correspondents on the ground, photos and video. (All times are GMT, except where noted.)

Tags: Ahmet Davutoglu, Algeria, Ali al-Shami, AM CDT, Amman, Amr El-Kahky, Amr Moussa, Angela Merkel, Arab League, Arab socialist party, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Australia, Avigdor Lieberman, Avital Leibovich, Ayman Mohyeldin, Baghdad, Ban Ki-Moon, Barack Obama, Beijing, Belgium, Bill Burton, Binyamin Netanyahu, Cairo, Canada, Catherine Ashton, Chicago, China, Congress, Egypt, Ehud Barak, European Parliament, European Union, Facebook, Fatah, Filippo Grandi, Gabi Ashkenazi, Gaza, George Washington University, Germany, Greece, Greek government, Greta Berlin, Guido Westerwelle, Ha'aretz, Haifa, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Hamas, Hillary Clinton, IDF, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Israeli army, Israeli consulate, Israeli consulate in Istanbul, Israeli embassy in Amman, Israeli government, Israeli military, Israeli navy, Israeli police, Istanbul, James Jones, Jerusalem, Jerzy Buzek, Jordan, Kamel Khatib, Kampala, Kuwait, Lebanon, London, Mahmoud Abu Attar, Malaysia, Malcolm Smart, Marc Lynch, Mohammad Dahlan, Moqtada al-Sadr, Nabil al-Sharif, Nablus, navy, New York, Norway, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Paris, Physicians for Human Rights, Raed Salah, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Robert Serry, Ron Ben Yishai, Saad Hariri, Saeb Erekat, Salam Fayyad, Serbia, South Africa, Stephen Harper, Sweden, Tel Aviv, The Los Angeles Times, Turkey, Turkish consulate in Istanbul, Twitter, Uganda, Umm, Umm al-Fahm, UN security council, United Kingdom, United Nations, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, United Nations Security Council, United States, Washington, White House, William Hague, Yang Tao
By Melissa Chan in Asia on April 20th, 2010

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The most fascinating development from this quake disaster has been the ad-hoc congregation of monks from across the provinces to help with relief efforts. 

They've come in the thousands to Yushu county, by bus or motorbike, their presence as visible as government-dispatched rescue workers. And they've brought with them food or shovels, come in prayer - or to direct traffic. 

Up on the hill overlooking the city on Saturday, many of them joined together to chant prayers for the dead during the mass cremation, and scouring the place, we didn't see a single government official present. 

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on February 27th, 2010

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