http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog Thoughts from a journalist based in Beijing, China. Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:10:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en CHINA’S ONLINE population has leapt to 338 million internet users, a significant 13.4 per cent rise this year despite the global economic slowdown, with much of the increase coming from people accessing the internet in rural areas using their mobile phones. While “the Great Firewall of China” does much to control ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=524 A MAJOR diplomatic row was brewing last night between resource-rich Australia and its biggest customer, China, after four steel industry analysts for the mining giant Rio Tinto were detained over spying allegations during iron ore price talks. The four analysts, including a Shanghai-based Australian Stern Hu, in charge of Rio Tinto’s ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=497 This is a cheerful tale from today's Irish Times. TWO RED panda cubs which were abandoned by their mother at birth are thriving at a north China zoo thanks to milk and tender loving care from an unlikely wet nurse – a dog. The baby pandas were born at Taiyuan zoo in ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=495 NORTH KOREA has released new photographs of “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il touring a factory, after reports this week that the 67-year-old had pancreatic cancer and fewer than five years to live. There has been a lot of speculation about Mr Kim’s health because he rules absolutely, and there could be a ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=493 A PHALANX of paramilitary police armed with shields and long steel pipes sharpened into spears stands guard on the border zone dividing the neighbourhoods of Urumqi’s Muslim Uighurs from those of the Han Chinese majority in the city. The situation remains very tense, with tales of horror on both sides of ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=526 CHINESE AUTHORITIES have raised the tally of dead in last week’s ethnic clashes in Xinjiang province to 184, as the number of injured in the violence between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs was increased to 1,680. The government has also banned illegal assembly, marches and demonstrations in Urumqi, a city of ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=528 THE MOST prominent face of opposition to the Chinese government right now is a small grandmother with greying black hair tied into two braids, a matriarch who speaks little English and whose career has seen her rise from humble launderer in Xinjiang province to millionaire businesswoman and communist hero to ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=530 BEIJING’S TOP Communist Party cadre in the restive province of Xinjiang has warned that the death toll from ethnic violence in the region could rise from a current tally of 156 people as reports emerged of fresh violence in the city of Kashgar in the far west. Wang Lequan, Communist Party ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=538 It was a telling phrase, whispered furtively by a frightened man looking over his shoulder. He was a Muslim Uighur in the restive western Chinese province of Xinjiang, where scores of people were killed in violence at the weekend directed at Han Chinese settlers. How would he describe the relationship ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=532 SHE’S BLONDE, SHE smiles all the time, and Shanghai’s newest and hippest shopping emporium is dedicated to her. She’s 11½ inches high. Her name is Barbie. Walk through the new six-storey flagship House of Barbie on the Huaihai Road in Shanghai, the most fashionable street in China’s biggest city, and you ... http://cliffordcoonan.dreamhosters.com/blog/?p=534