This post by a student thrown out of a Beijing university is absolutely amazing. Go read it.

November 26, 2005 @ 2:28 am | Comment

Richard, Congrats on the link from Pajamas. Now you are one with Xinhua!

🙂

Michael

November 26, 2005 @ 6:35 am | Comment

It didn’t do a thing for traffic. They are real losers.

November 26, 2005 @ 8:08 am | Comment

I was talking with a friend a few days ago in Helsinki, and we were discussing nationalism in Europe in the 30s, and how impossible it was, barring wild scifi scenarios, to imagine two Western powers going to war for those kind of reasons anymore.

And then I realised how *plausible* it was when I thought about Korean, Chinese, and Japanese nationalists, and the glorification of war in all three countries – the pre-1914 (or pre-1945) view of war as part of the heroic national struggle, rather than as an inherent evil in itself. How parts of all of them clung to revanchist, irredentist, and imperial ideas …

It’s not that I think a nationalist regional war is that likely … but it’s possible in a way that it isn’t in this part of the world. And that’s kind of scary.

November 26, 2005 @ 11:38 am | Comment

But it does really give hope, doesn’t it? maybe they can overcome their issues like Europe did.

November 26, 2005 @ 5:32 pm | Comment

Hi, I’m sorry, I am a fricking moron.

I meant, of course, that hopefully they can get to where Europe is WITHOUT world war III.

November 26, 2005 @ 5:33 pm | Comment

I am deeply angry at the response of the Jilin government on the Benzene Leak Incident. There are certainly no small number of local officials who are myopic and do not take the laws seriously. There have been floods of critical comments against relevent departments and officials in Jilin on Sina.com’s forums, and I believe there will be severe disciplinary actions taken against those officials who repeated tried to cover up the incident and misreport information to the central authorities in Beijing.

Let this be a training session to improve the emergency handling capabilities of the Chinese government, and I believe experts in the Chinese government are already making suggestions and taking actions to further improve the governing effectiveness of a modern 21st century Chinese government.

Fortunately, water will soon be restored to the citizens of Harbin, and fortunately there has been no one who’s hurt by this water shortage, thanks to the hardwork of soldiers who spent 24-72 continuous hours handing bottled water to local residents and organizing water distribution stations. Premier Wen Jiabao cried when he was with those soldiers earlier.

Let us hope that China will conquer this incident. President Hu and Premier Wen, we trust you, we support you! Cetain local Jilin officials, please take severe responsibilities!!!

November 26, 2005 @ 10:15 pm | Comment

Jilin officials, bad. Central party officials, good as gold.

Read the articles below about how a lot of the delays and coverup came from the top. There are no heroes here, and certainly no one to trust. The local officials reacted horribly, but consistently with the CCP mindset of preserving harmony and protecting itself. Now they’ll get scapegoated, when in truth there’s lots of blame to go around.

November 26, 2005 @ 10:34 pm | Comment

*SNORT*!

I’m sorry, I can’t help it…

November 26, 2005 @ 10:40 pm | Comment

” fortunately there has been no one who’s hurt by this water shortage”
Just like no one has been hurt through SARS (oops) Bird flu (oops) . In fact people may indeed be seriously hurt- those upstream who had been drinking this poison for the ten days before the regime did what it’s supposed to do.

November 27, 2005 @ 3:31 am | Comment

Strange news from Shanghai:

Shanghai will begin on Monday screening international passengers for bird flu prevention.

All passengers leaving or entering China will be asked to fill in a health declaration form, specifying whether they have had “close contact with poultry, birds, bird flu patient or suspect over the past week” and whether they have “such symptoms as fever,coughing and being short of breath.”

A passenger who has a temperature of over 38 Celsius degrees will be further examined; in case the person has been to a bird flu-hit area or had contact with birds or poultry, treatment at a designated hospital is required.

Is this just a precautionary measure or is there something brewing. And why only Shanghai?

November 27, 2005 @ 7:33 am | Comment

Two corrections for the caption:

1) I am not sure if they are workers, but they are definitely tourists.

2) It is not in Kunming, it is Ditan Park (The Temple of Earth), Beijing.

November 27, 2005 @ 10:43 am | Comment

i just heard a guy dropped dead in beijing this morning, from bird flu. he kept pidgeons in a coop in his apt. not sure if this is true, am sure the local media wont report this. my wife and i are seriously considering not going to work soon. we live in beijing. dont give a rats ass where the picture came from at the moment.

November 27, 2005 @ 7:05 pm | Comment

Chris, how did you hear about this? If true, it’s definitely scary, though it may be a bit early to consider quarantining yourself.

November 27, 2005 @ 7:17 pm | Comment

http://world.altavista.com/babelfis…511271109.shtml

Beijing appears the first example to infect the H5N1 birds and beasts flu death case of illness
Please look at the abundant news hot spot:Birds and beasts flu
(Abundant news on November 27, 2005)
Below the abundant news is unable to verify the news, welcome the friend which has the condition to help the verification.

According to the Beijing news, is urgently delivered in November 24 to a Beijing stability gate hospital Beijing inhabitant, already confirmed in November 27 the early morning in the Beijing China and Japan friendly hospital death, announced Beijing appears the first example to infect the H5N1 birds and beasts flu death case of illness. (Abundant news boxun.com)

It is reported this patient is a male, the about 35 years old, the family lives in the Beijing stability gate in the avenue side alley, is the Beijing local inhabitant. In this sickness others raises has the pigeon, is a pigeon amateur, has many years to raise the pigeon history. It is in 24th after the peaceful outside earth temple morning calisthenics suddenly faints the stable gate hospital which is escorted to by the periphery person approaches, in diagnoses is forced after the pneumonia by the hospital to shift to the Chinese and Japanese friendly hospital. Afterwards several will guard against the personnel once to have been to in the dead family to possess the pigeon to carry off and to carry on the strict disinfection, the personnel which the family member and once sent to hospital has also carried on the strict inspection. At present the hospital to the dead family member’s death diagnosis is the acute pneumonia, official to has already carried on the serious political warning with the dead concerned personnel.

The local resident analyzes the basis official behavior, this man is dies of the H5N1 birds and beasts flu
At present the Beijing area honorable scale carries on the immunity work to the domestic pigeon. At present Beijing has not had any news report on this death man. _ (abundant news freely sends manuscript area to send manuscript) (abundant news boxun.com)

it looks unconfirmed, and im sure will quickly get buried, but its awfuly suspicious.

November 27, 2005 @ 8:11 pm | Comment

Scary. Keep us posted.

November 27, 2005 @ 8:41 pm | Comment

Surely, the first Beijing case was inevitable….

bird flu has been in vietnam for how long? it hasn’t mutated yet. i think people need to calm down a little. just avoid birds and don’t eat chicken.

can’t say i felt sorry for that kid – i cheated in the exams cos society failed me. give me an effing break. typical self-absorbed little emperor.

November 27, 2005 @ 9:18 pm | Comment

I don’t necessarily feel sorry for him, but the confession seemed rather remarkable.

November 27, 2005 @ 10:11 pm | Comment

the real fear about bird flu, is wheather it can be transmitted from human to human. some people think this is already happening here, me included. that’s the scary part. add to that the ‘media’ has been ordered to keep quiet. im sure some of you have seen the official regulations hobbling the media?

November 27, 2005 @ 10:24 pm | Comment

the first avian flu was emerged in china in the 1996. it was known by others(not chinese) until got hitted HK in 1997. amid 1996 to 1997, no china officials had informed the outside world that there was such a powerful killer spreading through china.
SARS has a similar experience. our goverment is habitual to cover up any things which could lead the nation to POSSIBLE CHAOS. at last, in other nation’s eyes,our goverment’s fame and popularity have been getting down and down, deteriorating and deteriorating..

November 27, 2005 @ 11:35 pm | Comment

Whoever just posted those 8 obscene comments about Ivan and Conrad, please fuck off. I know you’re in Kaohsiung and I know where your computers are.

November 28, 2005 @ 2:11 am | Comment

You tell ’em, richard.

I’m really really worried about bird flu. More about China than other nations, to be honest. I’m not confident that there will not be a massive coverup, and think if China were the start of a pandemic simply because they waited too long and let too many people get infected! Would that warrant sanctions? I mean, really, if Beijing were more or less responsible for 1/2 of a population of 10s of millions across the world dying, I think I would call for sanctions. It’s just irresponsible.

November 28, 2005 @ 2:27 am | Comment

i thought everyone loved ivan…?

November 28, 2005 @ 2:34 am | Comment

Laowai, I think we’re all worried about China right now, and the timing of the Harbin cover-up couldn’t have been worse. Catastrophic, as this is precisely the time when the government needs to build trust. Once again, they blew it mightily.

Chris, how could anyone not love Ivan? It was just some nasty, potty-mouthed troll seeking his moment in the sun.

On another note: everyone should read the comments from Jeffrey to the Media Crackdown post. It’s nice to hear a mainlander’s honest opinions about censorship.

November 28, 2005 @ 2:59 am | Comment

Wow! What a striking resemblance. Those
sleepy-eyed people look like Cindy Sheehan at her book signing.

November 28, 2005 @ 7:27 am | Comment

According to an article that one of my co-bloggers translated, 77 people have died in Liaoning province from the H5N1 Bird Flu strain. I’d say it looks like something’s up alright.

November 28, 2005 @ 7:35 am | Comment

But did they die from handling sick fowl, or was it human-to-human transmission?

BIG difference.

November 28, 2005 @ 10:14 am | Comment

Gordon, don’t know how relyable boxun normaly is. How does the writer know about the professions of those who died. How does he know the exact numbers. How does he know that it was H5N1. The only people who can know this are those from the medical sercices or officials. Don’t know what I should make out of this rumor.
Lot of question marks.

November 28, 2005 @ 10:51 am | Comment

regarding the mine disaster, and the bird flu, i have heard some people speculating that the govt was using the mine to hide the BF victims in liaoning. sounds pretty out there, even for our beloved ccp. I also heard that bodies were being burned before proper autopsies could be performed, thus denying the world a valuable source of information. if any of this is remotely true, i have only one question. how could a human beings possibly insert their own heads so far up their own asses? doesnt seem possible. but this is china…

November 28, 2005 @ 4:39 pm | Comment

here is a forum with a good section about the flu. seems to have a number of experts, doctors and such who comment there.

http://www.curevents.com/vb/index.php?

November 28, 2005 @ 4:42 pm | Comment

Shulan: This is a quote from the fluwiki (www.fluwikie.com) about boxun:

The following reports are separated from the news as they contain information collected in unconventional ways and are unverified. These should be read with skepticism. The Boxun reports are included for two reasons. First, if true, they point to large-scale human infections in Mainland China that have been covered up the government. Second, Boxun was the first news organization to report that SARS was present in mainland China at a time when this epidemic was being covered up the government. Caveat lector.

End quote.

So there you have it: seriously untrustworthy, but (and it’s a big but) they were right once before about something rather similar.

Chris: I heard precisely the same rumours during SARS – bodies being burnt or hidden without any official notification or autopsies. During SARS I disregarded those rumours, and I’ll do it again now. I think that all local officials in China, even in the remotest parts, know that the central government is paying a great deal of attention to bird-flu and would not stand for that kind of reaction.

November 28, 2005 @ 9:04 pm | Comment

i hope you are right.

November 28, 2005 @ 10:44 pm | Comment