Month: May 2008

  • 'Malaysia Bans Foreigners'? Look again.

    An inexplicably terse headline has been making its rounds in my news feeds for the last couple of days. It would be big news, if only it were true. “Malaysia Bans Foreigners,” cries the headline of an AP story published at the International Herald Tribune. Well, no. The article outlines how non-Malaysian vehicles are being…

  • Bank of America and China Construction Bank, or No-Fee USD Withdrawls in China [RIP]

    UPDATE [2013-12-07]: Well folks, party’s over. Some months ago BoA sold its stake in CCB, and as I had feared, I’m hearing from friends in Beijing who have used their BoA ATM cards recently that there are indeed now fees. And now, I will close my BoA account, having lost any use for it. -Graham…

  • Demonstrations in Tokyo During Hu Visit: Could Be Worse

    From Reuters: But even as Hu spoke, about 200 protesters waved signs outside the university gate saying “Free Tibet” and “No Pandas, No Poison Dumplings,” the latter referring to Hu’s offer to lend two pandas to a Tokyo zoo and a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several Japanese people ill. When…

  • How to 'Pressure' 'the Chinese' on Human Rights

    At Foreign Policy, former Amnesty International Executive Director William F. Schultz considers how to “pressure Beijing.” Aside from taking a little too literally Chinese government statements about “the Chinese” and their supposed hurt feelings, Schultz, who is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (disclosure: my former employer), makes an interesting suggestion:…

  • Celebrating May Fourth With Slow Internet

    The internet is unusually sluggish today. I wrote a bit about some possible reasons why at Sinobyte. Blogspot has re-disappeared, MSN Messenger is inaccessible from an artsy Beijing cafe, searches for Carrefour are just back from going unanswered, and the spring sky is clear. It’s the 89th anniversary of China’s May Fourth Movement. In 1919,…