The Art of Self-Censorship

Bloomberg Code Keeps Articles From Chinese EyesBy EDWARD WONG A Man Under the Influence: Matthew Winkler, the editor in chief of Bloomberg News.In early 2011, during a period of heightened tension between the Chinese government and foreign journalists, Bloomberg News created coding to give editors the ability to categorize stories under a new class, called 204. Such stories would not show up on Bloomberg terminals in mainland China. Managers...

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Low Profile

China aircraft carrier 'avoids' Senkakus en route to trainingTHE ASAHI SHIMBUNBEIJING--China’s first aircraft carrier steered clear of the Senkaku Islands now under the country’s newly designated air defense zone on the way to its maiden exercise in the high seas.The 67,000-ton Liaoning left its home port of Qingdao, Shandong province, on Nov. 26, and entered the South China Sea through the Taiwan Strait on Nov. 28, according to the state-run Xinhua...

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Paper Dragon

US forces operating 'normally' in China air zone. Japan and South Korea both disregarded the ADIZ, showing a united front after US B-52 bombers entered the area.AFPBeijing — US military chiefs have insisted they will not change their operations despite China scrambling fighter jets to monitor American and Japanese aircraft in Beijing's newly declared air defence zone.But the State Department said US commercial airlines should observe China's demand...

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China, India spar over disputed border

ReutersChina's President Xi Jinping (R) talks with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (L) during a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing October 23, 2013.China on Saturday urged India not to aggravate problems on the border shared by the two nations, a day after the Indian president toured a disputed region and called it an integral part of the country.The two countries, which fought a brief border war in 1962, only last month signed...

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Face-off

Like a teenager on a growth spurt who doesn’t know his own strength, China has underestimated the impact of its actions. The EconomistTHE announcement by a Chinese military spokesman on November 23rd sounded bureaucratic: any aircraft flying through the newly designated Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea must notify Chinese authorities in advance and follow instructions from its air-traffic controllers. America’s...

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Isolation Under House Arrest for Wife of Imprisoned Nobel Laureate

By AUSTIN RAMZYLiu Xia, the wife of the imprisoned Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, says she feels completely isolated living under house arrest in Beijing and finds rare happiness in reading, according to a July letter.“My reading has no specific goal; for me it’s rather like breathing — I have to do it in order to live,” she wrote.“When I find books that I love, I feel the author is writing for me alone, and feel a private joy.”The letter offers...

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With new air zone, China tests U.S. dominance in East Asia

BY GREG TORODE AND LINDA SIEGChina's new air defence zone, stretching far into East Asia's international skies, is an historic challenge to the United States, which has dominated the region for decades.For years, Chinese naval officers have told their U.S. counterparts they are uncomfortable with America's presence in the western Pacific -- and Beijing is now confronting strategic assumptions that have governed the region since World War Two.China's...

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With air-defence overreach, China has proven itself a paper tiger

By Matthew FisherA Chinese produced J-10 fighter jet is displayed outside the offices of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China in Beijing on November 28, 2013. The US on November 28 pressed its concerns over China's newly declared air defence zone, a day after US B-52s flew over the disputed area in the East China Sea.TOKYO — To use an old Asian expression, is China just a toothless paper tiger?Beijing threatened “emergency defensive measures”...

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Seoul Sees Territory Threat in China Defense Zone

South Korea Wary That Beijing Vying for Advantage With Disputed RockBy ALASTAIR GALE And JEYUP S. KWAAKSouth Korean Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo, left, shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Guangzhong, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, ahead of their talks in Seoul on Thursday. SEOUL—South Korea's forceful response to China's new air-defense zone despite otherwise warming ties reflects concern...

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Questions raised over ‘China fever’ development on Mersey

By Lucy Hornby in Beijing, Jamil Anderlini in Jiangyin and Andrew Bounds in ManchesterThe faded red banners welcoming the “Wirral council leaders” were propped against locked glass doors just inside the office of Sam Wa Resources Holdings on Tuesday in Jiangyin, a city on the banks of China’s Yangtze River.This is the home of the company whose chairman Stella Shiu, is supposed to be the driving force behind a large Chinese investment in...

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Britain goes soft on rights to woo China

Britain has downgraded human rights as an issue when dealing with China, a move which has made it harder for other countries to talk tough on the subject.By Kiran Stacey in London and Jamil Anderlini and Lucy Hornby in BeijingStella Shiu, right, at the site of the proposed £175m Wirral project with Lindsey Ashworth, development directorBritain has been accused of softening its stance on human rights in China to attract foreign investment, despite...

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China looks to redraw Asian airspace

      By Demetri Sevastopulo in Hong KongWhen China created a controversial “air defence identification zone” last Saturday, it sparked alarm about the rising risk of Sino-Japanese conflict over the Senkaku Islands.But while the focus has been on the Japanese chain, China also said in the same statement it “will establish other air defence identification zones at the right moment after necessary preparations are completed”, raising...

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China's Latest Territorial Moves Renew Fears In Philippines

by FRANK LANGFITTU.S. and Philippine navy personnel patrol the seas off a naval base west of Manila in June as part of joint exercises.China is flexing its muscles these days. Over the weekend, it declared a sprawling air defense identification zone that covers disputed islands controlled by Japan. And it has sent its lone aircraft carrier for first-time trials in the South China Sea, where Beijing has territorial feuds with other neighbors,...

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Cultural revolution taking place in China's bedrooms

By Neil ConnorVisitors look at sex toys displayed at the Guangzhou Sex Culture Festival. In a photo taken on Nov 9, 2013, visitors take photos of a model (R) at the Guangzhou Sex Culture Festival in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Japanese adult video actress Mizuna-Rei applies makeup on November 9, 2013, before making an appearance during the Guangzhou Sex Culture Festival in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou A Japanese porn...

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Enforcing rules in air zone will stretch China's air force and navy

BY GREG TORODE AND ADAM ROSEChina's military could struggle to cope with the demands for intensified surveillance and interception if it tries to enforce the rules in its new air defense zone over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan.Regional military analysts and diplomats said China's network of air defense radars, surveillance planes and fighter jets would be stretched by extensive patrols across its Air Defense Identification...

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China has thrown down a gauntlet to America

Beijing has turned control of the air space around the Senkaku islands into a test of the USBy Philip StephensAt first glance, Beijing’s designation of an air defence zone in the East China Sea marks a calibrated escalation of its longstanding dispute with Japan about sovereignty of the Senkaku islands. A more worrying, and plausible, interpretation is that Beijing has decided to square up to the US in the western Pacific. East...

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Spying beyond the façade

By Geoff WadeThe almost-eternal profession of covert intelligence collection and analysis (a.k.a. spying) has been much in the news of late, with the US National Security Agency and Australia’s own Signals Directorate sharing headlines across the region and indeed the globe. But it’s not just Australia and the United States that have had their covert activities brought to public attention. China’s covert operatives (in this case HUMINT...

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