In today’s world news section, Xinhua runs a headline of "Will ‘American Democracy’ Be Able to Spread to the Whole World?" followed by a group of articles. The articles emphasize that the world is against hegemony, China has its own version of democracy, and that developing countries cannot simply import democracy.
Source: Xinhua, February 5, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-02/05/content_7570006.htm
On October 22, 2007, Wang Zhaojun, a delegate member of the Political-Consultative Committee of Anhui Province wrote an open letter and published it on overseas Chinese websites. In it he asked China’s top leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, to stop the political persecution of the Chinese people and start political reform. Today, he wrote a second open letter to Hu-Wen calling again for political reform after his press conference about opening an environment protection website was blocked.
Source: Boxun, January 31, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2008/01/200801310202.shtml
The BBC reported on January 30 that 11 people from three families in Japan suffered from food poisoning after eating frozen dumplings made in China. The dumplings were found to be contaminated with the pesticide Methamidophos. A five-year-old girl had the most serious symptoms, losing consciousness at one point. The problem food was from the China Tianyang Food Factory.
Source: BBC, January 30, 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_7210000/newsid_7217400/7217439.stm
China state-media Global Times quotes a January 29 article from the Russian newspaper The Independent that says that China, the biggest customer of Russian defense industrial products, is gone forever. Exports of national defense technology and products to China have recently been close to zero. The article says that Moscow is very concerned about the situation. It is also one of the major issues for the Russian Defense Minister’s visit to China.
Source: China News Agency, January 31, 2008
http://mil.news.sina.com.cn/p/2008-01-31/0733483714.html
Guangzhou Daily reported on January 29 that Shenzhen became the first city in mainland China to have surpassed US$10,000 in per capita GDP. The data was released by the Shenzhen Municipal Statistics Bureau yesterday, with the average GDP per person in 2007 being US$10628.
Source: Guangzhou Daily, January 29, 2008
http://gzdaily.dayoo.com/html/2008-01/29/content_118617.htm
PLA Daily published an article on January 28 about its military technology advance. The article introduced a military scientist, Ge Xiaofei, and his recent achievements in advancing China’s fighter airplane technology. The article says that Ge has succeeded in developing an automatic electronic interference apparatus for the next generation’s fighter airplane. He also finished a theoretical plan, operation procedure, and feasibility report to develop a “fighter plane air-refueling technology.” The Article is posted on Xinhuanet’s military section.
Source: PLA Daily, January 28, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-01/28/content_7510808.htm
An article published on xinhuanet attacks the editor-in-chief of Kanwa Defense Review (a monthly magazine published in Canada, about China’s military news). It uses very malicious terms. The article, titled “Andrei Chang’s True Identity Comes to Light, a ‘Traitor,汉奸’ Utilized by Western Media,” states, “Andrei Chang is not a serious military scholar and Kanwa Defense Review is not a professional military magazine. Articles published in the magazine are only to please the anti-China forces in international society.”
Source: Xinhuanet , January 14, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-01/14/content_7418757.htm
On January 13, 2008, Deutsche Welle reported that Xunlei (Thunder, 深圳市迅雷网络技术有限公司), an Internet company based in Shenzhen, has rapidly become the biggest company providing Internet search and download services in China. The company was established in 2002. It initially offered only software downloads. The number of users kept increasing, to the point where it now claims to control 80 percent of China’s Internet download business. The company has quickly expanded its business into other areas. All the new hot products, such as music, movies, and software can be downloaded through its website.
Source: Deutsche Welle, January 13, 2008
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3055799,00.html