A Beijing real estate tycoon uses his blog to post photos of his hometown. A Shanghai poet waxes lyrical about the beautiful weather for China's parliament session. Another less-serious writer describes bouts of drinking.
China's government has tried to boost public interest in its figurehead parliament and its companion advisory body by setting up Web logs (blogs) for members as they meet this week.
Called bo ke in Chinese, blogs are popular with young people despite strict censorship rules.
In one posting, National People's Congress (NPC) delegate Zhou Hongyu (
"I hope to collect the wishes of the people, listen to their will and experience the people's lives," wrote Zhou, a representative from Hunan who advocates education reform.
The patriotically named Strong Country Blog is run by the People's Daily, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party.
"Its open attitude and attention to the expression of opinion reflects the voice of the people," says a handbook given out by the People's Daily.
The blogs are housed at http://blog.people.com.cn, which also features public reaction and "hot" essays and discussion topics.
So far, only eight of more than 5,000 delegates to the NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have been approved to post comments online, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
In the hulking Great Hall of the People, where the lawmakers meet, dozens of computers sit in the lobby for delegates to use -- another sign of China's growing dependency on the Internet.
Yesterday, people were using the computers to look up information ranging from ping pong scores to lawmaker profiles.
"This all represents China's technological improvements," said Wang Guifeng, who oversees the information section. "The computers first appeared during the sessions in 1998. Next year, we are considering a similar set up at the hotels were the delegates are staying," he said.
NPC representative Pan Shiyi, a Beijing developer, keeps a blog detailing his childhood -- complete with photos of his home village -- and some of his media appearances.
Pan also airs his opinions on China's growing income gap between the rich and the poor -- an issue the leadership has promised to focus on amid rising rural discontent. He points readers to a link to an essay he wrote entitled "I disagree with new city construction that separates the rich from the poor."
While most entries faithfully toe the party line, there are a few surprisingly prurient highlights.
Under the heading "latest blog photos," are five women in black and white lingerie. Captions read "Such a charming photo is easy on the eyes" and "This beautiful lady is wonderful."
One posting, written under the pseudonym "the son of Qian Jiang," describes the author's drinking experiences, including one instance where five bottles of expensive liquor are consumed.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
RSS