Here's another great documentary from our friends at Current. In "City on Steroids,"  American filmmaker Adam Yamaguchi tours the little-known megacity of Chongqing, China. Growing at a rate of nearly 200,000 people per year, Chongqing is the one of the fastest growing cities on the planet and an emblem of China's rapid urbanization. The clearly overwhelmed Yamaguchi takes viewers on a quick tour of this modern boomtown from brand new yuppie apartments to factory floors. Along the way he takes time to discuss "Desperate Housewives" with college students, lift heavy sacks with migrant workers, and get taken in a card game called "fighting against the landowner."

Check it out:

blog.ifeng.com

Zhang Ping, a senior editor of China's Southern Metropolis Weekly, recently penned several columns under a pseudonym about Chinese censorship of the situation in Tibet. One his pieces, "How to Find the Truth About Tibet," reflects on how both official and self-censorship among the Chinese media prevents Chinese readers from knowing the full story about Tibet, and laments that readers then focus their ire on perceived Western biases rather than agitating for more press freedoms. Here's an excerpt:

If the netizens [hyping inaccurate reports by foreign media] genuinely care about news values, they should not only be exposing the fake reports by the western media and they should also be challenging the control by the Chinese government over news sources and the Chinese media.  There is no doubt that the harm from the latter is even worse than the former.  When individual media outlets make fake reports about real events, it is easy to correct because just a few meticulous Chinese netizens can do the job.  When media control is exercised by the state authorities, the whole world is helpless.

There was a predictable nationalist-inspired backlash against Zhang, with Web forums labeling him a traitor and worse. Now, he's been fired.

Just after he was sacked, Zhang wrote a blog post titled, "My Cowardice and Impotence," in which he struggles with the work journalists are forced to produce in a place with so few press freedoms.

I am afraid of other people praising me as a brave newspaperman, because I know I am full of fear in my heart. I did write some commentaries on current affairs, and edited some articles that exposed the truth. I lost my job and was threatened for speaking the truth. However, to be honest, these were exceptional cases. They were my miscalculations. In my various media positions in the past decade, what I’ve practiced most is avoiding risk.

Self-censorship has become part of my life. It makes me disgusted with myself. Some of my peers are proud of their censorship skills, and like to show it off to employers. I have similar skills, and I am using them everyday. But I am deeply uncomfortable with it. I feel ashamed about it, just like an executioner knows that he is good at killing.[...]

[T]he media industry is different. I participate in telling lies to the public whenever I cancel a good news story, whenever I delete a sentence of truth, if we regard the media as a public good.[...] Even if I don’t have the courage and capacity to do more than I can do now, I should at least live honestly and conscientiously, and be aware of my cowardice and impotence.

CIA Director Michael Hayden gave a smart talk earlier this week about where the world is headed and what role the United States will play in it (video). With the world population set to grow about 34 percent by mid-century, the agency will be especially attentive to demographic transitions in countries that can't sustain higher populations, he said. But Hayden also had a message for China:

China is a competitor—certainly in the economic realm, and, increasingly, on the geopolitical stage. But China is not an inevitable enemy. There are good policy choices available to both Washington and Beijing that can keep us on the largely peaceful, constructive path we've been on for almost 40 years now.

On a very hopeful note, Hayden also said Americans have to start putting themselves in others' shoes:

[A] greater number of actors will have influence on the world stage in this century. And that presents one overriding challenge to those of us responsible for our nation's security: We must do a better job of understanding cultures, histories, religions, and traditions that are not our own. We must broaden our understanding, and guard against viewing the world exclusively through an American prism. We must not rely exclusively on an American—or even more broadly, Western—lens in assessing foreign challenges and helping policymakers decide how to respond.

In the United States, the Oreo cookie is a classic. Millions of American children have enjoyed dunking the sweet treat -- white cream sandwiched between two round, crisp, chocolate cookies -- in milk as an afternoon snack.

Kraft Foods, makers of the Oreo, introduced the cookie to China in 1996. But the Chinese didn't exactly take to them. So starting in 2005, the Wall Street Journal reports, Kraft engaged in a classic case of adapting a product to suit local tastes. The Chinese found the cookies too sweet, so Kraft reduced the sugar in them. China was developing a thirst for milk -- a product that traditionally hasn't been a Chinese dietary staple -- so Kraft launched a campaign, complete with Oreo ambassadors, to "educate" the Chinese on how to dunk the cookies in milk.

The most radical change was in the shape. Noticing that sales of wafer cookies were increasing faster than those of traditional biscuit-like cookies, a new version of the Oreo was created: a long, narrow, layered stack of crispy wafers and vanilla and chocolate cream, all coated with chocolate. Whoever said Oreos have to be round?

Of course, amid rising food prices and increased demand for chocolate (whose consumption in China has nearly doubled in the past five years), the success of the Chinese Oreo brings to mind the broader question of "Can the World Afford a Middle Class?," a topic recently addressed in FP and one that fans the flames of Chinese frustrations with the West.

(Meanwhile, Oreos have been trying to colonize British biscuit tins, the BBC reports.)

A poem that has been circulating on the Internet lately offers insight into the frustrations that many Chinese -- including those studying in the United States -- feel in reaction to criticisms that have been leveled against their country in recent times. An excerpt is below:

When we have a billion people, you said we were destroying the planet.
When we tried limiting our numbers, you said it is human rights abuse.

When we were poor, you thought we were dogs.
When we loan you cash, you blame us for your debts.

When we build our industries, you called us polluters.
When we sell you goods, you blame us for global warming.

When we buy oil, you call that exploitation and genocide.
When you fight for oil, you call that liberation and democracy.

The full poem, whose origins are unclear, is here. There's also a video version that uses historical images, magazine covers, and political cartoons to reinforce the point:

Politics

AFP/Getty Images

The Olympic torch relay has returned to China, passing through Hong Kong today. Three Danish pro-Tibet activists were denied entry to Hong Kong ahead of the events. Earlier, protests during the Seoul leg of the relay turned violent, and South Korea plans to deport the Chinese demonstrators involved.

China announced its willingness Friday to talk with the Dalai Lama but condemned him on Monday for manipulating foreign opinion. 

In the first round of sentencing from the Lhasa riots, a Chinese court found 30 people guilty of crimes including arson to disrupting public services.

A deadly virus, EV71, has broken out in Anhui province with over 900 cases and the deaths of 20 children. The outbreak began in March but wasn't reported until this past Sunday.

French supermarket chain Carrefour, in a bid to bolster its patriotic image, clad employees in new uniforms with the Chinese flag including hats bearing the Olympic rings and "Beijing 2008." The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games promptly deemed the hats a copyright infringement.

A Chinese student threw a water bottle at a Tibetan monk during a lecture at the University of Southern California. Several other American universities have seen clashes between pro-Tibet and pro-China students.

A Guangzhou newspaper has uncovered a disturbing child-labor ring in Guangdong province. More than 100 children were rescued after reportedly being sold or kidnapped into labor and forced to work up to 300 hours per month.

Economy

China and India will likely sustain Asia through a global economic slowdown, according to Standard & Poor's.

U.S. regulators are questioning China's ability to control its products after at least 81 U.S. patients died from contaminated doses of heparin, a blood thinner. The contaminant was traced back to a Chinese supplier of an ingredient that gets processed into the final product by Baxter, a multinational company. The FDA suspects the act may have been intentional.

Officials were sacked and excessive speeding blamed for the worst train accident in a decade. The accident, which took place in Shandong province, killed 70 and left hundreds injured.

China may become a corn importer as government incentives are not pulling farmers away from other crops such as soybeans, green beans and red beans.  The reason? High fertilizer costs.

Taiwan

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan's KMT leader Lien Chan met in Beijing Tuesday, though the contents of the meeting were not disclosed. Their fourth since 2005, the meeting has added significance now that Taiwan's President-elect Ma Ying-jeou will be taking office on May 20.

Analysis

William F. Schultz, former head of Amnesty International USA, argues that pressuring Beijing over the Olympics will take more finesse than human rights groups are currently employing.

British politician Charles Tannock asks why the West embraces Kosovo and Tibet but is ignoring Taiwan in its struggle for nationhood in a piece for the Taipei Times.

A New York Times editorial looks at the contaminated Heparin case and asserts that U.S. companies need to ensure the safety of their products.

China's energy outlook for the summer may be grim as demand outstrips supply causing more brownouts, according to Emma Graham-Harrison of Reuters. The energy shortfall will also produce an increase in oil demand, she predicts.

This week's China moment

A vice-mayor of Tianjin ordered the removal of a 2 million yuan ($286,000) sculpture at a new airport terminal days before its official opening because he didn't like the color. Gag orders were issued to the media but went unheeded as CCTV gave the story "unusually frank coverage," according to Reuters.

The BBC quotes Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am as rejecting a boycott of the Beijing Olympics because it isn't right to "punish a whole country." Fair enough. The Black Eyed Peas are planning to gig in China in June.

But then, Will.i.am, who says the events in Tibet are "messed up," suggests a far more radical tack:

If America really wants to make a difference, it should stop importing China's products and pay back its debt."

What we have here, folks, is the fallacy of the excluded middle. There's actually a lot the United States can do in this here. For some more coherent thoughts on how to pressure Beijing on human rights, check out the new Web exclusive by William F. Schulz, the former head of Amnesty International USA.

INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images

Ah, globalization at work: Workers at a factory in China's southern Guangdong province were making "Free Tibet" flags, naively unaware of what the colorful flags -- banned in China -- represented.

The owner of the factory said the orders for the flags had been placed from overseas.

CHINA PHOTOS/Getty Images

Workers install a wind-energy lamp on the spectator dam at the Olympic Sailing Center, the venue for the sailing events during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, during a media tour on April 24, 2008 in Qingdao of Shandong Province, China. Qingdao is one of co-host cities of the 2008 Olympics, where the sailing events will take place between August 9, 2008 and August 23, 2008.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

It was to be the marquee event of the Olympic torch's tour around the world. In a triumphant show of Chinese prowess and technological know-how, the torch was to ascend to the highest point on Earth and powerfully symbolize China's dramatic entry on the world stage.

Instead, as Agence France Presse puts it, the torch's trip up Mt. Everest, which could begin as early as this weekend, has "descended into farce":

[L]ast-minute changes this week by Beijing Olympic officials called for a rapid and tightly controlled two-to-three day trip through riot-hit Tibet to Mount Everest base camp. The changes raised concerns among journalists about the health impact of ascending too quickly to the camp's elevation of 5,150 metres (16,900 feet). After foreign media requested further information on the safety concerns, Beijing Olympic Games organisers set a sudden Thursday morning payment deadline for air tickets to the Tibetan capital Lhasa. The situation descended into farce when the Olympic official tasked with collecting payments refused to accept the fees from organisations including AFP and other international news agencies as he headed to the airport to purchase the tickets. 'I'm sorry, it is too late. I am going to the airport now,' said Xu Xianhui, a Beijing Games media official. It was not immediately clear if the refusal to accept payment was part of an official government decision to keep reporters out of Tibet. Xu said the payment of some foreign media organisations had been accepted but declined specifics. Olympic organisers were asked to explain the refusal but did not immediately reply."

Officials in Beijing also announced that foreign press would not be allowed to cover the climbing team's departure from Everest Base Camp, scheduled for tomorrow.

Moreover, medical experts say the trip from Beijing (at sea level) to Base Camp should not be made in less than one week in order to allow for acclimatization. Accordingly, several news agencies pulled their reporters from the assignment due to the potential for serious health complications. Authoritarianism through bureaucracy is an art form in China.

The move is hardly surprising, considering that the reporters hoping to cover the torch's climb up Everest were to be the first allowed to enter Tibet in a month or so. Scattered reports of continued protests are still leaking out of Lhasa, despite a near-complete ban on media coverage. And Beijing is clearly paranoid that the torch's trip there will spark more uprisings. Earlier this week, an American mountaineer was kicked off Everest by officials keeping watch over the mountain after a "Free Tibet" banner was discovered in his gear. Oh, and Tibet won't be reopened to tourists next month as planned, either.

Does anyone else see a pattern developing here? At this point, it seems appropriate to ask whether the Beijing Games can even be taken seriously. So, can they?

MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images

Almost any American who has taken Chinese in the past decade should know the phrase "Meiguo ren hen xihuan da guansi" (Americans really like to sue people). It is usually presented as a point of difference between our two cultures, and McDonald's coffee inevitably comes up.

Well, the tables sure are turning. Reuters reports that a primary schoolteacher and a beautician have filed suit against CNN for the allegedly slanderous comments against the Chinese people made by Jack Cafferty. (The crotchety CNN anchor called Chinese products "junk" and the country's leaders "goons.")

The suit asks for $1.3 billion dollars -- $1 per person in China -- for "violat[ing]the dignity and reputation of the Chinese people." Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu called the suit "spontaneous action" on the part of the Chinese people.

It certainly brings new meaning to the title of Cafferty's book, It's Getting Ugly Out There.

ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images

Politics

Next stop for the Olympic torch? Canberra, Australia. Protests are already underway as two people were arrested for trying to unfurl a banner on the Sydney Harbour bridge. People also beamed a laser message on the bridge saying "Don't Torch Tibet." Needless to say, security will be high for the relay leg tomorrow.

French supermarket chain Carrefour's chairman Jose Luis Duran told Xinhua his company would support the Olympics and that protesters have ulterior motives. He also denied supporting the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government praised the chain the same day as the interview.

The Tibet crackdown is still having some aftershocks, as a prominent Tibetan broadcaster/performer was detained.

The Financial Times is launching a Chinese-language publication ahead of the Olympic Games geared at China's growing stock of professionals. Playboy is also expected to be granted circulation for a month "to meet the demand of overseas visitors during the Olympics," according to Reuters.

Economy

China will continue rice exports, which may help alleviate the global food crisis. China produces almost a third of the world's rice.

In China's continued economic efforts in Africa, China Railway Group will embark on a $2.9 billion joint venture with Sinohydro Corp in a copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The deal, which is awaiting the DRC government's approval, includes a provision to limit Chinese workers to 20 percent of the total in an effort to curb local resentment.

Nationalistic fervor is hitting the racks as new T-shirts come out with slogans like "Go China!" and "Tibet WAS, IS, and ALWAYS will be a party of China!" Chinese officials say Olympic ticket sales have not been affected by the torch relay protests.

Although China claims "great progress" on intellectual property enforcement, the EU announced it will ask China to step up efforts ahead of the Olympics. According to the OECD, the global fake goods market is around $200 billion a year or 2 percent of the world's trade, with much of it originating in China.

Taiwan

President-elect Ma Ying-jeou wants to implement tax incentives to lure investment to Taiwan, especially in technology. He also plans to make it a priority to remove the 40 percent cap on mainland investment designed to make Taiwanese multinationals more competitive (though HSBC analysts predict the move won't help since production prices in China are soaring). Also, Chinese banks and insurance firms will be allowed to set up offices in Taiwan as soon as late May.

Taiwan is investing almost $1 billion in infrastructure to prepare for the influx of mainland tourists that Ma's reforms are expected to bring. According to Reuters, 50 million mainland Chinese have expressed interest in visiting the island.

The U.S. is requesting $170 million for a new American Institute in Taiwan compound (the unofficial embassy) that may include a Marine barracks.

Analysis

In a piece for the Financial Times, Coca-cola Chief Executive Neville Isdell talks about the company's role in politics relating to Darfur and the Olympics.

U.S. policy in the Pacific is weakening, according to Michael Auslin of the American Enterprise Institute. And Philip Levy has a new working paper that discusses the potential for democracy in China in the wake of changes in the economy, technology, and the rule of law.

For more on the controversy surrounding China's presence in Africa, check out Serge Michel's "When China Met Africa" in the new issue of FP (subscribers only).

PIERRE VERDY/AFP/Getty Images

You have probably already heard about protests in China over the weekend in several cities against French supermarket chain Carrefour and alleged Western media bias. But there were also demonstrations by the Chinese community on Saturday in five Western cities: Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London and Washington. Xinhua news agency reports thousands of participants in the European cities and hundreds here in Washington. With signs like "Love our China" and "You can't find this from BBC... Stop disrupting the Olympics" there is a clear, organized international effort to get the message out that many overseas Chinese also oppose the affronts to the Olympic games and the related media coverage. The silent protest in Britain attracted 3,000 participants and was the first public demonstration on the part of the Chinese community there.

Recent fervor has demonstrated a strong, unified voice on the part of the Chinese community. And said overtures are producing results: French President Nikolas Sarkozy sent a letter to "Wheelchair Angel" Jin Jing expressing sympathy and regret for her treatment in the Paris torch relay (but no apology).

But the strife continues as yesterday, the Paris city council went over Sarkozy's head and approved the Dalai Lama for honorary citizenship, in addition to recently jailed dissident Hu Jia. While many may call it misguided for its lack of respect for human rights, the Chinese position shows sophistication in political advocacy: Adopt a unified stance and get the widest possible coverage to spread your message. Though the synergy is the result of the people and the government touting the same line, it's an impressive campaign for a country with a state-run media. It's also worth pointing out that, unlike people within China itself, these expats have access to the gamut of information on their homeland, and yet they still feel strongly that the Western view is biased.

ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images

A shipment of ammunition, rockets, and mortar bombs en route from China to Zimbabwe has been denied passage from the South African port of Durban to the shipment's landlocked destination. 

On Friday, South Africa’s High Court barred the transport of weapons aboard the An Yue Jiang, arguing that the shipment would be used by Zimbabwe's president of 28 years, Robert Mugabe, against members of the opposition party. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, temporarily in self-imposed exiled, declared himself the victor of the March 29th elections. Since then, journalists and activists alike have reported that hundreds of opposition supporters have been detained, beaten, or tortured (warning: illustrations may be unsettling).

Although the An Yue Jiang is expected to return to China, a South African paper, News24, reports that a second arms shipment from China is scheduled to arrive by air in order to "expedite the delivery and to circumvent the controversy around last week's shipment by sea." The story also claims that both orders, placed by the Zimbabwean government, were finalized just days after Zimbabwe's elections.

The arms shipments brings to light the hazards of China's growing role in the world's poorest and most unstable continent. According to Serge Michel in the current issue of FP, in the last seven years, "trade between China and Africa jumped from $10 billion to $70 billion." But the resulting projects highlight the competing interests of Chinese-African cooperation:

Take, for example, the dam being built at Imboulou in Congo. Officially, it's a huge success: It's expected to help double national electricity production by 2009... [But according to a project engineer] the quality of the cement being used is sub-standard, the Congolese workers are so poorly paid that none of them stays longer than a few months, and, above all, the drilling has been so poorly done that half of the dam sits on a huge pocket of water that continually floods the site and could cause it to collapse one day."

From weapons to shoddy cement, the Chinese-Africa deal is looking more like a recipe for disaster every day.

From Shanghaiist comes this disturbing story of a young American attacked by a mob of angry Chinese outside a Carrefour store in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, on Sunday night:

Last night [Sunday, Apr. 20] around 7pm my friend was attacked by a mob of about 150 people outside the Carrefour in Zhuzhou, Hunan.... When leaving Carrefour some of the crowd started shouting at him and he tried to say he didn't have anything to do with the Olympics, but 3 men started to push him and then he was hit in the back of the head at least 3 times. He started to run, and the mob chased him. He jumped into a cab, but the mob surrounded the car and started shaking and rocking it. The cab driver was shouting at him to get out. Then they started hitting the car. The crowd was shouting "kill him! kill the Frenchman." He called the Field Director while in the back of the car. The cab driver abandon the car when he saw police coming. Two police made there way though the mob and managed to drive the cab away. The Field Director alerted.... The police got him another cab and he took it from Zhuzhou to the field director's home in Changsha. He spending the night here in Changsha and is likely leaving China as soon as possible.

The French supermarket chain has been under siege in China over the past week. And it's hardly alone. A similarly disturbing, though less violent, episode took place last week right here at home -- at Duke University -- when a 20-year-old freshman from China who had tried to encourage dialogue between Chinese student demonstrators and a smaller group of Tibetans found her personal information published on the Internet. Hundreds of thousands of angry and threatening posts appeared on Chinese Web sites. Back in China, the student's parents were threatened and had to go into hiding.

It's all part of an increasingly scary rise in nationalism on the mainland. According to the IHT, Beijing has encouraged such nationalistic fervor to run amok by easing up on restrictions on online forums in recent weeks. If true, that news is disturbing. Because in just a few months, 500,000 foreign tourists will begin arriving in China for the Olympics. What kind of welcome are they going to receive?

(Hat tip: Passport reader hdp)

China Photos/Getty Images

I remember when the first McDonald's opened in Moscow in 1990. There was something powerfully symbolic about seeing tens of thousands of Russians lined up to get a taste of America. It meant communism was on the way out. Capitalism had won. And Muscovites were waiting hours in the cold to get a "Big Mak" just to prove it. The store needed 27 cash registers and seating for 700 just to accommodate the crowds. Young Russians left jobs at coveted scientific institutions in order for the chance to earn 1.5 rubles an hour making fries for Ronald McDonald. Take that, Mr. Gorbachev.

Put bluntly, the whole thing felt like a victory. Eighteen years later, the conduct of U.S. companies with regard to the Beijing Olympics offers a different feeling indeed. Here's the slogan Coca-Cola (a company which is in bed with the Beijing Olympics to the tune of between $75 and $90 million) is using in its Chinese marketing: "Red Around the World." Yeah, you read that right. The slogan comes in the form of a jingle that makes up the centerpiece of Coke's Olympics-specific marketing efforts in country.

Now, call me McCarthyite if you want, but this rubs me the wrong way. We're talking about a country that, just a few years ago, was aggressively forcing down U.S. military aircraft and currently maintains one of the most robust -- if not the most robust -- spying platforms against the West. Now Coke, an American icon if ever there was one, is publicly envisioning the spread of "red around the world?"

Andres Kieger, Coke's director of marketing in China, says the color red isn't all that bad. "This isn't meant as a patriotic song," he says. "It is meant as an emotional song. Red is the color of a lot of good things." Presumably he was referring to Coke cans and not the nationalistic symbols of, say, Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany. Had someone at Coke bothered to check, say, Wikipedia, they would have found multiple entries explaining that, politically at least, red is the color of communism. The phenomenon dates to the Russian Revolution, when red symbolized the bloodshed of the working class in the fight against capitalism. For the more artistically inclined, the folks at the Guggenheim explain here.

I'm all for the forces of capitalism and target-specific marketing. But somehow, kowtowing to Beijing by trumpeting the spread of Communist red just doesn't feel like a victory to me.

Grass-roots sentiment against the French is getting so heated in China that the government is now trying to cool things down. 

Last time Chinese nationalism got out of control, the government called for calm in the name of "social harmony."

This time, the rationale is economic development (the big dog on the national agenda and one of the best ways for citizens to serve the nation). Reminding the people of China's struggles is a great antidote to anger directed at foreign corporations, or so a commentary run by state news agency Xinhua appears to hope:

Thirty years of reform and opening up have created a China miracle... But we must be crystal clear that for China that has endured so much, the future road will not be all smooth-going."

The commentary also calls the anger "unadorned" and a "sincere demonstration of public opinion."

The government clearly has a lot of reigning in to do: A survey conducted in 10 Chinese cities found that two thirds of respondents support a boycott against French supermarket chain Carrefour.

More Europeans now consider China a bigger threat to global stability than they do the United States, according to a Harris/FT poll out this week.

Granted, the poll was taken over the past few weeks, not the best time for the Chinese given how Tibetan protests and redirected torch relays have dominated the headlines. But there are still quite a few significant jumps in anti-China sentiment compared to last year.

Percent naming China the greatest threat to global stability:

Last year, all four ranked the United States a bigger threat. And within the United States, 31 percent of Americans listed China as the No.1 threat this year, more than Iran or North Korea. 

Politics

NG HAN GUAN/AFP/Getty Images

Chinese President Hu Jintao publicly commented on events in Tibet for the first time Saturday, citing the unity of the nation as the issue at heart between Beijing and the "Dalai clique." Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama's aids have engaged in some talks with Beijing.

The European Commission doesn't support Olympic boycotts, but has "legitimate worries" about human rights in China ahead of Europe sending its largest trade delegation ever to Beijing.

The Chinese government has ordered a halt to construction projects and even outdoor spray-painting in the weeks leading up to the Olympics in order to improve the Beijing air. Smoking will still be permitted in bars and restaurants, however, due to pressure from businesses over potential revenue losses.

A historic 20-minute encounter between the Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan's Vice President-elect Frank Siew Saturday has Beijing "thinking deeply" about improving cross-strait relations and agreeing to direct flights and increased tourism between the mainland and the island. A Taipei Times editorial downplays the meeting.

The Olympic torch relay continues to be a security concern as the Pakistan leg today was confined to a heavily guarded stadium with an invitation-only audience. India gears up for its segment today in New Delhi and has shortened the run from 6 to roughly 2 miles. The main spectators? The 15,000 policemen guarding the route. Some in the Australian-Chinese community have vowed to protect their portion of the run next week in Canberra by forming a "people's army" against pro-Tibet "scum."

Chinese netizens have started their own anti-CNN Web site. The site came under attack from hackers (translated) last week, and CNN Jack Cafferty dumped more fuel on the fire by calling the Chinese government a bunch of "goons" and "thugs." China is demanding an apology. Ironically, CNN ran an editorial the same day urging people not to demonize China ahead of the Olympics.

Economy

China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange fund bought an almost 1 percent stake in British Petroleum. Britain's Finance Minister Alistair Darling  welcomes Chinese investment.

The New York Stock Exchange may be the first foreign stock allowed to list on a Chinese market. Caijing magazine cites an anonymous official as saying NYSE is attractive for its "market value, performance, and compliance."

A series of lawsuits have placed mostly symbolic blame on Chinese companies for forgery. Gucci won a suit against Yaohan and Senda for trademark infringement over merchandise bearing the "GG" logo. Senda paid $26,000 USD in damages. Last week, Italian confectioner Ferrero also won a suit against Chinese firm Montresor for selling a copycat product and received about $79,000 USD in damages.

China Power Development International Ltd. plans to double power generation capacity by 2010. By the end of this year, it projects generation capacity of 10,000 MW or roughly five Hoover Dams.

Commentary

Brookings features an interview this week between Diane Rehm and a panel discussing the Olympics controversy. Brookings Senior Fellow Cheng Li says the Xinjiang Olympic terrorist plots are a real problem but are also inflected with government strategy to emphasize anti-terrorism. IOC member Dick Pound says an international torch relay is not a good idea. Whoops.

Kent Ewing with the Asia Times explains how Chinese nationalism is resisting a supposed onslaught of humiliation from the West, and the effect of the "wheelchair angel."

Matthew Forney of the International Herald Tribune talks about why the Chinese youth are so supportive of their government. George Vecsey weighs in on why we shouldn't boycott the Olympics, as all games have had their flaws.