http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/east+asia/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Thu, 07 Dec 2006 06:36:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2952/rebiya_kadeer_the_uighur_dalai_lama/ Rebiya Kadeer has been likened to the Dalai Lama, and the comparison grew more apt when the Uighur (pronounced wee-gur) human rights activist became a close contender for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, an award conferred on the Dalai Lama in 1989. Yet in the United States, Kadeer and her cause remain relatively unknown. Like the Dalai Lama, Kadeer is challenging the Chinese government's moral and legal right to rule her people--the Uighurs, an ethnically Turkic-Persian people in western China, whose homeland, Xinjiang, was annexed by China in 1949. The backlash against this annexation exploded in the mid-'90s, when Uighur separatists carried our widespread protests. Some Uighur extremists, who were supported by Islamic extremists in Pakistan, even bombed Chinese targets.… china activism civil rights Rachel Jefferson Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3017/fights_over_chinese_labor_reform/ Last March, in his annual speech to the National People's Congress, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced wide-ranging economic reforms of "epoch-making significance," including a new labor law that would crack down on inhumane working conditions. But the move sparked opposition from many American and European corporations, even though they have long claimed that their business activities in the People's Republic of China promote human rights. The first draft of the law would have required all employers in China to sign written contracts with workers (preferably without fixed termination dates), restricted mass layoffs, increased severance pay and boosted the power of the government-sponsored All-China Federation of Trade Unions to negotiate layoffs, salaries, working conditions and internal company policies. In a suprise… china labor Rachel Jefferson Fri, 16 Feb 2007 06:00:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3022/eyes_off_the_prize/ About 30 years ago, U.S. diplomats famously dismissed the civil war raging in the jungles of Cambodia as a "sideshow" to the Cold War. Callous as that was, the uncomfortable fact remains that the diplomats were probably right. As bloody and heartrending as the situation in Cambodia got by 1977, in the end it appears to have had only a limited bearing on the wider historical forces at work in the world, adding a further dimension of sheer meaninglessness to the tragedy and trauma that still haunts millions of Cambodians. Today, headlines are fixated on the gore and chaos unfolding in Iraq. The conflict there has been shaping the outcome of the elections in many Western nations, and is certain… china india iran Rachel Jefferson Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3239/food_poisoning_for_thought/ If a country executes people who murder close-up with guns or knives, it should also put to death officials and executives who kill at a polite distance by knowingly approving and selling lethal products. For all its faults as the world's high-executioner state, China picked an equal-opportunity victim in Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the State Food and Drug Administration. Lamentably, he was convicted of corruption, not murder. He took bribes to approve licenses for foods and drugs that killed consumers, including babies. When the greed and corruption of U.S. corporate and government leaders kill, we rarely punish those responsible, and never with the severity meted out to "real" criminals. While recent headlines about China spotlight deadly pet food, toxic… china medical health regulation Rachel Jefferson Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3258/china_plays_hardball_with_soft_power/ Pirated translations of Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People are available on most Chinese street corners, and it would appear Chinese Communist Party officials have picked up a few copies. Maoist China used to assert itself on the world stage by exporting revolution, waging wars, funding insurgents and broadcasting subversive propaganda across Asia. But today's Chinese leaders have learned the value of a warm smile and firm handshake. Since "We couldn't beat 'em, let's charm 'em" appears to be Beijing's new dictum, China's new global ambassadors are not chiseled-faced "Red Guards" in fatigues, but svelte-suited diplomats, film personalities such as Wong Kar Wai and the amply bosomed Gong Li, designers such as Vivienne Tam, intellectuals such as… china foreign policy Rachel Jefferson Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:59:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3334/africom_round_one_in_a_new_cold_war/ The forgotten continent of Africa could become the new battleground in the next American conflict. On Feb. 6, President Bush formally established the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), a unified command structure located on the continent. By 2012, the United States wants two dozen bases in Africa to promote U.S. security interests and "the common goals of development of health, education, democracy, and economic growth." Bush announced the creation of AFRICOM a week after Chinese President Hu Jintao landed in Cameroon to start a high-profile, eight-country African tour, during which he signed more than 50 cooperation agreements and pledged to double China's assistance to Africa by 2009. Despite a surge in interest during the Cold War, Africa has never played a… africa china military Rachel Jefferson Tue, 30 Oct 2007 06:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3373/e_wasting_away_in_china/ The highway of poisoned products that runs from China to the United States is not a one-way street. America ships China up to 80 percent of U.S. electronic waste--discarded computers, cell phones, TVs, etc. Last year alone, the United States exported enough e-waste to cover a football field and rise a mile into the sky. So while the media ride their new lead-painted hobbyhorse--the danger of Chinese wares--spare a thought for Chinese workers dying to dispose of millions of tons of our toxic crap. Most of the junk ends up in the small port city of Guiyu, a one-industry town four hours from Hong Kong that reeks of acid fumes and burning plastic. Its narrow streets are lined with 5,500… china medical health Rachel Jefferson Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3432/talking_american_democracy_in_china/ The '08 election results are in. According to my friends, who received an informal presidential straw poll from me in my capacity as a volunteer teacher in China, Barack Obama is the winner. He is a crushing, massive winner, earning almost five times more votes than the second place Democratic finishers, Hillary Clinton and Dennis Kucinich, and ten times more votes than the leading Republican (John McCain) and the leading independents (a tie--at one vote apiece-- between Ralph Nader and Steven Colbert). I held this incredibly unscientific straw poll to help a group of my most politically interested students understand a little bit more about American democracy. These students--all English majors at Guizhou University, the largest school in China's poorest… china politics Rachel Jefferson Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3425/chinas_valley_of_tears/ The explosion of capitalism in China has many Westerners asking when political democracy--as the "natural" accompaniment of capitalism--will emerge. But a closer look quickly dispels any such hope. Modern-day China is not an oriental-despotic distortion of capitalism, but rather the repetition of capitalism's development in Europe itself. In the early modern era, most European states were far from democratic. And if they were democratic (as was the case of the Netherlands during the 17th century), it was only a democracy of the propertied liberal elite, not of the workers. Conditions for capitalism were created and sustained by a brutal state dictatorship, very much like today's China. The state legalized violent expropriations of the common people, which turned them proletarian. The… china theory Rachel Jefferson Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:00:51 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4304/uncertainty_in_sudan/ KHARTOUM, Sudan--Along a dusty side street in downtown Khartoum, amid shadows of the imposing U.S. embassy and the clamor of the building boom that is remaking the Sudanese capital, sits one of the city's many unpretentious eateries. This particular shop features a banner with a smiling picture of President Barack Obama on the corner of the sign out front. In thick black letters, it reads "Opama." The restaurant owner laments over the misspelling with a chuckle. The company he hired to make the banner made a mistake, he says, refusing to accept payment for two bottles of soda as a gesture of Sudanese hospitality toward foreigners. He expressed hope that Obama would make substantive changes in U.S. foreign policy, and… international africa obama east asia Rachel Jefferson Mon, 04 May 2009 11:00:16 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4354/happy_serf_liberation_day/ How should we celebrate "Serf Liberation Day," the new holiday invented by Beijing to mark the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Tibet? Waving flags? Serving chips and dip? Razing a few Buddhist temples? Collectivizing property? China's latest, clumsy bit of propaganda hopes to counteract the inevitable commemoration of the exile of the Dalai Lama. The new Chinese holiday seems even weirder, since no one in the West has used the word "serf" with a straight face in about 100 years. According to a January release from the Xinhua News agency, China seeks to remind "all the Chinese people, including Tibetans, of the landmark democratic reform initiated 50 years ago." "Since then," according to Pang Boyong, deputy secretary of the… activism east asia Rachel Jefferson