China in the headlines – 27 June 2008

In the latest wrap-up from news outlets and bloggers across the globe:

HUMAN FLESH SEARCH ENGINES: CHINESE VIGILANTES THAT HUNT VICTIMS ON THE WEB
Times Online – She looks like any other disgruntled young person. Arms tightly crossed, mouth twisted in contempt, she could be letting off steam about parents, school, or boyfriends …

IN THE INTERNET AGE, A NEW CULTURAL REVOLUTION
National Public Radio – For decades, China's government exercised tight control over the country's arts and culture. Now the Internet is allowing artists and entertainers to connect directly with new audiences — often under the radar …

JOURNALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
NPR On The Media – There is real investigative reporting in China, it’s just not done under a free press flag. Instead, practitioners mind an unstated set of rules, keeping themselves safe by employing tactics like using excessive jargon and exploiting government rivalries …

CHINA'S LAST MAOIST VILLAGE
Al-Jazeera – China's booming economy is constantly making headlines and the country's adoption of its own form of capitalism is a far cry from its Maoist past …

PORTALS TO OPPRESSION
Guardian – Web companies' compliance with Chinese censorship is a betrayal of western values and may prove bad for business …

UIGHUR JUSTICE
Wall St Journal – The controversy over the right of habeas corpus for U.S. terror detainees has obscured the fact that the legal process put in place by Congress for settling other detainee appeals has been quietly at work …

ANOTHER ARREST OF A POLITICAL ACTIVIST IN THE PROVINCES ...
Time Blog – Tell me again what it was holding the Olympics in Beijing was supposed to accomplish? A bit of political reform in China? A touch of liberalization? …

PERSEPCTIVES ON TRANSPARENCY
Nart Villeneuve Blog– When Google first added this censorship notification to google.cn — the China-specific version of Google — its significance was largely overshadowed by the fact that they had agreed to censor their search engine at all …

AIDS ACTIVIST'S DREAM 'DIED'
Radio Free Asia – A former student activist who set up a civil organization in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS has described how the ruling Chinese Communist Party destroyed a grassroots group that tried to address the burgeoning epidemic in the region ....

CHINA DENIES 'POLITICISING' OLYMPICS
SMH – China denied it violated the prohibition on politicising the Olympics when a Tibetan official called for government opponents to be "smashed" to protect the Games.

CHINA SAYS NGOs STIR ANTI-CHINESE FEELINGS IN DARFUR
Reuters – China's envoy to the strike-torn Sudanese region of Darfur on Thursday accused western media and non-governmental groups of stirring up anti-Chinese feelings among opposition groups in the African country …