China Rises - McClatchy Newspapers

Taiwan insists its diplomatic relations with Paraguay are secure. That probably means they are shaky, and Paraguay is "weighing offers" in the dollar diplomacy that marks the constant battle between Beijing and Taipei for allies.

The beautiful actress Gong Li appears to have taken out Singaporean citizenship, if news reports from the city-state are to be trusted.

The stories I write sometimes catch the attention of editors at Xinhua, the state-run news service. If the stories are positive, Xinhua sometimes snatches them and distributes them.   Far as I know they don???t pay a dime. What they do is, er, polish them. That is, they take out anything negative.

Put off those plans to head to Tibet in a luxury train.

Why are the Chinese not better at team sports?

One of the most special feelings I had during the Olympics came right at the end. The closing ceremony was a memory. The torch had been passed to London. I finished my story in the press gallery of the stadium and was walking along the Olympic Green.

Chinese companies go where others fear to tread.

I was in the Wukesong basketball arena last night watching the U.S. ???redeem team??? take on the Australians in Olympic basketball.

I was at the BMX cycling course today, which is quite breath-taking. It???s out at the Laoshan cluster of cycling venues in far western Beijing.

Skepticism seems to pervade these Olympic Games against winners.

The following exchange occurred earlier today at a daily press conference that senior spokespeople of the International and Beijing Olympic committees offer to the foreign media.

A couple of Olympics jokes are making the rounds in Beijing.

Xian Dongmei is a ???mommy??? gold medalist, and she???s caused a sensation for it in China.

The Chaoyang Stadium that is a venue for beach volleyball is a beaut. I went there yesterday and spent a few hours to report on weather conditions at the Olympics (click here for the story), and, naturally, to take a look around.

The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was squeaky clean, free of any overt politics. Or at least that’s the impression I got from watching the main channel of China Central Television.

Just a few days ago, Muslim militants killed 16 policemen in China’s far west. An Islamic group has made new threats against the Olympic Games.

The red carpet is getting worn out.

Many Chinese still just don't get it about the media.

I’m temporarily far away from Beijing in Kashgar, the westernmost city in China, a Muslim outpost on the Old Silk road. Kashgar has got to be one of the few major Muslim cities in the world where one doesn’t hear a public call to prayers five times a day.

Since I’ve been posting more videos lately, let me add links to two videos I prepared myself with the help of some tech people in Washington. One video is a brief introduction to Beijing, the Olympic host city. The other is about the sports training system in China, which has some 3,000 sports schools. I wrote a news story on this same issue but it has not yet been released. Once it has been, I'll add a link.

I can’t bring you the YouTube video of the Beijing opening ceremonies rehearsal this week but I can bring you something else – a sign of how China is opening up.

Much to the dismay of China, a Korean journalist snuck into the Bird’s Nest stadium Monday night and filmed a rehearsal of the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games.

Like most foreign residents of Beijing, I’m keeping a close eye on the weather, or more accurately, the smog, these days. The Summer Olympics are only nine days away.

If you’re having trouble catching the Olympic spirit, watch pedicab operator Sun Dingguo do his rap in the video above.

The presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain met with the Dalai Lama Friday in Aspen, Colorado, and soon afterward photos like this one were landing in newspapers around the world.

so The censors sometimes fall asleep on the job.

There’s more speculation — and I reiterate that it’s just speculation — that North Korea’s Kim Jong Il might pop in for the Beijing Olympics.

Posters are appearing around Beijing guiding locals about how to interact with the (few) foreigners coming for the Summer Games.