Danwei Noon Report is a daily roundup of new and old media coverage about China from Chinese and English sources.
China intervenes in Zambian election
The Financial Times reports:
The Chinese government has intervened in Zambia’s upcoming presidential election in a forceful sign of the commodity-hungry country’s growing economic and political clout in Africa.
Li Baodong, China’s ambassador in Lusaka, said Beijing might cut diplomatic relations with Zambia if voters elected Michael Sata, an opposition candidate, as president, Zambian media reported on Tuesday.
His remarks are the first sign of overt political interference by China in African affairs in decades, reflecting Beijing’s rapidly expanding role as an investor on the continent and as a client for long-term supplies of raw materials. China is a leading investor in Zambian copper, the country’s biggest export product by value. (Link)
Army drivers must obey traffic laws
The Me Old China website has a story about new calls from the Chinese army to make their drivers actually obey the traffic laws:
The People’s Liberation Army issued an order this weekend calling on drivers of military cars to obey the law and drive better as part of a campaign in Beijing that’s also targeting party and government officials… (link, see also Why local governments turn bad)
Government to audit newspaper circulation
Sohu has a story about the Publicity (nee Propaganda) Department, the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP), the Postal Administration and the State Council working together to audit the circulation of city newspapers in Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Harbin, Shenyang, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Taiyuan, Xi’an, Chengdu and Guangzhou.
Starting this month, the initiative will use undisclosed methods to survey the reach of 44 newspapers, including Beijing Evening News (北京晚报), Beijing Youth Daily (北京青年报), Beijing Times (京华时报), The Beijing News (新京报), Xinmin Evening News (新民晚报), Yangcheng Evening News (羊城晚报), Southern Weekend(南方都市报), Huaxi Metropolis News, (华西都市报), Chengdu Business News (成都商报), Yanzhao Metropolis News (燕赵都市报), Huashang News (华商报).
As everyone knows, when the government releases statistics, they are always very accurate, so at long last we can look forward to discovering the real print runs and sales figures for these newspapers. (Link – in Chinese)
Friendlies and Lhasa at Tian’anmen in October
From the Beijing Times comes this rendering of the flower displays that are being planned for National Day festivities in Tian’anmen Square in October. The displays often portray major social events of the past year – recent years have featured a replica of the Shenzhou V spacecraft and copious amounts of Olympics-related layouts. This year continues the Olympic theme with giant, 5-meter-tall figures of the Five Friendlies cavorting through a pastoral scene. Representing science and technology is the Qinghai-Tibet railroad display, in which a model train will be set against a replica Potala Palace. The displays will be finished and opened to the public on 27 September. (link – in Chinese)
Chinese nannies for rich U.S. families
This appears to be one of those stories that will keep showing up in the American media for sometime: some rich Americans want their children to learn Chinese and are hiring Chinese nannies to help their children grow up bilingual (link).