{"id":1830,"date":"2005-10-22T19:16:34","date_gmt":"2005-10-22T11:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danwei.webfactional.com\/?p=1830"},"modified":"2005-10-22T19:16:34","modified_gmt":"2005-10-22T11:16:34","slug":"black_rain_and_democracy_in_th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/media-and-advertising\/black_rain_and_democracy_in_th.php","title":{"rendered":"Black rain and democracy in the state-owned media"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vile effluvia<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Black sludge rained down on Chengdu, Sichuan on Friday. The sludge storm was caused by effluvia from the nearby Jialing Power Plant, which burnt a batch of substandard coal.<\/p>\n

The incident has been covered in the state-owned press, in both English and Chinese. Xinhua’s English website republished a China Daily story about the black rain, and illustrated it with photos credited to search engine Baidu, which probably means they were found using a Baidu search, and could come from just about anywhere. The photo reproduced here is from the Xinhua web page.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an opinion piece in the China Daily asks: Does democracy exist in China?<\/i><\/p>\n

The article talks about the government’s recent release of a white paper about democracy, arguing that the document is worth reading:<\/p>\n

The reading process may be a little tedious considering the prevalence of unfamiliar political jargon. But ample rewards are guaranteed – you will find out what democracy means in terms of official Chinese political ideology, and how democracy – the Chinese brand – is practised.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmm, The Chinese Brand of Democracy<\/i>. The reading process may be a little tedious.<\/p>\n

I think I prefer Socialism with Chinese Characteristics<\/i>, but then as Jiang Zemin was fond of saying, one must move with the times (\u4e0e\u65f6\u4ff1\u8fdb).<\/p>\n

Links and Sources<\/div>\n
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