• OPINION

  Big Brother is now creating two Chinas

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 27/09/2018

  » Even for Chinese authorities, who have long tried to limit the influence of foreign media and ideas, last week marked an escalation. In the span of a few days, authorities blocked access to Twitch, the video-game live-streaming platform owned by Amazon.com Inc; ordered a purge of foreign content from school textbooks; and proposed restricting foreign programming -- especially current-events shows -- from television and online streaming sites.

• OPINION

  Interpol saga won't just hurt China

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 11/10/2018

  » The last message that now former Interpol president Meng Hongwei sent to his wife was an emoji depicting a knife. Soon after, he disappeared into China's feared and opaque Ministry of Public Security, the subject of a corruption investigation about which no details have been revealed.

• OPINION

  Streaming service gives voice to rural folks in China

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 29/12/2017

  » Yang Yang, a 22-year-old Chinese corn farmer, spends two to three hours a day streaming video of life in his cliffside village to smartphones across China. He spends lots of time clinging to a cliffside ladder, one hand on his selfie stick, while he banters with fans about village life.

• OPINION

  Africa's ban on plastic bags won't solve anything

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 10/11/2017

  » In Africa, the plastic shopping bag is an endangered species. Last week, tiny Benin became the latest African country to restrict the import, production and even use of such bags. It's not messing around, either. Following in the steps of Rwanda (where plastic bag importers are publicly shamed) and Kenya (where bags users can be subject to four years in jail), Benin plans to fine bag importers as much as US$87,000 (2.8 million baht).

• OPINION

  Has China now raised the 'Great Firewall' too high?

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 13/07/2017

  » Will it be RIP for China's VPNs? On Monday, Bloomberg News reported that the Chinese government had ordered telecommunications providers to block access to individual virtual private networks by Feb 1. VPNs are popular and widely utilised services that allow internet users to bypass web restrictions. In effect, the new rules would block the most popular means for Chinese netizens to see beyond the so-called "Great Firewall".

• OPINION

  China's hidden pollution oozes its way to the surface

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 12/05/2017

  » Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping directed his government to build a new city for the "millennium to come". It would rise on rural land about 100km south of Beijing, guided by the principles of "ecological protection and green development". And it would become a model for a new kind of urban expansion.

• OPINION

  Why people still live, and die, on rubbish dumps

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 17/03/2017

  » When a mountain of trash collapsed at the fetid Reppi dump outside of Addis Ababa on Monday, at least 82 people died. It could've been worse: Hundreds of people live atop Reppi, Ethiopia's biggest waste dump, trying to make a living from salvaging what city residents throw away. Despite well-known dangers, and the best efforts of the government, they've done so for decades.

• OPINION

  One way for China to stop the world's next pandemic

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 28/02/2017

  » The deadliest outbreak of H7N9 bird flu since its discovery in 2013 is sweeping across China. It's caused at least 100 deaths and has been detected in half the country's provinces. So far, the virus seems to be spreading only between birds and the humans who slaughter them for food. But the potential for human-to-human transmission -- the trigger for a full-blown pandemic -- can't be ruled out. In response, Chinese authorities have temporarily shut down live poultry markets in some of the country's biggest cities.

• OPINION

  A city of 50 million? And China wants three of them

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 30/08/2016

  » By any measure, Shanghai is one of the world's biggest cities. It's home to more than 24 million people. Its subway system is the longest ever built, extending to its rural limits. Crowds are so thick that burly "shovers" get paid to help pack the trains. Now the local government is saying enough is enough: documents released this week reveal that Shanghai intends to admit a mere 800,000 new residents over the next 24 years, on its way to becoming an "excellent global city".

• OPINION

  Despite anger, Beijing isn't in the mood for protests

  News, Adam Minter, Published on 15/07/2016

  » Chinese didn't waste any time venting their anger at The Hague's ruling against their country's territorial claims in the South China Sea. Within minutes of the news, Chinese social media was flooded with thousands of comments parroting a testy, often profane nationalism.

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