Chinese city declares war on piranhas
BEIJING | Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:15pm EDT

(Reuters) — A southern Chinese city is on the alert for piranhas after two people were attacked in a river, and is offering a 1,000 yuan ($160) reward for every fish caught, dead or alive, state media reported on Thursday.

The government of Guangxi region's Liuzhou is asking people to hunt the alien South American species, which badly bit two people earlier in the week who were paddling in the Liujiang River, the China Daily said.

"Fishing with nets is not allowed in the section of the river that flows through the city, but we have made an exemption. Five fishing boats with experienced fishermen have been deployed on the river since Monday," Liuzhou official Wei Yongwen told the newspaper.

"In addition, more than 40 other fishermen from the local fishing association have joined us as well. They all use small pieces of pork as bait."

Other people have taken up position along the river's banks with rods, it added.

"It's horrible to know that the river has such fish. I will not swim there anymore," resident Liu Junjie was quoted as saying. "I'll pray they catch them soon."...

How China Flouts Its Laws
by CHEN GUANGCHENG
The New York Times
May 30, 2012

SINCE I arrived in the United States on May 19, people have asked me, “What do you want to do here?” I have come here to study temporarily, not to seek political asylum. And while I pursue my studies, I hope that the Chinese government and the Communist Party will conduct a thorough investigation of the lawless punishment inflicted on me and my family over the past seven years.

I asked for such an investigation while I was hospitalized in Beijing, after I had left the refuge of the United States Embassy and American officials negotiated my reunification with my family. High officials from the Chinese government assured me that a thorough and public investigation would take place and that they would inform me of the results. I hope that this promise will be honored. But the government has often failed to fulfill similar commitments. I urge the government and people of the United States and other democratic countries to insist that the Chinese government make timely progress in this matter...
 

Consider the following picture: Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble. There was rapid growth in credit— with much of that growth taking place not through traditional banking but rather through unregulated "shadow banking" neither subject to government supervision nor backed by government guarantees. Now the bubble is bursting — and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis.

Am I describing Japan at the end of the 1980s? Or am I describing America in 2007? I could be. But right now I'm talking about China, which is emerging as another danger spot in a world economy that really, really doesn't need this right now...

By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent

Mr Dikötter is the only author to have delved into the Chinese archives since they were reopened four years ago. He argued that this devastating period of history - which has until now remained hidden - has international resonance. "It ranks alongside the gulags and the Holocaust as one of the three greatest events of the 20th century.... It was like Pol Pot's genocide multiplied 20 times over," he said

100-km Chinese traffic jam enters Day 9