The new Chinese colonialism: Tales from Zambia’s Chambishi copper mine.

The Telegraph has an excellent article and photo essay on Hu Jintao’s visit to Zambia, site of the troubled Chinese-run Chambishi copper mine. Last July, Zambian workers rioted in a wage dispute with Chinese managers that ended in the death of six workers. This weekend, Hu was forced at the last moment to cancel a scheduled visit to the mine when his handlers learned that workers were planning further protests over low pay and dangerous working conditions.

Hu came to Africa promising aid and economic development without the embarrassing lectures to African leaders about eliminating corruption and improving human rights and working conditions in their countries. Maybe it’s the Chinese that need the lecture. A Chinese state-owned company, the Chinese Non-Ferrous Metal Mining Company, reopened the Chambishi Mine eight years ago but workers say that conditions at the site and in neighboring towns have never been worse. “The sprawling plant is now decked in Maoist-style slogans urging workers to make “vigorous efforts to make the company prosperous”, yet the way it is run is capitalism at its most raw.

As well as the mine’s questionable safety record, workers’ benefits have been slashed, unions discouraged and employees are

Korean skaters draw ire of Chinese officials, threaten to ignite simmering China-Korea border controversy

UPI reports: “Five South Korean female short track players raised signs reading, “Mount Paekdu is our (Korean) territory” during an awards ceremony Wednesday.” The incident is the latest in a series of back and forth sniping between China and Korea in a variety of media including competing op-ed pieces, ‘scholarly’ articles, and even teledramas over the historical status of the China-North Korea border. The South Korean skaters raised the signs as they received silver medals at the 2007 Winter Asian games being held this week in Changchun. The 2750 meter/9022 foot volcanic mountain has long been the center of border disputes between the Chinese and Korean governments.

Paekdu 백두산, also spelled Baekdu, is known as Changbai Shan 长白山 in China and can be found in Chinese geographical texts dating back to the shanhai jing 山海經 “Classic of Seas and Mountains.” During the Qing, the Kangxi emperor designated the mountain as the birthplace of his clan, the Aisin Gioro, and annual rites were held at the mountain to celebrate the origins of the ruling dynasty.

Several Korean dynasties considered the mountain sacred including the Goguryeo (37 BCE – 668), and Balhae (698-926) both of whose origins were the subject of

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