A Noah’s Ark of Death found off of the Chinese Coast

I’m pissed.

From today’s Guardian: Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now abandoned, 5,000 of the world’s rarest animals have been found drifting in a deserted boat near the coast of China.

The pangolins, Asian giant turtles and lizards were crushed inside crates on a rickety wooden vessel that had lost engine power off Qingzhou island in the southern province of Guangdong. Most were alive, though the cargo also contained 21 bear paws wrapped in newspaper.

According to conservation groups, the haul was discovered on one of the world’s most lucrative and destructive smuggling routes: from the threatened jungles of south-east Asia to the restaurant tables of southern China.

The animals were found when local fishermen noticed a strange smell emanating from the vessel, which did not have any registration plates, on Tuesday, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

When coastguard officials boarded the 25-metre craft, it was reportedly deserted and stripped of identification papers. They found more than 200 crates full of animals, many so dehydrated in the tropical sun that they were close to death.

This isn’t about some farmers in China being “too poor” to worry about conservation. This isn’t about the need for economic development in struggling areas even

May 26th, 2007

China’s Carbon Footprint

Peter Ford reports in the Christian Science Monitor on China’s expanding carbon footprint. This week the International Energy Agency dramatically announced that China would pass the United States in total carbon emissions by end of this year. China’s response? We’re a developing country and should be allowed to continue, unchanged, our policy of “industrialize now, clean up later.” Let’s ask the families who lived along Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY to see how well this strategy worked out for them. Wu Ming at Surf Putah also offers his usual insightful commentary on China’s pollution situation including the important point that we in the United States have benefited greatly by exporting our industry (and our pollution) overseas.

April 25th, 2007

Afternoon Tea: Poverty and environmental protection…Lao wai tigers?…CIA agents spend twenty years in Chinese jail

One of THE BEST blogs currently in the Chinese blogosphere is China Dialogue. Its excellent collection of Chinese and English articles (with translations) on environmental topics make it the very definition of a must-read blog. In today’s edition, Jiang Gaoming, professor of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Science and vice secretary-general of the UNESCO China-MAB (Man and the Biosphere) Committee, explores the connection between environmental protection and economic development. (“Fighting poverty and saving the environment“/”既要脱贫又需保护生态环境“) Professor Jiang argues:

Poverty has become a kind of resource. There is no shortage of money from national poverty alleviation funds, environmental management funds, disaster relief funds, money for education and for irrigation – not to mention money from NGOs, businesses and individual donations. But the poor themselves have no voice in how the money is spent, and many problems have arisen as a result. A change in the basic methods of poverty relief is needed; it must be questioned how the nation’s money can best be spent.

Future poverty relief projects must include the active participation of the poor; they should not simply be implemented by government. The poor need to have a stake in the land, the environment and any projects

February 22nd, 2007

Morning Tea: Chinese pollution in California, Hollywood’s first Asian-American sex symbol, China Bowl 2007 Update

Der Spiegel online has a good overview of China’s environmental problems including a study done by researchers from UC Davis on pollution from China along the California coastline. (Via Arts & Letter Daily) Long before the controversies surrounding Zhang Ziyi and Bai Ling, there was Anna May Wong. In the new edition of Danwei.tv’s Sexy Beijing series, host Su Fei interviews Graham Russel Gao Hodges, the author of the recent book Anna May Wong: From Laundryman’s Daughter to Hollywood Legend. It’s a fascinating story that touches on many aspects of the Chinese-American experience in the early 20th century including discrimination against Asian-Americans, anti-miscegnation laws, as well as the criticism for “bringing shame on Chinese” that Wong received when she later visited China. Wong actually lost the female lead in the 1937 film adaptation of The Good Earth to a white actress because European actor Paul Muni was cast as the male lead and Hollywood codes prevented movies from showing an intimate relationship between Caucasians and Asians. (Even if they were both playing Asian characters.) Danwei has Youtube and Tudou links for your viewing convenience, be sure to check it out. Finally, yesterday’s broadcast of the Super Bowl on CCTV

February 5th, 2007

Morning Tea: Ma Jun on China’s environment, Wu Fei on China’s media, and Richard Spencer writing from Gansu

一．Powerful essay by Ma Jun posted on the China Dialogue website, “Participation not markets, will help China’s environment.” (中文) Ma argues that the market reforms of the past 15 years have had some success but that the market alone cannot resolve the country’s ecological crisis or the explosive economic inequalities that have accompanied China’s economic development. Ma’s take on this problem is quite provocative in that his solution could only occur with a level of openness in the political process that the CCP would probably find nearly impossible to stomach: China stands today at a crossroads. Going backwards is no solution, and there is no future in debates about “left” and “right.” Chinese society is experiencing a proliferation of many different interests; the real question is how to prevent any one interest group monopolising the policy-making process for its own gain. In order to achieve this, public decision making must be open, with informed participation by all interest groups. This will allow the public to exercise their environmental rights, and in doing so find the delicate point of balance between growth and the environment.

二．Joel Martinson at Danwei, posts a link to another powerful essay, this one on the

January 31st, 2007
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