In The News

The World Can't Wait for “Indy”? It Won't Have To

William Booth May 19, 2008
When it comes to the release of mega-hit films, the world is impatient. Films, like “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” are “released on the same day in cities around the world, in a mass moment of pop culture consumption,” writes William Booth for the Washington Post. Much has changed since 1981, when the first Indiana Jones film, “Raiders of the Lost Ark, was released to less...

So Clinton Was Right About Beijing and Jello

Richard McGregor May 8, 2008
Spreading rumors about the dangers of outside forces is easy – and even intelligent and warm people fall prey by reading and joining online attacks. In the 1990s, former US President Bill Clinton compared attempts to control political talk on the internet to “nailing Jello to a wall.” Unfortunately, anyone who hopes to promote accurate discourse faces similar challenges as rumors associated with...

Virus in China Highlights an Old Problem

Nicholas Zamiska May 6, 2008
Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common and highly contagious childhood ailment that can be prevented by washing hands often and thoroughly. But people must know about the disease to practice vigilance. Thousands of children in China have contracted the disease, and international health officials raised questions before China’s closed media system reported a government announcement. “Communist...

Games Tensions on Slippery Track

Jason Dean April 28, 2008
Criticism of China’s human-rights record and Tibet policy has provoked an active defense among Chinese people. Without government direction, a strong wave of nationalist sentiment has driven boycotts of Western multinational corporations whose shareholders support the Free Tibet movement, as well as protests outside media outlets deemed to have reported on the issue with bias. In a year that the...

The Need for Unanimity in China Exacts a Hidden Price

Howard W. French April 24, 2008
By scheduling the Olympics in Beijing, China and the rest of the world anticipated cooperation and new understanding of the other’s ways. Instead, disagreements over human rights in Tibet and subsequent media coverage have unleashed bitter criticism all around. Perhaps most alarming for the West: the intense anger displayed by Chinese citizens on the internet, defending China’s crackdown on...

Talking to Ourselves

Susan Jacoby April 23, 2008
The best ideas emerge when people hear out all opposing points of view. Unfortunately, Americans are less willing to attend lectures, read books or listen to radio that might offer new points of view. Instead, many increasingly read or listen to commentary that reinforces their beliefs. “Indeed, virtually everywhere I speak, 95% of the audience shares my political and cultural views – and...

New Freedom, and Peril, in Online Criticism of China

Ariana Eunjung Cha April 17, 2008
China has more internet users than any other country – and the government has no problem with an angry, rapid-response approach to any Chinese citizen who shows the slightest opposition to government policies. What the Washington Post calls an “internet mob” attacked a 20-year-old student attending Duke University in the US, after she attempted to mediate between campus protesters who pressed...