A few articles worth a look today:

Olympic risks in China
Evan Osnos of the Chincago Tribune has written an article reviewing the many risks that China faces in hosting the Olympics:

Chinese leaders warn that the Games should not be politicized. But they have done so themselves, as in 2001, when Liu Jingmin, a vice president of Beijing's Olympic bid committee, argued that awarding China the games "will help the development of human rights." Recalling that prediction, Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists separately warned this year that China has failed to fulfill pledges it made in order to secure the games. "In fact," wrote Paul Steiger, chairman of the journalists committee, "since the games were awarded, media restrictions ordered by the government and the Communist Party have grown."

Imagethief has always maintained that the games are inherently political, and that there are fewer things more amusing than exhortations not to politicize them.

Lies! All Lies!
China Daily has published an article rebutting the recent New York Times piece on fish farming in China, part of the paper's "Choking on Growth" series of Pulitzer-magnet China environment features. The fish farming industry's response is, essentially, that it was all a pack of lies:

Exports of aquatic products in the coastal county of Fuqing, Fujian - which exported eel worth $53.83 million in 2006 - have stuttered since last July, when "foreign press rumors about China's food safety escalated", Zhang, 44, said.

A recent New York Times report "sealed the fate of the crippled industry", said Liu Minglong, head of the city's eel association.

On December 15, the paper ran a 2,400-word piece, packed with Chinese translation in both audio and text, accusing the country of "farming fish in toxic waters", based on what it claimed were field interviews in the county.

"Farmers have coped with the toxic waters by mixing illegal veterinary drugs and pesticides into fish feed, which helps keep their stocks alive yet leaves poisonous and carcinogenic residues in seafood" the report said.

Eel farmers, including Zhang, who read the Chinese version, said the accusation is "totally groundless".

"The major pollutants in eel breeding are nitrogen, phosphorus and excrements which are found naturally," explained Xie Hejie, deputy chief of Fuqing's environment protection bureau. "When you have more fish farms, the environmental pressure on water quality will certainly rise.

"But all these pollutants can be naturally degraded I wouldn't say that water becomes 'toxic' under these conditions."

And that's why we all drink straight from the tap in China.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Web 2.0 in China
From Tangos Chan's superb China Web 2.0 Review blog, an excellent look back at 2007 in the China Internet and wireless industries:

 

In 2007, we continues to see many copycats in the market, for instance, Twitter-like services as Taotao, Fanfou and Jiwai.de, Facebook-style websites as Hainei.com and virtual world services as Hipihi and Novoking. Among various kinds of copycats, those Youtube wannabes are most favored by venture capitals with about $100 million investment in video sharing sites in 2007. However, because of the new regulation co-issued by Ministry of Information Industry and State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, which require online audio and video services to be majority state-owned companies, may impose potential regulation risks on operation of those video sharing websites, but it is still possible that they will work out some solutions to work around the regulation.

Video is not only the sectors which Chinese government wants to regulate. Thanks to development of web 2.0, more and more people began to use Internet or wireless tools to express themselves, so we saw Xiamen PX chemical factory demonstrations and grassroot reports on Chongqing nail house. The development of Internet also made government to block more foreign websites, including Feedburner, Flickr and Youtube, they even shut down IDCs to force them to self-censor the hosted BBS and blogs.

There's more. If you're interested in the Internet in China, go read the whole thing.