Sixteen of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China, according to World Bank research. Yet a report sponsored by the Chinese Government which uncovered potentially scary information was edited to “prevent social unrest”.

Missing from this report are the research project’s findings that high air-pollution levels in Chinese cities is leading to the premature deaths of 350,000-400,000 people each year. A further 300,000 people die prematurely each year from exposure to poor air indoors, according to advisers, but little discussion of this issue survived in the report because it was outside the ambit of the Chinese ministries which sponsored the research.

Another 60,000-odd premature deaths were attributable to poor-quality water, largely in the countryside, from severe diarrhea, and stomach, liver and bladder cancers.

The mortality information was “reluctantly” excised by the World Bank from the published report, according to advisers to the research project.

Sepa and the health ministry declined to comment. The World Bank said that the findings of the report were still being discussed with the government.

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It’s actually hard to believe that anyone would be willing to do this, but at some factory in China they have convinced a bunch of grown men to sit INSIDE a 400 ton metal press while it is stamping steel!

Holy crap! Folks, if something went wrong here, there would be nothing left of these guys but jelly!
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This week’s Links of the Week theme is… pictures.

• Bush’s Historical Approval Ratings
• Toys manufacture in China
• Awesome Military Photos of the Twin Towers
• Pictures of Walls
• US Poverty Map

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It’s hard to believe that it’s been 18 years since the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the legendary “tank man”. But this month marks the anniversary, and given that enough time as passed that a new generation has been born and without hearing about it I thought I’d give a little reminder surrounding events of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Although it is believed that Chinese troops under orders from the communist leadership massacred thousands of people, the event was immortalized in Western media by the famous video footage and photographs of a lone man in a white shirt standing in front of a column of tanks. This man has come to be known as “Tank Man” around the world.

He reportedly said, “Why are you here? You have caused nothing but misery.” As the tank driver attempted to go around him, the “tank man” moved into the tank’s path. He continued to stand defiantly in front of the tanks for some time, then climbed up onto the turret of the lead tank to speak to the soldiers inside. After returning to his position blocking the tanks, the man was pulled aside by onlookers who perhaps feared he would be shot or run over.
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Freedom. It’s nice, right? It ought to be… the freedom we enjoy was paid for with the blood of our forefathers, and is maintained by the blood of our siblings. And no freedom is more precious than that of speech. From it all other freedom flows.

Unfortunately there are still many oppressive regimes that do not offer the luxury of free speech, and people are being tortured and killed for speaking out against injustice. (As I’ve often noted.) This is why I have decided to put my money where my mouth is and provide financial support for the Freenet Project.
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Just a few days ago I read about yet another bit of unbelievable Internet censorship coming out of China. It seems they have decided to eliminate access to the popular blogging site LiveJournal - effectively shutting down access to 1.8 million blogs!

This got me thinking. Given that I routinely report on Chinese abuses I wondered how many - if any - of my readers were coming from China.

For those of you who are not aware, Web servers collect various generic statistics such as the IP address of visitors. These IPs can be traced back to the country of origin and I can view a report of where visitors are coming from.

As you can see in the attached image I haven’t had a single visitor from China. This simply cannot be a coincidence.

Although China will be hosting the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee meeting in April, that didn’t keep them from making the colossal mistake on January 11, 2007 of firing an anti-satellite rocket at an old piece of space junk, shattering it into at least 1,000 new pieces of debris now in orbit around the planet.

Space was already so cluttered that scientists live in fear of a chain reaction which will make launching vehicles nearly impossible. They claim that there is already so much floating around that it’s a matter of when, not if, pieces will begin colliding - creating more pieces - and eventually forming an impenetrable belt around the planet.
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According to the Epoch Times, in five years, the U.S. government will cease to use SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm) and convert to a new and more advanced “hash” algorithm, according to the article “Security Cracked!” from New Scientist.

The reason for this change is that associate professor Wang Xiaoyun of Beijing’s Tsinghua University and Shandong University of Technology, and her associates, have already cracked SHA-1. This marks the fifth straight encryption method that Xiaoyun’s team has broken (SHA-1, MD5, HAVAL-128, MD4, and RIPEMD).

What does this mean for the rest of us?
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Imagine a knock on the door after you have been on the Internet, blogging, and the next moment you are under arrest. Amnesty International launched a campaign in defence of Internet bloggers in many countries - including China, Tunisia and Iran who have been arrested for expressing views which have upset their governments.

But how have they been tracked down? It turns out that they have been turned in by major Internet providers such as Yahoo and Microsoft, who have supplied foreign governments with the information they need to pursue them.
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A couple of weeks ago I commented on the plight of blind activist Chen Guang-cheng who had been jailed prior to trial for basically speaking out against illegal activities of local government officials.

Well, now he’s been officially convicted after a two hour long trial to over 4 years in prison for “organizing a mob to disturb traffic.”
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It seems like everything is made in China now, doesn’t it? But the one thing that still hasn’t been copied from the US is freedom.

Take for example the plight of Chen Guang-cheng, a blind peasant who was brave enough to expose illegal measures by local authorities when enforcing China’s one-child policy.
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R. Todd King is a man after my own heart. This guy has an interesting job, travels all over Asia, and not only takes stunning photographs, but shares them with the rest of us.

While you’re visiting his site, make sure and check out the incredible Chinese snow and ice sculptures. I’ve never seen anything like it!