Kathleen E. McLaughlin

Kathleen E. McLaughlin reports from China for GlobalPost. Her more memorable reporting excursions have included spending an evening with Burmese and Chinese prostitutes on the China-Burma border,...

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Kathleen E. McLaughlin's Notebook:

October 14, 2009 11:02 ET

Killer balloons in China

The evening sky over picturesque Yangshuo was filled with hot-air balloons when a friend and I visited this spring. It seemed like a great idea — drifting over the jagged peaks and rice paddies for a couple of hours while the sun set.

We should have known safety standards weren't up to snuff when a worker inflating the massive balloon lit a cigarette, within feet of several huge tanks of very flammable fuel. Still, we laughed, climbed into the tiny basket and waited to take off. Just before the balloon tethers were released for our flight, my friend felt a liquid dripping down her back. She smelled it and we knew: it was a gas leak. We scrambled out of the basket as the burner and parts of the wicker basket caught fire. The pilot and workers doused the blaze before the balloon exploded, but we knew we'd made a narrow escape.

I imagine the Dutch tourists killed in a balloon crash this week in Yangshuo thought much like we did before getting into that balloon: The equipment looked old, rickety and very worn out, but they wouldn't be flying tourists around in unsafe balloons, right?

But with tourism increasing fast and demand for balloon rides high, the balloon operators don't always test or maintain the gas burners properly. A grim reminder to trust your gut in China when it comes to safety.

September 14, 2009 10:48 ET

Surgery for Chinese activist beaten by police?

The iconic Chinese artist and designer Ai Weiwei is set to undergo surgery in Germany this morning for a cranial bleed, possibly caused by his beating at the hands of the police in Chengdu last month, according to the artist's Twitter feed.

Ai had traveled to Sichuan Province to testify at the trial of Tan Zuoren, a writer and activist on trial for subversion after speaking critically to foreign journalists about the Sichuan earthquake.

Ai, the designer of Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium — the centerpiece of the 2008 Olympics – was reportedly blocked at his hotel, hit on the head by police and detained to prevent him from attending Tan’s trial. He has also been a vocal activist about corruption and other earthquake issues: specifically, getting a true count of all the children killed in the quake, especially in poorly built schools.

On his Twitter feed, Ai posted that after a month of headaches, he was diagnosed in Munich with a cranial bleed and headed for surgery today.

August 13, 2009 07:01 ET

Sichuan toll remains taboo

Local police in southwestern China's Sichuan province got heavy-handed this week with nearly a dozen witnesses and journalists who tried to attend the subversion trial of Tan Zouren, an activist working to uncover the actual number of children killed in the massive earthquake last year.

Among those caught in the crossfire was avant-garde artist Ai Weiwei, who I wrote about here earlier this summer. Ai, who has been collecting the names of schoolchildren killed in the Sichuan quake and trying to get an accurate count, planned to testify at Tan's trial but police burst into his hotel room and barred him from leaving. He said he was punched in the face and held for more than 10 hours. 

Video posted on YouTube also showed police combing through the hotel room of Hong Kong journalists who traveled to Chengdu to cover the trail.

The government says about 5,300 children (among nearly 90,000 people) died when their school buildings collapsed in the quake on May 12, 2008. Critics say the number is far higher, and shoddy buildings stemming from corruption and graft are at fault. Given the continued political sensitivity of the issue, apparent yet again this week, it's unclear if the real death toll will ever be known.

 

 

 

June 16, 2009 09:03 ET | Updated: June 17, 2009 09:55 ET

Iran election: The view from Beijing

BEIJING — China’s government, an old friend to Iran and not one to rock the global political boat, has called for stability in Iran and says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be supported as the “choice of the Iranian people.”

The official Xinhua news agency quoted a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry as saying Tuesday that the Chinese government hopes for a stable situation in Iran.

China and Iran are centuries-old allies (China aided the early stages of Iran’s nuclear program) and growing economic partners in recent years, so it’s no surprise that Beijing would back a continuation of the current regime. Other angles in state-run media include hints that western media may have contributed to the heated election contest and disputed results. The conservative Global Times newspaper said the western press has “great influence” over elections and can elevate tensions as politicians try to raise their profiles.

See here for an overview of local reaction around the world.

April 29, 2009 11:42 ET

Jury out on Obama

In his first 100 days in office, President Barrack Obama has pushed China on its currency, calling for quicker appreciation. China has pushed Obama back, demanding that the new president refuse to meet with exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama. Yet it seems that for most Chinese people, the jury is still out on the new American president and it will take more than 100 days to pass judgement. There is plenty of goodwill here for Obama, but strong feelings either way are difficult to find.

More likely, Chinese people will begin to make up their minds when the American president visits here later this year.

One young businessman in Guangzhou at a trade fair this weekend was typical of the comments I hear, as an American, about Obama. He wanted to know if I liked the new president and then said, "He doesn't want war like Bush. That's good, but we still need to know how he will work with China."