slight difference: Eating & drinking is not allowed in the trains or the paid area of the subway station.
There’s no issue bringing any liquids or food into the MTR;

Lost in translation?

One of the things that attracted me to living in China was that I felt that I had much more freedom here than I did in the U.S. That is no longer true. The government’s heavy-handed approach to virtually everything has not only dampened my enthusiasm for the games, it has made me seriously reconsider my residency here. If I had wanted to experience the irrational fear-mongering and annoying, ineffectual policies that have been set in place in China over the past few months, it would have been easier for me to simply stay in the United States.

mr. devonshire-ellis should stick to matters of law and commerce in his newsletter. this article was pure pandering to the minions of china’s latest emperor, the communist party.

The first thing when you talk you about Olympics in China is that Olympics is every country’s Olympics, not about China solely. It is a place to build friendship and faciliate understanding from bot sides, not a political playground. It never works that way and is not helpful for democracy and human rights emphasized by people outside China or more specifically outside Asia.

The second thing is when you try to critisize countries in Asia or China, it might be a good idea to put your analyis in its specific context. Don’t get me wrong, democracy is a most beautiful if no other factors considered. Yet, it is the reality that matters most (e.g. how we feed ourselves and how the countries can grow richer and powerful for a fair say in the world). Why do you see Asian countreis criticize little about China’s democracy and human rights issues? This is beause they know they have gone through the development stage and understand there are lots of issues to be addressed parallel to democracy and human rights. In addition, there is never perfect democracy. To each of its own, European democracy (if there is one unified concept) is different from the amiercan one. Asian or Chinese democray will be different from the two.

There are lots of problems in China but Chinese people in general have never been happier and confident. And China is gradually improving democracy and human rights problems. It may take time but it is getting a lot better than before. Would Chinese people be happy if that happened?

Please be aware that a lot of national interests are behind the critisms from the US and European governments. So remarks from the governments are always political.

David makes his point in (1) above very eloquently. There are many black drug dealers but they mostly service a foreign trade in ‘soft drugs’ what about the predominantly Chinese meth-amphetamine dealers who peddle a truly evil and dangerous drug to their own kind?

The visa issue has stopped my company earning money and has stopped a USD 10m deal that should have been concluded by now purely because clients could not get into China- people from an ASX100 company with invitations from a Chinese company.

I have not read any complaints about X-ray machines or traffic management, anybody who has been to Beijing would agree that management is necessary.

I’ll leave off commenting too much about Darfur and Zimbabwe as the UK has Iraq and Afghanistan, however, when our press criticises China for this blatant human rights abuse then they cry unfair and that we always pick on them. However, pick up any newspaper and you will see far more criticism of our leaders for their policy in the middle east.

British and American leaders have a long history of propping up evil regimes and selling arms, however, they do not cry foul, lock people up or impose reporting restrictions when others criticise policy.

The reason China keeps quiet is because they can’t handle free speech and can’t take criticism it has nothing to do with good PR policy.

1. Although the black people not being allowed into bars story was probably over-hyped given that it seemed to have questionable sources, it is important to remember that twice in the last year there have been crackdowns aimed at black people. Once people were out behind 3.3 hosing down the street to wash off the blood–yes, that it absolutely true. And one of those alleged drug dealers turned out to be a diplomat’s son. Police allow the drug trade there, so racially profiling is hardly an acceptable solution after the fact.

2. Who is complaining about the traffic restrictions? Most people are complaining because it hasn’t changed the pollution one bit. They should keep the restrictions forever!

3. A major complaint you never addressed was the visa issue. People ARE complaining about that because legitimate businesspeople and travelers are being kept out of the country for no reason, but you ignore it. Will you even be in the country for the Olympics or are you leaving because you don’t want to deal with the hassle?

4. Who is complaining about the X-ray machines?

You are defending a probably non-existence–but were it real reprehensible–policy against black people in the city. You then proceed to criticize critics who don’t exist, while failing to address any of the real concerns people have (including absurd media restrictions). Your positions make little sense in this man’s eyes.