Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:53:45 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Ellen Bork :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Ellen+Bork istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/opinion/tour-this-olympic-city/83593/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST The long awaited Beijing Olympic Games began Friday with an imposing display of choreographed performances, music, and fireworks. However, the sight of the American athletes marching into the stadium led by teammate Lopez Lomong, a refugee from the genocidal Sudanese regime that is supported by China, provided a reminder of the environment in which these games are taking place. For all of President Bush's insistence that he is attending the Games solely as a sports fan, Mr. Bush cannot escape... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/pope-appoints-zen-to-restore-vatican-rule/28266/ Tue, 28 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST Pope Benedict XVI's elevation of Hong Kong's outspoken Bishop Joseph Zen to cardinal might be interpreted as a sign that the Vatican is taking a tough line toward Beijing, with which it broke diplomatic relations in 1949. In the last few years, Bishop Zen has moved to the forefront of Hong Kong's democracy movement, calling citizens into the streets for demonstrations and comparing Beijing's refusal to allow the election of Hong Kong's chief executive and legislature to "a June 4 crackdown... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/opinion/gift-for-mr-hill/26291/ Mon, 23 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Following a visit to Cambodia by the assistant secretary of state for East Asia last week, three imprisoned critics of the government were released, though they still face prosecution for defamation. A spokesman for Cambodia's ruler, Hun Sen, called the releases "a gift for Mr. Christopher Hill on the inauguration of the new U.S. Embassy" in Phnom Penh. That revealing statement illustrates perfectly the way Hun Sen runs his country, cracking down internally while currying favor with the... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/opinion/clinton-goes-to-china/20154/ Fri, 16 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST At a resort in Hangzhou, China, on Saturday, Bill Clinton, gave a speech to an annual business conference on China's Internet. Mr. Clinton disappointed many, including the group Reporters Without Borders, which had asked him to speak out publicly in defense of Shi Tao, a journalist sentenced to 10 years in jail for leaking state secrets. What Mr. Shi actually did was forward to overseas Web sites an e-mail Chinese authorities had sent to the press apparently warning of the dangers of reporting... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/arts/depravity-of-the-regime/14302/ Tue, 24 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Beijing has ruled out using the considerable leverage it has in food and fuel to pressure Pyongyang to end its nuclear threat. North Korea has announced it is taking steps to reprocess spent fuel. Other accounts report that U.S. intelligence fears Pyongyang is on the verge of testing a nuclear weapon. The Bush administration's policy for dealing with Pyongyang has taken a hit and the international community is no closer to finding a way to deal with Kim Jong Il. Jasper Becker's new book, "Rogue... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/opinion/chinese-cosmetics/10654/ Wed, 16 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Did he jump or was he pushed? It's been hard to resist speculating about the departure of Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee Hwa, who resigned last week on health grounds. The most important point, however, is crystal clear. Beijing is replacing one hand-picked Hong Kong leader with another, Donald Tsang, a career civil servant. In doing so, Beijing has acted against the desire of the Hong Kong people to choose their own leaders, and violated the terms of the "constitution" Beijing itself... Ellen Bork http://www.nysun.com/opinion/listen-to-the-czechs/6195/ Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST The long-running campaign by China and its European allies to lift the European Union's arms embargo was stymied earlier this month at The Hague. At a summit meeting between the European Union and China on Wednesday, the E.U. announced that it would not, for now, lift the ban on arms sales to Beijing imposed after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Nevertheless, Washington, which has worked hard to persuade the E.U. to maintain the embargo, cannot afford to relax. In a joint communique from... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/applying-lessons-of-soviet-tyranny-to-the-middle/5010/ Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST When Natan Sharansky, the Israeli cabinet minister and former Soviet dissident, was in Washington last week to talk about his new book, "The Case for Democracy," he reportedly met for an hour with President Bush. It's unlikely that the subject of China came up. The main focus of Mr. Sharansky's book, written with Ron Dermer, is the failure of the West to apply the lessons of the struggle against Soviet tyranny to the Middle East. Even so, Mr. Sharansky's acute observations of Western... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/us-must-act-as-the-power-it-is-in-asia/4650/ Thu, 11 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Now that President Bush has a new term stretching out before him, things that were on hold until the election should be at the top of his list. It's not that the top challenges in Asia haven't been getting attention from his officials. They have. But both longstanding problems and an emerging one require a new approach. The public estimate is that North Korea has enough nuclear material for two bombs. Privately, who knows? Squeezing North Korea to deny it revenue from drug trafficking and... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/thailand-drops-democracy/4269/ Thu, 4 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Compared to its neighbor next door, the Burmese junta, Thailand's government usually looks pretty good. However, the suffocation deaths of 78 Muslim men taken into custody after a demonstration in southern Thailand last week has focused attention on the increasingly authoritarian rule of the prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. Deadly abuses of civil liberties are not confined to Thailand's predominantly Muslim south. As part of a crackdown on narcotics traffickers in 2003, police shot and... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/powell-visit-muddles-us-policy/3921/ Thu, 28 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST While traveling in Asia earlier this week, Secretary of State Powell made remarks that suggested a major shift in American policy toward Taiwan. In an interview with CNN International, Mr. Powell cautioned against "unilateral action that would prejudice an eventual outcome, a reunification that all parties are seeking." In another problematic statement, the secretary of state told an interviewer from Hong Kong's Phoenix TV that "Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/chirac-goes-to-china-for-a-sympathetic-paradigm/3550/ Thu, 21 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EST French president Jacques Chirac has returned from a trip to Asia. After all, where else but Communist Vietnam and Communist China does Monsieur le president go to bash America? While in Hanoi, Mr. Chirac lashed out at perceived American cultural dominance. "There is a tendency towards a majority Anglo-Saxon culture which erases others. All other cultures would be stifled to the benefit of American culture. ...If there was a single language, a single culture, it would be a real ecological... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/yudhoyono-has-mandate-for-change/2473/ Thu, 30 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST While elections in Iraq seem more precarious by the day, those recently held in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, went off smoothly. A former general and Cabinet officer in the last government, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, known as SBY, is expected to be named president; the results will be made official in the next few weeks. Just the successful staging of the presidential election comes as something of a relief. Indonesia's people went to the polls three times this year... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/jiang-zemin-passes-torch-of-leadership/2155/ Thu, 23 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST The torch of leadership has been passed in China. At a major party conclave that just ended in Beijing, Jiang Zemin relinquished his third and last post in the leadership to Hu Jintao. In addition to his top positions in the Communist Party and the Chinese state, Mr. Hu has now added authority over the military as chairman of the Central Military Commission. There are plenty of absorbing questions in the wake of Mr. Hu's apparent consolidation of power. Among them, for example, why did Mr... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/hong-kong-democrats-press/1800/ Thu, 16 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST "I'd rather lose with dignity than win like this," said Martin Lee Chuming of the Hong Kong Democratic party after capturing a seat on Hong Kong Island in legislative elections last Sunday. To Mr. Lee's regret, and the bitterness of many, his victory came at the expense of incumbent democrat Cyd Ho Sau-lan, of Frontier, another pro-democracy group. In the wake of the election, there was plenty of contrition and blame to go around. The Democratic Party chairman, Yeung Sum, pledged to learn... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/hong-kongs-pro-democracy-camp-adds-four/1686/ Tue, 14 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Elections in the geographic constituencies, which are conducted according to a one-man one-vote system. However, the electoral system and composition of the legislature confines them to a minority. These gains and the high turnout stand in contrast to local and international press assessments of the vote. Some observers and political figures had hoped pro-democracy candidates would win closer to 30 seats. Meanwhile, blame is being assigned for the tactics employed by the prodemocracy parties in... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/high-turnout-as-pro-democracy-candidates-make/1608/ Mon, 13 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST HONG KONG - Hong Kong's prodemocracy candidates appeared to modestly increase their number in the legislature today despite inadequate preparations that resulted in delays at some polling stations. According to Reuters, exit polls indicated only a slight gain by the prodemocracy camp. The political structure of the legislature, in which only one half the seats are chosen by universal suffrage, and the proportional representation system implemented after Beijing took control of Hong Kong in... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/hong-kong-candidates-protest-the-limited-scope/1539/ Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST HONG KONG - Three fingers held aloft by members of the audience at an often raucous candidates' forum in the Kowloon East area of Hong Kong do not stand for "W" but for Albert Cheng Jing-han, who has the no. 3 spot on his district's constituency ballot for this Sunday's legislative elections. Yesterday, Mr. Cheng and 10 other candidates running for five seats up for grabs in Kowloon East appeared amid a faint drizzle in a shopping center in the Lok Fu neighborhood at a forum sponsored by Radio... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/hong-kong-elections-a-sham/1467/ Thu, 9 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST HONG KONG - Express trains deliver travelers from the airport to the city and passengers embark, only to join a line for taxis to take them into the particular thicket of brightly lit high-rises they seek. The Hong Kong taxi is roomy and distinctive. A Hong Kong businessman exported several to East Timor, where the red and silver sedans ply the waterfront of the poor and war-damaged capital, Dili. The taxi may be the only thing Hong Kong has in common with East Timor. East Timor, the poorest... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/08-olympics-opens-china-to-scrutiny/1220/ Thu, 2 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST As the Olympic flag was passed to Beijing's mayor at the closing ceremony of the Athens Games last Sunday, the countdown to Beijing's 2008 Summer Olympics got under way. Those Games will showcase far more than Beijing's ability to put together venues for sports or house athletes and tourists. They will open Beijing up for scrutiny on its handling of matters ranging from labor unrest to press censorship to Taiwan. Meanwhile, the Games are yet another test for foreign investors, who have... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/formulating-asia-policy-platforms/849/ Thu, 26 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EST New York is getting ready for the invasion. This weekend, Republicans will descend on the metropolis for the convention to confirm President Bush and Vice President Cheney as their ticket and to showcase the party's stars - Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger. One group arrives earlier to do some of the hard work but receives a lot less credit than the people who make sure the balloon drop goes according to plan: the platform drafters. Okay, it's pretty hard to ask anyone to get excited... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/beijings-two-sided-tibet-policy/498/ Thu, 19 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EST China has turned down the volume on its attacks against the Dalai Lama, the exiled head of state and spiritual leader of Tibet who fled his homeland when China occupied it in 1959.At the same time, repression has increased in Tibet. Why are both things true? Because they are two parts of a whole. According to a report released last month by the International Campaign for Tibet, repression of religious belief and expression has risen over the past several years, while at the same time cadres... ELLEN BORK http://www.nysun.com/foreign/beijing-khartoum-connection/217/ Thu, 12 Aug 2004 00:00:00 EST News stories seem to travel in packs. Stories about China's energy demands and the diverse places Beijing is going to satisfy them have made up one of the larger such herds of the last few months. Until fairly recently a net oil exporter, China is now the world's second largest oil consumer. Only America consumes more. For now. China's population is nearly five times larger than America's. Its demand for energy is skyrocketing while domestic resources dwindle. Stories carrying these interesting...