Thousands Chinese security troops are moving into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China after days of ethnic rioting and conflict has left at least 156 civilians dead.

The conflict started on Sunday when a protest by ethnic Uyghurs over the stalled investigation into the death of two factory workers got out of hand, and Uyghurs started attacking ethnic Han Chinese residents and businesses.

Chinese residents have also attacked Uyghers using kitchen knives, bats and steel bars. Over 1,000 have been injured in the conflict. Police forces have been sent to prevent more bloodshed.

Both Han Chinese and Uyghurs have fled the region, and thousands of Uyghurs have been arrested.

In the Washington Post yesterday, reporter Ariana Eunjung Cha recounted this scene:

At lunchtime on Tuesday at one end of the Uighur quarter, where stores and restaurants had just reopened, things looked almost normal with people running their daily errands when at around 1:50 p.m. word spread through phone calls, text messages and people driving past in cars that "The Han are coming!" Within minutes, the place emptied as entire blocks of people ran in different directions. On a bridge in a Han area a half-hour later, people began to flee when a man raced across and shouted, "The Uighurs are coming!"

Here's hoping the violence ends soon. But it will take a whole lot more than military action to calm the deep anger that both groups harbor for each other.

Two Chinese writers have published an instant book about Michael Jackson after working two days straight and only consuming coffee and cigarettes.

The 130,000-word fasterpiece "Moonwalk in Paradise," was available for purchase at Chinese bookstores just two days ago.

Authors Jiang Xiaoyu and Xing Han partnered with publishing house Xiandai to create the instant book. They started writing as soon as they heard of Jackson's death and apparently based their research on their "accumulated knowledge about the king of pop".

China Daily reports that more than 10 Chinese publishing houses are also planning to have instant books about Jackson.

Despite a Chinese company's wish to buy the bankrupt General Motors' Hummer unit, Chinese regulators will likely deny the acquisition -- partly because the gas-guzzling SUVs do not conform to China's conservation goals.

The Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., Ltd. will lobby China's National Development and Reform Commission in the coming days in an attempt to prove that the construction machinery manufacturer, which has never produced automobiles before, can takeover the Hummer division.

The NDRC must approve the sale before the Chinese company can push for the purchase.

According to the Associated Press, Tengzhong has said it would invest in research to create more fuel-efficient Hummers and would keep Hummer's headquarters and manufacturing in the United States.

Chinese fans of Michael Jackson observe a three minute silence during a candle light memorial to commemorate him in Beijing, China. (Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

Chinese fans of Michael Jackson have been gathering to mourn the loss of the music icon. Known as 迈克尔 杰克逊 (Maikeer Jiekexun), Jackson had a following that crossed generations in China.

When the Chinese economy was liberalized in the late 70s and early 80s, Jackson's "space step" 太空舞步 (taikong wubu), aka moonwalk, in the video "Thriller" was one of the first views of the West that many Chinese saw.

"Michael Jackson's music had a big impact on China, especially since China was just opening up," said Beijing resident Chai Jing to China Central Television.

"His rhythm and dance moves were so fresh and different, which is why his work was so symbolic."

Despite accusations of child abuse and his eccentric behavior, many Chinese fans believed in his innocence.

Check out Danwei's compilation of Chinese newspapers announcing Jackson's death. And watch this Chinese comedic take on Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" which appears to involve a Chinese Saddam Hussein.

Apparently the youngest smoker in the world is two-year-old Tong Liangliang from Tianjin, who has a pack-a-day habit.

Already, online social networks are abuzz with admonitions and sympathy making this story destined for the "news of the weird" (or as I view it, the "condescending look at the poor") hall of fame.

But a closer look at this story provides a fascinating look at how news is transmitted from one place to another, and from one language to another. Read more...

Beijing skyline from the Western Mountains. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images)

The Asia Society has a fascinating web site devoted to China's air quality. It includes a daily photograph of the Beijing sky taken by their photographer for the past year and a short video on the problem of air pollution and how China is attempting to find solutions.

The government has spent $17.3 billion in the last decade to improve the air in Beijing. Every day, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, publishes the Air pollution index, which measures five pollutants in the sky: Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, PM10 (inhalable particulate matter), Carbon Monoxide and Ozone.

Days with a Air Pollution Index of 100 or less are considered "blue sky days" An Index of 100, on the Chinese scale, is considered "slightly polluted." In 1998, Beijing had 100 blue sky days, nine years later, 246 were recorded, according to the Asia Society. Read more...

China Central Television news anchor Fang Jing's good name has been restored. On Sunday night, China time, the journalist reappeared on CCTV as the host of the World Weekly news program.

For the past week, the Chinese media has exploded with allegations that the 38-year-old journalist is a spy for Taiwan.

The rumor started when a Zhou Yijun, a former CCTV colleague of Fang's, who now teaches journalism at Peking University, wrote on his blog that she had been arrested for spying after volunteering to host the Defense Watch program in order to gain access to military intelligence. Zhou, who writes under the pen name, A Yi, apologized for that blog entry a few days later, but added that he never alleged she was a spy, just that she had "leaked information to the outside." Read more...

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two American journalists that were jailed in North Korea in March, were sentenced to 12 years of labor on Monday by the Pyongyang Central Court.

The official North Korean Central News Agency reported: "The trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing."

Experts have been quick to say that based on past experiences, despite the harsh ruling, there will likely be swift political negotiations for their release.

"The verdict does not mean much, since they will get released," said Andrei Lankov to the Washington Post. Lankov is an expert on North Korea who teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. "Unfortunately, right now the North Koreans want to keep tensions high, so it will take many months and perhaps a year or more before the Pyongyang authorities will decide that it's time to make some friendly gesture to Washington."

In an unusual move, North Korea has allowed the detained journalists to telephone their families, further evidence that they will likely be released. Sweden's ambassador to North Korea has also been allowed to visit with the journalists on three occasions and pass letters from them to their families.

The journalists were reporting for Current TV, a cable and Internet network founded by former vice president Al gore. They were detained on March 17 on the border between North Korea and China. It's possible Gore would travel to North Korea to negotiate their release. Read more...

I was 12 years old when I watched my parents, visibly shaken, and glued to images of a China in turmoil on television in our American living room. It was my first memory of my parents worried about an event taking place in their homeland, one they left for Taiwan and the United States decades before.

As a college student, I'll never forget a visit from Tiananmen Square dissident Chai Ling to my university, where she spoke of her activities in the student protests.

I had just seen the brilliant documentary "The Gate of Heavenly Peace" and was troubled at how Chai could have uttered these words in an interview with an American journalist:

"The students kept asking, 'What should we do next? What can we accomplish?' I feel so sad, because how can I tell them that what we are actually hoping for is bloodshed, the moment when the government is ready to brazenly butcher the people. Only when the square is awash with blood will the people of China open their eyes."

Read more...

North Korea is likely trying two American journalists for "hostile acts" as I write this blog.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for Current TV, a San-Francisco-based independent media company founded by Vice President Al Gore, were captured three months ago while filming on the Chinese border with North Korea.

Vigils were held across the country yesterday in New York, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and Washington DC (though DC was rained out quickly).

If convicted, the journalists could face 10 years in a labor camp. They are accused of illegally entering North Korea from the Tumen River that marks the North Korean border with China. Read more...