China's Number 1 Again!

If you've ever been to China, you know that they're obsessed with having the largest this or the oldest that. This often results in strange titles. Tiananmen Square is the largest city-center public square in the world. Xinghai Square in Dalian is the largest non-city-center square in Asia. The giant TV screen outside my office building is Asia's largest skyscreen (whatever that means).

Today, China edged out Cuba for another superlative: most journalists in prison with a total of 28 (story here). Cuba wins for most journalists in jail per capita (24 in jail with a total population of only 11 million!), but they will soon be freed because Barack is letting Hyman Roth go to Havana to build casinos.

I don't know the names of all of these reporters but one of them, Shi Tao, is in jail thanks in part to Yahoo! In 2004 Shi Tao sent an email containing a directive regualting reports on the 15th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square. The directive, which came down from a high level in the government, said that no one would be allowed to mention the event and that the human rights activists who returned to commemorate the anniversary were to be ignored. The police asked Yahoo! to help, and being a good American, freedom-loving company, they gave them access to Shi Tao's account. Shi Tao has now spent five years in prison and won't be released until 2014. (The Chinese police must not have realized that that is the 25th anniversary of June 4th.)

In other news, Pirate Bay has been found guilty (surprised?). I am completely unaffected. Now Google China, another one of those red, white, and blue internet companies, lets you download music for free just like on Baidu (the largest search engine in China).

Also, in reference to my post yesterday, tommorrow is Earth Day and there is a cool environment conference that has attracted many big names like Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, and Kenneth Lieberthal, Brookings's China environment guy. Anyone in Beijing should try to make it there, although you'll need a press pass or some other invite from an attending company.