More4 News Blog

'I'm crossing Pyongyang off my holiday list'

North Korea: the bloggers' view...

North Korea claims it has carried out a nuclear test in an undisclosed underground location. Here's the blogosphere's response.

Catallaxy says: "I'm not a gun-slinging Texan intent on 'bringing democracy to the world', but I am a libertarian and am thus fundamentally against the North Korean autocracy."

James, meanwhile, is still in disbelief: "What is North Korea thinking?? Why make their people suffer? North Korea had every chance to surrender its nuclear ambitions and receive aid for its citizens, and now its people will suffer because of Kim-Jong Il. I just don't understand that idiot!"

Criticism of the America's foreign policy abounds.

Q&A: North Korea nuclear crisis

The key points of the North Korea nuclear crisis explained.

What is the background to the crisis?
Relations between the US and North Korea have been deteriorating since George Bush labelled North Korea part of an "axis of evil" in January 2002.

The following October, the US accused North Korea of developing a secret, uranium-based nuclear weapons programme.

Washington is not only concerned about the development of such weapons in North Korea, but also wants to curb Pyongyang's capacity to export missile and nuclear technology to other states or organisations.

Since the October 2002 confrontation, North Korea has restarted a mothballed nuclear power station, thrown out inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency and pulled out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

It may be that North Korea has been trying to use the nuclear issue as a hard-line ploy to negotiate a non-aggression pact and improved economic aid from the US.

What is the immediate effect of North Korea's announcement?
If a nuclear test is confirmed, it will cement North Korea's place as a nuclear power, effectively ending hopes of resolving the stand-off through stalled six-nation talks.

Best of More4 in China

Since we posted a story about Xu Jinglei, we've been having lots of Chinese visitors to the site recently. So in case you missed them – here's a run-down of our best China stories.

The rise of Nationalism in China – Chinese youth are becoming more nationalistic, and more anti-Japanese.

Addicted to the Internet – The hospital where people who surf the web too much are treated (see picture).

The Price of Growth – China's rapidly growing economy takes its toll on the countryside.

China's City Lights – More hard times for China's farmers.

Lesbians in the Red Army – The coming of the internet heralds a pink revolution in China.

People traffickers in China – The UK's Chinese community fears that immigration laws are playing into the people trafficker's hands.

Also, don't forget to have a glance at the China page for our sister organisation, Channel4.

We're currently opening a bureau in China, too – so there will be more coverage from the country which will define the 21st century for all of us.

And for those of you who speak Chinese... our blog on Xu Jinglei in her own language...

徐静蕾的博客是在全世界博客看的最多，我到她的虚拟村里去看了看。　
很多世界最受欢迎的博客是有关什么比较具体的分类或者内容比如音乐或者科学等等，　老徐的博客跟它们都很不一样。他写的内容比较杂。有的地方很佻薄有的地方很哲学。她写的节奏很人性也比较舒服。而且都是关于她自己与友人的生活乐趣和困难。她在香港拍戏我门用网络设想头做个简单采访。　我问她呢，　她怎么写那么多自己生活的事情吸引那么多人的关注？　她也定不准。"中国人多嘛！"她说了。当然老徐已经是个很有名的演员和导演，　很多熟悉她作品的人会感兴趣看她的日记。但是他不是中国最有名的演员，而且现在中国很多明星写博客。　我还是觉得她的博客风格比较独特。　我也觉得做传统大观众媒体的人会向她学习不少。

有一次，　我跟制片人在一起。他是个可爱很有才能的朋友。我们在四川拍段新闻片子。我们在讨论从那个角度去说一件事。　他对我说"这片新闻不是有关你自己感兴趣的事情，是关于观众感兴趣的事情。大家晚上八点中回家看新闻直播不想听那么多。"我马上感觉很失望，也觉得很抽象。大家是有个共同大众的思想方式吗？世界就是不是都在变的向这个方向流？这个连锁点，那个大作的产品，都是给于大家的，但是最后它对任何人都不大合适都引起不了愉快。
徐静蕾博客的人气能教育传统媒体什么呢？做的个性一点，如果能做的又细又智慧又诚实也有可能是大多人喜欢的。

Chatting to the world's most popular blogger

Blogging has taken off in China in a big way. Even China's police service has a blog and it attracted over a million hits when it launched a photo section introducing the force's hottest police-women.

Partly due to a clever move by one of China's web portals sina.com, blogging has become a daily habit for many of China's rich and famous. Sina offered a blog home to around 100 Chinese celebrities; creating an enormous boost to its own traffic.  Now property tycoon Pan Shiyi has one. Hong Huang publisher of Time Out Beijing has one. Even writer Peter Mayle has a Chinese blog on Sina.

Last week Technorati revealed that for the first time it is a Chinese blog which has the most hits of all the blogs in the world.  The world's top blog belongs to Xu Jinglei an actress and filmmaker from Beijing.  She is on 10 million and rising.

While big hit blogs from around the world have focused on subjects like music, science, technology, Xu's is a little different.  She admits that her writing is totally 'za', meaning she writes on a vast range of things.  Her blog is written in a very personal way.  She writes about the little things in life, from her musings on karaoke nights out, to visits home to her grandmother, and letting off steam after frustrating days at work. Her entries move between the frivolous and the philosophical.  Her writing style is simple yet rhythmic and comfortable to read.

Lesbians and Lala land

It was going to be one of those days.  My reporter, the wonderfully named Poppy Sebag-Montefiore, and I were in a bit of a corner.  We were filming together in China and our government minder, a man who was improbably fluent in Esperanto (who did he speak to??), had made it clear that we were not to leave Beijing without permission, writes Iain Overton.

And as our story was meant to be about rural pollution and rural land grab, this but a bit of a restriction. 

So - we met for a morning coffee and brainstormed. 

"What about Lesbians?" Poppy said.  I did a double-take. 

Not sure it was that sort of show, I offered.  She kicked me.

"No, we should cover the way in which the Internet has transformed the Beijing gay scene."

It sounded like a good idea.  So a few phone calls later we had arranged to meet the Lala club (Chinese slang for Lesbians) who were having a 'salon' meeting.  Poppy persuaded them that, though I was a man, I was OK.

We rocked up and then I had a thought.  What, exactly, would I film?  By the very nature of it all, filming Lesbians being lesbians wouldn't rest well with Ofcom.   

China's poisoned waters

The second of More4 News's series of films from China is on the web now - this time, focusing on the environmental consequences of the country's rapid economic growth.

Poppy Sebag-Montefiore has travelled right across China, from the outskirts of Beijing in the north to Szechuan in the South.

She found a similar story in both places: rivers running black with sludge from factories, ground water polluted with carelessly applied fertilisers.

The people's health is suffering, and the government would rather try to silence their protests than address their greivances.

Watch the latest report here, and read Iain Overton's account of filming in China here.

Returning to China after 14 years

I first visited Beijing 14 years ago, when I was a fresh-faced, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 18 year old, writes Iain Overton.  I had been travelling, as a student, on the Trans-Siberian Railway and had managed to blag my way from Krakow to China's capital city for £126. 

After seven days of being wedged in a fetid cabin with a grizzly Stalingrad veteran and his Lolita-esque grand-daughter (complete with lollipop), I was desperate for a change. 

And what a change it was. China was a blur of colour.  Mao's legacy, it seemed, was a distant memory. There was promise in the air.  And I was overcome by the smell of Green Tea, the glint of gilded dragons, the taste of fried bean-curd.  Now those memories seem like a sepia-tinged photograph. 

Beijing today is unrecognisable from that of my teenage experience.

China's web stars

Last summer two bored Chinese students decided to switch on their webcam and sing along to one of their favourite songs by the teen group, the Backstreet Boys.

Their over the top performance was an instant hit on the internet. The pair have become so famous that they've been snapped up by Pepsi.

Watch the report here