Sascha Matuszak

This is Ming Ming’s second abortion. She arrived at the Sichuan Province Mother-Child Clinic in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, at 8 am. After squirming through the crowd of girls surrounding the nurses and making her appointment, she sat down with 13 other young women on the small green plastic chairs outside of the operating … Continue reading “Safe Sex in China”

‘Tis the time for transitions and reflections in China these days. Next week, infamous photos of the "June 4th Incident" will emerge from the heap of glowing statistics that China shovels onto the world stage day in and day out. Old Deng will drift in from the grave and experts – and old freedom fighters … Continue reading “Summertime Plotting”

China finds itself once again in a tight spot vis-à-vis her "proxies." North Korea has rarely left the spotlight after being enshrined in the Bush Administration’s Hall of Evil, but China has avoided any direct accusations flowing from the West concerning N. Korea’s WMD programs and human rights abuses. The recent "runs for the border" … Continue reading “Tight Spot”

While the US ruminates over North Korea’s chest thumping and posturing, China has already turned away from the mess on the peninsula and is sidling up next to its new buddy in the world, Russia. Presidents Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin met this week and shook hands for the world to see while their underlings … Continue reading “A Sino-Russian Bloc?”

There is a palpable grumpiness surrounding businessmen and foreigners here in Chengdu. Business is bad, there is no work for expats, travel is restricted and worst of all: the netbars have closed. For the common Sichuanese, the loss of Internet access, the roadblocks to scenic sites and the marked decrease in traffic – business or … Continue reading “Lessons of SARS”

General Zhu of the Chinese Air Force is from Canton, but today he is sitting in tiny little Xinjin city, just south of Chengdu, hosting a small banquet of friends and family. Two majors are concentrating hard on providing the General with choice morsels and keeping his cup of baijiu full. The General waves them … Continue reading “Powers Behind the Thrones”

A while back I wrote a column about cheating and getting ahead in Chinese Universities – I received a torrent of emails demanding how I could brand an entire nation as a nest of liars and cheats. An article this year in the Asia Times by Gary LaMoshi addressed this "phenomenon" from a different perspective: … Continue reading “Know When to Lie, Know When to Shoot Straight”

It all started when the Peace Corps quietly slipped out of China two weeks ago. There was a small, muted gathering at the local watering hole in Chengdu, and then they were gone, SARS being the culprit. Chengdu is a focal point for the Peace Corps in southwest China, they taught in the schools, ate … Continue reading “Rumors and Leavetakings”

Chinese coverage of the war in Iraq has been constant, repetitive and decidedly pro-peace if not anti-American. CCTV has developed into a network capable of broadcasting news from everywhere with the authority of CNN. In fact, like most news networks across the globe, CCTV has modeled their look, language, graphics, music etc. after the American … Continue reading “‘Americans Like War, Huh?’”

The story of a woman on the morning of a war/ Tell me if you could exactly what we’re fighting for – The Red Hot Chili Peppers This morning I woke up real early and practiced my minimal wu shu. It promised to be a beautiful day – the urban rooster gang was already crowing, … Continue reading “A Beautiful Morning for a War”