On Friday, Jan. 16, the Asia Society will host a daylong symposium in New York on the effect of climate change on the Tibetan plateau. A live video webcast will be available at asiasociety.org. You can also catch a collection of videos on the topic at the society's China Green site.

My friend Tim Johnson who is the Beijing correspondent for Mcclatchy newspapers and also writes one of the most consistently interesting English-language blogs on China has a scary post today on the explosion in rabies cases in China. Travelers to rural areas (and big cities too, where the danger is actually worse but treatment more readily available) should be very cautious indeed and anyone planning to spend time in the countryside should definitely think about getting the vaccine shots, which give you an extra couple of days after being bitten to get treatment, without which you're history, no ifs, ands or buts. Now I have to confess that I feel rather aggrieved that I didn't get a mention on this post as I am the reason, at least I think I am the reason, that Tim has seen the light about the rabies issue. When he and I were wheezing our way through the high altitude town of Litang last March (my account here; you'll have to find Tim's no doubt much better written story yourselves), we were heading up to the large monastery and passed by a pack of  mangy, scrofulous, scabcovered dogs. As we had just spent two days in a variety of dilapidated vehicles getting to Litang and that was the only route out, the rabies mantra, "get treatment in 24 hours (if you haven't had the vaccine) or die"  was thrumming in my brain. I edged away and tried to pull Tim with me, but as ever with this bulldog of a reporter, the story came first (are you reading this Mcclatchy editors?) and he continued to take shots of  pilgrims as they made their slow way up to the monastery, chanting and whirling prayer wheels. He waved off my entreaties about diseased dogs and rabies and, figuring if he was going to stand there anyway, I maneuvered around so he was between me and the pack, who seemed to be edging closer, eying our no doubt juicy (plump anyway) glutei maximi. It all ended happily, but I have certainly run into similar situations again since then. Which means I have got my shots, right? Well, not exactly. It's on my to-do list, but they are supposed to be extremely painful, huge needles and so on, so I'll wait until my next trip to the countryside. Or maybe the one after that. Ot maybe just until Tim gets the shots, which he obviously will after writing such a scary post, right Tim?

After 15 years of talks, Taiwan's legislature has passed a bill to legalize gambling on the Penghu islands, located off the west coast of Taiwan's main island. While Macau takes the lion's share of Asia's gaming dollars, reeling in more than $10 billion USD in 2007 (2008 figures haven't yet been released), there's no shortage of wagering opportunities in the rest of the region. Cambodia, the Philippines and Japan lead the way, each with dozens of casinos or racetracks. In November, Wuhan legalized horse betting for the first time on the mainland since 1949. And Singapore's first casino, the Marina Bay Sands, is set to open this year.

Religious groups in Taiwan protested the decision, arguing that casinos would have a negative effect on society (see our story on gambling addiction in Asia here.) The Singaporean and South Korean governments also faced strong opposition when they decided to legalize gambling. Their solution: Singapore will allow foreigners to patronize casinos free of charge while requiring local citizens to pay a $68 entrance fee. In South Korea, locals are banned altogether from most casinos. Taiwan has time to weigh the risks—with industry regulations still up in the air, it may be years before the first casino opens its doors.

State-run China Central Television responded sharply to the call for a boycott of its programing, telling the Associated Press that its coverage is "timely and sufficient." As slogans go, it's not quite "all the news that's fit to print" or even "fair and balanced." The AP notes that CCTV's faxed response, from Wang Jianhong, deputy director of the broadcaster's general editing department, smacks of the sort of propaganda it claims to avoid:

Unintentionally proving the point, Wang referred to the Tibetan protests that broke out last March as the "Lhasa beating, smashing and looting incident" and called Tibetan activists who disrupted the Olympic torch relay ... "Tibetan splittists."

But Wang said other countries around the world, including the U.S., are not immune to propaganda.

"Speaking of propaganda, I'm afraid no country can avoid it. Even the U.S used propaganda about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and invaded the country. And what's the truth? For now, it already is very clear," he wrote.

For people who don't live in Beijing, the preoccupation with the quality of the city's air that plagues some residents must seem occasionally to veer into monomania. Last year, I had to consciously stop myself from posting on the issue and putting up endless photos of just how awful the view out my window was. It's worth coming back to the subject if only to say that the city has had what for Beijing is an extraordinary run since the Olympics, with average pollution each month under the 100 mark on the Air Pollution Index. Admittedly, December was 99.something but that was because of a few horrible days that skewed the average. and the rest of the months have been in the 60s and 70s. (For those interested in a day to day record out of one resident's window along with matching API information, see the Asia Society's excellent "room with a view" series here) It's got so that I feel it's my right to have glorious blue skies every morning out of my east facing window (above) and a view of the Western Hills from the other side (below).   As ever, climate has a good deal to do with it, strong winds being a feature of winter in the capital. But then this period is also particularly bad because of the millions of coal fired heaters. There are of course the complicated car restriction rules still in place (Austin's explanation here) though and it's hard no to credit them with a good deal of the improvement at least. The Atlantic magazine's man in Beijing James Fallows has an interesting insight (and a handy satellite map from Nasa) into just how much difference those changes really made during the Olympics. Protests and demonstrations are breaking out all over China these days from the parents of the kids affected by melamine poisoning to the Charter 08 signatories. You have to wonder whether Beijingers will meekly go back to living in a cloud of toxic muck again should the current blue skies vanish.

It's a bad time for media. Advertising revenue is weak, circulations are falling and nobody wants to pay for news online. But there is a glimmer of hope in China. Or at least in China's state-run media. As the South China Morning Post reports today, the government is considering a proposal to invest $6.5 billion in expanding the global reach of China Central Television, Xinhua news service and the People's Daily. The SCMP says:

The central government is preparing to spend 45 billion yuan (HK$51 billion) on the overseas expansion of its main media organisations in an aggressive global drive to improve the country's image internationally.

The three state media giants - Central China Television, Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily - could each get up to 15 billion yuan if they came up with "worthwhile projects" to enhance their global influence, a well-positioned source said. Even the smaller operator China News Service could get 2 billion yuan.

Perhaps they might first try harder at home. The BBC reports today that a group of Chinese are now calling for a boycott of CCTV because its programs are heavy with propaganda and ignore or downplay important stories:

Chinese intellectuals have signed an open letter calling for a boycott of state television news programmes.

The letter says China's Central Television (CCTV) has turned its news and historical drama series into propaganda to brainwash its audience.

The author of the damning letter told the BBC that the action should at least serve as a health warning to the susceptible public.

One Chinese state press publication that's already floated expansion plans is the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid run by the People's Daily. It's planning an English-language edition. Last month the website Danwei posted an ad calling for editors for the new publication. After Hong Kong's Apple Daily, which sadly isn't available on the mainland, the Global Times is my favorite Chinese newspaper. It's a popular read on domestic flights in China. Everyone wants to read about the latest outrageous behavior committed by the West. Once their English-language edition gets going, the rest of the world will learn too.

Hong Kong's environment will never be saved so long as there are groups like the curiously named Greeners Action. This wretched organization probably thinks it is helping with its latest campaign when all it has done is redefine uselessness. It has launched an initiative that will see diners rebated an enticing 12 cents (12 cents!) if they ask for smaller portions when eating at one of 50 participating restaurants. This only applies on the first Wednesday of each month, incidentally, but by this most perfunctory of means it is hoped that less food waste will end up in Hong Kong's overflowing landfills. Look on the bright side: maybe that will make more room for farcical environmental campaigns like this one.

Recently we reported on the arrest of dissident intellectual Liu Xiaobo and police interviews with dozens of other signatories of Charter 08, the pro-democracy manifesto released during a period of sensitive anniversaries last month. The number of mainland scholars, artists and writers who have been questioned by authorities about the document has since grown. The ngo Chinese Human Rights Defenders says that at least 101 signers have been interviewed by police in the past month. The police want to learn who wrote the 4,000-word document and how it was disseminated. "Interrogations often end with the authorities demanding an individual publicly renounce his or her support for the charter," says a recent CHRD press release. "If this request is not met, police have accused signatories of joining 'an illegal association,' being 'suspected of plotting to overthrow the regime' or otherwise intimidated or threatened them."

Today a prominent mainland blog site, bullog.cn, was blocked, which may also be connected to Charter 08. A few of the liberal outlet's bloggers wrote about the document, and at least four signed it. I spoke briefly with Bullog founder Luo Yonghao this afternoon. He said he wasn't sure why the site was blocked, and wouldn't speculate on a Charter 08 connection. C.A. Yeung of the Under the Jacaranda Tree blog noted in December that Bullog had dropped two of its bloggers, apparently for writing about Charter 08.

If you have an idle moment, visit the Hedley Index. It tracks air pollution in Hong Kong and is run by the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health. The Hong Kong Government has its own widely criticized Air Pollution Index, which is not based on current international understanding as to what constitutes healthy or unhealthy air, but on the government's arbitrary (and none too stringent) “air quality objectives.”
The Hedley Index gives a rather more helpful summary of the situation, and quantifies pollution not only in terms of particulate matter, ozone levels, nitrogen dioxide emissions and so on, but also as an economic and public health cost. Counters track the estimated number of premature deaths, hospital bed days and doctor visits made as a result of pollution. They also give a dollar cost, which is based on how much money is spent on health care and lost through decreased productivity.
As far as I know, there is nothing comparable in the rest of China. During the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, municipal authorities were constantly shrugging off the most choking of days as “slightly polluted,” which tells you something about your chances of getting an accurate picture there. The pioneering team behind the Hedley Index deserve to be commended.

Gu Gu, of course. As AFP phrases it, "A Beijing Zoo panda known for his bad temper has tasted human blood for the third time."