Via Danwei:

Is there something in the water at the Beijing Youth Daily headquarters? Here’s George Bush as an anti-terrorism superhero who, along with the King of Terrorists and a Henan version of Condoleezza Rice, appears in Current Affairs, a new monthly newsmagazine for kids.
The magazine’s Chinese title, 《时事魔镜》, reads "Current Affairs Magic Mirror"; magic is apparently necessary to turn international affairs into something of interest to kids.

Joel reviews the content and concludes:

This bastard child of the Xinhua News Agency and Mad Magazine certainly has the potential to fail utterly while trying to be too hip to today’s youth, but if it succeeds, it just might be brilliant.

Personally, I’d buy it just for the ultra-cute Condi rendition.:

The style and color scheme is off though. Ms Rice tends to go for power suits and, overall, has much better fashion sense.

Imagethief sums up US paranoia over Cnooc’s recent bid … just about everything China does.:

Current “yellow peril” scorecard:

• Currency manipulators
• Textile dumpers/WTO flouters
• Growing militarists (from Rumsfeld’s recent address in Singapore, an odd criticism from the United States, which accounts for something like half of planetary defense spending)
• Resource appropriators
• IPR violators (this one is probably deserved, but it adds to the din)
• Potential (not actual) US Treasury bond dumpers
• Etc.

He adds a number of solutions.:

• Stop driving all those Cadillac Escalades and be just a tad more fuel efficient
• Convince Americans to start saving, even just a little, and slow down the debt-financed consumer binge that is powering the trade deficit
• Spend less money on misguided foreign military adventures and ill-conceived weapons and more on the public schools which appear to be failing to train our next generation of technologists

I’m not in agreement with point three, but I will add a fourth point:

• The US, not China, is responsible for the number of treasury bonds it issues. If the country is so concerned about the threat of China dumping treasuries the way to fix this would be to cut back on issuance (ie. stop borrowing and cut spending).

I welcome further additions…

Helloooo? McFly, Anybody home?

MANILA Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, president of the Philippines, apologized to her countrymen on Monday, saying her telephone call to an election official, in which she allegedly discussed how to cheat in national elections last year, was "a lapse in judgment." 
On national television Monday evening, a somber-looking Arroyo said that her call to Virgilio Garcillano, a commissioner at the Commission on Elections, was not meant to influence the outcome of the election and that she was merely anxious to protect her votes. 
"I recognize that making any such call was a lapse in judgment," the president said. "I am sorry." She added that she took "full responsibility for my actions."

(IHT via Horse’s Mouth)

The NYT also offers a less conspiratorial view of the Cnooc bid for Unocal and other deals, from Andrew Ross Sorkin (via China Digital Times):

Many deals with Chinese companies - and, by extension, the Chinese government - may actually help the United States economy, just as China has helped prop up the nation by buying Treasury bonds en masse.
Indeed, so far, the businesses in which China has taken an interest could be categorized as "least likely to succeed." And the Chinese may eventually revive them.
Look at Maytag. That struggling company is a business that no other strategic rival in the world - yes, the entire world - was prepared to bid on. Before Haier expressed interest, the only potential buyer was a consortium of private equity players led by Ripplewood Holdings of New York. And what do you think they would likely have done with the company? The Maytag repairman would almost certainly have lost his job, along with dozens if not hundreds of others until the private equity group trimmed enough costs that it could take some cash out by flipping the business to another private equity team. This hot-potato game might have gone on for a decade or two until the company was milked of its very last dollar.
Haier, on the other hand, wants Maytag for its brand and its managers’ experience, so it can have some help building the business. While Haier is also likely to cut jobs, pink slips will probably come much slower in the United States. And the Maytag brand, its culture and legacy will probably live on much longer.

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Paul Krugman has an interesting op-ed today on recent attempts by Chinese companies/the Chinese government to acquire American companies.  He calls it, "The Chinese Challenge."  He also compares recent Chinese actions with "Fifteen years ago, when Japanese companies were busily buying up chunks of corporate America."  Back then, Krugman was not concerned, but now he is.  Why?

…judging from early indications, the Chinese won’t squander their money as badly as the Japanese did.
The Japanese, back in the day, tended to go for prestige investments - Rockefeller Center, movie studios - that transferred lots of money to the American sellers, but never generated much return for the buyers. The result was, in effect, a subsidy to the United States.
The Chinese seem shrewder than that. Although Maytag is a piece of American business history, it isn’t a prestige buy for Haier, the Chinese appliance manufacturer. Instead, it’s a reasonable way to acquire a brand name and a distribution network to serve Haier’s growing manufacturing capability.

But the second reason is perhaps more the more crucial one for Krugman; it is moves by the Chinese government to be a major player in "the Great Game" over resources in Central Asia:

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The blogosphere has been somewhat abuzz as of late over Microsoft’s unilateral decision to ban words and phrases such as ‘freedom,’ ‘liberty,’ and ‘democracy’ from its China blog service as a way to kowtow to the Chinese government.

A conversation with a friend of mine from Shanghai who is studying in America, brought the silliness of these measures home.  She has an MSN blog that she registered while still in China.  She recently tried to add the year 1989 in her profile (I still haven’t figured out why), which she soon discovered was impossible.  So, even in Philadelphia, 1989 never happened?!

Reading this post at One Free Korea makes me wish the author would start a blog called One Free China (or perhaps One Free China, Two Free Systems… whatever).:

Thanks to Dan at tdaxp for forwarding the link. Draw your own conclusions; I think that China’s transformation to a capitalist economy will mean, on balance, that fewer people live in these conditions. You need only think of North Korea to see that. Regrettable as these scenes are, they will disappear sooner if China continues to industrialize. The problem is that China’s transformation to capitalism is warped by the strangling tentacles of a corrupt state.
This scene, of police confiscating a sweet potato-seller’s bicycle for the sake of creating a "modern" appearance, was the one that incensed me. From some of my other readings, I suspect scenes like these are emblematic of the broader corruption in China, and the real flaw in its economic transformation–the fact that China’s ruling party controls its businesses and thus won’t use its legal system as a fair arbiter between the people and the state.Draw your own conclusions; I think that China’s transformation to a capitalist economy will mean, on balance, that fewer people live in these conditions. You need only think of North Korea to see that. Regrettable as these scenes are, they will disappear sooner if China continues to industrialize. The problem is that China’s transformation to capitalism is warped by the strangling tentacles of a corrupt state.
This scene, of police confiscating a sweet potato-seller’s bicycle for the sake of creating a "modern" appearance, was the one that incensed me. From some of my other readings, I suspect scenes like these are emblematic of the broader corruption in China, and the real flaw in its economic transformation–the fact that China’s ruling party controls its businesses and thus won’t use its legal system as a fair arbiter between the people and the state.

Gordon of the Horse’s Mouth just e-mailed me news that China’s ban on TypePad blogs has been lifted. He also posts:

It looks like TypePad hosted blogs are now back online, polluting the cyberworld with free thoughts.
I was starting to go blind from sitting here trying to organize the more than 300 photos that I took during my weekend trip into the mountains when I decided to take a break and browse through some of the updated blogs in my RSS reader. To my surprise, ALL of the blogs that I sift through on a daily basis were now updating - Typepad blogs, too!
So, I decided to try it out. I opened my blog, started clicking on all of the TypePad blog links that have been blacklisted for the last week and sure enough, they’re up and functioning again.
Sorry Blogspot, it looks like you still have to stand in the corner awhile longer.

It’s not quite all of TypePad that has been restored. He notes that Rebecca McKinnion’s blog (RConversation) is still blocked.

Confirmed from here in Shanghai, AsiaPundit, Glutter and Andres Gentry can all be read. RConversation and Lost Nomad (hosted by TypePad under the ‘blogs.com’ domain) cannot be accessed without proxies.

The ban first hit blogs hosted under TypePad domains and later extended to ‘blogs.com.’ I’m hoping that the ban on those will soon be lifted and that what we are now seeing is a reverse snowball effect. Another theory would be that whatever inspired the initial block was something posted on a ‘blogs.com’ site and that the full TypePad ban was just a step taken in shutting down that particular part of TypePad.

Those wanting to see if their site is blocked in this part of China (Shanghai) can also check using this trace route page.

Dovish Richard at the Peking Duck made a couple of statements I can agree with about a Washington Times item on China’s military buildup.:

This extremely tendentious screed from Bill Gertz in the beloved Moonie Times is going to raise a lot of eyebrows today. It’s practically a declaration of war against China. . .
Let me be blunt: This is incendiary propaganda. There is no balance to this piece, no consideration of other viewpoints and absolutely no sense of perspective. By that, I mean looking at it from the Chinese perspective — if they were to do any of the things the article makes us think are imminent, their economy would instantly go to hell in a handbasket. . .

In a couple of decades the WT article may make a fine basis for a Philip K Dick-style novel. Right now, it gravely misinterprets the goals of the Chinese leadership which is, simply put, to get rich. Further, it exaggerates the capability of the Chinese military vis-a-vis the United States. Jing notes.:

America’s military strength doesn’t rest on gadgetry, but rather on the strength of its personnel, the dedication to training, and the synergy of information and force. Warfare is a complex endeavour and the acquisition of newer equipment does not neccessarily provide advantange. Gertz would be better off in examining how the PLA as a whole is changing. What are the education levels of the officer corps? How effective is the PLA in retaining trained personnel that might otherwise head for the private sector? How quickly can decisions can be made and passed down the chain of command? How efficient is the general logistics department? How well can different combat units integrate their battlefield awareness? All of these are complicated questions that Gertz has not even addressed that are far more significant in the long term than simple hardware acquisitions.

All the hype about China is overblown. The WT item states:

The combination of a vibrant centralized economy, growing military and
increasingly fervent nationalism has transformed China into what many
defense officials view as a fascist state.

It disturbs me that a right-wing newspaper would buy into the concept of a "vibrant centralized economy," that should be an oxymoron. Growing military? Yes, but that’s based on a very low (and still low) base.

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KO, a Pakistan blogger, reciprocates the love:

In Pakistan, we have a slightly different democratic system from India, where you have the worlds biggest elections. You guys go to great lengths making sure everybody gets the chance to vote, wasting time and money sending voting machines on elephants and what not, while we have greatly streamlined the process. You see, Musharraf tells us he embodies the people’s desires, and so when he votes its the same as the whole country voting, so our process is much faster and terribly efficient. We hear that Bush is really envious of our system and has been asking Musharraf tips about the next US election.
…
Over the years our leaders have waged war and then taken halting steps to peace only to quickly run back to the safety in jingoism which their mediocrity demands, using hatred and fear for easy political gains. I have been watching this whole process from the sidelines for many years, wondering when the whole madness will end

US treasury Secretary John Snow last week said that China should revalue its currency "now." Jing provides us with a translation of Premier Wen’s response.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday China must uphold the principles of independent initiative, controllability and gradual progress in pursuing RMB exchange rate reform.
"By ‘independent initiative,’ we mean to independently determine the modality, content and timing of the reform in accordance with China’s needs for reform and development," said the premier when addressing the opening ceremony of the Sixth ASEM Finance Ministers’ Meeting, held in Tianjin, a port city in North China.

In laymen’s terms, that roughly translates as a sod off to the recent statements by both members of Congress and the Bush administration over the currency issue.

The now banned-in-China Macroblog notes that Europe is more-or-less ok with this.:

.. it is up to China to decide the timing (of exchange rate reform) and we are waiting," [Deputy Finance Minister Caio K. Koch-Weser of Germany] said…
RT Hon Des Browne, chief secretary to the British Treasury, said he was "pleased" by what the Chinese premier said, adding, "We will continue to be supportive of China’s ambition in this regard."
"It is very important and very good that Chinese leaders paid great attention to this matter (currency reform) and I’m sure this matter will develop in time," Rastislav Sulla, counselor/head of the trade and economic department, the Slovakian Embassy to China,told Xinhua.

To defend the Chinese side, it is only reasonable that the country put proper hedging mechanisms in place ahead of any change in its currency regime. To defend the US side, the slow-moving CPC is taking far too long to do this.

Torn & Frayed in Manila has come across a site of interesting links from the Philippines - included in which is a link to the site of the Philippine’s only bagpiper-for-hire.

My name is Roy Macgregor-Esposo Espiritu, the Philippines’ first and only Filipino bagpiper to date. I am a Filipino of Scottish descent from the Macgregors of Nairn, Scotland. Growing up in a family that is well in touch with its Scottish roots, I grew up listening to the music of Scotland and the Great Highland Bagpipes.

This boggles the mind - not that there’s a piper in the Philippines, but because Pinoy Piper has a monopoly and the product is not crap. That is a true rarity. Sample MP3s are here.

Kevin in Pudong, Shanghai’s attempt at recreating Singapore’s CBD, presents a heavily hyphenated translation of a Paul Lin article in defense of spli—sm.:

China recently unveiled its “Anti-Se—-ion Law.” To tell you the truth, when we talk about unification or division, both are developments “under heaven,” just as in the opening lines of the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”: “the world under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; while after a long period of union, it tends to divide.” Thus, there is really no use in striving to attain either. So what good could possibly come of this Anti-Secession Law, which is technically a call to war? In fact, an overview of Chinese history has led me to believe that the division of China wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

The title of this post is intended to be serious. ESWN reveals how news of the assault on the villagers of Shengyou, and the video recording of the incident, became global.:

The Beijing News reporter working on the Shengyou incident was also shut down when all coverage was banned even though he getting close to the culprits.  So he has also posted his field notes on the Internet.  This reporter enumerated his dealings with government officials during his work, and this is quite illuminating.
One should not count on this state of things to last too long.  It will be a matter of time before all reporters receive the order that no field notes shall be published outside.  Meanwhile, this is a brief opening in the history of Chinese media. 
Please be mindful that we don’t even see these types of field notes in the mainstream media in the western world.  Wouldn’t you want to know just how ‘journalists’ such as Judith Miller (NYT), Elizabeth Bumiller (NYT) and Sue Schmidt (WaPo) write their reports?  You may then understand how an ‘exclusive’ is obtained on a piece of politically motivated propaganda.  Or, from the other extreme, how Seymour Hersh (New Yorker) and Mark Danner (New York Review of Books) get their information?

Reas the rest, including translation of the reporter’s notes.

Here is an interesting analysis of the Time issue on China. What does the picture say to you?

If I had a few hundred billion lying around, I’d waste substantial sums and I wouldn’t be too concerned about price. China is sitting on close to $700 billion in foreign exchange reserves, produced because neither imports nor investment outflows have been sufficient to soak up forex inflows. Barron’s in the earlier-noted item, looks how some of those fat stacks of cash are now being used:

Chances of getting a bargain buying an oil company after a rise of over 60% in crude prices over the past year doesn’t strike us as quite as good as the average sucker’s chances of hitting the lottery, whether the buyer is Chevron or Cnooc. Which merely enhances the likelihood that a Chinese acquisition binge in the U.S. will end on the same sobering note for the big Sino spenders as the Japanese buying binge did for the feckless acquisitors from the Land of the Rising Sun. Nowhere is it written that the Chinese have a better eye for value than the Japanese.
We do sympathize with the Chinese. They’re sitting on close to $691 billion in foreign-exchange reserves, not a little of it resting in U.S. Treasuries. Buying something, anything, American with that mountain of money is a heck of lot better than building another steel mill or pouring yuan down a rat hole in an effort to prop up a sinking stock market.

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Barron’s has a great item looking at the apparent recent rise in overseas accquisition activities by Chinese companies. I’ll post something separate on that later, for now, here’s a paragraph that caught my attention. (via Howard French):

So far, in any case, the Chinese economy appears quite reluctant to cooperate with even the mildest efforts to cool it off. Industrial production was up a sizzling 16.6% in May over the same month last year, fixed investment has been running upwards of 25% ahead of last year, oil demand continues to spurt and China has its very own, swiftly growing and very large real-estate bubble. A tendency to operate at least part of its industrial plant so that social stability tops profits as the bottom line obviously serves to camouflage weaknesses, but only for so long.
Our own feeling is that the regime’s ambivalence and equivocation about stepping on the brakes in earnest make China’s mother-of-all-booms almost a sure thing to became a big, fat bust, possibly some time next year. We won’t even hazard a guess as to the size and severity of the fallout, except it’ll be huge and it’ll be global.

Via McSweeny

TRANSLATED
THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS THAT ARE RUNNING THROUGH
A NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE’S MIND
WHEN HE IS AWARDED POLITICAL ASYLUM
IN THE UNITED STATES, SETTLES DOWN, TURNS ON THE TELEVISION,
AND THE FIRST
THING HE SEES IS A FANCY FEAST CAT-FOOD
COMMERCIAL…

I suppose it is better to have a reclusive cat than a reclusive dictator.

Via Glutter, TypePad owner Six Apart has confirmed the blocking of TypePad sites in China and advises:

We’ve become aware that all TypePad sites are currently being blocked in China, similar to the block put in place last year. We discovered the blocking in the same way that most of our TypePad members did, by hearing about it from readers in China.
Until access is restored, the only recommendations we can make for
workarounds is to use any web proxies which are available for routing
requests to TypePad through another site. In addition, third-party
services for processing syndication feeds aren’t currently being
blocked, so if you’re using another service to enhance your
TypePad-published XML feed, it’s likely the feed will still be
available to audiences in China.
To be clear, the availability of TypePad-powered sites in China
isn’t something we have control over, but we do hope that full access
is restored quickly, as it was last year.

This is gravely disturbing, as there are eight of these violence-inspiring devices on our refrigerator. (via Mutant Frog):

A scuffle broke out late Thursday night between a group of Japanese
tourists and locals at a restaurant in Wanhua (萬華), Taipei as result of
language barriers and miscommunication. The group of seven Japanese
were giggling and talking about the “Hello Kitty” magnets which have
recently a stirred frenzy among fans and collectors in Taiwan. Thinking
that the Japanese were laughing at them, a table of Taiwanese patrons
next to them—about 10 in all—approached the group and somehow a fight
started.

Kitty has been at the center of the Singapore riots of 2000 and the gruesome Hong Kong Hello Kitty murder of the same year, which was retold in schlock horror films: Human Pork Chop and There’s a Secret in My Soup.

As a responsible society it is time we consider banning all Kitty products and call upon Sanrio to provide full compensation for all Kitty-related incidents.

It was a busy week, here are some items of interest that Asiapundit missed from yesterday and last week:

Daniel Drezner asks whether the liberal paradigm - that markets bring democracy - is failing in China.

At Diacritic, a look at how Vietnamese language press - both domestic and overseas - covered Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s US visit.

Brad Setser has a good analysis on CNOOC’s bid for UNOCAL (one key point: "China’s oil firms have cash and customers but not enough oil: their current interest in stretching their wings abroad makes a certain amount of commercial sense.")

The Ordinary Gweillo points to an Economist item that explains last week’s shoe incident.

Ian Lamont also weighs in on Microsoft’s banning of democracy and other words on sections of its China blog portal - also keep checking Ian’s other blog a site on his developing thesis based on content analysis of China’s state-run news agency Xinhua.

Via China Digital Times a the Guardian spins a tale of two massacres. Plus a long piece from the Online Journalism Review on blogging in China.

Spirited discussion on China’s ‘new left’ continues at Simon World.

A roundup of yesterday’s news at China-e-lobby.

ESWN ponders the reliability of reports on bird-flu deaths in China.

Disappointment. After only recently discovering one of the best essayist blogs in China, Richard Willmsen announces he’s leaving China.

Taipei is taking the ‘love hotel’ and moving it upmarket.

China’s Nurse Ratchet may sometimes be acting in the people’s interest. CSR Asia notes authorities are shutting how-to suicide sites. Also, a good number of questions raised on China’s suicide statistics.

The FEER’s Traveller’s Tales blog informs us that the June issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review has been banned in Beijing "because of the content on pages 44 and 55-59." My copy arrived Thursday, page 44 is an item on poaching with a similar thesis to this one. Pages 55-59 contain content similar to what got the Economist banned a earlier this month. Btw Hugo, when do I get my password for archive access?

China may be viewed in a better light than the US globally, but lets forget about ‘Old Europe’s’ opinions and be thankful that the US is held in high regard in Asia’s other rising economy. (via the Acorn)

The Swanker starts on Rebecca’s request with a post on the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Malaysia’s LoneStar and Lucia Lai also oblige. As does Alan in Canada. And Roger L Simon.

Nicholas in Canada alerts us to addictive Malaysian curries.

Sepia Mutiny brings news that Australia’s Handi Ghandi has bowed to pressure and changed its logo: "their solution is to make Gandhi a Punjabi rapper. Apparently they felt that was the polar opposite of a nonviolent vegetarian."

Maobi points to a report saying that Malaysia is terror free (translation, not on-guard).

New Mongols alerts us to a new Central Asia blog. Also at New Mongols, a look at Taiwan’s changing view of Mongolia.

Lost Nomad helps us realize that South Korea’s riot police look a lot less threatening out of uniform.

Via NK Zone, in spite of a looming return of famine, Pyongyang’s range of restaurants is growing.

Kenny Sia’s new quiz: Which Malaysian blogger are you?

Cowboy Caleb alerts us to a Singapore Press Holdings reporter who is having an ethical dilemma about blogging and privacy. My view, anything that isn’t password protected is public.

Singapore’s mr brown brings us news that Mr Miyagi has joined him as a Today newspaper columnist.

The Singapore government may try to stop the use of Singlish in the city state’s media, but the People’s Action party has no power over DC Comics.

Over at XiaXue, Wendy has decided to post the private e-mail addresses from her critics. She knows, of course, that they will now be bombed by hate mail from her readers, making her appeal for sympathy seem more like a quest for revenge. Very bad form Wendy.

Tom Vamvanij has noted some creative translating by Thailand’s (usually respectable) Nation Media Group.

Reacting to China’s latest blocking of blogs, Instapundit says boycott Chinese goods. CSR Asia responds.

Naming a child something like this almost makes me want to call welfare services.

Finally, despite having too much on my plate already, I have accepted Dan’s invitation to become a contributor to the Shanghaiist. While he has literally offered to pay me in peanuts, even in ‘beta’ form the site is attractive enough to make me want to join. Still, Dan may want to consider James Goldsmith’s proverb.

For years I’m made it a habit to stop by the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) site. Sometimes I visit because of news events, usually it’s just to get some amusement at how bad North Korean propaganda is. For instance, from yesterday, we have this gem of a report.:

Pyongyang, June 23 (KCNA) — Leading artistes of the State Academic
Moiseyev Dance Company of Russia on a visit to the DPRK were deeply
impressed to tour various revolutionary battle sites and revolutionary
sites in the area of Mt. Paektu, holy place of the revolution. Director
Elena Scherbakova, head of the dance company, said …
   
Standing on the peak of Mt. Paektu, I was convinced that Kim Jong Il’s
grit and pluck are just the same as the majestic appearance of Mt.
Paektu. The solemn and splendid appearance of Mt. Paektu is reminiscent
of his spirit.

Now Dean Ismay informs me that Kim Jong Il, upset at his portrayal as a ‘ronery’ maniac in Team America, commissioned a South Korean company to come up with a response. The result is a must-see music video, available from Dean’s World.

Watch the video. It is the absolute funniest thing I’ve seen in weeks - and it’s surprisingly catchy too. If this was DPRK-commissioned, I fear that the North’s propaganda machine has taken an astounding leap forward.

Kim Jong-il has actually given me an earworm. F**kin’ USA!

(UPDATE: 19:46: Bill at INDC Journal notes in Dean’s comment section that the video pre-dates Team America. In that case, I suggest the Dear Leader sue Parker and Stone for appropriating his idea. I still have the earworm though.)

I completely agree with Rebecca McKinnion on everything in her most recent post. Read the whole thing, but here are the bullet points:

1. I am not calling for a boycott of China or of Cisco or any other companies.
2. I am in favor of free trade, I support capitalism, and I think trading with China is a good thing.
3. I don’t think legislation or political lobbying is completely useless.

I developed the ‘censored by Cisco advertisment’ on the left-hand sidebar, more of which are available here (I do encourage copying), because I believe it is the best way to bring attention to the censorship situation in China. The Great Firewall is a creation of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and they are the ones who should be blamed. But every blogger in the world could post a banner condemning censorship in China and the CPC would not give a toss.

Every blogger in the world could have a banner photo of Tank Man and the CPC would not give a toss.

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This post is not related to Asia, but it comes via Asia-focused blog the Paper Tiger so I consider it fair game. New York was hit by a flood of sticky Snapple after a public-relations exercise gone wrong.:

An attempt to raise the world’s largest ice pop in a city square ended
with a scene straight out of a disaster film — but much stickier.
The
25-foot-tall, 17 1/2-ton treat of frozen Snapple juice melted faster
than expected Tuesday, flooding Union Square in downtown Manhattan with
kiwi-strawberry-flavored fluid that sent pedestrians scurrying for
higher ground.
Firefighters closed off several streets and used
hoses to wash away the sugary goo. Some passers-by slipped in the
puddles, but no serious injuries were reported.

Snapple’s press center remains conspicuously silent about the flooding, which more or less reminds me of how Xinhua usually acts.