Mary Kay Magistad
China’s Pollution-Fighting Farm
An innovative project uses a hydroponic vegetable farm to clean up China’s Dianchi Lake.
Bhutan’s Hydropower Challenge
Bhutan is looking into hydropower to give its economy a boost.
Jiang Zemin Dead or Alive?
Rumors started swirling when the 84-year-old Jiang did not show up for the Communist Party’s 90th anniversary gala on July 1st.
The Tight Ties Between Sudan’s President and China
China has been an important backer of the Sudanese leader. But that support has been controversial.
Ai Weiwei ‘Cannot Leave Beijing Without Permission’
The Chinese artist is also not allowed to talk to the media
How Democracy is Evolving in Bhutan
A look at how democracy is evolving in this Himalayan nation.
Why Nepal’s Crown Prince Went on a Killing Spree
It’s been 10 years since Nepal’s crown prince gunned down his father, the king, and other royal family members before killing himself. But many in Nepal say they don’t believe the official story of what happened that night and why. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports.
Toilet Tales: China
The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports on an effort to save water and recycle nutrients in an arid part of China by building an apartment complex with dry, composting toilets. It’s the first installment of our four-part series this week on sanitation issues, called “Toilet Tales.”
Interview with ecological sanitation specialist Arno Rosemarin
Toilet Tales Series Page
Nepal Stagnates Amid Government Deadlock
Nepal has great potential, but its economy remains stagnant because rivals in the government cannot agree on moving forward and its poor suffer the consequences. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports.
Postcard from Bhutan: Gross National Happiness
When you’re a small, landlocked mountain kingdom, wedged between the giants of China and India, with more than 70 percent of your population living in rural areas, 50 percent illiterate, and much of your budget coming from overseas aid and grants, you play to your strengths [...]
China’s Jasmine crackdown
Stravinsky had his Rite of Spring; China’s Communist Party has its own. As the first warm(er) breezes blow, Internet connections slow and sometimes fizzle out entirely. Spring in Beijing brings the annual 10-day meeting of the National People’s Congress, which this year starts on March 5th. China’s leaders, and more to the point China’s security apparatus, views this as a “sensitive time,” a time when public opinion must be kept “harmonious.” That is to say, criticism of the Party’s record or style of governance, is to be silenced.
On the road with the Chinese Foreign Ministry
It was around midnight, on a bus, coming off a plane near the end of yet another 14-hour day traveling on a Chinese Foreign Ministry-organized trip through the western region of Xinjiang and province of Qinghai, when a fellow journalist turned to me and said, “What were they smoking when they came up with this schedule?”
Follow along with Mary Kay Magistad’s special dispatches on her trip to the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, in China’s far west and the largely ethnic Tibetan province of Qinghai. Part 4 On the road with the Chinese Foreign Ministry: the good, the bad and the struggle for the soul of a story
Read Mary Kay Magistad’s dispatches in our special series
- On the road with China’s Foreign Ministry
- On the Road with the Chinese Foreign Ministry: Anatomy of an Explosive Story
- How to hold a news conference, Chinese provincial style
More from The World’s Mary Kay Magistad
How to hold a news conference, Chinese provincial style
You’re a Chinese provincial leader. A group of foreign journalists is coming through, and you’re supposed to meet them. What do you do?
Follow along with Mary Kay Magistad’s special dispatches on her trip to the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, in China’s far west and the largely ethnic Tibetan province of Qinghai.
On the Road with the Chinese Foreign Ministry: Anatomy of an Explosive Story
Sometimes, how a story is told can tell you almost as much as the story itself. So it was with an explosion that went off at 10:30am on Thursday, August 19, in the town of Aksu, in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, about 400 miles southwest of the capital Urumqi. Context is everything, here. Xinjiang has for centuries been home to the Turkic Muslim ethnic group called Uighurs – indeed, it is officially called the “Uighur Autonomous Region.” But these days, Uighurs make up barely half of the region’s population. That’s because, for the past 60 years, the Chinese government has encouraged members of the dominant Han Chinese ethnicity to move to Xinjiang to tame and develop China’s wild west. Continue reading
Follow along with Mary Kay Magistad’s special dispatches on her trip to the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, in China’s far west and the largely ethnic Tibetan province of Qinghai.
On the road with China’s Foreign Ministry
It used to be in China that the only way foreign correspondents could legally travel in the provinces was with government minders – or, if you will, facilitators. As time went on, China became more open, and more and more foreign correspondents bent or flouted the rules, the rules eventually changed. Since January 2007, foreign journalists have officially been allowed to go (almost) anywhere in China, and talk to anyone who’s willing to be interviewed. Almost anywhere – except Tibet. And local areas that make up their own rules – like, certain parts of Sichuan after the 2008 earthquake, or the southern Xinjiang city of Kashgar, or many places that have just put down a demonstration. <a href="Continue reading
Follow along with Mary Kay Magistad’s special dispatches on her trip to the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, in China’s far west and the largely ethnic Tibetan province of Qinghai.
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