The Dark Visitor

James Fallows of the Atlantic has an excellent article on the PRC government’s inability to present itself in a positive light.

This is inept on China’s part. Why do I consider it puzzling? Because of two additional facts I would not have guessed before coming to China: it’s a better country than its leaders and spokesmen make it seem, and those same leaders look more impressive in their home territory.

The article is very well-reasoned and insightful as usual.

Johny Long, the well-known Google search hacker linked to a very interesting blog post on Stryde Hax about the controversy over Chinese gymnast He Kexin. In it, Stryde Hax uses some Google hacks on Baidu (the most popular Chinese search site) to come up with two cached spreadsheets that show He Kexin’s birth year as 1994 which would make her ineligible for the Olympics.

The documents were apparently removed from the government website where they were originally found. Then again – it could have been that the original government documents were wrong and her birth year has been 1992 all along. I can’t say for certain.

If you are interested in Google hacking, take a look at this TDV article.

Update: This article talks about the PRC response to the IOC requested investigation into He Kexin’s age. The response indicates that the paperwork that read 1994 instead of 1992 was in error. That’s probably the last we’ll hear about it except from the China bashers.

Update Two: The Stryde Hax blog has been updated with a link to another PRC government document that lists Jiang Yuyuan’s age as November 1, 1993. Google hacking is cool.

Yeah, the posts have been coming slow lately but some of you may have heard about a little event going on in China called the Olympics. Chinese hackers watching sporting events, worried about foreign hackers attacking them…my world is completely upside down.

The boys and girls from 3800hk.com, the largest Chinese hacker training site, take over 20 of their “employees” out to enjoy the games. Plus, they love them some Mr. Yao Ming:

More pictures of their adventure here if you are interested…but pretty much the same as these.