Hao Hao ReportThe best China news and blog posts

The uproar over the Starbucks in Beijing's Forbidden City isn't really about the power of bloggers and citizen media in China, argues Rebecca MacKinnon. What's it really about? Well, that's more complicated. Best to just read the whole thing.

One sad thing about life in Beijing is missing American food. My boyfriend is sick of me hearing me tell him how much I miss milkshakes and bread. There is are a number of Western-themed eateries, Dairy Queen, a Sizzler (or two), Pizza Huts and of course ubiquitious McDonalds, in the city. And if you want coffee, there are a surprising number of Starbucks in the city.

ESWN translates an essay by Rui Chenggang, the CCTV anchor who started the uproar over Starbucks in the Forbidden City. Fascinating and complicated. Read it.

An interesting, humerous look at Beijing's many Starbucks locations and what to expect at each one.

A vandal has damaged the giant portrait of late Chinese chairman Mao Zedong that hangs over the Forbidden City.

"The picture was on fire on the left-hand side," said a diplomat and a photographer who were driving past in a taxi late on Saturday afternoon.

Cultural purity or commercial opportunity?
As Wil says....
As the epitome of the considerate foreign resident, Imagethief is sensitive to the need to preserve China's cultural heritage. That's why I do not deface monuments or ridicule the metropolitan statuary (excessively) and why I did not fart loudly when visiting Mao's mausoleum.

From Starbucks in Dalian: A bit of cake, a bit of coffee, a swastika . . . well, this one is just plain weird.

Thank you, come again.

In the latest Lost Laowai post I find a bit of new hope for my otherwise jaded opinion towards free thought in China. It comes, oddly enough, in the form of a CCTV anchorman. He's no Ron Burgundy, but he's pretty cool none-the-less.

Whether he's telling Starbucks to get the hell out of the Forbidden City or telling Chinese to get the hell over their problems with the Japanese - CCTV's Rui Chenggang has thoughts that work outside the rinse-read-repeat system so common among China's "intellectuals".

Starbucks Corp. opened its first outlet in China in 1999. In 7 years the coffee maker has brewed more than 200 locations.

Until 2004 China required foreign companies to ...