I just discovered roller disco in China! The oh so 1980s disco craze is still rolling on in China due to a huge following from the country’s masses of migrant workers.

On a regular weeknight, the Xinxiang roller skating rink in one of Shanghai’s less fancy districts is teeming with crowds of young migrant workers, mostly in their 20s.

It’s quite a social scene here at Xinxiang and a great news story to tell – A forgotten disco craze revived by the nation’s low-wage earners in China’s self-professed trend capital.

These young migrant workers come here because it is probably one of the few discos in the country’s most expensive city that is affordable for them, and where they are able to blend in the crowd.

It’s thanks to the millions of these migrant workers that China has developed at such breakneck speed and now it’s thanks to them that the retro roller disco craze is still going strong in the world’s most populous nation.

So I say, way to go, roller disco!

Photo credits: Nir Elias

Video credits: Royston Chan

"We are in Afghanistan because we have been there for 8 years, now getting out is easy to say, but by now if we get out, quickly, the question arises, what follows? Is there going to be again a very sort of militant regime in Afghanistan which might tolerate al Qaeda's presence and beyond that is now a new issue, namely the conflict in Afghanistan has come to be connected with the conflict in Pakistan. Pakistan is an important country of 170 million people which has nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons, and delivery systems, delivery systems to the entire region around so we have to think much more responsibly on how to deal with this problem ... "

"We have to find a way of helping Pakistan cope with its problem in Pakistan but also help us cope with our problem in Afghanistan and that raises an extraordinarily complicated question, namely how do we give the Pakistanis the reassurance they want that if we leave Afghanistan there is not a regime in Afghanistan other than the Taliban which is more friendly to India than to Pakistan."

Asked about whether the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the region was based on an alliance between the United States and India:

"Well if it is then I don't understand what the Eurasia strategy is because if that is the alliance, then we are not going to solve the Afghan question and if we don't solve the Afghan question but the conflict continues, how will the relationship between China and Pakistan, which is quite close, be affected by an American-Indian alliance, and what will that do to the prospects for stability on a larger global scale between China and India?"

You can see the full interview here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfikRg2jE 6o

Under the former Bush administration, Washington and Delhi built closer ties, whose centrepiece was a deal effectively recognising India as a nuclear power. India also expanded its presence in Afghanistan after the fall of the Pakistan-backed Taliban following 9/11, unnerving Pakistan. Many analysts are sceptical that Pakistan will be willing to target Afghan Taliban militants based in its border areas as long as it thinks it might have to use them to counter India's presence in Afghanistan.

At the same time, India has long cast a wary eye on Pakistan's close relationship with China. After defeating India in a border war in 1962, China became Paksitan's most reliable ally, providing financial, diplomatic and military support, including to its nuclear weapons programme.  Tensions have also been rising again along the undemarcated border between India and China which runs along the fringes of disputed Kashmir in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. So the three countries, even without tensions over Afghanistan,  are already delicately balanced.

Indian military fears that Pakistan and China might work together in the event of a future conflict also prompted India's army chief to tell a private military seminar in December that India should be prepared to fight a two-front war against both countries simultaneously -- drawing an angry response from Pakistan.

Is it merely a coincidence that tensions are rising on the Ind0-China border, while India and Pakistan fret about each other's intentions in Afghanistan? Or as Brzezinski suggests is there a risk of a relationship of causation rather than of correlation?

(Brzezinski in 2007 file photo)

If you would like to make your own ice sculpture, please follow the simple instructions in the video below.

Note: for those wishing to replicate the gargantuan castles and temples in the Ice and Snow World , we suggest you seek professional advice at the festival itself.

 (Photographs by Lee Jae-won)

North Korea said on Tuesday it had  detained a U.S. citizen who entered its territory, apparently confirming a report that an American activist crossed into the
state to raise awareness about Pyongyang's human rights abuses.   Robert Park, 28, walked over the frozen Tumen river from
China and into the North last Friday, other activists said. The Korean-American told Reuters ahead of the crossing that it was his duty as a
Christian to make the journey and that he was carrying a letter calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to step down.

Park had an exclusive interview with Reuters last week before starting on his journey. The following are excerpts from the conversation. He requested that the comments be held until he was in North Korea.  

Reuters: Why are you planning to go into North Korea?

Robert Park: The North Korean human rights crisis by murder rate is the worst in the world. An estimated 1,000 people a day die by starvation and starvation is a murder case. North Korea has been sent more food aid than any nation in the world but the food has not gone to the people who need it. So this is murder.

But not only that, there are concentration camps in North Korea that are of the same brutality as in Nazi Germany.

Responsible governments are completely silent about the issue. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea have a huge responsibility to speak out about this because all these nations played a role the arbitrary division of the Koreas, where not a single Korean was consulted. Yet the lives of these people are of no issue to these governments. That is a crime. It is a huge crime

What is happening in North Korea is genocide. We know there are legitimate fears about what could happen through nuclear weapons. But a nation that runs concentration camps, a nation that kills men, women and children without any kind of restraint can never be trusted.

We believe the resolution to this whole crisis is simply addressing North Korea honestly about this has to change.

We do not hate people. I am Christian, but I do have to say that this is not a legitimate government. We cannot talk to North Korea as if it is a legitimate government, but we need to liberate North Korea. We need to have a vision for the unification of Korea. It has to happen immediately because people are dying by the thousands every single day.

Reuters: By going into North Korea, how can you change this? You are going in well aware of the dangers

Park: My demand is that I do not want to be released. I don’t want President Obama to come and pay to get me out. But I want the North Korean people to be free. Until the concentration camps are liberated, I do not want to come out. If I have to die with them, I will. I am Christian and it says in the Bible that we must love the lost. We must love the poor and the needy. We must love them more than ourselves.

(For) these innocent men, women and children, as Christians, we need to take the cross for them. The cross means that we sacrifice our lives for the redemption of others.

I am going in for the sake of the lives of the North Korean people. And if he (Kim Jong-il) kills me, in a sense, I realize this is better. Then the governments of the world will become more prone to say something, and more embarrassed and more forced to make a statement. 

This is serious and it is a crime that America is committing against the North Korean people by not speaking out against this. President Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize and I love President Obama and the American government, but they are committing a serious crime.

Through the media and through sacrifice, we are looking for the global leaders to be forced to give an account. There is no excuse.

We also want the church to repent. The South Korean church needs to repent. There has been so much playing around and honestly, there is no time to play games. The priority of every single person in South Korea must be to end this holocaust of lives.

I was going to go next month but what happened was that here in Korea there has been certain things that have endangered my going next month. That is why I am going right now. Because certain people have found out and are trying to prevent me from going.

Initially Christmas Day was what they were thinking of. It is the coldest time. It is the most difficult time for me to go physically and also on Christmas Day it is such a symbolic day. Worldwide is the most renowned day. It is the happiest day for most of the world but for North Korea, it is like hell.

I have to share their suffering. That is why I am asking every person who cares about North Korea, let us arise and let us demonstrate. Let us see mass demonstrations. This is not a personal agenda. 

I think I may not live much longer. My personal desire is to be married and to have a future. I am laying that all down because of Jesus Christ and because God loves these people, he does not want them to die.

Reuters: Do you think you will be able to get support from governments including the United States because you are making this choice on your own, fully aware of what may well happen?

Park: I want Kim Jong-il and the North Korean government to know that I love them. I love all these people. I am going in because it has to change, for the sake of the children, the men and the women who are being brutally murdered.

But as long as this genocide continues, I have no choice. I have great sorrow for Kim Jong-il. The North Korean people have been brainwashed from youth and they do not know what the truth is.

I had a vision on July 27, which was the beginning of the demonstration movement. I am not someone who was a part of the human rights movement officially. I was someone who was praying and sharing in the physical help of refugees one by one. I had a vision where God revealed that there needs to be a mass demonstration movement for North Korean human rights. That there will be liberation of the North Korean people. There will be a global compensation movement for a measurable loss and suffering. There will be calls for unification. And there will be reconciliation between North and South Koreans.

I am making this choice on my own because it is too slow right now. There has never been a mass demonstration for North Korean human rights and there needs to be.

Last year, there were hundreds of thousands of people in South Korea demonstrating for this ridiculous thing about the kind of beef we were getting in South Korea. There was nothing to it. What does it say about our generation that we can be mobilised to demonstrate about the kind of beef we are getting and we cannot demonstrate for people who are our own kin who are dying by the thousands every day for no reason at all.

One of the issues in South Korea is that there has been a competition among North Korean human rights groups. People are saying that ‘I want to be in the leadership’. It is ridiculous. With that kind of political fighting, trying to be number one, there will never be mass demonstrations because people are selling the issue for their own gain. I am not saying that everyone is doing that.

My hope is that through going to North Korea, my sacrifice, that there will be a profound repentance among the church and also among human rights ministries – that there will not longer be quarrelling and competition.

Reuters: Do you see the possibility of your imprisonment helping Kim Jong-il. The North Korean leaders have used others, like the U.S journalists, who have crossed into its territory as bargaining chips. Do you see your actions as having the potential to help the North Korean leaders you want to see removed?

Park: I am aware of this and have been hesitating for a long time.  As a result of what happened to the journalists, I was speaking to a refugee friend of mine, she said it was one of the best things that happened for North Korea’s liberation. This was shortly after it happened and they were freed. But now it has become worse because the journalists have not spoken out about the human rights crisis. They were ransomed for a lot of money and they went home and wrote a book.

Ultimately, I am more tortured if I allow North Koreas to be like this. The difference with these journalists is that they were kidnapped against their will. I am going in saying either kill me or take me. I am saying to the governments of the world, do not try to ransom me out but address the human rightscrisis.

Taiwan and China, once bitter political rivals, jubilantly exchanged gifts after upbeat trade talks this week. But the festive atmosphere faded when Taiwan’s top policymaker Lai Shin-yuan reminded visiting Chinese negotiator Chen Yunlin of an ominous, obvious fact: Taiwan’s public feels “uncomfortable” with China aiming missiles at it.
Taiwan accuses China of pointing 1,000 to 1,500 short-range or mid-range missiles in its direction to deter any move toward de jure independence. Taiwan is self-ruled today but China claims it. Missiles, however, weren’t on this week’s can-do agenda. Taiwan’s Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou has said China-Taiwan talks for now should avoid political issues until more mutual trust accumulates through discussion of lighter topics such as trade.

And Lai’s statement did little good on the surface. Taiwan’s Chinese-language China Times newspaper said the Chinese negotiator replied that Beijing is in no hurry to discuss political issues. Another Taiwan paper, the United Daily News, reported that negotiator told Lai the missile issue would take time to solve.

Was the missile remark another gaffe like this? Or was Lai, who has something to prove, rushing ahead several years or decades, assuming that the two sides had already accumulated enough mutual trust?

There’s another explanation. Taiwan’s image-conscious government, often accused of cozying up to China because of the recent trade talks, just wanted to gain points at home by raising a populist issue. Otherwise, one blogger argues, the anti-China opposition party stands to gain. The party has drawn attention to itself by leading tens of thousands to protest against the Chinese negotiator’s Dec. 21-25 visit to Taiwan.

Argues George Tsai, a political scientist at Chinese Cultural University in Taipei: “It’s to convince the public, hey, we can stand up. You are going to see more of this kind of statement. Ma Ying-jeou has been accused too much of leaning toward the other side.”

When the two sides meet in early 2010 to negotiate a free trade-related deal and discuss intellectual property rights protection, what other surprise issues will Taiwan raise?

Transformed into a winter-themed sports park, the stadium — which in its glory days packed some 80,000 cheering spectators into row after row of seats — now includes snowboard and ski slopes inside the inner ring, as well as a short toboggan tube, all covered in man-made snow.

But judging by the turnout on the opening weekend, when media representatives outnumbered paying visitors, this white Christmas wonderland faces a tough challenge to escape the stadium’s legacy as a big, white elephant.

The 180 yuan entrance fee (about $26) is one barrier to making the snowy playground a financial success. A young mother who brought her son said she reluctantly paid the fee only because the stadium has a special status among China’s famous cultural sites. Other visitors said they were taken aback by extra fees charged inside the venue.

Families got into the spirit, posing in front of giant Christmas-themed snow sculptures and were treated to a variety show featuring the standard Chinese lineup of Kung-Fu displays and acrobatic routines. Even so, set against a backdrop of fake snowy mountain peaks cradled by the stadium’s empty seats and steel girders, the show was a dull reminder of the venue’s spectacular Olympics opening and closing ceremonies that dazzled the world in 2008.

-Reporting by Beijing newsroom

Photo credit: The Bird’s Nest stadium, which has been rarely used since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, has had machines making artificial snow to cover the infield to create the winter playground at a cost of around 50 million yuan (US$7 million) in an effort to attract more tourists during the quieter Christmas and Chinese New Year season. REUTERS/Loic Hofstedt

But what about asking a different question? Can China help stabilise the region?

As I wrote in this analysis, China -- Islamabad's most loyal partner -- is an obvious country for the United States to turn to for help in working out how to deal with Pakistan.

It already has substantial economic stakes in the region, including in the Aynak copper mine in Afghanistan and Gwadar port in Pakistan. Its economy would be the first to gain from any peace settlement which opened up trade routes and improved its access to oil, gas and mineral resources in Central Asia and beyond. It also shares some of Washington's concerns about Islamist militancy, particularly if this were to spread unrest in its Muslim Xinjiang region.

There is virtually no chance of Beijing sending military forces to Pakistan or Afghanistan. But Chinese support could come in the form of pressure on Pakistan, help for its economy, and at least tacit backing for U.S. actions and demands.

It already indicated a willingness to take a more nuanced approach to Pakistan when it supported a U.N. ban on the Jamaat ud-Dawa, the humanitarian wing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, after last year's attack on Mumbai. It is also looking for ways to help bolster Pakistan's economy --a Pakistani finance ministry official said this week that Pakistan was in talks with China on a currency-swap deal with the aim of conserving its foreign exchange reserves.

But Chinese antipathy to interference in other countries' affairs, a divergence of views on exactly what needs to happen in Pakistan, and China-India rivalry all limit how far Beijing can be roped into helping on Pakistan.

You can see the rest of the analysis here, or read this very detailed report (pdf) by the German Marshall Fund of the United States on the possibilities for greater Chinese involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

For now the jury is still out on how far China and the United States can work together on Afghanistan and Pakistan, at least in the short term. In the longer term, the path is fraught with difficulties, not least because of tensions between China and India dating back to their 1962 border war.

Historically, rivalry between India and China has had a major impact on Pakistan. At its most obvious level, India developed nuclear bombs in response to the perceived threat from China; Pakistan developed nuclear bombs -- with help from China -- in response to the perceived threat from India.

But Sino-Indian rivalry has also played out in less predictable ways. India, Pakistan and China all hold parts of Jammu and Kashmir, the former kingdom which has been the cause of much of the tension in South Asia since partition of the subcontinent in 1947.

The 1962 war was triggered by what India saw as Chinese encroachment in the Aksai Chin on the remote fringes of the former kingdom. Years later, when India began sending military expeditions to explore the Siachen glacier -- a move that escalated into open conflict with Pakistan in 1984 -- its interest was underpinned by concerns about China's presence in the region. Even today, India is wary about Chinese investment in dams on the side of the former kingdom under Pakistani control.

If you consider the China-Indian border then stretches from the Kashmir for 3,500 kms to the east -- where the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh is itself a source of tension with China -- you have a minefield for a U.S. administration which would like China's help in stabilising the region. And all that is while trying to encourage Pakistan and India to reduce their own tensions as part of its efforts to reverse a stalemate in Afghanistan.

(Photos: President Barack Obama visits the Forbidden City in Beijing; torchlight protest in Kashmir)

When people want to know what’s happening in North Korea, their first stop is often the Chinese border city of Dandong. It’s one of the few places where North Koreans interact with the outside world. There are truck drivers and traders, and also spies, missionaries and refugees, not to mention reporters.

 We went to Dandong this week to see if we could find out about the impact of North Korea’s currency change. The government has capped the amount of old currency that could be traded for new, effectively lopping off the savings of many small traders and a new merchant class.

 The Chinese traders told us that in North Korea, many shops and markets have closed while people wait to figure out the value of the new money. They tended to be reluctant to go on record, for fear that prickly North Korean customers would get offended if they were quoted saying anything negative.

 But just looking at the goods for sale in Dandong gives a little idea of life in North Korea. North Koreans don’t buy heated floor mats popular with Koreans living in China’s Northeast, one shopkeeper said, because there’s not much electricity in North Korea.

Powerful lanterns, on the other hand, are very popular, said another shopkeeper. She displays the lanterns right by pink baby shoes and bright pink children’s boots – I imagined many truck drivers are tempted to spend a little extra pocket change on their daughters or nieces.

The duty free shop at Dandong’s customs checkpoint has brandy, just like everywhere else in the world. But it also has boy’s winter clothes, and leather shoes for men. It even offers an elegant, quasi-Victorian porcelain coffee set.

The bulk cargoes shipped across the border range from industrial equipment to fruit, but one trading firm was busy filling orders for over a dozen personal cars. In fact, cars seem popular enough that an auto ornaments store is considering opening a service to supply cars bound for North Korea with fuzzy seat covers and other ornaments.

In the meantime, the drivers who come in buy floor mats and rear view mirror dangling things – I guess fuzzy dice has universal appeal.

video credit: KJ Kwon

MIGA has mainly focused on encouraging investment into developing countries, but a lot of its latest work is about investment from emerging economies.

This has been exploding over the past decade. Net outward investment from developing countries reached $198 billion in 2008 from around $20 billion in 2000. The 2008 figure was only 10.8 percent of global FDI, but it was just 1.4 percent in 2000.

Not surprisingly, the lion's share comes from the BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- which together made up 73 percent of outflows last year. BRIC outward investment jumped to $144.3 billion in 2008 from $29.6 billion three years earlier.

Perhaps the most interesting data, however, concerned political risk insurance. MIGA studied the kind of insurance BRICs outward investors were taking to see what kind of things worried them.

Brazil had a mixed of concerns, but Indians were most worried about transfer and convertibility restrictions, the Chinese concerned themseves with war and civil disturbance and Russians were extremely worried about breaches of contract.

Sceptics might be tempted to see this as a reflection of national concerns. But MIGA said it was more micro than that. Russian investment, for example, is dominated by commodity exploration, an area said to be more subject to contract problems than others.

He and two other monks live high up in the mountains in Inner Mongolia in Lasengmiao’s Lama Temple.

Alongside an unforgiving climate and few amenities, Qing now lives in a growing cloud of smog as, down in the plains, factories wreathe his tiny monastery in clouds of choking smoke.

Video credit: Jimmy Jian