Frank Langfitt

'It's Christmas in June': China Revels In NSA Leaks Story

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:51:00 +0000

Earlier this year, the U.S.

Confessed NSA Leaker Hole Up In Hong Kong Hotel

Frank Langfitt — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:30:00 +0000

The Guardian has identified its source for a series of reports it published in recent days on secret U.S. surveillance activity. The paper says the source is Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the CIA who now works for a private-sector defense and technology consulting firm.

Rubber Ducky, You're (Not) The One. Hong Kong Quacker Spawns Others

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:22:00 +0000

Perhaps it was inevitable.

More Than 100 Dead In China Poultry Plant Blaze

Frank Langfitt — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 11:37:00 +0000

A fire at a poultry processing plant fire in northeast China on Monday has killed at least 119 people, according to the Jilin province government. The blaze is one of the country's deadliest industrial accidents in recent years.

Flames broke out a little after 6 a.m. and the sprawling, low-slung plant filled with dark smoke, witnesses said. About 300 workers were inside the facility owned by the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in Mishazi Township of Dehui City.

The state-run newspaper Southern Metropolis reports that all but one of the plant's doors were locked at the time.

In China, Customer Service And Efficiency Begin To Blossom

Frank Langfitt — Wed, 29 May 2013 20:28:00 +0000

China's infamous bureaucracy has bedeviled people for ages, but in recent years, daily life in some major Chinese cities has become far more efficient.

For instance, when I worked in Beijing in the 1990s, many reporters had drivers. It wasn't because they didn't drive, but because they needed someone to deal with China's crippling bureaucracy.

I had a man named Old Zhao, who would drive around for days to pay our office bills at various government utility offices.

China's Leaders Promise To Speed Up Economic Reform

Frank Langfitt — Wed, 29 May 2013 17:31:00 +0000

The Communist Party's new leadership has pledged to change China's slowing economy by putting a greater emphasis on private enterprise and reining in huge but far less profitable state-owned businesses. Economists say the party has no choice but to update if it wants to stay in power, but they doubt that a genuine overhaul is in the works.

China's Air Pollution: Is The Government Willing To Act?

Frank Langfitt — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:11:00 +0000

Denise Mauzerall arrived in Beijing this year at a time that was both horrifying and illuminating.

China Builds Museums ... But Will The Visitors Come?

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:58:00 +0000

Shanghai did something last fall that few other cities on the planet could have even considered. It opened two massive art museums right across the river from one another on the same day.

The grand openings put an exclamation point on China's staggering museum building boom.

Vietnam's Appetite For Rhino Horn Drives Poaching In Africa

Frank Langfitt — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:05:00 +0000

Africa is facing a growing epidemic: the slaughter of rhinos.

So far this year, South Africa has lost more than 290 rhinos — an average of at least two a day. That puts the country on track to set yet another record after poachers killed 668 rhinos in 2012.

Behind the rise in killings are international criminal syndicates and global economic change.

Rat 'Mutton' And Bird Flu: Strange Days For Meat Eaters In Shanghai

Frank Langfitt — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:50:00 +0000

The past couple of months have been unsettling ones for meat eaters in Shanghai.

In March, more than 16,000 dead pigs showed up in a stretch of the Huangpu River — a main source of the city's drinking water.

Local officials insisted both the water and the city's pork supply were safe, but they never explained exactly how the pigs died or how they ended up in the river.

These Days, More And More Chinese Have Driven A Ford Lately

Frank Langfitt — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 07:25:00 +0000

General Motors has been the American car company in China. Even when GM was in bankruptcy, the Chinese continued to view Buick as a high-status, luxury brand.

But now Ford, an also-ran in the market for years, is making a push to change all that.

Will Lightning Strike Twice For K-Pop's PSY?

Frank Langfitt — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 14:13:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASO_zypdnsQ

A Symbol Of Korean Cooperation Becomes A Political Casualty

Frank Langfitt — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:15:00 +0000

This week, North Korea closed off the last avenue of economic cooperation with its rival, South Korea. Pyongyang says the closing of Kaesong — a joint North-South industrial complex — is temporary.

But the move is a big symbolic blow on the Korean peninsula and a potential disaster for some of the South Korean businesses that have invested there.

Take Tiger Park, for instance.

A View From South Korea: The North Is 'A Playground Bully'

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:03:00 +0000

Nearly two decades ago, a North Korean official threatened to turn Seoul into a "Sea of Fire." South Koreans responded by cleaning out the shelves of supermarkets and preparing for an attack that never came.

On Tuesday, North Korea urged tourists and foreign companies to leave South Korea for their own safety, saying the two countries are on the eve of a nuclear war.

But this time, as a story on a rural uprising. This does not come naturally. I'm 6-foot-2 with gray hair and blue eyes and don't look remotely like a Chinese farmer.

The village in question is called Shangpu. It's in south China, and farmers there have barricaded their community and are demanding free elections.

In China, Not Everything Has Changed

Frank Langfitt — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:04:00 +0000

A lot of journalism about China focuses on the country's rapid and stunning changes, but equally telling are the things that stay the same. I did my first story on China's re-education through labor camps back in 2001.

I met a former inmate named Liu Xiaobo for lunch in Beijing. Liu, soft-spoken and thoughtful, had written an article mourning those who had died in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Ex-Inmates Speak Out About Labor Camps As China Considers 'Reforms'

Frank Langfitt — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:20:00 +0000

Shen Lixiu's story is numbingly familiar.

Officials in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing knocked down her karaoke parlor for development. She says they then offered her compensation that was less than 20 percent of what she had invested in the place.

Shen complained to the central government. Local authorities responded by sentencing her to a "re-education through labor" camp for a year. Once inside, Shen says, camp workers tried to force her to accept the compensation.

"I refused to sign my name," says Shen, 58, who has salt-and-pepper hair and wears a plum-colored, padded coat.

A Chinese Army Outpost That's Tucked Into Modern Shanghai

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:50:00 +0000

Some people in Shanghai — especially the foreigners — think the city's new Pudong section of town is dull, without character and profoundly unfashionable.

Twenty years ago, Pudong was mostly farms and warehouses.

Auntie Anne's Pretzels In Beijing: Why The Chinese Didn't Bite

Frank Langfitt — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:33:00 +0000

The lure of the China market is legendary. The dream: Sell something to 1.3 billion people, and you're set.

The reality is totally different.

Ask the MBAs from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School who tried to launch Auntie Anne's pretzels in China. The result is a funny, instructive and occasionally harrowing journey that is now the subject of a new book, The China Twist.

Wen-Szu Lin and Joseph Sze's venture began as an appealing tale of taking the American soft pretzel to the Middle Kingdom.

Move Over James Bond, China Has An Unlikely Box Office Champ

Frank Langfitt — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 22:08:00 +0000

Movies are big business in China, and 2012 was another record year: Theaters raked in about $2.7 billion, pushing China past Japan to become the world's second-largest market.

Those blistering sales were expected; China's ultimate box-office champ, however, was not.

Hollywood blockbusters usually do well in China. And last year, competition was stiff, including a new installment of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible franchise, as well as Skyfall, the latest James Bond flick.

But neither of these heavyweights topped the box office.

In China, The Government Isn't The Only Spy Game In Town

Frank Langfitt — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:02:00 +0000

The final of two reports

It all started with a local Chinese official.

He couldn't figure out how his wife, who suspected him of having an affair, knew the contents of his private conversations.

"His wife knew things that he said in his car and office, including conversations over the telephone," recalls Qi Hong, a former journalist from Shandong province in eastern China, and a friend of the official.

So Qi asked a buddy who owned bug-detecting equipment to help.

"This friend discovered a listening device under the official's car seat," Qi recalls.

In China, Beware: A Camera May Be Watching You

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:30:00 +0000

The first of two reports

China is becoming a surveillance state. In recent years, the government has installed more than 20 million cameras across a country where a decade ago there weren't many.

Today, in Chinese cities, cameras are everywhere: on highways, in public parks, on balconies, in elevators, in taxis, even in the stands at sporting events.

Officials say the cameras help combat crime and maintain "social stability" — a euphemism for shutting up critics.

In fact, the government routinely uses cameras to monitor and intimidate dissidents.

Foxconn Investigated For Bribery Allegations

Frank Langfitt — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:39:00 +0000

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And there's more trouble for Foxconn, the electronics giant which makes Apple products in China. The company is acknowledging that Chinese police are looking into allegations that Foxconn employees took bribes from parts suppliers.

NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Shanghai.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Foxconn says it's cooperating with police and has brought in its own audit team to investigate alleged kickbacks.

Japan's Economic Woes Offer Lessons To U.S.

Frank Langfitt — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:51:00 +0000

In the 1980s, Japan appeared to be a world beater — the China of its day. Japanese companies were on a tear, buying up firms in the U.S. and property around the world.

But these days, Japan is considered a cautionary tale for post-industrial economies around the world. The country is facing its fourth recession in what are commonly known as the "lost decades."

Japan's story resonates this holiday season as American politicians try to reach a debt deal.

"I really hope the U.S.

Japan's Conservative LDP Returns To Power

Frank Langfitt — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:17:00 +0000

Japan's Liberal Democratic Party won resoundingly in parliamentary elections Sunday that both Washington and Beijing were watching carefully. The conservative LDP's hawkish leader, Shinzo Abe, will become Japan's prime minister for the second time and has pledged to take a harder line on China.

Speaking on Japanese TV, Abe had a message for Japan's most important ally, America, and another for Japan's biggest rival — China.

"First, we should restore the Japan-United States alliance, a trusting alliance — that's the first step.

Nationalist Rhetoric High As Japanese Head To Polls

Frank Langfitt — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 22:05:00 +0000

As Japanese head to the polls Sunday, Shinzo Abe is expected to become Japan's prime minister for the second time.

The election takes place as nationalistic rhetoric is on the rise, and while the country remains locked in a bitter dispute with its chief rival, China, over islands both countries claim.

'Pride And Honor'

The battle over the islands heated up last summer.

In mid-August, boats filled with about 150 Japanese activists approached one of the islands, part of a chain that the Japanese call Senkaku; the Chinese, Diaoyu.

Satoru Mizushima, leader of a nationali

A Rare Visit Inside A Chinese Courtroom

Frank Langfitt — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:24:00 +0000

After years of covering China, I finally set foot in a Chinese courtroom last week. Foreign reporters need government permission to enter Chinese courts and past attempts had gone nowhere.

The last case I tried to cover was in August and involved Gu Kailai, the wife of disgraced Communist Party leader Bo Xilai.

OK, North Korea's Leader Isn't 'Sexiest Man Alive,' Chinese Media Concede

Frank Langfitt — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:21:00 +0000

NPR Shanghai correspondent Frank Langfitt sends in an update on one of this week's more amusing stories:

China's Web surfers have had a lot to say about how People's Daily Online — the internet version of the Communist Party's mouthpiece — got fooled into republishing a "story" by The Onion that declared North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is 2012"s "sexies