Asia by Blog is a twice weekly feature, posted on Monday and Thursday, providing links to Asian blogs and their views on the news in this fascinating region. Please send me an email if you would like to be notified of new editions. Previous editions can be found here.

This edition contains China's petitions system, simulated nukes for North Korea, energy security for the Middle Kingdom, the many seasons of China, Japan's bursting prisons, Japan's working girls, Singapore's new security efforts and a sandwich you need to see to believe, plus plenty more...

Hong Kong, China and Taiwan

• China's Olympic preparations are taking a bottoms-up approach. They are going to be lucky Games.
• Hemlock (on Monday) picks apart the pleading of HK's pampered public servants.
• Over 3 million people go to Beijing in September to petition for their cause: a look at the system, its vagaries and its inefficiencies.
• Taiwan's opposition leader is certifiably mad.
• More trouble in China's regions: this time a huge troop deployment to control protests over a new dam project.
• There's far more for China to consider and worry about in floating its currency than the US trade deficit.
• China's worries about energy see it prepared to trade away integrity for supplies.
• Getting wealthy in China and India also means getting fat.
• Via Fons and Andrea comes a new China aggregator: Watching China.
• It only took 130 years, but the fire is finally out.
• There are more than four seasons in China.
• China's war against online porn continues while the old-fashioned kind is out on display.
• Matthew has an interesting clash in the classroom and finds it says a lot about how much China has and hasn't changed in the past twenty years. It also highlights how powerful words remain in a country like China.
• Having trouble getting people to see your movie? Not in Shenzhen.

Korea and Japan

• The China/Japan rivalry is the real threat to Asian security, according to Fabian. While the two are clearly rivals, they also depend upon each other far more (especially economically) than the antagonists in the previous Cold War. Also a look at US troops in Japan and their affect on China and the region.
• Infidel looks at the debate over South Korea's National Security Law.
• When he's not busy ruling with an iron fist, Kim Jong-Il likes to blog. It may not last long: South Korea is moving to block many pro-North websites.
• South Korea has found a new place to search for minerals: the North.
• Japan, famous for its low crime rate, finds its prisons are over-crowded. Although with only 61,500 odd prisoners out of a population of 127.3 million, the reputation is intact.
• America has simulated dropping 30 nukes on the North. By my estimates, that would leave exactly nothing to actually invade, while nicely wiping out the millions of impoverished North Koreans. Mutually Assured Destruction.
• South Korea's Government is trying to work out what to call North Korean escapees. NKZone has a look about why these "economic migrants" are desperately trying to escape. The recent court-martial of Robert Jenkins also provides an insight into living in NK.
• Japan's working girls work on getting a-head.
• Japan's people are behind PM Koizumi in staying firm on its Iraq policy.
• Those popular gluttony contests don't always end with just a full stomach.

SE and Other Asia

• Singapore's getting "safer", and Hicky rightly worries about cameras in the classroom.
• Singapore's opposition leader has lost his appeal against a defamation case.
• India sees China as a strategic threat and containment strategies will not work in the longer term.
• Gunboat diplomacy in Cambodia (admittedly over one hundred years ago, but it just proves nothing ever changes).

Miscellany

• If this stuff works why haven't I seen a Cambodian body builder?
• Don't forget to check out all the good news (yes, good news) coming out of Iraq, with Arthur's 14th edition of his excellent series. Otherwise try touring the world by blog.
• The Countdown has begun.
• Rory gives us a lesson in what not to cook: a fried kimchi and ham sandwich. It has to be seen to be believed.