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. Previous editions can be found here.

This edition contains Chinese vs Western truth, troubles with US immigration policies, a new football game, Chinese bloggers, what you can really see from space, dead conmen, the death of US troops' sex utopia and a new indoor Thai tourist spot plus plenty more...

Hong Kong, China and Taiwan

• John neatly demonstrates a fundamental difference between Chinese and Western concepts of truth, with the help of some eggs.
• Jiao Guobiao (writer of the "Declaration Against the Central Propaganda Bureau") gives an interview saying it is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak up, while the SCMP (sub req'd) reports Beijing has banned media discussions of the role of intellectuals in China's development.
• Thomas Barnett worries that while China rapidly secures energy sources and strategic alliances, America is being left behind.
• The path to riches is not through newspaper reporting.
• Chris deals with Jonathan Fenby's Dealing with the Dragon.
• I am so glad I did not go to university in Hong Kong.
• Tom (another who's not happy with US Immigration - maybe Taiwan-bound Roy could help) breaks down China's trade figures.
• The US Congressional Executive Commission on China has a Political Prisoner Database. That it exists at all, let alone being so comprehensive, is a reminder of the evil that still lurks in China.
• More dam trouble brewing.
• China may have missed out on World Cup football, but they've found a new one to play with against their old friends Taiwan.
• Slowly and quietly China's bloggers are emerging, says Dan Gilmour. Another example of the emerging digerati in China is the Niu Niu incident, or maybe a blogger's eyewitness murder report.
• In China's classless society, being a soldier has privileges.
• The flipside of the China bubble: over-capacity and over-supply.
• Jeff looks at industrial safety and lack thereof in China. For example: China produced 35 percent of the world's coal last year, but reported 80 percent of the total deaths in coal mine accidents. Again muddied stats make it difficult to find the truth.
• Acupuncture beats drugs. If it didn't work, it wouldn't sill be around.
• You can't see the Great Wall in space. But you can see the Great Brown Cloud.
• Fakes are a notorious problem in China, the latest being fake Government bonds. But hats off to this guy, who passed himself off as the long dead founder of modern China, Sun Yat-Sen. He extorted over 500,000 yuan!

Korea and Japan

• North Korea's changing pictures means little (Andy's not optimistic either) and is furiously denied by the Norks. The source of the story isn't pure, notes Marmot (who also has a great story about a previous picture debacle in the North). There are always strange things going on there - it's when they stop it is time to worry. NK Zone is rounding up theories (and asking for more)
• While on NK, Adamu reports some interestingly different views on the North, its future and how it is not a threat.
• South Korea is no longer the sex utopia for US troops it once was.

SE and Other Asia

• An insider's view on Singapore's press.
• A look at the historical interaction between India and China.
• Thailand's newest tourism venture: visiting maximum security prisoners.
• Singapore is seeing a rapid rise in new HIV infections, but control efforts are stymied by outdated laws banning homosexuality.

Miscellany

• He might be ready for Chinese opera, but is Chinese opera ready for him?
• The Mohamed Ali of eating is a scrawny Japanese man.
• What a question.