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 HK's ripoff Disneyland, potential Chinese political parties, fake coffee, Wal-Mart giving in to China and bringing down Kim Jong-il, a neat summary of the Taiwan problem, The Economist getting Confucius wrong, a 6 point plan for NK, a letter from a former Straits Times writer, everything you wanted to know about Maoists today plus plenty more...

Hong Kong, China and Taiwan

• Wayne thoroughly covers the upcoming Taiwanese Legislative Yuan elections.
• Ellen says if re-unification issues don't start a war between Taiwan and China, maybe Taiwanification of increasingly rare Chinese brides will.
• Hong Kong's Disneyland is costing more than you think.
• China is clamping down on students following Falun Gong...in South Africa.
• Is China on its last legs, just as Suharto's was at the end? Check the comments for some thoughtful rebuttals. Personally I think not.
• Andres has a great post covering likely political parties and systems if China had free elections.
• New York's port is coming back...thanks (partly) to China.
• Did the Cultural Revolution lead to the current cosseted generation of Little Emperors?
• You can't even trust if the coffee is real anymore.
• Glutter says goodbye to Jim Wong.
• Thomas Barnett looks at how Greater China (ie including HK and Taiwan) is eclipsing China as a Great Power, at least economically. He also looks at how China's growing consumer market is changing how foreign investors view it and the fall-out of a Chinese recession.
• Wal-Mart has given in and allowed Chinese trade unions to operate in its stores. Another world first for China.
• The crash of a China Eastern plane in Inner Mongolia has sparked a round of xenophobic reactions.
• Google is testing a Chinese translation tool.
• As part of its energy security and economic push China's role in Central Asia is building.
• Hemlock (Thrs entry) neatly sums up the Chinese leadership's Taiwan problem.
• ACB's Rabbit Hole series continues with the excellent Understanding China which broadly looks at Chinese people's likes and dislikes, Energy and the facts on MSG.
• If she's plainly dressed, she's a cop not a hooker.
• John's follow-up to his look at differences between Chinese and Western notions of honesty introduces false modesty as another explanation.
• Famous Chinese sex blogger Muzi Mei turns up...in Germany.
• America's stringent visa policy is costing ever-more: half of the Chinese delegates to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas were refused visas and many of their compatriots and firms withdrew in solidarity.
• More on the boom in Chinese blogging.
• Thanksgiving means snowtime in Xi'an.
• Shanghai is downsizing itself.
• Are China's economic policies even more orthodox than America's?
• A guide to women in Hangzhou.
• The Economist keeps it simple and quotes Confucius...or do they?

Korea and Japan

• Nick Eberstadt has a 6 point plan that could (and should) be the basis of Bush's new North Korea policy. Why do all things North Korean revolve around the number 6? Rebecca MacKinnon isn't convinced by Bush's statement that the 5 countries on talks with North Korea are united. Others say the NK problem should be only resolved by Koreans themselves, which would be fine if they didn't have nukes. The Norks themselves just want to get along and "co-exist". It's all just a game to some.
• Did (newly unionised) Wal-Mart help bring down those Kim Jong-il pictures? More seriously Bradley K. Martin asks if the move is a brand protection strategy. Kimchi GI points out the top NK general wouldn't be in Cuba if something was going on.
• Despite haltering attempts at rapprochement from the leaderships, Japan's stock is falling with ordinary Chinese citizens.
• The Norks are ready to test a missile which can reach the United States, while the people prepare for famine.
• China again asked Japan PM Koizumi to stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine to war dead, including war criminals. Sean rightly points out Japan has done lamentably little in showing true remorse and redressing its war crimes.
• A cheating scandal in South Korea's exams. Jodi explains the huge pressure these schoolkids are under. Duophony asks why do the students think it was OK?
• It's a helluva way to find your father.
• 66% of Japanese women said they had been groped on trains or the station. Lee thinks he might know why.
• In Japan it might be worthwhile filling in those feedback forms.
• The origins of the word kamikaze.
• Via Gord comes this account of Liberation Day celebrations in North Korea.
• Japan is stepping up its role in Japan-US defense relations.

SE and Other Asia

• India's Government is trying to ban detailed maps of the country.
• Steven notes the similarities between the Ukraine elections and a certain SE Asia island nation. He also reprints a great letter (also at Mr Brown and Singapore Commentator) from Pranay Gupte, the Straits Times former global-affairs columnist, covering everything from Singapore's racism to its censorship.
• Is India instinctively socialist?
• Al-Jazeera is setting up a base in Malaysia.

Miscellany

• Fabian has the first installment of his weekly round-up of Maoist insurgents around the world, plus he lists former Maoists or Marxist-Leninists and where they are now. And meet the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, a (you guessed it) Maoist party based in, of all places, France.
• Reason not to work as zookeeper number 201: horny elephants can kill.
• A couple of Hong Kongers have found Noah's Ark...with one little problem.
• The vibrating condom should hook up with this guy.
• Very un-PC toothpaste.
• The Wu-Tang Clan, hip-hop and the link between China and growing up black.