Meet EA's Newest Correspondent: Dear Leader Kim Jong Un on the Iowa Caucus

We were all very sad at EA WorldView when we heard the news that Glorious Leader Kim Jong Il of North Korea would be looking at things no more.

However, we were soon cheered up. Kim Jong Un, the new Dear Leader, has joined EA in embracing social media to comment on all the news that is fit to satirise, taking to Twitter like a Republican no-hoper to a Presidential election year. This week, between sharing his love for the band Creed and the actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kim Jong Un --- or @KimJongNumberUn to his followers --- offered the following rather acute overview of the Iowa Caucus and ongoing Republican campaign:

We promise more nuggets of analysis from this brilliant, youthful, dictatorial mind over the coming months.

Protest in China: Just a Flutter or Something Far More? (Minxin Pei)

Protest in Wukan in DecemberThe outbreak of spontaneous mass protest against corruption and abuse of power in China is showing no signs of abating.  In the latest instance, which received sustained Western press coverage, thousands of villagers in Wukan, a farming community in Guangdong Province, “occupied” their village for nearly two weeks before successfully extracting important concessions from the provincial government, which had to dispatch a deputy party secretary to negotiate with the villagers.

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EA Video Special: Kim Jong Il's Funky Get Down Propaganda Party (September 2010)

An EA reader sends the message, "Expect this to be viral by the time the day is out", leading us to a video of Kim Jong Il and his armed forcesstrutting to LMFAO's "Party Rock".

Yes, but we were there first --- a flashback to EA on 5 September 2010, "Funking It Up With the Axis of Evil":

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North Korea Special: A Last Look at Kim Jong Il Looking at Things

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For more than a year, we have brought the best of "Kim Jong Il Looking at Things". We have featured The Glorious Leader looking at pigs, looking at a radish, looking at bucket, and looking at something which we're still not quite sure about. We had a video special of him looking at an apartment, complete with  running water a wardrobe, a crying girl, a singing man --- and toilet paper. We even broke the photograph of Kim looking at his hacked Twitter account.

Now an era comes to an end: barring an unexpected image from the afterlife, a last look at Kim Jong Looking at Things....

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North Korea: Kim Jong Il, the Country's Leader since 1994, has Died

State TV breaks the news of Kim Jong Il's death

See also North Korea Special: A Last Look at Kim Jong Il Looking at Things

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UPDATE 1000 GMT: Footage of North Koreans grieving over the death of Kim Jong Il

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North Korea's reclusive and enigmatic leader, Kim Jong Il, has passed away, according to North Korean state television. He has died at the age of 69. Kim Jong Il succeeded his father, Kim Il Song, in 1994. He will be succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un.

North Korean media has reported that he died on Saturday.

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US-China Video: Will There Be Confrontation? --- Scott Lucas on Al Jazeera English

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On Saturday, I appeared on Al Jazeera English's Inside Story with Jonathan Holslag of the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies and Simon Shen of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

There was an interesting range of opinion over the motivations behind recent US military, economic, and political moves, the response within China, and the outcome. In the end, I think I was the most optimistic of the panellists that there would not be a long-term escalation in tensions, although I held out the possibility that there might be consequences if Washington continued to poke at Beijing with its latest manoeuvres.

The US and China: Scott Lucas on Al Jazeera English

I will be part of the panel on Al Jazeera English's Inside Story, considering whether recent American moves point towards US-China confrontation (spoiler: I am the optimist among the panellists that conflict is not necessarily the outcome).

The programme will air at 1730 GMT today and will repeated at 0030 GMT on Sunday.

Iran Feature: China Curbs Iran Energy Work

Reuters reports that China is pulling the plug on plans to invest heavily in Iran's oil industry, in large part in order to escape US Sanctions and the ire of the US State Department. The opposite claim is being made by the Iranian regime and its state-run media, that China is set to invest $8.4 billion in the Azadegan oilfield.

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China has put the brakes on oil and gas investments in Iran, drawing ire from Tehran over a pullback that officials and executives said reflected Beijing's efforts to appease Washington and avoid U.S. sanctions on its big energy firms.

The stakes are high for OPEC's second-largest producer, as China is one of the only powers on the international political stage capable of providing the billions of dollars of investment Tehran needs to maintain the capacity of its strategic oil sector.

Four energy executives in Beijing described retreats and slowdowns of Chinese ventures in Iran in recent months, even as China has bought more crude from its Middle East partner, which leans on Beijing for backing and investment to counter sanctions over its disputed nuclear plans.

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Great Moments in US-China Relations (Video): Basketball Game Ends in Mass Brawl on Thursday

In 1971, when a US table tennis team visited China, its "ping-pong" diplomacy opened the way for the detente between Washington and Beijing.

Forty years, in the continuation of this sporting relationship, Georgetown University sent its basketball team --- one of the best in the US --- to China for a series of five exhibition matches.

The cultural diplomacy did not quite go as planned.

With less than 10 minutes remaining in a game tied at 64-64 with Bayi Beijing, a brawl broke out after a scuffle on the court. Georgetown guard Jason Clark was kicked by multiple Bayi players and a member the Bayi training/coaching staff and Georgetown center Henry Sims was struck by a chair. Georgetwon forward Moses Ayegba, unable to play with an ankle injury, carried a chair onto the court, claiming self-defense.

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EA PhotoShop Cyber-Special: How The "Levitating Chinese Officials" Became an Internet Sensation

Last Sunday, a Chinese surfer of the Net was so bored that he/she visited the website for his local government. The headline story? The upgrade of a road to the countryside.

And so an Internet sensation was launched.

The story was no thriller. The photograph, however, was rather distinctive (see the top of the page). Through superhuman powers, or more likely a very bad PhotoShop effort, the three officials were not just inspecting the road. They were levitating above it.  

This, however, was only the start of a marvellous story. Soon, with the assistance of the Internet community in China, the Levitating Officials were visiting more exciting places and seeing Very Important People. This is just a selection from their cyber-travels on Earth...and beyond.

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