The Shanghai police department has finally gotten fed up with civilians ignoring traffic lights and crossing the street whenever and wherever their hearts desire. The police department will reserve one program on a mainstream TV channel to expose all those who should be ashamed of their behavior. I believe it is an effective measure, but only in China. In a country like the U.S., it will probably cause the opposite of the desired result. People might just break the rules to get a shot on TV.

Front Page Story

Do you recognize the picture on the front page? It’s the third tallest building in the world: the Shanghai Global Finance Center. It will officially open to the public this Saturday, August 30. The building is 492 meters tall and has 101 floors. For RMB150, you can go to the top for a complete view of Shanghai.

The other headline today

During the question and answers session of a conference held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese spokesman said that U.S. government should teach its citizen to respect the laws of other countries. This is referencing to Americans who protested on China’s progress on human right during the Olympics. Well, as long as people believe they want to protest, they should have the freedom to do so. Just as the Chinese government has the freedom to deport those protesters that it feels it can’t tolerate. I believe in freedom myself as long as people aren’t killing one another.

The season is changing, but too slowly. After the scary rain on Monday, the temperature is slowly climbing up again. 32 degrees Celsius is still a good number.

Zaobao! Zabao! is a daily article by Li Yizhong that translates and puts into brief perspective the headlines of the Shanghai Morning Post's daily newspaper. Read more of his work on the Zaobao! Zaobao! blog.