ABSTRACT
The year 2008 witnessed a number of major news events taking place in succession in China. After a rare blizzard in the country’s south in February, China was riveted by the 3/14 Tibetan riots in March—known in China, like many historic events, by its month/date numbers—and then in May by the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province in central China, the largest since the birth of the new China in 1949. This series of negative events preceded two very positive ones to the nation: the country’s fulfillment of its century-long dream with the Olympic extravaganza in August, and its first human spacewalk a month later. Then the scandal of deliberately tainted baby milk powder broke at the end of the year, alarming the nation’s food safety just as the economic recession emerged worldwide.
