Frank Langfitt

'It's Christmas in June': China Revels In NSA Leaks Story

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:51:00 +0000

Earlier this year, the U.S.

Confessed NSA Leaker Hole Up In Hong Kong Hotel

Frank Langfitt — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:30:00 +0000

The Guardian has identified its source for a series of reports it published in recent days on secret U.S. surveillance activity. The paper says the source is Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the CIA who now works for a private-sector defense and technology consulting firm.

China's President Lays Groundwork For Better U.S. Relations

Frank Langfitt — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:48:00 +0000

After years of distrust, China's government says it wants a new type of great power relationship with the United States.

Rubber Ducky, You're (Not) The One. Hong Kong Quacker Spawns Others

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:22:00 +0000

Perhaps it was inevitable.

More Than 100 Dead In Chinese Factory Fire

Frank Langfitt — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 20:14:00 +0000

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

This morning in China, a fire roared through a poultry processing plant, killing at least 119 people. Labor activists say it is China's worst factory fire in memory. State media reports that some of the building's doors were locked.

NPR's Frank Langfitt tells us more from Shanghai.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: The fire broke out a little after 6 A.M. in northeastern China's Jilin Province. Smoke filled the sprawling low-slung plant, sending at least 300 workers racing for the doors.

More Than 100 Dead In China Poultry Plant Blaze

Frank Langfitt — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 11:17:00 +0000

A fire at a poultry processing plant fire in northeast China on Monday has killed at least 119 people, according to the Jilin province government. The blaze is one of the country's deadliest industrial accidents in recent years.

Flames broke out a little after 6 a.m. and the sprawling, low-slung plant filled with dark smoke, witnesses said. About 300 workers were inside the facility owned by the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in Mishazi Township of Dehui City.

The state-run newspaper Southern Metropolis reports that all but one of the plant's doors were locked at the time.

In China, Customer Service And Efficiency Begin To Blossom

Frank Langfitt — Wed, 29 May 2013 19:52:00 +0000

China's infamous bureaucracy has bedeviled people for ages, but in recent years, daily life in some major Chinese cities has become far more efficient.

For instance, when I worked in Beijing in the 1990s, many reporters had drivers. It wasn't because they didn't drive, but because they needed someone to deal with China's crippling bureaucracy.

I had a man named Old Zhao, who would drive around for days to pay our office bills at various government utility offices.

China's Leaders Promise To Speed Up Economic Growth

Frank Langfitt — Wed, 29 May 2013 09:30:00 +0000

The Communist Party's new leadership has pledged to change China's slowing economy by putting a greater emphasis on private enterprise and reining in huge but far less profitable state-owned businesses. Economists say the party has no choice but to update if it wants to stay in power, but they doubt that a genuine overhaul is in the works.

China's Air Pollution: Is The Government Willing To Act?

Frank Langfitt — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:11:00 +0000

Denise Mauzerall arrived in Beijing this year at a time that was both horrifying and illuminating.

China Builds Museums ... But Will The Visitors Come?

Frank Langfitt — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:39:00 +0000

Shanghai did something last fall that few other cities on the planet could have even considered. It opened two massive art museums right across the river from one another on the same day.

The grand openings put an exclamation point on China's staggering museum building boom.