Chinadialogue
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'chinadialogue.net' "中外对话" is an independent, not-for-profit online publication based in London and Beijing.
It is focused on the environment, especially in China, although it has an interest in environment and sustainability issues around the world.
It features articles by Chinese and non-Chinese authors from a variety of perspectives. These include an interview with former US vice-president Al Gore and Chinese economist Hu Angang.
It has adopted a web 2.0 approach, which gives user-generated comment a key place in the site, and sees the use of RSS feeds, Creative Commons material, and news briefs and links collected from varied sources across the net.
Its tagline is 'China and the world discuss the environment'.
The claim that it is the world's first fully bilingual website has not been substantiated beyond doubt. However it is highly unusual for a website to offer translation of user comments from Chinese into English and English into Chinese, as chinadialogue does.[citation needed]
It shares a similarity in construction and ethos with China Digital Times, which is run by the China Internet Project at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
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[edit] Ownership
It is owned by the Open Trust, a London-based educational charity. It was launched on July 3, 2006. It is an initiative supported by a range of educational charities as well as the UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue led by Defra (Britain's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs).
It is edited by veteran international journalist Isabel Hilton.
[edit] Mission statement
The website displays this mission statement: 'China is growing fast and, as it grows, it is faced with urgent environmental challenges. Environmental costs may account for 10 per cent of China's GDP and the effects of pollution, desertification and climate change are already beginning to be felt within China and outside her borders. Climate change, species loss, pollution, water scarcity and environment damage are not problems confined to one country: they are challenges that concern all the world's citizens, but the rise of China gives them a new urgency. Tackling these challenges will require a common effort and common understanding. Here at chinadialogue we aim to promote that common understanding. By establishing the world's first fully bilingual website devoted to the environment we aim to promote direct dialogue and the search for solutions to our shared environmental challenges.'
[edit] Board members
The members of the chinadialogue Editorial Advisory Board are: Professor Mark Elvin, Caspar Henderson, Ma Jun, Professor Pan Jiahua, Lord Patten of Barnes, Professor Orville Schell, Sir Crispin Tickell, Professor Wang Canfa and Professor Wang Ming
