Remember that big blackout that hit the northeast United States back in the summer of 2003? I certainly do. I was in Vermont at the time, and the whole country was talking about what turned out to be the biggest power outage in U.S. history.

Official explanations were all over the map, including overgrown trees and overtaxed utilities. Now comes the latest explanation: Chinese hackers.

According to this article just out in the National Journal, some U.S. intelligence people now believe Chinese hackers have triggered two separate blackouts in this decade. Here are three paragraphs:

One prominent expert told National Journal he believes that China’s People’s Liberation Army played a role in the power outages. Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a leading trade group, said that U.S. intelligence officials have told him that the PLA in 2003 gained access to a network that controlled electric power systems serving the northeastern United States. The intelligence officials said that forensic analysis had confirmed the source, Bennett said. “They said that, with confidence, it had been traced back to the PLA.” These officials believe that the intrusion may have precipitated the largest blackout in North American history, which occurred in August of that year. A 9,300-square-mile area, touching Michigan, Ohio, New York, and parts of Canada, lost power; an estimated 50 million people were affected.

Officially, the blackout was attributed to a variety of factors, none of which involved foreign intervention. Investigators blamed “overgrown trees” that came into contact with strained high-voltage lines near facilities in Ohio owned by FirstEnergy Corp. More than 100 power plants were shut down during the cascading failure. A computer virus, then in wide circulation, disrupted the communications lines that utility companies use to manage the power grid, and this exacerbated the problem. The blackout prompted President Bush to address the nation the day it happened. Power was mostly restored within 24 hours.

There has never been an official U.S. government assertion of Chinese involvement in the outage, but intelligence and other government officials contacted for this story did not explicitly rule out a Chinese role. One security analyst in the private sector with close ties to the intelligence community said that some senior intelligence officials believe that China played a role in the 2003 blackout that is still not fully understood.

The sourcing for this article is not ironclad. But it certainly makes one think about vulnerabilities in cyber-security.

China is perhaps more open than ever. But there are still times you simply can’t get straight information.

My question today is: Why has the sports channel of the state broadcaster, CCTV, suddenly stopped showing NBA games as playoffs get interesting?

I woke up a few hours ago hoping to catch the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons live for the key sixth game in the eastern conference finals. No such luck. Instead, CCTV 5 was airing a gymnastics event from the 2004 Athens Olympics. Ugghh!

A bit of background: China is pretty wild about basketball. The NBA calculates that there are 300 million Chinese who either play basketball or express real interest in watching it. Click here for a story I did about it last fall.

And with two bona fide stars in the NBA, Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets and Yi Jianlian of the Milwaukee Bucks, interest by Chinese has climbed higher.

But amid the disaster of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, the government pulled the plug on the NBA. By national decree, broadcasts were halted May 19-21 during three days of national mourning for quake victims. Indeed, all public entertainment was halted. A Lakers-Spurs playoff game was shown May 22. Since then, zilch, zippo, nada. Or as they say in Chinese, mei you.

Conflicting explanations over the continued suspension have filtered out. The Danwei website says the director of CCTV’s sports programming, Jiang Heping, said the NBA games were “too entertaining” for a period when the country is still mourning its quake deaths.

Some ordinary Chinese aren’t buying it. They see other explanations, like anger that Lakers reserve Ira Newble, when he was with the Cavaliers last season, issued a letter signed by most of his teammates urging China to turn up diplomatic pressure over the killing fields in Darfur, the stricken area of Sudan. NBA star Lebron James has also spoken out about Darfur.

This seems a little far-fetched to me. But the fact is, China hasn’t suspended the airing of NBA games since 1999, when U.S. warplanes bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

For its part, the local NBA official, Timothy Chen, has said: “We are working closely with CCTV to ensure that NBA games and content are appropriate for China and to begin broadcasting as soon as possible.”

The NBA then ponied up $2 million in donations to quake-hit Sichuan Province. Was that not enough? Chinese sports officials weren't saying. All kinds of other entertainment is back on television. Indeed, the attitude on the NBA seems to be: "You know what you did. Don't make me have to explain it to you."

So what’s the real story? Don’t ask me. I’m busy watching a rerun of the 2004 Athens gymnastics events.

It’s a common fallacy that China’s government is not responsive to its people.

On certain issues, officials are very responsive. You can see it in the way they maneuver around issues, afraid of arousing a public reaction.

This came to mind today as I watched Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang discuss the prospect that China would allow a Japanese military plane to deliver earthquake relief supplies. If this happens, it would be the first time Japanese military planes touched down in China since World War II.

The act would be hugely symbolic. It’s also a potential lightning rod issue. It wouldn’t take much to get mobs in the streets on this matter if Beijing doesn’t play its cards right. Japan occupied a huge portion of China from the 1930s until Tokyo was defeated by the Allies in 1945.

That’s why Qin chose his words carefully as the Japanese reporters grilled him a few hours ago at a twice-a-week press briefing.

Qin noted that some countries (the United States, for one) had used military aircraft to deliver quake relief already, and that Japan’s offer had been received. “We are sincerely thankful for this,” he said.

He said the respective defense ministries in Tokyo and Beijing were discussing the specifics of how to deliver Japanese aid, which would likely be delivered in a C-130 cargo aircraft. The aid is likely to include tents and blankets.

A Japanese reporter asked him how he responded to angry postings on the internet by Chinese about the prospect of Japanese warplanes landing in China.

“As I said, for the support of the Japanese government and people to the affected areas, we express our thanks. We are totally thankful,” Qin said, adding that the foreign ministry doesn’t control China’s media so can’t respond to what they publish.

The fact is, Japanese aircraft bombed the area of Sichuan near where the May 12 earthquake struck during the war. If a Japanese plane can come in peace now, it would be a major sign of improving ties between the two countries _ even if it is hard for many Chinese to stomach.

And now for a celebrity moment: Hollywood star Sharon Stone has single-handedly united Chinese in outrage, suggesting the Sichuan earthquake was “karma” payback for China’s handling of Tibet.

Stone was caught on a runway  the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival with a question about the disaster. Here’s what she said, according to the YouTube clip above:

“Well, you know, it was very interesting because at first I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don’t like that.

“And I’ve been just, you know, concerned about, oh, how we should deal with the Olympics because they’re not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who’s a good friend of mine. And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, ‘Is that karma when you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?’

“And then I got a letter from the Tibetan Foundation that they wanted to go and be helpful, and that made me cry. And they asked me if I would write a quote about that. And I said I would, that it was a big lesson to me, that sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even if people aren’t nice to you, and that’s a big lesson for me.”

Now, China’s cinemas have banned films featuring Sharon Stone, and the internet here is filling with video clips and comments berating Stone. She has become the latest target of wrath, following Chinese anger last month at Jack Cafferty, the CNN commentator whose remarks about “goons and thugs” in China led the network to issue a formal apology.

Below is a typical English language rebuttal to Stone.

If you want to get a sense of the immensity of the Sichuan earthquake earlier this month, take a moment to see a slide show put up on the Washington Post website.

It includes 86 photos. A word of note about the photographers, some of whom I saw at work in the quake zone. To get assigned to China, they will be some of the best in the world. And these are the best, most powerful, images among the tens of thousands they shot in the zone. They are better than the ones I've quickly posted along with this item.

These photographers (or shooters, as they are known in the trade) are the best regional photographers that the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse have in East Asia, coming from Japan, Thailand and elsewhere. There are also photos by Paula Bronstein, a staff photographer for Getty Images, one of the top photo agencies in the world.

For a different kind of photo gallery, click here to see those posted on the EastSouthWestNorth blog, picked up from the Guangyuan Daily News. (Scroll down the page to see them.) These photos don’t have the technical quality of the Post slide show. But they are perhaps more powerful because they capture key moments.

Check out two particularly haunting images. One is of adults crouched in fear in a courtyard surrounded by tall buildings as the quake hits. The next is of a couple clutching each other amid a cloud of dust rising as they quake jolts Qingchuan.

Take a look. Some of the photos are graphic. So put on your seatbelts.

There are no surveys of public opinion regarding China’s leaders. But it’s safe to say that following the May 12 earthquake, both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao are riding high.

Both spent time down in Sichuan Province, touring the damaged zone and talking with ordinary people.

So here’s the evidence of how “cool” Premier Wen has become. He’s set up a Facebook page. Not. Okay, okay. Someone did it as a prank, but it’s still pretty amusing. I first saw this on Travellers’ Tales, the always-amusing column on the Far Eastern Economic Review website.

Among the new sports included among the Summer Olympic Games is marathon swimming. It’s a 10-kilometer (6.3 mile) race in open water.

I joined a group of reporters invited by the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee on a field trip this morning to see the facility in Shunyi, which is a northeastern suburb of Beijing.

The facility is home to all canoeing, kayaking and marathon swimming events.

I could only see the whitewater kayaking course from a distance but could see the water whooshing out of the final gates.

What was interesting was to see the circular 2.5 kilometer course for canoeing and open-water marathon swimming. Organizers said the water is cycled fresh through the course every 40 days and comes from the aquifer below the site rather than a river. The water had a bit of seaweed in it but overall relatively clean, as lake water goes, and organizers insisted that tests have shown it to meet all standards necessary to hold events.

In any case, there’s a short video clip above of Danni Zheng, an Olympics media officer, speaking about the marathon swimming event.

The always-amusing newsletter of Access Asia, a market research firm with offices in Shanghai, brings a tidbit this week that may not amuse Olympic athletes coming to Beijing.

Apparently, it’s not going to be easy for Olympic athletes to leave the grounds of the Olympic Village to get a taste of the real Beijing.

If you're an athlete coming to compete in Beijing, don't bother to bring a guidebook unless you're tenacious. The chances of you actually getting out of the Olympic Village to see any of the city (apart from the venue you're competing in) are minimal. Hence, the dubbing of the Olympic Village as Stalag Beijing.

How serious will the Chinese authorities be in trying to keep athletes within the Village at all times? Well, consider that a major European sports brand and sponsor of the Games thought it a good idea to take over a major international school in Beijing for the duration of the Games. Using the school's facilities, the brand's management and marketing people, advertising firm and PR hypers had all planned to mingle with their star athletes' endorsers and get the most out of the event. But now the authorities, worried about athletes leaving the Village unnecessarily, have overruled the deal, and won't let it happen (which means the brand loses the alleged US$1.5 million they coughed up to rent the school for a month). We are told that security at the Village will be high - not just to get in, but also to get out.

So why turn the village into Stalag Beijing? Well, it seems there are a number of reasons. Worries that athletes may leave the Village to do impromptu reporting on human rights or other issues is one; keeping them all close to the people who are sponsoring the Village is another; but the major reason is that if they leave the Village they may be tempted to eat like the rest of us - i.e. not the specially prepared, reared and grown foods that are being made available in the Village (and in the Village only) - and that could mean plenty of athletes failing dope tests due to high levels of residual antibiotics and steroids commonly found in meat on sale in China.

I was on the outskirts of Beichuan, the quake-ravaged town, yesterday when I serendipitously encountered a physician with an unusual story.

He was standing outside a Red Cross tent, and I approached him because I wanted to know the fate of a person being rescued a few days ago.

As we got to talking, he noted that he was a survivor of the Great Tangshan earthquake, the devastating 1976 disaster that is believed to be the largest quake of the last century by death toll. According to official figures, 242,419 people were killed.

Tangshan is an industrial city in Hebei Province, not far from Beijing. The quake occurred at a tumultuous time, leading some to call 1976 the “year of the curse.” During that year, China was emerging from the 10-year chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and paramount leader Mao Zedong was on his deathbed, soon to pass away.

The 68-year-old retired doctor before me, Wei Baoren, said he suffered greatly in the Tangshan quake. He lost a child, his wife, his mother and his mother-in-law, and had other relatives injured. An internist, he was at work at a local hospital when the quake hit, and eventually was rescued by relief workers.

“I always had the desire to pay back the rescue,” Dr. Wei said, and now he’s got his chance.

When he heard about the quake in Sichuan Province, he paid his own way down here and headed for the Red Cross, where he joined with 22 other medical volunteers and was deployed to Beichuan.

He said the difference between the 1976 and 2008 quakes is night and day.

“Back then, the leaders didn’t have experience in how to deal with natural disasters,” he said, adding that it was “an abnormal time for China,” what with the Mao era slipping by.

Leaders covered up the magnitude of the Tangshan disaster.

This time, both government officials and common people have mobilized for quake relief, he said. “This is a magnificent development.”

“The government has really been doing a great job. It shows a lot of care for the people,” Dr. Wei said, adding that he will stay in the quake zone till the end of the month. 

A couple of us foreign reporters were at a middle school earlier today that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake, killing as many as 600 students.

The four-story middle school is in Juyuan, an outlying area of the city of Dujiangyan. It became the focus of attention because no other buildings in the immediate area crumbled in the May 12 earthquake, leading to charges that it was shoddily constructed.

You can see the area of the collapsed building in the photo. The white stuff on the ground is lime, spread to avoid contamination.

An odd thing happened. The people milling about appeared to be a mix of relief workers, angry parents, Chinese and foreign journalists and others.

At one point, we noticed a man pointing a video camera steadily at us. He then shot images of the parents who were talking to us. When approached, he would only say that he was from Chengdu.

Clearly, he was a security official. The issue of collapsed schools from the earthquake is a sensitive one, and state security is worried that grieving parents will cause trouble over the deaths of their children.