Quote of the day: “One does not need to be a Marx or a Keynes to have something useful to say about the great questions of the time.”

- MIT Developmental Economics professor Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, on the ease of making convincing statements about free trade, capitalism, and development economics

MILITARY

China’s military proposes cooperation – “China’s military is proposing officer exchanges and other confidence-building measures with the U.S. Army and may be inching closer to setting up a ‘hotline’ for emergency communication with Washington, the top U.S. general said Friday.” I never did get why “hotlines” between countries are such a big deal. I have this vision of the President sitting in his oval office yelling into his intercom “GET CHINA ON THE PHONE!” during some heated debate. “Yes sir, right away sir.”

US engineer faces trial for smuggling military secrets to China – “Mak, who is also charged with acting as an agent of China in the United States and making false statements, was arrested after agents swooped on two relatives at Los Angeles Airport as they prepared to board a flight to Hong Kong. According to Justice Department documents, the duo were caught with a disk containing sensitive encrypted data on US submarines hidden in a English-language CD course . . . After raiding Mak’s home, prosecutors say they also discovered a ‘wish-list’ of US military technology, including information on missile defence and torpedo systems.”

ITT fined $100 million for illegal exports – “ITT Corp. has agreed to pay a $100 million penalty for illegally sending classified night-vision technology used in military operations to China and other countries, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee announced Tuesday.” I don’t know what is up today, but this is the third story about transferring military things to China (U.S. government: Officers, Mak: US Submarines, ITT: Night-vision).

TIBET

China’s Majority Doesn’t Get Dalai Lama – “I, for example, had never put myself into the shoes of Chinese minorities until I moved to America and became a member of the minority myself. As a Chinese-American, I realized how much the feeling of being respected by mainstream America meant to me. It has helped me better understand why Tibet is such an issue in China.” This is a nice blog entry by Chinese Washington Post journalist Annie Wang. Some of the statistics are incorrect, however. Minorities do not make up only 3%. Statistics show 8.9% of Chinese are minorities.

China announces investment drive in Tibet – “China will invest 100 billion yuan ($12.9 billion) in projects in Tibet, including an extension of its first railway, state media reported, as Beijing seeks to boost its image in the remote region through development. The money will be spent on 180 projects in the years up to 2010, including upgrading an airport; extending availability of drinking water, electricity and telephone lines to herding communities; and building a railway from regional capital Lhasa to Xigaze, the region’s second-largest city, the Xinhua news agency reported late on Monday.” This investment comes out to about 71 million per each of the “180 project.” That’s not bad. It’s a start, but there is reason to believe that most of it will go to the development of the railroad and the airport. Read this article and you’ll notice something interesting about it…it mentions China critics’ views and a brief rundown of the China-Tibet conflict at the end. This is thanks to the great work the Tibet movement has been doing for many years now.

China is a 20th century idea – “The nation of China evolved as an idea not more than 100 years ago. Then how could Tibet have always existed as a part of China?” This article references many of the historical arguments that we have seen here before for Tibet’s indepedence.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Chavez: China to become a top oil client – “President Hugo Chavez said China is set to rival the United States as Venezuela’s top oil buyer as he announced new plans with the Asian powerhouse to jointly ship oil, build refineries and expand crude production.” China will continue to ally with other anti-US countres to build itself into a rivaling superpower.

OLYMPICS

China in a race to Olympic finish – “This summer, 26 test events will shape up the venues, part of a gargantuan $40 billion building project to modernize China’s capital – with low-slung alleyways and brightly painted, curved wooden roof beams giving way to hundreds of glass towers and cranes. But it might be the human infrastructure that will come under the most intense scrutiny when 500,000 foreign visitors and 20,000 journalists arrive next summer.” The article mentions some humorous mistakes that Olympic organizers have already made.

COMMUNIST PARTY

Late China Leader Mao Zedong’s Son Dies – “Mao Anqing, the only known surviving son of Mao Zedong, the late founder of China’s communist government, has died, a government news agency reported Saturday. He was 84. Mao Anqing died Friday, the China News Service said, without citing a cause of death. He had no role in government, suffered from psychiatric problems and is believed to have spent much of his adult life in mental hospitals.” If only Mao had lived the life his son had…then it would all make sense.

China’s Communist Party Continues Change – “China’s Communist Party named two more provincial bosses Monday in a widening reshuffle likely to consolidate President Hu Jintao’s power ahead of a party congress this year. Hu is expected to promote his supporters at the party congress this fall, possibly installing candidates for the next generation of leadership.”

HUMAN RIGHTS

In China, Fight Over Development Creates a Star – “Chinese bloggers were the first to spread the news of a house perched atop a tall, thimble-shaped piece of land like Mont St. Michel in the middle of a vast excavation. Newspapers dove in next, followed by national television. Then, in a way that is common in China whenever an event begins to take on hints of political overtones, the story virtually disappeared from the news media, bloggers here said, after the government decreed that the subject was suddenly out of bounds.” I just love the picture in the header of this article.

China’s lesson on freedom of religion – “Although its government likes to claim otherwise, and apparently hopes people won’t notice, meaningful religious freedom does not exist in China. Quite the contrary: As the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated in its report last year, ‘The Chinese government continues to engage in systematic and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.’” The article is not quite as interesting as the title and excerpt suggest.

DRAGONS

China building the “world’s largest dragon” – “Investors in a central China city are building a giant $300 million sculpture of a dragon that they say will be the largest in the world, state media said on Tuesday . . . The dragon could act as a barrier protecting Zhengzhou from sandstorms that blow in from the north each spring, the paper said.” Great Wall, version 2.

Ancient flying dragon discovered in China – The London Telegraph says the six-inch long skeleton of the Gliding Lizard fossil features ‘elongated ribs that helped to spread a wing-like membrane for gliding.’”