June 27, 2006
Linkage

A couple of links:

1. Curzon from CA has posted an incredible travelogue of his journey from Vietnam, through China and onto Japan. It's an excellent combination of photos, commentary, history, thoughts and even sounds. It also demonstrates the difference between travelling and a journey.

2. Our "those crazy Japanese videos" deparment (via The 88s, who surmises "laowai with bras on their heads are very dangerous").

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May 18, 2006
Linklets 18th May

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May 16, 2006
Linklets 16th May

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May 15, 2006
Linklets 15th May

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May 12, 2006
Linklets 12th May

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May 11, 2006
Linklets 11th March

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April 28, 2006
Linklets 28th April

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April 27, 2006
Linklets 27th April

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March 22, 2006
Linklets 21st March

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March 18, 2006
Linklets 18th March

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February 07, 2006
Linklets 7th February

And finally...

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February 06, 2006
Linklets 6th February

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February 03, 2006
Linklets 3rd February

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February 02, 2006
Linklets 2nd February

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February 01, 2006
Linklets 1st February

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January 31, 2006
Linklets 31st January (Updated)

Updated

Simon here (I was going to complain about being at work on a holiday, but after seeing this, it doesn't seem important), with a few pieces that have recently caught my eye:

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January 27, 2006
Linklets 27th January

In absence of Simon's Daily Linklets as well as my own lack of time to contribute anything lately, I've decided to throw a few links of my own to some of the posts I've been reading around the Asian blogosphere.

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January 17, 2006
Linklets 17th January

And for something completely different:

Amazing Russian acrobatic feats.

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January 12, 2006
Linklets 12th January

The astute will have noticed the daily linklets have been on hiatus for the past few weeks. Chances are the linklets are not likely to be daily, at least for the foreseeable future. Thus a name change to just linklets. There's an ever-increasing and incrediblely diverse amount of China and East Asia blogging going on and it is outstripping my ability to keep up. I will continue to link to noteworthy posts as and when I can; I also encourage you to click the blogs on the sidebar and read them yourself. They are the cream of the crop.

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January 05, 2006
Daily linklets 5th January

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January 03, 2006
Daily linklets 3rd January

The welcome 2006 edition...

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December 30, 2005
Daily linklets 30th December

The goodbye 2005 edition (although 2006 will be a second late)...

And finally, let's finish 2005 on a bright (pink) note:

Wishing you all a happy, prosperous and successful 2006.

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December 29, 2005
Daily linklets 29th December

The back from the tummy bug edition...

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December 27, 2005
Daily linklets 27th December

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December 23, 2005
Daily linklets 23rd December

The Merry Christmas edition...

And now with the non-Chrissy stuff:

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December 22, 2005
Daily linklets 22nd December

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December 21, 2005
Daily linklets 21st December

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December 20, 2005
Daily linklets 20th December

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December 19, 2005
Daily linklets 19th December

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December 16, 2005
Daily linklets 16th December

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December 15, 2005
Daily linklets 15th December

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December 14, 2005
Daily linklets 14th December

The Shanwei Shootings and China's Situation
By George Friedman

Last week, a group of Chinese villagers staged a demonstration against a wind-power project near Shanwei, a town in Guangdong province about 100 miles from Hong Kong. In the first incident, protesters blocked access to the site of the wind-power generation project. The next day, Dec. 6, demonstrators returned. According to Chinese official reports, they were led by three men -- Huang Xijun, Lin Hanru and Huang Xirang -- and were armed with knives, steel spears, sticks, dynamite and Molotov cocktails. Members of the local People's Armed Police fired tear gas at the crowd, hoping to break things up, but the three leaders rallied the crowd to continue what, depending on who was telling the story, was either a protest or attack. According to the description of events given by the Chinese government, the demonstrators started to throw explosives at the police as night fell. The police opened fire. Official reports said that three people were killed, eight wounded.

The protests in Shanwei had gone on for quite a while before coming to a head last week. The land for the power project was confiscated a few years ago. The farmers who worked the land were never compensated for their dislocation. They formally petitioned for their money in 2004 but were ignored. Public demonstrations began in August 2005, continuing intermittently. With no compensation forthcoming, the protests escalated and then exploded, with last week's incident marking the first reported shootings of demonstrators in China by official security forces since Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The shooting is new. The pattern is not. There has been intensifying unrest in China over the past year -- frequently, as in this case, over issues that have been simmering for years. This has been particularly true for peasants who have seen their land confiscated by the government for industrial projects. Money is issued to local officials by state-owned enterprises and other investment groups to cover the cost of the land. That money passes through the regional and local bureaucracies. By the time it should reach the owners, there often is nothing left; it has been stolen by officials at various levels. No one denies the farmers' claims to the land, but no one acts to compensate them. The laborers go from being small farmers to being destitute.

This is a critical process at the heart of Chinese industrialization. The purchase of land, including forced sale, is considered necessary for Chinese economic development. However, Chinese economic development is driven as much by corruption as by land. The government in Beijing has no particular desire to see the farmers dispossessed; on the contrary, the money is made available for delivery to the farmers. But the diversion of funds is hard-wired into the process. It is one of the primary means for capital formation in China.

One of the paths to entrepreneurship in China is to become a government official who can use one's public office for personal savings and networking -- accumulating enough money and useful contacts to move into business later. With massive expropriations of land over the past decade designed to facilitate economic growth, the opportunities -- and compulsion -- to steal money intended for farmers is powerful. In order to hold onto his job, a government official must maintain a system of relationships with superiors, colleagues and subordinates. These relationships are based on money. If the official doesn't find the money to hold his place in the bureaucracy, he will lose it. Therefore, the diversion of funds is built into the system.

The Chinese government wants it both ways. On the one hand, it does not want unrest among farmers. On the other hand, the Communist Party elite in Beijing live by patronage. They have risen through the system because of the web of relationships that makes Chinese industrialization possible. They can, in very specific cases, take action against cases of corruption. However, a systematic attack on the causes of corruption is impossible, without a systematic attack on their own infrastructure.

This is particularly true in rapidly developing provinces like Guangdong. The interface between the new economy and the old has become a battlefield. The old economy was land-based: Mao created a peasant economy that was overlaid by attempts to industrialize. The new economy regards land as an input into the industrial machine. However, given the nature of the Chinese political system, the farmers are not simply bought out -- they are forced off the land. And that can lead to social explosions.

The recent events in Shanwei are unique only in that they resulted in gunfire and death, and because they were brought to light by the anti-Communist media. After these reports were picked up and widely circulated by the international media, the government in Beijing acknowledged what had occurred, adding details that appeared to show that the demonstrators forced the police into shooting. But later, the government announced that the head of the police unit involved had been arrested -- which seems to imply that the story as originally told by the Chinese wasn't altogether accurate. Why arrest the cop if explosives were being hurled at police?

The specifics of what happened, of course, have no geopolitical consequence. What is important is that tensions in China have been rising steadily. Thousands of demonstrations (74,000, according to figures released last year by the government) have taken place -- some reportedly violent, if not fatal. In one case earlier this year, residents protesting corruption related to land seizures took control of their town, forcing the police out. The Chinese government appeared to capitulate to the demonstrators, giving into their demands -- but weeks later, those who had participated in the rising were quietly arrested. In another incident, which also turned deadly, brute squads believed to have been hired by local officials and businesses attacked protesters. There are numerous other examples to draw from.

Beneath the surface, a number of things are taking place. The Chinese economy has been growing at a frantic pace. This is not necessarily because the economy is so healthy, nor because many of these industrial projects make economic sense. In fact, the government in Beijing has been very clear that the new projects frequently don't make a great deal of economic sense, and has been trying to curb them (though it does not necessarily command obedience in every case from provincial or local governments). On the other hand, China needs to run very hard to stay in place. Within what we will call the entrepreneurial bureaucracy -- with pyramiding, undercapitalized, highly leveraged projects being piled one on top of the other -- new investment projects are needed in order to generate cash that stabilizes older, failing projects. Slowing down and consolidating is not easy when there are bank loans coming due and when money has to be spread around in order to maintain one's position in the system.

That means that aggressive economic growth is needed. It also means that massive social dislocation -- including theft of land -- is embedded in the Chinese system. The flashpoint is the interface between the rapidly spreading industrial plants and the farmers who own the land. The bureaucratic entrepreneurs need not only the land, but also the money that legally is due to the farmers.

China is a mass of dispossessed farmers, urban workers forced into unemployment by the failure of state-owned enterprises, and party officials who are urgently working to cash in on their position. It is a country where the banking system has been saved from collapse by spinning off bad debts -- at least $600 billion worth, or nearly half the GDP of China -- into holding companies. This maneuver cleaned up the banks' books and allowed Western banks to purchase shares in them, shoring them up. But it also left a huge amount of debt that is owed internally to people who will never see the funds. Imagine the U.S. savings-and-loan scandal growing to a size that was nearly half of the national GDP. As it happened, in the United States the federal government swallowed a great deal of the S&L bad loans -- but in China, these bad loans would just about wipe out the country's currency reserves, assuming that the numbers provided by the government are valid.

Under such circumstances, it is no surprise that Chinese money is leaving the country, flowing into the safe havens of U.S. T-Bills or offshore mineral deposits. Moreover, it is not clear that China's economy is continuing to grow. China's imports of oil have topped out and, by some reports, have started to decline -- yet the Chinese are continuing to report unabated growth rates. How can the economy be growing rapidly while oil imports decline? The country lacks sufficient energy reserves to fuel such growth, nor can that level of growth be coming from service industries. At any rate, growth rates do not by themselves connote economic health. The rate of return on capital is the ultimate measure of economic success. Anyone prepared to lose money can generate rapid revenue growth. And anyone facing cash-flow crises due to debt burden knows how easy it is to slip into revenue-growth obsession. The Chinese certainly have.

There is, therefore, a tremendous tension within China's new economy. The root problem is simple: Capital allocation has been driven by political and social considerations more than by economic ones. Who gets loans, and at what rates, frequently has been decided by the borrower's relation to the bureaucracy, not by the economic merits of the case. As a result, China, as a nation, has made terrible investments and is trying to make up for it with rapid growth. That is where things get difficult: As before with Japan and East Asia, the economy is thrown into a frenzy of growth in efforts to stabilize the system, but that growth throws off cash that cannot easily be capitalized and therefore is invested abroad. Meanwhile, bad debts -- stemming from continued investment into nonviable or unprofitable businesses, for social or political reasons -- surge, and the government tries to come up with ways to shuffle the debt around. In other words, the origin of the problem is simple -- but the evolution of the problem becomes dizzyingly complex.

This leads to stresses within the advanced economic sector. In China's case, these manifest as competition between different political factions for access to the funds needed to maintain their enterprises. But that is nothing compared to the tension between the new economy and farmers and the unemployed. As the system tries to stabilize itself, it seeks both to grow and to become more efficient. As it grows, the farmers are forced to give up their land. And as it seeks efficiency, industrial workers lose their jobs.

This is an explosive mix in any country, but particularly so in China, which has a tradition of revolution and unrest. The idea that the farmers will simply walk away from their land or that the unemployed will just head back to the countryside is simplistic. There are massive social movements in play that combine the two most powerful forces in China: workers and peasants. Mao did a lot of work with these two groups. Their interests are now converging. The decisions of the bureaucratic entrepreneurs are now causing serious pain, which is becoming evident in increasing social unrest. At Shanwei, that unrest broke into the open, complete with casualties.

The important thing to note is that both the quantity and intensity of these confrontations is increasing. While the Western media focus on the outer shell of China's economic growth -- the side that is visible in Western hotels throughout major cities -- the Chinese masses are experiencing simultaneously both the costs of industrialization and the costs of economic failure. The sum of this equation is unrest. The question is how far the unrest will go.

At the moment, there does not appear to be any national organization that speaks for the farmers or unemployed workers. The risings are local, driven by particular issues, and are not coordinated on any national scale. The one group that tried to create a national resistance, Falun Gong, has been marginalized by the Chinese government. China's security forces are capable, growing and effective. They have prevented the emergence of any nationalized opposition thus far.

At the same time, the growth and intensification of unrest is there for anyone to exploit. It won't go away, because the underlying economic processes cannot readily be brought under control. In China, as elsewhere, the leadership cadre of any mass movement has been made up of intellectuals. But between Tiananmen Square and jobs in Westernized industries, the Chinese intellectuals have been either cowed or hired. China is now working hard to keep these flashpoint issues local and to placate localities that reach the boiling point -- at least until later, when arrests can be made. That is what they are doing in Shanwei. The process is working. But as the economy continues to simultaneously grow and worsen, the social unrest will have to spread.

The discussion about China used to be about "hard" and "soft" landings -- terms that were confined to economics. The events in Shanwei raise the same question in another domain, the political. Police shooting down demonstrators is not an everyday event in China or anywhere else. But it has happened, and this event didn't just come from nowhere. The question of soft and hard landings now must be considered more literally than before.

And in China, hard landings over the past couple of centuries have been bloody affairs indeed.

chinaprotests.jpg



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December 13, 2005
Daily linklets 13th December

A WTO free zone...

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December 06, 2005
Daily linklets 6th Dec

A super brief linklets today...

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December 05, 2005
Daily linklets 5th December

The fight for your right to form a party edition...

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December 02, 2005
Daily linklets 2nd December

The march on Sunday edition...

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December 01, 2005
Daily linklets 1st December

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November 30, 2005
Daily linklets 30th November

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November 29, 2005
Daily linklets 29th November

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November 28, 2005
Daily linklets 28th November

A bumper Monday edition:

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November 25, 2005
Daily linkets 25th November

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November 24, 2005
Daily linklets 24th November

The Thanksgiving in China edition...

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November 23, 2005
Daily linklets 23rd November

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November 22, 2005
Daily linklets 22nd November

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November 21, 2005
Daily linklets 21st November

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November 16, 2005
Daily linklets 16th November

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November 15, 2005
Daily linklets 15th November

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November 14, 2005
Daily linklets 14th November

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November 10, 2005
Daily linklets 10th November

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November 09, 2005
Daily linklets 9th November

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November 08, 2005
Daily linklets 8th November

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November 07, 2005
Daily linklets 7th November

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November 04, 2005
Daily linklets 4th November

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November 03, 2005
Daily linklets 3rd November

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November 02, 2005
Daily linklets 2nd November

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November 01, 2005
Daily linklets 1st November

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October 31, 2005
Daily linklets October 31st

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October 28, 2005
Daily linklets 28th October

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October 27, 2005
Daily linklets 27th October

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October 26, 2005
Daily linklets 26th October

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October 25, 2005
Daily linklets 25th October

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October 24, 2005
Daily linklets 24th October

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October 21, 2005
Daily linklets 21st October

The 'not a lot' edition...

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October 20, 2005
Daily linklets 20th October

The Hu's in control edition...

Hemlock on Hong Kong's democratic reforms:
Beijing issues a white paper declaring that there will be no barbarian-style democracy so long as the Chinese Communist Party stands. And maybe that goes for the Big Lychee too, judging by the Hong Kong Government’s exciting proposed constitutional reforms, released – by one of those uncanny, cosmic coincidences – on the same day.

The Big Boss briefs the morning meeting, reading from his Government-issued Line-to-Take, which is designed to counter pro-democrats’ claims that the proposals are insultingly lame. “On the subject of a timetable,” our pro-Donald Chairman intones, “it’s basically a matter of timing.” He looks up to survey the bemused faces of his senior management team. What the hell does that mean? “We first have to create favourable conditions and have all the building blocks in place,” he goes on, “like grooming political talent and um…” He looks down at the sheet of paper again and skips a couple of bullet points. “Oh yes – we can’t exclude appointed District Councillors from all of this because they have the same responsibilities as elected ones, and it would be unfair to discriminate against them.” He looks up again, as if to plead for understanding. He didn’t think this stuff up. “And, um, these proposals are firmly grounded on public views,” he reads out, “and represent a major step towards the ultimate aim of universal suffrage.” He shrugs slightly as he puts the paper down. “You’d have though they could come up with better arguments,” he admits.

The problem, it occurs to me, is that the most effective arguments would provoke opposition from the other side of the political spectrum, and maybe even to our north. The logic of the proposals is that the days of the small-circle functional constituencies are drawing to a close. Ship owners, dentists, employers, construction firms and other groups demanding a rotten borough in the legislature were snubbed. The new functional constituencies will be elected – albeit indirectly – by the people, diluting the influence of the corporate electors. Chris Patten would probably approve. But the Government can’t stress this, because it needs a two-thirds majority in Legco – the votes of odious Liberal Party boss James Tien and his cartel representative friends – to get the package through. In order to get the turkeys to vote for Christmas, the Government can’t talk up Christmas, leaving the pro-democrats looking at the gloomy side of the festival.


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October 19, 2005
Daily linklets 19th October

The Donald comes to China edition...

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October 18, 2005
Daily linklets 18th October

The rocket man edition...

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October 17, 2005
Daily linklets 17th October

Back and babe-less...

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October 10, 2005
Despotic Links

Simon does a wonderful, and incredibly painstaking, job of linking to all blogs Asian. I have always thought, though, that he didn't report enough from the dark side of the moon, the lunatic fringe, the countries too poor and censored to have blogs. So little information comes from these places, that it's just bound to lead to misperceptions, slick generalizations, and outright abuse. In short, perfect material for the blogosphere!

Fortunately, The New Republic's T.A.Frank, and his Today in Despotism column (subscription-required), is not bound by the blogoshere's rigid, majoritarian code of conduct. North Korea and Burma are such wacky places, and since I can't access the KCNA in South Korea, I appreciate the chance to subvert the censors, with and without a proxy.

First of all, the 15th volume of the Dear Leader's Collected Works is due soon. God, Kim is a phenom, ain't he? Why doesn't he just blog? Oh well, some of us get Blogger and others become despots!

This week's KCNA bashed Japan and its pretensions to world-leader status. According to a column quote,

Japan's attempt to buy a responsible position at the UN is little short of a clumsy bid of an illiterate country peddler bereft of any reason and people's mindset. Japan would be well advised to properly know where it stands and liquidate its crime-woven past as early as possible so as to be trusted by the international community.

the KCNA's version of legal behavior stops at ofensive militarism, as opposed to the nukes, drugs, and counterfeiting Pyongyang markets. No mealy-mouthed diplomatic-speak about imperialism and expansionism; Japan is a crook! Speaking of Allied revanchist policies at Versailles, J.M. Keynes, in "The Capacity of Germany to Repay Reparations" (1919), argued, "In the great events of man's history, in the unwinding of the complex fates of nations Justice is not so simple. And, if it were, nations are not authorized, by religion or natural morals, to visit on the children of their enemies the misdoings of parents or of rulers." It's a long time past just to get over the Japan WW2 reparations issue. Millions of North Koreans will be thankful for the precedent when, after unification, vengeful South Koreans, hunt down ideological foes and property-holders to settle generations-old scores.

In Burma (Myanmar, whatever), there's a real need for spare parts and poets. And, just to punctuate how some governments feel about the IAEA's new Peace Prize, there's this ditty by Byan Hlwar:

The bestowing of the Peace Prize Is not the granting of licence To scheme to interfere In enclaves and communities of others Or to act untowardly. The possession of that Nobel Peace Prize Is not to be interpreted As whatever the receipient does To be accepted by the world as all fair. If receipients of the Nobel Peace Prize Are discovered as working to destroy a nation And clearly discerned by Alfred He surely will turn in his grave Remorseful that what he had Initiated and established Had gone wrong He would only lament regretfully.

Who said political poetry can't rock?

Cross-Posted at Barbarian Envoy

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October 07, 2005
Daily linklets 7th October

I will be in a blissfully communication-free locale from Monday for a week. Next week sees a selection of excellent guest bloggers for your edification and reading pleasure. Enjoy.

  • Starting today I will try to mark with a * any blog likely to be blocked in China.

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» Publius Pundit links with: CHINA PROPERTY PROTEST




October 06, 2005
Daily linklets 6th October

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October 05, 2005
Daily linklets 5th October

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October 04, 2005
Daily linklets 4th October

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October 03, 2005
Daily linklets 3rd October

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September 30, 2005
Daily linklets 30th September

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» Sun Bin links with: Understanding China's ethnic groups, and I love Curzon's map blogs




September 29, 2005
Daily linklets 29th September

NSFSU: Not safe for standing up.

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» Sun Bin links with: Taiwan's Defense Option (ii): Arms Procurement "Accounting"




September 28, 2005
Daily linklets 28th September

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September 27, 2005
Daily linklets 27th September

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September 26, 2005
Daily linklets 26th September

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September 23, 2005
Daily linklets 23rd September

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September 22, 2005
Daily linklets 22nd September

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September 21, 2005
Daily linklets 21st September

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» howard french and "liu kin-ming's biased article links with: howard french and "liu kin-ming's biased article




September 20, 2005
Daily linklets 20th September

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September 16, 2005
Daily linklets 16th September

May your mid-autumn festival be full of mooncakes.

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» The White Peril 白禍 links with: Koizumi's post-election China policy?
» matthewstinson.net » blog links with: Should Prime Minister Koizumi send China a thank-you note?




September 15, 2005
Daily linklets 15th September

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September 14, 2005
Daily linklets 14th September
  • Irrational exuberance in a Chinese perspective.
  • ESWN, the recent victim of misattibution by the plagarism-prone China Daily, explains why he doesn't care who gets the credit.
  • China's labour shortages are spreading inland.
  • "Horse farts" in China.
  • Caleb explains what you should not being doing with your life.
  • China's WTO implementation efforts.
  • The uproar over the charging of 2 Singaporean bloggers with sedition for racist comments continues unabated. Singapore Angle has great coverage: part 1, part 2, part 3. It returns to a question that continues cropping up for bloggers - they are subject to their local laws, even if they are on the internet. An easy rule of thumb is if you wouldn't publish it in a newspaper, don't put it on a blog.
  • Today's must read is Eswar Prasad's Next Steps for China in the IMF's magazine which argues that broader financial sector reform is crucial for China's long term growth (via New Economist). I've previously looked at studies of China's progress against poverty as part of its economic development. One of the conclusions was the much of China's early rapid growth has come from the "low-hanging fruit" (i.e. easy pickings) such as de-collectivisation, the institution of partial property rights and giving individuals responsibility. China is entering the next phase of its development - the harder yards of making a working market economy where price matters more than connections. The Government has already bailed out its banks once with huge recapitalisation efforts, yet there are fears that the non-performing loan pipeline is rapidly growing again. Until loans are made and priced on credit risk, the cycle will continue and China will quickly find itself at a growth bottleneck or worse...just as Japan has faced for 15 years.
  • I'm pleased to note Mark Anthony Jones has taken my advice and started a blog: Flowing Waters Never Stale.

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September 13, 2005
Daily linklets 13th September

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September 12, 2005
Daily linklets 12th September

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September 09, 2005
Daily linklets 9th September

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» Sun Bin links with: Two birds with one stone: how to solve the Iran and Japan nuclear problem
» ChinaTalk links with: Pillsbury's logic flaws




September 08, 2005
Daily linklets 8th September

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» The Peking Duck links with: East Meets Westerner Meets the Fantabulist




September 07, 2005
Daily linklets 7th September

They're back:

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» Barbarian Envoy links with: Rising Above Yahoos
» The Peking Duck links with: East Meets Westerner Meets the Fantabulist




August 19, 2005
Daily linklets 19th August
Shenzhen's oil shortage is set to ease with the delivery of new supplies, Vice-Mayor Zhang Siping said yesterday. "We have successfully received more supplies to supplement our depots and that will ease the fuel crisis soon," Mr Zhang was quoted as saying by Shenzhen media.

Cities across Guangdong have been hit by an oil and petrol shortage. Service stations have been forced to limit supplies, or close. Mr Zhang said Shenzhen's supplies of diesel reached 41,500 tonnes on Monday and it had 23,500 tonnes of petrol after the arrival of nine oil tankers from Sinopec and PetroChina.

"More supplies will arrive by the end of the month if there is no typhoon coming," he added.

Mr Zhang said a series of measures would be taken to ensure sufficient supplies in service stations. He said priority would be given to taxis, buses and emergency vehicles. Police also would step up efforts to preserve public order at petrol stations.

The Shenzhen government called on commuters to use public transport instead of private cars and urged government officials to reduce the use of cars. People also were asked to report speculators trying to profit from the fuel shortage.


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» The Peking Duck links with: "Superpowers Need Friends - Does China Have Any?"
» asiapundit links with: china economic roundup (vii)
» Imagethief links with: Singapore Already Fulfilling Government Decree to be




August 18, 2005
Daily linklets 18th August

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August 17, 2005
Daily linklets 17th August

Feedster have a monthly Top 500 blogs, and somehow yours truly came in at number 408. Flattered but undeserved. Right, on with the show...

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» Barbarian Envoy links with: The Real Vendetta Against Pyongyang




August 16, 2005
Daily linklets 16th August

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August 15, 2005
Daily linklets 15th August

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» North Korea zone links with: Is Korea Blocking Blogger and Typepad Blogs?
» Bluejives Uncertain Reality Principle links with: Does Taiwan belong to the US?




August 12, 2005
Daily linklets 12th August

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August 11, 2005
Daily linklets 11th August

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August 10, 2005
Daily linklets 10th August

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» Barbarian Envoy links with: Leftists Who Favor Corruption




August 09, 2005
Daily linklets 9th August

They're back....

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» Bingfeng Teahouse links with: china should be attacked by terrorists, a blogger says
» Bingfeng Teahouse links with: china should be attacked by terrorists, a blogger says




July 22, 2005
Daily linklets 22nd July

The 2.1% more edition:

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July 20, 2005
Daily linklets 20th July

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July 19, 2005
Daily linklets 19th July

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July 18, 2005
Daily linklets 18th July

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» Barbarian Envoy links with: People's Choice v. Romantic Cons
» Riding Sun links with: Chinese general threatens to nuke U.S.




July 15, 2005
Daily linklets 15th July

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» spacehunt links with: Metro




July 14, 2005
Daily linklets 14th July

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July 13, 2005
Daily linklets 13th July

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July 12, 2005
Daily linklets 12th July

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» MeiZhongTai links with: First Ever MeiZhongTai Roundup
» pf.org links with: Faster Pussycat!




July 11, 2005
Daily linklets 11th July

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» spacehunt links with: Hong Kong: Fusion Swearing




July 10, 2005
Daily linklets July 10th

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» tdaxp links with: Chinese Perspectives on the 600th Anniversary of Zheng He's First Voyage




July 08, 2005
Daily linklets 8th July

The getting on with things edition:

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July 07, 2005
Daily linklets 7th July

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July 06, 2005
Daily linklets 6th July

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July 05, 2005
Daily linklets 5th July

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July 01, 2005
Daily linklets 1st July

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» CSR Asia - Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia links with: No time for sex




June 30, 2005
Daily linklets 30th June

Before we dive in, two things. Firstly I've added a section to the left sidebar with a link to the Daily Linklets category, so you can trawl your way back through past links. Secondly, last night the Sitemeter ticked over 300,000. Thank you.

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June 29, 2005
Daily linklets 29th June

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» tattoo links with: tattoo




June 28, 2005
Daily linklets 28th June

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» small dead animals links with: Let's All Wake Up, Con't




June 27, 2005
Daily linklets 27th June

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» Barbarian Envoy links with: Miller's Light
» The Peking Duck links with: Hey, she was just trying to make a living....




June 24, 2005
Daily linklets 24th June

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» tdaxp links with: Blogosphere Analysis (Vital Information for Bloggers)




June 23, 2005
Daily linklets 23rd June

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June 22, 2005
Daily linklets 22nd June

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June 21, 2005
Daily linklets 21st June

The I got to Manila airport 2 hours early edition:

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June 17, 2005
Daily linklets 17th June

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June 16, 2005
Daily linklets 16th June

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June 15, 2005
Daily linklets 15th June

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June 14, 2005
Daily linklets 14th June

* The case of Henry Kissinger, a jade wine glass and a magic trick. On Kissinger's op-ed piece on China, Mutantfrog takes the old Doc to task saying the big K doesn't know Chinese history.
* Online marriages are a mixed blessing in China.
* A thorough analysis of Hong Kong copyright law as it may apply to blogs, inspired by allegations of copyright infringement by a (now closed) HK blog. On a related note Jason Kottke points to the EFF's legal guide for (American) bloggers.
* Two of my favourite things, chocolate and women, together at last.
* Leading the way: combine a personal with a help wanted ad.
* Jodi points out the double standard between the cases of Schapelle Corby and Mai Cong Thanh.
* Do modern Chinese purges start with investment bankers and foreign journalists?
* Moses in South Korea...does that make Koreans the new Israelites?
* Richard links to the WaPo's complete analysis of the Huaxi riots: why it happened, the response, the outcome and what it means.
* The payoffs from globalisation. Not only has the policy be the single biggest factor in relieving massive poverty in Asia, it turns out it's been good for America too! It's not a zero sum game: the past 25 years have seen both the China and American economies boom. That's not a co-incidence.
* A look at security, diplomacy and politics in the Malacca Straits, via Eaglespeak who has more on the issue.
* Olympics related legal issues China is dealing with in the leadup to 2008.
* China democracy and the brave new world. Money graph:

To me it is indisputable that those democratic demands raised, possibly naively and with not much understanding of the costs they would entail, in Tiananmen Square in 1989 relate to real inalienable democratic rights that are currently enjoyed by real people all over the world, and which do not exist in China. The most important of those right now is the right to a genuinely independent free press. Only in this way can the Chinese people learn from the mistakes of the past and learn from them who not to trust. Is it ethnocentric and culturally insensitive to demand a free press? Only if we believe that countries such as China, Zimbabwe, Burma and North Korea have some deep cultural connection which means that their people, unlike ourselves, must be permanently kept in the dark about what has happened, what is happening and what could happen in their own and in other countries.
Keep an eye on this site.
* (16:47) Oxblog takes on Kissinger's China op-ed and as an alternative offers China is the one that's going to decide what kind of relationship we have with it. We should speak out on behalf of democracy and human rights but never pretend that our expressions of interest can change the course of Chinese politics...Strengthen our alliance with Japan and other allies in the Pacific. And, if at all possible, avoid indulging ourselves in the willful naivete of the realists. I'm puzzled as to why being realistic is being willfully naive about China. It seems a contradiction in terms.

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» tdaxp links with: Chocolate Covered Chinese Girls
» a free Orange | Links links with: Salon du Chocolat in China




June 13, 2005
Daily linklets 13th June

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» thehorsesmouth.blog-city.com links with: Off with the gloves




June 07, 2005
Daily linklets 7th June

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» The Marmot's Hole links with: N. Korea's economic recovery




June 06, 2005
Daily linklets 6th June

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June 03, 2005
Daily linklets 3rd June

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» Nokia 8800 Mobile Phone links with: Nokia 8800 Mobile Phone
» Nokia 9300 Communicator links with: Nokia 9300 Communicator




June 02, 2005
Daily linklets 2nd June

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» Far East Cynic links with: I'm reading on a jet plane.
» Far East Cynic links with: I'm reading on a jet plane.




June 01, 2005
Daily linklets 1st June

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May 31, 2005
Daily linklets 31st May

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May 30, 2005
Daily linklets 30th May

* 10,000 triads gathered in Taiwan on the weekend.
* Is this the 'emerging economic superpower?' A look at China's have-nots.
* Examining the China myths. Exposing the conventional wisdom on China to reality.
* A Japanese company that hires drop-outs to the exclusion of college graduates.
* A controversial article in the mainland press on why Taiwanese are reluctant about re-unification in the short term. The reasons may not be what you think. Also William Stimson on why China has the glitter but not the gold - a lament on China's misplaced arrogance and pride when compared with Taiwan.
* The truth of Tiananmen.
* China's media profits from jingoism. Which makes it just like media everywhere.
* I've been discussing the rigging of Sumo over at Tokyo Times. Now Joel reproduces the key passages on rigged Sumo from Freakonomics and has more thoughts on other explanations.
* Stories of a couple of Japanese soldiers from WW2 still in the jungles of Mindanao in the Philippines. But there are reports today it may be a hoax by kidnapping gangs aiming to lure lucrative targets.
* Pimps and Ho's in China (via Matt).
* Sophie Beach on the rise of rights and civil society in China.
* China is requiring all Chinese-run sites to register by the end of May.
* Some US Senators actually want to increase understanding of China. Perhaps these rare beasts will become part of a zoo breeding program.
* Zoellick's successful Asian tour analysed.
* Interesting: an unofficial blog by the folks at the CDC - The CDCer. One post is the cheery "Avian influenza may kill millions".

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May 27, 2005
Daily linklets 27th May

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May 26, 2005
Daily linklets 26th May

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May 25, 2005
Daily linklets 25th May

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May 24, 2005
Daily linklets 24th May

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May 23, 2005
Daily linklets 23rd May

The while I was away edition...

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Daily Linklets

Japan: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Transport Authority lets a "man" in a women-only train car. Read the story to know why "man" is in quotation marks.

Newsweek desecrates the American flag. No riots, no killing, no deaths. Unlike flushing a book down the toilet. TM Lutas has more. The story instalanched our friend Gaijinbiker.

Relatedly, Gaijinbiker's Riding Sun was also sarcastically attacked by Daily Kos today over his criticism of A.P. photojournalists. Congrats!

Nihon's central bank says Japan has conquered deflation

Korea: The self-promoting tdaxp segues from electrons to Killing Kim.

South Korea should focus more on the North. After all, there is no South Korean mafia, so there are no problems at home.

Remember how South Korea was going to free her currency? Never mind!

China: How long before an important blog mentions Gaijinbiker condemning China for banning naked sushi. Sure, the self-promoting tdaxp has, but I said important blog.

South Asia: Pakistan lectures the Middle East on globalization.

There has to be a better way of running tsunami relief operations in Sri Lanka.

Central Asia: Elections in Mongolia.

You probably already knew that Karasuv, Uzbekistan was retaken by government forces. But how long can the government hold out against American criticism. And President-for-Life Islam Karimov have a hard landing.

South West Asia: Josh Landis attacks immediate Regime Change in Syria. It will happen anyway.

Thanks to Bush and Chirac, Lebanon is already free.

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May 22, 2005
Daily Linklets-arity

Japan: Kobe Bryant's dad will head the bj league. Hillary ensues.

American deserter Charles Jenkins gets an American passport. Sympathy ensues.

Kyoto celebrates the Aoi festival. Tradition ensues.

Korea: Josh at OFK reviews Jasper Becker's new book about North Korea. Maybe the pro-Pyongyang government in Seoul should read it. Bush certainly has -- no free food for fiendish fascists.

Of course, the Norks do have some redeeming qualities.

China (Beijing): Are anti-government riots the seeds of an insurgency? My opinion: no.

The Beijing consumer and Jing at Those Who Dare both review Star Wars: Episode III: The Phantom Menace. My opinion: Star Wars: Episode III: A Lost Hope is even better.

More thoughts on East Asia balancing China.

China (Taipei): Movie star Jackie Chan says he will stay away from Taiwan for four years. Is upset about unfair election on the island. Apparently not so upset about no elections on the mainland.

South Asia: India shows off its killer vehicles. They'll need to to overcome the Sino-Pakistani Missile Shield...

... especially considering China's recent invasion of India!

What's the deal with Banglaeshi border camps?

In possible retaliation for not buying her planes, France opposes adding the world's largest democracy to the U.N. Security Council.

Meanwhile, America deals with Asia's newest dictatorship

South East Asia: China is planning naval activities in the Malacca Straits, off Indonesia. Meanwhile, America is planning naval activities in the Malacca Straits, off Malaysia.

Central Asia: What was the Uzbekistani Andijan Uprising? Or the huge American airbase, for that matter?

South West Asia: China's threesome with Israel and Iran goes embarrassingly wrong.

America's threesome with Iran and Iraq goes embarrassingly friendlily.

Is May the month for Spring in Damascus?

H.P. Lovecraft would approve of the horrible awfulness in Iraqi Insurgent Sniper Training. I wonder if they will target pretentious Harvard playhouses.

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 12:23
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May 21, 2005
Welcome Back Simon

Simon, congrats on your trip! Thanks for the updates on Indochine and Nancy Kissel. I'd love to hear your impressions of Cambodia. It and Burma have to be the least-heard-from nations from South East Asia in the American press. How fares the Kingdom?

I'll keep blogging until Monday, but all are relieved that the Maestro has returned. :)


Japan: A new, professional Japanese bj league. Yeah! It's baseball. Booo!

Toyota will try to break into the Japanese auto market. Let's wish one of America's biggest car companies well!

Korea: Always pleasant news of North Korean death camps. And underground nuclear factories. Fun.

China: Unclothed nonviolent resistance hits Beijing. So does corporate dishonesty.

The American Lower House Minority Leader argues that Bush is soft on China

More Babe Socialism. This time in bikinis.

South East Asia: Questionable morals in Thailand.

South Asia: India considers classifying bloggers as "journalists."

South West Asia: Collounsbury on "this benighted land of capricious rent seeking risk avoiding tijaari sit in their *censored* shop and wait for business, look at the near time horizon risk culture." Sounds like he's been spending too much time in Pierre, South Dakota.

Meanwhile, the self-promoting tdaxp looks at the ethics of humiliating Iraqi insurgents.

Three cheers for Simon's successful trip! Hip-hip hurrah! Hip-hip hurrah! Hip-hip hurrah!

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 13:32
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May 19, 2005
I Apologize

(Cross Posted at Simon World and tdaxp)

I moved to South Dakota from Iowa today. I am quite tired. I am having trouble comprehending simple articles. So my only entries are links to Zen Pundit, Coming Anarchy, and some projects created by my students (who approved public distribution).

Zen Pundit...

Coming Anarchy...

A student in my class created...

tdaxp-Specific Plug: I Hate Linux ponders a crossover between 24 and LOST

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 12:03
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May 18, 2005
Last Asian Blogging from Iowa

This time tomorrow I will be moved back to South Dakota. It's a good movie, but I'm kind of melancholy about it. I like this town, this job, this apartment. But upwards and onwards....

Japan: Commentators at Japundit are unimpressed with Koizumi's calls for other Asian states to respect Japan's internal politics. Except for all the train disasters, of course.

Why are so many attractive Japanese having kids? And what's with unintelligible shirts?

Korea: Remember the North-South Korean dinner? Ain't gonna happen. Maybe folks were afraid they would waste too much money gambling

China: More fall-out from the Barnett Battle of the Pundits: How to Fight China. Coming Anarchy, Nadezhda, Zen Pundit, and the man who started it all -- Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett. -- all chime in.

Maybe should should just debate on Chinese satellite TV.

South-East Asia: Has the bogus Newsweek story destroyed goodwill America won after the tsunami?

Central Asia: How long until the fall of Islam Karimov? A long time if they are trying to organize protests by telephone. Maybe they can agitate in front of the American embassy?

Something better happen soon. Both British Foreign Minister Jack Straw a random peace corp volunteer are getting impatient.

South-West Asia: Canada slaps sanctions on Iran. And the ever-interesting miscellaneous news from Iraq.

Random Factoid: Heligoland is rapidly shrinking. Maybe if the Liancourt Rocks would do the same thing, Japan and Korea could have peace.

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 11:57
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May 13, 2005
Daily linklets 13th May (and it's a Friday...)

The Mrs and I are heading for a week long, kid free holiday in deepest Indochina. The guest blogging duties will be taken up by the same excellent crew as last time. But before I go, a final few links for the week...

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 15:45
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Return of Guest Linklets

North-East Asia: Adamu at Mutant Frog notes North Korea's decreasing isolation and how American military base closing plays out in Japan. Might want to think twice about moving Americans out --- especially with this sort of airline hijacking and DPRK Young-Commando Training. Curzon at Coming Anarchy says don't take the chance: just nuke 'em.

Years after the collapse of the North Korean auto industry, the Indians wonder what they can do to export more vehicles to the South.

Obligatory Pictures of Motor Show Models. It wouldn't be a tdaxp post without that link. Heh.

South-East Asia: Riding Sun's Gaijinbiker says the terrorists have gone too far: attacking a motorcycle show in Thailand.

South Asia: Could the Taiwan-China model work on Pakistan-India. Might be hard, now that Taiwan has rejected Panda Diplomacy. Then again, Hindustani pandas were never that cute.

At least Bombay will be the next Cleveland.

South-West Asia: The Economist updates on Turkey's quest to join the EU. It'll be tricky if Brussells keeps acquitting terrorists. To make it easier, a visual reminder of the difference between a terrorist and a soldier. Swaydo relatedly, tdaxp self-promotes his thoughts on the theoretical nature of insurgency in Iraq.

Miscellaneous: The Economist Looks at the Australian Miracle at 15 and the WMD threat.

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 12:52
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May 11, 2005
Daily linklets 11th May

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 12:23
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May 10, 2005
Daily linklets 10th May

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:03
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May 09, 2005
Daily linklets 9th May

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 15:33
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May 06, 2005
Daily linklets 6th May

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 11:26
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May 05, 2005
Daily linklets 5th May

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 13:30
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May 04, 2005
Daily linklets 4th May

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 10:03
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May 03, 2005
Daily linklets 3rd May
  • Give me your money or the bunny gets it.
  • New Hong Kong blog: Blog the talk. By the gents behind Walk the Talk, it covers history, architecture, identity and collective memory in urban spaces in Hong Kong and Macau. For example for May Day they take a look at Communists in Hong Kong. A site to watch.
  • While on Hong Kong blogs, it's good to have Phil of Flying Chair back in action.
  • Michael Auslin of Yale writes in IHT on the recent anti-Japan riots and says the current squabbles are a reflection of growing competition amongst emerging Asian powers. These powers (Japan, Korea, China) are working out how to relate to each other in this "new world order". Sooner or later they will realise they have more in common than they first suppose. For example it is in China's longer term interest for Japan to join it in the Security Council.
  • Daniel Starr has 6 tools to keep China from making trouble.
  • Bruce notes the KMT and Communists have finally made peace. It is remarkable. At the same time, however, it is also remarkable that an opposition party to be making contacts with an effective enemy of the state, undermining the duly democratically elected Government. In a very real sense it is subversive. While the aim of peace and reconciliation is laudable it seems to me the KMT is deliberately undermining President Chen. But that's the point.
  • Marcus Cicero muses on freedom and control in China.
  • Had dinner last week with Mr Brown, Miyagi, Cowboy Caleb and James Seng. Good beer, good satay and a good discussion. Singapore's blogosphere have their act together and are going through some exciting times - Tomorrow has been a great success.
  • Hong Kong's birth rate is the lowest in the world. I hope The Don's 3 child policy implements immediate tax breaks for those of us with 3 kids already.
  • MM has an interview from US Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Stokes, who was the USA's Defence country director for Taiwan for 7 years. He has some alarmist views on China's threat to Taiwan. Of course Taiwan is considering a massive purchase of US arms...
  • The New Blog Showcase is up for this week.
  • (12:39) Hong Kong's blogosphere proves the local mainstream media wrong when they try and cover the local blogging scene. Also Glutter tells the details of a TV interview she had that was severely edited. She intends to post the uncut version soon.
  • The history of China watching and how it's changed.
  • How Hong Kong harbour has been lost and found.
  • Email is bad for you. At least blogging is healthy...right?
  • If it's Fumier vs a professor of economics on the merits of the Cross-Harbour tunnel, I know who I'm backing. He also clearly describes the poor reporting from SCMP and The Standard on the Law Society's position on the Basic Law.
  • How not to dress for court.
  • China is forcibly repatriating two of its residents to Taiwan for partisan political reasons.
  • (14:05) Singapore uses defamation as an effective tool to supress free speech. A Singaporean blogger has closed their blog (one I regularly read) after facing threats of legal action. Naturally plenty of bloggers have been commenting and reacting, saying it is a sad day for Singaporean blogs. Sadly it has become another excuse to attack "big shot" Singapore bloggers for not being serious enough. And that misses the point entirely. The blogosphere is big enough to have many different voices. The whole point is those concerned with the "serious" can talk about it. Those who aren't can talk about whatever else they like. There's no point being judgemental. You can choose to visit or not visit any site you like. It's their website, their effort, their money that goes into it. If you are concerned, go write your own blog. Hell, some of those big shot blogs will likely link you soon enough.
  • Miyagi introduces the latest blogging tool: Graffiti.
  • Danwei has a good collection of China related links including fake management books, the Chinese cost myth and the origins of ice cream. They also note Mark Steyn is with me in the quietly optimistic camp on China.
  • A Chinese journalist, Shi Tai, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally providing state secrets. ESWN looks into what were the "state secrets" involved.
  • A fully searchable database of North Korean propaganda and has the world's only KCNA Random Insult Generator.
  • Jodi's excellent The Asia Pages turned one yesterday. Happy blogday.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 14:49
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April 29, 2005
Daily Linklets (It's Still Thursday for Me)

From South West Asia, Abu Aardvark explains the story behind this video clip. Hat-tip Collounsbury. In an article with more maps and less chicks, Chirol looks at the Great Game around the Caspian Sea.

The JList Side Blog photoblogs a floating shrine, condemns materialism in Japan.... and proceeds to try to sell stuff. Props for the irony. In other Nihon News, Tokyo will start looking into South Korean, Chinese, American, and Dutch textbooks. Huge Entity's report on sexless Japanese married couples and hyper-intimate Japanese youths is mind-bending. Must be a generational thing

Flying Yangbang links to Plunge's first post, where he says South Korea's economic success had nothing to do with Japanese policies. And American liberties have nothing to do with British common law. And pigs fly. Or not.

In the other Korea, they can now load nuclear bombs on missles. Great.

Ashish's Niti wants to subvert anti-Japanese protests in China into anti-Government protests. Just hope that doesn't bother the underground RMB/Dollar futures market.

Nadezhda at Liberals Against Terrorism notes that even more Taiwanese politicians are traveling to China. In exchange, Beijing may eliminate tariffs on farm goods and other products. Some mights call this pandering. Praktike calls this pandaring.

Nathan at Coming Anarchy doesn't think China is approach pre-Battle of Talas levels of influence in Central Asia. North Park University explains what is the Battle of Talas.

The Acorn notes the King of Nepal has arrested the former Prime Minister. You may remember Curzon's gloomy words on Nepal from earlier.

Totally random: Darth Vader has a blog. It's hilarious. Hat-tip Slashdot.

Daily Linket Update: Remember the linklet on sexism in The Economist? Well, that stately British "newspaper" managed to throw in Triste est omne animal post coitum in an article on international farm subsidies. Wow.

stylish_vietnamese_capitalists

The magnificently self-promoting tdaxp riffs The Economist and Reuters to talk about America's Friend Vietnam.

Danwei looks at Babe Socialism

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 11:48
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April 28, 2005
Evening Linklets
eri_23_from_nytm_eyes

Hyphen Magazine condemns racist sexualization of Japanese women in the New York Times Magazine. Readers condemn racist post on Hyphen Magazine. An unusually intelligent and civil discussion ensues.

No such controversy for Tickle Bug's Goths of Japan montage.

Harry Hutton of Chase Me Ladies notes gender disparity among tourists to Thailand. David from Mangosauce noted the same thing, and inspired two bajillion comments. Must be that guys are naturally curious about the old Soviet embassy's rooms with no way in. But after embassy-watching, what's left to do in Bangkok?

The Adventures of Chester links to more Nork news, Chinese sublimation of anti-Americanism, China's Arabic lesson, and more on Japan's apology.

Curzon at Coming Anarchy writes on Malaysia's diesel crunch and the Indo-Japanese bid for Permanent Seats on the UN Security Council. Senegal is now as pro-Indian as Argentina is anti-Japanese.

Mutant Frog tries to warn us of Koizumi's Stalin-like Cult of Personality.

Josh at OFK maintains his death watch for the USA-Republic of Korea alliance.

The gloriously self-promoting tdaxp criticizes US drug policy in Afghanistan. And while he's at it, he asks: "Ever think there's not enough international political fan fiction? I do a lot. But I don't think many other people do."

Totally random: Sand circles, the Elder Sign, and pyramids at Area 51 (hat-tip: Coast to Coast AM).

nation_qed_tight

The aforementioned Mango Sauce proves bar girls are evil.

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 13:01
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April 27, 2005
Morning Linklets

The Acorn has some more thoughts on that Indo-American plane deal. Also read up on Malaysian "voluntary vigilantes" attacking Indian software developers.

uetoaya_milk_glass

Rob at MIT reminds us to drink milk.

Barry Briggs at NKZone gives us the latest "That would be a declaration of war!" screed from Pyongyang.

Is Prime Minister Koizumi secretly a geishaphile Willy Wonka? If so, he's even cooler than I imagined.

But not everyone in Nihon is so happy. A blog dedicated to Japan's Lost Generation.

Chinese vandals destroyed the Japanese friendship tree in Sichuan, China. Even during the Second World War, my hometown (Sioux Falls) tried to maintain the Japanese Gardens. But at least they like ramen.

Protectionist Europe is lecturing China again. Still not as crummy as threatening to boycott Thailand's fisheries after the tsunami.

As usual, the British lower-upper-brow "newspaper" The Economist is interesting. This week: American Congressional protectionism, managing unrest in China, and the Simon-apropos New Style Expat.

Slashdot hosts a discussion on the latest attempt to build a Great Firewall of China.

Curzon at Coming Anarchy adds his thoughts on the Pyongyang Soccer Riot. Meanwhile, Chirol discovers Coming Anarchy was featured on MSNBC. Congratulations!

kf_eyes

Misadventures in Tokyo (again) presents... A funny.

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 23:29
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Evening Linklets

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 12:00
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Morning Linklets

Crazy day today (in the real world). Here's the first batch

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 00:23
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April 26, 2005
Daily Linklets (By Request, Sometimes)

Josh from OFK suggests visiting LiNK -- Liberation in North Korea

A couple days ago, they led a protest in front of the South Korean mission to the U.N. Next week, I'll be joining them at a protest at the Chinese Embassy in Washington. These people, the majority of them young, are not primarily from either political party. They're just trying to influence nations in Asia and elsewhere to treat the people of North Korea as international human rights law requires.

Curzon from Coming Anarchy suggests his epic post on Nepal

not to be immodest, but I just published the best post I've ever written thus far

And, definitely to be immodest, I point out a tdaxp discussion on the collapse of Russia and the Far East's coming Sino-Korean majority.

Meanwhile, The Acorn rounds up Indian economic news and thoughts on national Stockholm Syndrome.

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 11:54
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April 25, 2005
Daily Linklets 24th April

Curzon at Coming Anarchy discovers that Japan is popular among the Taiwanese (95%!) its old Axis ally Thailand (96%), and plucky Singapore (94%). These countries are looking for a peaceful Japan to export security to their regions.

Not that Nihon always looked favorably on democracies. Two of the first Asian republics, the Republic of Ezo and the Democratic Republic of Taiwan, were united under the Emperor

The Acorn reports that many East Asians are worried about a new cycle of Japanese aggression, and other concerns in the Western Pacific. The greatest winner of trouble times? The answer: India?

Meanwhile, Danieru at Huge Entity finds that the safest places in the world are... North Korea. Maybe fighting a bitter war against freedom is the surest ticket to safety?

Well, excerpt for DPRK Death Squads, Pyongyang soccer riots, and everything else to be read about at NK Zone.

But perhaps Vietnam, a nation most noted for its rising security alliance with the Untied States and mail order brides, should get a pass.

Final blog'ems: Depressed capital stock prices because of an aging population has clear implications for China's rapidly-aging (and soon to be declining) population. I recently posted that Hu Jintao is just pretending to be anti-Japanese. Peking Duck disagrees.

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[boomerang] Posted by Dan tdaxp at 09:13
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April 22, 2005
Daily linklets 22nd April

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 15:15
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April 21, 2005
Daily linkets 21st April

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:50
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April 20, 2005
Daily linklets 20th April

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 18:38
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April 19, 2005
Daily linklets 19th April

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:05
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April 18, 2005
Daily linklets 18th April

Thank you to everyone who responded to my plea for feedback and guest bloggers. The feedback has been invaluable and will be incorporated in the weeks to come. For those who offered to guest blog I have or will be in touch with details.

Now on with the linklets:

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:04
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April 15, 2005
Daily linklets 15th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 15:21
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April 14, 2005
Daily linklets 14th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

  • Eaglespeak has a great map, albeit from 1993, of major sea lanes for oil in South East and East Asia. And are the Chinese contemplating a trojan seahorse?
  • The Japanese are growing....taller, but with an interesting correlation.
  • John Negroponte, new American uberspy, views on China.
  • iTunes is coming to Japan (although still no sign here in Honkers). It was held up by the major labels and their worries over copyright. When will they realise it's their business model they're protecting, not copyright?
  • China released its now annual human rights white paper. No word how many in slave labour camps were used to compile the report.
  • Why haven't you read Andres' post titled 0.3% and the free society yet?
  • Indonesia's having a bad run with nature at the moment. Now its volcanoes are coming to life.
  • The good and the bad in China, right from the horse's mouth.
  • The history of slavery in Korea.
  • Brad DeLong points to an FT article again heralding the end of China's fixed exchange rate. A thought: if China liberalises the exchange rate before it liberalises the capital account it will only hurt its export sector, which has been driving growth. If it liberalises the capital account fully, its just as likely the exchange rate will fall as China's domestic savings and capital leave the country for better investment opportunities and returns. The false assumption often made is the yuan is undervalued. That's not so obvious.
  • China and the Catholic Church.
  • Trying to solve China's piracy problem. Perhaps the US should welcome piracy. If American culture and software can create the means to subvert further the rule of the CCP, wouldn't that be a good thing? And that's only going to happen if these goods stay cheap enough for ordinary Chinese people can afford them. Han has a very comprehensive look at the piracy strawman.
  • The topic of Myanmar's chairmanship of ASEAN next year is so poisonous ASEAN could only talk about it during a coffee break so their comments couldn't be recorded. It pits ASEAN's principles of non-interference against, well, if they had other principles...
  • Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on New Zealand's plan to sign the non-aggression treaty with ASEAN:
    "Australia is a proud and independent country, we're able to beat New Zealand at rugby, we thrash them at cricket and there is no reason why we should always do what New Zealand does. We're a more confident country than that."
  • Tyler Cowen of MR has started a new blog on avian flu.
  • Beloved benevolent MuNu host Pixy Misa is two years old today.
  • (16:58) Blogs as Singapore's intellectual platforms.
  • Is China's gambling ban doomed to failure?
  • Bill Rice has written on China's military capability, the challenge it poses and argues why the US will create alliances with India, Japan and Australia as a counterweight against a potential war over Taiwan.
  • Blasphemous but plenty of potential. Paula would be her usual self and add nothing of value, except to mock applaud and say condensendingly "I'm so proud of you". Randy would use dude four times, wolf like a dog, use the word "pitchy" and finish saying "It was alright, man, it was alright", which could mean anything from it sucked to it rocked. Simon is the voice of reason. Shaky's right - this thing has legs.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:32
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April 13, 2005
Daily linklets 13th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 14:25
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April 12, 2005
Daily linklets 12th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:36
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April 11, 2005
Daily linklets 11th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 19:20
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April 08, 2005
Daily linklets 8th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 16:05
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April 07, 2005
Daily linklets 7th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 15:42
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April 06, 2005
Daily linklets 6th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

  • Has Taiwan PFP Chairman James Soong claimed the record for the fastest political flip-flop in history?
  • The lifting of quotas on textiles would inevitably be a case of free trade working too well, I said last month. Now the USA has pre-emptively begun cases against China to determine if quotas should be re-imposed. Two interesting things here. Firstly the Bush Administration has done this before being asked (officially) by the US textile makers. Secondly while supposedly free trade America panics, the protectionist EU is standing pat. What will be most interesting is to see the reaction and lobbying of American textile importers, such as Wal-Mart, and consumer groups. When the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements looks at "safeguard procedings", you wonder who are they protecting? They are defending a small group of costly domestic producers at the cost of more expensive goods for literally millions.
  • North Korea's strain of bird flu is new to Asia. The North Koreans are being urged to follow Hong Kong's example in handling the disease. But Hong Kong didn't have millions starving.
  • SCMP goof of the day: front page main story headlined "Fresh fury over Japan's distorted history book". The by-line: Agencies in Tokyo and Beiing and Chan Siu-sin in Islamabad. Islamabad is in Pakistan. I've heard of outsourcing but putting reporters there to cover events in Japan, Korea and China?
  • Did the Earth move for you? China will relocate 400,000 people as part of its newest white elephant, the North-South Water Canal.
  • Some aren't impressed with the Vatican's plan to cut ties with Taiwan and establish them with China. In fact the plan has long been part of the Vatican's China position.
  • Watched Le Divorce last night with Mrs M. A movie made by the English about the French for American audiences. Take from that what you will.
  • (11:04) China keeps its place on the list of the world's most repressive societies.
  • (16:21) Brad DeLong reflected on the value of books and how they make sure you can always be in the right place at the right time. He then has a follow-up where a curator of rare book's from MIT writes in a short history of personal libraries, and Brad finishes with:
    The wonderful and awesome thing is not just that there is someone somewhere on the earth who can answer pretty much any question I might ask, but that so many of them read my weblog. I am truly fortunate.
    I'll take that one step further. Set aside the politics, we weblog readers are truly fortunate we are able to read sites by people such as Mr. DeLong and plenty of others who are intelligent experts, doing interesting work they are passionate about and are happy to share it all with the world for free. The democratisation of knowledge continues apace. There is a direct link between effects of Gutenberg's printing machine and of blogs (along with such efforts as Google's online library). Lucky us.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 16:21
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April 05, 2005
Daily linklets 5th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 10:49
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April 04, 2005
Daily linklets 4th April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 15:38
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April 01, 2005
Daily linklets 1st April

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

  • Quite frankly we are witnessing an incredible historical event and it is going largely unnoticed. 55 years after the Chinese Civil War ended, the two opponents are now openly embracing each other. The visit is seen as a welcome thaw in frosty cross-Straits relations. Thanks should be given to the DPP for bringing together the Communists and KMT. And perhaps the pessimistis on the Taiwan question will realise it's not all doom and gloom and that China has a carrot and stick approach...not just a stick approach.
  • Mrs M. kindly bought me a copy of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. It's a good read, linking together anecdotes and research and in an easy to read style. It comes down to a simple rule my high school science teacher once told me: go with your gut instinct. What is illuminating is the unconscious influences and prejudices on our decisions. As I said, worth a read.
  • Triads in Hong Kong are learning that upsetting the status quo with the cops doesn't pay. Since a police raid last weekend in Kowloon turned ugly, police have raided well-known Triad owned premises nightly, despite major Triad leaders apologising to the police and telling their young "brothers" to pull their heads in. Some might wonder why it has taken such an event to get the police to launch these raids. But in Hong Kong that's how it works: there is an unwritten understanding between police and Triads which keeps Hong Kong largely free of petty crime.
  • Sobering times for Korean bankers. Sell your Korean beer shares now. I can categorically state there are no harder drinkers in the world than Koreans.
  • It's not easy being a woman in China. Besides being vastly outnumbered by men, 71% are sexually harassed.
  • Happy birthday Helen. And Jim's gone and organised a nice present.
  • (13:20) Virgin have announced they have finalised details of commerical space flight and the first trip will be in 30 months. Instead of a mile high club there will now be the 100 mile high club. Problems of squeezing pass trolleys in aisles are eliminated as you can now float over the top. Leg space issues in economy class disappear. But what does a spacecraft do if there are no landing slots on its return?
  • The SCMP Group reported an annual profit of HK$317.5 million on turnover of HK$1.37 billion! That's a 23% profit margin! I gotta start me a newspaper. Maybe they could spare a few dollars and send some reporters to Hunan Normal University's class on sensationilising news.
  • Prince Charles' quest for true love hasn't been easy.
  • (15:21) I recently wrote about the meme that China will gobble the world's natural resources. Thomas Collins of Quillsnews runs a site looking at links between oil, terror and politics.
  • DEL points to a NYT article discussing the current massive petition in China against Japan's bid for a UN Security Council permanent seat. I mentioned this yesterday and note in passing that what both the SMH and NYT have seen fit to print remains absent from the South China Morning Post. Joseph Kahn points out this petition will force China's Government to take a stronger diplomatic line with Japan and re-inforces my view that China's public opinion is more hawkish than the Government's on Japan. But will the rest of the world allow this to disrupt a much needed and desired reform of the UNSC? I doubt it. In the end the most likely is China will abstain on Japan's entry to the Council and cop a huge amount of domestic flak for it. It's not easy being a dictatorship. Thomas Barnett points to several other interesting China related articles today and rightly deals with them.
  • April Fools Day: usually a lame attempt by the otherwise dull to appear clever and fun. But Tim Worstall points to some of the better gags over the years...
  • It makes you wonder. China's Foreign Minister visited Nepals' King Gyanendra and declared his recent actions an "internal matter". This is the kind of tortured position the "internal matter" of Taiwan forces China into.
  • New HK Blog, I think: Madonnalisa.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 15:21
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March 31, 2005
Daily linklets 31st

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • Two potential nuclear powers, North Korea and Iran, almost came to blows last night. That's the power of soccer. Meanwhile the UN has sent a bird flu expert to North Korea.
  • The Standard: "Beijing gave a warm welcome to a leader of Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang...Chiang Pin-kung, vice-chairman of the KMT, arrived in Beijing Wednesday on the third leg of an official visit, the KMT's first since 1949." What would Chiang Kai-Shek say? Hemlock:
    Muttering ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’, a senior Kuomintang delegation visits the Mainland for the first time since 1949. Given the Chinese Communist Party bandits’ origins within the KMT, the two sides have much in common to discuss. The ditching of Leninist principles. Dictatorship. Corruption. Massacres. The co-option of business and gangsters. Being on the losing side of history...
  • Dean provides more goods on the favourite t-shirt symbol of Hong Kong's erstwhile maverick legislator.
  • Some like to be close to their computers. Some, very close. And now they've got the USB device to go all the way.
  • The Japanese way of death.
  • A great site called Black Ships & Samurai details the arrival of Commodore Perry to Japan (via JP).
  • (12:42) The Sydney Morning Herald (free sub req'd):
    More than 19 million people, mostly Chinese, are reported to have signed internet petitions opposing Japan's campaign to join the ranks of permanent members of the world's great power club, the United Nations Security Council. Launched only a week ago, the petitions are being carried on the three main Chinese internet portals - sina.com, 163.com and sohu.com - with the blessing of Chinese authorities.

    The internet campaign also risks charges of hypocrisy, given that China's 80 million web users are unlikely to be given a chance to express opinions on other questions, such as China's support for North Korea.

    But not a word about it in the South China Morning Post.
  • (16:32) Thanks to Publius Pundit for marking me at number 10 in his top 20 bloggers list. And thank you to Bill for letting me know.
  • Usually the p0rn industry leads the way in new technology. So the outsourcing trend was only a matter of time.
  • (17:20) How readable is this blog? Results in the extended entry. (Via Mr Miyagi).

Results as at 17:20 on March 31st, 2005. Check out the link for an explanation of what the indicies mean.

Total sentences 834
Total words 8,284
Average words per Sentence 9.93
Words with 1 Syllable 5,403
Words with 2 Syllables 1,843
Words with 3 Syllables 731
Words with 4 or more Syllables 307
Percentage of word with three or more syllables 12.53%
Average Syllables per Word 1.51%
Gunning Fog Index 8.99
Flesch Reading Ease 69.00
Flesch-Kincaid Grade 6.10



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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:20
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March 30, 2005
Daily Linklets 30th March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 16:22
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March 24, 2005
Daily Linklets 24th March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 18:13
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March 23, 2005
Daily linklets 23rd March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • Strategypage comments on Chinese blogs, saying: It's estimated that about a million Chinese are now running blogs (web logs.) This, for Chinese security officials, is worse than chat rooms and bulletin boards. That would explain why there have been days of protests over the crackdown on university BBS, whereas the crackdown on Chinese blogs passed relatively quietly. Chinese security officials are worried about free expression online. But all this blog boosterism gets in the way of the reality - in China it is the chat rooms and bulliten boards are most worried about. Glenn Reynolds needs help with the tricks of Chinese bloggers, just in case. Let's get a bunch of mainland bloggers together and put out a book.
  • It's nice to have friends. China and North Korea's Premiers got together and China offered help in promoting North Korea's economy and improving living standards "in terms of both spirit and material". Curiously there was no mention of nuclear weapons.
  • The Tony Pierce/Xiaxue love-in continues. And Mr Brown is helping everybody join in the fun...mine is in the extended entry. The original is still the best.
  • (10:16) It seems Danwei has been co-opted by Xinhua, China's official news outlet. While most of the blogosphere is over up in arms over Google's news sources it's good to see the monolithic Chinese media machine using bloggers. Even if they didn't ask permission. It looked like China was cracking down on journalists and threatening severe penalties for those impersonating them. Now it looks like they are outsourcing to blogs.
  • I don't know how I missed this, but Xinhua had this article: French media give great, objective coverage to Anti-Secession Law. Objective being in the eye of the beholder. And people say irony is passe. Update: Jeremy from the now semi-official news source Danwei adds his $0.02.
  • (14:05) ESWN goes into greater detail on the Chinese BBS crackdown. He observes:
    So this whole affair should not be considered as a one-dimensional crackdown on democratic aspirations for political freedom. According to the first excerpt, free speech was never really there before. According to the second excerpt, some people don't really care about democracy or any such, but only wanted a public forum to interact with the outside world on academic research. There must surely be other points of view as well. So what was the whole crackdown about? It was more about the idea that the BBS's pose a potential problem, and it was better to nip in the bud. This is counterproductive because the BBS's had been serving productive functions and the information flow will continue through other channels anyway.
    He also notes a similar situation happening in downtown Yonkers, as reported by the NYT, and the disgusting racist postings on one popular Chinese BBS after Condi Rice's visit. As ESWN, where's the great net nanny when you need it?
  • (19:56) Brad Setser follows up his trip to China with thoughts on the renminbi.

This one's for you, Mr Brown...(via Jonathan Leger)

dogtongue.jpg



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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 19:49
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March 22, 2005
Daily linklets 22nd March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • The New Blog Carnival is up at Jim's place. It's a great way to find new and interesting voices.
  • Rich Kuslan continues his look at Chinese management style. If you thought your boss was bad, read this.
  • In his typically lucid style, David Webb explains the tangled world of IPOs in Hong Kong, including what to watch for and when to invest in the IPOs. David Webb is truly one of Hong Kong's greatest resources. If only the media could learn from him.
  • From Philip Bowring in the IHT on Condi Rice's trip to Asia: The proposed appointment of Paul Wolfowitz to the World Bank also irritates developing Asia as much as Europe. You see Philip knows the minds of every Asian government without having to provide proof. It is because he says it is.
  • Rebecca MacKinnon interviews Isaac Mao over the crackdown on internet bulliten boards in China. Isaac has more information and local reaction. Fons and Danwei also have more. CDT reports the crackdown is part of an increased monitoring of cyberspace in China. Update: ESWN translates some of the more interesting Chinese language documents on the great Chinese BBS crackdown, including the subversive use of Chairman Mao's own words.
  • (13:31) Hemlock today:
    Meanwhile, the epic term-of-office charade slowly unfolds, as pro-Beijing dinosaurs spit out threats of Basic Law interpretation should any treacherous wretch have the audacity to prompt Hong Kong courts to challenge the will of the Central People’s Government. Out of seven million people, there’s bound to be a treacherous wretch. Maybe two.

    As part of the team planning to prepare public opinion for this eventuality, Winky is having a slight crisis of conscience. “Looks like reinterpretation of the Basic Law is a done deal,” she says, trying to sound relaxed and positive. “The community will have to understand – the only alternative is potential chaos.” But first, I suspect, she needs to understand it herself. I gently point out other alternatives. The Government could simply obey the law as written. Or the part of the Basic Law that Beijing won’t obey could be amended. She rolls her eyes and tells me I’m not being funny.

    It gets worse. She leans forward and lowers her voice. “There’s a feeling that a third interpretation will help make the procedure seem more ‘normal’. So when it happens the fourth time and a fifth time, people will just accept…” I bang my chopstick against her bowl and cut in. What fourth time? She winces slightly. “There’s a court case… A certain, um, class of people are claiming permanent residency.” I whip out my ID card and point to the wording saying I have right of abode. “Don’t be silly,” she snaps. “It doesn’t affect gwailos.” Maybe they’re saving that for the fifth time.

  • (15:57) A key difference between China and Japan. In China, they steal manhole covers and sell them for scrap. In Japan, they have manhole cover websites.
  • Yesterday I pointed out Xiaxue had made the big time. Both Mr Brown and Mr Miyagi are trying to emulate Xiaxue and make it onto Tony Pierce's excellent blog. Lads, send me the t-shirt and I'll proudly wear it. Even better, send this t-shirt. Best of all, send me one with Adri...you can use the famous interview photo. Update: Mr Brown has started "I'm too sexy for my blog" Project. If only I understood Flickr...
  • The SCMP group have won the contract for China's version of In Style magazine. This could be a win-win situation. Just shift half their staff from the newspaper and viola.
  • (17:07) BD reports the EU is postponing plans to lift is arms embargo on China. I understand that American pressure has helped. But I'm puzzled by this: European nations have been shaken by the recent adoption of legislation by the Chinese National People's Congress authorizing the use of force to stop Taiwan from seceding. The Chinese action, they said, jolted France and undercut its moves to end the embargo before June. The anti-secession law had been flagged for months before its enactment. The drafting was announced in December 2004. The final text contained no surprises and if anything was slightly milder than feared. If the EU has been surprised by the very predictable reaction their diplomats are oblivious to the world around them. It begs the question - what is the EU actually for? Or in clearer terms - does its benefits outweigh its costs (and not just monetary)?

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:07
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March 21, 2005
Daily Linklets 21st March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 18:01
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March 18, 2005
Daily linklets 18th March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • Yesterday I discussed the proposed increase in demerit points and fines for running red lights in Hong Kong. Today the SCMP reports bus drivers are threatening industrial action, claiming the move will cause them stress and increase risks to pedestrians. The risk is from those that run red lights, not from stressed bus drivers. Here's a handy stress-reduction technique for bus drivers: obey the law. Let's hope the Government has enough backbone to stand up to them.
  • The Government is considering nationalising the two privately owned cross-Harbour tunnels. That's right, in the world's "free-est" economy. The idea would be if the Government owned them all it would magically free up congestion at the Central tunnel. As I said on Monday, Hong Kong doesn't need another price fixing cartel. The cost of buying both tunnels is HK$11 billion, at which rate the tolls wouldn't even cover the interest. Luckily the major shareholder in both the Eastern and Western tunnels has said they are not for sale. However Citic Pacific did offer to take the Central tunnel off the Government's hands instead. Congestion occurs because the Central tunnel is cheaper and in the best location. It's just a different cost of using it.
  • The Hong Kong Tourism Board is getting HK$9 million to rework its website, says the SCMP. Sure it could use sprucing up, but $9 million? I'm going to apply for Government funds to revamp this site.
  • More support for China's anti-secession law: Jordan and Palestine (some interesting parallels there).
  • Heh. There are two solutions to the current fuss over a 2 year term for the next Chief Executive. Either the NPC re-interprets the Basic Law, which has the beauty of eliminating any possible legal challenge and constitutional crisis; or each candidate declares they will only serve for 2 years. The latter saves face for China and removes the legal threat, all while earning massive brownie points for the candidate. In fact China is having a great demonstration that democracy and its trappings are NOT a threat. Despite Hong Kong's free press, limited autonomy and partial elections, China is still in control. The new doctrine of legislative intent means that even the written word need not mean what it appears - it is the interntion of the law's framers that matter, not what they wrote. Friends, this is legal history in the making.
  • Confucianism making a comeback in China? Duophony weighs up Confucian perfectability with Western naturalness.
  • China's newspapers are all over the KFC Sudan food scare. Remember: don't panic.
  • (11:29) The US Air Force deliberately lost a major training exercise in order to gain intelligence and training it could use against China. An excellent piece of research.
  • (14:49) How deals get done. China releases a key dissident, America drops its traditional censure of China's human rights. Realpolitik in action.
  • A troubling story about bullying in Hong Kong schools. Almost as troubling is the poor job the English language press does in this town. There exists a major market gap for a group effort to translate and post articles such as this reported in the Chinese language media in English. Any interest?

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 14:53
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March 17, 2005
Daily linklets 17th March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 13:33
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March 16, 2005
Daily linklets 16th March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • Brian Dunn states the Chinese will invade Taiwan. (via IP). His proof? China's military modernisation program, the newly passed anti-secession law and an article in the Taipei Times. Pretty flimsy. China's been preparing to invade Taiwan since the split in the 1940s. The PLA's military modernisation program has been going on for years. They make no secret that their main intention is to prepare for a Taiwan invasion. It's why the PLA couldn't offer much logistical help after the tsunami. The anti-secession law codifies what has been policy for 50 years. In some respects it shows restraint from previous policy positions. Mr Dunn says I would really like it if the Chinese evolved some sanity and became a normal, civilize [sic] country without territorial objectives to be achieved at others [sic]expense. You'd think China would recognize it has enough problems 360 degrees without driving us [the USA] into the enemy camp. The American Civil War was fought over a bunch of territories trying to secede from the Union. In a more modern context if California announced it was going Communist and leaving the USA, would the rest of America accept that blindly? Before shooting from the hip it pays to know at least a little about what you speak. Where's Thomas Barnett? Update: Is this reader of IP delusional? On one hand China's the baddy because they have such a large trade balance with the USA; on the other its part of an evil plot to distract the US and flood the world with US dollars? China holds US$600 billion in reserves and America is its largest trading partner. China wants Taiwan but fears America's reaction. They're not stupid. Nor need they be America's rivals...unless Americans want them to be. Second update: Giving Taiwan nukes as an answer? Maybe the good Professor is also losing the plot. At a time when the world is trying to de-nuclearise North Korea and Iran, adding more nukes to the Taiwan question is a recipie for disaster. Update 3: From the Jamestown Foundation (see below): The PRC's defense industry: reform without improvement. They're running to stand still. That's why I'm sceptical about China's "military modernisation program".
  • Could Collins be returning to blogging? Will it fill the void left by Bill formerly of BV?
  • Congrats to both Rusty and Jim.
  • Dan Drezner picks up on The Epoch Times story saying 200,000 Chinese have quit the CCP. As many of the commenters hint, The Epoch Times is owned and bankrolled by the Falun Gong movement. Along the Journey noted the same story and found a website listing those supposedly quitting the CCP. This likely isn't getting wider airing because it hasn't been corroborated by independent sources.
  • Congratulations and support for China's anti-secession law is poring in from Syria, Ethiopia, Belarus, Indonesia, Cambodia, Cuba, Venezuela and Dominica.
  • Feeling confident about Hong Kong's new Chief Executive? Donald Tsang still isn't sure about the sucession arrangements.
  • The SCMP reports a planned three way merger between Dragonair, Cathay Pacific and Air China. What a great test for Hong Kong's new Government. Would they prefer a national champion that dominates or even monopolises key routes? Or will they stick to their current policy of aviation competition? I'll wager the former.
  • China's economy is still booming, despite the central Government's best efforts. Industrial output is up 17% and fixed asset investment up 24.5% on a year earlier. The inflation genie is also creeping out of its bottle. The world might be relying on China to be the economic growth engine, but it is close to being out of control.
  • (12:17) How to beat Wal-Mart and its "Always low prices".
  • I'm not an iPod fanatic. But if you have been claimed by the iPod cult, here's the loo for you.
  • (13:04) If you're not reading Japundit, why not?
  • (17:43) Chris is rightly unimpressed by Simon Patkin in the SCMP. Poor paper, poor pundits.
  • By contrast a new post at the Jamestown Foundation: Factional Politics and Beijing's Tightening Grip on Hong Kong. To paraphrase Tom: go, read some decent punditry.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 17:43
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March 15, 2005
Daily Linklets 15th March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • The New Blog Carnival is up at Multiple Mentality, where they're done a great job. Check it out.
  • The SCMP reports Zhang Enzhao, chairman of China Construction Bank, has been sacked and is being investigated for corruption. He was the head of one of the Big Four, a bank the received $22.5 billion in capital back in late 2003 to help prepare it for a stockmarket listing. No word on the state of the listing now.
  • First there was the Little Red Book. Now it's the Little Red Pencil (via SCMP).
  • (11:01) China e-Lobby do a great job with their daily China news roundups.
  • ESWN looks at group polarisation in the blogosphere, with contrasting examples from America and Hong Kong. His thoughts on HK's blogosphere are exactly right:
    At this time, all that exists in the political blogosphere of Hong Kong is a bunch of commentators (including the person who is typing these words) who are marginalized and have no meaningful impact on the flow of events.
    In time that will change, but there are significant differences between blogging in the US and in Asia. It's something I will soon look at in more detail.
  • (11:43) An example of the power of blogs in marketing. Shaky doesn't like the Motorola V3 RAZR; I respect Shaky's opinion on all things tech; ergo I won't be buying one even though I was considering it.
  • (16:41) Sean has a great article discussing geopolitics and diplomacy in the Pacific and East Asia. Bill Rice discusses the changing and deeper Japan/US military ties in the face of common threats.
  • (18:00) Joel looks at three key WW2 events of 60 years ago: the Tokyo and Dresden fire-bombings and the battle of Iwo Jima. Sean looks in much more detail at the Tokyo fire bombing.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 18:03
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March 14, 2005
Daily linklets March 14th

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • Why are these Disney executives smiling? They are visiting Hong Kong Disneyland, the city's biggest boondoggle.
  • China isn't impressed by the Dalai Lama's recent efforts at rapprochement.
  • To fight piracy Warner Brothers is selling DVDs cheaply in China. They are selling DVDs such as Harry Potter for 22-28 yuan when the going rate for pirate DVDs is 5 - 8 yuan. Of course this also exposes what a rip-off DVDs and CDs are in the first place.
  • China is preparing to release a genetically modified rice to help boost yields and rural incomes. Don't expect many Chinese farmers to join in anti-GM rallies.
  • China's banking system has seen more than 4,000 officials steal US$50 billion in cash. This exceeds the US$45 billion injected into BoC and CCB to recapitalise them in 2003. It's an extra-ordinary amount of money to take out of a developing economy's banking system. It also highlights why China's banking reform is so urgent.
  • The WaPo reports on two books on China's leaders, one by American investment banker which is being heavily promoted and the other by a CCP member that is banned. The first book is The Man Who Changed China, a biography of Jiang Zemi; the other "Political Struggles in China's Reform Era" is a new look at the era of the late Zhao Ziyang.
  • China is conducting the first human trials of an AIDS vaccine.
  • Following the boom in Chinese textile exports, China is racing to stop the US and the EU re-imposing quotas and another trade distorting limits.
  • The full text of China's newly passed anti-secession law.
  • (14:15) Long-time favourite blog ESWN in undergoing a revamp after suffering from Simon's First Law of Blogging: the more popular the blog, the more it costs the blogger (in both time and money). It is a real shame as ESWN is a superb and unique blog. I only hope he continues to post regularly as promised. If you're not reading ESWN, you should.
  • Hemlock compares and contrasts Tung Che-hwa with Tricky Dicky.
  • (15:42) Harry Hutton: the bear-whispering Alaskan librarian.
  • (16:09) While mostly symbolic, America's planned Advance Democracy bill does little but antagonise countries such as China. The aim of advancing democracy is laudable but this isn't the way to do it. If anything it sets the cause back by giving opposing Governments propaganda opportunities. Talk softly and carry a big stick.
  • How to blog good.
  • Roger Simon isn't impressed by WaPo Managing Editor Philip Bennett's interview in that esteemed journal of record, the People's Daily.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 16:12
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March 11, 2005
Daily linklets March 11th

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • The Dalai Lama again says Tibet is part of China. That must make it awkward for the 'Free Tibet' crowd.
  • The internet has helped launched China's first big hip-hop group.
  • China's online porn crackdown continues, but the museums are a different story.
  • A good primer: North Korea for dummies.
  • I've been remiss in not linking to this earlier: Asia Business Intelligence has been reborn. A great site for anyone interested in Chinese and Asian business affairs.
  • (15:06) Bloggers are making onto the op-ed page of the SCMP. Todd Crowell of the interesting Asia Cable (for example, his take on Taiwan's need to wake up to reality) has written the most sensible and best of three reflections on Tung's resignation.
    It may be that he [Tung] was a little too decent for the position he was thrust into...In his governing style Mr Tung never could strike the happy balance between being a Mandarin, which was probably his natural bent, and a western-style politician...In the longer term, Mr Tung will not be judged on how he handled bird flu, SARS or the civil service, or whether he was too beholden to local property tycoons. His historic mission was to guide Hong Kong through the stormy early years of "one country, two systems". Judged from that perspective, he has not done badly.
    I would quibble with Tung having the position "thrust" upon him. Mr Crowell has taken the same tone as Jake van der Kamp a few days back in praising Tung's handling of HK in the transition from British to Chinese rule. I think that overstates the case, especially as the Basic Law has been shown to be practically worthless in the face of Chinese "re-interpretations". Tung's record was mixed, as are all politicians' records. But he got more wrong than he got right.
  • (16:02) Korean live hot dogs.
  • Tyler Cowen worries about bird flu. The Reconbinomics site has plenty of material on bird flu including how efficient it is at human-to-human transmission. FuturePundit comprehensively reviews the bird flu story and decides it is something to worry about. There's an interesting look at the Recombinomics analysis of bird flu.
  • I'm really enjoying watching Penn and Teller's Bullsh!t series. It makes me miss my subscription to the Australian Skeptics magazine.
  • Thomas Barnett on China's Hu Doctrine and its similarity to another. As I explained in an earlier discussion For discussion: what are the similarities and differences in the China/Taiwan situation and the Canda/Quebec one?

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 16:04
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March 10, 2005
Daily linklets March 10th

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • The BBC's "breakthrough" broadcast of the political show Question Time from Shanghai today has generated a lot of excitement. It will be widely watched everywhere, except in China where it naturally has been banned.
  • China is contemplating reform of its death penalty.
  • I am amazed there has not been more made of yesterday's report of Chinese spies working in Hong Kong to investigate leaking of Tung's resignation. Tom rightly finds the idea that Tung's resignation was a "State secret" ridiculous. The only person who doesn't know the "secret" is Legco President Rita Fan.
  • A nice site covering everything you wanted to know about the proposed Pearl River bridge.
  • (10:42) Hong Kong Disneyland already has over 10,000 hotel bookings. The SCMP reports Disney may even invite charity groups to be amongst the first to attend the park during its soft opening in August before the official opening in September. Could this be the answer the Poverty Commission has been searching for - renting out HK's masses? It could even prove a clever way to recoup some of the massive investment Government investment in Hong Kong Disneyland.
  • (12:54) Jim has finally had his talent recognised and had a story published online. Read it - it's a good one.
  • (13:14) Thankfully the anti-climax today reaches its peak (if such a thing can happen) and Tung Che-hwa will finally resign, allowing Donald Tsang to assume the caretaker Government role and carry on exactly as before. Never has so much fuss been made over so little change. The SCMP reports James Tien of the Liberals would prefer CFO Henry Tang in the job. A delightful prospect awaits Hong Kong: we get to watch "The Donald" and "The Henry" try and out-do each other in getting furthest up Beijing's posterior.
  • (15:13) Hemlock today:
    AN EMAIL from Hong Kong’s favourite corporate governance activist corrects me. Longhair, he points out, is not the only member of LegCo who can say “when I was in prison…” There is also the esteemed representative of our selfless stockbrokers, the Honourable Chim Pui Chung. This means one in 30 of our lawmakers has done time in the slammer. So much for the USA’s claim to have the world’s highest incarceration rate, with a measly one in 37.
  • (19:46) Bye-bye, Mr. Tung.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 19:46
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March 09, 2005
Daily linklets March 9th

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • The Hong Kong-Macau-Zuhai white elephant bridge has been given approval.
  • A Hong Kong company is suing Apple over patent violations over the iPod and iTunes digital rights management system. They're aiming for 12% of gross revenues from both.
  • The fuss continues over China's new anti-secsssion law. The problem is, as was mentioned yesterday in the linklets, the law is a fig-leaf that means nothing. Geo-politics doesn't work based on laws. This law is just formalising what has been policy for years.
  • China and India's border talks to resume at the end of March as part of the ongoing rapprochement.
  • (12:59) The BBC China week continues, today with a look at China's net nanny.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 12:59
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March 08, 2005
Daily linklets March 8th

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • First Asian central banks, now Columbians are losing faith in Alan Greenspan.
  • The NYT Magazine profiles Leung "Long Hair" Kwok-hung in a fawning article that pictures him as Hong Kong's Don Quixote. (via False Positives).
  • China's central bank doesn't think there is a "hot money" problem, thanks to its forex controls.
  • Mozilla is coming to China.
  • (9:47) China is enacting its anti-seccession law. The law will be a "domestic" one, reports the SCMP to allay fears in Hong Kong that it would be used to muzzle dissenting voices in the city. Which means Hong Kong can seccede but Taiwan can't. The best comment on the law goes to Johnny Lau Yui-sui of Hong Kong: "In the case of wars, laws are just 'wrappings'. Laws are usually put aside and it's the political situations that decide [whether to resort to force]."
  • (11:24) Bill from Dawn's Early Light and I have been emailing on US-China relations. Join in! Also thanks to Publius Pundit for the kind words. If blogging wasn't such an egotistical pursuit, I'd blush.
  • (16:25) BBC News gears up for it's China Week with a central site with lots of interesting links and background. For example an article looking at the intolerance to political dissent.
  • (19:01) The next edition of the New Blog Showcase Carnival is up at Fistful of Fortnights. Lots of good new blogs up there.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 19:01
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March 07, 2005
Daily linklets 7th March

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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  • One quarter of Hong Kong's mobile phone owners are under 13. The Sunday Morning Post reports the number of Hong Kongers being treated for brain cancer has tripled over the past decade. The link hasn't been proved and advances in detection may explain the rise. But it's an interesting correlation.
  • A deputy at the current NPC session, Ma Bomin, wants to "draft a culture law with Chinese socialist characteristics, to out-law lip-syncing." China would never go in for mouthpieces shouting lines off a pre-recorded track...unless they are politicians.
  • The BBC's political programme Question Time is due to brodcast from Shanghai on Thursday night. The BBC has let the Foreign Ministry select 25 of the audience members. The panel will inlcude former HK Governor Chris Patten, Shanghai Tang owner David Tang, China expert Isabel Hilten, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao and Long Yongtu, China's Goodwill ambassador to the UN. The show will be broadcast in English.
  • One of the world's oldest taxes, the China farm tax, is due to be scrapped in 2006.
  • In today's comedy section, North Korea has "refuted" the US human rights report.
  • China's military budget has increased by 12.6%. Bill looks at what this and the end of the EU arms embargo might mean for East Asian security.
  • (14:13) In the wake of the tsunami, India's state of Tamil Nadu will pay to reverse sterilisations of those parents who lost their children.
  • (15:47) Country Store scoops The Guardian: North Korean kids target the Dear Leader.
  • North Korea isn't pleased with Boing Boing.
  • (15:55) Why are all movie tickets the same price? I'd like to see movies priced like discount airlines do it: the earlier you book, the cheaper the seat with seats allocated by queueing.
  • (18:28) China's Foreign Minister explains the many facets of Chinese diplomacy.
  • China's internet censors and users are testing each other at the moment.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 18:28
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March 04, 2005
Daily linklets March 4th

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 15:59
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March 02, 2005
Daily linklets March 2nd

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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* Did anyone stop to think why something so fun is always followed by 9 month later consequences?
* American Idol is being shown on Star World here in HK on a slight delay...but why wait? Ann Althouse is in on the act as well.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 13:48
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March 01, 2005
Daily linklets March 1st

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 11:14
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February 28, 2005
Daily linklets

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 16:32
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February 25, 2005
Daily linklets

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

* Combine reality TV with blogging and what do you get: a money spinner.
* In the Catalano vs. Malkin debate, Ilyka has a clear preference. Michele is also running one hell of a contest.
* (14:43) Will blogging end in tears or blandness? I suspect there are some real issues here that not many are ready to contemplate.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 14:49
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February 24, 2005
Daily linklets

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

Scroll down for today's other posts.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 18:23
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February 23, 2005
Daily linklets

This is a daily collection of links, some with commentary, to news stories and interesting blog posts. It will be updated throughout the day with a new timestamp for the updates.

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[boomerang] Posted by Simon at 18:23
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