Let us Understand the Chinese

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enqyoob
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by enqyoob »

Several explosions in Xinjiang
Several explosions have rocked the Xinjiang province of China.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Sadler »

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080810/ap_ ... explosions

Report: Explosions rock restive Chinese region
By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer
A series of pre-dawn bombings Sunday killed or wounded at least four people in a restive region of western China, state media said.

The bombings occurred amid tightened security after an attack here last week left 16 border police dead and 15 others wounded in the Muslim region of Xinjiang.

Police suspect that those killed or injured in Sunday's explosions were behind the bombings which struck Kuqa county in the south of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The agency said witnesses reported seeing flashes of fire and heard gun shots following the explosions.

Xinhua said local military sources confirmed the incident and said they have deployed forces to the area, which was also sealed off by police. Kuqa is 460 miles from Urumqi, the regional capital.

A woman on duty at the emergency unit of the Kuqa People's Hospital said one man was pronounced dead upon arrival while several other people were in critical condition.

"There were several explosions in several places in the county seat of Kuqa this morning and we heard them from the hospital," said a woman on duty at the hospital, who would only give her last name, Tian.

Witnesses reported that explosions hit government offices and public security and military police posts, said Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, which supports independence for the region.

A man who answered the phone at the Kuqa county government's duty office said he was not aware of the explosions and refused to give his name. Repeated calls to the county's public security bureau rang unanswered.

The latest violence comes after two Americans closely linked to the U.S. Olympic volleyball team were stabbed, one fatally, in a bizarre attack Saturday in the Chinese capital on the first day of the Beijing games.

Normally tight security in Xinjiang was increased in the past week after the fatal attack on border police in the city of Kashgar Monday. The assailants rammed a stolen truck into the group before tossing homemade bombs and stabbing them.

On Thursday, a videotape was released threatening attacks during the Olympics. The videotape was purportedly made by the Turkistan Islamic Party, a Muslim group believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, where security experts say core members have received training from al-Qaida.

Xinjiang is a large, rugged territory — one-sixth of China's land mass — that is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim minority with a long history of tense relations with the Chinese. The Uighurs, with a population of about 8 million, have complained that the Communist government has been restricting their religion and Turkic culture.

"We have been appealing to Beijing to solve the issue through political dialogue to prevent the situation from deteriorating, but they have never taken it seriously," Raxit said in an e-mail. "On the contrary, they heightened the suppression. Beijing should be directly responsible for today's incident."

Beijing has accused Uighur groups of using terrorism in a violent campaign to split Xinjiang from the rest of the country. China's state-run media have reported sporadic bombings, shootings and riots in the territory over the years, but the dispatches are often sketchy and difficult to verify.

Kuqa, a county of 400,000 people, is a popular tourist destination in Xinjiang and is rich in oil and gas resources.

No other details were immediately known.

__

Associated Press reporter Gillian Wong contributed to the report from Beijing.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by hnair »

I was curious what price the PLA leadership paid for having GWB at the ceremonies. Looks like they were desperate for H&D and became suicidal:

At church in China, Bush says religion nothing to fear
"I have been meeting Chinese leaders for 7 1/2 years and my message has been the same: you should not fear religious people in your society," Bush told a press conference.

"As a matter of fact, religious people will make your society a better place."

Critics say Bush should have boycotted the Olympic opening ceremony because of China's rights record. The US leader defended his decision.

Bush said his reasons for going to the Games were twofold: "One, to show my respect for the people of China; and two, to cheer on the US team."
To give him his due, Bush is saying stuff that our leaders should have been saying, instead of signing MoUs about "Summer camps for party youngsters at the gulag". Here he is clear about whom he came to communicate with: the Chinese people, not their leaders.
Ameet
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Ameet »

Beijing hides an entire neighbourhood

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/a ... shing_act/
anupmisra
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by anupmisra »

Whatever one says, it was one hck of a spectacular opening ceremony.

One question for the China-history / culture experts, why do those chinese drummers wear Hindu teeka-like marks on their foreheads (or has this been discussed before)?

Image
svinayak
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by svinayak »

Lot of restive provinces which never accepted PLA rule

A China Threat From Pakistan?

TIME - 36 minutes ago
A second deadly attack by suspected Muslim separatists in China's far west has sparked fears that what had until very recently been a largely dormant ...

Violence taints the Beijing Games

Christian Science Monitor, MA - 3 hours ago
Saturday's attack on American tourists, and continued unrest in Xinjiang, have tested the trouble-free Olympics Chinese officials sought. ...

China links bombings in remote west to Olympics

International Herald Tribune, France - 5 hours ago
By Jim Yardley BEIJING: The escalating violence in the tense western China region of Xinjiang spiked sharply Sunday morning when eight suspects were killed ...

Eight terrorists killed, two blow themselves up in Xinjiang

Xinhua, China - 3 hours ago
KUQA, Xinjiang, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Police in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region said eight terrorists who carried out a series of ...

Report: Attack on government facilities kills 8 in remote China

CNN - 4 hours ago
(CNN) -- Pre-dawn clashes in a remote northwestern county Sunday killed at least eight people, including a security guard, after assailants using handmade ...

8 Killed in China's Muslim Northwest

Voice of America - 6 hours ago
By VOA News Chinese state media say the death toll in a series of attacks Sunday in the troubled western Xinjiang region has risen to eight. ...

11 killed in China's Xinjiang attacks

AFP - 2 hours ago
BEIJING (AFP) — The death toll from bombings and the aftermath in China's northwestern Xinjiang province on Sunday rose to eleven, with five injured, ...

Eight dead after bombing in western China mars Olympic opening weekend

guardian.co.uk, UK - 8 hours ago
A Chinese security guard locks the gates at the Drum Tower in Beijing, following the murder of a US citizen at tourist attraction. ...

Fresh Wave Of Bombings Kill 8, Injure 4 As China Beefs Up Security

AHN - 5 hours ago
Kuqa, China (AHN) - Eight are dead after violence erupted in China's north western region of Xinjiang on Saturday with a gun battle and series of bombings, ...

Beijing Olympics: Chinese soldiers secure Kuqa after eight killed ...

Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 1 hour ago
Chinese troops have entered the far-western city of Kuqa after at least eight people were killed in clashes between police and alleged terrorists. ...
Blasts, gunfire kill at least eight in China's far west (2nd Roundup)
Monsters and Critics.com - 10 hours ago
Beijing - Several explosions and sporadic rifle fire rocked Kuqa county in north-western China's restive Xinjiang region Sunday morning, leaving at least ...
anupmisra
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by anupmisra »

Acharya wrote:Lot of restive provinces which never accepted PLA rule
Threat from Porkistan
According to official media reports, the attack took place at around 3 a.m. on August 10 when seven attackers drove an explosives-packed tricycle into the courtyard of a police station.
:eek:

Did the attackers get away on electric wheelchairs, pursued by Chinese cops on segways?
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Rishirishi »

anupmisra wrote:
Acharya wrote:Lot of restive provinces which never accepted PLA rule
Threat from Porkistan
According to official media reports, the attack took place at around 3 a.m. on August 10 when seven attackers drove an explosives-packed tricycle into the courtyard of a police station.
:eek:

Did the attackers get away on electric wheelchairs, pursued by Chinese cops on segways?
They are taliking about rickshaws here.

Special rickshaws are used for transportation purposes.
Lalmohan
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Lalmohan »

The Opening Ceremony was a great spectacular. Now do the barbarians see the power and glory of the Middle Kingdom and the superiority of the Chinese peoples! Now is the might of the Emperor laid clear before your eyes, and will you now not kow tow and pledge yourself as his vassals!

the political significance and messaging in the ceremony were pretty direct. I particularly enjoyed watching the happy minorities in their colourful little 'tribal wear' parade before the Emperor and pledge themselves to the flag.

However great a spectacle, the only part that jarred with me was the sight of goose stepping soldiers carrying and hoisting the olympic flag. I'd rather have seen the (very hot lead female) ex-athlete who carried it around the stadium (with her older colleagues) raise the flag!
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Philip »

Understand the CHEATS! The Chinese hoodwinked the world with their sky footprints.This says more of the Chinese character than anything else,to CHEAT especially at the Olympics! It indicates that China will go to any length,swim in any sewer,s**t on anyone's land,to BS the world.Can you ever trust such a leadership of cheating Chinese?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... faked.html

Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints 'faked'
Parts of the spectacular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on Friday were faked because of fears over live filming, it has emerged.

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 6:58PM BST 10 Aug 2008

Organisers feared it would be too difficult to capture each footprint live so inserted computer graphics for viewers at home and in the Bird's Nest stadium

Photo: KENT NEWS
As the ceremony got under way with a dramatic, drummed countdown, viewers watching at home and on giant screens inside the Bird's Nest National Stadium watched as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks processed gloriously above the city from Tiananmen Square.

What they did not realise was that what they were watching was in fact computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.

The fireworks were there for real, outside the stadium. But those responsible for filming the extravaganza decided in advance it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprints from the air.

As a result, only the last, visible from the camera stands inside the Bird's Nest was captured on film.

The trick was revealed in a local Chinese newspaper, the Beijing Times, at the weekend.

Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence. Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible: they sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing's smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter.

"Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," he said. "But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished."

He said the main problem with trying to shoot the real thing was the difficulty of placing the television helicopter at the right angle to see all 28 footsteps in a row.

One advisor to the Beijing Olympic Committee (BOCOG) defended the decision to use make-believe to impress the viewer. "It would have been prohibitive to have tried to film it live," he said. "We could not put the helicopter pilot at risk by making him try to follow the firework route."

A spokeswoman for BOCOG said the final decision had been made by Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, the joint venture between the International Olympic Committee and local organisers that is responsible for providing the main "feeds" of all Olympic events to viewers around the world.

"As far as we are concerned, we let off the fireworks - that's what's important to us," she said.

Mr Gao said he was worried that technologically literate viewers who spotted the join might be critical, but comments online suggested more admiration of the result.

Although the event as a whole received rapturous reviews abroad, that has not been entirely the case at home. Some internet comments were hostile, saying that while it looked stunning the contents were vacuous.

Others focused on the sheer numbers of people involved - more than 16,000 performers, mostly from People's Liberation Army song and dance troops.

"That certainly showed China's unique character," said one comment. "Namely, that we have 1.3 billion people."

PS: Understand the cheats and slimeballs of the PRC leadership even more with this!

Beijing accused of 'censoring' press over Olympic murder
(ap)
Todd Bachman, who was stabbed by a Chinese man while sightseeing in Beijing
Ashling O’Connor and Jane Macartney in Beijing

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 503453.ece

Olympic chiefs today said they were investigating reports that Beijing officials confiscated the notebooks and tape recorders of Chinese journalists covering the Games.

A witness at a press conference involving the US men’s volleyball team yesterday claimed local reporters were accosted after frank interviews with some of the players about the murder of Todd Bachman.

The 62-year-old American, who was stabbed by a Chinese man while sightseeing in Beijing on Saturday, was the father-in-law of Hugh McCutcheon, the US team coach.

The Beijing Olympic staff claimed they wanted to know what was said because they had not properly understood the discussion in English, despite the presence of official interpreters. But the Chinese journalists did not later recover their notes or tapes, according to the observer.

Bush praises China over tourist's murder (Is this correct?!)

The incident raises concerns that the Chinese authorities are trying to erase the Olympics link to the murder of an American citizen in order to limit damage to the image of their games.

Mr Bachman’s connection to the US volleyball team was initially reported on CCTV, the state television channel, and in the Chinese-language press. However, the news was relegated to a paragraph on the front of the English-language China Daily and has subsequently been removed from some Chinese internet sites.

Comments relating to the “death” of Mr Bachman were carried on the Olympic News Service, the official intranet system in Olympic venues, but the quotes by American players had been edited.

Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee (Bocog), claimed he had no knowledge of the incident. He said: “Chinese journalists have rights to cover the Olympic Games. Their rights are protected by the Chinese constitution.”

A spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the matter was being investigated. It has maintained that journalists would be free to report on the Games, not just inside official venues but outside as well so long as local laws were respected. The freedom is a contractual obligation between the IOC and Beijing, the host city.

But the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) accused the Chinese authorities of “snooping” after it received reports of security officials shadowing the media on assignments in Beijing.

On Saturday, as journalists covered the scene of Mr Bachman’s murder and the subsequent suicide of his Chinese attacker at the Drum Tower, a tourist spot near the Forbidden City, their notes were photographed by unidentified strangers.

In a separate incident, a foreign journalist told the IFJ he had been stopped by two men with no press accreditation who took pictures of him and his notes after he had interviewed a French athlete at the airport.

Similarly, journalists interviewing a discontented landowner in Tiananmen Square were photographed by strangers who refused to identify themselves.

“This is unacceptable interference in the work of journalists,” Aidan White, IFJ general secretary, said.

“Once again we call on the Chinese authorities to make good on their promise that journalists can work without intimidation. Protection of journalistic sources is a cornerstones of press freedom. This sort of activity shows complete disregard for that principle by the Chinese authorities.”
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Rishirishi »

It is amazing to see how seriously the Chinease are taking this Olympic. They leave no stone untured to make it look great. In a way it is a kind of compliment.

Second interesting thing, is to note that, it is a chinease newspaper that reported this.
Philip
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Philip »

More Chinese cheating!!! When will it end?Don't the toothless,senile mandarins of Zhongnanhai understand that the world only sneers and laughs at their miserable fibs? It is better to be truthful and honest,but alas,one cannot expect that from the PRC,who have brainwashed and turned their nation into automons and zombies.China and its Commie neo-imperialistic rulers despite all their Olympic finery "wear no clothes".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... emony.html

Beijing Olympics: Faking scandal over girl who 'sang' in opening ceremony

Chinese officials have admitted deceiving the public over another highlight of the Olympic opening ceremony: the picture-perfect schoolgirl who sang as the Chinese flag entered the stadium was performing to another girl's voice.

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 1:59PM BST 12 Aug 2008

Lin Miaoke who lip-synched at the opening ceremony over the voice of Yang Peiyi [right] who was considered unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth Photo: GETTY/AFP
The girl in the red dress with the pigtails, called Lin Miaoke, 9, and from a Beijing primary school, has become a national sensation since Friday night, giving interviews to all the most popular newspapers.

But the show's musical designer felt forced to set the record straight. He gave an interview to Beijing radio saying the real singer was a seven-year-old girl who had won a gruelling competition to perform the anthem, a patriotic song called "Hymn to the Motherland".

At the last moment a member of the Chinese politburo who was watching a rehearsal pronounced that the winner, a girl called Yang Peiyi, might have a perfect voice but was unsuited to the lead role because of her buck teeth.

So, on the night, while a pre-recording of Yang Peiyi singing was played, Lin Miaoke, who has already featured in television advertisements, was seen but not heard.

"This was a last-minute question, a choice we had to make," the ceremony's musical designer, Chen Qigang, said. "Our rehearsals had already been vetted several times - they were all very strict. When we had the dress rehearsals, there were spectators from various divisions, including above all a member of the politburo who gave us his verdict: we had to make the swap."

Mr Chen's interview gave an extraordinary insight into the control exercised over the ceremony by the Games' political overseers, all to ensure the country was seen at its best.

Officials have already admitted that the pictures of giant firework footprints which marched across Beijing towards the stadium on Friday night were prerecorded, digitally enhanced and inserted into footage beamed across the world.

Mr Chen said the initial hopefuls to sing the anthem had been reduced to ten, and one, a ten-year-old, had originally been chosen for the quality of her voice. But she, too, had fallen by the wayside because she was not "cute" enough.

"We used her to sing in all the rehearsals," Mr Chen said. "But in the end the director thought her image was not the most appropriate, because she was a little too old. Regrettably, we had to let her go."

At that point Yang Peiyi stepped up to the plate.

"The main consideration was the national interest," he said. "The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression. In the matter of her voice, Yang Peiyi was flawless, in the unanimous opinion of all the members of the team."

That was until attention turned to Yang Peiyi's teeth. Nevertheless, Mr Chen thought the end result a perfect compromise.

"We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, and to be open with this explanation," he said. "We should all understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture.

"Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, an extremely serious matter.

"So we made the choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi - after all, we have a perfect voice, a perfect image and a perfect show, in our team's view, all together."

One question remains: why was Lin Miaoke allowed to give interviews in which she lapped up the praise for her singing. Mr Chen said she might not have known that the words she was singing could not be heard. She had, in fact, only known she was going to perform at all 15 minutes beforehand.

Yang Peiyi is said to have reacted well to the disappointment. "I am proud to have been chosen to sing at all," she is reported to have said.
Rahul M
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Rahul M »

:evil: must have been heart breaking for the young girl.
Vick
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Vick »

In fairness to the Chinese, the NBC feed that I was watching of the Opening Ceremony, Bob Costas clearly mentioned that we're seeing computer generated graphics of the fireworks. Perhaps a youtube of it is out there to verify it.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Lalmohan »

when watching it live, the fireworks footprint did not look authentic at all... you could see it was artificial. Similarly, it was relatively obvious that the little girl was lip synching. I was not too bothered by that because i was expecting a show and not real life. I also think that the drumming/lights were computer controlled and not just purely human synchronisation.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Ameet »

Continuing with the trend, Bela Karolyi, the famous coach accuses the Chinese of cheating in gymnastics by having underage girls perform. The rule is 16 years old. From the photos, they don't look 16 to me either.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/gymnastics/n ... 90870.html
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Gerard »

Olympic child singing star was a fake: ceremony director
The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show's musical director has revealed.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by svinayak »

Last week I talked to a Chinese who lives in Beijing, and sinju
He said he was not going to the games and said it was expensive.

There is no big crowd to go to olympics in Beijing
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Rishirishi »

To be honest;
I feel that western countries are finding it hard to digest the Chinease sucess. China has put in an huge effort with 100% backing of its people. The sports complexes and infrastructure will benefit future generations. Everything has been perfectly executed.

I am no fan of the Chinease leadership. But this time I want to congratulate the Chinease leadership and its people for exellent show and effort.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by svinayak »

NEWSWEEK COVER: What Drives China
Sunday July 27, 11:08 am ET
Beijing Olympic Games Will Provide China an Opportunity to Shine and Move Past National Inferiority Complex
Orville Schell: Despite Ample Causes for Protesting, "This Is Not The Time"

NEW YORK, July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Rarely has a more varied array of contentious issues crystallized around a single sporting event than the Beijing Games, according to guest writer Orville Schell, who opens the cover package of the current issue of Newsweek. In his essay, adapted from "China: Humiliation and the Olympics," published in the current New York Review of Books, Schell argues that despite the ample causes for protesting the Chinese government, now is not the time.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080727/NYSU002 )
In the August 4 Newsweek cover package, "What Drives China," (on newsstands Monday, July 28), Schell writes that "China is bedeviled by internal problems-human-rights violations, media censorship, corruption, pollution, labor abuses and lack of due process, to name a few ... At the same time, a host of relatively new, purely international problems have accrued to China as the country has aggressively sought access to natural resources around the world. By dealing with pariah states like Burma, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Iran in order to feed the country's voracious appetite for oil, timber and metals, Chinese leaders have been accused of playing an irresponsible global role. Their critics would like nothing more than to flay Beijing before a worldwide television audience of hundreds of millions."

Although Schell says he is the first to admit that the Chinese government gives ample cause for protest, he also argues, "that this is not the time-and not just because any unauthorized protest is quite likely to fail. The Beijing Games present a fraught and sensitive moment." He adds that China has made a Herculean effort to prepare the way for this spectacle, in which ordinary Chinese, not just their leaders, can announce themselves to the world as having regained their national greatness. "Protests would almost certainly spark the kind of nationalist and autocratic backlash that they're meant to remedy," he writes. "Remember what followed the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations- a nearly 20-year period of reaction and restoration from which China has still not recovered."

Schell argues that to have an understanding of what these Games mean to the Chinese, it is important to first understand their historical grievances. The most critical element in the formation of China's modern identity has been the legacy of the country's "humiliation" at the hands of foreigners, beginning with its defeat in the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century and the shameful treatment of Chinese immigrants in America. According to Schell, "the process was exacerbated by Japan's successful industrialization.
Tokyo's invasion and occupation of the mainland during World War II was in many ways psychologically more devastating than Western interventions because Japan was an Asian power that had succeeded in modernizing, where China had failed. This inferiority complex has been institutionalized in the Chinese mind." Despite the fact that China has gotten closer than ever to escaping from this past, it's important to understand that its leaders and people are still susceptible to older ways of responding to the world around them. "Now is not the time to provoke them further and impede their progress toward a new, more equal and self-assured sense of nationhood."

Also in the cover package:

Boston Bureau Chief and National Sports Correspondent Mark Starr provides a viewer's guide to the Beijing Olympics. The guide includes what's behind the race for gold medals between U.S. and China; the key athletes to watch, such as Michael Phelps and Dara Torres; the rivalries in the gymnastics arena; and the new ways scientists are testing athletes for performance enhancing drugs.

Senior Editor and Science Columnist Sharon Begley writes about China's weather modification program and how it plans on keeping the rain at bay for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Beijing National Stadium (a.k.a. the "bird's nest"). "Too bad that no project in the 60-year history of weather modification has managed to reliably bring about or suppress rain on demand," Begley writes. "On paper, the recipe for keeping raindrops away from the bird's nest is basically what China has been doing since the late 1950s. With an estimated 30,000 rainmakers, a $100 million budget and more hardware than it has pointed at Taiwan, China has the largest weather-modification program in the world. Despite China's claims that its cloud-seeding technology can make rain on demand, though, experts are dubious." Still, Beijing has a twofold plan for a blue-sky Olympics. Both rely on the standard technique of seeding rain clouds with either the traditional silver iodide or newer hygroscopic (water-absorbing) particles such as calcium-chloride salts.

Guest writer David Maraniss, an associate editor at The Washington Post and author of eight books on politics, history and sports, writes that any semblance of the old notion that the Olympics could be free from professionalism, commercialism and politics is long gone and much of that change started in the days leading up to the Rome Olympic games. In an adaptation from his book, "Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World," Maraniss writes that "the contests in Rome shimmered with performances that remain among the most golden in athletic history," he writes. "But more than that, the forces of change were everywhere. In sports, culture and politics- interwoven in so many ways-one could sense an old order dying and a new one being born. With all its promise and trouble, the modern world as we see it today was coming into view. Television, money and drugs were bursting onto the scene, altering everything they touched. Old-boy notions of pristine amateurism, created by and for upper-class sportsmen, were crumbling. Rome brought the first doping scandal, the first commercially broadcast Summer Games and the first runner paid for wearing a certain brand of shoes. It also, fittingly, brought the first round of controversy over China.
OLYMPICS
China’s Agony of Defeat
http://www.newsweek.com/id/148997

It's impossible to understand what the Games mean to the Chinese without understanding their history of humiliation.

The Olympics are an irresistible stage for athletes—but also for those who wish to act out their grievances before the world. The Beijing Games, which kick off on Aug. 8, are hardly an exception. While Chinese leaders furiously insist they're not, and should not be, "political," these Olympics promise to become one of the most charged in history. Rarely has a more varied array of contentious issues crystallized around a single sporting event.

China is bedeviled by internal problems—human-rights violations, media censorship, corruption, pollution, labor abuses and lack of due process, to name a few. Several "domestic" issues—Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong—have also regularly spilled over into the international realm. At the same time, a host of relatively new, purely international problems have accrued to China as the country has aggressively sought access to natural resources around the world. By dealing with pariah states like Burma, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Iran in order to feed the country's voracious appetite for oil, timber and metals, Chinese leaders have been accused of playing an irresponsible global role. Their critics would like nothing more than to flay Beijing before a worldwide television audience of hundreds of millions.

Chinese officials are doing everything possible to block such protests. They've designated three remote sites in Beijing in which to corral a few neutered "demonstrations." Rarely have the Chinese military and police been more anxious or at a higher state of alert. Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Tens of thousands of police, paramilitary troops and regular soldiers have been deployed to guard Olympic facilities, major buildings and public spaces. Many foreign NGO staffers based in Beijing have been asked to leave for the summer. Visa applications to attend the Games—now requiring not only letters of invitation but hotel reservations, round-trip airline tickets and bank statements—have frequently been turned down with no explanation. Indeed, the whole bureaucratic structure of the Chinese government and party seems coiled like a spring, ready to release into action if any errant soul emerges to make a disturbance, or even express unacceptable views, in a public way.

Now, I am the first to admit that the Chinese government gives ample cause for protest. Nor is vigorous dissent always counterproductive when dealing with Beijing. But I would argue that this is not the time—and not just because any unauthorized protest is quite likely to fail. The Beijing Games present a fraught and sensitive moment. China has made a Herculean effort to prepare the way for this spectacle, in which ordinary Chinese, not just their leaders, can announce themselves to the world as having regained their national greatness. Protests would almost certainly spark the kind of nationalist and autocratic backlash that they're meant to remedy. Remember what followed the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations—a nearly 20-year period of reaction and restoration from which China has still not recovered.

This proud prickliness has deep historical roots that involve China, the West and even Japan. As I argue in the current New York Review of Books, the most critical element in the formation of China's modern identity has been the legacy of the country's "humiliation" at the hands of foreigners, beginning with its defeat in the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century and the shameful treatment of Chinese immigrants in America. The process was exacerbated by Japan's successful industrialization. Tokyo's invasion and occupation of the mainland during World War II was in many ways psychologically more devastating than Western interventions because Japan was an Asian power that had succeeded in modernizing, where China had failed.

This inferiority complex has been institutionalized in the Chinese mind. In the early 20th century China took up its victimization as a theme and made it a fundamental element in its evolving collective identity. A new literature arose around the idea of bainian guochi—"100 years of national humiliation." After the 1919 Treaty of Versailles cravenly gave Germany's concessions in China to Japan, the expression wuwang guochi—"Never forget our national humiliation"—became a common slogan. To ignore China's national failure came to be seen as unpatriotic. Since then, China's historians and ideological overseers have never hesitated to mine the country's past sufferings "to serve the political, ideological, rhetorical, and/or emotional needs of the present," as the historian Paul Cohen has written.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Avinash R »

3 securitymen killed in China

Beijing, reuters: Three security officers were stabbed to death and another wounded on Tuesday in renewed violence in far northwest Chinas Xinjiang region, the fourth day of the Beijing Olympic Games, state media said.

China has blamed two earlier attacks in the restive area more than 3,000 km from the capital on Muslim separatists seeking to disrupt the Games.

One or more assailants jumped off a vehicle passing a road checkpoint about 30 km from Kashgar and stabbed the officers, Xinhua news agency said.

“These were just some terrorists,” said a local police officer in Yamanya, where the attack occurred.

A bombing and stabbing attack killed 16 police within the city of Kashgar just over a week ago. On Sunday, 11 people were killed in a series of supermarket bombings in Kuqa, in the south of Xinjiang.

A perimeter of road checkpoints with armed security had been set up in the immediate vicinity of Kashgar following the first attack.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Gerard »

Beijing Olympics: 'Ethnic' children exposed as fakes in opening ceremony
Another section of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony has been exposed as faked - the children supposedly representing the country's 56 ethnic groups were in fact all from the same one, the majority Han Chinese race.
:eek:
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Lalmohan »

Gerard wrote:Beijing Olympics: 'Ethnic' children exposed as fakes in opening ceremony
Another section of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony has been exposed as faked - the children supposedly representing the country's 56 ethnic groups were in fact all from the same one, the majority Han Chinese race.
:eek:

:rotfl:

i was wondering why the tibetan kid was so well behaved! :)

to answer someone else's point about hats off to the chinese for putting on a good show - agreed, it was a great show, but its the obsession with perfection, to the extent of faking everything is a little lamentable. i have a strong hypothesis that there will be some dark and shady goings on in the background to ensure that the chinese win the most gold medals... it will come out later.

my first suspicion was when the indian ladies shooters bombed out :((
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by archan »

Lalmohan wrote: my first suspicion was when the indian ladies shooters bombed out :((
Did you read about Bindra saying his gun was tampered with? in the trials, out of 60 shots, 56 were a 10 and 4 were 9. Then after the break during which he left his gun to go to the toilet, he found that the sight was messed up and he scored a 4.4! he was good enough to readjust accordingly and in the final shot he pulled it all together. I am sorry, I am not liking the Chinese any more with the Olympics.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by svinayak »

archan wrote:
Lalmohan wrote: my first suspicion was when the indian ladies shooters bombed out :((
Did you read about Bindra saying his gun was tampered with? in the trials, out of 60 shots, 56 were a 10 and 4 were 9. Then after the break during which he left his gun to go to the toilet, he found that the sight was messed up and he scored a 4.4! he was good enough to readjust accordingly and in the final shot he pulled it all together. I am sorry, I am not liking the Chinese any more with the Olympics.
This is a military operation
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by archan »

Acharya wrote:
archan wrote: Did you read about Bindra saying his gun was tampered with? in the trials, out of 60 shots, 56 were a 10 and 4 were 9. Then after the break during which he left his gun to go to the toilet, he found that the sight was messed up and he scored a 4.4! he was good enough to readjust accordingly and in the final shot he pulled it all together. I am sorry, I am not liking the Chinese any more with the Olympics.
This is a military operation
?? could you please elaborate?
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by JwalaMukhi »

The empire of lies - by Guy Sorman.
http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/empireoflies/

The above is an important and timely book (recent release) to get a close look at what the red china is about. Very unlike the dreary eyed report that one would get from N.Ram's ilk. Should probably go in book review thread.
Some disturbing truths about:
1) sterilization programs and population limiting techniques are actively pursued by the regime.
2) Corruption - aha the corruption
recommend - a good read.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by ramana »

archan wrote:
Acharya wrote: ...
This is a military operation
?? could you please elaborate?

Civilians wont have the skill to tamper with sights in PRC. Has to have some military background.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Gerard »

Explains some of the drones we see here occasionally...
Plight of the Little Emperors
Last edited by Gerard on 19 Aug 2008 01:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Singha »

most families I know in yindia with two working parents are stopping at one kid only.
only those who birthed the kids abroad seem to be having 2.

so its not a uniquely chinese problem.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Paul »

Not sure if this link was posted before

http://ignca.nic.in/ks_41.htm
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Karan Dixit »

Archan,

Do you have a link regarding Bindra incident in which Bindra's rifle was tempered with?

There are lots of athletes who suspect Chinese tempering. Some judges have been compromised as well. This Olympic as expected was a triumph of dishonesty.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Avinash R »

Karan Dixit wrote:Archan,

Do you have a link regarding Bindra incident in which Bindra's rifle was tempered with?

There are lots of athletes who suspect Chinese tempering. Some judges have been compromised as well. This Olympic as expected was a triumph of dishonesty.
Bindra's gun was tampered with before final, says official - Rediff

Olympics: Indian shooting champion Bindra's rifle 'tampered with' - Guardian
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by sunilUpa »

2 Chinese sentenced to labour camp for protest request during Olympics
BEIJING — Two Chinese women in their 70s who applied to hold a protest during the Olympic Games were ordered to spend a year in a labour camp, a relative said Wednesday, as more foreign activists were detained.
Wu Dianyuan, 79, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77, were notified Sunday that they were to serve a yearlong term of re-education through labour, said Wang's son, Li Xuehui. Officials did not specify a reason and still had not acted on the order, he said
"Wang Xiuying is almost blind and disabled. What sort of re-education through labour can she serve?" Li said in a telephone interview. "But they can also be taken away at any time."
The order followed the pair's repeated attempts to apply for permission to protest their forced eviction from their homes. China agreed to allow demonstrations in three designated areas during the games, which end Sunday. So far, there have been no protests in any of the official areas.

Sigh...which smiley is appropriate?
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Philip »

Cheats,cheats,Chinese cheats! This is the third instance of Chinese cheating at the Olympics that has come to light,but this is the most serious of all,an underage competitor who won a gold.

Hacker uncovers 'proof' that Chinese gymnast is underage
(How Hwee Young/EPA)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 578241.ece

He Kexin after winning gold: the US team has cried foul over her age
Jane Macartney in Beijing

A determined computer expert has delved into cached pages on the Internet to unearth Chinese official documents showing a gymnast who took gold, edging Britain’s Beth Tweddle into fourth place, may indeed be underage.

Controversy over whether He Kexin, gold medallist in the uneven bars, is under the minimum age of 16 has surrounded her participation in the Beijing Olympics. The latest challenge over the age of the tiny Olympian comes from the discovery through a cyberspace maze of Chinese official documents listing her date of birth.

She certainly does not look as if she has reached the minimum competing age of 16. However China says her passport, issued in February, gives her birthday on January 1, 1992, and the International Olympic Committee has said proof from her passport is good enough.

If incontrovertible evidence that Ms He is underage were to come to light, Britain’s Beth Tweddle, from Cheshire, could edge up from fourth place to bronze medal position in the uneven bars. With the end of the Games just three days away, that now seems unlikely.

Olympics updates direct to your mobile
Put the Beijing Games in your pocket

Tweddle bid stumbles after uneven landing
Conspiracy theories abound as Sacramone costs US
US point to foul play after falling to silver
The latest unofficial investigation was carried out by computer security expert for the Intrepidus Group, whose site Stryde Hax revealed a detailed forensic search for Ms He’s age.

First he simply tried Google, only to find that an official listing by the Chinese sports administration that had given her age could no longer be accessed. Next he tried the Google cache, only to find that Ms He’s name had been removed.

So then he tried the cache of Chinese search engine Baidu. There, he found that Baidu lists two spreadsheets in Ms He's name, both giving her date of birth as January 1, 1994 – making her 14 years and 220 days old and too young to compete at these Olympics.

The lists were compiled by the General Administration of Sport of China.

Even before anyone arrived in Beijing, American media investigations had accused China of fielding three athletes below the 16-year-old minimum age threshold. Bela Karolyi, the former US head coach, then reheated the issue by claiming that China “are using half-people” and that their flouting of the regulations was so obvious that “these people think we are stupid”.

Nastia Liukin of the US finished second behind He Kexin in the uneven bars final and would be elevated to the gold medal position should the Chinese gymnast be disqualified.

Ms He insists that she is of age. Asked by journalists about the debate, she said: “My real age is 16. I don’t care what other people say. I want other people to know that 16 is my real age.” Asked how she spent her 15th birthday, she paused and then said: “I was with my team. It was an ordinary day.”

Just nine months before the Olympics, the Chinese government’s Xinhua news agency gave Ms He’s name as 13. Officials have since dismissed that report saying Xinhua had never been given her age and had made a mistake.

Stryde Hax, who describes himself as having a consultant with a security background, concludes: “Much of the coverage regarding Kexin’s age has only mentioned ‘allegations’ of fraud, and the IOC has ignored thematter completely. I believe that these primary documents, issued by the Chinese state … rise to a level of evidence higher than ‘allegation’.”

It could certainly make a difference to Britain's Tweddle, who at 23 and relatively old for a gymnast may not be able to compete in London 2012.

Have your say

If the Chinese have conspired to evade IOC rules, then surely they have committed a breach as serious as condoning drug taking, and so should lose not only this medal, but perhaps all gymnastic ones?

Giles Falconer, Sleaford, UK

Why are the rules in gymnastics different to diving?
We are celebrating the fact that Tom Daley is only 14 yet Kexin is having to deny the rumour that she too is only 14.
Seems odd to me that a 14 year old boy is ok to compete but a 14 year old girl isn't especially as girls tend to mature earlier

Stuart, Sutton Coldfield, UK

I'm starting to lose any faith in the games as a whole. Why can't it just stay in Athens - it would eliminate all this ridiculous and expensive posturing from the host nations, and allow us to spend money where it's really needed.

Ross Liversidge, Ripon, UK

I don’t know why, but this is the last straw for me. The Chinese have disgraced the Olympics. Without Usian Bolt to take away the headlines they would now be in a complete mess of their own making. They should never have been allowed the Games, an event which began in the country that gave us democracy. IOC greed and Chinese ego have ruined the Olympics.

Mike, Bristol, UK,

Chinese government decide Kexin's age in her passport. Of course she is obviously under 16, but Chinese goverment has the absolute right to decide her age. This is the real game.

Ming, London, UK
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Avinash R »

Philip wrote:Cheats,cheats,Chinese cheats! This is the third instance of Chinese cheating at the Olympics that has come to light,but this is the most serious of all,an underage competitor who won a gold.

Hacker uncovers 'proof' that Chinese gymnast is underage
(How Hwee Young/EPA)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ ... 578241.ece
timesonline seems to think it was hackers who uncovered the real age of the gymnast but in reality it was well known in the media. here is a post made on august 19 with links.
Bloggers Nail China On Olympian Age Lies

Proving the Chinese Olympic overlords of straightforward gross dishonesty about the ages of their star gymnasts became the focus of several people, some of whom looked no farther than a Google cache to find evidence of shenanigans in Beijing.

The kerfuffle started when a trio of China's finest young women gymnasts took gold. Protests that the tiny tumblers were a little too young for the global stage of the Olympics swiftly began. The cowardly International Olympic Committee brushed off the complaints.

People on the Internet did not. The Huffington Post showed what a little digging could turn up regarding the truth about gymnasts like He Kexin.

In one example, a China Daily article posted on May 23, 2008 gave her age as 14. The same article now lists her age as an Olympic-appropriate 16.

Gateway Pundit found more examples. In one case, articles published online about gymnast Yang Yilin showed her birthdate as August 26, 1993. Now, her official biography lists the year as 1992.

There's virtually zero chance the IOC will take such evidence and require China to forfeit its ill-gotten medals. But if someone there wants to make an issue of it, the proof is a click or two away.
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Re:

Post by ashish raval »

surinder wrote:
ramana wrote:While SunTzu's book deals with the Art of War, Kautilya's Arthsashtra deals with before and after War as War is only one part of the process. Many Western scholars are studying and quoting Kautilya.
Can I find Arthashastra on the web?
I think you can get one here:

http://www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/hi ... /index.htm
or
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&i ... lt#PPP1,M1

Enjoy.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Rahul M »

surinder, I would highly recommend the one from penguin classics.
th translator is an an IFS fellow and he has done a superb job encasing shamashastry's literal translations(quoted in the first link above) in easy to understand language from the modern context.
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Ameet »

Millions forfeit water for Olympic Games
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 597006.ece

From The Sunday Times
August 24, 2008
Millions forfeit water to Olympic Games
Farmers in Baoding face ruin from a man-made drought
Michael Sheridan, China

THOUSANDS of Chinese farmers face ruin because their water has been cut off to guarantee supplies to the Olympics in Beijing, and officials are now trying to cover up a grotesque scandal of blunders, lies and repression.

In the capital, foreign dignitaries have admired millions of flowers in bloom and lush, well-watered greens around its famous sights. But just 90 minutes south by train, peasants are hacking at the dry earth as their crops wilt, their money runs out and the work of generations gives way to despair, debt and, in a few cases, suicide.

In between these two Chinas stands a cordon of roadblocks and hundreds of security agents deployed to make sure that the one never sees the other.

The water scandal is a parable of what can happen when a demanding global event is awarded to a poor agricultural nation run by a dictatorship; and the irony is that none of it has turned out to be necessary.

The blunders began when officials started to worry that Beijing might not have enough water to cope with 500,000 visitors to the Olympics. There was talk of a 30% spike in demand. Their gaze turned to Hebei province, its fields ripe with vegetables, corn and rice, providing a good living for its huge rural population.

Decrees were issued, targets were set and engineers scurried to complete a “100day struggle” to build almost 200 miles of channels and pipes to Beijing. These will form part of a gigantic project to bring the waters of the Yangtze River to the drought-stricken plains of northern China. Meanwhile, four strategic reservoirs in Hebei, around the city of Baoding, were filled to the brim.

Accounts differ of what happened next. Some farmers say the price of water was raised by 300% to put it beyond their reach. Others simply say that their irrigation channels ran dry. As subterranean water levels fell, their wells collapsed, fields were abandoned, mud-brick farm houses stood empty.

About 31,000 people around Baoding are said to have lost their homes or land. Local leaders complained; China’s tiny environmental movement agitated. That all stopped when the Hebei media trotted out a barrage of propaganda assuring readers that the entire population was overjoyed to be making a sacrifice for the national good.

To piece together what happened, The Sunday Times interviewed more than 20 farmers, water engineers and officials in the counties of Tangxian, Man-cheng and Shunping.

“There was a great rush to build the local section of the canal but suddenly, in the spring, it stopped,” said a water engineer. “Actually, we haven’t sent a drop to Beijing.”

Sure enough, the great concrete canal lay empty but for a pool of rainwater. It stretched to the horizon through greenery shaded brown with dust.

The story was repeated everywhere. Half-built aqueducts, pipes that disgorged a murky trickle, untapped reservoirs where water gleamed just a pebble throw from parched fields. By every account, the building stopped soon after an uprising in Tibet led to world-wide protests during the Olympic torch relay and calls for a boycott of the Games.

It became clear to the Chinese government that the number of tourists would be much fewer than expected. They also decided, in effect, to expel a host of migrant workers from the capital. Many residents opted to shun the oppressive security measures and left town. Beijing no longer needed the water.

Nobody bothered to relieve the plight of the hapless farmers. “Our streams and rivers have no water,” said a farmer called Wang Duchuan, 30, “How can we grow rice? We don’t even have enough water for corn.”

“Before, we dug a well two metres deep and got water. Now we dig 10 metres deep and get nothing,” said another.

Several farmers got into debt to moneylenders and killed themselves by drinking pesti-cide, local people said. Incomes for a family in Hebei province can be as low as £1 a day.

Rather than change policy, resume the supply and lose face, officials resorted to repression. For a sleepy agricultural centre, Baoding had an extraordinary number of policemen on duty. Roadblocks prevented any unauthorised vehicles going north to Beijing. Taxi drivers were given a printed order that any “unusual” passengers should be driven straight to the police.

Armed police checked cars at 10 points along one road to a reservoir. At each stop, a banner proclaimed “Olympic Security Checkpoint”, although the Games themselves were more than 100 miles away. Posters offered a reward of more than £7,000 for “special Olympic information” given to the Public Security Bureau.

At a city hotel, the staff at the front desk arose aghast when I entered to ask for a room, then immediately telephoned the authorities. Deciding to forgo the pleasure of their acquaintance, I made my excuses and left Baoding.

As I waited at the railway station, the only foreigner in a reeking hall crammed with shabby migrants, a young man in a perfectly ironed green polo shirt and polished black shoes came and sat opposite, apparently engrossed in a newspaper.

A few minutes later a second young man, in a neat purple T-shirt and equally shiny shoes, sat down nearby and stared into space. A third fellow, this time in a pink polo shirt, materialised in the heaving throng next to me as we tramped towards the night express, murmuring into a mobile phone. After I climbed on board they vanished.

Yet another red banner, strung across the interior of our packed carriage, read: “The five Olympic rings include you and me.”
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Re: Let us Understand the Chinese

Post by Rahul M »

China's strategic thinking: A gold medal for mental gymnastics
by Ajai Shukla.

do check out the first pic !
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