Bharat Rakshak

Kamboja wrote:

Restive provinces in maroon

Thank you Kambojaji

The problem is the over population of Hun Chinese. Perhaps they should enforce zero children for 5 or 10 years on Hun Chinese and allow other Chinese races to have more than one child. They cannot keep producing children and expect others to make room for them,.

Perhaps they can make the population to be proportional to the land they contribute to China (if they want to keep one china that is).

Yale historian Jonathan Spence has long cautioned that the West tends to view China through the same lens as it sees itself. Today’s cottage industry of China doubters is a case in point. Yes, by our standards, China’s imbalances are unstable and unsustainable. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has, in fact, gone public with a similar critique.

But that’s why China is so different. It actually takes these concerns seriously. Unlike the West, where the very concept of strategy has become an oxymoron, China has embraced a transitional framework aimed at resolving its sustainability constraints. Moreover, unlike the West, which is trapped in a dysfunctional political quagmire, China has both the commitment and the wherewithal to deliver on that strategy. This is not a time to bet against China.

Stephen S. Roach, a member of the faculty at Yale University, is Non-Executive Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and author of The Next Asia.

There have always been Masochists in Europe! Whats so strange about it! Some Europeans and many Indians enjoy the luxury of living in open societies where they can freely indulge in self hatred or hatred of their birth society. Many Chinese on the other hand, even if living in open societies still feel the deep seated need to uphold the emperor and his eunuchs' boots. There goes the true-blue slave - for slavery does not release his mind - ever, even outside the direct reach of his emperor.

But see, with a few exceptions - both categories still prefer "open societies" to spend their days and rant in favour of the "emperor" and the "empire"!

anupmisra wrote:

Gerard wrote:This is a city built for a million people - but no one lives here

Here's another video on Chinese ghost cities and malls. All in the pursuit of a souped up GDP growth. It seems that everything in China was and is "Maya".

A fair number of references exist regarding ghost cities in China and I wonder (like everyone else) - why? Like my nuclear non expertise that makes it easy for me to shoot my mouth off about nuke weapon design - my non expertise in economics allows me to speculate without the weight of knowledge.

It appears that these cities are being built by the Chicom government - which is pouring in money to employ tens or hundreds of thousands of workers in the construction and ancillary industries. This is unlike India where the majority of residential projects are done by many private groups from funding that does not come from the government. Technically - with 1.4 billion people China can keep on doing this for a while as long as the money lasts. The money is presumably coming from China's "healthy reserves".

Presumably again - some percentage of the money is recouped when wealthy people buy properties. Every Western commentator worries about what will happen when the bubble bursts. What can happen? Not a lot. The money that the Chicom government spent will not be recouped but "it's my father's money" anyway. The few people who bought properties will see a loss of property value. The money has gone already.

As long as the Chicom government can keep on and on an on building the workers will be earning a living and the Chicom government will be throwing the excess money at it. So what if there are 60 million unoccupied houses? China has 1400 million people. It is OK for them to build at least 200 million more houses. Then what? If worst comes to worst the government can start giving away houses for a nominal sum.

Someone please explain what I am missing here?

Ravi Karumanchiri wrote:UFO photographed in China

A MAN took a picture of an unidentified flying object (UFO) while holidaying in the outskirts of Kunming, China.

He did not notice anything strange in the sky until he looked at the photographs he took later.

'I took two pictures of the scenery. When I checked them later that night, I saw three black dots hovering above the Songhua dam in one of the photos. The biggest one looked like a butterfly,' he said.

Kunming UFO Research Society president Zhang Yifang said he ruled out the biggest black spot being a kite or a bird.

'It has the saucer-like shape of a UFO. I believe it is a UFO, but I can't confirm anything with just one photograph,' he said.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNew ... 74518.html

LOL, it is a butterfly

^ Looks like crappy cheena camera had a dead moth on the sensor .

The Czech writer and philosopher Franz Kafka wrote an essay entitled "The Great Wall of China", to sum up his thoughts on the nature of the Chinese mentality and national culture, and their relationship with their past and present. The piece is presented as a "story", from the point of view of an engineer who contributed to building the Wall.

It was written in 1917, but it offers insights into the mind of the Han, as well as the Chinese approach to strategic development, that are relevant even today.

http://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/kafka/g ... fchina.htm


The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China was finished at its most northerly location. The construction work moved up from the south-east and south-west and joined at this point. This system of building in sections was also followed on a small scale within the two great armies of workers, the eastern and western armies. It was carried out in the following manner: groups of about twenty workers were formed, each of which had to take on a section of the wall, about five hundred metres long. A neighbouring group then built a wall of similar length to meet them. But then afterwards, when the sections were fully joined, construction was not continued on any further at the end of this thousand-metre section. Instead the groups of workers were shipped off again to build the wall in completely different regions. Naturally, with this method many large gaps arose, which were filled in only gradually and slowly, many of them not until after it had already been reported that the building of the wall was complete. In fact, there are said to be gaps which have never been built in at all, although that’s merely an assertion which probably belongs among the many legends which have arisen about the structure and which, for individual people at least, are impossible to prove with their own eyes and according to their own standards, because the structure is so immense.

Now, at first one might think it would have been more advantageous in every way to build in continuous sections or at least continuously within two main sections. For the wall was conceived as a protection against the people of the north, as was commonly announced and universally known. But how can protection be provided by a wall which is not built continuously? In fact, not only can such a wall not protect, but the structure itself is in constant danger. Those parts of the wall left standing abandoned in deserted regions could always be destroyed easily by the nomads, especially by those back then who, worried about the building of the wall, changed their place of residence with incredible speed, like grasshoppers, and thus perhaps had an even better overall view of how the construction was proceeding than we did, the people who built it. However, there was really no other way to carry out the construction except the way it happened. In order to understand this, one must consider the following: the wall was to become a protection for centuries; thus, the essential prerequisites for the work were the most careful construction, the use of the architectural wisdom of all known ages and peoples, and an enduring sense of personal responsibility in the builders. Of course, for the more humble tasks one could use ignorant day labourers from the people—the men, women, and children who offered their services for good money. But the supervision of even four day labourers required a knowledgeable man, an educated expert in construction, someone who was capable of feeling sympathy deep in his heart for what was at stake here. And the higher the challenge, the greater the demands. And such men were in fact available—if not the crowds of them which this construction could have used, at least in great numbers.

This work was not undertaken recklessly. Fifty years before the start of construction it was announced throughout the whole region of China which was to be enclosed within the wall that architecture and especially masonry were the most important areas of knowledge, and everything else was recognized only to the extent that it had some relationship to those. I still remember very well how as small children who could hardly walk we stood in our teacher’s little garden and had to construct a sort of wall out of pebbles, and how the teacher gathered up his coat and ran against the wall, naturally making everything collapse, and then scolded us so much for the weakness of our construction that we ran off in all directions howling to our parents. A tiny incident, but an indication of the spirit of the times.

I was lucky that at twenty years of age, when I passed the final examination of the lowest school, the construction of the wall was just starting. I say lucky because many who earlier had attained the highest limit of education available to them had no idea for years what to do with their knowledge and wandered around uselessly, with the most splendid architectural plans in their heads, and a great many of them just went downhill from there. But the ones who finally got to work as supervisors on the construction, even if they had the lowest rank, were really worthy of their position. They were masons who had given much thought to the construction and never stopped thinking about it, men who, right from the first stone which they let sink into the ground, had a sense of themselves as part of the wall. Such masons, of course, were driven not only by the desire to carry out the work as thoroughly as possible but also by impatience to see the structure finally standing there in its complete final perfection. Day labourers do not experience this impatience. They are driven only by their pay. The higher supervisors and, indeed, even the middle supervisors, see enough from their various perspectives of the growth of the wall to keep their spirits energized. But the subordinate supervisors, men who were mentally far above their outwardly trivial tasks, had to be catered to in other ways. One could not, for example, let them lay one building block on top of another in an uninhabited region of the mountains, hundreds of miles from their homes, for months or even years at a time. The hopelessness of such a hard task, which could not be completed even in a long human lifetime, would have caused them distress and, more than anything else, made them worthless for work. For that reason the system of building in sections was chosen. Five hundred metres could be completed in something like five years, by which time naturally the supervisors were, as a rule, too exhausted and had lost all faith in themselves, in the building, and in the world. Thus, while they were still experiencing the elation of the celebrations for the joining up of a thousand metres of the wall, they were shipped far, far away. On their journey they saw here and there finished sections of the wall rising up; they passed through the quarters of the higher administrators, who gave them gifts as badges of honour, and they heard the rejoicing of new armies of workers streaming past them out of the depths of the land, saw forests being laid low, wood designated as scaffolding for the wall, witnessed mountains being broken up into rocks for the wall, and heard in the holy places the hymns of the pious praying for the construction to be finished. All this calmed their impatience. The quiet life of home, where they spent some time, reinvigorated them. The high regard which all those doing the building enjoyed, the devout humility with which people listened to their reports, the trust that simple quiet citizens had that the wall would be completed someday—all this tuned the strings of their souls. Then, like eternally hopeful children, they took leave of their home. The enthusiasm for labouring once again at the people’s work became irresistible. They set out from their houses earlier than necessary, and half the village accompanied them for a long way. On all the roads there were groups of people, pennants, banners—they had never seen how great and rich and beautiful and endearing their country was. Every countryman was a brother for whom they were building a protective wall and who would thank him with everything he had and was for all his life. Unity! Unity! Shoulder to shoulder, a coordinated movement of the people, their blood no longer confined in the limited circulation of the body but rolling sweetly and yet still returning through the infinite extent of China.

In view of all this, the system of piecemeal building becomes understandable. But there were still other reasons, too. And there is nothing strange in the fact that I have held off on this point for so long. It is the central issue in the whole construction of the wall, no matter how unimportant it appears at first. If I want to convey the ideas and experiences of that time and make them intelligible, I cannot probe deeply enough into this particular question.

First, it has to be said that achievements were brought to fruition at that time which rank slightly behind the Tower of Babel, although in the pleasure they gave to God, at least by human reckoning, they made an impression exactly the opposite of that structure. I mention this because at the time construction was beginning a scholar wrote a book in which he drew this comparison very precisely. In it he tried to show that the Tower of Babel had failed to attain its goal not at all for the reasons commonly asserted, or at least that the most important causes were not among these well-known ones. He not only based his proofs on texts and reports, but also claimed to have carried out personal inspections of the location and thus to have found that the structure collapsed and had to collapse because of the weakness of its foundation. And it is true that in this respect our age was far superior to that one long ago. Almost every educated person in our age was a mason by profession and infallible when it came to the business of laying foundations.

But it was not at all the scholar’s aim to prove this. Instead he claimed that the great wall alone would for the first time in the age of human beings create a secure foundation for a new Tower of Babel. So first the wall and then the tower. In those days the book was in everyone’s hands, but I confess that even today I do not understand exactly how he imagined this tower. How could the wall, which never once took the form of a circle but only a sort of quarter or half circle, provide the foundation for a tower? But it could be meant only in a spiritual sense. But then why the wall, which was something real, a product of the efforts and lives of hundreds of thousands of people? And why were there plans in the book—admittedly hazy plans—sketching the tower, as well as detailed proposals about how the energies of the people could be strictly channelled into the new work in the future.

There was a great deal of mental confusion at the time—this book is only one example—perhaps for the simple reason that so many people were trying as hard as they could to join together for a single purpose. Human nature, which is fundamentally careless and by nature like the whirling dust, endures no restraint. If it restricts itself, it will soon begin to shake the restraints madly and tear up walls, chains, and even itself in every direction.

It is possible that even these considerations, which argued against building the wall in the first place, were not ignored by the leadership when they decided on piecemeal construction. We—and here I’m really speaking on behalf of many—actually first found out about it by spelling out the orders from the highest levels of management and learned for ourselves that without the leadership neither our school learning nor our human understanding would have been adequate for the small position we had within the enormous totality. In the office of the leadership—where it was and who sat there no one I asked knows or knew—in this office I imagine that all human thoughts and wishes revolve in a circle, and all human aims and fulfillments in a circle going in the opposite direction. But through the window the reflection of the divine worlds fell onto the hands of the leadership as they drew up the plans.

And for this reason the incorruptible observer will reject the notion that if the leadership had seriously wanted a continuous construction of the wall, they would not have been able to overcome the difficulties standing in the way. So the only conclusion left is that the leadership deliberately chose piecemeal construction. But building in sections was something merely makeshift and impractical. So the conclusion remains that the leadership wanted something impractical. An odd conclusion! True enough, and yet from another perspective it had some inherent justification. Nowadays one can perhaps speak about it without danger. At that time for many people, even the best, there was a secret principle: Try with all your powers to understand the orders of the leadership, but only up to a certain limit—then stop thinking about them. A very reasonable principle, which incidentally found an even wider interpretation in a later often repeated comparison: Stop further thinking, not because it could harm you—it is not at all certain that it will harm you. In this matter one cannot speak in general about harming or not harming. What will happen to you is like a river in spring. It rises, grows stronger, eats away more powerfully at the land along its banks, and still maintains its own course down to the sea and is more welcome as a fitter partner for the sea. Reflect upon the orders of the leadership as far as that. But then the river overflows its banks, loses its form and shape, slows down its forward movement, tries, contrary to its destiny, to form small seas inland, damages the fields, and yet cannot maintain its expansion long, but runs back within its banks, in fact, even dries up miserably in the hot time of year which follows. Do not reflect on the orders of the leadership to that extent.

Now, this comparison may perhaps have been extraordinarily apt during the construction of the wall, but it has at least only a limited relevance to my present report. For my investigation is merely historical. There is no lightning strike flashing any more from storm clouds which have long since vanished, and thus I may seek an explanation for the piecemeal construction which goes further than the one people were satisfied with back then. The limits which my ability to think sets for me are certainly narrow enough, but the region one would have to pass through here is endless.

Against whom was the great wall to provide protection? Against the people of the north. I come from south-east China. No northern people can threaten us there. We read about them in the books of the ancients. The atrocities which their nature prompts them to commit make us heave a sigh on our peaceful porches. In the faithfully accurate pictures of artists we see these faces of damnation, with their mouths flung open, the sharp pointed teeth stuck in their jaws, their straining eyes, which seem to be squinting for someone to seize, someone their jaws will crush and rip to pieces. When children are naughty, we hold up these pictures in front of them, and they immediately burst into tears and run into our arms. But we know nothing else about these northern lands. We have never seen them, and if we remain in our village, we never will see them, even if they charge straight at us and hunt us on their wild horses. The land is so huge, it would not permit them to reach us, and they would lose themselves in the empty air.

So if things are like this, why do we leave our homeland, the river and bridges, our mothers and fathers, our crying wives, our children in need of education, and go away to school in the distant city, with our thoughts on the wall to the north, even further away? Why? Ask the leadership. They know us. As they mull over their immense concerns, they know about us, understand our small worries, see us all sitting together in our humble huts, and approve or disapprove of the prayer which the father of the house says in the evening in the circle of his family. And if I may be permitted such ideas about the leadership, then I must say that in my view the leadership existed even earlier. It did not come together like some high mandarins quickly summoned to a meeting by a beautiful dream of the future, something hastily concluded, a meeting which by evening saw to it that the general population was driven from their beds by a knocking on the door so that they could carry out the decision, even if it was only to set up a lantern in honour of a god who had shown favour to the masters the day before, so that he could thrash them in some dark corner the next day, when the lantern had only just died out. On the contrary, I imagine the leadership has existed since time immemorial, along with the decision to construct the wall as well. Innocent northern people believed they were the cause; the admirable and innocent emperor believed he had given orders for it. We who were builders of the wall know otherwise and are silent.

Even back then during the construction of the wall and afterwards, right up to the present day, I have devoted myself almost exclusively to the histories of different people. There are certain questions for which one can, to some extent, get to the heart of the matter only in this way. Using this method I have found that we Chinese possess certain popular and state institutions which are uniquely clear and, then again, others which are uniquely obscure. Tracking down the reasons for these, especially for the latter phenomena, always appealed to me, and still does, and the construction of the wall is fundamentally concerned with these issues.

Now, among our most obscure institutions one can certainly include the empire itself. Of course, in Peking, right in the court, there is some clarity about it, although even this is more apparent than real. And the teachers of constitutional law and history in the high schools give out that they are precisely informed about these things and that they are able to pass this knowledge on to their students. The deeper one descends into the lower schools, the more the doubts about the students’ own knowledge understandably disappear, and a superficial education surges up as high as a mountain around a few precepts drilled into them for centuries, sayings which, in fact, have lost nothing of their eternal truth, but which remain also eternally unrecognized in this mist and fog.

But, in my view, it’s precisely the empire we should be asking the people about, because in them the empire has its final support. It’s true that in this matter I can speak once again only about my own homeland. Other than the agricultural deities and the service to them, which so beautifully and variously fills up the entire year, our thinking concerns itself only with the emperor. But not with the present emperor. We would have concerned ourselves with the present one if we had recognized who he was or had known anything definite about him. We were naturally always trying—and it’s the single curiosity which consumed us—to find out something or other about him, but, no matter how strange this sounds, it was hardly possible to learn anything, either from pilgrims, even though they wandered through much of our land, or from the close or remote villages, or from boatmen, although they have travelled not merely on our little waterways but also on the sacred rivers. Of course, we heard a great deal, but could gather nothing from the many details.

Our land is so huge, that no fairy tale can adequately deal with its size. Heaven hardly covers it all. And Peking is only a point, the imperial palace only a tiny dot. It’s true that, by contrast, throughout all the different levels of the world the emperor, as emperor, is great. But the living emperor, a human being like us, lies on a peaceful bed, just as we do. It is, no doubt, of ample proportions, but it could be merely narrow and short. Like us, he sometime stretches out his limbs and, if he is very tired, yawns with his delicately delineated mouth. But how are we to know about that thousands of miles to the south, where we almost border on the Tibetan highlands? Besides, any report which might come, even if it reached us, would get there much too late and would be long out of date. Around the emperor the glittering and yet murky court throngs—malice and enmity clothed as servants and friends, the counterbalance to the imperial power, with their poisoned arrows always trying to shoot the emperor down from his side of the balance scales. The empire is immortal, but the individual emperor falls and collapses. Even entire dynasties finally sink down and breathe their one last death rattle. The people will never know anything about these struggles and suffering. Like those who have come too late, like strangers to the city, they stand at the end of the thickly populated side alleyways, quietly living off the provisions they have brought with them, while far off in the market place right in the middle foreground the execution of their master is taking place.

There is a legend which expresses this relationship well. The Emperor—so they say—has sent a message, directly from his death bed, to you alone, his pathetic subject, a tiny shadow which has taken refuge at the furthest distance from the imperial sun. He ordered the herald to kneel down beside his death bed and whispered the message to him. He thought it was so important that he had the herald repeat it back to him. He confirmed the accuracy of the verbal message by nodding his head. And in front of the entire crowd of those who have come to witness his death—all the obstructing walls have been broken down and all the great ones of his empire are standing in a circle on the broad and high soaring flights of stairs—in front of all of them he dispatched his herald. The messenger started off at once, a powerful, tireless man. Sticking one arm out and then another, he makes his way through the crowd. If he runs into resistance, he points to his breast where there is a sign of the sun. So he moves forward easily, unlike anyone else. But the crowd is so huge; its dwelling places are infinite. If there were an open field, how he would fly along, and soon you would hear the marvellous pounding of his fist on your door. But instead of that, how futile are all his efforts. He is still forcing his way through the private rooms of the innermost palace. He will never he win his way through. And if he did manage that, nothing would have been achieved. He would have to fight his way down the steps, and, if he managed to do that, nothing would have been achieved. He would have to stride through the courtyards, and after the courtyards the second palace encircling the first, and, then again, stairs and courtyards, and then, once again, a palace, and so on for thousands of years. And if he finally did burst through the outermost door—but that can never, never happen—the royal capital city, the centre of the world, is still there in front of him, piled high and full of sediment. No one pushes his way through here, certainly not with a message from a dead man. But you sit at your window and dream to yourself of that message when evening comes.

That’s exactly how our people look at the emperor, hopelessly and full of hope. They don’t know which emperor is on the throne, and there are even doubts about the name of the dynasty. In the schools they learn a great deal about things like the succession, but the common uncertainty in this respect is so great that even the best pupils are drawn into it. In our villages emperors long since dead are set on the throne, and one of them who still lives on only in songs had one of his announcements issued a little while ago, which the priest read out from the altar. Battles from our most ancient history are now fought for the first time, and with a glowing face your neighbour charges into your house with the report. The imperial wives, overindulged on silk cushions, alienated from noble customs by shrewd courtiers, swollen with thirst for power, driven by greed, excessive in their lust, are always committing their evil acts over again. The further back they are in time, the more terrible all their colours glow, and with a loud cry of grief our village eventually gets to learn how an empress thousands of years ago drank her husband’s blood in lengthy gulps.

That, then, is how the people deal with the rulers from the past, but they mix up the present rulers with the dead ones. If once, once in a person’s lifetime an imperial official travelling around the province chances to come into our village, sets out some demands or other in the name of the rulers, checks the tax lists, attends a school class, interrogates the priest about our comings and goings, and then, before climbing into his sedan chair, summarizes everything in a long sermon to the assembled local population, at that point a smile crosses every face, one man looks furtively at another and bends over his children, so as not to let the official see him. How, people think, can he speak of a dead man as if he were alive. This emperor already died a long time ago, the dynasty has been extinguished, the official is having fun with us. But we’ll act as if we didn’t notice, so that we don’t hurt his feelings. However, in all seriousness we’ll obey only our present ruler, for anything else would be a sin. And behind the official’s sedan chair as it hurries away there arises from the already decomposed urn someone high up who is arbitrarily endorsed as ruler of the village.

Similarly, with us people are, as a rule, little affected by political revolutions and contemporary wars. Here I recall an incident from my youth. In a neighbouring but still very far distant province a rebellion broke out. I cannot remember the causes any more. Besides, they are not important here. In that province reasons for rebellion arise every new day—they are an excitable people. Well, on one occasion a rebel pamphlet was brought into my father’s house by a beggar who had travelled through that province. It happened to be a holiday. Our living room was full of guests. The priest sat in their midst and studied the pamphlet. Suddenly everyone started laughing, the sheet was torn to pieces in the general confusion, and the beggar, although he had already been richly rewarded, was chased out of the room with blows. Everyone scattered and ran out into the beautiful day. Why? The dialect of the neighbouring province is essentially different from ours, and these differences manifest themselves also in certain forms of the written language, which for us have an antiquated character. Well, the priest had scarcely read two pages like that, and people had already decided. Old matters heard long ago, and long since got over. And although—as I recall from my memory—a horrifying way of life seemed to speak irrefutably through the beggar, people laughed and shook their head and were unwilling to hear any more. That’s how ready people are among us to obliterate the present.

If one wanted to conclude from such phenomena that we basically have no emperor at all, one would not be far from the truth. I need to say it again and again: There is perhaps no people more faithful to the emperor than we are in the south, but the emperor derives no benefits from our loyalty. It’s true that on the way out of our village there stands on a little pillar the sacred dragon, which, for as long as men can remember, has paid tribute by blowing its fiery breath straight in the direction of Peking. But for the people in the village Peking itself is much stranger than living in the next world. Could there really be a village where houses stand right beside each other covering the fields and reaching further than the view from our hills, with men standing shoulder to shoulder between these houses day and night? Rather than imagining such a city, it’s easier for us to believe that Peking and its emperor are one, something like a cloud, peacefully moving along under the sun as the ages pass.

Now, the consequence of such opinions is a life which is to some extent free and uncontrolled. Not in any way immoral—purity of morals like those in my homeland I have hardly ever come across in my travels. But nonetheless a way of life that stands under no present law and only pays attention to the wisdom and advice which reach across to us from ancient times.

I guard again generalizations and do not claim that things like this go on in all ten thousand villages of our province or, indeed, in all five hundred provinces of China. But on the basis of the many writings which I have read concerning this subject, as well as on the basis of my own observations, especially since with the construction of the wall the human material provided an opportunity for a man of feeling to travel through the souls of almost all the provinces—on the basis of all this perhaps I may state that with respect to the emperor the prevailing idea again and again reveals everywhere a certain essential feature common to the conception in my homeland. Now, I have no desire at all to let this conception stand as a virtue—quite the contrary. It’s true that in the main things the blame rests with the government, which in the oldest empire on earth right up to the present day has not been able or has, among other things, neglected to cultivate the institution of empire sufficiently clearly so that it is immediately and ceaselessly effective right up to the most remote frontiers of the empire. On the other hand, however, there is in this also a weakness in the people’s power of imagining or believing, which has not succeeded in pulling the empire out of its deep contemplative state in Peking and making it something fully vital and present in the hearts of subjects, who nonetheless want nothing better than to feel its touch once and then die from the experience.

So this conception is really not a virtue. It’s all the more striking that this very weakness appears to be one of the most important ways of unifying our people. Indeed, if one may go so far as to use the expression, it is the very ground itself on which we live. To provide a detailed account of why we have a flaw here would amount not just to rattling our consciences but, what is much more serious, to making our legs tremble. And therefore I do not wish to go any further in the investigation of these questions at the present time.

Former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, has said peace efforts in Afghanistan without China's participation would be futile. He has predicted an increased probability of a war between India and Pakistan.

Henry Kissinger expressed these views in an interview published in Financial Times on May 20. "Without China's active participation, any attempts to immunise Afghanistan against terrorism would be futile. This may be a tall order, since the Russians and the Chinese are getting a "free ride" on US engagement, which contains the jihadism which in central Asia and Xinjiang threatens their own security," Kissinger said. He continued: "So was it, in retrospect, a good idea for Barack Obama to have announced that this coming July will see the beginning of a military drawdown? The question triggers a Vietnam flashback. I know from personal experience that once you start a drawdown, the road from there is inexorable. We found ourselves in a position where to maintain a free choice for the population in South Vietnam we had to keep withdrawing troops, thereby reducing the incentive for the very negotiations in which I was engaged. We will find the same challenge in Afghanistan."

Kissinger further said, "I wrote a memorandum to Nixon which said that in the beginning of the withdrawal it will be like salted peanuts; the more you eat, the more you want." According to Kissinger, the prospects for Afghanistan are grimmer than anything anyone has yet imagined, where the presence or absence of al-Qaeda will be the least of its problems. What might happen, he says, is a de facto partition, with India and Russia reconstituting the Northern Alliance, and Pakistan hooked to Taliban as a backstop against their own encirclement.

"Suddenly, spring goes chilly. The prospect looms of a centennial commemoration of the First World War through a half-awake re-enactment. Not Belgium but Sarajevo. Think proxy half-states; the paranoia of encirclement; the bristling arsenals, in this case nuclear; the nervous, beleaguered Pakistanis lashing out in passive-aggressive insecurity. And an India-Pakistan war becomes more probable, eventually," says Kissinger, his voice a deep pond of calm.

He believes that "some kind of international process in which these issues are discussed might generate enough restraints so that Pakistan does not feel itself encircled by India and doesn't see a strategic reserve in the Taliban. Is it possible to do this? I don't know. But I know if we let matters drift this could become the Balkans of the next world war."

What can China do tha? China lacks something called the ability to project power. In short, that means that China isn't capable of fighting wars away from their borders. They lack a blue water navy (google the term), and thus could never get close enough to attack the US. China only has about 20 missiles(liquid fueled), capable of reaching the US, and that's only our west coast (california). To sum it up, China has no offensive capability against the US. All they can do is defense.

Comment in the youtube above

The problem with Afghanistan is that they are not a developed society, so the population is made up of small "tribes" of a few hundred people. To completely control the country would require hundreds of thousands of troops. The US is now in four wars, with barely any casualties. We have complete control of the worlds oceans and skies, over 1000 bases and troops in 130 of the worlds nations (almost all on Earth). We did all of this without a full mobilization of our society.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/0 ... 71784.html

China Is The World's 'Happiest' Place

Most global polls rate Scandinavian and west European nations as being among the world's happiest and most liveable. Not so says a North Korean survey, which ranked China as "the happiest place on earth."

As Shanghaiist is reporting, a new global happiness index released by North Korea's Chosun Central Television awarded China 100 out of 100 possible points. If the "Gross National Happiness" survey is to be believed, isolated dictatorships are the key to overall well-being, with North Korea reportedly coming in second with 98 points, followed by Cuba, Iran and Venezuela.

Though full rankings and the survey's criteria have not yet been revealed (at least In English), the lowest marks are said to have gone to South Korea, which scored just 18 points to come in at 152, while the United States -- reportedly listed as "the American Empire" -- fared even worse at 203 with a measly three points, MSNBC is reporting. Israel was nowhere to be found.

Still, the survey has created a global media sensation, with resounding grumblings in the blogsophere. "Famine and repression apparently didn't hurt North Korea's standing in the eyes of the 'researchers,'" joked NPR's Mark Memmott, while another commentator reportedly pleaded, "Please send me to the U.S. so I can suffer too."

China Begins to Look Away From Africa

http://www.allafrica.com, 7 June

Jasmine blossoms' fall from grace in the Chinese flower industry is not the only blow Chinese businesses have suffered as a result of the North African and Middle Eastern democratic uprisings this spring. China is evaluating the impact of the Jasmine revolution on its overseas investment and outward business expansion strategy.

Africa - once considered the lab for Chinese companies' reach outside - is being relegated into a destination with too many risk factors. Safer political destinations and countries closer to home are likely to benefit from the shift.

The readjustment has been in the works for some time but the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have made those subtle shifts more pronounced.

According to press reports, China's Ministry of Commerce new five-year plan, which is being finalised at the moment, makes Asia and the new emerging economies the centrepiece of the country's "go out" investment strategy.

"The political risk aside, investment in Africa is no longer what it used to be," the Economic Observer quoted an unnamed official from the ministry in May. "Opening a mine there is not so easy any more, now you need to take into account the environment, local employment and benefits to local economy."

A study released in May by the Asia Society in New York forecast that by 2020 China's overseas direct investment could reach 2 trillion dollars. Last year the United States' foreign investment amounted to 300 billion dollars.

But before spreading their wings further afield many companies, including major state oil firms like Petro China, have used Africa as their testing ground. Entering as contractors to build railways, roads and telecommunications, Chinese companies now boast a sizeable presence on the continent. By the end of 2010, some 2,000 Chinese companies operated in Africa with an accumulated investment of 32 billion dollars.

Last year China became Africa's largest trading partner, and its march into the continent seemed unstoppable. Not surprisingly, this has been met with criticisms by some that China is acting as a neo- coloniser, stripping Africa of its rich resources.

In Libya where China's involvement is quite recent, the losses suffered and the cost of repatriating some 36,000 Chinese employees is set to surpass 3 billion dollars. Since 2007 Libya had contracted some 50 engineering projects to Chinese companies, including several image projects to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1969 revolution.

Although China's role as a contractor has limited its exposure to direct losses in the unrest, some Chinese assets like Sinopec refineries in Libya were raided and destroyed. Experts say that on the whole Beijing has been left to deal with a messy aftermath of compensation claims, third party debts and the re-employment of all returned workers.

The civil unrest and safety concerns have made the Chinese even more invisible in Africa, adding fuel to accusations that Chinese contractors are isolating themselves from the local population behind high walls, and remain aloof to local grievances.

The Chinese are only waiting it out. Once things are back to normal, they'll be back to be Africa's allweather friend.

Two front war possible this year

http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index ... _p__111919

A two-front war is still on the cards, possibly sometime by November 2011. The Indians need to fight a defensive/holding war on one front and an offensive war on the other. While the Indian Armed Forces are definitely larger and far better equipped than in 1962, the leadership in the armed forces is one of the corruptest and most incompetent in the world. In fact, in comparison, the Pakistani army and air force are far better led professionally.

I do not think Mr MM Singh is seriously looking into the seriousness of Arunachel Pradesh. Chinese may create a war like situation at anytime. Is India prepared for this? Or our Foreign Minister may not be aware of this or even not worried about this?! We should have surprise element too if we are preapred!
Arunachal minister cautions against ‘Kargil-like’ situation
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/aruna ... on/803346/

Acharya wrote:Two front war possible this year

http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index ... _p__111919

A two-front war is still on the cards, possibly sometime by November 2011. The Indians need to fight a defensive/holding war on one front and an offensive war on the other. While the Indian Armed Forces are definitely larger and far better equipped than in 1962, the leadership in the armed forces is one of the corruptest and most incompetent in the world. In fact, in comparison, the Pakistani army and air force are far better led professionally.

November is the worst possible time to start a war in the Himalayas. the passes start getting snow bound in mid November. War is best started next month.

Acharya wrote:Two front war possible this year

http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index ... _p__111919

A two-front war is still on the cards, possibly sometime by November 2011. The Indians need to fight a defensive/holding war on one front and an offensive war on the other. While the Indian Armed Forces are definitely larger and far better equipped than in 1962, the leadership in the armed forces is one of the corruptest and most incompetent in the world. In fact, in comparison, the Pakistani army and air force are far better led professionally.

What is the need to paste such nonsense posts from other forums where the above is acceptable view about the Services?

If the idea was to discuss the possibility of two-front war in coming months, you could have posted that query as your own rather than paste something from other forum? Are the gents proposing the above hypothesis in some way extremely qualified in the subject matter to warrant discussion on BRF?

Now, coming to more pertinent question on two-front war - what two-front? As in "China and Pakistan in tandem" or "China in east and Pakistan in West"? The former can happen without latter now that PLA is sitting in POK. As for the latter, AFAIK, there is a small window before monsoons hit the northern parts of Indian sub-continent when both PA and PLA can plan something together. It will allow PA to allow the use of their armored elements while with passes being open in NE, PLA will have room to maneuver.

A war in November, IMO, is likely to be restricted to POK/Ladakh. With the passes closed, the two might try and surprise the Indians. Quick induction may be delayed from Indian side as passes are closed. But the action is likely to be tactical than strategic - there is only that much movement possible in winters in these areas.

>>While the Indian Armed Forces are definitely larger and far better equipped than in 1962, the leadership in the armed forces is one of the corruptest and most incompetent in the world. In fact, in comparison, the Pakistani army and air force are far better led professionally.

Seriously Acharya? Come on, do we really want to perpetrate this rubbish on BR?

Rohit - I missed that sentence. Clearly the person has a chip on his shoulder. This is the wrong thread but I recognize a foolish rhetorician when I see one and it is easy to use similar rhetoric to rip open the langoti of a person who makes that type of post. Facts are completely unnecessary (in fact one must not bother about facts) - it matters little whether Indian armed forces are idiots or not - the possibility of ripping open that argument by making a similar rhetorical counter argument designed to irritate and provoke the poster and making him say something even more stupid is tempting

Some other time. Some other place..

Acharya wrote:Two front war possible this year

http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index ... _p__111919

A two-front war is still on the cards, possibly sometime by November 2011. The Indians need to fight a defensive/holding war on one front and an offensive war on the other. While the Indian Armed Forces are definitely larger and far better equipped than in 1962, the leadership in the armed forces is one of the corruptest and most incompetent in the world. In fact, in comparison, the Pakistani army and air force are far better led professionally.

who the moron is this qubit and why is his garbage being copy-pasted here ?
I have quite a bit of respect for IF but not for bilge of this kind. simply put, this kind of posts nonsense will not be tolerated on BR.

China's moon mission-II seems to have ended pre-maturely at 6 months and lost in space, but a positive spin is put out by them now and is claiming solar system exploration.

China's second moon orbiter Chang'e-2 goes to outer space or is it lost in space ?

China: Truth, Rumors, and a Basket of Fruit

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/e ... z1PGqp3zpl

the absolute refusal to believe the truth of anything, no matter how well it may be established. In other words, the result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lies will now be accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world—and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end—is being destroyed.

Fatal floods hit China forcing over 500,000 to flee

The floods come after months of crop-destroying drought in the centre and north of the country.

Some areas along the Yangtze River have suffered their worst drought in half a century.

Despite the rain, officials have warned that the crop shortages and dislocation caused by drought will remain severe.

Analysts say crop shortages in China could affect prices around the world.

Unfounded rumor sends local crowd into frenzy

Wang and her fetus remained intact in the clash after a thorough examination in hospital, and no death or injuries have been reported in this case

Chinese state press.

Why Communist Party of China has friends worldwide?

"Vhina has friends all over the world" were the words of former Chinese President Mao Zedong. Why does China have friends everywhere? The reason is that a very long period of the 20th century was characterized by wars and revolutions, during which, imperialism and colonialism were oppressing the whole world, and the people around the world surely rose up to fight. The Chinese revolution was part of the great resistance wave. China supported revolutions in other countries, and other countries in turn supported China's revolution. Since the oppressed nations and people accounted for a majority of the world population, China surely has friends all over the world.

Remolding Great Power Politics: China’s Strategic Partnerships with Russia, the European Union, and India
YONG DENG
The Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4–5, 863 – 903, August–October 2007

Strategic Partnerships with India and the EU

As early as the 1980s, China began to see its cooperation with India as a possible counterweight to the increasingly institutionalized economic dominance in Asia by the United States and Japan. Following Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to Beijing in late 1988, Sino-Indian tensions eased considerably leading to President Jiang Zemin’s visit to India in 1996 when both sides pledged to build a ‘constructive, cooperative partnership’. But the relationship was soon stalled due to the dispute over India’s nuclear testing in May 1998. India had long sought to develop its own nuclear weapons, while China had long supported the Pakistani weapons program and kept up international pressures to limit India’s nuclear ambition. During the crisis, the United States enlisted Chinese support in dealing with the fallout of the nonproliferation debacle, treating China, from the Indian perspective, as a responsible great power and trustworthy partner in the proliferation crisis precipitated by a rogue state, India. Delhi meanwhile openly cited the ‘China threat’ to justify its nuclear program.

Both the US-led isolation of India and the US-China strategic partnership during 1997–98 proved short-lived. The US engagement with India soon after the crisis motivated Beijing to mend ties with India lest it be disadvantaged in the emerging new triangular relations. Effectively granting India de facto nuclear power recognition, a leading analyst at the Chinese Academy of Social Science wrote in 2000, ‘China considers nuclear non-proliferation as a global issue.
It does not view India’s nuclear program as a threat to China, nor does it regard India’s nuclear testing as an obstacle to bilateral relationship.’

While improvements had already been under way in the Sino-Indian relationship prior to 11 September 2001, events after the terrorist attacks did expedite and expand their cooperation. The exchange of visits by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji in January 2002 and Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes in April 2003 demonstrated the new dynamics. Occurring in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Indian parliament in December 2001, Zhu’s trip underscored China’s support for India’s struggle against terrorism, which by definition signaled sympathy toward India’s plight in the India–Pakistan conflict.
The Chinese delegation also sought to spur economic and technological cooperation with its southern neighbor. A month after being sworn in by the National People’s Congress, the new Chinese leadership under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao hosted Indian Minister of Defense, George Fernandes, in April 2003 amid cancellations of high-level visits at the height of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) scare, an event made even more remarkable given the visitor’s previous record as the leading figure in drumming up the ‘China threat’. While the visit itself indicated moral support to China’s fight against the SARS epidemic, India also was among the first countries to extend material assistance, albeit symbolically. The amount of .4 million Rupees (approximately US$8,400) was paltry, but Chinese official media gratefully acknowledged this gift from the ‘Indian government and military’.

In 2003, India formally accepted China’s sovereignty in Tibet and China and implicitly recognized de facto Indian control over Sikkim. The two sides subsequently started the negotiation to reopen the historically important Nathu La Pass between Sikkim and Yadong County of Tibet for border trade. A final agreement was reached in June 2006 to reestablish the trade link, cut off when the Sino-Indian border war erupted in 1962. Highly tentative and limited due mostly to India’s wariness, the first reopening failed to facilitate meaningful trade. However, the opening itself reaffirmed Beijing’s recognition of Indian authority over Sikkim, promised a thriving border trade, and symbolized a new chapter in the Sino-Indian relationship.

The two sides reached an agreement in April 2005 on the political principles in facilitating settlement of the conflicting border claims involving 125,000 square kilometers of land. Recognizing the reality of decades of concerted efforts to consolidate control by China over the west section (33,000 km) and by India over the east section (90,000 km), the joint political framework appeared to emphasize that the line of actual control be the basis for boundary demarcation, a spirit similar to the one behind the successful conclusion of Sino-Russian negotiations. But translating that spirit into a settlement requires mutual political commitment, which is still lacking. The remarkable progress in the Sino-Indian relationship culminated in China’s about-face on Indian bid for permanent membership at the UN Security Council. Having dropped its opposition, the People’s Republic (PRC) expressed a preference for India, albeit implicitly, over other Group-4 members (namely, Japan, Germany, and Brazil) during 2004–5. With no realistic solution to the problem of Council expansion
in sight, Beijing’s support was relatively cost-free. Starting from a very low base, trade jumped to $13.6 billion in 2004 and $18.7 billion in 2005. While India, being a democracy, has seen more diverse, skeptical views on the relationship than has China, it is clear that policymakers in New Delhi and Beijing have emphasized the compatibilities of their great power pursuits. And that was precisely the spirit that animated the two Asian countries to pledge in April 2005 to forge a
‘Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity’.

After 9/11, China made noticeable changes to its policy of one-sided support for Pakistan in South Asia. In contrast to their past tendency to downgrade India’s strategic weight, mainstream Chinese writings now emphasize that India is a rising great power much like China. Chinese respect in turn has reduced India’s historical distrust of its mighty neighbor, as evidenced by the ebb of ‘China threat theories’ there. Despite growing cooperative momentum, Sino-Indian amity is hampered by a lack of mutual affinity and thin experience of strategic understanding as well as the concrete difficulties in the bilateral
relationship. India’s skepticism toward Beijing’s South Asia policy was illustrated by the fact that some Indian analysts attributed China’s neutrality in the India–Pakistani military showdown at Kagil in 1999 to heightened Chinese vulnerability stemming from the NATO war against Yugoslavia, rather than to China’s goodwill. Uncertainties in the bilateral relationship are compounded by the US factor in the trilateral interactions. China is particularly worried about the prospect of India joining the United States to contain China. Thus when the United States signed the nuclear deal with New Delhi in
March 2006 effectively conferring on India much desired international recognition on the nuclear issue and beyond, Beijing’s unease was unmistakable, albeit somewhat muted.

While mutually vigilant, rather than denigrating each other’s international standing, China and India have publicly embraced concurrent great power rise through their framework of strategic partnership. After all, as John Garver points out, they share a sense of ‘inferiority to the power of the Western alliance’. Like China, India has long harbored a deep sense of denial of its rightful world status by the US-led great power coalition. As Baldev Raj Nayar and T. V. Paul argue, ‘the major powers of the international system, especially the US, have been somewhat instrumental in the isolation of India . . . [And] the US thrust for hegemony, in one shape or another, and the Indian thrust for autonomy set the two countries on a long-term course of political conflict.’

...

^ From a Cheeni, so take it with namak

Meanwhile,the sabre-rattling in the SC Sea continues...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 4940.story

Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all claim jurisdiction over some of the territory. But China contends its sovereignty dates from ancient national maps that show the islands to be an integral part of its territory.

On Friday, state television showed video of Chinese patrol boats firing repeated rounds at a target on what looked like an uninhabited island, as twin fighter jets streaked in tandem overhead. The report said 14 vessels participated in the maneuvers, staging antisubmarine and beach landing drills aimed at "defending atolls and protecting sea lanes.''

China has pressed its claim to the outcrops in the South China Sea more assertively in the last two years. Chinese civilian vessels have increasingly confronted fishing and oil-exploration ships from other countries operating in those waters.

The latest spike in tension began late last month when Vietnam accused a Chinese fishing boat, escorted by two patrol boats, of deliberately severing a cable of a seismic survey ship owned by PetroVietnam, the national oil and gas company. Relations between the two countries are fraught: They waged a border war in 1979, and have since clashed occasionally at sea over the Spratlys as well as another island chain, the Paracels.

The Vietnamese government is under pressure from its own intensely nationalist media and its citizenry to stand up to China. The sea skirmish in May sparked an anti-Chinese outpouring in Vietnam, and the government has permitted rare public demonstrations to allow a mostly youthful crowd to vent anger.

Social media are also fueling anti-Chinese sentiments, including an online petition to change the name of the South China Sea to the Southeast Asia Sea.

Playing with Nature is China's domain.Bullying the mute now.Hmm,Isn't this Violating Animal Rights.Where are the PETA activists when we need them?

China's latest craze: dyeing pets to look like other wild animals

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com ... ?hpt=hp_c2

PETA and others have some truly horrific & gruesome vids of Chinese dealing animals. I watched one on the skinning of live raccoons. It was incredibly difficult to watch as I suspect for most anyone esp. desis. Really infuriated me. Would not recommend it.

Gandhi was right when he said you can judge a nation by its treatment of animals. We can see a lot of overt barbarism in the West has diminished by this metric- in the 1500s it was not uncommon for Parisians to entertain themselves by roasting cats alive in a bag. They have learned to civilize themselves. China on the other hand has some true maturing left to do. There are many more stories which I've read about (that are confirmed, not hearsay); some are too sick to talk about.

China making border row an emotive issue?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 985123.cms


India should make Tibet liberation as a live issue! I donot know why the present govt ends up only withl defending inch by inch in Arunachel pradesh and also in other states in India. Chinese have already established their full armed forces in Pok. China has already started a Poxy war along with Pakisatn and other countries around India. India has to engage with others and turn the countries either by democratic friendship or by other imeans into a place where India's interest will be served. India has to become strong in military power and also bet make sure Tibeans are also trained along with Indian troops.

praksam wrote:Playing with Nature is China's domain.Bullying the mute now.Hmm,Isn't this Violating Animal Rights.Where are the PETA activists when we need them?

China's latest craze: dyeing pets to look like other wild animals

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com ... ?hpt=hp_c2

Here's a pig-missile on a Paki JF-17, with a real pig for comparison.

SMH: Chinese red-faced after photo fakery goes global

Huili local officials float above a highway project in China's Sichuan province under the guise of 'inspecting' Photo: Huili County Government

Government officials in a rural corner of China wanted to inform residents they were inspecting a new road.

Instead, it appears they have gained global ridicule and notoriety as the stars of what is being described as a contender for the worst-doctored photograph in internet history.

shiv wrote:

praksam wrote:Playing with Nature is China's domain.Bullying the mute now.Hmm,Isn't this Violating Animal Rights.Where are the PETA activists when we need them?

China's latest craze: dyeing pets to look like other wild animals

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com ... ?hpt=hp_c2

Here's a pig-missile on a Paki JF-17, with a real pig for comparison.

Woundnt that make the JF-17's Haram for Pakis?

Rahul M wrote:

A two-front war is still on the cards, possibly sometime by November 2011. The Indians need to fight a defensive/holding war on one front and an offensive war on the other. While the Indian Armed Forces are definitely larger and far better equipped than in 1962, the leadership in the armed forces is one of the corruptest and most incompetent in the world. In fact, in comparison, the Pakistani army and air force are far better led professionally.

who the moron is this qubit and why is his garbage being copy-pasted here ?
I have quite a bit of respect for IF but not for bilge of this kind. simply put, this kind of posts nonsense will not be tolerated on BR.

Not entirely to be ruled out over the next decade or so. But unlikely before 2012 - when the next CPC leadership contest will culminate. I have posted on the neo-Maoist angle in the "strategic scenario" thread, which could lead one faction to start confrontations with India. But none of this will happen until the socio-economic and consequent political upheaval threatens the regime. At this stage they have been forced on the backfoot politically and reacting with military strength. They will not immediately go for a foreign campaign. But the options are open over the next 10 years. Pakis would like this to happen v ery much though - so they may do everything in cards to make it possible.

This is what you can do when you have a few trillion dollars in your kitty.

China abroad
Welcome, bienvenue, willkommen
America needs to worry about the contrast between its attitude to China and Europe’s

IN EUROPE, the red carpet. In America, a red mist. This week’s tour of European capitals by Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, underlined the stark transatlantic difference in responses to China’s economic clout. European leaders, caught up in the euro area’s crisis, want China to buy more of their debt; American politicians worry that it owns too much of theirs.

From the Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/18897627? ... _this_week

ranjbe wrote:This is what you can do when you have a few trillion dollars in your kitty.

China abroad
Welcome, bienvenue, willkommen
America needs to worry about the contrast between its attitude to China and Europe’s

IN EUROPE, the red carpet. In America, a red mist. This week’s tour of European capitals by Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, underlined the stark transatlantic difference in responses to China’s economic clout. European leaders, caught up in the euro area’s crisis, want China to buy more of their debt; American politicians worry that it owns too much of theirs.

From the Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/18897627? ... _this_week

You don't need a trillion dollars to buy lifafa
http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 0#p1120250

Should we ask China help build infrastructure in India?

http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/27/new-s ... -in-china/

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China’s continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world’s civil engineer.


Also this......

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/3 ... 87721.html

fotoshopping is my hobby

A badly doctored propaganda photo has made hapless officials in China's Huili county the laughing stock of a nation of 1.3 billion people.

nice fotoshop fotos
worth a look