– The Telegraph reports in alarmist fashion about Hu Jintao warning, as the newspaper headline puts it, of “cultural warfare from the West” – A closer examination of the story indicates that Hu Jintao’s “battle cry,” above, was a speech given on October 18, 2011, that was republished yesterday in the preemminent journal for CCP theory, Qiushi (Seeking Truth / 求是). In fact most of the … Continue reading Cultural Power Battle Threads
Just when you think that China has completely exhausted its capacity to surprise you, the hard-line foreign policy tabloid Huanqiu Shibao sends a reporter to cover an S & M-themed show at an International Exhibition in a second-tier city like Zhengzhou, Henan, where apparently, if the face of the little old man at the foot of the stage is any indication, the show brought much … Continue reading Celebrating the National Day Holiday Week in the PRC
Wow. Thanks to Curtis Melvin at North Korean Economy Watch for unearthing this. Continue reading North Korean Television Coverage of Kim Jong Il in China
What follows is a straight-up reading of Matthias Nass’ op-ed in Die Zeit recalibrating the US-China relationship, with special reference to debt and national security, and Hu Jintao in Washington. In general, the message is one wherein China dominates, but the execution of the points is, at least, interesting to me, and most everything (with the exception of the last minute, which I’m working on … Continue reading Assessing U.S.-China Competition After the Hu Jintao Visit
The Hu-Obama Summit has already been subjected to some of the most intense lobbying pressures known to man. From big business to human rights groups to the defense hawks in both countries, both executives have probably had it up to their ears (or, in Hu’s case, his lengthening and positively Cheneyewque jowls) with being pushed to push his counterpart on a given issue. This being … Continue reading North Korea Notes
On the eve of Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington, D.C., the Chosun Ilbo releases an explosive report that Chinese troops have moved into the Rason Special Economic Zone on Korea’s northeastern tip. I just posted a rather extensive comment on this story on the One Free Korea site, the contents of which I won’t mirror here, except to add that according to this translation … Continue reading Chinese Troops in North Korea?
About forty minutes before I was due to vacate downtown Lhasa, I scampered across town over to the largest Xinhua bookstore (naturally, it was right across from the Tibet Autonomous Region Party Committee Headquarters, the nerve center of political power in Tibet). There I found a few things: collections of Mao’s writings about Tibet, a new text based on reminiscences of an old Guomindang cadre … Continue reading Drop That: Cruising the Xinhua Bookstores in Lhasa
Now that China and North Korea have gotten their stories (mostly) straight about Kim Jong Il’s five-day trip to northeast China, a small mountain of evidence exists which is worth analyzing. Visions on the First Day of Class In Pyongyang, KCNA is now promoting a new story about the year 1960 describing how young Kim Jong Il (all of 19 at the time) started the … Continue reading Sino-NK Stories to Watch
Today in one of Germany’s leading newspapers, the Suddeutsche Zeiting, underneath coverage of the G-20 meeting in Toronto (with optimistic headlines like “In the Canadian wilderness, Merkel and Obama demonstrate a harmony which in reality does not exist”) is a rather interesting story about North Korea: Christian Wernicke, “Dreimal Schach gegen Pjoengjang: Die Vereinigten Staaten bereiten sich auf ein Ende des Regimes in Nordkorea vor … Continue reading Chess Match: North Korean Endgame in Toronto
My title today comes from a romantic, fin-de-siecle French account of the Boxer Rebellion, when the walled city of Beijing seemed to be Ground Zero for Armageddon. But my double entendre is really meant to suggest Obama’s last day in the city. If Obama is really such a socialist, why didn’t he insist on visiting Chairman Mao’s tomb? Maybe because he’s too busy trying to … Continue reading Le Dernier Jours du Pekin: French Reads
