Lummus, I thought you might get a kick out of this:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30438?utm_source=slate_rss_1

Probably better to put this in Nuggets, but given our discussions on the relative (non)value of human labor of late I thought it'd be somewhat germane... ;)


Already in the works is the formation of an enormous human bridge across the Yangtze River, which will automatically materialize when people need to cross and disassemble afterwards, at a projected cost of $0.

Chinese citizen #PD7C368-72J-K stressed the importance of learning from the ants how best to deal with dissent. "Until now, we have quelled democratic protests with tanks," he said. "But ants devour dissenters and all their offspring so they will not corrupt the ant gene pool. This is something we must look into."

Regards,
Nydia

And wow, I just realized that that article is the equivalent of blackface and potentially terribly offensive, obvious parody though it is ;)...

And while we're on the topic of the Big Red Ant Farm, President Obama attended a highly scripted (the students were all prescreened and hed to undergo a 'training' session before they were allowed to attend, most of the questions addressed Party talking points) 'town hall' meeting with Chinese university students today, wherein the 'Great Firewall' was actually mentioned:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111600648.html?nav=rss_email/components

Of course, the vast majority of the Chinese public weren't actually allowed to *see* even this highly choreographed event:

The meeting was broadcast live by a local Shanghai television station, but the station's Web site, Shanghai TV Station Online, which usually live streams its television programming, went offline about 20 minutes before the town hall began. It then shifted to a children's program -- preventing computer users across the country from watching the event. National Chinese television stations did not broadcast the meeting. It was supposed to be carried on the Internet via the government-run Xinhua news service, but this didn't happen. Instead, Xinhua posted a written transcript of the remarks -- including, to the surprise of some Chinese, Obama's response to the question about access to the Internet.


Xinhua, as the article stated on the first page, removed the question about Internet access and Obama's response from the official transcript shortly after posting it. Obama, for his part, mostly tried to keep things as smooth as possible, dodging questions about the sale of arms to Taiwan by stating that Washington was committed to the 'one China policy'.

Personally, I have to wonder what purpose playing into the hands of the state propaganda machine serves, but I can only presume that he felt the benefits of (some of) the Chinese public being able to see him outweighed his potentially being ill-used. I can't help but think that pussyfooting we are doing in order to keep up the dance of mutually assured financial destruction we have been engaging in with the Chinese can ultimately end any way except badly and messily, however, and hard to know whether the bang or the whimper would be worse.

Regards,
Nydia

Everyone has to tread lightly in China, Nydia. The USA is not their number 1 trading partner anymore. India is. Granted I could see India and China eventually going to war since they are competetors for control of the Eastern Hemisphere but for now money talks. Plus China's markets are growing still in leaps and bounds and just about able to support a strong domestic economy. The average Chinese will soon be able to buy all the same made in China garbage that we buy. It will make dealing with China very one sided until their currency depegs from the dollar again. Lately it has been repegged. Probably in an effort to assure that even in our humbled state that Americans can still afford Chinese goods and that the debt they bought from us doesn't result in a loss.

So in the end we need them much more than they need us to a degree. Plus, its bad form to come into this country...their home turf and talk a bunch of shit. For one, the message won't get out and two its a good way to have even less leverage with Beijing. The Chinese already play dirty. There is no need to give them even more ammo. Here is a place to get in, get right to the point, say as little as possible and leave ASAP. President Obama would have fared better to have skipped Shanghai and only stopped in Beijing for 1 day and then left. Arrived in the morning, got the face time with China's president about the trade issues...and left that night. Money is the only thing that talks with these creeps. The rest is only so much wasted time.

There was an interesting discussion at the White House today, and I wish I could remember the staffer's name who said it, but the gist of it was that even though Obama is now in China and they seem so impressive their one major flaw is what will prove to bite them in the ass in the end. "...there have been quite a few times an asian country underestimated the west. Sure, Americans have fucked up plenty over the past 200 years, but our press and our culture allows us to realize how we fucked up and course correct and try harder next time. We gutted our industry, we learned recently that was a mistake, and we'll do better next time. The Chinese culture doesn't allow their citizens any outlet to express how they have made mistakes and their ego's don't allow any course correction at all. I doubt, aside from Germany, there is any other country as quick to point out their own faults and do something about it than here."

A bit nieve, maybe, but also profound and comforting that at least some in our government aren't against course correction.