I suppose in a country going through the horrors of a never-ending famine, it’s not surprising that it points to pine needles as a wonderful source of nutrition.

Only in “The People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.” Via my nemesis, James Taranto.

This article (which is more like a long string of quotes)l ooks into this controversial question and concludes that companies like Nortel can’t shrug off such charges by saying the technology they sell to China is no different from what they sell elsewhere. The writer obviously finds them guilty as charged.

“Nortel’s position on this is criminal from a moral perspective..it is absolutely scandalous,” lawyer Clive Ansley, a Vancouver Island-based expert on Chinese legal issues, told The Asian Pacific Post.

“What this company is doing is basically telling China that we at Nortel can help you track down activists and free speech advocates,” said Ansley, a former professor of Chinese studies and Chinese law in Canada, who was the first foreign lawyer to open a law office in Shanghai.

“Instead of implementing laws to control the export of such technology that results in scores being rounded up, jailed and even killed, the Liberal government has been handing out tax dollars to companies like Nortel.

“This is indicative of the close links the Liberals have with China’s trade and corporate community and human rights is not part of the deal.

“The Liberal government believes that this process of engagement which leads to millions of tax dollars going to China will help the communist regime become more democratic and respect human rights.

“That is like trying to teach a tiger to be a vegetarian,” said Ansley, who spent the last 20 years in China and Taiwan.

The article has heaps of quotes from others, all condemning Canada’s Liberal government for its tax breaks to Nortel, but the reader needs to beware: the article appears to be quite political, at moments reading as though it were campaign literature for the Conservative party.

It would have been a much better article if it took a practical look at what exactly the Nortel technology does, and if it’s any more sinister than what it offers to everybody in other countries.

Oh shit.

If it happens, I’ll still campaign for him. But I will be extremely, painfully disappointed. Not fatally. But almost.

This story has all kinds of implications, none of them pretty, about how big corporations screw the American public, and how the government goes way out of its way to protect them. It’s highway robbery, dressed up in suits and ties.

And guess what company used to provide the Bush campaign with its corporate jet back in 2000?

Update: Go here now to hear the funny/depressing Enron song, made up of lines from the notorious Enron tapes spliced into rock song “I’ve Got the Power (along with a line or two from George Bush). Via BoingBoing.

It’s an amazing story. A stubby, unshaven guy who wears a baseball cap pulls off one of the greatest public relations coups in the history of the film industry. Michael Moore managed, by dumb luck or Machiavellian cunning or a combination of the two, to win front-page headlines for Fahrenheit 9/11 again and again and again, week after week after week. This is an amazing story, and a case study of how to achieve maximum publicity for your movie. College communications courses will be pointing to this story for years to come.

While I realize this idiotic story has been way oveplayed, and even though I just posted about it a little while ago, I couldn’t resist citing this Pravda article, which doesn’t display a lot of love toward China.

Chinese leaders just love criticizing the “American imperialists”, despite the fact that the trade with the USA bring China billions of dollars every year.
Although, the “imperialists” are constantly giving Beijing the grounds for exercising their criticism.

In May Pentagon submitted to the US Congress its annual report on the state and perspectives of the Chinese military. Beijing probably would not pay much attention to the report, but the US military experts touched such painful issues for the Chinese as Taiwan and hydroelectric power station “Three Ravines” which is under construction.

The Chinese leaders were indignant with the advice Pentagon was giving to Taiwan in case of possible war with China: to blow up the constructed hydroelectric power station “Three Ravines” on the Yangtze River.

The Chinese leaders started cursing at the USA in anger. Lieutenant-General Lyu Yan called Washington the “whore posing itself like a gentleman” in his comment on the Pentagon’s report, Reuters wrote. According to the general, Americans are not better than Osam binLaden as they admit the possibility of such operations.

I didn’t even know Pravda existed anymore. They’d be well served hiring a good English proofreader.

Danwei, ever vigilant, has the story.

For those who may have forgotten, Harisu is the gorgeous Korean model readers were salivating over until they learned she used to be a he.

Update: Apparently the Korean transexual sensation is also working as a sex counselor. Busy lady. (Link via a commenter below.)

Matthew Yglesias fears it’s a done deal — Richard Gephard will run as Kerry’s VP.

If true, there isn’t much that could make me more depressed. Kerry has his own personality issues, and thus he needs someone like John Edwards or John McCain (yeah, I’m still dreaming) or Wesley Clark or Bill Richardson …. or just about anyone but Gephard.

Gephardt is a tired old Democrat owned by the unions and devoid of anything resembling a personality. Read the Yglesias article to see why this would be a disaster for all concerned — except Bush and the Republicans.

Kerry has to be smarter than this — he has to know that a bright, energetic young Southerner like Edwards would give his ticket the injection of charisma and vitality it needs. Right?

I know that Kerry likes Gephardt more than the others on his short list, but since when does a president have to like his VP? John, this is a strategic decision to help you get elected, as when JFK picked the detested LBJ as his running mate. If you have to, hold your nose and pick Edwards (actually that sounds kind of gross, but you know what I mean). But if you go ahead and pick Gephardt, all bets are off. It will confirm the worst fears that you’re just another old liberal with no new ideas and no vision and no sense of courage and daring. Please, say it isn’t so.

Update: Just yesterday, polls show Edwards is the No. 1 choice.

A Chinese general has warned Taiwain in bellicose language not to even think about attacking the Three Gorges Dam.

A Chinese general has warned Taiwan against attacking the massive Three Gorges Dam, saying China’s retaliation would “blot out the sky and cover the Earth.”

Taiwan’s military said last week that it has no intention of ever attacking the dam on the Yangtze River in central China – the world’s biggest hydroelectric project. Yet the issue drew widespread attention in China after a U.S. Defence Department report suggested the island’s leaders were thinking of developing missiles that could strike mainland Chinese targets such as the dam to deter an attack.

“That wouldn’t prevent a war. That would have the reverse effect,” a Chinese general identified as Liu Yuan wrote in the official newspaper China Youth Daily.

“No normal person would be willing to pay the price of self-destruction if it were to bring retaliation that would blot out the sky and cover the Earth,” Liu wrote….

“The Three Gorges Dam will not collapse. It cannot be destroyed,” he wrote.

The dam that God himself couldn’t destroy.

Personally, I find this whole thing a great candidate for dumbest news story of the year. The Pentagon should never have made its dumbass suggestion and it should never have been allowed to reach the media.

Check out Tom’s post on Fox News getting censured in the UK for its irresponsible reporting on last year’s BBC controvery. “Heh.”