When I read this headline I knew it had to be a hoax. Could it be — the Shanghainese lining up to get on the subway?

They’re in Beijing this week.

Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, whose company has been sharply criticized for complying with Chinese censorship, said on Wednesday that the company had not lobbied to change the censorship laws and, for now, had no plans to do so.

“I think it’s arrogant for us to walk into a country where we are just beginning operations and tell that country how to run itself,” Mr. Schmidt told reporters from foreign news organizations.

Now that China is (or at least seems to be) the place to go to get rich, this seems to be everyone’s attitude. “Who are we to impose our cultural beliefs on another country…?” All such complex ethical issues dissolve in front of the one god worshipped by everyone, money.

China’s gift to the world. If they were any cheaper they’d have to give them away. Should we feel guilty when we buy them, knowing that our cost saving is taking away from somebody’s living? These guys don’t think so, and their post has ignited, as always, some thought-provoking comments.

Obviously religious freedom isn’t there yet. The Dalai Lama is still kept away, and China’s feeble attempts to promote their own version of the Dalai Lama continues to fal flat. But there’s no denying China is striving to improve its image of religious intolerance. (No, I didn’t say they were striving to actually tolerate all religions, just to improve their much deserved image of intolerance.)

Buddhists from more than 30 countries are in China for the World Buddhist Forum – communist China’s first ever international religious gathering.

Hundreds of monks and scholars are visiting the eastern city of Hangzhou, but Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has not been invited. China regards the exiled Tibetan leader as a separatist.

It has made its nominee as Panchen Lama – Tibet’s second most important figure – the figurehead of the conference. But according to Reuters news agency he appeared to be shunned by delegates. Fellow Buddhists made no attempt to greet Gyaltsen Norbu during greeting ceremonies ahead of the conference on Wednesday, the agency reported.

The Dalai Lama has nominated his own Panchen Lama, who has disappeared and is believed to be under house arrest.

This is, I believe, part of a bold new effort by Hu to improve China’s image in the eyes of a world he increasignly hopes to influence, charm and make deals with. China’s prickly image of old just won’t cut it anymore.

It’s a shrewd move. Even if the starting steps are clumsy and not necessarily overwhelming, it’s nevertheless a marked break from traditional policy and, as with everything China does on the international scene, it’s no accident; Hu hopes to attain specific and tangible goals with his new Glasnost with Chinese characteristics.

Watch for more such stories indicating that China is loosening up and reaching out. Whether it’s window dressing or substantive remains to be seen.

My laptop crashed and I will be without a computer tonight and tomorrow morning and maybe longer, so output will plummet. Apologies.

Today I noticed a strange uptick in site traffic due to this google search. I was wondering why so many people were searching for information on the Tiananmen Square “Tank Man.” Usually that only happens around June 4th. Then I found out that PBS has dedicated an entire Web site to the man who captured the heart and imagination of the world in one of modern history’s most breathtaking moments. Suddenly, lots of people were searching for more information on the mysterious hero.

I strongly recommend you go there now. This site is long overdue.

Update: I’ve just spent more time scrolling through the site, and all I can say is that it is extraordinary. What a great service. Lots of eyewitness accounts from the likes of John Pomfret, Jan Wong, Orville Schell and others. The entire upcoming Frontline program on theTank Man will be availabe for viewing online at the site as of Friday at 5PM (EST, I presume). To those of you in China, has this site been locked behind the Great Firewall yet?

Update II: Now I see, via CDT, that the NY Times has reviewed the Frontline documentary.

Tonight’s rambling episode of “Frontline” asserts that from China’s teeming citizenry, one man’s brief, thwarted act of defiance actually changed the world.

“The Tank Man,” as he is called in lieu of a confirmed identity, was the Beijing obstructionist who stood in the way of a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square nearly 17 years ago. This 90-minute episode, produced by the provocative filmmaker Antony Thomas, argues that although the Tank Man’s gesture did not lead to his government’s collapse after soldiers fired on peaceful protesters, it inspired reformers everywhere to challenge totalitarian oppressors.

Mr. Thomas’s ambitious, sprawling take knows few bounds as it maps upheaval from Mongolia to Hong Kong and charts a rural-to-urban migration of hundreds of millions of job-seekers. Along the way, the program hustles to explain dismal labor conditions, Internet privacy and rivalries among journalists. What is billed as a story of one man becomes a catchall format for every useful bit of information about China’s commitment to economic modernization and resistance to political reform.

All this rests on the shoulders of an anonymous figure, and while there are theories about who he may have been, the report named for him gives up the ghost too quickly. “The Tank Man” presents analyses about who would want him to remain unknown and counterarguments about how his exposure would have ensured his survival. By the end, viewers will remain confused about whether his act was premeditated or spontaneous, whether the plainclothes people who carried him away were protectors or persecutors, and, of course, whether the Tank Man is dead or alive.

Still, the episode presents vast stores of information about China’s new wealth — and some accusations against rich Westerners who are, in turn, getting richer. One of the most compelling diversions in this overlong documentary explains the role Yahoo played in helping Chinese officials imprison a dissident journalist. In the narrator’s estimation, compliance with Chinese laws can seem like complicity with rights-abusing regimes.

I can’t wait to see it, even if it sounds less than perfect. Yahoo has sure taken lots of heat for the Shi Tao catastrophe, which seems to dwarf alleged sins of Google and Microsoft.

A contributed piece by Jerome Keating. What next – the Peking Duck opera?
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Blogging the Night Away

The night passes;
I remain at the screen.
My spouse/significant other/partner complains,
I should be in bed.

My other tasks lay
Like abandoned orphans
On my desk.

My glass of scotch/vodka/tea
(Pick your poison)
Is drained,
But I carry on.

Do I seek a different, well-lighted place?
Am I secretly struggling to avoid nada?
Do I look for information, an argument?
Confirmation, sharing, or
A platform to proclaim dated beliefs

Sometimes I’m a voyeur.
Look there go Ivan and Math
Good God, here comes China_hand
Rushing to the scene.
Keir and Davesgonechina join in,
It’s getting nasty.
Other Lisa injects
A voice of restraint;
She’s often a peacemaker.
But, I leave for another blog.

Why do we all do it?
Why do I do it?

Perhaps it’s a human need
To tell the world,
“Look, I am here.”

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Good question, why we all do it. Masochism? Egoism? It’s certainly not to make money. Maybe it’s just fun.

This is Dowd at her most cutesy. It’s a shame, because she’s making some great points, but the suffocating cutesiness makes it painful at times to read.

Wag the Camel
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: April 12, 2006

Talk about a fearful symmetry.

Iran was whipping up real uranium while America was whipped up by fake uranium.

Obsessed with going to war against a Middle East country that had no nuclear weapon, the Bush administration lost focus on and leverage over a Middle East country hurtling toward a nuclear weapon.

(more…)

A funny travel story from an interesting blog.

Three long years ago I wrote a post about the much-neglected story of how the GOP was playing dangerous games in New Hampshire. I said at the time it was a story to “watch carefully.” Now, finally, it appears the trail leads from New Hampshire to the White House.

Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was “preposterous” to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn’t accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin’s trial but prosecutors did not make them part of their case.

Democrats plan to ask a federal judge Tuesday to order GOP and White House officials to answer questions about the phone jamming in a civil lawsuit alleging voter fraud.

Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which Republican John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46 percent, on Nov. 5, 2002.

Besides the conviction of Tobin, the Republicans’ New England regional director, prosecutors negotiated two plea bargains: one with a New Hampshire Republican Party official and another with the owner of a telemarketing firm involved in the scheme. The owner of the subcontractor firm whose employees made the hang-up calls is under indictment.

The phone records show that most calls to the White House were from Tobin, who became
President Bush’s presidential campaign chairman for the New England region in 2004.

The GOP, the best of the best. No act of treachery will go unrewarded. But this is completely in keeping with a party that sees no trick as too dirty when it comes to winning, even if it involves committing a felony. As unhappy as I am with America today, iit’s consoling to know that the system is still semi-functional and can still put people like Tobin where they belong, in jail. Let’s see how far this story goes; all it takes is one good lead to make this tinderbox explode.