We can walk into their country and blow innocent civilians’ brains out and walk away free as a bird. What’s happened to America?

Check it out.

Most interesting.

Could I ask for a higher honor? It’s nice to know she reads me and has now linked to me no fewer than three times (here’s the latest). If I can say that I got under the skin of the most dangerous far-right rabble rouser in America, then this blog and all the hours that have gone into it (and there were lots until it all but ground to a halt this year) were worth it.

Malkin is evil; evil Malkin –
That is all ye know on earth
And all ye need to know.

The BBC reports

Air pollution in Beijing will not significantly improve before next year’s Olympic Games, a United Nations report suggests. In some cases, pollution is said to be more than three times the safe limits set by the World Health Organization.

The report seems to contradict claims from Beijing Olympic officials that air quality will not be a problem. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said events may be postponed if pollution was too bad.

Are Chinese officials in denial about pollution during the Olympics? How aggressive will they really be in banning cars and shutting down factories in the region? They’ve tried encouraging people to abandon their vehicles and it didn’t really work.

Guess we’ll find out in a matter of months.

Shameful. Still, it had me laughing out loud.

[Link provided to me by this blogger.]

I wrote it early in the morning and I don’t like it. Keeping the thread (all three of the comments).

I really have to get back into blogging. I miss it, but it’s been so long, I think I’m losing whatever touch I may have had in the past.

Hu Jintao made a long speech today (Monday) – about two and a half hours – dealing with many topics. “Democracy” was mentioned many times, though I think Hu still doesn’t understand what it really means – if he does, he doesn’t like it as the CCP’s insistence on retaining control through thick and thin is hardly democratic.

In any case, one matter picked up on was a call for a “peace agreement” with Taiwan.

“On the basis of the one-China principle, let us discuss a formal end to the state of hostility between the two sides, reach a peace agreement, construct a framework for peaceful development of cross-strait relations and thus usher in a new phase of peaceful development.”

On the basis of the one-China principle. I.e. Taiwan should agree to unify without receiving any promises first. Stop me if I’m wrong, but why should the island give up its sovereignty for talks to merely happen? You may say Taiwan could back out of the 1CP if talks failed, but it would damage its credibility if Taiwanese independence was seen to be a flight of fancy rather than something it really believed in.

Taiwan has rightly rejected this “offer”.

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday offered talks on a formal peace accord with Taiwan, but Taiwan rejected the call, saying it is an independent country whose future must be decided by the Taiwan people. “We cannot discuss peaceful reunification with a regime that suppresses Tibet, shoots its own people and backs Myanmar’s military government,” Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey told reporters.

“Taiwan’s founding principles are human rights and democracy. If Hu Jintao really places hope on the Taiwan people, as he said, he should listen to the Taiwan people’s voice. Although the Chinese Communist Party rules China, it does not represent the Chinese people,” Shieh said.

The thing is that what Hu said today is nothing new. China has proposed talks for years if the 1CP was followed by Taiwan’s government. Each time the response from Taipei has been “we would love talks – let’s drop the conditions”. And each time Beijing has insisted it can set whatever red lines it likes, whereas Taiwan can set none.

This is not unlike Hu’s entire approach to government. He sets the agenda. He says what goes and when. Everyone else has to accept any scraps thrown to them from the table. If they ask for a chair to sit at the table, a better cut of meat, a plate or whatever, no scraps will be given and they may get a beating into the bargain for daring to talk back. This rather mean approach to government cannot be veiled with an absence of overt threats towards a place like Taiwan, though I’m sure some naive/self-serving commentators will call it significant he didn’t threaten to invade the island for wanting to be independent from an oppressive autocracy like China.

Hu does he think he is fooling?

My friend who developed a blood clot on his economy flight to Beijing has gone home after two weeks of daily double injections and visits to the hospital. He now has to continue treatment for three months. There’s a lesson here: always travel business class.

I had quite a week, including a visit to Guangdong, where I spent nearly an entire day at a factory in Donguang (which I’ve seen spelled as Donguan, Dongguan, and Dongguang). This was an experience – a positive one. Maybe I was lucky to be at a Western-owned factory; it was clean, the workers seemed to enjoy their jobs, worker safety was a top concern and the owner had just set up basketball and tennis courts for all the staff. I know there are lots of factories where life isn’t quite so rosy. I’m glad the one I will be working with is among the good ones.

On Tuesday my mobile phone got destroyed, so if anyone’s tried to call or message me, I’m not being rude. There’s never a good time to have your phone break, but this was the worst possible time, with a friend having a medical crisis and being out of Beijing for three days with no access to email – you realize your mobile phone is your lifeline to the world, and without it you feel utterly helpless.

I’m back but won’t be available to blog very much (business as usual). It’s reached the point where I never look at my site meter anymore (it used to be an hourly ritual) and sometimes have to go for days without even looking at the comments. I do miss the writing, but, priorities….

Thanks to those who offered to help me last week. It was really great of you.

No, really – this isn’t a joke.

Beijing police brawl over pastor

Police from two districts in Beijing brawled yesterday over a Christian activist, leaving four officers and the dissident injured, witnesses said. Police in Chongwen district had been trying to suppress Hua Huiqi, 45, an underground pastor who has fought against a development project in his neighborhood. Chongwen police moved Hua out of their jurisdiction on Monday to Fengtai on the city’s southwestern edge, but the Fengtai police brought him back to his home yesterday, said Hua’s friend Zhou Li.

A fight broke out between the eight Fengtai police and a greater number of Chongwen police and men hired by the developer, New World China Land, Zhou said. In the scuffle, four police were injured and Hua was knocked unconscious, Zhou said at the Tiantan Hospital where Hua was awaiting treatment. Police declined comment.

Ironic for once that it was the Chinese Police that were on the receiving end of their own brutality.

On a more serious note, if they’re going to resolve their differences with colleagues through a public punch-up it’s not surprising that so many ordinary Chinese get treated badly when they become targets of the “law”.