China’s Military Power – Council on Foreign Relations

1. Since the 1990s, China has dramatically improved its military capabilities on land and sea, in the air, and in space.
2. But experts say China is still decades away from challenging U.S. military’s preeminence. Its ground forces field 1980s vintage armor and suffer from significant shortcomings in command and control, air defense, logistics, and communications.
3. Yet the United States’ relative space advantage will probably shrink as China strengthens its space capabilities over the next ten to twenty years, writes Bruce W. MacDonald in a September 2008 Council Special Report.

Athlists has sleuthed the real age of He Kexin, China’s Gold Medalist in gymnastics. She is 14.

5 Ways the Chinese Goverment Covered Up He Kexin’s Age on the Web

Will there be an uproar? Will medals be revoked? Let’s see…

Chen Jianguo quit his job as a pilot for Xiamen Airlines Co. after working 90 days straight. His employer demanded the equivalent of more than $1 million in compensation, and he’s been banned from the cockpit ever since. – Bloomberg.com: Exclusive

-well, I don’t know how far China is going to rise up if they allow this sort of thing to happen. Seems like at least one Chinese airline is creating the perfect environment for a serious  disaster.

The Associated Press: China removes algae from Olympic sailing venue

The AP reports that Qingdao, the Olympic Sailing Venue has been infested by a massive bloom of algae. and that Xinhua News Agency said  “some 400 boats and 3,000 people have been mobilized to clean it up”

Chinese news photos showed the bright-green bloom along the shores of downtown Qingdao. Other images showed workers loading the algae onto boats as windsurfers sailed in the background. The photos also showed people wading in the water and scooping up armfuls of the plant-like organism and putting it into white sacks.

Some algae can produce dangerous toxins and if ingested can cause vomiting, respiratory failure and, on rare occasions, death. -AP

Most Wanted Chinese Playing Cards – Collectable. Political. Fun gift.

Here’s a link that might cause a scandal or two?? mostwantedplayingcards.com has released a deck of 52 poker cards depicting members of the Communist Party of China. They’re satirical, a spoof, of the Most Wanted Iraqi Playing Cards that the US government had printed for soldiers in Iraq, which were meant to help identify who to capture or kill.

“These cards were developed to educate the international community about the political personalities that make up the Communist Party Of China. Each face identifies who’s who from a variety of important Chinese government ministries, provincial party secretaries, and government owned media. All are the most politically influential. Unfortunately were were not able to include every important political figure from China.”

YouTube – UnderCover Chinese Police Bust up MotorCycle BusStop Gang. The cops do a nice job of shutting down a bunch of assholes victimizing helpless women pedestrians.

The Great Women of China – WSJ.com

So why are there always more Chinese women than Chinese men winning medals in The Olympics?

Women know how to eat bitterness,” says tennis coach Sun Jinfang. (The saying “chi ku,” or “eat bitterness,” in China denotes a willingness to suffer and endure back-breaking work.)

There were no placards or banners, no slogans or matching T-shirts, but by “taking a walk” together for a couple of hours, a few hundred citizens of a laid-back southwestern city were illegally challenging government plans for a new oil refinery.

They wandered in quiet clusters down a route circulated by Internet and mobile phone, watched by uniformed and plainclothes police who knew exactly why they were there and later punished six people for their role. -Reuters link

Chinese citizens learned the value and impact their role as activists has on political decisions. They took their organizing and communicating skills and adapted them to rallying large groups to help during the earth quake disaster. These new skills will no doubt be adapted to new situations as they arise in the future. – what accomplishments will happen while protesting/activism is still banned..banned after the huge protest that foreigners know about, but that many in china have never heard of.

Since the Olympics the Chinese Foreign Dept has made some drastic changes to Visa and Passport requirements. Suddenly business people, students, travelers and contract workers are finding themselves not getting in or getting booted out. This outlines the latest on getting or not getting visas and extensions for China.

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Inflating China – OPINION

at Wall Street Journal

By STEPHEN GREEN
June 3, 2008

Many people in China right now call these the country’s Golden Years. But after a fantastic run of double-digit growth, bigger pay packets, low inflation and growing international influence, clouds are now forming over China’s economy. Most obviously the dark weather of the snowstorms earlier in the year and the terrible earthquake in Sichuan have rocked the country’s confidence. Less tangibly, but more importantly for the economy, stronger inflation is emerging. And there is a danger that the hard decisions needed to break it will not be made while there’s still time to do so relatively easily.
[Inflating China]

In part, this is because policy makers are only gradually grasping the magnitude of the inflation threat. On the surface it looks like inflation as measured by China’s official consumer price index has been driven by food, primarily pork and edible oil. CPI has exceeded 8% year-on-year in recent months (but looks set to fall below 8% in May). Exclude food items, and prices overall only rose 1.8% in the year to April.

But few people believe this is an accurate reflection of price trends on the street. Higher service-sector prices in health and education are likely not adequately reflected in the index, while the basket of goods surveyed is updated only once every five years. The GDP deflator – an overall measure of inflation also calculated by the government – was up to over 8% year-on-year in the first three months of this year.