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Pomfret's China

John Pomfret, author of Chinese Lessons, has a new blog on the Washington Post's website called Pomfret's China.

He's off to a rollicking start with a post titled Don't Expect Protests to Hurt Chinese Regime. Excerpt:

So is this going to weaken China’s government? On the contrary. The more pressure the Chinese get from foreigners and barbarians – which are actually synonymous in ancient Chinese – the stronger the system becomes. Indeed, China’s system feeds off this kind of adversity. The Communist regime has a peculiar genius for turning these types of threats into opportunities.

 
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Not related to this article, but someone please put a collar on the rhetoric this columnist Dan Wetzel is spewing out in this article, which currently leads Yahoo sports.

Yes, Chinese media is biased, but this guy certainly makes the case that western media is as least as equally biased and even more ignorant. I suspect his experience with China doesn't extend much beyond his weekly trips to his local Panda Express.

link

Here's some nice quotes:

"In less draconian concerns, the pollution is said to be horrific, the food untrustworthy and just recently the Chinese began installing that cutting-edge technology known as the "sit toilet" at some venues after discovering that the rest of the world isn't too keen on squatting over a hole in the ground to do their business."

"The powers that be were so drunk on the possibility of Chinese markets that they just decided to ignore every red flag. This made no sense back in 2001 when the vote was taken. It makes less as it becomes clear that all of China's empty promises of progress aren't just being broken, but replaced by a frightening totalitarianism."

"If they cared about the athletes, they wouldn't send them into the smog to be forever fearful they or their family gets caught in the crossfire or just a fire. They wouldn't have set the stage for revolution and crack downs."

"The Chinese have even given up on the bold promises about how there will be no disturbances. They're trying to ban live broadcasts from Tiananmen Square and they admit suicide squads might be nettlesome."

"Their original plan appeared to include having every potential protester murdered, imprisoned or scared of being murdered or imprisoned."

"as the Chinese government predicts, the deployment of waves of suicide bombers to Beijing what we've seen is probably just the start."

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