Chengdu artist Wang Guiqian's self-portrait

Item 1 is an article by P.J. O' Rourke, titled: Trading with the Enemy? China wants to sell to us. We should be happy, found via Asiapudit. Here is an excerpt:

I just got back from three weeks in China. So I'm a China expert--by Bush administration standards...

The problem with America's China policy is not ideological. True, there is the difficulty of dealing with a single-party state where the entire governmental apparatus is under the control of a small, doctrinaire political elite. But the Republicans are going to lose the House this fall. The problem is that America is wrong about economic principles. And not fancy economic principles such as Income Velocity of Money, which caused some of us to get a D on our Econ 101 midterm. America is wrong about economic principles so basic that even a doddering old Commie with a high school education like Deng Xiaoping understood them...

...Trapped in the theater of Maoism, the Chinese finally noticed the emergency exit marked "Adam Smith." China's economy barged though Deng Xiaoping's Open Door. The door smacked American policymakers in the head and they've been wandering around in a daze mumbling nonsense about the unfairness of our trade deficit with China ever since.

But there is no such thing as a trade imbalance. Trade can't be out of balance because a balance is what a trade is. Buyers and sellers decide that one thing is equivalent to another. Free trade is balanced trade. You might as well have free love then claim your partner had sex but you didn't. And a certain American president did claim that. Maybe Monica Lewinsky is in charge of America's China policy.

Shanghai officials have shut down an exhibition by nearly 40 Chinese artists for showing "pornographic" images and other works considered offensive, the second time an art show has fallen foul of city authorities in seven months...

Meantime in Chengdu...

On May 21, 2006, Chengdu Art Academy instructor Wang Chengyun brought the works of more than 20 of his students to hold an exhibition titled "Experimental Space" contemporary art at the Nanjing Museum.

Many of the sculptures and photographs at the exhibition depicts human reproductive organs and sexual intercourse, and are considered quite bold and avant-garde. One of the series of photographs are different close-ups of the female reproductive organ that were most probably by the photographer as a mirror reflection. The author, 22-year-old Chengdu Art Academy second-year-old student Wang Guiquan stood on the side to answer questions. When asked what she came up with these creations (pictured), she smiled and explained: "Actually, it is very simple. At first, I only wanted to look at what I am really like from a mirror."