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[Anonymous]

I have just read an article about China as a ravenous dragon which was printed in the Economist

The article talked about how China is determined to make the most of there limited resources by buying up all foreign investments in and around the coper rich Congo province of Katanga.
The goal in China is to buy enough natural resources to sustain there massive economic growth.
China is on what the world (United States) is calling a feeding frenzy. China is in the process of purchasing soybeans, crude oil, and copper ore at record levels.
The problem China will face in the near future is they will run out of natural resources. When the U.S.A was the only country using the worlds resources the world was fine but now with China exploiting the earth's resources as well the world will run out, leaving all countries to change the way production and life is ran.
I hope the resources crisis can be solved with full world cooperation.

[Anonymous]

Another Article on China and it's thrust for natural resources. As I watch the gas price move to 4 dollars a gallon articles about the loss of natural resources is alarming, it is finally true that the United States has lost it's global dominance on natural resources, the good life is coming to an end. In the article titled Iron Rations China is cutting back. In the area around Deng Xiaoping local iron companies have cut worker's numbers from 180,000 to 20,000 due to the projected scarcity of Iron Ore in the years to come. Since 2000 china has tripped it's need for Iron Ore but change is on the horizon with the new projected slow down.

[Anonymous]

It seems like most current events published center around China. Today, the latest is about President Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak as they talk about the elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. Bush and Myung-bak said that there is still a chance to make progress with North Korea even though nuclear talks are stalled over whether Pyongyand will hand over a promised full declaration of its nuclear programs in return for concessions. Myung-Bak stated, "We need persistent patience...It's difficult to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs, but it is not impossible."

[Anonymous]

Today (4/20) there was an article in the LA Times Business section about H. Roger Wang a US educated businessman who has opened a chain of department stores called "Golden Eagle". It was interesting to hear how he was a little apprehensive when opening in the early 90's because the people of Nantong didn't have a lot of money to spend. However Wang is now one of the richest men according to Forbes. I guess things are looking up for the consumers in China.

[Anonymous]

China Falls Short on Vows for Olympics - Washington Post 4/20
'Long Way to Go' On Rights, Pollution And Press Freedom, talks about how the International Olympic Committee has been very lax on nailing down exactly what China needed to do for the olympic games as far as human rights.

China defends itself saying they have saved millions from poverty (according to the World Bank), however, China has denied the UN"s human rights experts from visiting areas of Tibet. Hmmm.

[Anonymous]

This is an older article from China Daily, but it focuses on one of the topics I teach in health:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/06/content_752218.htm

The article is called "Let's talk about sex with the teens." Teaching health in middle school, I feel a bit censored while teaching the reproduction / AIDS / STD's lessons. I have to teach a bit more than in elementary school, but they aren't ready for certain topics until high school. I sometimes wish that I could share information more freely. Then I read this article about Chinese sex ed., and I feel more free to share information than China seems. Teenagers don't seem to know very much about sex because the information at schools is lacking and free information is not very available.

This article reminds me of the speaker who talked about health education about smoking in China. Citizens seemed to have no information about the unhealthy nature of smoking. It'd be interesting to use either of these topics in my health class for comparison and contrast to what they have learned in school.

[Anonymous]

I have thought the very same things. Is China so comfortable with its status that it really doesn't worry about the world's reactions? Are economic factors more important than human life if the attrocities aren't happening on our soil? Well, considering you have to watch and read foreign news to even get more than a 30 second blurb, if you're lucky, on the situation, I guess that's case in point.

[Anonymous]

Sadly, kids are growing up faster and I think they are ready for most topics in middle school as they are already "experimenting" with the talk in 3rd grade at my school (usually when they have a high school older sibling). Kids are growing up a lot faster these days, very scary actually. When I read your post I thought about the speaker who said Chinese average something like 2 abortions per female which makes me think sex ed is vital at even younger ages now days; especially there! The emotional trauma outweighs even the physical toll on the individual. Somehow, even if it is uncomfortable, we've got to be open and help these kids protect themselves and others.

[Anonymous]

At the beginning of Harper's magazine each month, they have a collection of found poems, photographs, memos, etc. In the May 2008 issue (attached to this post), I found a funny little memo of a 1973 conversation / meeting between Henry Kissinger and Chairman Mao Zedong and his advisers. The part of the conversation featured begins with a talk about trade, but sidetracks when Mao offers to trade ten million Chinese women to the United States. Then, Mao goes on to say what a surplus of women China has and how women are ruining the country.

This is such an interesting little piece from the 2008 perspective, especially with the Chinese one child policy in mind. The conversation took place in 1973 and the one child policy began in 1979. It seems that today China has "given away" many of its women and needs women in the country to marry their surplus of men. The article also shows the view of women in China and possibly the world in 1973. Even the female secretaries at the meeting were laughing at the jokes about women being useless and expendable. It's an interesting little piece to reflect upon and possibly share with students studying this era in history.

[Anonymous]

I've attached an article from the March 10, 2008 New York Times Upfront magazine called, " Will the Great Firewall Stand?" It focuses on China's internet firewall that withholds certain cites from Chinese citizens. Some of the internet censorship is being amped up, and the author blames this on the upcoming Olympics. Some internet dissenters are even being thrown in prison.

This article might be very interesting to share with students. It could be shared in light of censorship. It could also be shared in light of what preparing for the Olympics in a certain city entails. In the article, it's interesting how Western companies like Google go along with the Chinese censors and limit results for searches like "Tiananmen Square." It's hard to imagine that the Chinese government will be able to keep this tight grip on information forever.

[Anonymous]

I just read an article on the sentencing of the Tibetan monks and supporters of the uprisings in March in Tibet. Of course they were charged as guilty and are going to jail; some life sentences. I especially found it interesting that the article talks about the "patriotic education" classes in China. Here is what some of the article said from Yahoo News:

"Chinese authorities have increased patriotic education classes that require monks to make ritual denunciations of the Dalai Lama, accept the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama and pledge allegiance to Beijing."

It would be so interesting to know what exactly these classes entail! Does anyone know?? I am going to do some more research on this.

[Anonymous]

I found the article, "Olympic flame burnishes and burns" in Monday's (4/28) LA Times. This article compares two significant women in the torch protests, both of whom we talked about at the last East Asia meeting. Jin Jing is the wheelchair bound athlete who carried the torch in Paris and was attacked. Wang Qianyuan is a Duke student from China who stood between pro-China and pro-Tibet protesters, urging them to talk. The Chinese population has labeled Jing as an "angel" and Qianyuan as a traitor, going as far as to call for her death.

Upon reading this article, I had a similar response to one of the contributors Zhou Xianzheng who says this black and white reaction shows that the Chinese ""have lived too long in a world with unbalanced information." It does not seem that this issue can even be discussed in a civil way in China, but everyone must automatically be pro-China without thinking. I'm glad to live in a nation where discussion is allowed and encouraged.

One other thing that stood out to me was the fact that the two most important figures in the torch controversies in China are two women. After reading some published Mao transcripts in which he puts down women, saying they had to many in China and they were ruining the country, a woman is the key figure in saving the torch. It's interesting that after men plunged the people of China and Tibet into these difficulties that a woman is the scapegoat for Chinese anger, too.

[Anonymous]

China Stocks, Once Frothy, Fall by Half in Six Months - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 19-20th

"The Chinese stock market has fallen by nearly half since its peak last fall. The decline has wiped out nearly $2.5 trillion of wealth and is testing the government's apparent resolve to let the market find equilibrium on its own."

Interestingly, this has not slowed China's growing economy! Imagine if our stock market fell by half in six months...we would definitely be in a serious recession, not in a climate of growth like the Chinese economy. Incredibly, the economy appears to be accelerating, as investors see that the Chinese government is not intervening. In addition, this fall doesn't seem to be affecting U.S. investors because most of the shares traded are "off-limits" to the vast majority of foreigners. Also, few U.S. funds have received permission to invest in these stocks anyway. Likewise, this doesn't seem to be having an impact on consumer spending like it would in the U.S. because the Chinese economy never got a boost from consumers spending their stock market gains in the first place. This is China's second boom-bust stock cycle in less than a decade.

China's top government officials have avoided intervention, even direct comment, on the market meltdown. This might lead one to speculate that the 2008 Olympic host is between a "rock and a hard place". With all the attention focused on Beijing, officials may feel that efforts to prop up the market would be widely criticized.

[Anonymous]

Carole,

I saw this Wall Street Journal article as well. I was especially interested in the example of the school administrator who invested the equivalent of $14,000 into Chinese stocks that doubled and then fell. It made me wonder if this stock market experience made any Chinese people hostile toward capitalism. Chinese individual investors "poured into stocks" last year and are now hurting because of it. The article says that some "Internet postings have seethed with rage -- sometimes at the U.S." That kind of loss in an early individual stock market system would make me skeptical and possibly hostile toward the model, though it's not fair to do so.

[Anonymous]

I too saw the article "Olympic flame burnishes and burns" (April 28, 2008/LATimes). Besides pointing out the deep emotions of national pride, it illustrates the sweeping effect of cyberspace in China. Both incidents captured on video have been widely viewed on the Internet. Internet chat-room messages abound. This mob-mentality calling for the death of the Duke student is fueled by the ease in which the Internet-savvy generation in China navigates cyberspace. Like cyber-bullies in the U.S., it is easy to say things one would not say in person on the annoymous Internet. Even the government is trying to curb the outrage for fear it could spiral out of control. Wang Qianyuan's personal identification numbers and directions to her home were posted along with her telephone number and a picture. Where is the "Great Firewall" of China now? In my opinion, China could better spend its time and resources protecting its citizens instead of censoring them!

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