Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962 , the English translation of an authoritative history of the “Great Leap Forward” famine by Jisheng Yang, is now out. An estimated 36 million died in what was probably the worst famine in human history, one that was primarily due not . . . . Continue Reading »
Or how should we describe Mitt Romney foreign-policy wise? Is he a neo-con? A neo-neo-con? Honestly, I don’t know. I think Peter’s “Mender not an Ender” is the perfect description of the candidate domestically, “Blast from the Past , Mormon Version” is the . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s tons of international stories that Americans don’t follow very closely, a pattern of behavior that is quite human, really. But I am convinced that what’s been going on in China is a huge story that most Americans have not yet paid adequate attention to. A fellow at Forbes, . . . . Continue Reading »
How to understand the recent spate of impassioned protests in China, officially against the Japanese ownership of some small islands, but clearly signifying more than just that? It is turmoil at least as significant as what’s occurring in the Muslim world, as it has political machinations . . . . Continue Reading »
Well I couldn’t resist (ineptly) posting that photo of the reef-rock that China and the Philippines both claim, but doing so perhaps made the topic seem more humorous than it really is. Bottom line 1: you gotta watch China on every geo-strategic front, and the “spontaneous” . . . . Continue Reading »
The causes of hostility among nations are innumerable. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #6 Words to ponder as Chinese protesters , and then Japanese protestors occupy the various rocks that make up the Senkaku Islands. The second of those links is to a Telegraph story that shows why this latest . . . . Continue Reading »
A Sinophile Brit who made a serious go of integrating himself into Chinese society, it seems mainly for his wife’s and childrens’ sake, decides its past time to get out . Predicts a property bubble burst among other coming calamities. Worth reading in full, in part to be reminded of . . . . Continue Reading »
Dragon in a Three-Piece Suit: The Emergence of Capitalism in China by doug guthrie princeton university press, 302 pages, $39.95 In the famous account he gave of his twenty-four years away from his native Venice, Marco Polo was not above embellishment: the gold and silver said to line the walls of . . . . Continue Reading »
Driven by the Tiananmen massacre of June 4, 1989, foreign perceptions of China are now being reexamined in a manner reminiscent of earlier foreign perceptions of the Soviet Union. In the early 1930s, millions of people died of famine in the Ukraine and North Caucasus. Walter Duranty, the New . . . . Continue Reading »