August 14, 2005, Lifts and Separates
It's a mad, mad, mad world... so a few disparate links drawn from the front page of our comrades' in Beijing's house organ People's Daily: first, this lamentation from the PRC on the occasion of the assassination of the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister in Colombo (naturally, Tamil separatists are suspected). Then, we have this, proposing to shoot down Taiwan's bid for a U.N. seat before it manages to get anywhere... We get this discussion of an American-born Chinese industrialist, who laments American waste and proposes that China develop a "recycling based" economy; and this prediction for strong, if not brilliant, economic performance in the second half of this year.
I give you these items to note that while the authoritarians in China are concerned with their solipsisms (Taiwan, their own economy), there is also an interest on the part of the world's most populous nation in the rest of the world. Something that might be nice in our press. On occasion.
(Then again, just when I was hoping I could go to Beijing to escape all word of Branjelina... we get this)
In the immortal words of Emily LaTella... never mind...