By Andrew L. Jaffee

“The making of profits is impossible,” wrote Eleanor Marx, summarizing one of her father’s key economic concepts as set forth in his rather long-winded Das Kapital. I then wonder how my left-wing friends would explain the fact that, “China will soon overtake Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy behind the US and Japan.” We’re talking 100’s of billions in “communist” profits; so much so that the politburo has had to “curb the pace of growth” with “five interest rate increases in 2007 and limits on spending on factories and property:”

China’s economy grew at an annual pace of 11.5% in the three months to the end of September, official figures show.

The figure was ahead of economists’ predictions but slightly slower than the 11.9% seen in the previous quarter. …

Growth slowed to 11.5%! Still no contradictions? China is the “world’s second largest emitter” of carbon and, “Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China that is big enough to serve all the households in Dallas or San Diego.” And these left-wingers still think of China as some kind of nirvana…

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

“We are furious. If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award [the Congressional Gold Medal], there must be no justice or good people in the world.”

- Zhang Qingli, Chinese Communist Party secretary for Tibet

What a world the Chinese Communist Party lives in… Maura Moynihan explains why China is so afraid of the humble Dalai Lama:

…True, the Dalai Lama is no ordinary scholar and teacher; he is the living symbol of the Buddhist faith. It seems that Beijing’s cadres fear his moral authority and do not want the international community to examine their record in Tibet, because they have a lot to hide.

It has been 48 years since the Dalai Lama eluded capture by the People’s Liberation Army and escaped to India, whereupon Chairman Mao Zedong began to plunder Tibet’s wealth and murdered more than 1 million of its people.

In the mid-1990s, the Chinese politburo implemented the “Strike Hard Campaign” that declared Buddhism “a disease to be eradicated.” News of major protests in Tibet has not been widely disseminated in recent years, and now the survival of Tibetan civilization has reached a tipping point.

In 2000, China launched a vast infrastructure campaign called “Opening and Development of the Western Regions” and embarked on a new phase of subjugation and control. Construction of rail and road links to Tibet, such as the Qingzang railway that opened last year, has accelerated Beijing’s surveillance of Tibetans and has advanced the Sinofication of the Himalayan and Turkic peoples who inhabit China’s western territories.

Exploiting Tibet’s resources for the mainland’s industrial base is a strategic and economic priority for China’s government, which suppresses manifestations of Tibetan identity or nationalism with blunt force. …

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by Michael Rubin*

Last week, the United States turned to the United Nations in an attempt to increase pressure on Iran. The U.S. wanted to expand sanctions against the budding nuclear power.

Neither China nor Russia would go along. And faced with the prospect of one or the other vetoing sanctions at the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice punted. She put off further action against Iran until at least November.

It’s hard to see how much will change in a month. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is firm in his opposition to sanctions. “Interference by way of new sanctions would mean undermining” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as it puts pressure on Iran, he said.

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By Canadian Coalition for Democracies

Ottawa, Canada - August 15, 2007 - India celebrates 60 years of independence. This occasion offers Canada an opportunity to reevaluate its relationship with one of history’s oldest continuing civilizations, a nation that is the world’s largest pluralistic democracy, and a major Asian military and economic power.

Like Canada, India inherited its parliamentary democracy, common law, civic administration and knowledge of English from its period as a British dependency. Despite having much in common with India, Canada has been slow to expand relations with the country, focusing more on its relations with China. This emphasis is reflected in the disproportionate extent of Canadian Government programs, civic engagement, trade, bilateral agreements and ministerial visits aimed at China, and a blinkered approach toward India.

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Chutzpah = killing one’s parents and asking the court for mercy because one is an orphan

by Bill Levinson

We came across this glaring example of chutzpah from the country that murders political prisoners to sell their organs, and that recently sold us poisoned pet food, in the Wall Street Journal. Wei Xin, Press Attache, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, will probably be dragged home for “reeducation” once his masters realize that he made his country look ridiculous with this letter. After all, he is talking to educated Wall Street Journal readers, not Chinese peasants who know only what their masters choose to tell them.

This is a good lead-in for the chutzpah of prominent Democrats who are blaming George Bush for involving us in Iraq, when they themselves bayed for Saddam Hussein’s blood as loudly as any Republican ever did. This underscores their total lack of character, maturity, ethics, and judgment, plus their obvious contempt for the American people whom they expect to believe their line of taqqiya.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Did the blind contractor’s bridge even make it across the river? If so, how would he have known — for sure, not second-hand? The blind leading the blind? Idiots leading the blind or vice versa? How could a blind man update a draftsman’s blueprint? I guess this is what you get when billionaire communist/capitalists bid work out to private contractors (would Marx even understand this sentence?). From Reuters:

A Chinese court has jailed two officials after they let a blind contractor build a bridge which collapsed during construction and injured 12 people, the official Xinhua news agency said Monday. …

“After the blind contractor changed the blueprint, he carried out the work only using a roughly drawn draft of the plan, which caused the bridge to collapse,” the report said.

Xinhua did not explain how the contractor was able to run the project considering his inability to see.

Ah… yeah…

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A personal, historical vignette

By Cainnech Ó Sullibhain

Every day in our lives we hear of the men who fight battles for their country and become heroes, but we never hear of the unsung heroes that are never even mentioned in the news media. They are of course both men and women who are put into a position where their loyalty and bravery go well beyond that of a soldier on the battlefield. This story is one that no one ever got wind of. I speak as one of those who risked his life, maybe out of loyalty or common sense, who partook in such an operation.

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By Canadian Coalition for Democracies

Ottawa, Canada - The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) is concerned about the entry into Canada of China’s Commerce Minister, Bo Xilai on Monday May 28th, 2007. There are serious allegations about Bo Xilai regarding torture and crimes against humanity. These concerns have been brought to the attention of Canadian government officials, the RCMP and the Department of Justice’s Interdepartmental Operations Group of Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity & War Crimes Program.

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A personal, historical vignette

By Cainnech Ó Sullibhain

In late October 1964 the M/V Kohinur (London Registry), fully loaded with general cargo, left Dunkerque, France headed for the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and Shanghai, China. When we reached Shanghai, it was respite and a time to relax. I got in the small ferry that took me from the anchorage in the Yang-Tse River to Shanghai. There, I went to visit the People’s Friendship Store not far from the old Ellie Cadoorie Building, which was the tallest building in Shanghai then. It was built by Sir Ellie Cadoorie, a businessman and self-made millionaire, in the days of the British Concession in China.

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By RA Sprinkle

A synopsis of world history paints a dark picture of humanity, or rather, of mankind’s inhumanity. The weak have never been secure, insomuch, that survival in the animal kingdom is a suitable allegory to that of the kingdom of men.

On the other hand, strength alone does not ensure peace. To the contrary, more often than not strength has been used as an oppressive force to conquer and subdue, to kill, spoil and plunder.

Whatever peace the world will know will only come by way of strength with principles, not by an equilibrium of shared power among nations, nor by agreement upon common interests, but by the power of a greater power, which, guided by principles and values exerts the proper degree of force as a counter weight to arrest hostile and aggressive forces.

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by Kenneth T. Tellis

This is the story of Chinese Admiral Zheng He (or his Chinese title of Cheng Ho), his birth name being Ma Sanbao, and his Muslim name of Hajji Mahmud, who traveled the China Seas, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, long before the time of the European explorers and colonizers.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Chinese Yankee Traders in the People’s Paradise are upsetting the apple cart. The capitalist genie’s out of the bottle. All under the rubric of “communism,” many of the egalitarian masses are struggling — 20,000 rioting now — some are honestly capitalizing, while China’s “communists” have gotten loaded in pursuit of the almighty dollar, er, ah, Yuan:

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by David Harris*

For too long Canada has somehow overlooked the biggest democracy in the world, India, mistakenly focusing on China instead. India’s annual GDP growth is now only one percentage point short of China’s. And the subcontinent is pushing a broader spectrum — both manufacturing and services — than China, with its emphasis on manufacturing.

A passage to India, or a slow boat to China? At last, Stephen Harper’s government might be making the right choice.

For years Canadian diplomacy has emphasized China over India. But next week, Trade Minister David Emerson’s high-profile India mission can bring a needed change — provided Canada’s government is prepared to pursue the right initiatives.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

What in China has been “egalitarian” under communist rule? The 50-80 million dead bodies racked up by Mao, Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying, etc? Did Marx envision communists getting rich by experimenting with capitalism — all while maintaining central control in the hands of a few? The concept of the democratic soviet (workers’ council) has been long forgotten in favor of making plastic chochkees for Walmart. The Chinese communist-billionaire-kulaks have expropriated land owned by the proletariat, established stock markets, and built trading relationships with the Great Satan’s evil corporations, like Ford, GM, and Google — and, of course, gunned downed a few protestors here and there. Chinese “communism” is far from being egalitarian, or consistent. The BBC, safe in the capitalist UK, isn’t even consistent about China’s inconsistencies, let alone its own sophist inconsistencies. I would venture to say that many of the BBC’s staff own private property, even though they wouldn’t admit to being un-”egalitarian.” Here’s a loaded statement from the Beeb, implying that private property rights are not “egalitarian:”

China has unveiled a landmark law that will boost the protection of private property rights.

This is the first piece of legislation in the Communist country to cover an individual’s right to own assets.

Analysts say the move is an important step away from Chinese egalitarianism and towards a market economy.

The bill will also reportedly boost protection against land seizures, which have become a major source of unrest among farmers in rural areas.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Is the experiment by Chinese communists with capitalism (an oxymoron in itself) starting to let the genie out of the bottle? Charging for medical treatment in the great peoples’ paradise? From the BBC:

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