My favorite dumb headline: “The U.N. condemns [country]” [ ... and?]

U.N. condemns Somali attacks

No!

Not a U.N. condemnation!

Not in Somalia!

I am sure all involved feel rightly bashful now, toes all afuddlin’ and they are certainly ready to stop their pernicious ways, yes they are. No foolin’ mister! Honest!

Sigh.

I mean, I don’t blame the U.N. for issuing condemnations on things … they’re a completely toothless organization so, really, that’s about all they have [ ... and even then, they can only use the threat of condemnation every now and then when enough countries agree to say something useless]

… but what I don’t get is why the Media (capital M) feels the need to report it?

My Aunt can condemn the fighting in Somalia too … and guess what? … Her condemnation is going to make the exact same difference as the U.N’s

Here’s a snippet, in case you care what acronym said what.

Attacks on African Union peacekeepers in the Somali capital are an insult to the Somali people and the religion of Islam, the United Nations said.

The militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an attack on the airport Thursday in Mogadishu. The attack killed nine people including two members of the AU Mission in Somalia.

A joint statement from AMISOM and the U.N. Political Office for Somalia condemned the attack as a “heinous act of terrorism,” the U.N. news agency quoted the statement as saying.

via U.N. condemns Somali attacks – UPI.com.

Tags: Pointless gestures, Somalia, United Nations

Guanxi, business & China [chinalawblog]

China Law Blog on the importance of guanxi for doing business in China today:

Guanxi relationships is a much talked about, much written about subject. How big of a role does it really play?

Shockingly little. I have met many people who have real power in China but virtually none of them really do rely on their relationships with people to take care of business. Our lead China lawyer, Steve Dickinson, has been living in China and doing business there about half his life. His spoken and written Mandarin are better than your average educated Chinese person. Steve knows a ton of people in China, yet he would never claim to have pull there nor would he ever advocate taking a shortcut because of pull. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard of or seen a Western company believe it did not need to follow the rules because it had sufficient pull to get away with doing things outside of the lines, only to face major issues for having operated outside of the law. The problem with guanxi is that there is always going to be someone higher up than your contact and that person higher up may at some point call you to account for your failure to follow the laws to the letter. Also, and I have seen this happen more times than I can count, your contact may be removed and then the person who takes your contacts place may remove you as an example of how things will operate under the new regime.

via The Basics On Doing Business In China. : China Law Blog : China Law for Business.

Tags: China, China Law Blog, Economics, Guanxi

More Fallows on Obama [asiatripWIN!]

The headlines seem to be strengthening Fallows’ case on whether Obama’s trip was a success or not.

Tags: China, fallows, Obama

China coaxing N.Korea? [selling out is fun!]

http://www.nkeconwatch.com/2009/11/23/china-approves-tumen-border-development-zone/

China is planning a major new development zone along the North Korean border aimed at boosting trade with its reclusive neighbour and throughout northeast Asia, a Chinese-language website reports.

…

It gives few further details, but notes that when Premier Wen Jiabao visited North Korea last month he signed an agreement on building a new bridge across the Yalu river which would further boost Chinese-North Korean trade.

It also quotes the acting mayor of Tonghua, Tian Yulin, as saying that the new zone will transform the city from “inland” to “coastal” and “will promote trade between the inland cities of the northeast and North Korea and with the whole of northeast Asia.” The report adds that almost 60% of China’s trade with North Korea passes through Dandong.

Tags: China, Diplomacy, Economics, North Korea

Obama’s trip to Asia was a success? [updates!]

With Russia and China [finally] joining in on the UN’s condemnation of Iran, Fallows declares success for Round 1 of Obama-in-China and asks the Media to repudiate all those nasty, “Obama failed” headlines from last week.

… the areas in which the Administration needed to engage the Chinese — Iran, North Korea, climate issues, currency value and economic “balancing,” human rights in general and talks with the Dalai Lama in particular — are obviously all difficult. China’s initial offer on emissions targets is nowhere near “sufficient“; similarly with its RMB-and-economic commitments; the Iran problem is far from solved; and so on. But ten days after the trip’s completion, the apparent results are closer to the high end of what the Administration could reasonably have expected than to the across-the-board humiliation and disappointment that “analyses” of the trip generally proclaimed. There is evidence of at least first-stage engagement by China on all the issues that mattered to the United States. First-stage is not completion, but it’s something — and something most of the press, viewing the trip as if it were a campaign swing, missed at the time.

Matthew Yglesias says Fallows is right.

To reiterate what I said before, I do think it’s fair to observe that it seems slightly strange to have gone ahead with the trip in the absence of a clear signal that there were important bilateral deals ready to be signed. But it looks like Fallows’ earlier argument that this lack of blockbuster headlines was obscuring a broad range of successes now has the bulk of the evidence on its side.

Tags: China, fallows, Iran, Obama, United States, Yglesias

Report on China’s building boom [facades?]

“nobody’s ever lost money on real estate in China.”

Hm.

Interesting look by Al Jazeera at the Chinese new city of Ordos:

 

Tags: China, GDP, Stimulus

When Headlines Confuse [Tolerance!]

… wait … what?

Swiss Vote to Ban New Minarets

GENEVA — In a vote that displayed a widespread anxiety about Islam and undermined the country’s reputation for religious tolerance, the Swiss on Sunday overwhelmingly imposed a national ban on the construction of minarets, the prayer towers of mosques, in a referendum drawn up by the far right and opposed by the government.

via Swiss Vote to Ban New Minarets – NYTimes.com.

Where did THAT come from?

Will it now be illegal to build church steeples?

Bizarre.

Update: Andrew Sullivan finds it bizarre as well. As will most online critics. As usual, I bring nil value to the table.

You’re welcome.

Good God. Why not synagogues? Or did a neighboring country try that already? It’s hard to think of a gesture more useless with respect to a real problem – integration of Muslim immigrants – or clumsier as a way to provoke religious hostility and intolerance and thereby further radicalize Swiss Muslims. But it is a useful reminder that religious liberty and toleration have roots that are not so deep in Europe

Tags: Islam, Minarets, Switzerland, What?

Obama dithered in China! Obama has inspired the masses! [confusion]

It seems the American MSM is completely confused as to whether Obama’s trip was a success or not. It all seems to boil down to two questions:

Base: What was Obama trying to accomplish?

I’m not sure anyone quite knows the answer to this one, but there were a lot of interpretations. As I’ve said before, I was pretty skeptical that Obama has a real strong hand to play these days in order to get “change.”

The second question is whether or not Obama’s speech was subversive / mild and effective / largely unseen (… or, even worse, did those tricky Mandarins hoodwink the White House staff and keep it from being seen more broadly?).

To this, I’d say the jury’s out, but those that love His Holiness, the Obama are sure optimistic about him stating out loud for the world (and the Chinese internets) that criticism makes him a better leader.

Me? I am not certain. It seems that Obama didn’t do a great job prepping our press re: what his purpose was in going (beyond relationship building) and it will remain to be seen how effectively subversive his words are. After all, he does have a credibility that George W. Bush would never have.

A fair point from one of James Fallows’ readers:

“One of the things that struck me when I was reading one of the NYT's stories on the President's visit to China was their odd way of contrasting it to past presidential visits.  As I remember, the reporter(s) writing the story as much as said that Mr. Obama had not “gotten” any concessions on this and that unlike how it used to be in the good ol' days. [WaPo story to that effect here.]

“You remember those days right? when the U.S. President could helicopter into China and come back with the RMB exactly where we want it, no more internal censorship or repression, all political prisoners freed, China ready and willing to impose sanctions on country A and help invade country B, and of course solid enforceable contract law appearing by magic all around the country, and whatever else comes up in these silly articles.”

via Manufactured failure #5: views from China – James Fallows.

Tags: China, Diplomacy, Obama, politics

Stats on China

Vince Matthews, director of the Colorado Geological Survey, rounded out the picture with some stunning facts on the demand for minerals and other commodities. China is:

The #1, #2 or #3 producer in the world for 15 of the most important commodities;

The #1 importer of copper, accounting for more than 40% of world demand;

Both the #1 producer in the world of iron ore and the top importer;

The #1 car manufacturer in the world, and the #1 car market. (Petrie later made a similar point: China is now second only to the U.S. in first-class interstate highways.)

Consider this little factoid: China built 70,000 new supermarkets in 2005 alone. For a little perspective on that number, the 2002 census counted about 150,000 “food and beverage stores” in the United States.

That voracious demand drove up prices across the board. Matthews ran down a list of price increases from various months in 2003 to the present:

Copper up 307%

Scrap iron up 559%

Molybdenum up 997%. Exports from the U.S. doubled, most of which went to China.

The average price increase of major metals was 379%, and the average price increase was 746% for 15 other industrial metals.

Although prices for many of the metals fell sharply in the commodity crash last year, they’re now staging a comeback, driven by Chinese demand.

Worse, most of these metals are bought via long term contracts, not on the spot market. When those contracts expire, Matthews expects spot prices to spike again.

Even cement demand was disrupted when China when began importing it in 2003, resulting quickly in price spikes and shortages in the U.S. China now consumes half of all the cement in the world.

The resources causing the most consternation, though, are the rare earth elements. As I discussed in September, China has a virtual corner on the world supply of these crucial elements, which are used in wind turbines, solar equipment, parts for hybrid cars, and many of the other solutions for a post-peak oil future.

The U.S. now imports between half and all of its supply of the rare earths, putting it at China’s mercy for some of the raw materials that would be needed for a “Made in the U.S.A.” renewable energy revolution.

Indeed, Matthews believes that China intends to take advantage of its position by clamping down on its exports of rare earths, to bring world manufacturing to them.

via China: The Vampire Squid Of Commodities.

Tags: China, Minerals, resources

Not the most promising public statement [Pakistan]

Indian PM says not clear who controls Pakistan army

NEW DELHI, Nov 22 – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday it was not clear if Pakistan’s president was in control of the army and said Pakistan’s objectives in Afghanistan were not necessarily those of the United States.

Mr Singh said he was worried about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal falling into the wrong hands and said he was disturbed that Islamabad had not brought to justice the perpetrators of last year’s Mumbai attacks.

via FT.com / Asia-Pacific / India – Indian PM says not clear who controls Pakistan army.

Tags: India, Obama, Pakistan, Security, Singh, United States