dagblog - Comments for "China’s next president: Xi Jinping"

Osama's face isn't on the

David Seaton — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 14:55:55 +0000

In reply to I don't see what needed to be

Osama's face isn't on the money yet.

I don't see what needed to be

acanuck — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:44:51 +0000

In reply to Clarification: Mao was not a

I don't see what needed to be clarified, David. You never suggested Mao was a good guy, only that he was essentially right (and sometimes spectacularly wrong). Osama bin Laden's analysis of the West's vulnerabilities, and his judo moves to exploit them, are breathtakingly brilliant. They don't in any way make him a nice person. Why would anyone think the two things are correlated?

Clarification: Mao was not a

David Seaton — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:56:16 +0000

In reply to China’s next president: Xi Jinping

Clarification:
Mao was not a "nice guy". He let some 34million Chinese starve in order to get an atomic bomb and for sure the "Great Leap Foward" and the Cultural Revolution were disasters and nowadays there are even books out about how his personal hygiene left much to be desired and that he transmitted loathsome diseases to young ladies, but, hey, you can't win 'em all.

A lot of this is like making a point about George Washington owning slaves and wearing wooden false teeth.

Mao unified China, exterminated the war lords, drove out the foreigners, regained China's sovereignty, and turned it into a world power. And in doing this he created the Chinese Communist Party, which managed his succession without missing a beat and now is directing the strategies which are eating our lunch.

This is why Mao Tse-Tung despite having been a smelly old fornicator and having killed so many innocents, is and will always be revered in China... He is one of the greatest emperors in their endless history.

That's what I mean, the CCP

David Seaton — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:34:40 +0000

In reply to "I am impressed by how they

That's what I mean, the CCP is a fascinating organization.

"I am impressed by how they

Obey — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:25:34 +0000

In reply to China’s next president: Xi Jinping

"I am impressed by how they have managed to avoid the fate of the Communist Party of the USSR or the CPs of the Soviet's European colonies," - Well, a big part of why they survived while the others perished has something to do with rolling a few tanks over a few students in Beijing whereas Gorby got cold feet and held the tanks back. But of course there is more to it than that. I remember covering their WTO accession talks ten years back as a journalist and how we all were blown away by their negotiation team. Unlike the Russians who were starting their own talks and looked like a bunch of hicks in the big city, the Chinese ran rings around their counterparts - the US, EU and Japan, in the way they played the media, the special interests, every aspect really.

I got a chuckle as soon as I

acanuck — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:51:59 +0000

In reply to China’s next president: Xi Jinping

I got a chuckle as soon as I read the Bloomberg quote: Xi Jinping "earned a doctorate in Marxist theory from Tsinghua University but now has a reputation as a supporter of rapid economic reform."

Know who else has adopted and internalized the Marxist analysis of capitalism? Capitalists. Grasping the essential accuracy of Marx's idea of class struggle is why they are winning, at least in the West.

Discuss among yourselves; I expect 3,000-word papers by Tuesday.

"We shape the clay in the

cmaukonen — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:12:44 +0000

In reply to China’s next president: Xi Jinping

"We shape the clay in the form of a pot. But it is the hole that makes it useful"