Tyler Cowen links to Michael Huemer's Why People Are Irrational about Politics. To read later.

Dalai Lama Assesses Iraq, Afghan Wars By SCOTT LINDLAW:

The exiled Tibetan leader, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, said the Vietnam War increased suffering and was a "failure." But, he said, some wars, including the Korean War and World War II, helped "protect the rest of civilization, democracy."

He said he saw a similar result in Afghanistan - "perhaps some kind of liberation."

"The people themselves, I think, suffer a lot under their previous regimes," he said.

The Dalai Lama urged Bush, in a letter on Sept. 12, 2001, to "think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run."

Asked whether the Iraq war was just in light of that plea, the Dalai Lama said the situation there is "more complicated" and will take more time before he can judge.

"I think history will tell," he said....

The Tibetan Buddhist leader, who is on a five-city, 20-day tour of the United States that is timed to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary, called on Americans to channel their lingering grief "into a source of inner strength."

"Big, unthinkable tragedies happen," he said. "Now, instead of keeping that and developing hatred or sense of revenge, instead of that, think long-term. The negative event, try to transform into a source of inner strength."

He likened the terrorist attacks to Tibetans' struggle to reclaim their country from Chinese rule. Communist troops took over Tibet in 1951, and the Dalai Lama fled in 1959 during a failed uprising. He now lives in India....

The White House meeting irritated Chinese authorities, who said in the official China Daily newspaper that the visit to the United States "constitutes a serious intervention into China's internal affairs."

As usual.

Shanghai Airlines Orders Boeing 757-200s in partial repayment for snubbing the Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu, no doubt.

Speaking of her, in Taiwan's Vice President Dismisses Polls, by WILLIAM FOREMAN, she "told The Associated Press in an interview that President Chen Shui-bian will be re-elected because the island's economy is recovering." I wonder if she agrees with the PRC that Hong Kong's opposition to article 23 would die down once the economy there improves.

Randy Barnett links to and summarizes a WSJ report on a survey on What Iraqis Really Think. I wonder how much we'll hear about this good news. As the article says, "journalists have a bad-news bias".

In Tibet Torn Between Tradition and China's Bounty, Philip P. Pan shows how

the people of Tibet are engaged in a different kind of struggle: a quiet, often personal battle between their deep desire to be rid of the Chinese and their increasing dependence on the money and opportunities that Chinese rule brings.

Human rights and religious freedom are important, but so is economic progress.

In Hong Kong and the Future of Freedom, Arthur Waldron explains how the flap over Article 23 (a security law for Hong Kong that would have allowed searches without warrants; long prison terms for the disclosure, for instance by journalists, of so-called state secrets (in China, economic data can be thus classified); and the banning in Hong Kong of groups banned in China, which includes the Roman Catholic Church). If the bill passes, the Hong Kong government will presumably want to enforce it, but if it does it will alienate the people of HK. If it doesn't pass, the Communists look impotent. Link via The Gweilo Diaries; as he points out, this is mostly the Communists' own fault.

John Ruwitch writes how while speaking to students and faculty members at Peking University, Jimmy Carter Nudges China Toward More Democracy. The students interviewed exhibit typical sensitivity to criticism and toe the Communist Party line on the Tiananmen massacre:

Carter's speech was well received by the students.

"I thought what he had to say was very sincere and pertinent. He didn't say things like 'the U.S. model is better than the Chinese', or 'you should learn from us'," said public administration student Deng Xuan....

Carter referred to Peking University's role in the China's democracy debate stretching back to the May Fourth Movement of 1919, which strove for democracy and intellectual freedom and also spawned the Communist Party.

He steered clear of mentioning the role of students from the prestigious university as leaders of the May Fourth inspired the pro-democracy protests of 1989, which the army crushed on the evening of June 3-4 in and around Tiananmen Square.

"Looking back, analysing the students' actions at the time, we think the government's actions were right, in light of the bigger picture," said a government student who would only give his surname as Wang.

"The students who participated had perhaps an enthusiasm for democracy and patriotic hearts," he added.

"But they neglected one point, that direction is more important than pace. China in the late 20th century needed economic development more than political democracy."

Of course, such a small group means the participants were carefully screened.

Sam Howe Verhovek on the Rebellion of the Displaced.

residents have launched a vigorous public protest and lawsuit that has attracted considerable attention here, in no small measure because the would-be developer of the site is at the center of a real estate fraud scandal that is being investigated by Beijing authorities and could yet ensnare other developers and even government officials here...Many of the plaintiffs and others who have taken part in increasingly public protests over their forced relocation say their real goal is not so much to preserve the old housing. Few wax nostalgic about the confined, dingy tenements where they live now, and a common goal of most protesters is to secure an affordable apartment in one of the new high-rises planned for the spot where they were living.

Hmm. That's all very well, but there's nary a word about Chinese government accusations that Zheng Enchong, the lawyer helping the residents, was "revealing state secrets". Or how Zhou Zhengyi's case may reflect badly on Jiang Zemin.

Reuters In an effort to boost the language capabilities of its agents, the CIA said Thursday it was launching a new advertising campaign for linguists who can teach languages like Arabic, Farsi and Chinese...Experts have often pointed to poor foreign language skills as one of the greatest weaknesses of the U.S. United States' intelligence agencies.

For Many Chinese, America's Allure Is Fading, By DAVID W. CHEN

They have more options at home, with jobs available in small businesses, steel factories or construction sites.

"America is no paradise," said one man surnamed Zheng, who returned to the village of Shengmei a few years ago. He described a seven-year odyssey that started in New York but took him to many other places. "It was the same routine every day for six or seven years," he droned. "Get up. Work for 16 hours. Go to bed. Get up again. I was a fool. A machine."

In village after village, people outlined the same choices. If they got a good job here, they would stay. If not, they would try to borrow enough money to leave. Not one person talked about politics or human rights here, or China's one-child policy. The issue was money.

Of course it was for money! I can't believe that people actually thought it was for human rights.

In The Futile Pursuit of Happiness, JON GERTNER writes,

we overestimate the intensity and the duration of our emotional reactions -- our ''affect'' -- to future events. In other words, we might believe that a new BMW will make life perfect. But it will almost certainly be less exciting than we anticipated; nor will it excite us for as long as predicted....[T]est participants through the years have consistently made just these sorts of errors both in the laboratory and in real-life situations....On average, bad events proved less intense and more transient than test participants predicted. Good events proved less intense and briefer as well.

Jonathan Watts reports:

Authorities in the Chinese capital unveiled plans yesterday for a "morality-evaluation index" that will rank communities according to the refinement and ethical virtue of their residents and local environment.

The ten criteria for rating neighbourhoods that Watts singles out:

• Patriotic spirit



• Shared housework



• Potted plants per family



• Books per family



• Rubbish separation



• Licence violations by karaoke bars and internet cafes



• Politeness



• Spitting



• Traffic accidents involving residents



• Noise complaints

He also mentions these in the body of the article:

• regularly reading a newspaper



• alcohol abuse



• pollution



• speaking a foreign language (ahem!)

Of course it's a little odd to us. (Although some US homeowners' associations do have intrusive rules, the residents generally agree to them when they move in.) I'm guessing the Beijing one about "politeness" doesn't mean politeness to one's family & close friends so much as to outsiders.

An article in China Daily discusses how several creative people are contributing to the development of the Chinese language. It's a strangely mixed bag; although Jin Yong is a popular writer of martial arts novels (The Deer and the Cauldron has been translated into English), he's not considered very literary, and intellectuals consider Qiong Yao's novels to be pretty trashy. (She's a Taiwanese writer; perhaps the mainland authorities are trying to reach out to Taiwan.) On the other hand, the literary reputations of Wong Kar-Wai, Bei Dao, and Wang Shuo are much better--Geremie Barm� discusses Wang Shuo at length (Please don't call me human and Playing for thrills have been translated into English) and Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai is an international favorite among cinema buffs.

And note that the title of the article doesn't make sense and that it gets Wong Kar-Wai's name wrong.

Prince Roy and his commentators have lots of interesting stuff to say about Kristof's NY Times piece comparing Russia & China.

Prince Roy also has an item about US Korean War POWs who wanted to live in Maoist China.

A better tomorrow has gone to Taiwan, and has many interesting posts, including one on Taiwanese pearl milk tea vs. the mainland version.

China Denying AIDS Makes It Worse By MARGARET WONG writes that Human Rights Watch criticizes China's AIDS policy of denial & discrimination.

Macabe Keliher of the Asia Times reports:

Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu received a rude change to her summer travel plans. After helping inaugurate Paraguay's new president, Lu's itinerary was to put her in the US city of Seattle to tour the Boeing factory, among other things. But while still in the Southern Hemisphere, and just a few days before the scheduled factory tour, the Taiwanese entourage received a call. "Boeing called and said it was not convenient for me to visit," Lu told Asia Times Online.

History's first female Chinese vice president was angry, but by no means surprised. "My first reaction was to just forget it," she said, "but I was very unhappy that Boeing yielded to pressure from [mainland] China. It comes as a humiliation to myself as the vice president, and to the Taiwan people."

I thought it was funny that Boeing's excuse was "it was not convenient". "It's not convenient" is what the Chinese often say when Americans would say "no".

As for the reporter, he says "[mainland] China" I guess because he wants to stay on China's good side.

The BBC reports, New Taiwanese passports are being issued on Monday, with the word Taiwan printed on the front for the first time.

The decision has been denounced by China as an excuse for the province to pursue independence.

Note from the picture the word "Taiwan" is in English. As Huang Tai-lin reports, the word "Taiwan" is in Roman script: the Communist Party is mostly worried about other countries taking Taiwan seriously.

I wonder why the BEEB uses passive voice here? Is the fact of denunciation really more important than the fact that it's China making the denunciation?

On NPR, ROB GIFFORD interviews a young Chinese woman who says:

The situation now in North Korea is something like the situation in China while we in cultural revolution. So I was so surprised 'cause China is more open and more urban. So we have much freedom. North Korea people--they don't have the same right, the same freedom as we have.

GIFFORD: When Chinese people stop pitying those in other countries for having a lack of freedom, you know something's changing. China may still be run by a Communist Party, but it's being transformed so rapidly that's it's completely unrecognizable from persistently Stalinist North Korea.

In China Is Resisting Pressure to Relax Rate for Currency, Peter S. Goodman points out that

while some U.S. industries, such as textiles and furniture, have been hammered by cheap Chinese imports, others benefit from the low yuan. U.S.-based multinational companies such as Dell Inc. and Texas Instruments Inc. use cheap labor here to make products that are shipped for sale in other markets; if the yuan rose in value against the dollar, it would raise these companies' labor costs because they would need more dollars to pay the same salaries here. And with a fixed currency, companies that make and sell goods within China, potentially the world's largest consumer market, are girded against any change to the lucrative status quo...

many economists take issue with the notion that China's economic growth is a malevolent force. Consumers around the world are enjoying ever lower prices for a widening range of goods produced here. More and more of China's new wealth is being spent on imported goods, fueling growth in other economies, particularly in Southeast Asia and Japan.

"Everyone is focusing on what China is exporting, but in fact China is creating lots of jobs," said Nicholas R. Lardy, a China expert at the Institute for International Economics in Washington.

Many analysts say China is being cast as a scapegoat for manufacturing weakness in countries that would be suffering the pains of such restructuring regardless.

"The U.S. simply cannot have manufacturing," said Larry Lang, chairman of the department of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "It's not the American comparative advantage. There's no point in focusing on China. Even if these cheap products weren't coming in from China, they would be coming in from the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia. This debate is all politics, not economics."

The perception of China as an economic threat is largely the result of its exports....But China's imports are growing faster than its exports...

the strongest argument for holding the line was voiced indirectly on a recent afternoon outside the deafening assembly line at Galanz by a former farmer named Sang Zeyang. He left his village in inland Anhui province to look for a way to sustain his wife and two children. He found it here, making ovens for families in lands he can only imagine.

"In Anhui, I had no work," he said. "We lived on several thousand renminbi a year [about $400.] Here, I make more than 1,000 renminbi in a single month."