I've been busy making Web sites and doing my real job, so I held off blogging until I could catch up. Money first, blog second. During this time, there were numerous stories about China. It seems to me the Chinese government has acquired enough wealth and stability that it can finally begin to show the world what it really is.
Any other President than Bush would have been whole-heartedly supported for hosting the Dalai Lama at the White House and then awarding him the Congressional Medal of Freedom. Ten years ago, the Chinese government would have said nothing. Bush's unpopularity and its position as a global economic player gives the Chinese government a soapbox (see China Says U.S. 'Gravely Undermined' Relations With Dalai Lama Award).
"The move of the United States is a blatant interference with China's internal affairs which has severely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and gravely undermined the relations between China and the United States," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference.
He said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had summoned U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt to express "strong protest to the U.S. government."
China has warned that giving the award to a person it believes is trying to split the country would have serious consequences for relations, but has not said what it would do.
Well, already China has declared it has an economic nuclear option. I think the huff over the Dalai Lama was a trial balloon to see how the U.S. would react. Specifically, Democrats have been so contrary to Bush, I think the Chinese wanted to see if they could cause Bush further grief by kicking up political dust. Hey, Al Quaida has already proven how easy it is to fracture our politics, so imagine what a legitimate government can do.
Then over the AP wire: China's First Astronaut to Start Communist Party Branch in Space. While you're busy thinking about how the cute little Communists want to participate in the International Space Station, think about implications of this declaration. The same government that makes people just disappear, harvests organs from its own healthy citizens, performs wild medical experiments on otherwise healthy people, tries to smash any non-state-approved religion, steals information to gain technology advantages, and even tampers in U.S. politics by proxy. The outrageously cruel oppression of millions within its own borders is not enough.
There's more coming from an increasingly vocal China as we continue to financially enable their bad behavior.
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