The world usually turns out to work differently from what American presidents expected when they were campaigning. Franklin Roosevelt campaigned on domestic issues in 1932 and ran a more isolationist foreign policy for his first years in office than any of the Republican presidents elected in the 1920s. But he became aware of the … Read more
Republicans and Democrats, liberals as well as conservatives, have bought into anti-Chinese trade demagoguery. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that tariffs against China are a “key part of our ‘Make It in America’ agenda.” During his 2010 campaign, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called his tea party-backed Republican challenger, Sharron Angle, “a … Read more
In a recent piece for The Wall Street Journal, Andy Stern, an Obama insider and one of organized labor’s more aggressive personalities, praised what he called “China’s superior economic model.” Does China have a superior economic model? That depends: Superior to what? Mr. Stern, who headed the Service Employees International Union, cited Andy Grove, founder … Read more
For the 30 years since The McLaughlin Group began to run on network television, the Christmas and New Year’s shows have been devoted to the conferring of annual awards. The first award on the Christmas show is “Biggest Winner.” This year, clearly, one of the world’s big winner was — Islam. For this was … Read more
This month, communist China is celebrating its 10th anniversary of joining the World Trade Organization. The subtitle ought to be China’s 10th anniversary of cheating the United States. The globalists talked the U.S. into supporting this cozy trade relationship with China by getting American manufacturers and farmers to salivate at the prospect of gaining … Read more
About a month ago this tragic story from China surfaced in the Western media (the UK’s Guardian). It’s a terribly sad story about a mother, Ma Jihong, who died on an operating table in Lijin, Shandong province, when she was forced by state officials to have a late-term abortion. Why were they forcing her to … Read more
On Dec. 8, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt took the rostrum before a joint session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war on Japan. A day earlier, at dawn, carrier-based Japanese aircraft had launched a sneak attack devastating the U.S. battle fleet at Pearl Harbor. Said ex-President Herbert Hoover, Republican statesman of the day, “We … Read more
The bankruptcy of “green jobs” darling Solyndra is still in the news because it could cost U.S. taxpayers $535 million due to a federal “stimulus” program loan guarantee. The Silicon Valley solar-panel maker’s failure comes on the heels of another “green” corporate-welfare beneficiary going under, Evergreen Solar. These deals were big losers for Americans. Both businesses … Read more
Whatever its other accomplishments, Henry Kissinger’s new book, On China, ought to cause serious reconsideration of that now-familiar refrain, “China-is-the-lead-country-of-the-future.” Kissinger’s analysis of Chinese history has been criticized, as has his reticence about evils like the massacres at Tiananmen Square. But his conclusion — that China’s future depends on the resolution of the conflict between … Read more
On March 9, 2009, I found myself sitting in a modest concrete farmhouse, deep inside the labyrinthine network of rural farming villages that make up Lipu County, China. Warm, clear sunlight streamed in the house’s open back door, a rare break from the unending drizzle that seems to plague southern China in the spring. Pinned … Read more
According to a report in the Caixin Century magazine, population control officials in the Chinese province of Hunan seized at least 16 babies born in violation of the one-child policy, sent them to state-run orphanages, and then sold them abroad for adoption. In the words of Steven W. Mosher, China expert and president of the … Read more
America’s founding documents — the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Federalist Papers — are, when read, potentially lethal. Debates about American exceptionalism abound. Writing in the Wall Street Journal before the bombings in Libya, Daniel Henninger brought these currents together in the context of present Arab world turmoil as they relate to Chinese … Read more
Most conversations in Washington these days end up running down the list of likely GOP candidates who will run for the presidential nomination in 2012. The strengths and weaknesses of Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Haley Barbour are quickly calculated; but when it comes to … Read more
“Chu lai! Chu lai!” Guang-Zhong Gu awoke in the pre-dawn hours, bathed in the sweat of a balmy Shanghai September. Unfamiliar voices barked, “Come out! Come out!” Lights overhead flashed on. The cold steel snap of ammo clicked into machine guns. Fists pounded at the doors lining the long corridors of the Xujiahui Seminary, normally … Read more
I knew that leprosy still existed in parts of Africa and India, but had no idea there were so many people living with it in China. According to Brian Palmer of Slate, the government no longer forces people with leprosy into isolation, but many small colonies remain: China has pledged to improve living conditions for … Read more
A group called “Before It’s News” recently provided a heavily hyperlinked article with the unwieldy title, “Is America in Decline? 24 Statistics About the United States Economy That Are Almost Too Embarrassing to Admit.” Here’s a sample from the middle: #6 One prominent economist now says that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the … Read more
Well this is interesting: First Lady Michelle Obama said last month that her husband “always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet.” She made her remarks while visiting a house of the Salesian community in Ronda, Spain. Under the title of Help of Christians, Our Lady is the patroness of the … Read more
Lest we forget that our Catholic brothers and sisters in China are still suffering great persecution: A priest and a nun who were both members of China’s underground Catholic church were murdered in the north of the country this week but the motive was not clear, police said Thursday. AsiaNews, a Vatican-based news service, said … Read more
Via Within the Crainium, a great little story on a clever solution devised by some Dutch architects to address the problem of traveling by car between China and Hong Kong: One of the most vexing aspects of traveling between mainland China and Hong Kong is the car travel: People in the former drive on the right … Read more
Drawing crackpot connections between seemingly unrelated things is a key skill for a writer. Whatever is actually happening in the world, he can use it to prove a point about whatever he was thinking about already. Metaphysical poet John Donne took a flea that he squished with a fingernail and stretched it out as a … Read more