What's Making News

Yep, my photo made the front page of the Xintai paper. Upstaged Stephen Hendry (relegated to mere sports) who lost in the final to a Chinaman at the Beijing China Open World Snooker. Elsewhere, because Bo subscribes to China Daily I get all the world news and good internal coverage. What has caught my attention you ask? First off, the leader of the Kuomintang (Taiwanese ruling party) visited the mainland for the first time in 49 years. The recent promulgation of an anti-secessionist law (a la Chretien) has moved this whole file very much to the front burner. Will they really go to war? Hard to believe. Incidentally on a week-end visit to a village the host family said I was the second foreigner in their home, the last being the Japanese occupiers in the Second World War! Secondly, Korea and China promise to create a big stink on the world stage after yet again the most recent Japanese history books make no mention of the atrocities committed by Japanese troops in the said countries. Thirdly, Hu Jintao, president of China, now has full control. He is at one and the same time head of government, head of the Communist Party and has just now assumed the leadership of the military. I wonder if he shines his own shoes? Mine are a tad dusty after visiting the village. Maybe I should visit him in the Forbidden City. You don't still die if you are a foreigner and do that, do you? This is the dry season. I have seen no rain in three weeks.