30th September 08

Asia Times Online

Earthly troubles cloud China's space walk
By Kent Ewing

HONG KONG - Which China are we supposed to believe in? The world watched in admiration for 17 days this summer as the country staged arguably the most successful Olympic Games ever; certainly the opening ceremony set a new artful standard in organizational precision and stylistic beauty. And that Olympic triumph has been followed by another bold splash in international headlines - the first ever space walk by a Chinese astronaut on Saturday and the flawless return to Earth on Sunday of China's third manned spacecraft - Shenzhou VII.

From the Archive

Asia Times Online
 
Olympics mark China's second coming
By Muhammad Cohen
 
HONG KONG - They are describing the 2008 Summer Olympic Games as Beijing's "coming-out party", but that's incorrect. A debutante, no matter how big, just gets one coming-out party, and China had its moment in 1997. That event was called the Hong Kong handover from British rule. The handover was just 11 years ago, but China and the world have changed enormously. More telling, so have global attitudes toward China and China's attitude toward the rest of the world.

China wary of a 'normal' Japan
By Hiro Katsumata and Mingjiang Li
 
Since the early 1990s, a number of Japanese policymakers and opinion leaders have called for the "normalization" of their country. The notion of a so-called "normal Japan" has been central to the debate over the country's security policy. The Japanese normalization discourse and its active international security policy have put China on the alert. Beijing is watching closely and is to some extent uneasy about what Japan intends to do under the rubric of normalization. But what exactly does a "normal Japan" mean?

Beijing plays it cool over US arms deals
By Wu Zhong, China Editor
 
HONG KONG - Chinese leaders have repeatedly stressed that Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in China-United States relations. And US arms sales to what Beijing calls its "renegade island" have always been a potential tipping point in the delicate trilateral balance. In past weeks, however, Beijing has played it decidedly cool. The government provided little praise for recent reports claiming the George W Bush administration was halting arms sales to Taiwan, and it refused to react furiously - as it has always done the past - over subsequent reports that Washington would resume selling advanced weapons to the island.

Olympics and Opium Wars
By Richard L King

But it's a world apart. In the 19th century, when Britain forced opium on China, the Chinese government rightly resisted and this precipitated two so-called "Opium Wars". The Treaty of Nanking in 1842 gave Britain the right to continue to sell opium to China, and China was forced to open five treaty ports granting extraterritorial rights to Britain, ceding Hong Kong to Britain in perpetuity. But Britain still was not satisfied; it once again invaded China, this time with France, in 1860. On the order of Lord Thomas Elgin the Summer Palace was burned down. The Hindi word "loot" entered the English lexicon at that time when Anglo-French soldiers stripped the palace of its treasures.