http://cupofcha.com This is China Sun, 11 May 2008 02:23:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Let's put aside for the moment that the international legs of the Olympic Torch Relay have been an utter PR disaster. Just on its merits, this might be the most boring event ever created. Think about it: it lasts more than four months and consists of people running with a ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/05/11/chinas-dopey-torch-relay.html Deep down, I know the Senator Clinton believes the Democratic Party and the country need her. And who knows, maybe she's right. She thinks Senator Obama isn't up to the task of taking on John McCain. But in this bubble of conviction, she has started to lose touch with reality. ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/05/09/hillary-makes-graciousness-hard.html Listen up! France is a villain! And this isn't about freedom fries. They hate people in wheelchairs. Wheelchairs! Oh, you thought Japan was the evil enemy? Well, I guess you haven't been reading the newspapers or watching the news. Japan is China's great friend! The odd storyline that has emerged in ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/05/08/france-as-enemy-so-japan-as-friend.html In an AP article I found via ESPN.com I zeroed in on a quotation from a torch bearer name Fu Shenfeng seems to have unintentionally summed up the disconnect between Western and Chinese views on Olympic torch protests: "Foreigners don't understand China," said torch bearer Fu Shenfeng before the relay started. ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/05/05/torch-protest-misunderstanding-why-chinese-and-foreigners-dont-get-each-other.html If I had thought of this first I would have written it as satire. But it occurred in Guangdong first. You know those flags that have become the ire of most Chinese citizens advocating the breaking off of one of China's biggest provinces? Many were made in China, unbeknownst to factory ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/05/05/free-tibet-flags-chinese-made.html It is always amazing to me how much Chinese people admire America in a begrudging way. For all of the talk of American neo-imperialism, interference in other countries' "internal" affairs and cultural hegemony, many countries still try to emulate the US. And there are few places where that is more ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/05/02/americas-export-to-china-arrogance.html Joseph Andrew, former National Chairman for the Democratic National Committee under Bill Clinton, and longtime Clinton friend and supporter, has thrown his weight behind Barack Obama and written an extremely thoughtful essay on why he changed. I suggest everyone interested in the race read it. Here is a small piece: I ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/05/02/thoughtfulness-from-an-obama-convert.html In the LA Times today, Francis Fukuyama argues that the greatest tyranny in China today is local, rather than the central, government. While his argument is essentially correct, it also oversimplifies the picture and implicitly absolves the country's top leaders of their role in the country's ills, while at the ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/04/30/does-the-central-government-run-china.html After the outrage over the "goons and thugs" comments, the events in Seoul during the torch relay were just sad and depressing. Mobs attacked South Koreas and Tibetans with opposing viewpoints. These groups of people, hopefully small and unrepresentative of Chinese youth, were without question, goons and thugs. Hopefully all ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/04/28/no-goons-or-thugs.html Normally, the safest place in the world is in front of the police station. You know, normally. Yet one of the only crimes committed against me since I've been in China happened directly in front of my local PSB. As in four meters away. It wasn't violent, and it wasn't ... http://cupofcha.com/2008/04/26/robbed-in-front-of-the-police.html