Taiwan, China, and other things. Recovered from the defunct TypePad platform.
Chinese Communists seek outside investment to fund their military ship-building program
Who knows? For his generous contribution, the ChiComs might even name an aircraft carrier after the old boy.
(KMT chairman emeritus Lien Chan in his new People's Liberation Army duds following his disgraceful attendance and endorsement of a Communist military parade. Image from Holy Mosquito)
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I hope Tyler Cowen is wrong about this, but…
In Asia, the most likely future candidate for this problem [economic regression] is Taiwan, where real wages were largely stagnant from 2000 to 2011. In 2012, Taiwan’s trend was even more disturbing: Its economy grew 1.3 percent, but real wages fell 1.6 percent, both adjusted for inflation. Taiwanese capital has flowed into China, creating a new class of Taiwanese millionaires but hollowing out the country’s manufacturing base as capital was reallocated to the mainland.
There is an anti-democratic camp in Taiwan which blames the introduction of democracy itself for the country's problems – insinuating that Taiwan would be better off under a KMT autocracy or martial law. This appears to be a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, as the experience of South Korea plainly shows:
(Graph of South Korea's nominal GDP from Wikimedia.org)
Two Asian countries (Taiwan and South Korea) both democratized at roughly the same time, and yet their economic paths after democratization were very different. To my mind, the chief difference between the two is that South Korea didn't leave its own industry to wither on the vine while flooding Communist China with investment capital.
Taiwan, unfortunately, did.
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Creating more flat ground for urban development.
I'm sure they'll be great environmental stewards in the South China Sea…
From Technology Review:
There’s still room for escalation. In the indictment they talk about the SOEs [state-owned enterprises] getting this stolen data but didn’t name them. But it’s pretty easy to figure out. These are massive, multibillion dollar companies in China. The next step could be to charge those SOEs. If you want to make an impact you go after the recipient of the information.
"All your resources are belong to us." Deutsche Welle has the story on the Communist thieves of Zhongnanhai:
Five countries are considered “Arctic states” – Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Denmark (along with Greenland and the Faeroe Islands). Finland, Sweden and Iceland are also members of the Arctic Council which deals with the future development of the North Pole region. China, Japan, South Korea and the European Union are trying to achieve permanent observer status.
[…]
"Countries closer to the Arctic, such as Iceland, Russia, Canada, and a few other European countries may tend to wish the Arctic were private or that they had priority to develop it," Cui Hongjian, head of the European department of the China Institute for International Studies, told reporters before Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Europe. "But China insists that the Arctic belongs to everyone just like the moon."
Small wonder China finds itself hated by all its neighbors.
Hat tip: Instapundit
From today's China Post:
Almost everybody knows that the signing of the [services] trade agreement [between Taiwan and Communist China] is the right thing to do. [Emphasis added]
That would be true…if "almost everybody" was defined as "34% of everybody". From the Asia Times:
A survey of 1,008 Taiwan adults released in late July by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research found that 48% opposed signing the services trade pact [with Communist China], while 34% were in favor. [Emphasis added]
To the editors of the China Post: 34% << "Almost everybody".
I know math is hard, but you could at least try a little.