Taiwan News:

More than a hundred protesters yesterday staged a sit-in demonstration near the American Institute in Taiwan to call for the United States to acknowledge Taiwan as part of its territory and to urge the U.S. to issue national passports to Taiwan people.

Waving U.S. flags emblazoned with the image of Taiwan on them, protesters from the Taiwan Civil Democratic Party, Taiwan Defense Alliance, Taiwan Nation Party, the Farmers' Party, Oceanvoice Radio and the 228 Victims Association held a mass sit-in near the AIT in Taipei to urge the U.S. to recognize Taiwan as part of its territory based on the U.S. Constitution and the San Francisco Peace Treaty.

I will simply not stand for this obvious imperialism on the part of America.

Labels: China

Posted by Ryan S. at 10:17 PM | Permalink | |

You might have noticed that the price of milk has gone up recently, but wondered why.

A rise in gas prices? Underproductive cows? No and no.

The answer? The Chinese:

In China, milk consumption has soared along with rising incomes, a massive expansion of the dairy industry and the increasing familiarity with — and taste for — non-native foods among young urbanites.

Pizza Hut sells its cheese-laden pies even in smaller Chinese cities, and milk, yogurt and individually packaged cheese slices can be found in small local supermarket chains. Foreign-owned stores such as France’s Carrefour, Germany’s Metro and America’s Wal-Mart cater to slightly more sophisticated tastes, selling crumbly blue cheeses, wheels of gouda and red-waxed balls of Edam.

Products from Chinese dairy giant Mengniu even carry the label of being the official milk of the Chinese space program. Its drinks promise to “fortify the Chinese people,” with packaging showing a space-suited boy clutching a glass of creamy goodness.

China’s growing love of dairy is a far cry from two decades ago, when the country was just opening up to foreign products and availability was limited to milk, yogurt and, on rare occasions, butter. The Dairy Association of China estimates consumption will rise by 15-20 percent annually in the coming years.

Labels: China, Economics

Posted by Ryan S. at 1:06 PM | Permalink | |

Popular Mechanics has a great article on the coming of weaponizing space, stemming from China's destruction of a satellite in January. Check it out:

Every industrialized country relies on satellites every day, for everything from computer networking technology to telecommunications, navigation, weather prediction, television and radio. This makes satellites especially vulnerable targets. Imagine the U.S. military suddenly without guidance for its soldiers and weapons systems, and its civilians without storm warnings or telephones.

Some satellites, however, are at greater risk than others. Most spacecraft — including spy sats — are in low Earth orbit, which stretches 1240 miles into space. As the Chinese test proved, such targets could be hit with medium-range missiles tipped with crude kill devices. GPS satellites are far higher, orbiting at about 12,600 miles. Many communications sats are in the 22,000-mile range. Destroying them requires a much more powerful and sophisticated long-range ballistic missile — yet it can be done. "You'd need a sky-sweeping capability to comprehensively negate a space support system that is scattered all over," says John Pike, a space analyst at GlobalSecurity.org. "You'd need ICBM-size boosters — hundreds of them."

Such an all-out satellite war would render space useless for decades to come. "There'd be so much debris up there," Clark says, "that it wouldn't be safe to put anything up in space."

It's a fascinating article, and the ruining of the usefulness of space would be a dark day indeed.

Labels: China, Space

Posted by Ryan S. at 9:53 AM | Permalink | |

Sorry for not posting for most of last week, I was attending CPAC in Washington, and had every intention of blogging from the conference, but did not get the opportunity primarily due to the lack of time and free WiFi.

This will be the first of at least four posts on things that occurred at CPAC, with others focusing on 2008 (later tonight or tomorrow), global warming (sometime soon after that), and the state of conservatism today (that's gonna be a long one).

Here are some highlights that don't fit into any of the above:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said "Republicans [in Congress are] serious about returning to conservative values," having "learned our [their] lesson" and pledged to keep Congressional Democrats in line, claiming that since they came into power, not one "bad bill" had made its way to Bush's desk. He also said that the bill the Dems have pushing the final recommendations of the 9-11 Commission into law (all two of them), is actually centered around giving collective bargaining rights to civilian airport security screeners.

White House Spokesman Tony Snow called for conservatives to "take off the dark colored glasses," and gave a pretty inspiring speech. I've been a fan of of Snow for a while now, and what I really love about his speech was that he has mastered the technique of making the audience feel that he is letting us in on some big secret. It's wonderful, and even though I know it's a technique, it still makes me feel that way. He also used a good amount of humor, and seemed to be really enjoying himself.

Kellyanne Conway, a notable conservative spokesperson, on a panel with Mike Barone and others, said that "Hillary is not the Clinton America misses." She also finds it ironic that a "feminist icon" like Hillary "needs her man to get anywhere in politics." Conway did express her empathy for Mrs. Clinton by saying she feels kind of bad that she probably the only one running for president that is the second-best politician in their family.

Wayne LePierre, of the NRA, is one of the most dynamic speakers I've ever heard, and never miss his CPAC speeches. He talked about what the NRA is up to right now, including fighting the UN and working hard to get the legal guns confiscated in New Orleans in the Katrina aftermath back to their rightful owners. (More on that here and here from the JttR archives)

I went to an excellent panel on China and Venezuela, even if it seemed like both panelists were making the case that their area of expertise was the bigger threat.

Thor Halversson of the Human Rights Foundation talked about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez. Though democratically elected, Chavez has been consolidating power ever since, and has gained more power by revamping the Venezuelan constitution. He is also working with other regional allies like Fidel Castro, as well as China and trying to curry favor with Russia by buying enormous stockpiles of AK-47s. Chavez has said he intends to rule until at least 2030, and the only institutional opposition he faces in his country is the Catholic Church.

Jed Babbin, author of Showdown: Why China Wants War with the U.S, said that great powers historically only rise out of war, and that China seems more and more like 1930s Germany. China's anti-satellite weaponry is a huge potential threat to the US, as are armed forces are dependent on satellites. He praised the Bush Administration for seeking strategic partners in the region such as India and Vietnam, who fear China's growing power.

Newt Gingrich spoke on his "Winning the Future" solutions...again. basically the same tune for three years now. He talked about some 2008 stuff that I'll cover in that post, but seemed to be mostly rhetoric in his speech, especially on foreign policy. Who doesn't want a strong America? Especially in the CPAC crowd. Sheesh.

And no, I did not watch Ann Coutler's speech. Nor Sean Hannity's.

A record 6,300 people registered for CPAC 2007.

Labels: China, Congress, CPAC, Gun Rights, Newt, Tony Snow, Venezuela

Posted by Ryan S. at 1:24 PM | Permalink | |

BBC:

"Energy security is the most important of the emerging dimensions of our strategic partnership," Mr Singh said as he and Mr Putin signed a memorandum of understanding on the new nuclear reactors.

"Russia's position as a global leader on energy issues is widely recognised."

He also thanked Russia for its support "in lifting international restrictions on nuclear co-operation and assisting India in the expansion of our nuclear energy programme".

The Indian ministry of external affairs press said the four new reactors would be built at Kudankulam (in southern India) and at other sites.

It says the two countries have also signed a series of agreements on scientific, space, aviation and economic cooperation, including giving India access to Russia's satellite navigation system, Glonass.

Russia is already helping India build two nuclear reactors to meet its growing energy needs.

Reacting to China's satellite-destroying weapons test earlier in the week, the two leaders called for a "weapons free outer space".

"The fundamental position of the Russian Federation is that outer space should be absolutely weapons free," Mr Putin told a joint press conference in Delhi.

I'd rather have them in alliance than either with China.

Labels: China, India, Space

Posted by Ryan S. at 7:37 PM | Permalink | |