Jottings from the Granite Studio

In the news on Wednesday:

The French government is seriously considering a ban on smoking in public places–including restaurants and bars–to take effect as early as next year. Some French seem resigned to it, others are annoyed that they won’t be able to continue their unbridled support for large, greedy, American tobacco corporations. (Je deteste le capitalisme américain, mais j’aime bien les Marlboros!) Weird statistic: According to the article, 35% of the French population uses tobacco. I have no idea where they got such a ridiculously low number. What was their sample base? Kindergartens? Scuba divers? People living in a pure oxygen environment? I just got back from one month in France and let me tell you: France is Europe’s smoking section. It’s like Reno but with fewer gun shops.

From Wednesday’s NYT comes more details about the current crackdown on corruption including the prominent role played by Zeng Qinghong who has emerged as one of Hu’s best hatchet men.

“The investigation, the largest of its kind since China first pursued market-style changes to its economy more than a quarter-century ago, was planned and supervised by Zeng Qinghong, China’s vice president and the day-to-day manager of Communist Party affairs, people informed about the operation said.

They said Mr. Zeng had used the investigation to force provincial leaders to heed Beijing’s economic directives, sideline officials loyal to the former top leader, Jiang Zemin, and strengthen Mr. Zeng’s own hand as well as that of his current master, President Hu Jintao.

The high-level purge began on Sept. 25, when Chen Liangyu, the Shanghai party leader and a Politburo member, was removed from his office on corruption charges. Party security forces had already detained high-ranking officials in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Fujian and Hunan. Mr. Chen is the most powerful person removed from office since 1995, when the Beijing party leader was purged, also on corruption charges, during a power struggle.

It would also be likely to seal Mr. Zeng’s reputation as China’s political mastermind, who mixes personal ambition with a nearly legendary ability to deliver results for his superiors. Officially ranked No. 5 in the party hierarchy, he is widely seen as exercising more authority within the party than anyone except Mr. Hu.”

Finally, I’m still exercising a wait and see policy on new Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, but the signals that Abe intends to visit Beijing bodes well for stabilizing PRC-Japanese relations. Who knows what Abe, Hu, and Wen will have to talk about while they sit swapping songs and Johnny Walker around the old KTV room, but talking is always better than not talking…especially as everybody’s favorite crazy neighbor–the DPRK–is once again rattling the bars of its self-imposed cage and calling on the world to pay attention, this time with threats of nuclear testing on the peninsula.