Jottings from the Granite Studio

• Hu Jintao has put forward a bold vision for a harmonious society, promising to clean up the environment, end corruption, and bring economic prosperity to all–a veritable chicken in every hot pot. But as this excellent overview from the Economist points out, the devil is in the details and despite Hu’s utopian vision, nobody’s actually said how the CCP intends to do any of this. To be fair, we in the US are familiar with this formula as well: (utopian vision)-(concrete policies)/a country=our Iraq policy. Now solve for x.)

“Mr Hu can afford to spend more on the countryside, health care and education thanks to strong growth in government revenues. But he and other party leaders remain focused on the party’s paramount objective: maintaining social stability. Although corruption, rural poverty and damage to the environment threaten this, party leaders are still more concerned about the danger of unemployment.”

• Meanwhile, Europe frets over the growing power of East Asia, leading Gabor Steingart to wonder in Spiegel Online if it’s time for an economic NATO to counterbalance the Asian ‘threat.’ In language that would not be out of place in the musty “Yellow Peril” screeds of the early 20th century, Steingart calls China a “dark superpower” and sounds the alarm of an encroaching Asian economic monolith casually dismissive of Western liberal values. (Via Arts & Letters Daily)

“The Asian elite politely brush off everything that matters to us — the social framework surrounding daily working life, the idea of individual achievement and state-guaranteed fair competition. What we see as essential characteristics of a civilized society, they see as nothing more than bourgeois niceties.”

• For anyone who has done the power-baijiu thing at a corporate banquet in China, well this one is for you: “After a month-long wining-and-dining marathon - interrupted by massages, card games, sightseeing and the occasional morning of work - the county auditor from Yanshan in northern Hebei province succumbed to alcohol poisoning, according to local media reports.” Full report in this morning’s Guardian.

• Finally, new site to check out: this one by a graduate student in our Anthropology Department here, Leah’s Blog. It’s just the right mix of personal experience, weird humor, and insight that makes for a great China blog.