Jottings from the Granite Studio

Decent profile of Hu Jintao by Financial Times Beijing bureau chief Richard McGregor. I confess that I really don’t know all that much about Hu’s early life and career other than the c.v. type stuff and now I know it wasn’t just my own laziness. Reading the article, I was struck by the extent to [...]

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Number four on Foreign Policy’s recent “Five Population Trends to Watch” list cites China and India as leading examples of the “Too many grooms, not enough brides” trend:
Military experts have a saying: Amateurs study strategy; professionals study logistics. When it comes to geopolitics, professionals study demographics…
In China, a strong preference for sons and the country’s [...]

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On this date in 1976 former Chinese leader and Granite Studio sympathy fave Hua Guofeng ordered the arrest of the widow Mao (Jiang Qing) and three other accomplices, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen–collectively better known as the Gang of Four (四人帮). The Gang went to trial in 1981, accused of trying to seize [...]

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