I’m up early on a Sunday morning watching college football and getting ready for a hike around the second ring road. We actually don’t hike ON the second ring road so much as I lead my students through a maze of hutongs starting around Xinjiekou and winding our way east than south finally emerging around Jianguomen. We were supposed to do this LAST Sunday but the numbers were a little light so we postponed it until today. I think we’ll have a better turnout today. We’ve added a stop at the Beixinqiao Grandma’s Kitchen…and I made it mandatory for my history class. Yes, I am evil.
In his blog for the Atlantic Monthly, James Fallows argues that the most critical topic for President Obama and Hu Jintao is tackling the problem of global China change. While at the NGOChina blog, Shawn Shieh argues that as a former community organizer, the president knows first hands the problems of NGOs. Professor Shieh suggests that instead of hectoring the Chinese government about human rights, President Obama should instead use presence in China to lend support to grassroots organizations and NGO development in the PRC.
In the NYT, David Barboza offers the obligatory look at the paradoxes in China’s economic transformation. (One wishes William Shatner could be a China economics analyst: “Luxury BRANDS! but PoVERTY! They HAVE such a LaRge and growing eCONoMY, BUT per CAPITA income still LOW! WHAT! GIVES?)
By the way, did you know that China has lent us a lot of money? Really, it’s true!
The Guardian insists that the US and China are locked in an embrace from which neither can tear themselves away without harm. (China history checklist: Great Wall, Nixon goes to China, and, of course, Mao.)
Over at WaPo, professional China watcher John Pomfret looks at the new challenges and opportunities of China’s growing economic and cultural influence in the United States.
Back to college football. Looks like upsets galore, based on where the games are now it’s not inconcievable we could have Iowa over OSU, SC over Florida, and Stanford over USC.
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