The Olympics

[rffrydr]

The Summer Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to open on 8/8/08 at 8:08:08 p.m
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[rffrydr]

...A paradigm shift no doubt. What a perverse twist this closet ridicule that he didn' t give it "his all." He broke every standard...but celebrated IN THE ACT of doing it. Very UNprotestant.

Featured Olympics commerical: "You saw a broken down steel plant. We saw an underutilized resource."
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[HenryTo]

The Usain Bolt 100-meter dash in English. This one is for those in the US - as NBCOlympics.com still don't have a video of this and as youtube has been removing the 100-meter dash clip from their site as fast as they can (note that the Olympic videos on BBC are blocked for those in the US unless you log in via a proxy server):

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/usain%2Bbolt/video/x6ggpg_usain-bolt-world-record_sport

[diesel]

Wired article on how biotech could change the 2012 olympics.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/news/2008/08/olympic_doping?currentPage=1

[HenryTo]

Continuing controversy over the new Speedo swimming suit:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12636

[rffrydr]

the politcs (and techoology) of watching--watching "around" the Olympics:

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/olympicblog/
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[HenryTo]

Hi Chestnut,

I know I shouldn't have pushed the issue further!

The ongoing dialogue, in my view, is encouraging. Obviously, I am no expert on Chinese politics but the ongoing dialogue and "paranoia" about the inevitability of a civil war in China makes it less likely to happen - to the extent that it encourages the current regime to deal with the social problems.

My questions for these scholars are:

1) Who are the significant threats to the Party's authority? The Party has control of the military. The "urban elites" like the way things are as long as the economy is growing at 8%+. There is a great deal of discontent in rural areas but it is dispersed. How do farmers effectively organize against the regime?

2) Is Chinese authoritarianism static or dynamic? i.e. Is there hope for future reforms or is there no hope? If it is the latter, then the chances of civil war are definitely high.

3) From a social standpoint, is the government doing enough to ensure more social safety nets, investments in education, and investments in the healthcare system? And more importantly, to decrease the amount of corruption within the country?

I will be watching the next transition of the Presidency with great interest in 2012.

Best regards,

Henry

[chestnutstime]

Henry,

Thanks for your quick reply. Surely, I feel that most overseas Chinese are so proud of their Chinese heritage because of China's recent quick rise.

But, the China Story told by Wall Street has some fatal flaws IMHO. Some of the best Scholars/deep thinkers in China strongly believe that a large-scale civil war in mainland China is inevitable, unless the Chinese Communist Party can embrace real democratic political reforms as quickly as possible.

Chestnut

[HenryTo]

Hi Chestnut,

The internet is a good outlet for those that want to disagree and to voice their concerns. This is a very sensitive topic so I will leave this short. We all acknowledge that China has a poor human rights record and it is not something that any of us can be very proud of (that is why virtually all my Chinese friends that are now working in Greater China have foreign passports). What I was solely discussing was China's place in the world - especially for those Chinese with nationalistic sentiment and who want to make significant and positive contributions to the world going forward. The event itself was a monument - a monument to Chinese ingenuity, technology, and creativity. China is now graduating the most engineers and scientists in the world today (although I do admit most of them did not get very high quality educaitons). China is now the biggest manufacturer of solar panels, and will soon start to export automobiles around the world.

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080809/FOREIGN/540796283/1135

Like I said, this was a very first and basic step. Going forward, the road to sustainable growth is through structural reforms at the institutional level (starting with defining fundamentals rights of Chinese citizens), as I said earlier.

[chestnutstime]

[HenryTo]

In light of rffrydr's discussions on the Olympics, it is time to revisit some historical stats:

http://english.cri.cn/4026/2008/06/24/1721@372500.htm

[HenryTo]

China already won one gold medal in weightlifting. Opening ceremony was awesome - but that wasn't too surprising given the amount of funds and organizational efforts devoted to the Games.

As other Chinese posters can attest to, this "coming out party" is an understatement. Ever since the end of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor to as recent as the 1970s, the Chinese - the economy, technological prowess, and the national pride - has been on a relative decline. Given the achievements of the Chinese over the last 2,500 years and until the mid 18th century, any Chinese citizen that says he/she was proud to be a Chinese must have been either brainwashed or devoid of ambition. By the time China took possession of Hong Kong in 1997, and with the Asia Crisis in full bloom, the country has become too big and influential to ignore. By the early 2000s - as the US and the global tech bubble was faltering, and after China was awarded the Olympic games - it has become a crescendo. In 2005, China's GDP (nominal, not on a PPP basis) surpassed that of Great Britain, and ranked number four in the world behind the US, Japan, and Germany. By the end of this year, China's nominal GDP would surpass that of Germany's.

Obviously, there is still a lot of work to do going down the road. "Social harmony" remains the long-term goal but this would involve further reforms across the board - not just economic but structural reforms that include a focus on the environment, reforms at the provincial levels, educational reforms, legal reforms, etc. The fall of the Qing Dynasty and the overall dynastic system proved that it was dangerous to rely on "great men" to run such a large country for as long as they live (Qianlong himself was a very good Emperor but turned senile as he got older and continued to hold on to power even he had officially abdicated). At the same time, the country's leadership is fearful of great change at the governmental level given the giant amount of bloodshed since the fall of the Qing Dynasty. The Communist Party is in name only obviously - but it is a model somewhat based on the old dynastic system with some major differencies: Great men at the top are elected by other great men - and no one holds onto power forever. There is no absolute power, but there doesn't need to be as the modern transition of power is relatively smooth and requires no bloodshed.

For now - and for the fist time in 250 years - a Chinese citizen can sincerely and truthfully say that he/she is proud to be a Chinese citizen. For the true nationalist, that dream is still very far away, but China is slowly getting there. It is not about having the world's richest men (e.g. Mexico, Russia, etc.) or the world's largest standing army. It is about becoming a true global citizen - starting with cultivating talent at the science, public policy, and financial levels and bringing on fundamental reforms at the institutional level. From my perspective, it is also about being a driver of sustainable Schumpeterian Growth - such as new breakthroughs in environmental clean-up technologies, green tech, biotech, or in material sciences. It is a long and hard road, but they know what it takes and the sacrifices that need to be made. Hopefully, they won't rest on their laurels after the 2008 Olympics Games is over - it is simply a first, and very basic step.

[rffrydr]

And they're off!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/beijing-olympic.html

....the Shanghai not in tow. That the govt. didn't goose the market may be a sign of the maturity they hope to be celebrating. Time will tell if economics follows the denouement of the great Chicago Worlds Fair at the end of the last Millenia. (check out the American Experience doc).

Monuments are endings.
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[chestnutstime]

a little preview of what's to expect on 8/8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5komiXx-FxI

Chestnut

[rffrydr]

Say hi to first-world china:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5369607885367785828&q=beijing+olympics&ei=DnWQSI6IM5OGqgPSvuihCA&hl=en

Not a smokestack in sight.
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Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday!

[chestnutstime]

A picture is worth 1K words.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/07/beijing_2008_preparations_thre.html

Chestnut