Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.
- China accuses US and Japan of ‘provocative actions’ (Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times) The exchange of rhetoric continued at the forum of Asian defense ministers Sunday. Wang Guanzhong, a top Chinese general replied to speeches by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel which accused China of using intimidation to assert its territorial claims. Quote from Wang after the Read more >> jump.
Gen. Wang Guanzhoug:
“The speeches by Mr Abe and Mr Hagel gave me the impression that they co-ordinated with each other, they supported each other, they encouraged each other and they took the advantage of speaking first … and staged provocative actions and challenges against China.”
- Kabul’s Bush Bazaar dwindles as US troops withdraw from Afghanistan (May Jeong, The Guardian) Hat tips to Roger Erickson and Chuck Spinney. There are some in Afghanistan who are disappointed that Americans are leaving. The operators of an outlet for the local black market known as the “Bush Bazaar”, are being deprived of ‘surplus’ goods from NATO military bases. The few merchants still open there are already displaying more goods from Iran and Pakistan than from the U.S. and other NATO countries.
- Explaining China’s behaviour in the East and South China Seas (Hugh White, China Spectator)
China is trying to build what President Xi Jinping calls ‘a new model of great power relations’. To understand how this might be the aim of Beijing’s actions, we have to recognise that under his ‘new model’, Xi wants China to wield much more power and influence in Asia than it has for the past few centuries. These things are inherently zero-sum, so for China to have more power and influence, America must have less. This is what Xi and his colleagues are trying to achieve.
- As the 1% grows more powerful, they speak their minds more boldly (Fabius Maximus) Fabius Maximus has contributed to GEI. A nice review of just who the 1% are politically, culturally and socially. While the world focuses on the 1% financially, the other aspects are far more important to what kind of world we live in (now and in the future). See previously posted GEI News: Russell Sage Foundation: The 1% are Different.
- Just how polarized is the US Congress? (Walter Kurtz, Sober Look) Compromise in the center? Don’t be ridiculous, there is absolutely no center!
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