I noticed an ad in Fortune magazine for an upcoming Fortune GLOBAL FORUM 2005 conference for China and the New Asian Century where Chinese President Hu Jintao will be the keynote speaker and thought that Barnett's view of peacefully rising China is unfolding before us.
Then I noticed that the Feb 13 issue of Parade listed the world's 10 worst dictators based on input from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and Reporters without Borders. What strikes me as odd is how President Hu Jintao of China gets the number four spot. While China is certainly not free and the regime is repressive, it seems odd to compare despots who rule as absolute dictators with heads of government that happen to be repressive. That would be like calling Gorbachev a dictator. Both men were leaders of repressive regimes, Gorbachev led his country to freedom, Jintao may be on that path as well. If it means anything China went from number three last year to number four this year - a trend that ought to continue.
Our local paper has a piece on the growing demand for Chinese baby adoption by single mothers. The repressive Chinese government prefers adoption by couples and restricts the number of annual adoptions by single mothers and forbids adoptions by homosexuals. I can't imagine being a single parent and wanting to adopt children - it takes my wife and me all we got to raise our kids. Seems like some of these women are succumbing to 'biological clock anxiety' or just plain selfishness.
I forgot to mention that last week we took the bus into north Manhattan then the subway (A train) down to the World Trade Center site. We walked to Battery Park and then to a nice restaurant overlooking Times Square before heading back to the hotel. I can't believe how civil and clean the subway is now (last time I rode was over 35 years ago). WTC was somber and stirring. I was surprised at the 17th Century history that was leeching out during our walk through lower Manhattan, from the thought of the old stockade designed to keep the British out (now called Wall Street) to the site of the United States Custom House (today the National Museum of the American Indian) which was formerly the site of Fort Amsterdam and the one site forbidden to Native Americans at the time.
Our flight back from Newark was delayed and we missed our connection. Instead of staying the night in Detroit, I rented a car to drive the two hour drive home - my business partner managed to find a few other souls who were desperate to go with us. We spent the middle of the night talking about spyware and identity theft, one of the passengers (who happened to be the navigator from the flight) asked how some of the online companies were able to provide information such as social security numbers on others. I guess the recent ChoicePoint scandal answers that question.
Good post on China.
What other thoughts do you have on Chinese adoption? I agree with what you are saying, but I would be interested to hear more from you on this.
Keep up the great blog!
Posted by: Dan | February 22, 2005 at 09:47 PM