Annexation of Taiwan? `Oui,' says PM He earlier told Xinhua News Agency that China was becoming a "responsible, great nation" and the arms ban in place since the crushing of democracy campaigners in 1989 was outdated. "This measure is anachronistic, wrongfully discriminatory and in complete contradiction of the current state of the strategic partnership between Europe and China,"

Edward Cody, the Washington Post’s Beijing correspondent, wrote an alarmist article about Beijing’s military modernization a week or so ago. Cody’s piece of lazy, news analysis trash has a few paragraphs devoted to Beijing’s nuclear deterrent. Each and every one of the four sentences containing a factual statement is inaccurate in some way. (link)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Friday, in a speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the Asia-Africa Summit in Jakarta attended by both Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao. "Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility ... with feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology always engraved in mind, Japan has resolutely maintained, consistently since the end of World War II, [the policy of] never turning into a military power but [rather] an economic power, its principle of resolving all matters by peaceful means, without recourse [to] the use of force." At almost the same time, China turned off the taps of the recent wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations... (link)

From a patriot's missive to the Atimes: I appreciate the ATol publishing articles criticizing China for the purpose of pushing for improvements. I cannot understand why you are publishing fraudulent fabrications for white colonists for the purpose of diminishing China. Every reasonable Chinese can tell the lies from Marc Erikson's articles, regardless where they live. Your constant publishing such white colonist treachery will frustrate and anger even more Chinese youth. I do not think any of you or your readers will like the outcome. For more paranoid xenophobic blah and make-believe threats, go here. The problem with these long-suffering citizens is that they've been taught to believe they're racially and culturally superior and destined for glory, and yet they have private, top-secret suspicions that they've been had. Reality keeps taking its bite, its pound of psychic self-esteem. The confident squeek of an expatriate piss-ant fills their over-sensitive ears like the roar of a battle monster-truck. Ronald McDonald strikes a threatening pose and Mickey Mao shivers and shakes. The end is nigh! Or so they truly believe. Poor sods. China's going to have a great future. Too bad they'll have nothing to do with it. For China's future will be on Zhou Six-Pack's terms, not those befitting a right-thinking sunshine patriot whose conception of the future is infested with retro-tech and retro-think.

Another incrediburgable Falun Gong tale of woe from epochtimes: 大陸警察自稱國匪 對殘疾人施暴不止 This martyr's legs were allegedly amputated. Stupid cop brutality or brutal cop stupidity?

Learning the Thai Sex Trade: The trade in humans is an area where anyone seems pretty much able to say anything. David Feingold, international co-ordinator on HIV and trafficking for Unesco, analyses the statistics on these issues, but even he has not been able to get Unicef to explain its figure of 1.2m children. "Trafficking is a dangerous word," Feingold says. "It stops the brain working."If you ask the agencies how they get these figures, you get a weary response: "Why are you journalists so obsessed with statistics?" If interested in the psychopathology of international aid, a former Peace Corps worker provides some fascinating insight and not a few harsh words such as "a complete waste of money that succeeds primarily in keeping westerners employed" here.