Why there won’t be sanctions against China

Justin McKeating at Chicken Yoghurt explains why the Chinese government’s repression in Tibet won’t meet with international sanctions:

We know they’re bastards but we’re addicted to cheap tat. They could build a Death Star in high orbit if they like, we’re not going to rock the boat. It’s why we’re not seeing wider outrage. If it was Cuba doing this, people would be going ballistic.

Indeed.

What now for Cuba?

Castro steps down:

Cuba’s ailing leader Fidel Castro has announced he will not accept another term as president, ending the communist revolutionary’s 49 years in power.

Either the Communist Party will stay in power, or there will be some reform, leading to multi-party elections. Especially in the latter case, the question is which of the world powers will have most influence there:

Washington has called for Cuba to hold free elections, and said its decades-long embargo would remain. A senior US state department official, John Negroponte, added that the 1962 embargo would probably not be lifted “any time soon”.

The European Union said it hoped to relaunch ties with Cuba that were almost completely frozen under Mr Castro, while China described Mr Castro as an old friend and said it would maintain co-operation with Cuba.

Europe has two advantages over the USA and China: (1) unlike the USA, Europe hasn’t been harming Cuba with a trade embargo, and (2) Cubans are linguistically and culturally a European people. So if the EU doesn’t do anything incompetent, it will have a lot of influence over the new Cuba. Maybe it could offer Cubans the status of an EU colony — like Bosnia and Kosova currently are in effect — in return for a fast-track to EU membership?

Get a degree in teaching creationism

According to New Humanist:

The state of Texas may be about to approve an online master’s degree in science education provided by the Texas-based Institute for Creation Research. The “degree”, which has already been given preliminary approval by a Texas state advisory group, is now awaiting the final go-ahead from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Events like this make it more plausible that China will be running the world in 50 years time.

Britain may be dumbing down its educational system but at least we’re not teaching this ridiculous nonsense (mostly not, anyway).

Chinese army hacks British, American and German computers

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been attacking British government computers:

Chinese hackers, some believed to be from the People’s Liberation Army, have been attacking the computer networks of British government departments, the Guardian has learned. The attackers have hit the network at the Foreign Office as well as those in other key departments, according to Whitehall officials.

The Ministry of Defence declined yesterday to say whether it had been hit. An incident last year that shut down part of the House of Commons computer system, initially believed to be by an individual, was discovered to be the work of an organised Chinese hacking group, officials said. Security and defence officials are coy about what they know of specific attacks. However, they say several Whitehall departments have fallen victim to China’s cyberwarriors. One expert described it as a “constant ongoing problem”.

They’ve also been attacking the US DoD:

The disclosures came after reports that the Chinese military had hacked into a Pentagon military computer network in June. The Financial Times said American officials called it the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department.

Defence department officials confirmed that there had been a “detected penetration” of elements of the email system used by the network serving the office of Robert Gates, the US defence secretary. US officials were reported to have said that an investigation had discovered that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was responsible.

The US gave the codename “Titan Rain” to the growing number of Chinese attacks, notably directed at the Pentagon but also hitting other US government departments, over the past few years.

And Germany:

Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, is reported to have raised the issue of Chinese attacks on her government’s computers during a visit to Beijing.

This highlights that warfare in cyberspace is becomeing more important. In a future war, if a country can knock out an enemy’s communication systems and power stations in a surprise attack at the start of a war, it would have an enormous advantage.

Britain needs to have all computers connected to the nation’s infrastructure to be secure. There are many things that can be do to make them more secure, but a good first step would be to mandate that Microsoft Windows not be used on any vital computers — for example all those involved in the infrastructure for telecoms, the Internet, power generation, gas and water pumping, sewage works, traffic control, banking, TV and radio broadcasting, transportation of food and essential supplies, railways, etc.

Oh, and the idiots whose idea it was to run Britain’s newest warships on MS Windows should be immediately sacked and their pensions forfeited.

Some facts about milk

From Tyler Cowan:

Facts about milk

1. Global milk prices have doubled over the last two years.

2. In some parts of the United States, milk is more expensive than gasoline.

3. There are reports of cows being stolen from Wisconsin dairy farms.

4. The rising demand for milk is coming mostly from developing nations; the average Chinese consumes six gallons of milk a year, up from two gallons in 2000. China is now the world’s leading milk importer.

5. Parts of New Zealand are booming.

6. Only 7 percent of all milk commercially produced is traded across national borders.

7. Sufficiently high (market-driven) milk prices may render many milk price supports and subsidies irrelevant.

I suppose it’s possible this will fix the problems with the Common Agricultural Policy. But I’m not holding my breath.

China and the Dalai Lama

Following China’s ban on unauthorised reincarnation:

Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and deeply Buddhist people.

Randy McDonald notes:

Charlie Stross questions why outsiders are up in arms about China’s appropriation of the right to name the next Dalai Lama given the unreality of reincarnation in the first place. Reincarnation almost certainly is balderdash, but I think that the direct intrusion into a religion’s internal affairs is worth noting.

Religious leaders frequently intrude into political affairs — less so in the West than other cultures — so they can hardly object if political leaders do the same thing. Before the Chinese invasion, it was the Buddhist religious hierarchy that ran Tibet, so it is natural that the Chinese would want to control Buddhism there.

This does not of course make it alright that China controls Tibet — Tibet, like everywhere else on Earth, should be controlled by its people, by way of institutions such as referenda and representative democracy. The Chinese Communist Party is an illegitimate form of government in Tibet, but no more so than the Dalai Lamas were (assuming neither would win democratic elections).

The rise of Asian economies

Guess which two countries are the largest markets for mobile phone maker Nokia? India and China, says the BBC:

Mobile phone maker Nokia says India has overtaken the US to become its second largest market in terms of sales. Chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo made the comment on a visit to India to meet officials, suppliers and clients. Nokia had expected India to overtake the US as its second biggest sales market after China by 2010. Nokia’s focus has shifted in recent years to fast-growing emerging markets such as India, which had a total of 118 million mobile users by July this year.

Which demonstrates how these countries, each with over a billion people, are becoming increasingly important.