The personal China connection growsóas does the bias?

Dateline: above the garage in Portsmouth RI, 20 July 2004

Yesterday was a strange sort of immersion in things Chinese. First there was my first direct encounter with the Government of China, in the form of its consulate in New York, where I obtained tourist visas for myself and my wife for our upcoming adoption trip. Second was my brother Jerome's impromptu lecture on the character-driven language of Japanese (he's writing a learner's dictionary), which he described as a "jazzed up version of Chinese" (like Romanian is a jazzed-up version of Italian, and Portuguese a jazzed-up version of Spanish). Third, there was the word from my agent that Beijing University Press has agreed to our advance number, so we've selected them as the publishing house in China for the Pentagon's New Map.

My old Russian teacher at the University of Wisconsin always said good news comes in threes, as does bad news. My good news trio from China would therefore seem to be: 1) we got the visas without a hitch; 2) PNM's to be published there; and 3) we're expecting our travel advisory later today from China regarding the exact date of our adoption appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou in late August.

Just like that I am suddenly all connected to the Middle Kingdom, and so I find myself feeling strangely protective of it. Will such feelings ruin my ability to think about China objectively? Don't think so, otherwise I'd be irrational about Northern Ireland, which I'm not.

No, I think my new personal connections to China will just make my appreciation of what it is and what it is becoming all the more nuanced. Do I trust China per se? My answer is that I trust China to be China, in all its complexity and self-interest, just like I trust America to be America in all its complexity and self-interest.

So when I hear John Kerry bashing China on trade because it's good election-year politics ("China Is Talk of Campaigns: Kerry Seems Tougher Than Bush on Standard Election Topic," by Neil King, Jr. and Michael Schroeder, Wall Street Journal, 20 July, p. A4.), I know it's simply preaching to certain segments of the choir, and doesn't reflect any objective view of what China now represents in terms of America's strategic interests in expanding the Core and shrinking the Gap. Kerry can blow smoke now, just like Clinton did in 1992, but the reality would set in immediately once he entered office. China is simply too big and too important for that sort of partisan nonsense.

That my family has chosen to make China a big part of our lives means only that we're a microcosm of the integrating effort that the world is going through on all things Chinese. Rather than generating a bias, this process simply eliminates an absence that never made any sense anywayóexcept in the autarkic nonsense that was Maoism.

With the agreement pending on PNM's publication in China, I now have three of the four map categories accounted for (outside of North America, of course): publication in Japan gives me an Old Core state, China now gives me a New Core state, and Turkey gives me a Seam State. What I need next is a true Gap state, and from what I'm hearing from my agency, that may well be Lebanonóof all places. I look forward to the day when I have copies of all these PNMs on my shelf in my office.

Til then, here's today's catch:

New Core power Russia to help U.S. in Iraq?

"Russia: Putin Considers Sending Troops to Iraq," www.stratfor.com, 16 July.

States cursed by oil? Almost all are found inside the Gapónaturally

"Saving Iraq From Its Oil," by Nancy Birdsall and Arvind Subramanian, Foreign Affairs, July-Aug 2004, p. 77.

"From Pariah to Belle of the Oil Ball: For Energy Companies, Libya Is Suddenly the Hottest Date Around," by Simon Romero, New York Times, 20 July, p. C1.

What goes around, comes around on terror

"Saudis Facingb Return of Radicals: Young Iraq Veterans Join Underground," by Craig Whitlock, Washington Post, 11 July, p. A1.

"President Says U.S. to Examine Iran-Qaeda Tie: Sept. 11 Terrorists May Have Been Given Aid," by Philip Shenon, NYT, 20 July, p. A1.

No surprise: Sys Admin force is drawn from sys admin jobs back in U.S.

"Governors Tell Of War's Impact on Local Needs: Staff Shortages At Home; Citizen Soldiers Abroad Aren't Available to Aid States in Crisis," by Sarah Kershaw, NYT, 20 July, p. A1.

"Rebuilding Iraq, A Well At A Time: Tiny Projects Succeed and Win Thanks for U.S.," by James Glanz, NYT, 20 July, p. A1.

"Don't Dumb Down the Military," by Nathaniel Fick, NYT, 20 July, p. A23.

Armenia: a classic Gap state that is failing on all fronts

"Armenian Protests Falter Under Authoritarian Rule: President' Hold on Power Contrasts Sharply With 'Rose Revolution' in Neighboring Georgia," by Susan B. Glasser, WP, 11 July, p. A16.

"Exodus Is New Chapter of Loss in Armenia's Sad Story," by Susan B. Glasser, WP, 12 July, p. A1.

The focus on rural poor is an Asia-wide development

"Asia Shifts Focus to Rural Development," by Andrew Browne, WSJ, 20 July, p. A9.