It's connect-or-die time in France

Good story on the riots in France:

As Youth Riots Spread Across France, Muslim Groups Attempt to Intervene

By Molly Moore

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, November 5, 2005; A01

SEVRAN, France, Nov. 4 -- By dusk Friday, the streets of Sevran were deserted. Inside high-rise apartments and stone cottages here on the outskirts of Paris, residents waited for the explosions and sirens to begin.

"Last night I thought I was in Baghdad, not somewhere in France," said Nabila Chaibi, a 22-year-old sales clerk, her angular face swathed in a white head scarf. Her eyes displayed the fatigue of a sleepless night.

Sevran is at the epicenter of violence that has convulsed many of the poor immigrant areas in Paris's northern suburbs for nine days. After the sun set Friday night, the violence resumed, with youths setting fire to two buildings, including a bakery, and 10 cars in the northern community of Val d'Oise, police reported.

Night after night, youths armed with rocks, sticks and gasoline bombs have confronted police and set cars, businesses, government buildings and schools on fire. Police officers said Friday that approximately 1,260 vehicles had been torched in the Paris area in the past week, including 23 buses parked in a depot near Versailles.

The worst unrest in France in recent years has paralyzed the government, setting senior officials bickering over how to curb the violence. President Jacques Chirac has not publicly addressed the country other than to issue a statement through his spokesman appealing for calm.

The attacks have underscored anger and frustration among immigrants and their French-born children who inhabit the country's largest and poorest slum areas. A large percentage of this population is Muslim, and Islamic neighborhood groups have been trying to dissuade young people from taking part in the rioting.

Thursday night into Friday morning, the violence spread to other parts of France for the first time. Attacks and fires were reported in Normandy on the northwest coast, Dijon in the central Burgundy region and Provence in the far south . . .

Muslim leaders who have been talking with young rioters say that many are driven by anger at the government over the neglect of the housing projects, where unemployment and crime are rampant. A statement by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that rioters were "scum" particularly incensed many of them.

They are also frustrated at job and social discrimination against the neighborhoods' residents, many of whom were born in France to immigrant parents. . .

This is classic Marxist-Leninist stuff: lower-class workers segregated and ghettoized in crowded urban conditions, pulled from the moorings of their previous, far more orderly lives (typically as rural poor), and eventually the revolutionary spirit moves them to action against the indifferent authorities.

The solution? Easy. Allow the rise of Islamist parties through which these concerns and demands and anger can be acceptably challenged. Create political connectivity to cover the gap in economic and social connectivity in the short run. Buy them off with some real recognition. Feel their pain.

No kidding. That's how it works.

The answer isn't the established parties speaking out more. The answer is an Islamist party that both speaks for the community and helps to police it.

Connect or die. End the disconnectedness or suffer the violent consequences.

More good analysis on Iran--from Iranians

Here's the story:

Iran's President Sparks Fears of New Isolation
Nuclear Talks at Risk, Analysts Say

By Karl Vick

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, November 5, 2005; A14

. . . "In Iran as everywhere else in the world, radicalism seeks isolation in diplomacy," said Saeed Laylaz, an economist and commentator in Tehran. Ahmadinejad "seems to be trying to push the country this way," Laylaz said. "He twice mentioned Israel should be wiped off the map -- twice -- and he knows that 20 days later we have to face the IAEA. It's not good for the country". . .

Some analysts suggested that Ahmadinejad, who came to the presidency with no foreign policy experience, might simply be in over his head. Elected on a populist economic platform, the former Tehran mayor cast himself as an ordinary Iranian intent on reviving the ideals of the revolution.

"His image of the world is still very, very local," said Hadi Semati, a Tehran University political scientist who is a resident at Washington's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Some critics cite evidence from across Iran that the new government is struggling to master the levers of power.

Four major ministries, including the oil ministry, remain without new leaders after the conservative parliament rejected Ahmadinejad's choices. Tehran's stock exchange has lost a third of its value since his election, which profoundly unsettled business circles. And Ahmadinejad's interior minister irritated consumers last month by hinting that Iran might ban imports of goods from Britain and South Korea in retaliation for their IAEA votes.

"All over the country, people believe he does not have the ability to handle the problems," Davoud Hermidas Bavand, a professor of international law at Tehran's Supreme National Defense University, said of Ahmadinejad . . .

But there are indications that the president's confrontational stance is deliberate. In a field of half a dozen presidential candidates, only Ahmadinejad rejected rapprochement with the West. And when he arrived at the United Nations in September, he offered Secretary General Kofi Annan not the new ideas he had promised to help stave off confrontation over the nuclear issue, but a legalistic defense of Iran's right to nuclear technology.

Annan was stunned, according to notes taken by a member of Annan's staff and two other people who attended the private meeting. "It's time to act like a statesman," he told Ahmadinejad.

After his U.N. speech, Ahmadinejad was asked, through a series of contacts between his staff members and European officials, not to repeat the argument in a speech several days later. Instead, he included three references to Iran's intentions to enrich uranium.

"We gave him 24 hours to rewrite that speech, and instead of choosing softer language that could have saved the diplomatic process, he just toughened it up," a senior European official said . . .

Seems clear to me. We're being victimized by a hardliner for domestic political purposes.

And he's playing us like a guitar. . .

Malawi's failed state trifecta

You read the blog on the enviromental self-destruction and got my argument about Malawi suffering too little globalization.

Then the blog about the impending starvation crisis.

Now the story about Malawi's horrifically bad legal system:

November 6, 2005

The Forgotten of Africa, Wasting Away in Jails Without Trial



By MICHAEL WINES

New York Times

LILONGWE, Malawi - Since Nov. 10, 1999, Lackson Sikayenera has been incarcerated in Maula Prison, a dozen iron-roofed barracks set on yellow dirt and hemmed by barbed wire just outside Malawi's capital city.

He eats one meal of porridge daily. He spends 14 hours each day in a cell with 160 other men, packed on the concrete floor, unable even to move. The water is dirty; the toilets foul. Disease is rife.

But the worst part may be that in the case of Mr. Sikayenera, who is accused of killing his brother, the charges against him have not yet even reached a court. Almost certainly, they never will. For sometime after November 1999, justice officials lost his case file. His guards know where he is. But for all Malawi's courts know, he does not exist.

"Why is it that my file is missing?" he asked, his voice a mix of rage and desperation. "Who took my file? Why do I suffer like this? Should I keep on staying in prison just because my file is not found? For how long should I stay in prison? For how long?"

This is life in Malawi's high-security prisons, Dickens in the tropics, places of cruel, but hardly unusual punishment. Prosecutors, judges, even prison wardens agree that conditions are unbearable, confinements intolerably long, justice scandalously uneven.

But by African standards, Malawi is not the worst place to do time. For many of Africa's one million prison inmates, conditions are equally unspeakable - or more so. . .

This is the classic Gap trifecta: crappy legal system scares away foreign direct investment, so workers turn on the environment by default, and food crises ensue.

Food aid isn't the answer (though we must pursue it), and asking them to protect their environment in the meantime isn't the answer (as much as we might want them to). And frankly, expecting their government to get good absent a private sector that both generates sufficient transation rates to trigger such development and grows a business class that demands it through pressure and influence, is simply hoping against hope.

You put that analysis together and you find yourself strangely attracted to Bono's debt relief and Jeffrey Sachs' "big push" on foreign aid to jumpstart the economy.

Add in some common sense on needing to deal with security situations (like evil Robert Mugabe right next door in Zimbabwe) and I'm there.

An example of the diplomatic impotence we will increasingly face under the Bush post-presidency

Bush Departs Without a Deal
No Consensus on Reviving Regional Trade Agreement

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 6, 2005; Page A14

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina, Nov. 5 -- President Bush left a meeting of democratic leaders from the Western Hemisphere on Saturday hours before negotiators ended the summit without reaching an agreement on whether to revive talks on creating a regional free trade zone.

A senior administration official said two opposing views emerged at the summit: one favoring the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas while acknowledging that many challenges need to be addressed before a deal can be sealed, and another saying that the conditions do not yet exist to make an agreement viable.

The official said that some of the problems, including disputes over U.S. farm subsidies and fears among Latin leaders that the economies of smaller nations would be overwhelmed by the United States, could be addressed in upcoming World Trade Organization negotiations . . .

The pact, which Bush has maintained would help reduce poverty and boost economic growth, has drawn vehement opposition from some Latin leaders who say it would exacerbate large economic disparities across the region.

Five countries -- Venezuela, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina -- declined to take part in the negotiations. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called the free trade agenda an "imperialist" plan being foisted on the region by the United States . . .

The United States has encountered growing resistance in pushing its free trade agenda in recent years, as many countries in the region have voiced objections to what they say is unilateral U.S. foreign policy . . .

In an expanding global economy flush with capital, the United States should be able to get movement on free trade agreements in the Western Hemisphere. Such agreements tend to come during the flush times, not the hard ones.

The inability of the Bush Administration to get any movement here, while China continues to expand its trade and investment presence in the region, is a bad sign.

We have a little more than three years of the Bush post-presidency. At this rate a lot of potential deals may go by the wayside unless Bush finds a way to get back in the game and stop treading water.

Signposts - Sunday, November 6, 2005

Signposts is a weekly digest of major op-ed and feature analyses from the blog of Thomas P.M. Barnett -- www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog -- and is distributed via email in html format.

Rebecca MacKinnon at Chinese BloggerCon 2005

Rebecca is as cool as they come on tracking the blogosphere in Asia. Some groundbreaking stuff here, augmented by McKinnon's solid analysis. In sum, no media covers this historic Chinese burst of individual level connectivity like Rebecca. She is a "hero now discovered" for her amazingly dedicated work in this area.

I expect to cite this phenom (and her work) to the max in Vol. III, which will drill down to such individual-level stories and advice.

Relaxing at my mother-in-law's in Terre Haute

Estate auction next door. Only thing that interests me personally are two shells from WWII: a 40mm with penetrating round still attached (main fuze gone) and a 105mm shell (only). 40 was dated 1944 and the 105 is 1943. Both engraved dates.

A lot of guys checking them out and the pair went to "choice bid" along with two 105 shells from Vietnam. Shot to $20 fast and then just me and another guy after that. He goes 25, me 30, he 35, me 40 (my limit) and he balks at 45. Winning the "choice" (as many of the four as I want at 40), I pick the WWII pair for a total of 80. Bit much but auctions are about deciding what you want and how much you want to pay for them and then trying to keep your emotions in check. I just knew I'd feel good through 40 and then bad after that.

Auctions are a really cool thing in the Midwest. Made me feel like a kid again. Reminded me of going to them with my Dad. Suppose I bought the shells for same reason.

Made me also remember how happy I make my wife and myself to move back here.

Next up? WWII helmet with liner fully in tact save leather covers on straps.

Home, getting-sweeter home

Dateline: Indy, 4 November 2005

Strangely non-eventful day after the previous four.

Just up and fly home.

Stood this afternoon on the newly poured concrete floor of the sunroom, situated off the back of the new house. What a fantastic view this place will have. Today, the back yard was a wall of yellow leaves, complimenting the couple dozen new trees just planted along the berm that runs the back line of the property. A perfect fall day. The brickwork is almost done. Inside, this week was all insulation, first the spray-on stuff and then the thick stuff. All the rough-in plumbing and ducts and vents and wiring are completed. The interior wall work starts next week. Really amazing to watch this whole thing come together. When you actually watch it from start to finish, you end up being amazed not by how much it costs, but by how much you end up getting for all the money you put into it--so many people, so many hours, so much material.

I'm really glad we did this.

I can't wait to leave this apartment.

Here's the daily catch:

■ The positive horizontal scenario of Aceh's recovery from the vertical shock of the Asian tsunamis

■ Draining the swamp is both political (participation) and economic (jobs)

■ Good more on vaccines, bad on trimming foreign aid budget

■ Dirty Harry stays dirty--for now

■ The SysAdmin gets serious in its training

■ The next food crisis in Africa is already here

■ New Core sets the new rules: China and the (can you believe it?) environment

■ Bush's "welcome" in South America signals the rising power of China

■ Saddam's aborted plea bargain: how the A-to-Z rule set on processing politically bankrupt states could have worked in Iraq

■ The Koreas promise to make nice for Beijing 2008. Why? Won't cost much.

■ How damaged is Assad?

■ China's learning on the global power of its economic rule sets

■ When the system is flush with cash, globalization expands

■ Some common sense on Iran

The positive horizontal scenario of Aceh's recovery from the vertical shock of the Asian tsunamis

■"After the Tsunami, An Aceh Surprise: Good Government; Indonesia's Yudhoyono Tackles Legendary Corruptions In $6 Billion Rebuilding," by Peter Fritsch, Wall Street Journal, 2 November 2005, p. A1.

■"Nearly a Year After the Tsunami, Sri Lanka Strife Flares," by Somini Sengupta, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A3.

Interesting story about how the rebuild effort in Aceh (long a source of sectarian violence aimed at creating a breakaway state) in Indonesia is not only going well, but changing the political landscape there by engendering good government in a country long known for its rampant corruption.

So the Tsunamis not only revive U.S.-Indonesia military-to-military relations thanks to the positive role played by our forces in the relief effort, the new president (retired general) Susilo Yudhoyono takes advantage of the opportunity to show how an effective and honest SysAdmin effort can do more than rebuild the economy, it can create (or here, repair) a nation where one (in a local sense) did not effectively exist prior (Aceh has long felt ripped off by the distant central government).

The General did the right thing: he sought out local mentors, here, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, legendary nation-builder and strong man. Lee told him to get some good planners, mentioning McKinsey & Co., which in turn has apparently donated millions of dollars of free labor to the effort.

The big innovation here: transparent rule sets and a low tolerance for insider deals.

I think the U.S. effort in Iraq could learn from this.

For a contrasting situation, see how little things have changed in Sri Lanka. Where is India on that one? Apparently it's given up all attempts at SysAdmin work there, after years of trying to play peacekeeper.

Good move on vaccines, bad on trimming foreign aid budget

■"Bush unveils bird flu strategy: $7.1B plan urges vaccine stockpile," by Steve Sternberg and Richard Benedetto, USA Today, 2 November 2005, p. 1A.

■"Public vs. private sector," USA Today Snapshots, USA Today, 2 November 2005, p. 1B.

■"It Was Just a Drill, but the Flu Shots Were Real, and Popular," by Shadi Rahimi, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A29.

■"Congress Trims Foreign-Aid Budget," by David Rogers, Wall Street Journal, 2 November 2005, p. A4.

Bush shows (finally) a proactive side on potential System Perturbations like the avian flu threat. We can't stop it from coming here, but we can manage its spread if we're ready.

Important for him to look more in command. Public opinion on the ability of the government to manage any post-disaster situation (whether Baghdad or New Orleans) is awfully low (poll says public thinks private companies do better in responding to disasters [64%] than government [34%]).

To repair that impression, government needs to show it cares, plus be innovative. NYC practices for a major outbreak by doing rapid-fire, short-notice free distribution of flu shots. Very popular, very useful, and very good at bolstering public faith. Lesson to be learned there.

But that preventive thinking ends at the water's edge, unfortunately. Congress is trimming the White House request for foreign aid, doing its best (as always) to earmark everything that remains, thus tying the hands of the US Agency for International Development. In reality, the political pork crowd in aid is just as bad as it is in defense.

Dirty Harry stays dirty--for now

■"CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: Debate is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11," by Dana Priest, Washington Post, 2 November 2005, p. A1.

■"Clueless about torture," editorial, USA Today, 2 November 2005, p. 12A.

■"Detainee Policy Sharply Divides Bush Officials: New Military Standards; Fight on Applying Geneva Language to Handling of Terror Suspects," by Tim Golden and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A1.

■"Policies on Terrorism Suspects Come Under Fire: Democrats Say CIA's Covert Prisons Hurt U.S. Image; U.N. Official on Torture to Conduct Inquiry," by Dana Priest and Josh White, Washington Post, 3 November 2005, p. A2.

■"EU to investiage reports that CIA set up secret jails," by Associated press, USA Today, 4 November 2005, p. 9A.

When I began briefing the Blueprint for Action slides, I wondered if my section on "Dirty Harry comes clean in the GWOT" would seem too preachy, or frankly, too obscure. I mean, who follows this stuff after the overdose of Abu Ghraib?

Not anymore.

Papers are full of stories: Bush Administration is divided over how to clean up, Congress is getting steamed (both sides of aisle), and the EU and UN are launching investigations.

Scandals are driving this process, and they'll keep on driving this process until we start building a new, transparent rule set on how we process individuals in this global war on terrorism.

I understand the Bush people not wanting to sign up to Geneva Conventions on POWs, because this is a new type of war against a new type of warrior (at least, for us). We need new rules, not a sloppy revamp of war rules from another era in which states fought states. This is our men-with-no-names (special ops) fighting the men-with-no-states (terrorists). We need a new rule set, and we need to grow it fast among our most trusted allies, expanding it over time. If we delay too long, we'll lose too many friends.

The SysAdmin gets serious in its training

■"U.S. to Intensify Its Training In Iraq to Battle Insurgents: A Week for Officers to Sharpen Strategy; Learning new lessons in urban warfare, and hoping to teach them to Iraqi forces, too," by Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A12.

■"Elite Marine Unit to Help Fight Terrorism: Force to Be Part of Special Ops," by Bradley Graham, Washington Post, 2 November 2005, p. A14.

Great NYT story on the continuing bottom-up reform movement within Army and the Marine Corps to sharpen the blade on counter-insurgency. In short, the warriors who've come home are now teaching the teachers.

Best possible signs? Lt. Gen. Jim Mattis running the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Lt. Gen. Dave Petraeus taking over the Army's Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth (where I will address the student body sometime in the next couple of months).

But key point of article is that this bubble-up phenom is now reaching back to Iraq, where a new school is set up to train Iraqis too.

This is what I meant when I wrote in Blueprint for Action that no public institution responds better to failure than the U.S. military. The SysAdmin capacity is coming, my friends.

The next food crisis in Africa is already here

■"Drought Deepens Poverty, Starving More Africans," by Michael Wines, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A1.

Well, that didn't take long, did it?

1.7 million hungry across Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi.

Guess which country sits in the middle of all those? Well, Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Think that doesn't matter in terms of frightening off foreign investment and trade? Think again.

Mugabe's government seized all the farms from the whites there and the agricultural sector collapsed. Then he tightened his political grip, creating refugees galore. Guess where they go? One country over, as always.

Misery loves company.

New Core sets the new rules: China and the (can you believe it?) environment

■"China's Little Green Book: Keeping an eye on China in the race for a sustainable future," op-ed by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A31.

■"From Gunpowder to the Next Big Bang: Modern China is set to get creative," op-ed by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, 4 November 2005, p. A25.

■"Taking The Future For a Drive: California Family Tests Honda's Fuel Cell Car," by Danny Hakim, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. C1.

Friedman on a tear regarding a subject near and dear to my heart: when I sign "NCÌNRs!" in copies of Blueprint for Action, I'm writing "The New Core sets the New Rules!"

This is a major theme of BFA. The New Core sets the new rules on all sorts of things: technology, development speed, "satisfactory" outcomes, etc. We won't be bringing the Gap up to U.S. standards of living, but rather up to the standards of New Core pillars like India, Russia, China and Brazil.

I can almost hear the OMYGODS!THAT'S-SO-UNFAIR!

But it isn't. It's realistic.

I say the New Core sets the New Rules not because they're smarter, but because they're most incentivized to do so, given all the rural poor they're trying to deal with, and all the rapid-fire development they're engaging in. So they'll come up with the best new technologies because they'll be working the classic problems with the greatest urgency.

Meanwhile, in America, we'll "experiment."

I write in BFA: don't expect California to drive the fuel-cell car's emergence. Instead, expect China to do so, because of the quintupling of the car market, the rapid uptick in pollution, and their sheer desire to conquer our car market eventually.

Bush's "welcome" in South America signals the rising power of China

■"Bush Faces Tough Time in South America: Protests and Tensions Expected at Summit Talks in Argentina; The president and his policies remain unpopular," by Larry Rohter, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A11.

Bush will get an earful in South America this week. We offer the region little but bromides right now about free markets, and we're far too disrespectful of Brazil's wonderful efforts to represent not just New Core's interests, but increasingly those of the Gap as well.

And to the extent that some economies, like Argentina, Brazil and Chile, do well economically now, it's not the U.S. tide that lifts those boats any more. No, it's China's, and that's why Beijing is kicking our diplomatic ass across the region.

Saddam's aborted plea bargain: how the A-to-Z rule set on processing politically bankrupt states could have worked in Iraq

■"Arab League Plan for Hussein Exile Went Sour, Arab Leader Says," by Hassan M. Fattah, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A12.

Fascinating story from Abu Dhabi crown prince about how the Gulf states came this close to actually plea-bargaining Saddam out of power just before the war. The hold up? Arab leaders couldn't reach a consensus fast enough.

What was the offer? Saddam goes into exile for amnesty and protection from trial.

When I talk that A-to-Z rule set on processing politically bankrupt states in BFA, I argue that most of these rogues can be negotiated out of power, or just scared out of power like Liberia's Charles Taylor, once he was indicted by the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal. Think of the Iraq we could have had today under those circumstances.

Then think of a post-Kim Korean peninsula Ö

The Koreas promise to make nice for Beijing 2008. Why? Won't cost much.

■"The Two Koreas Agree to Field a Unified Olympic Team in 2008," by Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A10.

What I told the South Korean journalists yesterday was that the country is acting like a child over the question of North Korea, closing its eyes to the horror and tragedy that is Kim's regime and pretending that if they do not look, then it is not really there.

Putting bandaids over this is not only sad, it's immoral.

South Korea whines about the potential cost, but what it forgets is all the lost opportunity it is foregoing by sticking its head in the sand on this issue. South Korea should be a major global leader on a host of issues right now, but it will never grow up so long as it remains infantile about reunification.

How damaged is Assad?

■"In the Fief of the Assads, Friends Melt Away: The crisis over the Hariri assassination could undermine the ruling circle," by Michael Slackman, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A4.

I really believed that Bashar Assad was trying to pull a Gorby by working political reform slowly from within, while continuing to use Lebanon as an economic connectivity lifeline to the global economy (it wasn't about political domination there, but economic parasitism).

Has time now run out? Assad was slowly moving his generation into positions of power, but the Old Guard, I believe, has done him in, and perhaps he was stupid enough to go along with it.

Either way, we're talking a deathwatch now on this regime. We may end up going into Syria defensively instead of offensively.

No kidding.

When the system is flush with cash, globalization expands

■"Huge Flood of Capital to Invest Spurs World-Wide Risk Taking: Corporate and Foreign Savings Chase Assets, Driving Prices Up, Keeping Returns Low," by Greg Ip and Mark Whitehouse, Wall Street Journal, 3 November 2005, p. A1.

I will stipulate all the fears expressed in this piece.

I will also note that, historically speaking, the globalized economy spreads around the planet primarily when financial markets are flush and there's plenty of cash chasing opportunities.

Conversely, it contracts when the global economy is starved for capital.

Riskier? Yes. But all progress is based on risk, so it sure as hell beats the alternative.

China's learning on the global power of its economic rule sets

■"China Antitrust Law May Alter Global Acquisitions Landscape," by Andrew Batson, Wall Street Journal, 3 November 2005, p. A11.

■"China Keeps Watch Over Olympic Logo: It Is One Knockoff That's Not Allowed," by Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post, 4 November 2005, p. D5.

China's coming out with a new antimonopoly law that's been years in the making. Because China's integrating its national economy so rapidly with the world's, this will have a huge impact on mergers and acquisitions around the world, which is why the drafting "has attracted an unusual amount of international comment from U.S. and European Union governments and business groups."

Amazing huh? China's not only synching up its internal rule set with that of the global economy, we're now seeing some serious evidence of backwash effects.

So China learns, bit by bit, that it's good to play by the rules, even over such seemingly little things like patent protection.