Years of Poems and Spirits

Just read this story (”Uzbeks Stop Working With U.S. Against Terrorism”) on Washington Post.

Several things to watch:
1. This is a rare example where American government chooses intagible principle over immediate interest. Is it true? Can this last?
2. Finally being the good guy everyone else thinks it should be, what “soft power” America can wield (especially with the Europeans and the Russians)?
3. Would China be able to (i.e. having the capacity of) assert any influence in central Asia? Note, Uzbekistan does NOT share border with China.

Related: Steven D. Levitt: Freakonomics and Washington Post online article (”Bennett Under Fire for Remark on Crime and Black Abortions”)

In the chapter “Where are the criminals”, Levitt convincingly (i.e. with comparative statistical study) argued that the drop of crime rate in the late 90s has a strong correlation to the rise of abortion rate after Roe v. Wade.

Prof. Levitt, being a insatiable number wiz, went further to prove that reducing crime by abortion is not a very efficient economic model.

Related:
my previous blog, from the same Foreign Affairs article.

Zheng laid out China’s new “Peaceful Rising” strategy:
1. Constant reference/contrast to the West’s imperialistic/colonial past. This new policy is all about “peace”.
2. “According to China’s strategic plans, it will take another 45 years before it can be called a modernized, medium-level developed country.” –like ??
3. 3 obstacles: short of resources, environmental, lack of coordination between econ. and social development.
4. “The policies … can be summarised as grand strategies—or ‘three transcendences.’”
4.1 Transcends the old model of industrialization (through “primary capital accumulation”, I am paraphrasing). New path: progress based on technologies, economic efficiency, low consumption of natural resources.
4.2 Transcends the traditional ways of great powers to emerge and Cold War mentality.
4.3 Transcends outdated modes of social control and to construct a harmonious socialist society.

Chinese government has set up targets for thenext 50 years:
2000-2010: Total GDP is to be doubled.
2010-2020: Total GDP doubles again = $3000 per capita GDP
2020-2050: Cruise control to prosperous, democratic and civilized socialist country.

Related reading: Bureaucracy, Economy, and Leadership in China : The Institutional Origins of the Great Leap Forward
by David Bachman (my JSIS professor in UW)
In the book, Mr. Bachman described how the 5-year plans were devised. In one of the more telling scenes, in 1957(?), Chen Yun, the senior communist leader in charge of economy, objected to some target numbers (grain output?) set in that 5-year plan. However, when he heard then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said he didn’t believe them either, Chen was furious and guaranteed Mao ZeDong the numbers would be included in the plan and would be met in the end. It arguably cost 27 million lifes.