A cursory glance at the coverage this week of the Beijing Olympics shows an increasing crescendo of negative commentary. That is evident everywhere from the Huffington Post to the mainstream media, and even sports journalists have been jumping on the anti-China bandwagon. The recent decision of the Chinese government to deny former medalist Joey Cheek entry into the country because of his stated plan to rally athletes to pressure Sudan on its Darfur policy is just the latest issue to inflame opinion.
Read moreThank God for the Chinese Consumer
Don't count out the U.S. consumer. For the past decades, that has been a ready rebuttal against predictions of economic doom and gloom for America and the world. The average American's spending capacity has proven more resilient than anyone could have predicted. At various points over the last 60 years it has supplied the ballast for companies domestic and world-wide.
Read moreChina Opens Up — Sort Of
After months of uncertainty, the Chinese government finally relented and announced that it would allow camera crews and foreign reporters during the Olympics to roam around Beijing and do street shots. They were also given permission to do live feeds from the highly symbolic, picturesque, and because of the events of 1989, rather laden Tiananmen Square. The lifting of these restrictions came as a deep relief to NBC and its parent GE, which has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to secure the television rights to the games.
Read moreBush in China: A Pin Drops in Beijing
Washington’s in an uproar; Woodward inadvertently passes the torch from the Watergate generation to the Plamegate posse; and bereft at the loss of their exterminator, Delay, the Republicans in Congress are heading every which way but loose. Exciting stuff, but across the Pacific Ocean, there’s some boring stuff which matters a whole lot more in the long run. This weekend, the leaders of the U.S. government and the Chinese government will cross chopsticks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and our “esteemed leader” will sit down with their esteemed leader.
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