Chinese army cats

David Frum goes historical

On the Chinese Song Dynasty no less. He is reading several books about the period and is highly impressed. The Song were the Dynasty before the Mongols and is generally agreed to be the period when Chinese civilization reached its heights (except for personal hygiene according to Frum).

It's worth reading. Though I have to laugh at his last paragraph:

Premodern history is a story of cruelty. If half the world’s people lived in China in the year 1000, at least half the world’s cruelty took place there too – and probably much more than half, since the Chinese were so much better organized than anyone else.

Aside from not daring to try to calculate the proportion of cruelty that was actually Chinese, I would have thought that the 20th Century had pretty much retired the competition in cruelty.

and Early Modern? Wars of Religion anyone?

.

China: Once again Number One in the World!

Yes, in yet another sign of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse China pulls ahead of the rest of the world in a key indicator. Here is the news story.

The Bush Administration is again embarrassed to see the United States fall behind China. Many observers fault the Administration for failing to keep pace with China in this important benchmark of modernization.


Not that they didn't try.


.

China, the Siege of the Red Mosque, and a brothel

Sounds like a Johnny Carson routine, but what do they have in common? An interesting story, told here on National Review Online. Here is the key to it:

This is all to do with Musharraf having finally authorized an assault on the "Red Mosque" seminary in Pakistan's capital. It's a nest of radical jihadis, who have been making a nuisance of themselves going round the city imposing Islamic virtue, Taliban-style. One of those impositions somehow led to them kidnapping the madam of a Chinese-staffed brothel much frequented by Pakistan's movers and shakers (if you'll pardon the expression).

So the denizens of the Red Mosque made two mistakes. One, they threatened to deprive the decision makers of their 'recreation.'

Two, they angered the Chinese, who unlike the Americans actually CAN tell Pakistan's President Musharaf what to do and when to do it. For one thing, they share a 300 mile long border with Pakistan and the world's largest army is on the Chinese side of it. For another, they are a lot meaner than we are. I forebear to say that they are also more competent then we are, though I am certain the Pakistanis sure think so.

Point taken, at least as far as Musharaf was concerned. The Islamists he has been telling us he simply didn't dare take on, are now being taken on.

I am still mystified, btw, with why Dan Simmons in his little 'Century War' fantasy discounted the Chinese completely. No one in that part of the world does.

On Speaking Chinese

Here's some info for anyone learning a bit of Chinese with the expectation of using it when they travel there. It is from John Derbyshire, who is nothing if not cosmopolitan.

Even if a foreigner can speak tolerably good Chinese, some Chinese people still have a mental block against processing Chinese-language input from a foreigner. Several times in China I have had the experience of addressing people in my tolerably-good Chinese, only to have them squint incredulously at me, turn to each other, say something like: “The foreigner sounds as if he’s speaking in Chinese. Is he?” “Yes, I think so. It sure sounded like that. Is that the weirdest thing you ever saw, or what?” then burst out laughing. Round-eye acquaintances whose Chinese is far better than mine report the same thing.

And you thought the French were bad.