Presidential Election or Chinese C.P.Meeting, Which Will Prove More Significant?

[Jacob]

... but yeah, I don't claim to be an expert but I do think that what I post on China is more informed than Raz and CdM's platitudes.

[Jacob]

Maybe he can tell us which dog food doesn't have lead in it.

I wouldn't buy dog food from China.

[Razgovory]

... but yeah, I don't claim to be an expert but I do think that what I post on China is more informed than Raz and CdM's platitudes.

Uh, huh. Whatever   You wanna quite insulting me now?

[Ed Anger]

Maybe he can tell us which dog food doesn't have lead in it.

I wouldn't buy dog food from China.

Hell, I don't trust products made in parts of Europe.

made in Plovdiv. PASS

[Jacob]

Uh, huh. Whatever   You wanna quite insulting me now?

Yes

In fact, on rereading our exchange you didn't say anything particularly terrible; I apologize for being a jerk to you.

I blame CdM.

[CountDeMoney]

... but yeah, I don't claim to be an expert but I do think that what I post on China is more informed than Raz and CdM's platitudes.

I feel neither obligated nor compelled to regurgitate my offline policy reading list to get into a dick-measuring contest with you over the internal machinations of the Muddled Kingdom. 

Languish is a litter box, and I will kick my shit around anyway I like.  More informed, fuck you, Dances With Mandarins.  I don't need to post an annotated bibliography to cut to the chase about China.  I save that for the occasional audited course for fun and to creep out hottie 22 year old coeds.

[Jacob]

You may very well BE better informed.

It's just that your posts here don't reflect that. Like you said, you save that for your 22 year old coeds.

Which is a pity. Because frankly, I'm more interested in a measured perspective than in dick measuring contests.

[CountDeMoney]

Don't have to type as much with them.

[CountDeMoney]

Which is a pity. Because frankly, I'm more interested in a measured perspective than in dick measuring contests.

OK, fine, we can do that.  It'll be fun.  But you know where I stand with them.

[Jacob]

Which is a pity. Because frankly, I'm more interested in a measured perspective than in dick measuring contests.

OK, fine, we can do that.  It'll be fun.  But you know where I stand with them.

Cool.

So what is your take on the current transition of leadership in the CCP (other than that the ideal American response involves several carrier groups at a minimum)?

[Ed Anger]

They won't have to replace the phone books at the podium.

[CountDeMoney]

So what is your take on the current transition of leadership in the CCP (other than that the ideal American response involves several carrier groups at a minimum)?

I honestly feel for Mr. Xi, because it is doubtful that he will be able to maintain the growth his predecessor was lucky enough to marshal, which will wind up hurting him simply because the Chinese don't possess the flexibility or the organic economic institutional elasticity to deal with the global economic slowdown.  Sure, they've been riding it out a little bit better on straight capital, but you can only muscle through so much, and when the bubble pops on them, it's going to hurt them harder than it ever could Europe or Wall Street.  And that will impact their political reformation.

I wish him luck putting a happy face on trying to combat the corruption and graft that's finally reared its ugly head publicly, but that's the Chinese way of doing business going back several dynasties.  It's what they do.  And he's a team player.  He did a good job with the Olympics, but I don't think he's got the the political capital despite the overall party endorsement coming in to challenge the Zemin hardheads of the party, despite his reputation from his time running his province and his previous Round Eye-friendly appointments.  Sound like anybody we know?

In short, I see the bomb going off under him when China's economy hits the skids, resulting in a whiplash effect on this whole myth of their political reform.  Don't think he's the guy that will be able to handle it.  They will regress.

But I like the fact that they're opening up the upcoming Congress to foreign journalists in ways I didn't think they would before, but you know the message will still be as controlled and as unified as ever.

And three carrier battle groups would suffice.

[CountDeMoney]

Besides, moderate elements or hardliners aside, still doesn't change the fact that they're buying into an expansionist foreign policy into the blue waters surrounding them.  That's the US Navy's job.
When you've got the bigwigs in the PLA and the PLAN sucking down Alfred Mahan like he's back in style as a basic tenet for power projection, you've got trouble in River City.

[Razgovory]

Uh, huh. Whatever   You wanna quite insulting me now?

Yes

In fact, on rereading our exchange you didn't say anything particularly terrible; I apologize for being a jerk to you.

I blame CdM.

Thank you, thing is, I'm not really anti-china.  I admire their pragmatism.

[Sheilbh]

I don't think there's a myth of political reform CdM.  I've not read any suggestion that China's reforming in any significant way.  There's a battle of the elites in which attitudes to past reform seem to be synecdoche for political programs.  They are, in turn, taken as signifiers of views on future reforms - while currently not much changes and this goes on in the background and is largely played out to the public through symbolic gestures, the odd leaked story and inexplicable falls from grace.  It's like a very post-structuralist politics.