In defence of the Motherland
Last week saw a bit of petulance from China after its failed attempt to derail a proposed NSG waiver that effectively allows for India’s entry into the world of nuclear trading:
INDIA is celebrating the end of three decades of nuclear isolation after the body that controls global nuclear commerce granted a waiver that will allow the world’s biggest democracy to participate in nuclear trade.
There is more than a suggestion that China tried to use its expertise in stalling tactics by ’encouraging’ smaller NSG members to do their dirty work before jumping on board the bandwagon themselves. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called China’s role in the negotiations ‘constructive’. Yes; very.
On a related note, China last week discovered a new source of radioactive material in neighbouring Kazakhstan. It was reported that opportunistic Chinese scrap metal merchants had managed to haul a lump of depleted uranium across the border. One of them even succeeded in hacking off a piece and transporting it to the heart of the capital for analysis. Security officials were alerted when the man began glowing in the dark.
In other military developments on the mainland, freshmen throughout the kingdom are being put through their paces by army instructors with a penchant for scolding asynchrony in the goose step. They start marching and chanting at 6 am and they’re still at it 14 hours later, by which time classroom delinquents-to-be have identified themselves by the tell-tale illumination of their mobile phones. Extra push-ups for anyone caught laughing at the laowai attempting to shoot a few hoops on an adjacent court.
Academically I’m feeling distinctly underemployed, having been burdened with only a couple of classes for the first few weeks of the new semester. Then again, this is fortuitous insofar as we are entering a critical period in foundinchina’s plan to see what life has to offer on the other side of the equator. This news will no doubt be music to the ears of the fenqing who have been demanding my repatriation for the unthinkable crime of expressing myself freely.
Also in the world of teaching I’ve been asking my new intensive reading classes what they suggest would be the most effective way to use the course textbook: “show more movies” was, by some way, the number one response. It’s always a good sign when students and teachers are in mind meld.