Dash of Calabash

From BBC News:

China has already overtaken the US as the world’s “biggest polluter”, a report to be published next month says.

The research suggests the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

Read more here.

Duncan Currie at The Weekly Standard writes about the postponed free-trade pact between the U.S. and Columbia:

The House of Representatives voted to postpone consideration of the U.S.-Colombia free trade pact, which President Bush sent to Congress earlier this week. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama oppose the Colombia deal on the grounds that Bogotá has not done enough to curb violence against trade unionists. This is the same argument we hear from other top Democrats and from senior American labor leaders. Yet it reveals either a total lack of perspective or an indifference to the facts, or both.

Read more about Columbia’s progress here.

An article by Dan Rabkin at FrontPage shows further evidence that China’s economic liberalization doesn’t necessarily translate into political liberalization:

On July 13, 2001 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Beijing had beaten out Toronto and Paris for the rights to host the 2008 Summer Games. Joy immediately spread across the Mainland, first and foremost amongst the members of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC). Plans were being set in motion to “dump sand” at Tiananmen Square for a beach volleyball arena, the site where 12 years prior Chinese tanks rolled in and brutally extinguished a blossoming democracy movement. Seven years after the IOC’s announcement, the decision to host the Olympics is turning into a colossal strategic blunder that is “dumping sand” on China’s hopes of shedding its police state label.To be honest, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) deserves a lot of credit. In the late 1970s the communist grip over the economy started to ease and the shift to an open-door and reform policy has led to a period of real and substantial economic growth. With the highest growth rate in the world, averaging about 10% a year over the last few decades, the PRC is rapidly climbing up in the world’s economic power rankings.

In light of China’s achievements, it is not surprising that they want to show their progress off to the rest of the world. However, does China really need the world’s spotlight shining into its closet — a closet that has the skeletons of Tibet, “re-education camps,” Darfur, and Burma lurking inside?

Read the rest here.

From Dr. John Rutledge’s blog:

“This is important. India has crossed the 250 million mark with the addition of 8.53 million mobile phone subscribers in February. India will become the second largest wireless network in the world after China in the first half of April 2008. (Hint: That makes the U.S. #3.) Click here to read the full article in the Economic Times.

Future growth of income, productivity and jobs will depend on who has the best information and communications technology, because high-speed communications allows the economy to perform as a massive parallel-processing information network. Hats off to China and India for making R&D and investment in new networks a priority. Wouldn’t hurt if the U.S. government were a positive force for investment here too.”

An article from the Christian Science Monitor highlights how China is making strides in becoming a modern, humane society… or at least pretending to if a foreigner is watching:

On a Beijing street a few weeks ago, a man began to beat his wife. A small crowd gathered, but nobody intervened until an American leaned from his apartment window overlooking the scene and began to shoot photos.

Noticing him, a spectator stepped up to the assailant and told him to stop. “There’s a foreigner taking pictures,” he pointed out. (more…)

From economist.com:

Hong Kong is home to 26 billionaires, according to Forbes magazine’s latest ranking of the world’s wealthiest individuals. Li Ka-shing, the chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, which have interests in property, ports and telecommunications, was named the richest local. He was 11th in the world ranking, with an estimated fortune of $26.5 billion. The next Hong Kongers were three of a kind: Raymond, Walter and Thomas Kwok, owners of Sun Hung Kai Properties, who have a combined wealth of $19.9 billion. Elsewhere on the list, Stanley Ho, a casino magnate, saw his wealth grow to $8 billion, thanks to the success of Macau’s revitalised gambling market.

The Honolulu Advertiser, 1/19/08 p C7 reported that its internet population has increased to 210 million, when represents a 53% growth over last year at the same time. Censorship failed to slow growth. China is only 5 million users behind the United States and should pass it sometime this year. Whereas 75% of American adults (higher to include teenagers) are Internet-connected, only about 16% of China’s population (6 yrs and older) is connected

By Tom Petruno and Walter Hamilton
Los Angeles Times

Asian stock markets opened sharply lower today, continuing a plunge that spread worldwide yesterday on worries that U.S. economic woes could turn global boom times to bust. Japan’s Nikkei-225 share index was down about 4.4 percent two hours into the trading session in Tokyo. That followed a 3.9 percent slide yesterday.

Stocks also were down nearly 5 percent in Australia, where they had tumbled 2.9 percent yesterday.

(more…)

On a patch of land just one-sixth as large as Washington, D.C., Macau surpassed sprawling Las Vegas last year in gaming revenues, thanks to a growing deluge of mainland Chinese tourists. They are transforming this place faster than imperialism and organized crime ever did.

Read the Honolulu Advertiser article by clicking here

From The Economist:

Singapore is the second freest economy in the world, according to an American think-tank. In its 2008 Index of Economic Freedom the Heritage Foundation ranked the city-state a close second after Hong Kong, which topped the list of 157 countries for the 14th year running. Singapore’s efforts to cut taxes and attract foreign investment helped it increase its 2007 score by 0.2 points to 87.4. But the report also criticised Singapore’s financial and banking sector, which it claimed suffers from too much government intervention.