Your irregular China round-up

[Cain]

More anti-Japanese riots.  "Free rage eggs" are being handed out at the Beijing protest.

No, really

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/09/15/161191153/anti-japan-protests-erupt-in-china-over-disputed-islands?sc=tw&cc=share

Close to the demonstration in Beijing on Saturday, cartons of "free rage eggs" were being given out for protesters to throw at the embassy.

Apparently there have been violent protests in 40 Chinese cities today.  I very much doubt the government there will let this continue.  There has already been a groundswell of "patriotic criticism" of rioters and looters.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

They are UNINHABITED ROCKS. Just to heighten the absurdity of all this.

[Cain]

Who just happen to be sitting on possible oil reserves.

Oh, and were historically owned by a country which was cruelly invaded and pillaged by another country, which to this day still downplays the atrocities it committed against the former.  And the islands were purchased by a man who denies the worst of those crimes even occured at all, loudly and repeatedly.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Who just happen to be sitting on possible oil reserves.

Oh, and were historically owned by a country which was cruelly invaded and pillaged by another country, which to this day still downplays the atrocities it committed against the former.  And the islands were purchased by a man who denies the worst of those crimes even occured at all, loudly and repeatedly.

That makes the brouhaha make a lot more sense.

[Cain]

Yes.  According to the Tokyo Governor, who kicked up this fuss with his purchase of the islands, the Rape of Nanking never happened, it was a vicious lie spread about by enemies of the Glorious Japanese Empire.

For about a thousand years or so, the islands were considered, by treaty and custom, a Chinese territory.  The Japanese took over in one of their bouts of expansionist insanity in the 19th century, I believe, taking advantage of China's "collapse the Kingdom of Heaven every 50 years" policy of continual civil wars.

It's worth noting that entire region is a clusterfuck of competing claims, with Russia and Japan claiming the same islands, China and Japan, South Korea and Japan and....well, you can see a pattern here.  And given Japan's compete and utter inability to accept the historical record the rest of the world does, they will never break down and admit these islands were captured as part of a policy of imperialism and conquest.

Japanese revisionism is going to be a major headache in the coming years.

[Cain]

So, the next ruler of China is pretty rich on the quiet:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/xi-jinping-millionaire-relations-reveal-fortunes-of-elite.html

Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes of Elite
By Bloomberg News - 2012-06-29T07:32:32Z

Xi Jinping, the man in line to be China's next president, warned officials on a 2004 anti-graft conference call: "Rein in your spouses, children, relatives, friends and staff, and vow not to use power for personal gain."

As Xi climbed the Communist Party ranks, his extended family expanded their business interests to include minerals, real estate and mobile-phone equipment, according to public documents compiled by Bloomberg.

Those interests include investments in companies with total assets of $376 million; an 18 percent indirect stake in a rare- earths company with $1.73 billion in assets; and a $20.2 million holding in a publicly traded technology company. The figures don't account for liabilities and thus don't reflect the family's net worth.

No assets were traced to Xi, who turns 59 this month; his wife Peng Liyuan, 49, a famous People's Liberation Army singer; or their daughter, the documents show. There is no indication Xi intervened to advance his relatives' business transactions, or of any wrongdoing by Xi or his extended family.

While the investments are obscured from public view by multiple holding companies, government restrictions on access to company documents and in some cases online censorship, they are identified in thousands of pages of regulatory filings.

The trail also leads to a hillside villa overlooking the South China Sea in Hong Kong, with an estimated value of $31.5 million. The doorbell ringer dangles from its wires, and neighbors say the house has been empty for years. The family owns at least six other Hong Kong properties with a combined estimated value of $24.1 million.

At first glance, this seems to be just an informative but not especially interesting piece on the Chinese financial elite.  No major hints of corruption etc

But then!

http://shanghaiist.com/2012/10/30/bloomberg_reporter_received_death_t.php

Leta Hong Fincher (previously), who is married to Bloomberg reporter Mike Forsythe, has revealed on Twitter that their family received death threats after Forsythe's dramatic Xi Jinping expose, which also resulted in Bloomberg being harmonised off the Chinese internet.

Associates of Xi's family apparently did not take kindly to having their assets discussed in the world news.

All of this means this story is far more important than the New York Times' piece on the assets of Wen Jiabao, which they are hilariously trumpeting as the most importance piece of investigative journalism since the Pentagon Papers.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Damn, between this and that guy who ordered the attack on Google I think China may have the most easily butthurt politicians in the world.

[Cain]

It certainly seems to be competing with the USA, Russia and Iran for those honours.

[Cain]

Oh yes

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/11/content_16007713.htm

I like how the guy building the arks has confused the Mayan calendar prophecies with the film 2012, too.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am confused about why people are so willing to believe that the Mayans accurately predicted the end of the world, when they failed to predict the end of their own civilization.

Also, I really hope the world doesn't end on the 21st, because I'm having a dinner party that night.

[Cain]

Because WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS.

Kinda like how the Egyptians could predict the end of the world, but not the battlefield tactics of Alexander the Great.  That sorta thing.

Anyway....

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-fighter-jet-flights-diaoyu-senkaku-islands-2013-1

After repeatedly flying surveillance aircraft into disputed airspace with Japan, and Tokyo scrambling F-15s in response, China's now sending fighters of its own on "routine flights" into the East China Sea.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Because WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS.

Kinda like how the Egyptians could predict the end of the world, but not the battlefield tactics of Alexander the Great.  That sorta thing.

Anyway....

http://www.businessinsider.com/china-fighter-jet-flights-diaoyu-senkaku-islands-2013-1

After repeatedly flying surveillance aircraft into disputed airspace with Japan, and Tokyo scrambling F-15s in response, China's now sending fighters of its own on "routine flights" into the East China Sea.

OK, that REALLY doesn't seem good.

[Cain]

This amuses:

Ironically, the children of army officers seem especially pudgy. The teachers at a senior academy attached to an army base described their bullet-headed charges to me as looking like 'stubby wobbling penises,' and held private competitions as to which student was the most 'sausagey'

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/living-together/james-palmer-chinese-youth/

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This amuses:

Ironically, the children of army officers seem especially pudgy. The teachers at a senior academy attached to an army base described their bullet-headed charges to me as looking like 'stubby wobbling penises,' and held private competitions as to which student was the most 'sausagey'

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/living-together/james-palmer-chinese-youth/

[Aucoq]

This amuses:

Ironically, the children of army officers seem especially pudgy. The teachers at a senior academy attached to an army base described their bullet-headed charges to me as looking like 'stubby wobbling penises,' and held private competitions as to which student was the most 'sausagey'

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/living-together/james-palmer-chinese-youth/

That's great.