3 Things China would handle differently from the US

Private Manning, Snowden, and the Keystone Pipeline

In the United States these three topics are all the rage.   Lot’s of controversy.  One man’s hero is another man’s villain.   In this age of town hall meetings, incessant analysis, press overkill, mindless blogs(!)and cheap talk, it’s always nice to just sit back, and with a bemused look on one’s face,  wonder what  “Grandpa Xi” would do?

Private Manning-

Well, my feelings are only slightly conflicted here.   A fellow Okie.  A handsome, young fellow that should really have never been in the Army.  Product of yet another sad childhood, it’s safe to say he is a huge embarrassment to my State.    Never mind all those confusing charges.   If this was the 60’s, it’s proper to think Manning would have been executed.    However, Manning was not found guilty of aiding the enemy.  How’s that?  I guess we’d have to be at war with a major power for that to stick.   But don’t tell me all those secret diplomatic cables he sent out was fair game-it wasn’t.  Governments need to have the ability to talk about each other freely without the other guy knowing about it.   I’m at a loss as to why some people think it’s ok to let the other guy know what you’re doing, and saying about him?

Releasing video of a chopper attack gone wrong.  I’d let him slide here.  It was a coverup no question. 

China’s response:

Manning would have been interrogated as to who were the recipients of all his documentation.   It’s safe to say his hair would’ve been tussled up a little.  He’d be guilty until proven innocent, and the assumption would be that he had sold all the information.    The trial would be closed.  Maybe he would’ve had a lawyer.  There would be no press present.   They’d assume he was part of a larger ring.  His family would be put under surveillance, if not house arrest.   His superior would lose his job.   Than Manning would be either executed or face life in prison. 

We should not gloss over the fact though that Manning was found innocent of the most serious charge.  The Military had the balls to acquit him.   Think this is gonna happen in Russia or China?   Manning had a fair enough trial, and should be lucky he wasn’t shot.   Until someone is shot though, this sort of thing will continue to happen. 

Mr. Snowden:

Well, this guy has done A LOT to get people riled up.  He’s revealed a lot of SECRET stuff, that the US govt isn’t at all pleased with.    He’s obviously broken the law.  I find he brings out the extreme in people.  Either we want and accept surveillance as the price for preventing future terrorist acts on US soil, or even somewhere else, or we’re willing to take our chances.  

I agree the USA is walking a fine line here.  Right now, my feeling is I’ve nothing to worry abt, unless I’m a guy looking up how to build fertilizer bombs online.   Or I’m constantly travelling to Pakistan.   I just don’t care if the NSA knows who I’m talking to.  I simply have more pressing things to worry about.  This morning for instance was my daughters first day of school, and we missed the damn bus.   Now I understand they’ve changed bus numbers from last year, and I’m a bit worried my 7 yr old will get on the wrong bus, coming home.  

Than you have the other extreme;  we don’t want America becoming like Big Brother(read the book!!!!), and we don’t want the NSA spying on ANYONE within our country.  PERIOD!  I agree we are rapidly approaching the edge of the envelope as relates to govt intrusion.   But I think this is old news.   As one can see with the Boston bombings, it’s not that we don’t have enough info already, but that we aren’t smart enough to figure out what is to be ignored and what is to be acted upon. 

China:  this guy is a traitor pure and simple and would be executed rather quickly.   But one needs to ask:  if China had a Snowden, and this fellow fled to America, or the West, would they give him back to China?   Of course not!    I’m still startled when people actually compare the surveillance regime in America with that in China.  Is anyone actually under house arrest in the USA?  Is Twitter banned?  Youtube?  Do I really need a VPN in America?    These people not happy with the surveillance in America simply need to go live abroad in China for a year and gain some perspective.    Yes, I understand we should not compare the freedoms within our society to other certain nations when creating policy.

Does China pore over the phone records of China Mobile?  I doubt it has the capability.   Still, if the USA continues on it’s current path of domestic information gathering, there is no question that say within 10-20 years(that long?), the line will be crossed.   And that’s the difference between me and some on the other side.  They say it’s already been crossed. 

Keystone Pipeline

China is the runaway train of unregulated growth.  http://mychinakanfa.blogspot.com/2013/04/grin-and-bear-it.html

Things will get much, much worse before the very slow turn to a better environment within China takes place.  And there is nothing we can do about it.   China will take any global pressure to reduce it’s CO2 footprint as American pressure to “be more like us”.     This is where China’s perceived victimization comes into play.  China’s history of perceived Western slights will be avenged via environmental destruction.    Call it a form of “nationalistic therapy”.  China is just too big, unwieldy, and quite frankly ungovernable, to be the light of environmental enlightenment we’d like it to be.   Like a lunatic on crack with a power saw in the forest, all we can do is get out of the way and hope he spares a tree or two.

 CO2 emissions in America are very rapidly decreasing, in large part to fracking.   China is in the process of trying to learn how to do this as well.  US oil companies are not very willing partners(give them enough rope and they will hand themselves, right?)   Right now it is all the rage to comment in partial envy, half amazement at how quickly things get done in China.  How quickly bridges get built(and collapse).   Well ok than, authoritarianism does have it’s procedural advantages. 

The Keystone Pipeline in America is supposed to provide a lot of jobs.  However, Obama revealed recently that he doesn’t think that’s the case.   A pipeline traversing the North -South continental USA, supplemented by the inevitable spills and pipeline repair is just too big an environmental deal for him.  Never mind the USA already has more than it’s fair share of pipeline already, and more than enough natural gas that’s its ready to export itself.

The pipeline has shown itself to be more of a boon for Canada.  It now seems most of the oil and gas freed up from fracking will be exported via America rather than domestically consumed. 

(anti pipeline link below)

http://www.tarsandsaction.org/spread-the-word/key-facts-keystone-xl/

 Canada has also threatened to just build a pipeline itself to the Pacific while America dawdles and sell it all to China.  Methinks that will be easier to talk about than do, however.    It’s not just those pesky, liberal Americans that don’t want the pipeline either.

I don’t see Obama approving the pipeline until at least late 2014, if at all.  He’s already shown his cards.

What would China do: 

China wouldn’t have hearings, and sure wouldn’t have any published independent analysis available for the public to read, and digest.  China would have already had the pipeline built.   Safety?   China would say “Trust Me”.

“ We need the oil, Man.  We’ll simply clean up any mess we make(and not publish that either).     We have 5 times America’s population, and all the energy demand that comes with it.  China is still a poor, developing country, and between you and me, poking the West in the eye makes me want to build it all the more“.    

China just built a 1700 mile gas pipeline that originated in Burma.  Do you think they’d have any qualms about building another  1200 mile pipeline?

As construction is the prime mover behind corruption in China, this hidden lobby would for sure push for a pipeline to be built.