The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Air Date: 
June 27, 2012

 

​Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei (C) holds up his phone on speaker as he and journalists listen to the verdict of his court hearing at the courtyard of his studio in Beijing.  

John Batchelor Show  

Wednesday 905P Eastern Time (605P Pacific Time):    Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations University of Pennsylvania, in re: the latest political turmoil in China.  . . . It isn't clear what Bo Xilai did that was wrong.  Further - was it a murder?  Disappearing of dissidents: bloodcurdling threats.  Bo's father was one of the Eight Immortals of the CCP. Recall that Deng Xiaoping was disgraced three times, each time returning, finally to become paramount leader.  If the Party executes Bo, that'll say that it's OK for Party members to kill each other.

Wednesday 920P Eastern Time (620P Pacific Time):  Ai Weiwei, a distinguished and leading dissident in China. Notice from local police: Mr Ai may travel domestically again, but not abroad.  Rights lawyers in China consider this to be very good sign. Police don't have sufficient charges to bring against him. Police never formally charge him; always saying "You're under investigation."  Effort to intimidate. Try to stop all kinds of interview to the West. Inside China,  I may not have any interview in any medium.  "I'm not intimidated."  "Yes,, I'm under some danger, but that doesn't change my beliefs. To exercise one's right is help create a healthier, better society." "Court case: I was under house arrest; they wouldn't let me appear in court. I know some of my supporters went, but not aware of arrest. Some people are suing Chao Yang Tax Bureau. Hundreds of people in front of my house. Gov't dropped tax case in a week because 30,000 people sent my money - 9 million yuan" "Hong Kong is only politically part of China, but I definitely won't be allowed to go there. May go to Shanghai or Guangdong, although I  have no intention of going there. "

Wednesday 935P Eastern Time (635P Pacific Time):  Hotel Mars. David Livingston, The Space Show, and Angie Bukley, Dean & VP Academic Affairs, Intl Space University in Strassourg, in re: Melbourne, Florida,  where DL chaired the International Space University Space & Media panel for the ISU summer session.  Graduate programs in France: MS in Space Studies, MS in Space Management, et al., www.isunet.edu,  where the operating language is English. Was originally founded in the US; first two sessions were at MIT.  All classes conducted in English.  Can apply for 2013 summer session on website. Success of Falcon 9 was an accomplishment; students from everywhere are really up on commercial and private space flight,  understand its importance. American enterprise ethos is exciting people around the world. 

Wednesday 950P Eastern Time (650P Pacific Time):  Abheek Bhattacharya, WSJ, in re:  India's econmy. New boss in finance ministry in Delhi. Mr Mukharjee is criticized in the WSJ; his departure is rather welcome.  India's been slowing down for a while because it hasn't pushed for reforms - Congress Party is largely to blame, but Mukharjee more s: retrogressive tax measure, taking the country back to the 1980s.  Kicked upstairs to ceremonial post of president.  No big-ticket reforms in sight. Easy to deny that thereis a problem.  India's economy is propelled by domestic demand; foreign capital looking for a good place to invest, but this is self-inflicted. India does not have very good data collection. Grew astronomically for the last decade, so any diminution feels like a recession even if it isn't.  Successful: although a lot of easy money from the West, there was also supply at the opposite end. I can't imagine anyone in the US Treasury going as far as Mukharjee did. Wanted a retroactive tax - what wasn't paid five years ago to be collected, which is illegal in hte US, of course.  Also, enacting anti-tax-avoidance policies, to be decided and applied by bureaucrats. Draconian.

 

Wednesday 1005P Eastern  (705P Pacific Time):   Gordon Chang, at WMAL in Washington, D.C., in re: the failure of the Peoples Republic of China, being not even in the top 100 in governance; and no citizen there has been much more abused than Ai Weiwei, with whom we spoke earlier this evening. His English is excellent; he's the son of a high Party leader, an icon in China; is a princeling.  He helped design the 2000 Olympics stadium in Beijing. regime is afraid of Ai Weiwei and doesn't know what to do with him. Of course, if a regime is afraid of a poet and artist, the regime is weak.   Regime has lost its touch of earlier; Ai has always been able to outwit, out-publicize the regime.  Party doesn't understand how ham-fisted it is.  When we in the US have a dispute, we take it to court and stand with the decision. Disputes in China: they sneak, stab in back. 

China has the world's most degraded environment, which doesn't get deducted from the GDP measurement. Note the spectacular 120-million-year-old archaeological field inside a massive vein of coal: archaeologists begging authorities to protect it for a while longer so research can be done, but the headmen and center refuse on economic grounds, have decided to mine the coal, human and planetary history be damned.

Tom Holland, Hong Kong South China Morning Post, writes:  If you factor in natural capital, then China's growth rate plunges  The Chinese economy is big, but a lot smaller than many  think, if the impact of its growth on the country's environment and people is  taken into consideration.   "Ask any 10  Hongkongers where they think China ranks in the economic league table of  different countries, and the chances are that all 10 will give you the same  answer.  'Second,' they will say, 'behind the United States but gaining fast.'"

Wednesday 1020P Eastern (720P Pacific Time):   Mike Davis, Hong Kong University Law School, in re: 15th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover; and the new Chief Executive, and Hu Jintao's visit to Hong Kong. Rule has recently started enforcing laws against illegal structures, incl basement; then it turned out that politicians had them and were highhanded, Then one pol got in trouble incl having an affair with the wrong woman, so a rival - C Y Leung* -won the election for Chief Executive but turned out to have illegal structures of his own in his home.  Under PRC, erosion of political ethos in Hong Kong , as pols are in fact beholden to Beijing.   

*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leung_Chun-ying

Wednesday 1035P Eastern  (735P Pacific Time):  Vikas Bajaj , NYT, in re: Reserve bank holds interest rates steady to fight inflation

Wednesday 1050P Eastern (750P Pacific Time): Joseph Sternberg, Asia Wall Street Journal, in re: Japan and energy imports. Japan's long-term contracts tied LNG price to the price of oil; now, as LNG price has dropped, Japan is stuck with higher prices. China and Japan don't subscribe to buying on the spot market, so they both lose out, having been obliged to buy in to contracts with regulators, [who obviously have  clue how to live inside a free -market world]. Sheltered, uncompetitive, monopolistic systems. Get the regulators out of the business of dictating purchases. High electricity charges are feeding into the cost of Toyotas.  

 

Wednesday 1105P  Eastern (805P Pacific Time):  

Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott and Tim Brown, 1 of 2 

Wednesday 1120P Eastern (820P Pacific Time):  

Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott and Tim Brown, 2 of 2

Wednesday 1135P Eastern  (835P Pacific Time):  Robt Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re: Space and ISS and NASA become the Soviet Union

Wednesday 1150P Eastern  (850P Pacific Time):  Robt Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re: Antarctica not melting; and Sun magnetic twisters

 

Wednesday/Thurs 1205A  Eastern (905 Pacific Time):     Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations University of Pennsylvania, in re: the latest political turmoil in China.  . . . It isn't clear what Bo Xilai did that was wrong.  Further - was it a murder?  Disappearing of dissidents: bloodcurdling threats.  Bo's father was one of the Eight Immortals of the CCP. Recall that Deng Xiaoping was disgraced three times, each time returning, finally to become paramount leader.  If the Party executes Bo, that'll say that it's OK for Party members to kill each other.

Wednesday/Thurs  1220A Eastern (920 Pacific Time):   Ai Weiwei, a distinguished and leading dissident in China. Notice from local police: Mr Ai may travel domestically again, but no t abroad.  Rights lawyers in China consider this to be very god nes. Police don't have sufficient charges to bring against him. Police never formally charge him; always saying "You're under investigation."  Effort to intimidate. Try to stop all kinds of interview to the West. Inside China,  I may not have any interview in any medium.  "I'm not intimidated."  "Yes,, I'm under some danger, but that doesn't change my beliefs. To exercise one's right is help create a healthier, better society." "Court case: I was under house arrest; they wouldn't let me appear in court. I know some of my supporters went, but not aware of arrest. Some people are suing Chao Yang Tax Bureau. Hundreds of people in front of my house. Gov't dropped tax case in a week because 30,000 people sent my money - 9 million yuan" "Hong Kong is only politically part of China, but I definitely won't be allowed to go there. May go to Shanghai or Guangdong, although I  have no intention of going there. "

Wednesday/Thurs  1235A  Eastern (935P Pacific Time):  Hotel Mars. David Livingston, The Space Show, and Angie Bukley, Dean & VP Academic Affairs, Intl Space University in Strassourg, in re: Melbourne, Florida,  where DL chaired the International Space University Space & Media panel for the ISU summer session.  Graduate programs in France: MS of Space Studies, MS of SPace Management, et al., www.isunet.edu,  where the operating language is English. Was originally founded in the US; first two sessions were at MIT.  All classes conducted in English.  Can apply for 2013 summer session on website. Success of Falcon 9 was an accomplishment; students from everywhere are really up on commercial and private space flight,  understand its importance. American enterprise ethos is exciting people around the world. 

Wednesday/Thurs  1250A  Eastern (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt.  Chaim Katz, GazitGlobe & GazitGroup.com, in re: Commercial real estate in Israel.

..  ..  ..  

Music

Hour 1
The Painted Veil by Alexandre Desplat
Starship Troopers by Basil Poledouris

Hour 2
Babylon AD by Atli Orvarsson
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol by Michael Giacchino

Hour 3
The Natural by Randy Newman
Star Trek by Michael Giacchino

Hour 4
The Painted Veil by Alexandre Desplat
Starship Troopers by Basil Poledouris
Antarctica by Vangeli