Stuart Beaton is back, guest blogging about the latest in China. I’m excited to talk to Stuart next week and will post that interview as soon as it’s ready, or perhaps the following week because I’m going to Montreal on Wednesday for a long weekend with my sisters-in-law. Stuart’s wonderful author podcast site can be found at http://rastous.podomatic.com. And now here’s Stu:
As anti-Japanese sentiment reaches new, even more rabid heights here in China, it’s heartwarming to see just how seriously some fairly major players are taking it.
With calls for the re-integration of Okinawa with China still ringing fresh in my ears, imagine my surprise when I saw this, parked not five hundred yards from my front door:
Yes, folks, your eyes do not deceive you…
It’s a PLA owned Mitsubishi Pajero.
And just in case you want a closer look:
There.
So, why is it that the PLA don’t care what they drive around in (and trust me, the guy who got out of the backseat of this wasn’t some “grunt”, either), but some people are having their skulls fractured for the sin of driving an old, white Toyota Corolla?
Well, cast your mind back a couple of weeks ago, to an earlier article here, in which I spoke of unemployment being high. It hasn’t gotten any lower recently, but no one cares…
In the buildup to the November hand over of power, the CCP is desperate to fan the flames with this little island dog and pony show, to distract people from the bigger issues.
But if they were serious about it, and I mean really serious about it, don’t you think that they’d manufacture their own people carriers here in China?
It’s not like there aren’t loads of guys looking for something to do for a crust.
Leave a Reply