How to make China even richer - Let the peasants

How to make China even richer - Let the peasants own their land
"(...) Even so, China's Communist Party has shown that it will take big risks if economic development demands them. Hence the widespread closure and privatisation of state-owned enterprises in the past decade, with the loss of millions of jobs. The leadership knows that China's history has been one of recurring bloody upheavals by landless peasants; it is caught between wanting to retain control and wanting to avoid another upheaval. This is the moment to complete the unfinished business of rural reform." - LINK

SURVEY: CHINA - Coming out
China hopes to use the 2008 Olympics in Beijing to mark its emergence on the world stage. But, says James Miles, it still has plenty of things to fix at home
"(...) But rapid economic growth cannot be expected to last forever, and the party is acutely aware that, apart from its ability to deliver wealth to some, it lacks a strong legitimising force. Conscious of the country's volatile history, it is especially alarmed by the growing unrest among a rural population (still the majority) that has benefited far less from China's economic rise than have many urban residents. It was after all, a peasant rebellion that helped the communists to power. And although it is safe to rule out another such revolution, rural discontent is nevertheless a big political challenge for Mr Hu." - LINK

How to go global - A quiet revolution is occurring in what America expects of its friends
"GEORGE BUSH may be consumed at home defending his policies in Iraq against the 60% of Americans who now disagree with his handling of the war. But Europeans hoping that the hard lessons being learned daily in Baghdad and Ramadi (see article) would force the administration to adopt a more collegial foreign policy are at last starting to see results. Why, then, are some of them fretting that the transatlantic alliance is about to drift farther apart? (...)" - LINK

The battle of ideas - Public intellectuals are thriving in the United States
"(...) Europe is showing signs of catching on. There may be a big difference between the current hot debate in France—should you give people jobs for life immediately or should you wait for two years—and Mr Murray's vision of killing the welfare state. But Europeans will have no choice but to debate tough questions, about everything from the birth rate to their addiction to regulation. A growing number of Europeans are seeking inspiration in American-style think-tanks (which are spreading across the continent) and in American-style thinkers (Irwin Stelzer, the neo-conservative movement's ambassador to Britain, has already presented an inscribed copy of “In Our Hands” to Gordon Brown). Swift's projectors may soon be flourishing in Europe once again—although this time with an American accent." - LINK

The scientific method - Computing the future
The practice of science may be undergoing yet another revolution
"WHAT makes a scientific revolution? Thomas Kuhn famously described it as a “paradigm shift”—the change that takes place when one idea is overtaken by another, usually through the replacement over time of the generation of scientists who adhered to an old idea with another that cleaves to a new one. These revolutions can be triggered by technological breakthroughs, such as the construction of the first telescope (which overthrew the Aristotelian idea that heavenly bodies are perfect and unchanging) and by conceptual breakthroughs such as the invention of calculus (which allowed the laws of motion to be formulated) (...)" - LINK

Murder is certain - Three years after America invaded, Iraq is as violent as ever
"(...) Neither success nor failure is certain, but any improvement will be slow. On a toilet-wall in an American airbase in western Iraq, an American soldier has scrawled his own summary analysis: “We came, we saw, we wasted a year of our lives. At least we got the fuckers to vote.” - LINK