| From: | Sommers sommers@*****.edu |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Second Hand |
| Date: | Fri, 03 Sep 1999 11:47:54 -0400 |
>At 14.54 09-03-99 +0200, you wrote:
> >getting a City-map in which all chinese embassys are marked with DONT BOMB
> >THAT ONE
>
> Offically, it was an accident.
Yup. And it looks like it was at least 3 different groups in the government
that screwed up.
> One that occured within two months of a ChiCom sponsered spies
> being found
>(in theory) at a nuclear lab, the reniging on the part of the Chinese on a
>mionr promise about the treatment of "thought prisoners", a nasty little
>game around Taiwan, a threat to Taiwan, the start of trade talks, a failure
>to crack down on copyright pirates as they had promised at the last trade
>talks, and other problems.
Lots of problems with China right now. Part of their problem is Money.
Their economy is slowing down, its estimated that about 40% of their banks
are technically insolvent, 40% of wages are tied up in low interest savings
accounts, and the government is starting to run up big debts trying to kick
start domestic spending.
Add on to that the worry of top leaders that economic downturn might lead
to social revolt, the thought that there might be 2 Chinas after all, and a
perceived problem that they are not being treated as the world power they
believe themselves to be, and the leadership is not happy.
They're letting it show.
> If that reallywas an "oops", you'll be able to knock me over with a
>fether, becuase I will be quite physcially stunned. No one who can talk
>off the record beleives it was an accident. It was a message. "Don't ****
>with US."
I would be incredibly stunned if it was anything BUT an accident. It was a
message to China that we screwed up because we didn't have good intel. If
it was anything else but, Clinton wouldn't have spent weeks grovelling to
them for forgiveness. If anything, it weakened our position with them,
because we were seen as losing a lot of face in the strike. Great PR value
for the Chinese.
If you are the US president and you want to send a clear message to a
country, you park a small fleet in the Straits of Taiwan to conduct
"Excercises" with Taiwan. You tell Congress that under the current
leadership you do not believe that China should be admitted to GATT. You
even threaten to revoke MFN status.
You don't pull a complete cluster**** like the embassy hit.
>Kevin Dole, aka CyberRaven, aka IronRaven, aka Steel Tengu
>http://members.xoom.com/iron_raven/
>"Once again, we have spat in the face of Death and his second cousin,
>Dismemberment."
>"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in
>your philosophy."
Trying to come back On Topic to SR, how about screw-ups in running? Not
that everything went FUBAR, but there was some clerical error. Mr. Johnson
wants all of the material in locker 3-B at that Ares place up the street.
Problem is, it was supposed to be locker 3-D, but his boss screwed up the
handwriting. Or when they're renovating the local Novatech R&D to the best
defenses, some guy accidentally deletes part of the blueprints and a small
wall in the underground garage leads right into the place.
And I keep thinking how many runs have the potential to go just like "Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels."
Sommers
Insert witty quote here.
