The “Gong” Show
A few Late Edition thoughts on today’s events at the White House. I spent most of the day configuring “The Terminator”, my new Dell desktop, so I was unable to provide much fresh commentary. I also had a few technical problems with the site, but thanks to my man Matt Rand I am back in action.
I am trying as hard as I can to keep this blog free of political commentary. After all, we’re here to learn about global investing in a new world in which politics ought to matter less than before. Besides, plenty of other blogs do a great job of covering this stuff and I have no interest in competing with them.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the truly bizarre events this morning and I feel compelled to chime in before I call it a night.
The only reason I even paid attention to Chinese President Hu Jintao’s arrival at the White House was because CNBC insisted on covering every minute of it. The red carpet, the military band, the 21-gun salute, the meticulously choreographed handshake, the whole shebang.
As a business journalist, I thought it was a strange use of airtime on a rather heavy earnings reporting day to devote so much time to a silly photo-op. CNN? Fine–cover it all day long if you like. But CNBC’s audience ought to have better things to do–research perhaps? Actual analysis of something? Portfolios to manage maybe?
Sadly, now that the NCAA basketball tournament and The Masters are over, Wall Street traders and analysts don’t have anything better to watch until the NFL draft at the end of the month. Fortunately, we got some excitement from a falun gong heckler. Maybe it was worth covering after all!
Talk about mixed emotions. I was at first filled with joy that somebody in the crowd had the courage to speak up and interrupt the pomp and circumstance with a frank reminder of what China’s government is really about.
On the other hand, I was ashamed that none of the Americans present had the guts to raise an eyebrow, let alone a ruckus. Are we so brain-dead here that we now need falun gong to teach us how to protest? Where’s Michael Moore and his camera crew when we really need them?
This was all cute and mildly amusing, but when I heard that President Bush apologized for the incident, I almost threw the television out the window. The Leader of the Free World apologizing to a communist for an act of free speech on the very soil of the White House lawn? Yikes. We are in VERY BIG trouble.
Seeking solace, I turned to my well-thumbed copy of The New Chinese Empire by noted China scholar Ross Terrill. If you are the least bit interested in China, I urge you to run out and get this book. Forget all those other junk business titles on China sitting next to the Harry Potter books on the best-seller table. Terrill’s book is a couple years old, but an absolute must-read.
Every line in the book is quotable, but some just leaped off the page today.
“…a Chinese leader’s smile and business suit cannot hide the fact that he comes to the conference with no popular mandate behind him.”
Or…
“The central point was that the mightiest state bureaucracy on earth was afraid of the elderly Buddhists [falun gong] with their rhythmical exercises and their apocalyptic visions…The Fearful State gave the world a glimpse of its soft underbelly of self-doubt.”
Or…
“Americans, in facing China, must figure out whether they are dealing with a tottering dinosaur or an ingenious blend of tradition and modernity.”
I fear that we may be dealing with the former, but my money is betting on the latter. I hope that I can have my cake and eat it too.
