A Good Walk Spoiled in Anji County

This article leaves me scratching my head. Am I supposed to be indignant on behalf of the owners of a golf course whose fairways were bulldozed by the government for technical legal violations? Or should I be shocked, shocked!, at the behavior of local officials who have uprooted local farmers in order to create an attraction for tourists and wealthy folk from Shanghai?

I think I'm coming down to saying that China needs a real legal system. Right now, there may be laws on the books, but enforcement is arbitrary and corruption is rife. That means that when we see laws enforced against one of China's 600 or so illegal golf courses, it's about politics, and it doesn't create a legal regime in which companies and individuals know what's expected of them.

The wild west lives, in the old Far East.

U.S. Companies Booming in China

Daniel Gross's article notes that such American brands as Citigroup, General Motors, and KFC (formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken) have been doing more business in China, at the same time as they have been losing business in the United States. Is the tail wagging the dog, or China becoming the big dog of the global economy?

I was moved to post this article partly because of the recent visit of a friend of my daughter's, a young woman who spent three years working in China. Lauren contends that press reports about China are usually incorrect and unfavorable. I don't think this piece falls into that category.

The Economist's "Pick of the Pile" - 3

Here is the Third section of the Economist’s best of 2008.

History

The Return of History and the End of Dreams. By Robert Kagan. Knopf; 128 pages; $19.95. Atlantic Books; ₤12.99.

A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World. By William J. Bernstein. Atlantic Monthly Press; 467 pages; $30. Atlantic Books; ₤22.

Freedom for the Thought that We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment. By Anthony Lewis. Basic Books; 240 pages; $25 and ₤14.99.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. By Richard Holmes. Harper Press; 380 pages; ₤20.

Masters and Commanders: How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke Won the War in the West. By Andrew Roberts. Allen Lane; 720 pages; ₤25.

Out of Mao’s Shadow: the Struggle for the Soul of a New China. By Philip P. Pan. Simon & Schuster; 368 pages; $38. Picador; ₤14.99.

Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present. By Jonathan Fenby. Ecco Books; 816 pages; $34.95.

The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919. By Mark Thompson. Faber & Faber; 464 pages; ₤25.

The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum. By Sarah Wise. The Bodley Head; 240 pages; ₤20.

Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Centre of the World. By Roger Crowley. Random House; 368 pages; $30. Faber & Faber; ₤20.

American Rifle: A Biography. By Alexander Rose. Delacorte Press; 512 pages; $30.