Just in the past week or so ….

China executes a British citizen for carrying a suitcase of drugs for someone else, ignoring all pleas for clemency and the likelihood that he was probably mentally ill and didn’t understand what he was doing.  This is a man who was running a minicab service in the UK and moved to Poland to start his own airline.  A man who claimed he spoke with the angel Gabriel and who recorded a single that he said would bring about world peace.  The Chinese authorities refused all requests to have psychiatrists conduct a full examination of his mental capabilities.  When British Prime Minister Brown issued a strongly worded statement about the execution, China responded by saying, “Nobody has the right to speak ill of China’s judicial sovereignty.”  Uh, China, actually, yeah, everyone in the world has the right to speak ill of China’s judicial sovereignty, except perhaps if they live in China.  It’s this little thing called “freedom of speech.”

Hey, over in Shanghai, they renovated a bridge over Suzhou Creek.  The piers of the crossing were supposed to be solid concrete.  Area residents complained that they saw huge holes in the piers but the contractor said, oh no, those are just “decorative features.”  Turns out they didn’t stuff those piers with concrete, they used rubbish and foam from nearby landfills.  You make a little extra profit that way.  All those buildings that collapsed in Sichuan killing thousands in the earthquake?  That new Shanghai apartment building that just fell over one day?  Not gonna happen to this bridge, I’m sure.

A national audit in China has concluded that in the first 11 months of the year, government officials “misused or embezzled” approximately US$35 BILLION.   “Auditors said government officials engaged in everything from money laundering and issuing fraudulent loans to cheating the government through the sale or purchase of state land or mining rights.”

Oh, wait, my China visa expires today.  Gotta get to CTS to renew it before the next immigration lockdown.  I’m sure they don’t read my blog but just in case, forget everything I just wrote.

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