Photo, above:  Rohingya people banished from their homes by violent Buddhists. See Hour 2, Block C, Jason Szep, SE Asian bureau chief for Reuters, in Bangkok, on the Buddhist Rakhine state in Burma, mass killings of Rohingya people, an impoverished Muslim people in Western Burma, the poorest of its seven states; were once a proud kingdom and now under siege.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts; Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, and Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show, in re:

Hour One

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 1, Block A: Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, in re:   Maoism back in conversation with the fifth-generation of leadership. Everyone thought that when Mao died in 1976, leadership would turn their backs on Mao's policies, for which 70 million Chinese people.   Today, articles saying that disagreement with Mao will lead to social instability.  Maoism is the third rail of Chinese politics.    The Hundred Flowers Movement – people expected to speak out; govt expected praise, got blame, all the critics were arrested; 500K to a million people died or suffered greatly. To say "no one died" is way beyond credibility.   The Party was based on Maoism; many people haven' seen that Mao was bad because much information has still been kept secret.  Under Mao, although there was conflict, there were not ht huge inequalities of wealth and massive corruption of today; some people look back on that with nostalgia. Xi gave a secret speech saying that if the Party distances itself from Mao [founder and presiding genius till the Seventies], it’ll fail. Using Mao as a buttress for the Party.  Gorbachov: "There is no Soviet Union without Lenin."

White House released 100 pages of email documents on Benghazi and Amb Rice's remarks the following Sunday. Lots of arguments among CIA, WH, FBI and NSC.  The AP dragnet.  Conflict between Taiwan and the Philippines.  Humanitarian crisis in Burma with the Rohingya.

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'Not a single person' persecuted in the Anti-Rightist Movement, says vice director of CASS  Tuesday, 14 May, 2013; News›China; by Amy Li      China’s intellectuals, scholars and bloggers were outraged on Tuesday after Li Shenming, a vice director at the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), claimed that “not a single person" was persecuted during the infamous Anti-Rightist Movement launched by Mao Zedong in 1957.  The remark appeared in an article entitled, “Appropriately evaluating the periods before and after China’s reform and opening-up”. It was published in the Party theory journal Seeking Truth. In a lengthy essay, the former secretary to Wang Zhen, one of China's revolutionary commanders who was well-known for his hard-line political views before his death in 1993, enthusiastically defended Mao Zedong’s leadership and economic and political “accomplishments”. Li also blasted the "unbalanced media reporting" on Mao's movement. He wrote, “In the 1957 Anti-Rightist Movement, 550,000 were labelled as rightists, but not a single person was persecuted. However, the [movement] was described as a bloody one by media controlled by international capital.” The remark was greeted by thousands of angry comments from both scholars and grass-roots bloggers.

The Anti-Rightist Movement, which lasted from 1957 to 1959, consisted of campaigns to purge alleged rightists within the Communist Party both in China and abroad. The term "rightists" was largely used to refer to intellectuals accused of favouring capitalism over collectivisation.  Although controversy surrounds the actual number, many believe hundreds of thousands were persecuted or tortured to death during the movement. “There are two kinds of people in CASS, those who pretend to be stupid and those who are,” wrote a blogger. "Stop lying," wrote many others. "What do you receive for spreading such lies?"

Frank Dikotter, Chair Professor of Humanities at Hong Kong University, told the South China Morning Post that in his forthcoming book, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-1957, he estimates the number of people persecuted during the Anti-Rightist Movement to be at least 550,000 and possibly more than 650,000.

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 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 1, Block B:  Kelley Currie, Senior Fellow with the Project 2049 Institute, in re: President Thein Sein will make a state visit to the US in the near future, the first such trip in 47 years, according to reports.   What Burma wants in normalization of relations w the US and brought in from the cold. For the US, what kind of standards will we apply to the regime that comes after the military junta there. Burma is now growing well by current Western ec standards, but health, education, and GDP are all sub-Saharan. Have natural resources squandered by decades of corrupt and incompetent management.  Washington has much personalized relations; biggest boosters are the US business community (hosting a large dinner for him after he meets the president.  How about the Rohingya – "ethnic cleansing" -  being pushed out of Burma into squalid camps, much racism. Also armed attacks by military on other ethnic minorities. Nasty stuff.  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has aligned her self with the head of the Parliament in order to create constitutional amendments to make the country more democratic Has urged he administration to be more careful; they listen only when it’s convenient for them.

Burmese state television announced on Monday that Barack Obama had issued an invitation to the president. No exact date was announced.  The last Burmese leader to visit the White House was the dictator Ne Win in 1966.  The US has been a prime mover in urging Thein Sein to introduce reforms after five decades of repressive military rule that ended when he became an elected head of state in 2011. [more]

Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 1, Block C: . William Harwood, CBS News space consultant based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida [see this], & Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show, in re: the ISS ammonia leak, the space walk to repair it & maintaining complex systems with limited backups, which is what we're doing with the ISS.

Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 1, Block D:  Julian Baum, a freelance journalist and former correspondent in Asia, in re: Taiwan recalled its top diplomat in Manila and announced that it was no longer accepting applications for Filipino workers, after the Philippine Coast Guard killed a fisherman last week.  /   The Philippines offered a high-level apology Wednesday in an attempt to salvage relations with Taiwan after its coast guard killed a fisherman, but Taipei rejected the bid and announced a series of economic sanctions including suspension of economically critical migrant labor. Philippine media said President Benigno Aquino III had expressed “deep regret” over the shooting on Thursday, according to local media and Taiwanese officials. But Taiwan rejected the apology as lacking sincerity. 

Taiwan followed up by announcing Wednesday that it would suspend economic dialogue with the Philippines and recommend citizens avoid traveling there. Earlier in the day it had suspended migrant labor and recalled its top diplomat in Manila.  “This statement is one that we totally cannot accept,” Taiwan Premier Jiang Yi-huah told a news conference in Taipei after the apology was offered. “The Philippines apologized on one hand but on the other emphasized that it wasn’t an intentional act.” Continued tension with the Philippines, which is just 250 kilometers (160 miles) to the south, could weaken one link in a loose alliance of US Pacific Rim allies that includes Taipei, Manila, Seoul, and Tokyo.  In the short term, Manila had particularly hoped to sustain migrant labor, which now keeps 88,000 Filipinos employed in Taiwan and contributes to remittances that made up 9 percent of the Philippine economy in 2011, political analysts say. [more]

GC: Sounds as though two weak states have got into a spitting match, are pandering to their own home national constituencies, and can’t get out of the fight.

Julian Baum: Right; there is a sense of hierarchy; Filipinos' work is highly valued; as are the remittances from Filipino workers back home.  . . .   Taiwan needs to avoid empowering Mainland China in such a dispute; this also alarms Washington.  Discord among two US friends stands to benefit PRC the most – which immediately criticized Manila and sided with Taipei.

The first Taiwanese-Filipino War? 

Rural Upstarts Move In on Colonial Lackeys   Sambuddha Mitra Mustafi is an independent journalist. Follow him on Twitter @some_buddha

Hour Two

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 2, Block A:  Mike Davis, professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, in re: the screening of candidates in Hong Kong. XI speaks of economic control, but looks to increasing Party control.  The success of China rests on the success of Hong Kong – can he risk alienating HK?  Hmm – he thinks he can alienate the US, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam – a colossal overreach, so he probably thinks he can afford to alienate Hong Kong.

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Screening is not the way to 'love China, love Hong Kong'  Tuesday, 16 April, 2013, News›Hong Kong  LETTER OF THE LAW  by Michael Davis 

      Inciting Beijing's patrons to bar defenders of   autonomy from office is in no one's interests  Hong Kong appears on the verge of a constitutional   crisis, launched when chairman of the National People's   Congress Law Committee Qiao Xiaoyang proclaimed that   candidates for chief executive in the promised universal   suffrage must "love the country, love Hong Kong" and   must not "confront the central government". He suggested   screening candidates.  Qiao's criteria are widely interpreted as aiming to bar   members of Hong Kong's pan-democratic camp from   running for chief executive. Backing him up, Basic Law   Committee member Maria Tam Wai-chu has even argued   that universal suffrage does not include the right to run for   office.  Basic Law Article 45 provides that the ultimate aim   is "selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage   upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating   committee in accordance with democratic procedures".  The International Covenant on Civil and Political   Rights (ICCPR), incorporated in Basic Law Article 39,   guarantees "universal and equal suffrage" and the "right and   opportunity … without unreasonable restrictions to vote and   to be elected".  Basic Law Article 26 further guarantees "the right to vote and   the right to stand for election".  The government has sought to sidestep these requirements   by citing a colonial British reservation to ICCPR electoral   requirements. The United Nations Human Rights Committee   has long held this reservation no longer applies.  Additional Basic Law requirements are implicated. The right   to confront government is a basic human right implicit in free   speech. Disqualifying someone from office for advocating   democratic reform would be a clear violation. Even Deng   Xiaoping, in 1984, acknowledged that being a patriot did not   require one to be "in favour of China's socialist system".  If, as Qiao argues, the Nominating Committee will select   candidates by committee majority vote, then the pandemocrats will surely insist that the Nominating Committee   be broadly representative, a standard the current Election   Committee fails. The alternative to avoid improper vetting is   the historically used low-nomination threshold.  Pan-democrats have no reason to support an electoral   model that excludes popular choice and violates democratic   principles. A nominee who embraced such a model would   lack credibility to govern.  The most fundamental constitutional commitment of local   officials under an autonomy regime, in addition to the dual   loyalty Beijing so values, is the obligation to defend local   autonomy.  Hongkongers' confidence must surely be shaken by the   spectacle of Beijing's supporters constantly undermining   autonomy by challenging democratic development and   advocating the referral of multiple issues to Beijing.  Encouraging mainland political patrons to turn those who   defend Hong Kong's autonomy into outlaws barred from   political office hardly serves the interest of Hong Kong or   China.  Professor Michael Davis, of the University of Hong   Kong, is a constitutional law specialist.  Screening is not the way   to ‘love China, love Hong   Kong’  Inciting Beijing’s patrons to bar defenders of   autonomy from office is in no one’s interests  SCMP April 16, 2013  MICHAEL DAVIS  Hong Kong appears on the verge of a constitutional   crisis, launched when chairman of the National People’s   Congress Law Committee Qiao Xiaoyang  proclaimed that   candidates for chief executive in the promised universal suffrage must   “love the country, love Hong Kong” and must not “confront the central   government”. He suggested screening candidates.   Qiao’s criteria are widely interpreted as aiming to bar   members of Hong Kong’s pan-democratic camp from   running for chief executive. Backing him up, Basic   Law Committee member Maria Tam Wai-chu has even   argued that universal suffrage does not include the right   to run for office.  Basic Law Article 45 provides that the ultimate aim is   “selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage   upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating   committee in accordance with democratic procedures”.  The International Covenant on Civil and Political   Rights (ICCPR), incorporated in Basic Law Article 39,   guarantees “universal and equal suffrage” and the “right   and opportunity … without unreasonable restrictions to   vote and to be elected”.  Basic Law Article 26 further guarantees “the right to   vote and the right to stand for election”.  The government has sought to sidestep these   requirements by citing a colonial British reservation   to ICCPR electoral requirements. The United Nations   Human Rights Committee has long held this reservation   no longer applies.  Additional Basic Law requirements are implicated.   The right to confront government is a basic human   right implicit in free speech. Disqualifying someone   from office for advocating democratic reform would   be a clear violation. Even Deng Xiaoping, in 1984,   acknowledged that being a patriot did not require one to   be “in favour of China’s socialist system”.  If, as Qiao argues, the Nominating Committee will   select candidates by committee majority vote, then the   pan-democrats will surely insist that the Nominating   Committee be broadly representative, a standard the   current Election Committee fails. The alternative to   avoid improper vetting is the historically used low-nomination threshold.  Pan-democrats have no reason to support an electoral   model that excludes popular choice and violates   democratic principles. A nominee who embraced such a   model would lack credibility to govern.  The most fundamental constitutional commitment of   local officials under an autonomy regime, in addition to   the dual loyalty Beijing so values, is the obligation to defend local autonomy.  Hongkongers’ confidence must surely be shaken   by the spectacle of Beijing’s supporters constantly   undermining autonomy by challenging democratic   development and advocating referral of multiple issues   to Beijing.  Encouraging mainland political patrons to turn those   who defend Hong Kong’s autonomy into outlaws barred   from political office hardly serves the interest of Hong   Kong or China.  Professor Michael Davis, of the University of Hong Kong, is a constitutional law specialist.

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 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 2, Block B:  Naomi Rovnick, FT, Hong Kong, in re: Big Reforms on the Way for China's Economy?  As Beijing prepares for a major political meeting, its leaders are thought to be planning the country's most significant economic changes since 1978. [more]

Xi and reform??  The most important thing in to maintain Party rule.  Xi can do small amts of financial reform, having fallen out of the good graces of the world's investors. Wants to make investment a bit more attractive; also might see a gradual shift from govt-controlled investment, as now we have a dangerous credit-fuelled issue, which is creating ever less GDP than it used to. Recognition that services and private investment contribute more Problem: to have a consumer economy, people need to have more confidence; now have a one-child policy plus four grandparents to support. Like Wen Jia-bao, who talked a lot but accomplished naught in the way of reforms.  PRC is crony-capitalists: all the families are financially interested in the current system, change is a long way off.    The banks are rotten, whole system is nontransparent.  If the reform is abut PR, nothing'll happen. Lax financial reporting may rear its head and collapse the system. Xi's words about cleaning up have had an effect on the behavior of the PRC elite: diminution of expensive real-estate purchases and expensive banquets.

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 2, Block C:  .Jason Szep, SE Asian bureau chief for Reuters, in Bangkok, in re: in the Buddhist Rakhine state in Burma, mass killings of Rohingya people, an impoverished Muslim people in Western Burma, the poorest of its seven states; were once a proud kingdom and now under siege. Muslims in the same area, in Bangladesh, have been violently attacking the Rohingya, forcing them out of their homes, often on to frail boats and rafts, where they drown.   Mainstream Burmese society feels that he Muslims in that section are illegal immigrant; Rohingya fiercely contest this, having been there for many generations. Daw Suu has always been a strong voice in favor of persecuted persons; today, she has to be alert to her constituency, has focussed on parliamentary reforms.  Bangladeshis authorities have also fired upon Rohingya, who in effect have become stateless. They speak a dialect that's derivative of Bengali, have a complexion that looks more South Asian.  But there are 135 different ethnic groups in Burma. Last year in June, mobs rampaged, whole Rohingya neighborhoods were destroyed so they moved to a shantytown; then Buddhist mobs organized by Rakhine state also attacked, thereafter, everything destroyed, 85,000 moved into camps outside of Sittwe [pron: sit-weh] town, the rest scattered. Tents, bamboo huts; fear that monsoon strong winds and storm surges

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 2, Block D:  Joseph Sternberg, WSJ Asia editorial board, in re: the garment industry is so unprofitable that no short-term solution is liable to be favorable.  Careful owners explain that there margins are so narrow that if the workers get any increase the businesses may closet Operating costs may  be improvable (regulatory angle).  See complete cost breakdown in WSJ, Rabanna Huck.

Hour Three

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 3, Block A:  Rep Devin Nunes (CA-21), in re: The IRS dragnet included ht gallery of the House of Representatives: issue of the separation of powers between Executive and Legislative. The press there is reporting on the Legislative, who've been spied on by the Executive.  All we know now is that the Executive has the phone records [pen register]; they'd know if an AP reporter called my landline or cell phone.  When the Executive encroaches on the Legislative . . .  this is almost unprecedented, separation of powers is enshrined in the Constitution. A gigantic detail.

Larry Johnson, NoQuarter, in re: a hundred pages of e-mail documents. State and CIA took out the name "al Qaeda" out of reports on the attack in Benghazi – the political judgment of State with John Brennan, of Natl Security Council.  Start at CIA, then through the intell community; but with Brennan and his lackeys. As it progresses, NSC brings in State, which says "We can't have Congress know all this 'cause they'll say al Q was involved, and that looks bad for us." It’s only at the very end that they invented the story of the video. Who inserted the video – State, NSC, or Susan Rice at he UN – or are there more documents we haven’t see? [much more; pls go to segment]  "We know that al Qaeda elements were involved" was clear in the intell report; State and NSC purged the document of this necessary information. Jay Carney's façade has completely crumbled, exposed as a complete, utter fabrication.  This "side show" is very well documented.

Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 3, Block B:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re:  A Taiwanese sailor is dead; a major dispute occurs between Taiwan and he Philippines; Many Filipino immigrant workers have long been well received in Taiwan, but no longer may even apply to work there. These two states need each other; death of fisherman is tragic, but Taiwan must establish links with other states.  Pres Ma has been strongly sympathetic to Beijing; is he mimicking Beijing's bully tactics?  The Kuomintang is in a hurry to improve its low popularity ratings.  East Asia is dangerous – bldg up militaries, and many people simply want war. An unexpected event cd caused a conflagration – this is 1914 all over again. Neo-Maoism in the PRC: an academic from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences – very prestigious – has just written that no one died under Maoism, whereas 70 million people did die.  

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 3, Block C:  Peter Berkowitz,   , in re: Ed Fuelner, Heritage foundation report & immigration reform.

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 3, Block D:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re; Kepler has died.

Hour Four

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 4, Block A:  Steve Moore, WSJ, in re: IRS; Milhous Obama Obama administration letting out Benghazi info too little too late. 

Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 4, Block B:  Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re:

Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 4, Block C:  Boris Borisovich Volodarsky, LSE and observer of Russian intelligence activity, in re: the buffoon US spy just ejected from Moscow

 Wednesday  15 May 2013/ Hour 4, Block D:   LouAnn Hammond, Drivingthenation.com, in re: Tesla and electric vehicles

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Music

Hour 1:  Inception, Painted Veil; Hero

Hour 2:  Painted Veil; Season of the Witch

Hour 3:  Metal Gear 4; Battleship

Hour 4:  Hero; Battleship;