Gary Locke to Resign

[griz326]

 

...ahhhh, but now the Chinese get my former Senator, Max "the drunk" Baucus.

 

>>>He single-handedly made AQI known to ordinary Chinese people

 

Really? The Chinese people I've known were very much aware of the poor air and water quality long, long ago.

 

The ABC / banana thing, not knowing how to speak Chinese, and being a Dali Lama fan surely caused discord and could easily have been considered another insult to the Chinese government and the Chinese people by people like my brother-in-law. The newspaper's op-ed was uncharacteristically harsh for the China News Service.

 

My first time to China was on a diplomatic mission (I wasn't one of the diplomats, but the Deng govt extended privilege to all of us). I was shocked and saddened by the ignorance of Chinese culture demonstrated by the liaison office entourage. While it is true, a representative of our government, is just that, sending an empty suit quite the insult. ...although sometimes they succeed luckily.

 

As for Max, I'm not sure he has actually lived in Montana for the last dozen or so years... As he said in that YouTube video, he's "no expert on China." At least he knows it. Maybe he'll read Henry Kissinger's "On China" and "World Order" which comes out this fall. He might also read a couple of Kissinger articles, such as: The future of US-Chinese Relations; conflict is a choice, not a necessity and Avoiding a US-China Cold War.

 

I've met several POTUS', countless senators & congressmen, governors, and an assortment of bureaucrats. Kissinger stands alone as the most brilliant and gracious of the bunch. In the two hours he gave me, I tried to pick a fight, but he bobbed and weaved in ways that would have made Ali say "Wow," yet he never insulted me or made me feel small (I later did that to myself).

 

So, I guess my point is that we haven't done nearly as good a job with China as we might have done. I'll be surprised if Max improves our batting average, but maybe he'll surprise me.

 

I hope so. We need to make China more than just a business partner. The global turn of events that we're seeing have the potential to become ugly and remaining on good terms is important.

[Randy W]

. . .

 

>>>He single-handedly made AQI known to ordinary Chinese people

 

Really? The Chinese people I've known were very much aware of the poor air and water quality long, long ago.

 

. . .

 

 

 

 

Yes - those who realized that it wasn't simply "haze", as they were told. What IS new, thanks to Gary Locke, is measurability, the availability of PM2.5 readings for many Chinese cities - they had previously denied the significance of these readings - and the acknowledgement that it is a problem.

[Multistrada]

Many posts are now circulating on Weixin circles about the potential harm PM2.5 might do - going straight to your lungs and then the blood circulation, killing off macrophages and clogging up capillaries. This is by far a deeper understanding of China's environmental problems than most ordinary Chinese people realized before Locke's arrival. Now so-called “PM2.5 masks" are in the supermarkets, 3M made a fortune with their N95 masks, and Vogmask has achieved significant market penetration in Tier 1 cities. Dealing with the smog problem is on the top agenda at the People's Congress this week.

 

I'm working with another Silicon Valley entrepreneur to make a version of PM2.5 mask that's a bit easier to breath through. Having to live here for at least another year with my family, I'm doing myself a favor, if nothing else.