Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? 370
theodp writes to mention a C|Net article about Chinese President Hu Jintao's historic first visit to the U.S.. The catch is that his first dinner won't be at the White House. It will be at Bill Gates' manse. From the article: "The approximately 100-person guest list is a who's who of the U.S. Pacific Northwest power elite, including Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire, said event organizers. The guests will undergo strict security checks before entering Gates' lodge-style, 66,000-square-foot home overlooking Lake Washington with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout. Gates and Gregoire are expected to introduce and welcome Hu, who will then offer a toast in front of the gathering."
More pressure to move to Red Flag Linux? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Pirated Windows easy to spot... (Score:1, Interesting)
Birds of a feather .... (Score:3, Interesting)
Security? (Score:3, Interesting)
geek pres (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:friendlier to who? (Score:2, Interesting)
The more China opens up, the more hope there is for the rule of law to replace the rule of guanxi (what we in the West would perceive as corruption), so long as people on both sides of the border keep pushing for free speech and open politics.
buddies (Score:2, Interesting)
Ladies and Gentlemen... (Score:5, Interesting)
Clever (Score:5, Interesting)
Honestly, I'm really not sure how many times since Western style diplomacy became the Gold standard internationally that something like this has happened. For a foreign head of state to visit a country and not visit at least someone in the government first is highly, highly irregular. This isn't so much a tech story, I think, as a political one.
Re:Clever (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps China realizes this. Why meet with Bush when you know trade policy is going to be in the hands of the American tycoons? Heck, we probably wouldn't go to war unless it somehow served the interests of America's business power elite.
I'm not saying this is exactly how it is with America's politics, but it sure as heck seems that way. And if it's true, China is snubbing Bush because they simply want to talk to who's really in charge.
Re:geek pres (Score:5, Interesting)
>Did you know Hu Jintao got his degree in hydraulic engineering? Why can't we
>have an engineer presient?
Because we elect ours. Sad but true.
Umm, India is the world's largest democracy and has a rocket scientist and engineer for a President [wikipedia.org] and an economist/professor of economics for a Prime Minister [wikipedia.org].
Your point?
Nordic-style welfare capitalism? (Score:3, Interesting)
PhD and Taiwan politics (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact, I ran into a guy from Taiwan in my postgrad class. He was doing his PhD in electrical engineering at the time. I wondered why he made the decision because I knew he did not really enjoy engineering even for his masters. He told me that he had a strong interest in politics and had helped out the election campaign in the last Taiwan president election. His mentor suggested that the shortcut to enter politics was to get a PhD (any PhD preferrably in USA). This still gives crediblity to many people.
In the past (pre 20 century), educated man in China means proficient in literature, history and poetry. But, after the shock from interacting with the West, people started to worship "technology" (esp in mainland China). It is not a surprise to see engineer president, even if there is a real election in China today.
Re:Clever (Score:4, Interesting)
Bush is the crowning achievement of the anti-intellectualism movement in America, couldn't imagine doing something good for another human being, but rather would lie and thieve his way to his own and his frieds' personal benefit at the expense of everyone else.
Fault Gates as you will for his business practices (although they're tame compared to Balmer and nearly every other CEO or ex CEO in business), but I know which of the two I'd rather spend time with.
Re:China isn't reall communist (Score:2, Interesting)
I can't believe that this post was modded insightful. This is not true at all. The capitalist (if you can call you that) movement in China started well before Tiananmen.
Deng Xiaoping [wikipedia.org] saw a distinction between socialism as a political system and socialism as an economic system. He knew that socialism as an economic system was not feasible and went about reforming the Chinese economy. Because of the reforms that he started, China started on the track that has turned them into an economic giant today.
This definitely has nothing to do with Tiananmen. That whole thing sucked, but it has had extremely little impact on Chinese economic (or even social) policy.