In a fit of serendipitous geopolitical comic timing, Boing Boing may have unwittingly hit upon the best metaphor for how the world views China at times like this. Beijing is flexing its rhetorical muscles with Japan and, on a possibly unrelated front, putting fear in the balance sheets of high-tech and clean tech companies by limiting its exports of rare earth metals, a resource that China virtually monopolizes, at least until other countries start producing more some years from now.
It remains unclear at this writing whether China has linked the issue of Japan’s detained Chinese fishing captain and rare earth metal exports, as The New York Times asserts in a report that has been disputed by several other outlets, including Reuters and The Wall Street Journal. More thoughts on this below, but in the continuing spirit of not taking ourselves too seriously until the world actually does end, I present to you the panda that no one should mess with:
This piece is a couple of months old; I included it especially for the video. I needed a good laugh after the elections.
(Embedding for this video has been diabled, however, you can go to YouTube and watch it here:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X21mJh6j9i4&feature=player_embedded
A great chuckle, worth the time to take a look. wdb
The joke here should not be taken too far, of course. But the metaphor one could choose to take away from it — that other nations and foreign companies are afraid to rile China and will cave in anytime China gets angry, and that China is willing to throw a tantrum to get its way — is too tempting for this China watcher to ignore. Especially since it (perhaps barely) justifies me posting it on my blog.
Read more at Forbes
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