The ethnic Uiyghur/Han riots in Xinjiang and China's ugly diplomatic business with Australia have produced a quick spate of China-as-the-dragon opinion columns: When China rules the world, From Magic Dragon to Menacing Bully, Chinese Nationalism Begets Chinese Racism.
On the other had, actually, China is falling apart: Cultural fault lines jolt China, The Riots in Xinjiang: Is China Fraying?, China is now an empire in denial.
Whichever, as two tourists, we were visa'ed up and ticketed to China, including Urumqi, location of the deadly riots. We would be leaving tomorrow. That was plan A. Plan B is still under development.
But our decision to miss the 22 July total solar eclipse in Szechuan came even before the riots. It was based on China's high-handed, xenophobic swine flu response. As we would have gotten on the plane tomorrow, I thought I'd check to see if arrivals are still subject to quarantine-by-government-fiat. A sampling of news articles from the last four days:
Swine flu fears derail couple's vacation
China's ill-considered response to the H1N1 virus
TOURISM CATCHES THE FLU
Woman in illness scare tells of ‘horrible’ ordeal in China
Yup. Still happening.
But meanwhile, on that unfortunate little deadly riot matter, not to worry: According to Xinhua today,
Peaceful and harmonious life resumes in Xinjiang.
I bet.
(See photography from China in the China Gallery at Earthphotos.com.)
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