For full text of Chronicle see
http://www.wednesday-night.com/Wed1197.asp
The evening opened with a CBC Commentary from former Wednesday Nighter and Concordia professor Jon Baggaley, now Professor of Educational Technology at Athabasca University. Jon points out that the Tsuanmi coverage with which we were blanketed for a month has disappeared except from specialized sites. [quote user="The Great Divide:Talking back to power" http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/12/30/international/20041231_CHINA_FEATURE.html ,a recent series in the New York Times, documents the vast gap between the urban rich, concentrated in the South and the rural poor.
For many centuries, the Chinese have been the world’s traders, and Chinese communism is more about who can harness the fruits of classic Chinese capitalism than it is about philosophical ideals. Some argue that we should not purchase goods made in China because of the near slave wages paid to Chinese factory employees, See: http://www.iapm.ca/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=388&z=22
There is some uneasiness about China purchasing foreign resource sector businesses. China is flush with foreign currency and in the anticipation of the revaluation of the Yuan, it seems the prudent way for them to act now.
Surprisingly to many, China has been moving to reduce polluting air emissions, moving from fossil fuels as an energy source to hydroelectric and nuclear energy http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/08/content_422949.html
The Three Gorges dam http://www.wednesday-night.com/ThreeGorges.asp has, however proved to be a mixed blessing, even more so than hydroelectric dams in other parts of the globe.
(cont'd in Part B)

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