The emergence of China as an economic superpower

What bad luck China has experienced over the past month and a half. No, I'm not talking about Edison Chen. I'm talking about the massive snowstorms, the sporadic terrorism, and influenza. In case you haven't heard, millions of migrant workers couldn't go back home in time for Chinese New Year because of a surprise snowstorm (global warming). Then just last week, a man who had a bomb strapped to his chest boarded a bus full of Australian tourists. And perhaps in lesser popularized news, China Southern Airlines CZ6901, flying from Xinjiang to Beijing, underwent a hijack attempt by Uyghur rebels. Just yesterday, Hong Kong was under siege by yet another outbreak of influenza, leaving 3 children dead, primary schools/kindergartens under emergency recess, and angry parents. Not a good start for China in 2008.

Nevertheless, life has to go on. More importantly, the Olympics has to go on. The way I see it, foreign media was right about one thing: that every NGO in China will take this chance to speak up and defy Chinese human rights abuse in light of the Olympics. Now, will the Uyghurs and Tibetans please stand up? Funny thing is, Beijing has a "bring it on" attitude at the moment. Perhaps terrorism shouldn't be encouraged--just wait until the Opening Ceremony.

Last January, Chinese authorities raided a suspected compound in Xinjiang and, as they said, foiled terrorist plots against the Olympics. With this eventful month's terrorist count, I'd say that Beijing raised their "Mission Accomplished" banner to quickly. Not to remind Beijing that they are veterans of bad luck, one might warn Beijing not to be "complacent" like Singapore in its Tora Bora moment for the last two weeks. Now all we can do is put our hands together and hope for the best.