Free Republic

... The misunderstanding has historical, cultural and political roots but fundamentally it can be attributed to the universalist, Manichean (good vs evil) worldview of what Brown refers to as the Enlightenment West – and the projection of that attitude onto a civilization that doesn’t share the same history. “The distinctiveness of the intellectual and cultural history of inhabitants of the space now occupied by the People’s Republic of China is undeniable,” Brown writes. “In terms of language, modes of governance, economic behavior, and fundamental view about how the world operates and how society should be shaped, the Chinese tradition is...

One of the unfortunate vestiges of liberalism's lingering influence upon American conservatism, and by extension the Republican Party that is conservatism's default political vehicle, is the pervasive knee-jerk tendency to view government action as per se bad and private-sector action as per se good. This ideology, which might be called "market fundamentalism" or "private-sector fundamentalism," takes on differing forms: in its more benign variation, a principled commitment to unwavering laissez faire, but in its more malignant variation, a less principled commitment to corporate boosterism and outright cronyism. The realignment now unfolding before our eyes in American politics could finally retire...

Harper Government 'concerned' about Chinese espionage CTV.ca News Staff The federal government is "concerned" that Chinese spies are stealing Canada's industrial and high-technology secrets, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay told CTV. "We're very concerned about economic espionage," MacKay said in an interview with CTV's Question Period, to be broadcast Sunday on CTV at 12 p.m. ET. While in opposition, the Conservatives challenged the Liberal-led government to act on reports of Chinese espionage. While acting as the Conservative foreign affairs critic, Stockwell Day called on former prime minister Paul Martin to address the issue during a visit to Beijing in January...