China's Prime Minister Bows Out

Wen Jiabao has entered his final year in the office of Prime Minister of China. As he recounts his past years in office, Jiabao warned in a two-hour speech to the National People's Congress of the new problems that China will be facing. He struggled to prove to the people of China that he had changed China for the better since the beginning of his term, so coming to terms with Jiabao's warnings will prove to be difficult for the Chinese people. Jiabao's position will be passed down to his deputy, Li Keqiang, and the presidential position will be passed to the current vice-president, Xi Jinping.

As Jiabao delivered his final state of the union address to the Chinese people and the NPC on March 5th, Jiabao took a moment to talk about the progress that his five-year term as a leading member of the Politburo has helped China. After his speech, the Chinese people discussed the progress that Jiabao and Jintao have made in China. Jintao has worked toward becoming an everyday man of the people. He has looked toward working for the Chinese people, by traveling all across China to gain a better understanding of the way the everyday Chinese man lives. In this effort, Jiabao has believed that building a "harmonious society" in China is the central goal. However, the Chinese people believe that Jiabao's pledge to create a harmonious China has actually not been working over the years. Though China's growth rates have been expanding by double digits compared to any other country in the world, only part of China's population is experiencing the wealth. The gap between the rich and the poor of Chinese society only continues to expand and unrest among the disadvantaged continues to grow. The article showed the number of dissenting people is slowing expanding in China, to a point where the people have become uneasy about their living standards and their economic statuses. They are concerned about the growing gap and this has led to less confidence in the government of China.

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/21549991

China Urges Peace

With the developing threat of the Syrian crisis, China has been urging for a peaceful solution to end the violence in Syria. China has recently stated that they do not want armed intervention to bring the Syrian crisis to a violent end. China wants to be able to negotiate peaceful treaties to end the crisis. China plans on keeping peaceful negotiations by maintaining relationships with the Syrian government and the Arab League.

All of this negotiations and planning for dealing with the Syrian crisis have been lead by the United Nations. The United Nations Security Council recently put up a resolution to have a crackdown on the proptests in Syria. However, China and Russia have vetoed the resolution. China's goal in all of this is to not support the current Syrian government, as that would create even more issues with the protesters. China wants to control the furthering of any violence in Syria because armed intervention did not work well in Libya. To begin the process of peaceful negotiations, China wants to increase political dialogue and support of both sides of the argument. China is seeking to gain the help of other countries in this effort, by pushing for peace between Palestine and Israel.

Source: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-02/25/content_14690756.htm

Trade Relations Between China and Turkey

In a recent article from the China Daily News, we can understand that the trade cooperations between China and Turkey have progressed exponentially after a meeting between the Chinese vice president, Xi Jinping, and Turkish president, Abdullah Gul. According to Xi Jinping, we can expect that trade relations between the two countries will become more connected, as it is beneficial to both countries.

Turkey has been playing a large role in trying to maintain stability and course for development between foreign countries; this has led to Turkey playing a "vital role in global and regional affairs." The two countries, China and Turkey, will not only cooperate in trade relations, but also in combating terrorism around the world and safeguarding world peace.

There will, of course, be inevitable frictions between the two countries due to their statuses as two of the fastest growing economies of the world, growing competition between the two, and an overall economic slowdown across the globe. However, despite these frictions, the benefits that China will experience due to expansion of trade are also beneficial to Turkey. Strategically, the cooperation between the two countries will create a co-dependent or symbiotic system, where both countries can reap the benefits of their efforts (linkage in cooperation).

Source: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-02/22/content_14662629.htm

Wen Jiabao Stresses Reform for China

The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, says that he will continue to push for reform in China despite the problems that reform is currently facing. The premier believes that the only way for China to overcome its difficulties is to implement open reforms. His plans for managing this reform requires that China allow for self-governance of the rural administrations (such as with direct elections of village-level leadership and the need to ensure the voting rights of farmers). Wen wants local affairs to be dealt by the local governments, and in order to implement this, he seeks implementation of a strict legal system along with regulations for the elections. The strictness of these elections will allow for elections to become more transparent and allow for less corruption in leadership. The premier has placed focus on the rural governments because of the lack of reforms and building of corruption in those areas.

Reform is easier said than done. China has had trouble over the years in controlling the local/rural governments from electing or being taken over by poor leadership. The rural governments and their governing areas have faced many problems, mainly with the expropriation of farmland. "Land grabs" have occurred, in which companies have illegally (with authorization) taken farmland for their use. This has caused mass protests in China. Reform, of course, can control this issue, by ensuring the rights of the landowners and farmers. Reform will help protect from the illegal transfer of land by placing strict rules in place. This sort of reform will begin from the local governments to build a democratic form of government in China. Trying to set this system in place will be a major burden on the government, despite the Chinese Premier's strong belief in the program. Reforms cannot protect against rampant corruption within the Chinese government. However, these reforms will be a major advantage for the common man against the wealthy companies building on their lands. Farmers and small landowners will be able to protect their lands from illegal seizure. The government will also be able to organize the allocation of land by setting up separate sectors for spending within the local expenditures, as the article provided that China could allocate funding for "improving soil fertility of suburban land."

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-02/05/c_131392403.htm

Senior Year

Senior Year has thus far been extremely stressful--with all the college applications, homework, scholarships, etc. I think everyone expected that Senior Year would be much easier at least by this time. Honestly though, I don't think I've really enjoyed Senior Year, but I think that will soon change especially once we hit March. I feel like March will be a major turning point for all seniors because then we're suddenly going to be on the fast track to Graduation. So, I guess I just have to make through the rough patch of Senior year, so I can get to the fun stuff. After February though, I think we can all be glad that we'll be graduating soon! March represents field trips, finishing up lessons so we can just get to the easy review period, finding out about scholarships and colleges. April is the major decision time where we'll get all our college information and have a break from school (Spring Break!) and then Prom time comes around. By May, AP exams will end within the first couple of weeks and we'll get our senior final exams done with! Then it's easy coasting till the end.
I wouldn't change anything about Senior Year thus far though because I know that we'll get a chance to have our fun soon enough!

Huntsman Drops Out

Political Cartoonist: Nate Beeler

This political cartoon has one clear feature that I found particularly interesting which was the fact that Huntsman was "dropping out" of the competition literally, but in a high class, flashy way. This feature seeks to show that Huntsman proved himself and left as an equally good model candidate. Huntsman left as an honest candidate who still wants to fight Obama, but from backstage rather than front and center, which is why he chose to endorse Romney as the key candidate to win the election. The quote said by the media "now that's how you end a campaign!" goes to say that Huntsman left the campaign, but managed to turn the tables. Unlike other candidates, Huntsman chose to endorse a candidate whose views are far from his own--Mitt Romney. This decision on Huntsman's part will definitely give Romney an extra cushion of votes, especially after the rough showing in South Carolina.

The cartoonist clearly has an admiration for Jon Huntsman because he was not satirizing or ridiculing the way that Huntsman dropped out of the campaign. Huntsman left the GOP campaign honorably after a long but good run for nomination. The cartoonist admires the fact that Huntsman chose to leave as a good sport, who continued to endorse his opponents, mainly Mitt Romney. Hunstman is all for helping his opponents on the GOP side to fight back against Obama. Huntsman proved in his declaration of withdrawl that despite his differences with Romney; he knows that Romney will be the best candidate to reap the GOP some rewards (possibly even the presidency).

Who will win the GOP nomination?

There have been a lot of ups and downs so far in the race for GOP nomination, but one candidate has seemed to maintain solid ground: Mitt Romney. Romney has the best chance of winning the GOP nomination because the candidates he's running up against all have some sort of major flaw that seems to keep them from winning enough votes.

Romney has always been a front runner for the GOP nomination because of his speech-making abilities and his abilities in gaining the votes of Republicans and Democrats alike. Romney is the best candidate for the win because: he doesn't freak out democrats/independents because he isn't steadfast in conservative beliefs like Bachmann was or Perry is. For this, Romney would be a fantastic candidate for the Republicans in the upcoming general election. His moderate views can gain him more votes from independents in the general election, giving him a greater chance of winning the presidency.

Rick Perry doesn't have a chance of winning the GOP nomination because of his current status as a "nutcase" (after the drinking incident at a GOP debate) and his strong conservative will. Perry doesn't want to sway to any moderate ideals, which will definitely hurt the Republicans in the general election. Perry's crusade against gay marriage and for school prayer will not help him gain the votes of the growing independents in America.

Newt Gingrich showed real promise these past couple of weeks as he had pulled through from nothing to a person who people know of. Gingrich seems to have a lot of ideas of what he will do with the presidency, but Americans aren't very trusting of the man who has brought a lot of political baggage with him. Independents and moderates have not seen Gingrich as a real candidate thus far.

Rick Santorum has entered the picture again, but not as a really promising candidate. He was pretty low in the ranks for the GOP nomination, until the Iowa caucus. Santorum had spent much of his time in Iowa, spreading his views on how he will change if he is chosen as president, which seemed to pay off as Santorum "surprised" everyone by having a hefty number of votes at the Iowa caucus. Though his victory is short lived because Santorum lacks diversity in his views, he wants to turn back to traditional views of "don't ask, don't tell" and anti-birth control laws. Santorum is a very conservative candidate, which will most definitely hurt him in the run for GOP nomination.

Ron Paul has proved to be a really good competition for Romney in the upcoming election. Paul has some moderate ideas that have/will most definitely appeal to younger candidates (like myself). The only issue with Paul is his old age, which could be a deciding factor for whether voters will choose him. Paul has a fairly good shot at winning though because most Republican voters prefer more conservative views (Paul) compared to the moderate-swaying views of Romney. Romney has stressed that his views are moderate, whereas Paul has managed to sneak in moderate views along with conservative ones.

I think that Romney definitely has the best chance at winning the election, but only time will tell whether he can hold on to his central position.