July 27, 2008: China has allowed thousands of foreign journalists into the country for the August Olympics, but is having the police keep a close watch on those who speak Chinese, or show an interest in non-Olympic matters (like Chinese politics, military bases or anything considered embarrassing.)

The unrest in Tibet has not gone away. China is still limiting tourist visas to Tibet and troops still surround several large monasteries, in effect keeping about a thousand of the most troublesome monks under house arrest. The only things that get in are food and some medicine. No one can leave. China wants to insure that there is no more unrest until the end of August, when the Olympics in Beijing are over.

China believes Islamic terrorists are making a major effort to carry out attacks at the Beijing Olympic games. So far this year, over 80 Chinese Moslems (Turkic Uighurs from the far west) have been arrested and charged with plotting to make such attacks. Recently, two were convicted of such charges, condemned to death and promptly executed. Fifteen more were sentenced to prison.

China now has more Internet users (253 million, about 19 percent of the population) than the United States (220 million, about 70 percent), and that scares the hell out of the Chinese government. The number of Chinese Internet users increased fifty percent in the last year, and continues to grow at a rapid clip. The government has a large bureaucracy manning the "Golden Wall" (AKA "The Great Firewall of China") operation that monitors Internet use. Those who say things the government doesn't like are punished (prison, loss of job, police harassment, or whatever works). But the Golden Wall is leaky, and the truth tends to get out, and about.

The U.S. has refused to sell Taiwan 66 F-16 fighters, but says that it has not stopped selling weapons to Taiwan. It's just that each proposed sale must be evaluated individually, and the F-16 sale was not considered essential to the defense of Taiwan. It's believed that the U.S. did this to repay China for help in getting North Korea to destroy its nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, the U.S. has reassured Taiwan that American military support will continue to be available to stop any Chinese military move on Taiwan.

July 21, 2008: In southern China, bombs went off in two busses, killing two people and wounding many others. Islamic terrorists took credit, but police suggested  this was all about criminals trying to extort money from the bus companies. There has been a lot more unrest in southern China this year, mostly large (over 10,000 people) demonstrations against corruption or police misconduct. Thousands of people have been killed, wounded or arrested. The media is discouraged from covering these events, but the widespread availability of cell phones and Internet users makes news of these events impossible to contain.

July 11, 2008: China vetoed a UN attempt to sanction the murderous government of Zimbabwe. China has also blocked UN attempts to get Sudan to stop attacking and killing the civilian population of western Sudan (Darfur). China also tried to stop the International Criminal Court from issuing an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan (now charged with crimes against humanity). Russia has sided with China on all this. Both Russia and China oppose UN interference in domestic affairs, even if it involves democide (a government murdering its own people on a large scale). Russia and China, given their bloody histories, apparently fear they could be subjected to such UN interference down the road. Thus the right of a government to freely slaughter its own citizens must be protected. Many nations in the UN support these freedoms, fearing that the UN will turn into a world government run by people local politicians don't agree with.