- Real change: CSIS experts have some interesting observations about Burma following their recent visit. (Thanks Milton.)
- Chris Kenny is right. The \'super trawler\' decision sends a dreadful message to foreign businesses looking to invest in Australia.
- ChinaFile, a new online magazine from the Asia Society.
- Australian Joint Strike Fighter critics who say the jet is not good enough have long had a problem: there\'s nothing better available. Now Mitt Romney has handed these critics a lifeline.
- Papua\'s many problems are being exacerbated by some unusual local electoral practices, leading to contested provincial elections.
- Sinostand on Xi Jinping\'s mysterious absence:
For nearly the entirety of the CCP’s rule, it’s projected the image of an all-powerful monolith that’s not to be f***ed with. Refusing to acknowledge that top leaders are encumbered by personal lives or bodily functions like the rest of us is part of this image. This probably explains the instinctive suppression of what could be no more than a back injury....
...I’m reminded of the scene in Wizard of Oz where Dorothy and her pals are confronted by the enormous “great and powerful Oz.” But they eventually discover that it’s just a weak man pulling levers as he pathetically implores the gang to “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” When you peak behind the CCP curtain, it’s full of scared and vulnerable people, wondering what badly-needed moves toward transparency will mean for them and the way they’ve lived their lives.
![](\"http://sinostand.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/great_and_powerful_oz2.jpg\"){kind=link}