Andy did you hear about this one?
"China quietly observes Mao anniversary; Leaders visit body as reforms backed" by Gillian Wong | Associated Press, December 27, 2013
BEIJING — China’s leaders bowed three times before a statue of Mao Zedong on the 120th anniversary of his birth Thursday in carefully controlled celebrations that also sought to acknowledge the market-style reforms he would have opposed.
The approach underscores the delicate balancing act the Communist Party leadership — installed last year — has to perform in managing perceptions of Mao’s legacy.
It's called ma$$ media and propaganda pre$$.
As heirs of the authoritarian one-party political system imposed by Mao and his party comrades, the current leadership has a strong interest in venerating his memory in a bid to bolster their own legitimacy.
We call it the War Party over here.
But they have also pledged to undertake market reforms needed to rejuvenate a slowing economy, measures that would have been anathema to Mao.
President Xi Jinping and other top leaders paid tribute to the founder of the communist state with a visit to his mausoleum on Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The leaders ‘‘revered’’ Mao’s embalmed body, which lies in state in the mausoleum, and ‘‘jointly recalled the glorious achievements of comrade Mao Zedong,’’ Xinhua reported.
In a sign of the relatively understated approach the party is taking with the anniversary, there was no mention of Mao’s birthday on the front page of the party’s People’s Daily.
On page seven, though, the paper hailed Mao as a brilliant ‘‘proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist,’’ in a full-page commentary. It was, however, accompanied by an editorial that said the ‘‘best commemoration’’ of Mao would be to keep advancing economic reforms launched by his successor.
Censors appeared to be busy scrubbing criticism of Mao off social media sites, with messages that questioned his legacy disappearing within minutes of being posted. But the views of liberal commentators and intellectuals were still circulating widely on a popular smartphone messaging app, WeChat.
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"Chinese rover on the moon’s surface; Vehicle’s launch begins its year of lunar scanning" Associated Press, December 16, 2013
BEIJING — China’s military-backed space program has made methodical progress in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States and Russia in technology and experience.
NASA was the same thing, but you know.
China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the United States to achieve manned space travel independently. In 2006, it sent its first probe to the moon.
China plans to open a space station around 2020 and send an astronaut to the moon after that....
China’s space program is an enormous source of pride for the country....
As it should be. I wish we still had one, but all our tax loot needs to feed the war machine and subsidize Israel.
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Related:
"China, much richer and stronger, aspires to become a globally respected power, and the government sees a major presence in space as a key to acquiring technological prowess, military strength, and status. Chinese media celebrated the landing as a demonstration of the country’s growing scientific stature."
Just as ours would, 'murkn! How appropriate that China is on their way up and we are on our way down.
Also see:
Astronauts make ISS repairs
NASA delays next spacewalk by a day
Second spacewalk could complete station repair
45 years later, man’s 1st orbit of moon is relived
Astronauts successful in cooling system fix
Fly Me To the Moon
I'm starting to really believe we never went there as the Chinese seem to confirm the opposite. Who in the world would blow the whistle on the lie though?
