Photo, above:  Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricket star of stars. See Hour 1, Block D, Tunku Varadarajan, Daily Beast, on cricket.  

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 1, Block A: Toshi Yoshihara, John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies and an affiliate member of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College, in re: ADIZ – air defense identification zone – is a benign practice to ensure safety in airspace that, used by the Chinese Communist Party, is likely to lead swiftly to conflict. China has in the past created dangerous and belligerent situations using the parallel concept on the sea.  As China intrudes again and again, its goal is to wear out its neighbors, esp Japan.  See: cow tongue in the South China Sea. Abe has a shoot order out; does that apply to a UAV?  "We’re in uncharted territory here. China avoids using a fighter aircraft, as that would obviously be provocative, so it uses a UAV."

China eyeing contentious air defense zone in East China Sea   The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is considering setting up an air defense identification zone that would overlap with Japan’s over the East China Sea — a move that is likely to heighten tensions between the countries — according to an internal Chinese military document.

An ADIZ serves as a national defense perimeter that triggers fighter scrambles when foreign aircraft enter the zone without prior notification.  The zones are set up outside national airspace to prevent incursions by suspicious aircraft.

To date, China has not defined an ADIZ. If the country were to establish such a zone, it would be certain to overlap with Japan’s as a major part of the Japanese ADIZ over the East China Sea has been set closer to China than the median line, which lies at an equal distance from the two countries.  The internal document obtained by Kyodo News shows that a Beijing-based senior air force official proposed strengthening the nation’s air defense operations by setting up a Chinese ADIZ, saying neighboring countries “are insisting the validity of marine boundaries disadvantageous to our country.”  The official also argued that . . .

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 1, Block B: Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, in re: the first new political party in decades to be formed around a princeling (here, Bo Xilai). "All these midgets since Mao . . ." (Richard III and the Boswell Field) Bo played at populism.

Founder of new China party aims to work within system  [Party's name": The Supremacy of the Constitution; see 1911 for similar history]  For someone who has just set up a new political party in the face of a de facto ban by a Chinese government that tolerates no dissent, [Mme] Wang Zheng has surprisingly modest aims.

Wang and other supporters of disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai, who has been jailed for corruption, formed the China Zhi Xian Party - literally "the constitution is the supreme authority" party - last week. It named Bo as "chairman for life".  The Communist Party has not allowed any opposition parties to be established since it came to power following the 1949 revolution. So history suggests it will not look kindly on . . .

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 1, Block C: Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show; Paul D. Spudis, Lunar and Planetary Institute,  in re: taikonnauts, Chinese astronauts – lunar rovers are surprisingly similar to the US versions. Also Indian space program. The real problem: US has ceded the field to China and has withdrawn from that part of space; the US will pay dearly for this error.   Launch on 1 December. Rover is battery-powered; lunar night is 14 days long and extremely cold.

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 1, Block D: Tunku Varadarajan, Daily Beast, in re: cricket, and "[Sachin] is the most revered cricketer in India; in fact, it would be entirely accurate to describe him as the most revered contemporary Indian, or even, with only a pinch of hyperbole, the most revered Indian since Mahatma Gandhi held the nation in thrall. Suspend your disbelief and think of him as a cross between Babe Ruth and Martin Luther King." Where the Gods Live On ... and On

Tendulkar Finally Retires from Cricket    A popular Indian historian once remarked to me that India is a country where men don’t age well, and of no one is this observation truer than of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, a man who is, at 40 years and some 200 days, the oldest member of India’s cricket team.  But let me first be complimentary. Mr. Tendulkar, whom everyone calls Sachin, is the most revered cricketer in India; in fact, it would be entirely accurate to describe him as the most revered contemporary Indian, or even, with only a pinch of hyperbole, the most revered Indian since Mahatma Gandhi held the nation in thrall. Suspend your disbelief and think of him as a cross between Babe Ruth and Martin Luther King . . .  

Explanation of cricket: Two sides, one out and one in.  In the course of play (languorous play, five days on end punctuated by lunch and tea; e.g., five-day test match) each player goes from out to in, and eventually each side goes from out or in to in to out.  A century is 100 runs in an innings.

 

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The laws of cricket are a set of rules established by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) which describe the laws of cricket worldwide, to ensure uniformity and fairness. There are currently 42 laws, which outline all aspects of how the game is played from how a team wins a game, how a batsman is dismissed, through to specifications on how the pitch is to be prepared and maintained.

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Hour Two

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 2, Block A: Paul Mooney, veteran journalist on China at Reuters, in re: Reporter denied visa to enter China after being interrogated on Tibet, HH the Dalai Lama, on human rights, on Xinjiang.  In the last three months, 300 activists and rights lawyers have been arrested in China. Note that the US freely gives visas to Chinese Party press yet never offers to help US journos iced out by China. This is China's effort to change the global narrative on China's struggle with liberty. Angry farmers, factory workers, masses who’ve contracted AIDS; the Internet is educating widely, and the govt just lashes out in retaliation. The failure of China to be able to deal with its issues,  and the govt feels empowered and bolder.

Reuters reporter Paul Mooney denied China work visa amid pressure on foreign media  Even as China's leaders gather behind closed doors in Beijing for meetings hoped to usher in a new wave of economic reforms, rising tensions with foreign news organisations and rights activists highlight the government's reluctance to relax controls in the political realm.

In the latest example, China's government has rejected the application of a veteran American journalist to begin his new post with Reuters in Beijing, in a move seen as a form of pressure on foreign news organisations.

The reporter, Paul Mooney, had spent the past 18 years reporting from Beijing, but was kept waiting for 8 months before being told he would not be granted a new resident journalist visa.

While Mr Mooney said Reuters was not provided a reason for the rejection, he said he believed his previous reporting, which included a focus on human rights issues and the plight of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang, was a factor. But he pointed out he had never had problems renewing his visa in the past, and . . .  [more]

tweet: Philip Pan, prominent journo who wrote an excellent book on China, also has been denied a Chinese visa.

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 2, Block B: Charles Burton, Brock University, in re:  Just returned from China where he taught at the Central Party School in Beijing.  Political aspects of the just-concluded Third Plenum: more weasel-words than usually. 

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 2, Block C: Abheek Bhattacharya, WSJ, in re: the biggest determinant of India's stock market now is the US Fed.  Taping Up India's Broken House;  With the Fed's Taper on Hold, India Shores Up Policy; India’s Not-So-Smart Money.   

BYD, China's Tesla (which Warren Buffett invested in with much fanfare), and found that to be a boondoggle (which electric cars are, anyway).

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 2, Block D:  Joseph Sternberg, WSJ Asia editorial board, in re: good savings rates in Asia, but not good bond markets in Asia.  Lots of obstructive regional issues – political and economic. Inefficient investment largely because the Indonesians don’t trust the Malaysians, and so forth; for multiple reasons, not an integrated market such as the US has.   . . .  Europeans finally realized they couldn't go to war with each other, so developed the EU. In Asia, looks rather the opposite. 

Hour Three

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 3, Block A:  Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: ACA failure.   Site security is the arrest warrant.  As it stands, the site is a criminal highway.  Obama White House is paralyzed.  House Dems are preparing talking points to survive till Christmas.  Like a Roman purge, they'll kill the Senators and their lieutenants and their chickens.  Senators offered suicide in order to keep their property intact.  IT voice says that there is no bottom when IT goes into fail.

House homeland security committee hearing today:  Karen Evans and Richard Spires, former IRS and DHS CIO, both witnesses on security of the site.  Karen's testimony not helpful to administration. FISMA.  Sad, Custer's-Last-Stand day.  Miserable PR flack writing.  Why did the IT at CMS and QSSI and CGI deceive the White House?   Fixing a website while it's up and running is like trying to fix your car while it's rolling down the road at 60 mph. 

#ACA      "therefore our testing did not include performance testing at the volume we experienced at launch"     oversight.house.gov/wp-content/upl…

 

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Federal News Radio is currently the front line of news on the ACA and the politics of failure

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Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 3, Block B: James Taranto, WSJ, in re: The Carter Administration
Shop till you drop (your insurance carrier). 

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 3, Block C: Kori Schake, Hoover & Shadow Government (Foreign Policy), in re:  Hagel's Priorities

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 3, Block D:   Anatoly Zak, RussianSpaceWeb, in re: Two killed in space centre accident at Russia's Plesetsk military ...   Mass turtle deaths puzzle scientists ... Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev looks at a missile's engineat the Plesetsk military space centre  Two Plesetsk Cosmodrome Employees Die in Work Accident According to reports from the RIA Novosti news agency and Russian Space Web, it would appear that two workers died at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia on Saturday, November 9. Three of their colleagues were also injured in the work accident, and were rushed to the hospital. 

The deaths occurred as the team was conducting routine work cleaning out a propellant tank. Apparently, all of them were exposed to poisonous nitrogen vapors while they were readying the container for a refill. Emergency crews arrived on the scene too late for two of the workers.

Hour Four

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 4, Block A: July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin (1 of 4)

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 4, Block B: July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin (2 of 4)     

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 4, Block C: July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin (3 of 4)

Wednesday  13 November  2013/ Hour 4, Block D: July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin (4 of 4)

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Music

Hour 1:  Shaolin. Prometheus. Rush.

Hour 2:  Dark Knight Rises.  House of Flying Daggers.

Hour 3:  Copper.  The Grey.

Hour 4:  The Pacific.