The Strident Centrist Blog

James Fallows, frequent contributor to The Atlantic and all-around public intellectual, is currently living in Beijing from where he is keeping the rest of us abreast of the preparation for the forthcoming Summer Olympics. Two issues are getting his attention in particular. One is the atmospheric environment in the city which he addresses with a running series of photos taken out of his window. Here’s his most recent, posted without comment beyond the time, date and location.

He’s also been keeping track of the Chinese government’s messing with the internet, the technology of which he is far more familiar with than most users with his range of interests. In recent weeks he’s been passing along accounts of the obvious ham-handedness of government security organs’ in their attempts to disguise their blocking efforts while seeming to meet the internet-related expectations of the visitors expected for the events. Today he passes along some suggestions from an ethnic Chinese person who is now a naturalized Western citizen: (more…)

McClatchy reports that the pessimists’ fears of the environmental consequences of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze were not unfounded. Water quality has gone to hell upstream, and the swifter flow downstream is unfriendly to the sediment-adapted fish species who’ve been there for untold millenia.

But authorities now admit that the dam is generating major problems. It’s created a huge — and heavy — reservoir pressing against the mountains along the Yangtze, making them more prone to landslides. The deep reservoir stretches upriver about 370 miles, impeding the natural flushing action of the river and trapping pesticides, fertilizer and raw sewage. Downriver from the dam, water flows cleaner and faster, adversely affecting aquatic species adapted to sediment in the river.