With the Olympics in full gear things are happening at rapid fire speed in China. Rather than track new things occurring, then, Dongcha thought it might be appropriate to give updates on a few topics from the last few weeks.

First, the Uyghurs. Homemade explosives killed 11 in hotels, supermarkets and government offices in the town of Kuqa. A few days earlier 35-year-old Mehmet Dursun Uygurturkoglu set himself on fire in front of the Chinese Embassy in Turkey, as part of a protest.

It seems, from reading what little is available on the Uyghur movement, that their thinking is the same as that of the Tibetans–if you want the world to really notice and take action, the time is now (when all eyes are on China for the Olympics) or never. Unfortunately, it may be the case that a redress within China to their plight, combined with a lack attention outside China, is fostering extremist elements in the once-passive Uyghur autonomy movement. China certainly won’t forget these slaps in the face, either, so things are likely to only get worse from here in the short term.

Then, there’s basketball, touted here as being a particularly strong medium for fostering Sino-American relations. This theory got put to the test on Sunday, when America and China faced off in what was, by some estimates, the most watched basketball game in history. American players, according to reports, played a far more aggressive game than their counterparts and quickly widened the point gap after halftime before winning. Even Bush got up and left the stadium at halftime. So: it’s a mixed result. The huge attention the game received is certainly hopeful, though, and it should be kept in mind that cross cultural understanding is a process–rarely a result.

Next, China’s sovereign wealth fund. An anonymous poster over at the China Economics Forum had this interesting response to the post on CIC, the national sovereign wealth fund, on that blog:

I thought your analysis of the CIC was right to highlight the corporatists risks created by large sovereign investments domestically. But the CIC’s ability to invest domestically is limited, as it primarily is a vehicle for helping to sterilize China’s rapid reserve growth and thus it has to use the proceeds of its rmb bonds to invest abroad (its purchase of Huijin/ recapitalization of the CDB is a bit misleading … there are limits to what it can do here if it wants to help move funds out of China and thus slow reserve growth). Moreover, it isn’t — unlike Alaska’s fund — financed out of a fiscal surplus but rather is financed by borrowing, and borrowing in rmb to buy $ produces losses, not gains in most scenarios. as a result, it isn’t a vehicle for creating wealth. And as it was created to manage the fx that China’s government is accumulating as a result of a policy of resisting market pressure for currency adjustment, in my view it represents a move away from capitalism, not a move toward it — China’s state is accumulating large funds and investing them (in ways that may or may not reflect state goals other than limiting china’s financial losses), reinforcing state power in the global economy as a byproduct of a government policy to limit the adjustment in a key market price.

We’re not entirely convinced of the argument, yet, but thought that its merits attention.

And, last–for those disappointed not to be hearing more about Beijing’s smog–it would appear that the reason is because it has lifted somewhat. Recently thunderstorms have knocked much of the pollution out of the air, giving relatively clear skies. Hopefully, it won’t be the last breath of fresh air the 2008 Olympics brings into China.