This & That, Ceci et Cela

China’s scary control freaks make for sore losers:

Singaporean diplomacy, fuelled by a desire to remain on good terms with nearly everyone, tends to be unspectacular stuff. That changed this month, when Prime Minister Lee travelled to Taiwan one quiet weekend in July on a “private and unofficial” trip to see some friends. One such friend, however, was Chen Shui-bian, the president, whose pro-independence stand angers China. Beijing, predictably, was livid. After failing to stop Mr Lee’s visit before he left, Chinese officials issued repeated verbal denunciations and claimed that the move threatened Sino-Singaporean ties. Mr Lee explained that he needed to better understand Taiwan, which he last visited in 1992, before he assumed power. Soon after, China cancelled a sprinkling of officials visits and vetoed plans for a few hundred civil servants to study in Singapore (Economist, “Bothering China”).