Globalized cultures running into one another in unexpected way:

David Cameron and four Cabinet ministers wore poppies in defiance of Chinese demands to remove them yesterday.

The Prime Minister was told that allowing his delegation to sport the symbol would cause grave offence because it would remind Chinese ministers and officials of the Opium Wars.

The British victories in both conflicts apparently still weigh heavy on Chinese minds, since the prospect of British ministers and officials wearing poppies while attending this week's talks in Beijing prompted horror.

The poppy is the source of opium and Chinese officials were apparently unfamiliar with its importance in Britain in commemorating our war dead.

Michael Hudson: Well, the object of warfare is to take over a country’s land, raw materials and assets, and grab them. And in the past, that used to be done militarily by invading them. But today you can do it financially simply by creating credit, which is what the Federal Reserve has done...

So the purpose, according to the Fed, is to raise the price of real estate, to inflate asset prices. But that’s not happening. The actual banks have lent less today than they did in 2007. So the money is going abroad. And it’s going abroad not really to buy foreign companies so much, but to speculate in currency.

From an interview with Jiang Kejun, senior researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission's Energy Research Institute:

You can describe [China's] current approach to city building as entirely mistaken. Look at Beijing – it's all wrong, from the buildings to the roads to the planning of zones. We build huge buildings but use little of the space. From the 1990s to 2005, Beijing encouraged car use. "Transportation development" just meant increasing average traffic speeds, for example from 14 kilometres per hour to 15 kilometres per hour. Another target is road surface area: officials are judged on how much the area devoted to roads has increased, and the more that happens, the less space there is for bikes and pedestrians.

But Beijing's city leaders still say that having more cars is a sign of modernity. Beijing once demolished its city walls. Now it's knocking down the 798 art district [an artist community in decommissioned factory buildings in Beijing's Chaoyang district]. It is making the same mistake all over again. But this approach represents the way of thinking of most Chinese people.