Watching CCTV and reading between the lines

It didn’t click until the next day. Rowan Callick, ex Beijing correspondent and now Asia/Pacific editor for The Australian newspaper, broke a story on Chinese corruption in Namibia, and how the judge in charge of the investigation, wanted to have a chat with the ex-director of the company involved: Hu Jin Tau’s 38-year-old son, Hu Haifeng.

Kharma.

This is a major loss of face for Hu Jin Tau and his colleagues and we can expect that their response to this public relations disaster will be one of the following mutually exclusive options: (i) they will now look for a face-saving excuse to back down; or (ii) they will raise the stakes even higher in order to save their precious faces.

It gets worse (for them): in last week’s online news, it was reported that after meeting with Chinese economists and company executives, China’s Premier Wen Jia Bao, had some worrying news for the assembled diplomats: 

“The difficult economic period has not passed; the foundation for economic recovery is not solid; the negative impacts of the global financial crisis on China’s economy are not abating; and outside demand for China’s goods exports is still shrinking."

This news would drive anyone to drink or cause them to lose a night's sleep.

My take on all of this? Expect the unexpected in the coming days.

China’s diplomats have a lot of work to do when they return to their posts.