U.S. Marines Arrive in the Philippines to Help Disaster Relief

At the Marine Corps Times, "More Marines, aircraft head to devastated Philippines."

And the Washington Post, "Typhoon survivors in Philippines plead for food, medicine as US Marines fly in help."



Also at USA Today, "Relief effort intensifies after Philippines tragedy."

China's Xi Jinping is Maoist Ideological Hardliner

Well, I'm sure he'll hit it off with our Dear Leader then.

At LAT, "China's Xi Jinping appears more Maoist than reformer so far":

At a Politburo meeting in April, Xi announced an effort to reeducate party cadres, using language that harked back to Mao's "rectification" campaigns of the 1940s when he was consolidating power at his revolutionary base in Yanan.

Trying to boost morale in the military, Xi decreed all generals and officers above the rank of lieutenant colonel must do stints of at least 15 days as rank-and-file soldiers. Mao used almost exactly the same tactic in 1958.

In public speeches, Xi tends to elevate the Communist Party above the nation and even above the Chinese people. He's tried to clamp down on criticism of Mao.

"To completely negate Mao Tse-tung would lead to the demise of the Chinese Communist Party and to great chaos in China," Xi told a high-level forum in January, according to an article last month in Study Times, an official publication of the Central Party School in Beijing.

Just to show that he is not Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Xi blames the collapse of the Soviet Union on wavering from Communist convictions.

"It's a profound lesson for us. To dismiss the history of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Communist Party, to dismiss Lenin and Stalin, and to dismiss everything else is to engage in historic nihilism, and it confuses our thoughts and undermines the party's organizations on all levels," he said in another unpublished speech from December that was widely leaked.

Xi's predecessor for the last decade, Hu Jintao, was a bland figure. But political analysts believe he may have been more inclined toward political reform.

"Xi Jinping is very good at public relations, much better than Hu, who acted like a robot," said Willy Lam, a political analyst based in Hong Kong. "But ideologically he is really a Maoist, who wants to maintain tight control over the party and the military and to put a freeze on Western values."

Nobody expects Xi to reverse the opening of China's economy and, in fact, many are predicting reforms this year to loosen the grip of state-owned enterprises. But unlike Hu, he rarely speaks about rule of law.

Tighter controls were in evidence June 4, a sensitive day marking the anniversary of the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in 1989. To much ridicule, censors deleted all references to the anniversary on the Chinese Internet — including a doctored photograph of yellow rubber ducks marching like tanks toward the square. Hong Kong journalists were detained briefly and prevented from filming the daily ceremony for the raising of the Chinese flag.

Authorities made sure no commemorations took place, rounding up activists and putting others under house arrest.

Boy, that sounds familiar. No doubt Xi's even getting a few pointers from President Dronekiller.

Death Tolls Passes 300 in Bangladesh Building Collapse

At the Wall Street Journal, "Arrests Ordered in Bangladesh Disaster: Officials Seek Factory Owners as Death Toll in Collapse Passes 300 and Anger Swells Over Building Safety and Pace of Rescue":

DHAKA, Bangladesh—Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered arrests over the collapse of a factory complex here this week after tens of thousands of workers staged at-times violent protests and police clashed with victims' families angry over the pace of the search for survivors.

Workers pulled 100 more survivors from the rubble of the Rana Plaza building on Friday, drawing cheers from onlookers with each rescue, as the death toll rose to at least 306. Rescuers estimated the toll could jump by at least one hundred once the search phase ends and bulldozers start removing bodies.

Citing criminal negligence, Ms. Hasina on Friday ordered the arrests of the man who built and owns the complex, Sohel Rana, because of the building's condition, and of the owners of all five garment factories housed there for ordering employees back to work after cracks appeared in the building's exterior on Tuesday, her spokesman said. Arrest orders of factory owners are extremely rare here. One factory owner was arrested in 2005 in a building collapse that killed 68, but wasn't convicted. Factory owners wield huge political clout in a country that employs hundreds of thousands of garment workers making clothes for Western retailers.

It remains to be seen whether authorities will charge and prosecute the owners over the Rana Plaza incident or abandon the case once public anger has died down. Two of the factory owners turned themselves in to authorities early Saturday, Bangladesh media reported.

More at that top link.