Word: blocs
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...harsh tone from Beijing stings even more since the E.U. had hoped its new Lisbon Treaty - intended to create a more streamlined institution with a strong President and Foreign Minister speaking on its behalf - would ensure the bloc would have a bigger presence on the global stage. But China has historically sought to exploit the E.U.'s internal divisions to fuel its economic growth, not deal with the bloc as a whole. All of the E.U.'s biggest members have cozied up to Beijing at one point or another in the hopes of guaranteeing lucrative trade deals. (See pictures...
...seems to be some expectation of future Chinese goodwill of an unspecified nature," he says. "But China has steadfastly refused to give anything in exchange." Godement says Europeans have long deluded themselves that China will accept them as equal partners when, in fact, Beijing will likely continue probing the bloc for weaknesses and division. He says the ban should only be lifted after Europe takes a long and hard look at its China policy. "If there is one good thing about China's strident tone, it has been to help the E.U.'s big countries realize that they cannot...
During the Cold War, Soviet bloc dissidents had to rely on primitive printing technologies to reproduce samizdat literature in tiny quantities. Today's dissidents living under authoritarian regimes around the world can disseminate their message world wide with the click of a mouse, through blog postings and viral videos. And, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in a recent speech, the United States plans to champion their cause by enabling unprecedented freedom of speech on the Internet, in defiance of all political censorship...
...some governments may end up drowning in red ink. Twenty of the European Union's 27 members are running deficits to ease their way through the global recession, with the average pegged at 7.5% this year. Three years ago, the E.U.'s deficit average was just 0.8% of the bloc's total GDP. That figure increased to 2.3% in 2008 and then spiked to 6.9% last year. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
...voting bloc of recreational weed smokers is likely to be even less enthusiastic if Catania gets his way. "I do not see this as the camel's nose under the tent to the broad legalization of marijuana, nor the recreational use, nor do I ever envision supporting the use of marijuana for anxiety or hangnails," he says. "This is for people who are profoundly sick...