Beijing’s impending shortage is “a dire water challenge,” and China plans a massive response:

THE water level at Wangkuai Reservoir, one of the biggest in Hebei province, is close to an historic high—in a region gripped by drought. This has been achieved by hoarding the water. Local farmers say they have received none for two years. A hydroelectric plant by the huge dam is idle. Wangkuai is preparing for what officials call a “major political task”—channelling its water to Beijing, to help boost the city’s severely depleted supplies.

On September 28th, after more than four years’ work on a 307km-long (191-mile) waterway costing more than $2 billion, Beijing began receiving its top-up. Two other large Hebei reservoirs, Gangnan and Huangbizhuang (see map), were the first to feed the new channel. Wangkuai is due to open its sluices in December, says a dam supervisor. Oddly for such a large and supposedly vital project, the launch was low key. Yet the channel’s inauguration was the most notable achievement so far of what, in the coming years, is intended to become a far more grandiose diversion scheme: bringing water from the Yangzi basin to the parched north, along channels stretching more than 1,000km.

How has Taiwan reinvigorated its military cooperation with the US and still become closer to mainland China?

UNDER Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan’s president for eight years from 2000, Taiwan saw markedly worse relations with both its traditional foe, mainland China, and its staunchest ally, America. Ma Ying-jeou, installed as Mr Chen’s successor in May, has hoped to pull off the opposite trick, and improve ties with both. That may not be as impossible as it sounds.

On October 3rd the Bush administration notified Congress that it would sell the island $6.5 billion-worth of weaponry. The package includes 330 Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles, intended to intercept missiles fired from the coast of Fujian province, opposite Taiwan, where China has stationed some 1,400. Taiwan will also buy 30 Apache Longbow attack helicopters, equipped with night-vision sensors, air-to-air missiles and Hellfire missiles; 32 Harpoon submarine-launched missiles; 182 Javelin-guided missiles with 20 launch units; upgrades to four E-2T airborne-warning and control aircraft; and various spare parts. Congress has 30 days to object to items on the list, but is not expected to. …

A chart from The Economist showing where rich countries’ immigrants are coming from:
“America is by far the most popular destination, taking 1.3m migrants. China provides the biggest share of legal immigrants to OECD countries (though Britain and Ireland do not monitor nationality). Chinese migrants made up the biggest group in South Korea, Japan and Canada, and the second largest in America after Mexicans.”

On the show “Certain ideas of Europe,” Mark Leonard, author of ‘What does China think?,’ poses a new challenge for Europe and the West:

“One of the big challenges for the West, actually, is to try and put a wedge between Russia and China and to stop them forming a sort of axis of sovereignty which scuppers the shift toward a more liberal world order that we saw in the 1990s.”

China’s recent UN veto was a sign that it’s assuming a larger profile in Africa:

“China’s decision on July 11th to veto an American-led resolution in the United Nations that called for sanctions against Zimbabwe was an unusual move. By voting the same way as Russia, China still managed to avoid taking the lead. But its normal preference is to abstain from voting rather than veto Western initiatives in the UN. This time it decided to make a stronger point.

Chinese officials and the public generally have shown little sympathy for Western concerns about election-rigging in Zimbabwe. On the sidelines of a summit of G8 leaders in Japan this month, President Hu Jintao met South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki and relayed no more than China’s ‘concern’ about the Zimbabwean crisis. China has avoided direct condemnation of Zimbabwe’s leader, Robert Mugabe. (His message of condolence over China’s deadly earthquake in May was politely noted by the state-controlled media.) At a summit of African leaders in Beijing in 2006 and during a week-long state visit to China in 2005, Mr Mugabe was received politely.”