The Current Discussion: China's on a resource-buying spree, most recently paying US$13 billion for a stake in an Australian mining company. Is this a threat to your nation and its economy? To the world's?

Acquiring resources for economic wealth has been the hallmark of modern civilization. Whether in the context of colonial expansion, imperialist conquest or modern wars, economic gain has been one of the motivating factors for each of these actions. In the world of commerce, it’s considered perfectly normal to secure resources via acquisitions and mining rights, subject to a certain acceptable decorum on such acquisitions and conduct of mining. China's case is all the more touchy as it is not a democracy and its standing on human rights is dismal; yet the exigencies of commerce force countries that would in other cases talk of human rights and sanctions to ignore China's conduct.

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The Current Discussion: The Olympics open in two weeks, and offer a perfect platform for anti-government protests by ethnic minorities and dissident groups. Who's likely to protest and how should Beijing respond?

Politicizing sports is not new, especially when it comes to the Olympics. The first modern-day Olympics to be boycotted on political grounds was the 1956 Olympics, with about eight countries boycotting on account of both the Suez Canal Crisis and the Soviet repression of the Hungarian uprising. Since then the 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics have all had boycotts varying in size and covering countries ranging from throughout the world. Thus to argue that politics and sports are two different subjects is contrary to what has been happening for over 50-odd years of Olympic history. China is an interesting case as the host of the Olympics, as it has a history of boycotts over Taiwan's participation under the Republic of China flag.

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