According to a report by the Washington Post, Chinese authorities instructed Tibetans to turn in their old passports, ostensibly to be replaced by electronic ones during a paper-to-electronic conversion.

BBC: Passport restrictions in Tibet

The Washington Post recently reported that Chinese officials have thought about a possible role for American mediation and even discussed it with American officials.

ECONOMIST: Chen warms up the Chinese motherland

The idea, according to The Washington Post, is to lure newly-moneyed Chinese, Indian, and Brazilian shoppers to the U.S. The method?

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All this is the more piquant for the fact that it follows so soon after revelations that computer systems at the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major media organizations have been penetrated by Chinese agents.

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The fear is that Chinese exports would "soon overwhelm the worldwide clothing market, " as the Washington Post put it, has been ratcheted up by the imminent prospect of decades-old international trade agreements ending at the end of the year.

FORBES: China Puts Plans For World Domination On Hold

Both the Economist and Washington Post recently published detailed articles addressing these issues, and I myself have written about Chinese local innovation in the past.

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