My Impromptus today is headed “A ruined island, &c.” That island is a nation: Cuba. Among my other subjects are China, U.S. politics, and the son of Charles de Gaulle, Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, who has died at 102. At the end I have a little photojournal of Ithaca, N.Y. I remember seeing a bumper sticker when I was growing up: “Ithaca is gorges.” So it is.
I would like to link to a podcast as well: here. The Human Rights Foundation has a podcast called “Dissidents and Dictators,” and I was privileged to be a guest earlier this week. It was a joy to talk to these guys — the gravity of some of the subjects aside.
In my column today, I talk about the TikTok controversy. The politics of the debate in our country are interesting — with some of the bedfellows being strange. Here on the Corner, I’d like to note an interview given by Nick Burns — R. Nicholas Burns — who is our ambassador to China. He is a veteran foreign-policy hand. He was the U.S. ambassador to Greece back in the ’90s. Before that, he had been on the Soviet desk — then the Russia desk — for Bush 41. Under Bush 43, he was ambassador to NATO. Etc., etc.
I did a podcast with him in 2018: here. He may not be secretary of state before he’s through. But he ought to be, in my judgment (for an administration of either party).
Yesterday, he gave an interview to Bloomberg, a video of which can be seen here. Said Burns,
We’ve heard a number of complaints from the government here in Beijing this week about the American debate on TikTok. I find it supremely ironic — because government officials here are using the X platform to criticize the United States. They don’t give their own citizens the right to use X, to use Instagram, to use Facebook, to have access to Google. And so it is ironic, indeed, that the government here is complaining about a process when they shut down access for 1.4 billion Chinese to all these platforms.
Yes.
One more thing. I got a note from spring training. That is, a reader and friend sent me an e-mail from Lakeland, Fla., where our Detroit Tigers train. He says,
My 63rd season of Tiger baseball begins, Jay.
Tigers 7, Yankees 0. Hope springs eternal.
It’d better. And good luck to your team, whatever it is.