I'm not sure either why the embargo still is in place, but I think it serves the US - now, they can keep Cuba on a leash, and make it their dustbin (look at the Taliban fighters moved there, for example). Think about it - what do the US have to gain by lifting the embargo?

Talking about China - do you notice how hard the Bush-government is trying to get on the bad side of China's gouvernment? First, there was the incident with that crashed airplane. Fair enough, accidents happen, but the way Bush handled the situation was somewhat hostile. During this all, Bush invited the Dalai Lama. "The two have nothing to do with eachother" is what he claimed. Come on, we're talking about the highest level of politics here - no-one can tell me that that was coincidental. Recently, China counter-intelligence found state of the art spying equipment in China's Airforce One, just after it returned from the US for maintanance. And this guy has been in office for just one year...

I just wanted to mention the whole StarWars thing too... there, I did.