. >> we traveled to the region of chiang mai in northern thailand, home to many of the elephant camps enjoyed by tourists. >> there have been recent sites based in africa watching elephants, among other things, for a very, very long time, whereas in asia there's very little research has been done. very little has been said about the dramatic drop in population. no one would have any idea that this species is also endangered. >> john roberts runs an elephant camp. he was one of the first to recognize the link between the supply of elephants for the tourism industry and elephant hunting in the wild. >> we've been jumping up and down saying, if you buy an elephant, you're probably taking another elephant out of the wild. we realized very early on that buying elephants was causing a problem and hurting the wild population or at least the burmese population. >> the hunting of wild elephants is illegal in thailand, but experts claim the practice is widespread in neighboring burma, and it threatens the last healthy populations of asian elephants that reside there. baby elephants are particul

may change as well. we just -- the historical reckoning for mao is still in the future. and at the end of the day from a philosophical point of view, chiang kai-shek may win the argument. >> okay. we've got time for a couple of more questions. how about this gentleman right here in the sweater? >> hi -- [inaudible] john hopkins. in your travels, discussion with chinese leaders, what is your sense of who has control of china's southeast asia sea policy? is it the chinese government or is it the pla and the vast chinese energy consortiums? is it possible the tail is wagging the dog in southeast asia? >> all right. first of all, even within the chinese people's liberation army/navy there are differences of opinion. there are some naval voices in china that argue for a more conciliatory policy in the south china sea. remember, china is not as totalitarian as it was under mao. when it was totalitarian, only a few men controlled everything, including the military. but as that system goes from totalitarianism to a more traditional authoritarianism, different power centers emerge including the military. so the military is very, is more and more p