November 16, 2009
Wishful Thinking on China
This writer hoped that President Obama would have his eyes wide open for his first trip to China - take it in, allow himself to see past the warped perceptions nearly every American has about the Celestial Empire. Sadly, he started his visit with yet another lecture on "human rights,” now defined by the USA as uncensored Internet access. Obama told a crowd of perky Fudan University students in Shanghai that: "...freedoms of expression and worship -- of access to information and political participation -- we believe are universal rights." As the USA continues to run the infamous Guantanamo detention camps, CIA black jails, and conduct military occupations around the world, it remains absurd to lecture other countries on "human rights". Not long before his death, Nixon - architect of the rapprochement with China - said that it was time to drop "human rights" as a wedge issue with China. The issue may have had some leverage in Clinton’s first term but is meaningless today. The Chinese people are not going to rise up and overthrow their government because the websites of state-controlled (BBC) and wealthy conservatives’ media in Western nations are sometimes blocked on the mainland.
Now in Beijing, Obama will meet privately with President Hu tomorrow (Tuesday) and visit the Forbidden City and the Great Wall....
Labels: communist china, human rights, obama
September 30, 2009
76 Missiles in Beijing's Parade
The Chinese Communist Party threw a big parade in Beijing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At this point in America's history, it was 1836 and President Jackson failed to contain a financial panic after he collapsed the nation's central bank. The USA entered a severe depression the following year. In 2014 Japan may mark the 60th year since the nation regained sovereignty back from the USA. Beijing's parade was intended for a domestic audience and no doubt succeeded immensely in that sense. But for outside viewers the parade was catastrophic PR. The screenshot shown at left from Yahoo! news sums it up. China Marks 60 Years of Communist Rule by driving tanks through the streets of its capital -- not to mention the nuclear missiles!
For Chinese turning 60 is an important milestone. In the past not many lived to see their 60th birthday. On that occasion a person has cycled through all the elements (earth, wind, fire, wood, and metal) and returned to the point in the Chinese astrological system where they were born. It is often marked with big parties and special gifts. In Lahaina, Maui, at the Wing Ho Society museum there is an elaborate giant screen made in the 19th Century for a prominent Chinese citizen's 60th birthday. A whole section of the Forbidden City with a huge Chinese opera stage was erected for the dowager empress's (Pinyin: Cixi) 60th birthday in 1895 the same year China lost Taiwan to Japan.
In 1969 the People's Republic of China celebrated its 20th anniversary. At that time the People's Daily was the most widely distributed newspaper in China and the front page of its 1 October addition was devoted entirely to a photo of Chairman Mao. Twenty years later on the 40th anniversary Jiang Zemin looked past the Tiananmen Square riots and proclaimed that China would achieve economic modernization by the middle of the 21st Century. With four decades yet to go until 2050 China appears to be right on track.
Labels: communist china
June 27, 2008
China Drill Grill
The first China bash talking point in the US presidential election cycle is circulating and it's a particulary goofy one relating to the renewed interest in drilling for oil on the continental shelf off the eastern seaboard. China, according to Republican Congressmen, is already drilling there off Cuba! None other than Vice President Dick Cheney has refuted this claim but it is widespread on talk radio and TV - Sinomania! first heard it on CNN a few days ago. Unfortunately, like Obama's Muslim past, it is a fabrication that repeated enough is taking hold in minds willing - and wanting - to believe it.
Labels: 2008 election, anti-china, china, communist china, drilling off cuba, issues, jean schmidt, oil, politics, red china
May 22, 2008
Blood is Thicker Than Water
Taiwan Reunification Watch: The head of the Taiwan work group on the Chinese Communist Party central committee, Mr. Chen Yunlin, said in Beijing today that "blood is thicker than water" and China and Taiwan were moving toward a consistent dialogue on expanding relations.
Only days after Ma Ying-jeou was inaugurated last Saturday, it is announced that Kuomintang (KMT) party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung will arrive in Beijing to meet with President Hu Jintao.
Meanwhile the invasion of Chinese from the mainland may begin as early as July 4 when eight Taiwan airports will be opened for direct flights from China ending over 50 years of cross Straits air tension!
Labels: beijing, china, communist china, ma ying-jeou, reunification, taiwan
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