Month: April 2008

Aw, You’re Breakin’ My Heart…

Saturday’s editorial from Taiwan’s China Post:

This week, we have seen the sadly unsavory spectacle of the Beijing-bound Olympic torch being blocked and harassed while passing through London, Paris and San Francisco.

[…]

It is so ironic that the Olympic flame, which symbolizes peace, friendship and unity, has become the target of attack by those who wanted to make a political statement.

Yeah, it’s a bloody outrage those uppity Tibetans want to make "political statements" – statements the Chinese government FORBIDS them from ever making back home.  Almost a million dead, six thousand monasteries destroyed, but hey, why can’t those people let bygones be bygones and start pickin’ up on all of that groovy "peace, friendship and unity" Beijing so generously provides ’em with?

(Incidentally, all the original Nazi Olympic torches from 1936 bore the company logo of the German arms manufacturer, Krupp.  A fact somewhat at odds with that whole "peace, friendship and unity" thing.)

POSTSCRIPT:  Was some of the harassment staged by Beijing itself to gin up outrage back home?  Some evidence that the thug who tried to snatch the torch from the Chinese wheelchair lady in Paris may have been a plant.  (Hat tip to Instapundit)

UPDATE (Apr 18/08): More on the Nazi origins of the Olympic torch relay.

** Irony Alert **

1999:  China trashes the Falun Gong sect, calling it, "An evil cult."

2000:  Beijing vilifies Taiwanese Vice-President Annette Lu as, "The scum of the nation."

2006:  The PRC blasts Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian as, "A destroyer of peace."

2008:  The Chinese government labels the Dalai Lama, "A wolf in monk’s robes.  A devil with a human face, but the heart of a beast."

*
*

But the icing on the cake?  A headline on the front page of Monday’s Taipei Times:  "Media ‘demonizes’ China, Beijing’s UK envoy says"

LOL

More Of That Silent Diplomacy

You know, the kind where you’re too gutless to even open your mouth.  From yesterday’s Taipei Times:

Vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) arrived in China yesterday for the [economic] Boao Forum and is scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) today.

[…]

Meanwhile, the Taiwan Friends of Tibet group has issued an open letter to Hu and asked Siew to bring it to the Chinese president.

The letter urged Hu to “stop repression and all kinds of aggressive actions against the people of Tibet and start a sincere dialogue with the [Tibetan] government-in-exile led by the Dalai Lama.”

The group said an electronic copy was forwarded to [Siew’s spokesman] Wang [Yu-chi], who accompanied Siew on the trip.

“I haven’t seen it because I don’t have Internet access here,” Wang told the Taipei Times via telephone. “I’ll probably not have it throughout the trip.”  [emphasis added throughout]

Yeah, I can see that.  After all, what cause have we to think that a technologically-backward country like China could provide INTERNET ACCESS for business travelers in any of its FIVE-STAR HOTELS?

(Or maybe China’s upscale hotels DO have web access, but Taiwan’s future V.P has gone a bit down-market, hoping to pinch a few pennies on his hotel bills.  Staying at the local YMCA then, is he?)

San Francisco Olympic Torch Protests

A terrific photo essay at PajamasMedia:

I arrived over an hour before the scheduled relay start time only to find, to my initial surprise, supporters of the Beijing Olympics lining the route. The fact that they all had identical oversized Chinese flags, souvenir t-shirts, and even little paper American flags led me to believe that the Chinese government had organized the whole scene.

Despite that, it looks like protesters (which included a "Hands Off Taiwan" contingent) outnumbered China’s well-wishers.

(Later, things got interesting when it became clear that city authorities deliberately LIED to citizens about the relay route, and the torch was nowhere to be seen . . .)

(Hat tip to Instapundit)

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Last year I was remiss in not blogging about the KMT’s abolition of the Taiwanese law which held minors responsible for the debts of their deceased parents.  Now it seems as though the KMT has made further changes to the law, exempting adult children as well:

 A committee of the Legislative Yuan approved yesterday the latest revisions of regulations to exempt adults from excess debts incurred by their parents or other family elders after inheriting assets from them.

The new rules added to the Civic Code by the Judiciary and Organic Laws Committee will allow the heirs to abandon the inheritance rights as a way to give up both the assets and debts if the debt amounts are higher than the value of assets they are entitled to.

I was astounded to learn that inheritance laws were so Dickensian here.  While I personally don’t stand to benefit in any way from these reforms, I will say this:  Good on the KMT, and good on Ma Ying-jeou.  It’s pretty outrageous to think of a person just borrowing a pile of money and wasting it all, secure in the knowledge that his kids will be the ones who’ll have to pay for it.

(The banks are right about one thing though; this WILL cause creditors to tighten their loan policies.  But I would argue that it’s good that banks should evaluate loans on the MERITS of the borrowers’ proposals, rather than basing their decisions simply on the collateral of children’s future labor.)

UPDATE (Apr 26/08):  More details on this here.

Taiwanese Vitas

This is kinda fun.  A acquaintance here gave me a link to this YouTube clip of an amateur Taiwanese musician playing some Russian-style song.

(By the way, you’ll notice a girl in the audience scrunch up her
eyes and cover her ears around the 00:50 mark.  You might want to turn
the volume down just about now, ’cause . . . well, you’ll see.)

UPDATE:  You can laugh, but the guy’s a chick-magnet.

UPDATE (Apr 13/08):  Looks like the Taiwanese musician doesn’t call himself "Vitas."  He’s apparently performing an imitation of a Russian singer who bears that name.  (As for the song itself, according to Amazon.com, it’s Opera No 1, while YouTube says it’s Opera No 2.)

KMT Puts American’s Life In Danger

Sending jackboots to rough somebody up is so 20th Century.  Much more "with-it" to cynically dupe thuggish supporters into serving as willing cats-paws:

Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairwoman Therese Shaheen has revealed that she received a warning from US officials and police in Taiwan of potential physical danger to her while she was in Taiwan for the presidential election, possibly from a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) stalwart fearful that she would drop a bombshell about KMT candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that would swing the election in favor of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).

The warning came after Taiwanese newspapers and television stations reported rumors that Shaheen would attend an election eve rally for Hsieh and disclose damaging information about the issue of Ma’s US green card, which had been a major campaign topic.

[…]

[Shaheen] cited KMT officials quoted in a China Post story and other news outlets calling the statements they expected her to make a “nightmare” similar to the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on the eve of the 2004 elections.

Bravo, bravo.  Hesb Allah’s got nothin’ on today’s "mellower" KMT and its Ma-llah.  (And no doubt if Shaheen had been injured or murdered, the lovers of the truth at the China Post would have remained true to form by suggesting that this scheming foreigner must have STAGED the assault upon herself in order to win sympathy votes!)

But to be fair, Shaheen also reserved criticism for Taiwan’s main independence party:

“Frank Hsieh should have come out and made a strong statement that ‘We have not spoken to Ms Shaheen, there are no plans for her to speak at the rally, we have never talked to her about Mayor Ma’s green card,’” she said.

Hsieh probably did not “shelve” the story because deep green supporters “would have loved this to come true … because people hoped” Shaheen would be a white knight and save the DPP’s campaign, she said.

Here Comes The Goosesteppers

Guess the Chinese are hell-bent on showing the world a thing or two about crowd control:

China’s blue-clad flame attendants, whose aggressive methods of safeguarding the Olympic torch have provoked international outcry, are paramilitary police from a force spun off from the country’s army.

The squad of 30 young men from the police academy that turns out the cream of the paramilitary security force has the job at home of ensuring riot control, domestic stability and the protection of diplomats.

[…]

The guards’ task for the torch relay is to ensure the flame is never extinguished – although it was put out three times in Paris – and now increasingly to prevent protesters demonstrating against Chinese rule in Tibet from interfering with it.

But the aggression with which the guards have been pursuing their brief has provoked anger, not least in London where they were seen wrestling protesters to the ground and were described as “thugs” by Lord Coe.

The Olympic medalist and organiser of the 2012 Games was overheard saying that the officials had pushed him around as the torch made its way through the capital on Sunday. He added that other countries on the route should “get rid of those guys”.

“They tried to punch me out of the way three times.  They are horrible … I think they were thugs.”  [emphasis added]

Not seeing much criticism coming from the International Olympic Committee about the Chinese goon squad.  What we DO get is this, though:

"I’m definitely concerned about what has happened in London and in Paris," Jacques Rogge said. "I’m deeply saddened by the fact that such an important symbol has been attacked. We recognize the right for people to protest and express their views but it should be nonviolent.  We are very sad for all the athletes and the people who expected so much from the run and have been spoiled of their joy."

Sorry to rain on your parade, Jacques.  I’d feel sorrier for you and your pals if you’d pressed the Chinese harder on free speech.  As it was, I saw an official from the committee on CNN International a few weeks ago telling viewers that he was engaged in silent diplomacy with Beijing with regards to human rights.  [UPDATE:  It might even have been Rogge himself on CNN; today’s Taipei Times says, "Rogge has refrained from criticizing China, saying he prefers to engage in ‘silent diplomacy’ with the Chinese."]

OK, so maybe English isn’t his first language, but c’mon.  SILENT diplomacy kind of makes it sound like you’re . . . Not. Saying. ANYTHING.

(As for the Chinese government, hey, this is what happens when you outlaw all expression of dissent in your country.  Those who make peaceful protest impossible make violent protest inevitable, to spin the old phrase.  And let’s keep this thing in perspective — the violence of which Rogge speaks are a few attempted  cases of TORCH-SNATCHING.)

More from another IOC muckety-muck:

Other senior IOC officials who are in Beijing to prepare for the August Games spoke bitterly of the demonstrations that have marred China’s efforts to stage the most ambitious torch relay ever.

“All I can say is we are desperately disappointed,” IOC board member Kevan Gosper said.

“[Activists] just take their hate out on whatever the issues are at the time,” Gosper said.

Kevan Gosper . . . Now where have I heard THAT name before . . . Could it be the same Kevan Gosper who condescendingly slammed Taiwan last year for refusing Beijing’s Olympic torch route offer?  Let’s set the dials on the Way-Back Machine to April 28th of the year 2007:

"Given the special position we’ve delivered to Taiwan’s national Olympic committee, to sustain their position in the Olympic movement alongside China, I think it behooves Taiwan to accommodate matters Olympic and particularly something as important as the torch relay," Mr Gosper said.

"They should go beyond how they feel about their regional position, recognise they have a special place in the Olympic movement and be gracious about being included in the relay."

Yep, that would be him.  Well Mr. Gosper, in retrospect it looks as though Taiwan did your organization a BIG favor and spared it a heap-load of embarrassment.  And as for your suggestion that Taiwan ought to just suck it up and take it like a man, well, you might want to consider following a little of that advice yourself!

(Meanwhile, Andrew Stuttaford at the National Review impishly proposes that if the IOC doesn’t like Olympic torch protests, they could always make Pyongyang the Games’ permanent home.  ‘Cause for a hitch-free relay, Kim Jong-il’s your man.)

POSTSCRIPT:  Looks like the Tibetan Freedom Torch run is progressing a little more smoothly:

. . . the only flame Tibetans carried Tuesday was the Tibetan Freedom Torch, which is passing through 50 cities from March 10 to August 8 — reaching Tibet on the day the Beijing Olympics begin, which should provoke an unseemly and badly timed response from China.

As protesters ranging from monks to Irishmen marched with the Tibetan torch — which, I might add, no one was chasing with a fire extinguisher — motorists going the opposite way on Van Ness Avenue stopped in lanes to take pictures, honked and flashed peace signs or, in the case of one Chinese woman I walked past, gave demonstrators the evil eye.

On a related note, John Derbyshire takes on the argument that the Chinese were liberators of Tibet.