— Helen Ramirez, High Noon
From the China Post's Nov 19th editorial, Chinese Reunification: The Moral High Ground
Exhibit A: A Taiwanese president orders the Taiwanese police to confiscate the Taiwanese flag from Taiwanese citizens in order not to give offense to a visiting Chinese Communist Party representative.
Courageous enough for ya?
And Exhibit B?
Dalai Lama not welcome to visit: Ma
That would be Taiwan's lion-hearted president, Ma Ying-jeou. Who BOLDLY and STEADFASTLY defended that moral high ground — by blacklisting a Nobel Peace Prize winner. (A Peace Prize winner who, if you'll recall, China routinely refers to as, "A wolf in monks robes, a devil with a human face but the heart of a beast.")
But don't you doubt for a minute Ma's indomitable spirit:
And there you have it. The Butchers of Beijing didn't even need to pick up a phone for Ma Ying-jeou to RESOLUTELY anticipate their wishes. After which, he FIRMLY — and DARINGLY — and INTREPIDLY . . . uh, complied with them.
All kidding aside, I think we can put a new twist on an old J.C. Watts quote here. Character is doing the right thing — even WHEN China is looking.
Postscript: A hat tip to Notes from a Former Native Speaker for reminding me of the China Post editorial.)
UPDATE: Despite what Bevin Chu from the China Post may think, NO political party in Taiwan has a lock on the moral high ground.
[KMT] Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday urged the president to reconsider his decision.
“From a religious perspective, it is a positive thing for the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan … His visit to Taiwan would mean something in the world,” Wang said, urging the government to reconsider the matter and make arrangements for a visit.
[…]
DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) expressed regret and condemned Ma for rejecting a potential visit by the Dalai Lama.
Noting that former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had both received the Dalai Lama, Cheng said leaders from democratic countries such as the US, France and Germany have also met with the Dalai Lama as a way to exert pressure on China.
UPDATE #2: Michael J. Cole wrote a good column about this. Especially liked the conclusion:
Ma has often talked about creating “win-win” situations. Inauspicuously for him, he’s about to get a taste of the “lose-lose” by having to choose his poison.
Last year, Prime Minister John Howard of Australia initially refused to meet the Dalai Lama under pressure from China — then reversed himself when public pressure mounted. Since Ma's approval ratings are pretty low, there might be some leverage there.
Well should the British Government have banned visits by foreign, commonwealth and dominion Jewish religious leaders to the United Kingdom in the 1930s, so as to ingratiate the British Government with the Third Reich, then? A lot of criticism is made of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain but in reality he worked harder and more effectively to oppose totalitarianism than many Prime Ministers and Presidents who would sneer at him, have done so since and he did not have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight of precisely what was the methodology, objectives and tactics of folks like Hitler, Stalin and Mao that anybody today can check out for the price of say twenty US dollars to buy a book on the subject. I think the Japanese and the British share a characteristic and that is whilst they make plenty of mistakes, [ everybody makes mistakes ], they actually learn something from their mistakes. Unfortunately some European and Asian countries, seem to regard it as a positive to keep making the same mistakes, as if there was some sort of virtue in maintaining consistency, even if it is the consistency of doing the wrong thing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/new-stories/jerry-springer/how-we-did-it_1.shtml
Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer
Profiles In Courage
A JAPANESE HOLOCAUST RESCUER
http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=h0lizzqOxuI
Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer
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Awfully tired now. Have to take a look at those tomorrow. Thanks, though.