Month: October 2010

Aren’t You Forgetting Something?

Taiwan's China Post wrote a pretty good editorial about the trapped Chilean miners a while back, and concluded on this note:

…the Chilean miners' first steps above ground gave us a timely reminder of what can be achieved when there is optimism, ingenuity and an unerring faith in the human spirit.

None of which can be gainsayed, but the editors seem to have missed one key ingredient to the miners' survival:

D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y.

We know now that pretty much ALL of their decisions were made democratically.  This approach wasn't a panacea – in the coming months, we'll hear more about personal conflicts that occured and even about physical altercations.  But at some point, the miners realized that the best way to minimize the MAJOR frictions existing within their little society was to put matters to the vote.

For them, democracy represented not merely an idealistic dream but a practical neccessity for their own survival.

So yes, "optimism, ingenuity and faith in the human spirit" all had their roles to play in the outcome.  But ponder for a moment how different the conclusion might have been had a small, self-appointed elite resorted to coercion and violence to lord it over the others, all the while cynically trumpeting their own "benevolence".

Phantom Menaces

The China Post (Taiwan's pro-Communist newspaper of record) frets that the greatest menace to peace in Asia is . . . Japan.  Beware a second Pearl Harbor, the editors darkly warn.

LOL.  The chances of PACIFIST Japan pulling Pearl Harbor II anytime during our lifetimes ranks somewhere between an attack by trident-wielding Mer-people and a Zombie Apocalypse.

In other words, not bloody likely.

Mer-Man from He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe.

 Quiet, you.

UPDATE:  China now matches the number of attack submarines (63) that Japan had when it struck at Pearl Harbor.  Funny coincidence, that.  (Modern Japan has only 16.)

Some other facts the Chinese ultranationalist editors of the Post may be aware of:

  • China has nuclear weapons.  Japan has none.
  • China has over a thousand missiles targetted onto Taiwan.  Japan has none.
  • China has offensive weaponry.  Japan is constitutionally prevented from possessing same.
  • China maintains the largest number of territorial disputes (somewhere between 19 and 26) in all of Asia.
  • China has recently laid expansionist claim to the entire South China Sea.  Japan has not.
  • China's military has enjoyed double digit budgetary increases for several years now.  While on the other hand, high Japanese vehicle costs mean that Japan's military expenditure in real terms is roughly on par with South Korea or Taiwan.

And finally, China routinely ranks among the 10 worst countries in the entire world when it comes to press freedom.  Maintaining strict media censorship, the government indoctrinates the population with ultranationalist propaganda, just as Imperial Japan once did.  

(Far more difficult to imagine the Japanese being similarly brainwashed since Japan has the world's 11th freest press.)

So 2,500 Japanese marched in downtown Tokyo in defiance of Chinese bullying over the Senkaku Islands.  Big deal.  With a population of 128 million, that's a 0.002% turnout. 

Reckon more people showed up for the latest "Tentacle Pride" rally . . .

UPDATE (Oct 26/2010):  A profile of those Japanese "wildmen" Taiwan's China Post is so afear'd of.

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Thuggish Is As Thuggish Does

Did you think that Beijing would be selective in its rare earth trade embargo, wielding its market position against Japan (alone, among all the countries of the world) as a weapon of last-resort?

Think again:

American trade officials announced last Friday that they would investigate whether China was violating international trade rules by subsidizing its clean energy industries. The inquiry includes whether China’s steady reductions in rare earth export quotas since 2005, along with steep export taxes on rare earths, are illegal efforts to force multinational companies to produce more of their high-technology goods in China.

[…]

Hours later, according to industry officials, Chinese customs officials began singling out and delaying rare earth shipments to the West. [emphasis added]

Earlier this year, Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party signed a free trade agreement with China, all the while insisting that the Benevolent Butchers of Beijing would never abuse their economic power over Taiwan.

That proposition of theirs appears more divorced from reality with each passing day.

UPDATE (Oct 20/2010):  Daniel Drezner on China's rare earth embargo against the West —

"[This is] going to encourage some obvious policy responses by the rest of the world. Non-Chinese production of rare earths will explode over the next five years as countries throw subsidy after subsidy at spurring production. Given China's behavior, not even the most ardent free-market advocate will be in a position to argue otherwise." [emphasis added]

 

Nobel Peace Prize Predictions

Damn.  Remind me never to play a game of Machiavelli with Michael Turton!

All kidding aside, Occam's Razor suggests to me that China was sincere in its brutish objections to Liu Xiaobo's nomination and win.  Thuggish is as thuggish does.

But I'll go further out on a limb and predict that within the next 3 or 5 years Liu will have company, when another Chinese dissident will be awarded the prize.  And my reason for believing that is that the Chinese Communist Party REALLY hacked off the Nobel Committee.  So much so, that the committee broke with precedent and leaked the name of the winner to the media a few days before the official announcement.  (Hard to imagine a bigger F U being issued to the Butchers of Beijing.)

Remember how the Nobel committee spent the last 6 or 7 years repudiating George W. Bush?  It was almost a steady stream – Mohammed ElBaradei…Al Gore…Barack Obama.  (If I'm not mistaken, there were also a couple anti-American authors for the Literature Prize tossed in just for good measure.)

Message received.  Loud and clear.

But one thing cannot be denied:  in response to these rebukes, the American government did most assuredly NOT threaten the government of Norway, nor the livelihood of its people.  Great powers get criticized, and they learn to live with it.  Goes with the territory.

In contrast, the Communist government of China gave the Nobel committee only two alternatives:  humiliating surrender, or honorable defiance.*  One or two more Liu Xiaobo's this decade will drive home to the Chinese what stuff Norwegians are made of.

* During a conversation with some Taiwanese youths a few years back, one of them announced in all seriousness to me that "Face didn't matter to Westerners." 

(No offence was intended by them.  I think the subject came up when I remarked that I wouldn't feel any loss of face if I offered a last-minute dinner party invitation to a coworker, and they declined due to prior commitments.)

It's a view charming in its naivety when held by the young — but foolish to the extreme if it's held by the Chinese leadership.

UPDATE:  An Indian reporter blogs on the Chinese media black-out.

UPDATE #2:  Liu's not hard-line enough, protest some exiled Chinese dissidents.  Sad.

 

Chinese Communist Party Releases Final Japanese Hostage

Beijing graciously releases Japanese chemical munitions removal specialist from captivity.

Advice to the Japanese government:  When you're in a hole, stop digging.  The CCP has demonstrated its eagerness to take hostages, so stop providing them with the hostages it so desperately craves.

They want 65 year-old chemical shells removed from their soil?  Let 'em clean 'em up themselves. 

No need for them to be on the Japanese dole, now that they're a big, rich, powerful country.

Jia Yo, Liu Xiaobo

Congratulations to Liu Xiaobo — China's very own Vaclav Havel — on his historic Nobel Peace Prize win.

An honorable mention to President Hu Jintao and the Chinese Communist Politburo as well.  (For without their tireless efforts, Liu's victory would scarcely have been possible!)

Chinese dissident Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, captioned: Free Liu Xiaobo.

 UPDATE:  Will the current Nobel chairman publicly make the Carl von Ossietzky – Liu Xiaobo connection?

UPDATE #2:  I knew that Liu had been sentenced to 11 years by the Communist politburo…but wasn't aware that Liu & his lawyers had only 14 minutes to defend him at trial.   Can't wait to see Bev Chu & Taiwan's China Post spin the proceedings of that kangaroo court as a "fair trial".

UPDATE #3:  "I have long been aware that when an independent intellectual stands up to an autocratic state, step one toward freedom is often a step into prison.  Now I am taking that step; and true freedom is that much nearer."  – Liu Xiaobo

UPDATE (Oct 9/2010):  Gotta give Ma Ying-jeou & the KMT credit for at least pretending to be pleased with Liu's win.  Hypocrisy may be the homage vice pays to virtue, but that's certainly more than Taiwan's China Post has done so far.

[Don't be so cynical, Foreigner — school bullying is a huge, HUGE story!  Way bigger than the first Nobel Peace Prize won by a Chinese!]

From yesterday's Taipei Times:

Hours after the announcement, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) congratulated Liu for winning the prize and called on China to address human rights issues with a more liberal attitude.

The General-wuss-imo must be really worried about the coming elections, if he's that willing to piss off his Communist masters.  What's next?  An invitation to Rebiya Kadeer and the Dalai Lama to come help campaign for him?

UPDATE #5:  Beijing summons the Norwegian ambassador for a dressing-down.  Yet another Hitler "Downfall" parody in the making…

UPDATE #6:  Heh.  "…peaceful and friendly China" vs. "antagonistic and belligerent Norway."

 

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The Dog That Didn’t Bark

What, no editorials from Taiwan's China Post, cheering on Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize?  Whose struggle for freedom and democracy is something that Chinese everywhere can take justifiable pride in?  Not a word from the newspaper which has stated that after a century, it's HIGH-TIME for a person of Chinese extraction to win?

Nope, guess not.  Where once were glowing paeans for Beijing's '08 Olympics, are now only crickets for the frontrunner poised to become China's FIRST-EVER winner of the award.  Chinese nationalists, indeed.

(But then, when one takes the position that democracy is the worst political system ever tried (bar none!), it's not surprising that by default one roots for Communist jailors instead.)

Cartoon captioned: In China, No Presents For Christmas. Cartoon shows a PRC policeman in Santa's pack snatching Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo from the street. (Liu's sentence was expected to be delivered on Christmas Day, 2010.)

(Image from Reporters Without Borders)

UPDATE:  An Irish gambling company which allows people to wager on who will win the prize is apparently so confident that Liu Xiaobo will come out on top that they've stopped taking bets and started paying-off bettors 48 hours before the actual announcement.

Parting with their money before they absolutely have to suggests that they're completely nuts.  Or that they know something the rest of us don't…

UPDATE #2:  Beijing threatens to bring Norway its knees by withholding vital supplies of heavy metal-laced cigarettes.  Which will be difficult for the Norwegians to substitute, since China controls at least 92% of all the world's rare earths cadmium-flavored tobacco products.

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