Month: July 2011

Loyal Son Of The Yellow Emperor Sells Out Taiwan

Taiwan Today has the story:

The ROC Military Supreme Court sentenced former Maj. Gen. Lo Hsien-che to life imprisonment July 25 for selling secrets to mainland China and jeopardizing national security.

Taiwan's Major General Lo Hsien-che

(Major General Lo Hsien-che image from Taiwan Today.)

SinoDaily describes the information Taiwan's Turncoat General is said to have passed along to China:

. . . documents Lo handed over to China included details of the Po Sheng (Broad Victory) command, control and communications system that Taiwan is buying from US defence contractor Lockheed Martin for US$1.6 billion.

They said Beijing is believed to be extremely interested in learning more about the project, which gives the Taiwanese military some access to US intelligence systems.

Other information leaked by Lo reportedly covered the army's procurement of 30 Boeing-made Apache AH-64D Longbow attack helicopters and the army's underground optical fibre network.

As for motive, there are some reports that Maj. Gen. Lo was seduced by a Chinese female agent. Lo, on the other hand, claims he turned traitor only after Chinese Intelligence threatened to expose damaging photos of himself in the company of Thai prostitutes, taken while he was stationed in Bangkok. (As utterly improbable as THAT scenario may sound…)

Others may speculate that he was merely doing some "eventual reunification" freelance work. As some Chinese Nationalists have occasionally been known to do.

Former KMT chairman Lien Chan in a protective blue animal care suit, beaming with a baby panda in his lap.

i-2

Are You Enjoying Your Kep-mok Blood Ticks, Dr. Lazarus?

"Just like mother used to make."

An image of large ticks in a bowl of water next to a picture of Doctor Lazarus looking at one in his spoon with disgust. From Galaxy Quest.

Perhaps he'd find them more savory with some soy sauce and a few green onions on the side:

Taiwanese food critics and gastronomists called a report on century eggs by an American on CNN’s iReport “unfair,” saying it undervalued the nature of the dish.

“Awful . . .  It tastes like something that used to be an egg, but made some really horrible choices,” the iReporter said of century eggs.

[…]

Century eggs, also known as pi dan (皮蛋), are made by wrapping the eggs of ducks and chickens in a mixture of clay, ash, salt and various traditional medicines for a period ranging from several weeks to several months.

By all accounts, there were even charges of racism leveled at the food reviewer, for his "bigotry" in not finding the Taiwanese delicacy to his liking!

While one fully expects Chinese nationalists to descend to such levels of Sino-centric parochial lunacy, it is somewhat disappointing to see Taiwanese reacting along the same lines.  And rather counter-productive, given Taiwan's (probably unrealistic) ambitions of one day becoming a foreign tourist mecca.

i-1