Former Taiwanese President Lee Dung-hway, a practicing Christian, has previously compared the Taiwanese situation to that of the Jews during Exodus. For those who are not familiar with the analogy, an Oct 23rd China Post write-up elaborates on the theme:
Comparing the present situation in Taiwan to the 40-year exile of the Israeli people following their exodus from Egypt, as recorded in the Bible, Lee said a number of people in Taiwan are disoriented and are thinking about going back to slavery in China, just like the Israeli people back then.
While it took 40 years for the Israeli people to reach their promised land, Taiwan cannot wait another 40 years, Lee said.
Having been ruled by foreign powers for more than 300 years, Taiwan must stand firm to its belief that "Taiwan is Taiwan, not a part of China" in order to secure its autonomy, he asserted.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?ID=70675&GRP=B
(On the topic of certain Taiwanese tempted to yield to slavery, I shall write another time.)
Lee’s speech was delivered in LA during his current trip to America. In the speech, he also labeled China a ‘slave state’, urged the free world not to invest in China, and called for a strategic alliance between America and Asian democracies India, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2005/10/23/2003276957
Ya gotta love that guy. The Butchers of Beijing must be apoplectic.
Give ’em hell, Lee!
Sino-Japanese off-shore petroleum field dispute
The Chinese and the Japanese have been arguing for some time over sea territory between Shanghai and Okinawa. The territory is said to have 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and possibly 100 billion barrels of oil.
It seems that the Chinese may have begun extraction from the disputed territory from a rig which was built in their own seas. To mark the occasion, they paraded 5 warships in the area. The whole situation is a little akin to that preceeding the First Gulf War, when Iraq accused Kuwait of horizontal drilling into Iraqi oil fields.
Japan is, of course, understandably unhappy about this. They’ve announced that they’ll soon begin drilling in the disputed zone. In response, China said that doing so would be considered "an invasion" of Chinese territory.
Watch for more of this, as China "peacefully" rises.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asiapacific/detail.asp?ID=70686&GRP=C