Taiwan, China, and other things. Recovered from the defunct TypePad platform.
From Strategy Page:
Next year, China hosts the Olympics, and it fears reformers, and dissidents of all sorts, will use the huge influx of foreigners as an opportunity to stage anti-government demonstrations…The government considers it essential for Chinese prestige, as a "major power", that the Olympics go off without a hitch. To that end, the government will round up all known troublemakers and dissidents and put them in preventive detention for the duration of the Olympics. [emphasis added]
The names for Beijing’s mascots for the 2008 Olympics are the "Five Friendlies". Here’s a link to a blog that depicts the mascots enjoying some fun-filled communist-style events:
UPDATE (Apr 15/06): Don’t forget to check out Forced Sterilization Football, Hu Flung Falun Gong, the Organ Transplant Relay, and the Tibetan Dissident Biathalon.
China also has (non-Olympic related) cyber-cop mascots, too.
There were a few big stories today, but here’s a seemingly minor one:
For some time, the Chinese Olympic Committee has been "generously" offering to allow the 2008 Olympic torch relay to pass through Taiwan.
What’s the catch?
Well, Beijing would classify Taiwan as part of China’s "domestic relay route", thereby asserting its "right" over the country to the rest of the world.
It’s all part of the regular battle over verbal symbolism between the two countries. Outsiders would be mistaken to be dismissive of the matter. The average man on the street told ad nauseum that "Taiwan is a part of China" is apt to sooner or later believe The Big Lie.
Words mean things. They matter.
Fortunately, the Taiwanese Olympic Committee today rejected the entire exercise in self-abasement.