Category: China – Foreign Policy

So, How’s That Diplomatic Truce Workin’ Out For Ya?

Time was when China would lure Taiwan's diplomatic allies away from Taiwan.  But back in 2008, Ma Ying-jeou of the Chinese Nationalist Party was elected president of Taiwan.  And the hemorrhaging suddenly stopped.

Whether rightly or wrongly, President Ma was able to take some kind of credit for that.

So it must have come as quite a slap to the face when China sandbagged Ma.  Only instead of swiping one of Taiwan's allies, as was its previous custom, this time it seized 14 Taiwanese citizens on foreign soil instead.   And had them extradited to the P.R.C. to stand trial.

There are some who might not call this an improvement.

Postscript:  "Beijing Bob", at Taiwan's China Post, predictably characterizes China's effrontery as, "No loss of Taiwan's national sovereignty."

Which merits a Swiftian-style Modest Proposal:  If Taiwan truly doesn't suffer any loss of national sovereignty when its citizens are tried in Chinese Communist courts, then wouldn't Taiwanese interests be even better-served by simply abolishing its own law courts entirely and subsequently shipping all of its criminals to China?  Think of the time, effort, and most importantly, the MONEY that could be saved.

And the best part is, there would be no downside.  Consider:

a) There would be no loss of national sovereignty, as the China Post — the most honest newspaper in the history of the world — assures us. 

b)  Only vicious Sinophobes question the integrity, political neutrality and fierce commitment to the rule of law that is the solid bedrock of the Chinese judicial system.

c)  As people of Chinese descent (and members of the Chinese "race-nation"), Taiwanese can rest easy that they will be treated more-than-fairly under Chinese law.  After all, "blood IS thicker than water" . . . and the judge and prosecutors in the courtroom will be "son's of the Yellow Emperor", too.

(Or son's of somethings, at any rate.)

ChiCom-ikaze Gets Just Reward

Glub, glub, glub.

But is there any particular reason for the Chinese Empire to violate international law by sending an armada of 50 fishing trawlers into South Korean waters?

Oh, I forget myself.  All your resources are belong to us.

 (YouTube link here)

Communist Politburo Of China Awards KMT Quisling The Mao Tse-tung Peace Prize

Well done, Honorary Chairman for Life Lien Chan.  With any luck, next year you may yet be the proud recipient of China's "World Harmony Peace Prize".  Fingers crossed!

(Where Lien can share the podium with the previous winner — General Chi "Mahatma Gandhi" Haotian.  A tireless warrior for peace, who issued the courageous order to flatten Tiananmen Square protesters with 30-ton tanks back in 1989.)

Great stuff from Taiwan's Next Magazine:

Video unavailable. YouTube account terminated.

UPDATE:  News reports from Hong Kong suggest that the Butchers of Beijing wish to make their Toady in Taipei vice-president of the People's Republic of China.

Nah.  For China to publicly out their unpaid $15,000 agent would simply be too good to be true.  Chairman Wormtongue is much more useful behind the scenes, cutting shadowy deals with Saruman.

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

LienChan 
(Lien Chan image from Life.com)

UPDATE #2:  MSNBC reports on the farce.

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Chinese Ask British PM Not To Wear Remembrance Day Poppy

"Politely" for now.  Perhaps not so politely in the future.

Back when I lived in Taiwan, I knew of a few Canadians who wore poppies around this time of year.  Somehow, the Taiwanese never made it an issue.

But then, unlike the Chinese, Taiwanese as a rule aren't ugly bullies.

China Wins ANOTHER Peace Prize!

Just who was it who recently was awarded the coveted "World Harmony Foundation" Peace Prize for his notable accomplishments in "improving relations between China and the rest of the world"?

General Chi Haotian, the infamous defense minister who ordered the Tiananmen Square Massacre, that's who.

The icing on the cake: the presenter was none other than Sha Zhukang, China's buffoonish "diplomat" at the U.N.

General Chi Haotian (center), Communist China's architect of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, wins China's World Harmony Foundation Peace Prize. The presenter was Sha Zukang (right), Chinese diplomat and head of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

(Left to Right:  World Harmony Foundation founder Frank Liu, Tiananmen Butcher General Chi Haotian, and Chinese ultranationalist U.N. official Sha Zhukang.  Image from Inner City Press)

Postscript:  Is this some kind of hoax – like Swiss spaghetti trees, or devious plots to dye Wenzhou brown bears and pass them off as giant pandas?

No such luck.  Even P.R.C. media outlets report the story.  (And with an eagerness in marked contrast to their complete coverage blackout of Liu Xiaobo's Nobel win just last month . . .)

UPDATE:  Using a (Chinese) U.N. official to give at least the ILLUSION of U.N. approval.  Nice touch.

UPDATE #2:  Although maybe too clever by half.  There've been some questionable (sometimes VERY questionable) Nobel Peace Prize choices over the years.  But with one fell stroke, the "World Harmony Foundation" has rendered its awards radioactive.  Getting one of them puppies now is like bare-handedly grabbing a plutonium-239 trophy.  The 21st Century equivalent of the Stalin Peace Prize.

Just for a moment, imagine all the time, money and hard work the Chinese Communist Party spent on this thing.  Their goal was to create a credible rival organization to the Nobels via a "private" charity fronted by businessman (and Chinese Communist Party princeling) Frank Liu.

And then they undid it all – in an instant!

In all sincerity, it warms the cockles of my heart to watch the Butchers of Beijing make unforced errors like this.

UPDATE #3:  More commentary from the Rosett Report here.

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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.