As part of its Uncle Mao-friendly policy, Taiwan's Chavezista Party KMT vows to crush all food hoarders. A few good show trials ought to teach a lesson to those traitorous "capitalist roaders".
Tag: Taiwan
Ex-President Chen Shui-bian Sent To Prison
News at the Taipei Times.
Don't imagine he'll ever make it out alive. Because to paraphrase Casablanca's Captain Renault: The Chinese Nationalist Party still hasn't quite decided whether he'll commit suicide or die while trying to escape.
Former KMT Chairman’s Son Shot At Political Rally
Fortunately, the injuries to Sean Lien, son of Lien Chan, aren't life-threatening.
I will not for a moment entertain sleazy conspiracy theories that Sean Lien somehow masterminded a failed assassination attempt against himself in order to win sympathy votes for his party on the eve of an upcoming election.
Because blaming the victims of political violence would be crazy talk.
Right, Lien Chan?
Right, China Post?
Right, Bevin Chu and the rest of Taiwan's pan-Blue media?
Postscript: It will be nothing short of poetic justice for Sean Lien to be accused of plotting an assassination attempt against himself — when his father forever disgraced himself by making that very same repulsive charge against a different victim of political violence a mere 6 years ago.
I however, will not stoop to Lien Chan's level. Nor the China Post's. Nor Bevin Chu's or the rest of the pan-Blue media's.
I do note in passing though, that the China Post reports President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan has instructed Premier Wu Den-yih to take charge of the case.
Ughhh. GREAT judgement. Ma puts a Taiwanese politician with known Chinese mafia connections at the head of an attempted murder investigation???
Boy, sure hope no conspiracy theories emerge out of THAT decision . . .
UPDATE: The Japan Times reports the gunman in custody was known in gangster circles by the nickname, "Horse face".
Hmmm . . . "Horse face" . . . "HORSE face" . . . Now it's been a while – what's that Mandarin word for "horse" again . . .
Whoa. This thing goes right to the top, people. You just have to connect all the dots, man.
Communist Party Vassal Refuses To Call For Release Of Chinese Dissident
And to think Lien Chan came within 26,000 votes of the Taiwanese presidency. Does he really expect people to believe he's never read about the first Chinese to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize?
On second thought, this is Lien Chan of Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party we're talkin' about. And the man has his priorities. When someone of his ilk has to choose between standing up for democracy advocates or bringing pandas to Taiwan, there's really no contest.
(All my panda-huggin', all my panda-kissin', you don't know what you've been a-missin'…)
Postscript: Good on France and Nicholas Sarkozy for defying The Empire and sending ambassadors to Oslo for Liu's award ceremony. Same goes for Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
As for Japan, we'll see. On the one hand, Prime Minister Kan seems willing to bend over backwards to appease the PRC. On the other, his poll numbers seem to be tanking as a result:
Public support for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet has plunged 14.9 points since early October to 32.7 percent, reflecting growing frustration with the government . . . reflect[ing] public dissatisfaction with the government's handling of Japan's row with China and a political funds scandal dogging ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa.
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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.
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?
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]
Happy Unification Day – Part 2
Inara: The Alliance has no quarrel with me. I supported Unification.
Malcom: Did ya? Well, I don't suppose you're the only whore that did.
(Image from Gamespot.com)
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Beijing Relaxes “The Chinese Charm Offensive” Against Japan
Resumes rare earth shipments to Japanese high-tech industries. (The four Japanese hostages it took earlier have still not been released, however.)
On a somewhat-related topic, there's one irony I've been meaning to mention regarding Taiwan's involvement in the Senkaku affair. Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party will enthusiastically spend tens of thousands of dollars to defend the "right" of a Taiwanese citizen to hoist the R.O.C. flag on Japanese soil.
Yet that same party is willing to spend MILLIONS to prevent Taiwanese citizens from hoisting that very same flag on their OWN SOIL (at least when Chinese Communist Party apparachiks come-a-callin').
Curious, is it not?
Give ‘Em An Inch And They Won’t Just Take An Isle
They'll take the whole archipelago. Chinese ultranationalists at Taiwan's China Post salivate not just over the Senkaku Islands, but over ALL the islands in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture.
The Senkakus? Merely an appetizer.
UPDATE: In claiming the Senkaku Islands for "China", the China Post of Taiwan refers to a Japanese map from 1783 (on which the islands are given the same color as China).
Hayashi Shihei, Japan's first cartographer, positioned the Senkakus as belonging to China in the eighteenth century.
This all leads to a place where the Chinese ultranationalists of the Post most certainly did intend to go. Because interestingly enough, that very same map represents Taiwan with an entirely different color from China. (China & the Senkaku Islands are colored pinkish-red on the map, while Taiwan is colored yellow.)
Ergo, if you believe the Japanese map is irrefutable proof of China's ownership over the Senkakus, then you must also hold it to be irrefutable proof that Taiwan is an country independent of China.
Q.E.D.
(Hat tip to Ampontan, who was the first to make this observation)
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Democratic Japan Suffers Economic Pearl Harbor At Hands Of Communist China: Loses Sovereignty Over Senkaku Islands
Releases Chinese captain who rammed two Japanese Coast Guard vessels in Japanese waters.
On Tuesday of this week, Premier Wen Jiabao of China issued this threat:
"China has no choice but to take the necessary 'coercive measures.' "
And a mere three days later, Japanese prosecutors cut loose Captain Ramboat. A sad spectacle it must have been to watch them claim that their decision was based solely on the law…and then hear them quickly contradict this by declaring that the political importance of smooth Sino-Japanese relations was something they also had to consider.
Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper outlines the precise 'coercive measure' which may have been most instrumental in bringing Japan to heel:
A Chinese government source said Thursday that Beijing resorted to the harsh measure of stopping all exports of rare earth metals to Japan because "Japan had crossed over the red line."
The paper further reports that "a sense of shock, fear and helplessness" began to grow in the Japanese industrial sector, as managers discovered to their horror the folly of economic dependence on Asia's Communist behemoth. The Japan Times elaborates on this latter point:
Japan imported 31,383 tons of rare earths in 2008, of which 29,275 tons, or 92 percent [emphasis added], came from China…
92%. [And in another news, a hospital somewhere in Michigan recently granted Dr. Jack Kevorkian control over 92% of their life-support equipment. Because really, what could go wrong?]
The Asashi Shimbun reports that China's unofficial embargo was apparently not as clumsy or as random as a blaster:
The stoppage was designed to hurt Japan's high-tech industries, and it was apparently planned well in advance.
According to several sources, top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party issued instructions in mid-September to the Foreign Ministry, Commerce Ministry, State Development and Reform Commission as well as researchers covering Japan at government-affiliated think tanks to devise specific measures that could be imposed on Japan.
"Instructions were given to consider sanctions that would hit the Japanese economy where it is especially vulnerable," a Chinese government source said [emphasis added].
It's almost superfluous to point out that earlier this year, the Chinese Nationalist Party of Taiwan assured voters that the Communist Party of China would never, ever, EVER mix politics and economics. Signing a free-trade agreement with Zhongnanhai would be an economic shot in the arm for Taiwan — so the argument went — and there was absolutely no chance that becoming Beijing's industrial and commercial satellite would imperil Taiwan's democracy or its sovereignty.
Ask the Japanese whether that holds true today. Because the Taiwanese should be aware that the KMT's flimsy hypothesis now utterly without foundation.
The only question which remains is: When will Communist China choose to launch a similar assault on the economy of democratic Taiwan?
UPDATE: In what I assume is pure bluster meant for domestic consumption only, Japan's Trade Minister threatened to file a grievance with the World Trade Organization in response to China's rare earth embargo.
No way in hell that'll happen. They didn't have the stones to prosecute a mere Chinese fishing boat captain…but instead they'll take on China in a WTO courtroom, mano-a-mano?
Who's he kidding?
UPDATE (Sept 25/10): It's not enough that I must win — everyone must know that YOU have lost. Not satisfied with having enforced its will upon Japan, Chinese ultranationalists demand a kowtowing apology to boot.
UPDATE #3: Heh. "Eternally ours, since 1971." Good to see that not all Taiwanese have drunk President Ma Ying-jeou's Chinese ultranationalist Kool-Aid.
UPDATE #4: A 1969 P.R.C. map showing the Senkaku Islands as Japanese territory. Think I've seen this somewhere before, but I've never posted it here.
UPDATE #5: Realizing that Communist China is an unreliable supplier, Japan looks to Mongolia as another source of rare earths.
UPDATE #6: China's belligerence towards its neighbors causes them to seek closer relations with the U.S.A. The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
(Speaking of which, Okinawans are apparently livid about Tokyo's latest surrender, fearing large Chinese fishing flotillas will now ply the local waters. Will this glimpse of China's "Yakuza diplomacy" cause them to view American military bases with greater favor? We'll see.)
UPDATE #7: Japan's Foreign Minister seems appreciative of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's assurances that the Senkaku Islands "are within the scope of application of Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. security treaty."
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