.@taylorswift13 trying to sell her TS 1989
clothing line in China. This is…really not going to work well. pic.twitter.com/5DO0caslSM
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) July 22, 2015
Tag: Tiananmen Square
David Kan Ting’s Loathsome Infatuation With Mass Murderers
"A few vices are sufficient to blacken many virtues."
— Plutarch
Upon the death of Margaret Thatcher, David Kan Ting of Taiwan's China Post compares the accomplishments of Thatcher, Reagan and Deng Xiaoping, and finds the former two wanting:
In the long haul, however, I think Deng Xiaoping would stand head and shoulder (sic) above the rest of the few in spite of his physical stature. In five years, that's 2018 to be exact, China could overtake America as the world's largest economy, according to the Economist. The world is bound to undergo some profound changes because of the new pecking order brought about by Deng's epoch-making reforms 35 years ago. (emphasis added)
This observer is inclined to agree. Surely neither Thatcher nor Reagan can boast of the magnificent achievement of imprisoning and murdering 700,000 of their own citizens!
On the other hand, Deng the malignant dwarf✯ can – he imprisoned and murdered 700,000 Chinese intellectuals and landlords while serving as Mao Tse-tung's hatchet man during the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957-1958.
Odd that Tingles forgot to recount that. Must've slipped his mind…
But given the recent blood-curdling threats issuing forth from a certain North Korean nuclear madman, it's more than a little surprising David Kan Ting couldn't recall that it was Deng Xiaoping himself who was the North Koreans' primary enabler in their drive for nuclear weapons.
It was Deng Xiaoping who looked the other way. Deng Xiaoping who ran interference. Deng Xiaoping who propped them up economically.
It must therefore be Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese Communist party that accepts a good part of the "credit" for the spectre of nuclear armageddon currently stalking Northeast Asia.
To this list, I shall not add the Tiananmen Massacre, of which Deng was the chief architect. Nor shall I mention the 3,000 souls mercilessly exterminated by Deng "we must prepare to spill some blood" Xiaoping.
I do not mention this matter - not because it's unimportant, but because by now it's painfully clear that David Kan Ting couldn't give two shits about Chinese murdered by their own government.
Postscript: David Kan Ting's latest column is not completely devoid of value – I, for one, did not know that Margaret Thatcher stumbled near a Chinese Communist legislative building back in '82. Nor would I have attached any deep metaphorical symbolism to her mistep.
I stand corrected:
The [refusal by Deng Xiaoping to allow Britain to keep Hong Kong] made Mrs. Thatcher apoplectic, and she fell on the steps of the Great Hall of the People — a lasting and telling image in the final episode of a 160-year historical drama of China's decline that began with the ignominious Opium War in 1860.
Ohhh, I get it: The fall of the mighty British Empire, and all that. Although I would suggest that the relatively unremarkable occurrance of a middle-aged woman in heels stumbling on stairs is far less "lasting and telling" than the revealing spectacle of Chinese ultranationalists like David Kan Ting crowing about it.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but schadenfreude, by definition, is something one should be ashamed of.
(Image from Lawsonry.com)
No matter. Regardless, I AM grateful that Ting educated me about this incident. So much so in fact, that I think it fitting to relate another obscure Margaret-Thatcher-in-China story:
This anecdote's for you, Tingles:
On a bitterly cold day, the Chinese had put on a magnificent parade to welcome Mrs Thatcher. It included hundreds of shivering children in the flimsiest of clothes. She took one look, called for the commander of the parade and ordered him: Take these children off the street or give them warm coats to wear.
(To this, The Telegraph adds that Thatcher threatened to leave the country immediately if her demand was not met.)
ThisIsCornwall.co.uk continues:
The officer quickly realised that arguing was not an option. And since they did not have several hundred coats to hand [out], the children were taken out of the parade and transferred to a building.
Mrs Thatcher personally checked that the building was warm inside before she would let this, by now browbeaten, officer off the hook.
Kinda metaphorical, no?
✯ We now have photographic proof positive that Deng more closely resembled a twisted hobbit than a malignant dwarf…
Always ready to admit error, The Foreigner sincerely apologizes for the mischaracterization – and for hurting the feelings of the entire Dwarven people.
(Deng Xiaoping image from TopFoto.co.uk. Gollum image from OverYourHead.co.uk)
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Does David Kan Ting Take Pleasure In Innocent Chinese Being Mowed Down By Machine Gun Fire?
Honest question. Let's look at the evidence:
On the one hand, David Kan Ting appears to be a fan of Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Soong May-ling), whom he describes as, “the legendary Mei-ling Soong, wife of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who has been hailed as “the eternal first lady of China.” ✵
Soong May-ling herself was quite unequivocal on the matter of Tiananmen Square, describing the perpetrators as "dastardly Communist poltroons" and "demonic butchers" (The China Post, June 13, 1989 †).
So on the basis of this, I'd have to say, no, David Kan Ting of Taiwan's China Post DOES NOT take pleasure in innocent Chinese being mowed down by automatic machine gun fire.
But not so fast. You see, Soong May-ling is long dead-and-gone. And now, David Kan Ting has a new female hero. (A she-ro, if you will.) His latest idol de jour is Peng Liyuan, first lady ogress of China.
Peng Liyuan's reaction to Tiananmen Square could not possibly have been more different from Madame Chiang's. Whereas Soong May-ling seized the moment to denounce the Communist authors of this hideous crime, Peng Liyuan chose to laugh and clap and dance and sing at the deaths of thousands of Chinese at the hands of the People's "Liberation" Army.
(Peng Liyuan, entertaining PLA troops after the Tiananmen Massacre. Unlike Elvis, she don't look "all shook up". Thousands of Chinese murdered? Time to par-tay!
Image from the International Business Times)
So we come once more back to the original question: Does David Kan Ting of Taiwan's China Post take pleasure in innocent Chinese being mowed down by automatic machine gun fire?
Given Dave's rather eclectic choice of heroes, the best that can be said is that the answer is…inconclusive.
✵ Contra to Ting, Madame Chiang Kai-shek has ALSO been hailed by Taiwan's democratic opposition as, "the most evil woman to wield any kind of power during that bleak 100 years [ie: the 20th Century] and that her influence on almost anything she touched was corrupting and malign."
But I digress. My goal here is not to investigate Soong May-ling's place in history, but to ascertain her attitude concerning the Tiananmen Massacre.
† Since the China Post does not have online archives extending as far back as 1989, this is a second-hand quote by Soong May-ling, from a source whose reliability is suspect (to say the very least!)
Nevertheless, the quotes are in keeping with another (more reliable) second-hand source, so I therefore regard them as authentic.
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David Kan Ting ♥s Peng Liyuan – Butcheress Of Beijing
(or, “The Drivel Comes Just In Time”)
The main title exaggerates slightly: China's current first lady, Peng Liyuan, didn't personally butcher any Chinese at Tiananmen Square. That we know of…
No, she merely gave a big pat on the back and issued a hearty, "Job well done!" to the Communist stormtroopers who did.
The AP has the story:
A photo of China's new first lady Peng Liyuan in younger days, singing to martial-law troops following the 1989 bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, flickered across Chinese cyberspace this week.
It was swiftly scrubbed from China's Internet before it could generate discussion online. But the image — seen and shared by outside observers — revived a memory the leadership prefers to suppress and shows one of the challenges in presenting Peng on the world stage as the softer side of China.
(Elsewhere, a commenter saw this picture of Peng singing in front of the PLA after its merry massacre, and suggests she was either crooning "I've Got A Crush On You" or "Tanks For The Memories".
Image from the International Business Times)
Meanwhile, David Kan Ting of Taiwan's pro-Communist China Post earlier this week beclowned himself by breathlessly praising the bestial Peng. A sampling of quotes:
China's new first lady was as graceful and glamorous as a supermodel when she emerged from Air China's 747 jetliner…
–David Kan Ting, The China Post, Wed Mar 27, 2013
Peng Liyuan captivated millions of fans the moment she stepped into the international limelight. Wearing a smile and dressed in a simple black peacoat, she waved…
–David Kan Ting, The China Post, Wed Mar 27, 2013
She is the United Nations ambassador for health, working to stamp out the scourge of AIDS. It seems that she possesses every quality necessary for accomplishing the daunting mission before her.
–David Kan Ting, The China Post, Wed Mar 27, 2013
[Evidently, soullessness is now a UN job prerequisite. — The Foreigner]
The star of Peng Liyuan is rising, to the ecstasy of her people at home who have never felt so proud in their lives. Some bloggers described her as “elegant and magnificent,” while others gushed over her “talents and beauty.”
–David Kan Ting, The China Post, Wed Mar 27, 2013
[Tell us, Dave, for we really must know: Is she more elegant than magnificent…or more magnificent than she is elegant? Only a dedicated truth-seeker such as yourself can ever hope to be impartial enough to solve this baffling mystery. –The Foreigner]
It seems that the fever about Peng Liyuan is not going to recede any time soon, and rightly so.
–David Kan Ting, The China Post, Wed Mar 27, 2013
[Ting's got a fever, and the only prescription…is more Chinese corpses. –The Foreigner]
Now with the godsend [represented by Peng Liyuan's very existence], it's worth the long wait.
–David Kan Ting, The China Post, Wed Mar 27, 2013
Whoa, Dave, take a saltpeter or something. Not to run you down or anything, but I haven't seen analysis this objective since last week's hard-hitting expose on Justin Bieber.
In Tiger Beat magazine…
(To paraphrase an old Cajun, drag some Communist advertorial money through a trailer park, and you never know what'll turn up. Or get written down…)
David Ting began his slobbery fanboi column by humming an old Taiwanese tune from the '80s titled, "The Drizzle Comes Just In Time." (Drizzle being a good thing, Ting informs us, especially after a period of a long drought.)
Well, it might come as a surprise, but I, too, cannot help humming a tune from the '80s when I now think of Peng Liyuan. Granted, it's not nearly as famous as Ting's – just some obscure song by a little-known band that never went anywhere. Maybe you've heard of it though.
It's called, Another One Bites The Dust.
Given that China's new first lady, Peng Liyuan, publicly supported the massacre of thousands of her own countrymen, it seems entirely appropriate. (And as an added bonus, it's even got lyrics about machine guns, bullets and dead men dropping like flies as well.)
Now THAT'S authenticity. (No matter how hard Tiananmen Massacre denialist Tsai Eng-meng tries to bluff fools into believing otherwise).
Postscript: Other '80s songs which could serve as lietmotifs for China's bloodthirsty first lady ogress:
- Hit Me With Your Best Shot — Pat Benetar
- Cold-Hearted Snake — Paula Abdul
- I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight — Cutting Crew
- It's A Sin — Pet Shop Boys
- Wipeout — Fat Boys & Beachboys
- What Have You Done For Me Lately? — Janet Jackson
- Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone — Glass Tiger
- Everybody Wants To Rule The World — Tears for Fears
- A View To A Kill — Duran Duran
- Eyes Without A Face — Billy Idol
- An Innocent Man — Billy Joel
- Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? — Culture Club
- Der Kommissar — After the Fire
- Back On The Chain Gang — The Pretenders
- Overkill — Men at Work
- Hard To Say I'm Sorry — Chicago
- Hurts So Good — John Cougar Mellencamp
- Stop Draggin' My Heart Around — Stevie Nicks
- Guilty — Barbara Streisand & Barry Gibb
- [Don't!] Do That To Me One More Time — Captain & Tennille
- Cruel Summer — Bananarama
UPDATE: One wonders what '80s song Fang Zheng recalls when thinking about Peng Liyuan?
Having been "liberated" from his legs by the tank treads of an "elegant" and "magnificent" PLA panzer, Fang no doubt bitterly remembers the Pet Shop Boys' What Have I Done To Deserve This?
No word yet from David Ting on whether Fang Zheng wore a pair of absolutely FABULOUS designer prosthetics to the inauguration of Peng Liyuan's husband. They must've been simply to-die-for though, right Dave?
(Image from The Independent)
UPDATE (Mar 29/13): In his opinion column, Ting favorably compares China's first ogress to Raisa Gorbachev. A more apt comparison might be to Asma al-Assad.
Like Peng Liyuan, Asma too was the subject of journalistic puff pieces — which were quietly withdrawn out of sheer embarrassment once her husband began massacring Syrians.
(Asma al-Assad: No longer a "Rose in the Desert" - but still a cute piece of tail in a skirt. Image from GulfNews.com.)
UPDATE #2: All copies of Vogue's infamous "A Rose In The Desert" article have apparently been scrubbed from the internet, save for this one on a Bashar al-Assad fan-site run by an employee of the (ahem!) Syrian State News Agency living in Rome. As for the profile's author, Joan Juliet Buck, she regrets ever writing it.
Fun fact: an American lobbying firm was paid $5,000 a month by the Syrian government to get the obsequious Vogue portrayal published.
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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:
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
(Lien Chan image from Life.com)
UPDATE #2: MSNBC reports on the farce.
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