The Foreigner in Formosa

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?

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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 . . .

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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.

Japanese Prosecutors Refuse To Arrest Senkaku Island Video Leaker

Encouraging, but the man's not out of the woods yet.

Very unfortunate that the Kan administration of Japan is attempting to classify "information which is merely embarrassing to the government" as a "national security secret".

 

The Milk Of CCP Kindness

Chinese Communist Party sentences Zhao Lianhai to 2 1/2 years in prison.  For the heinous crime of attempting to inform Chinese parents about the toxic milk scandal:

Last November, he was arrested by the police and then charged in March with "creating a disturbance". His lawyer, Li Fangping, said the evidence for the charge had been that Mr Zhao had given a media interview on a public pavement, held a dinner in a restaurant for a dozen parents of other victims, and that he had held up a small sign in protest outside a trial of milk company executives responsible for the poisoning.

Yet another wicked reprobate.  Whom Taiwan's Lien Chan will also refuse to speak on behalf of.

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.

Japanese Coast Guard Officer Admits Leaking Senkaku Videos

Story at The Japan Times.

I can certainly understand why he did it.  Must be demoralizing to spend hours chasing a Chinese fishing boat which has rammed two coast guard vessels . . . only to see the Japanese government let the perp walk.

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UPDATE (Nov 10/2010):  Thought so.

"He was aboard a patrol boat for many years, and I suppose he might have felt righteous indignation about the fact that his colleagues' clash with a Chinese ship at the risk of their lives was hidden from the eyes of the public," a JCG official said.

That Left Turn At Albuquerque

Japan Probe, on the Chinese fishing boat "collision" with Japanese coast guard vessels near the Senkaku Islands in October:

According to international rules, ships that are in risk of collision should turn to the right.  In the video, the Chinese ship is very clearly veering to the left: straight into the Japanese ship.

 

 

I've indeed confirmed that this is true.  Here's Rule 15 of the International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea:

When two power-driven vessel are crossing so as to involve risk of collision, the vessel which has the other on her starboard side shall keep out of the way . . .

Let me remember now . . . port is left, starboard is right.  Got it.  Pretty commonsensical.  If a ship is on your starboard (right) side, you're not supposed to steer LEFT because that might, y'know, cause your ship to RAM into the other one.

 

(Image from Rule 15 explanation of the International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea)

Of course, if that's your intention all along, then go for it.  Just don't forget to gun the motor!

Which brings me to Rule # 8e of the regulations, unmentioned in the Japan Probe blog entry:

If necessary to avoid collision or allow more time to assess the situation, a vessel shall slacken her speed or take all way off by stopping or reversing her means of propulsion.  [emphasis added]

All that black diesel smoke suddenly belching from the Chinese boat at 1:29 . . . Sure looks like an intentional acceleration to me.

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Postscript:  I've added new related updates at the end of this post, as well as this one.

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'...)
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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.

The Chinese Bill Of Rights

Heh.

(Hat tip to Counting Cats)

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UPDATE (Oct 24/2013): Broken links fixed.

For future reference, the video is of Penn & Teller performing a patriotic speech during a magic trick involving the U.S. Bill of Rights (vs. the Chinese Bill of Rights)...

Winning Hearts And Minds

87% of Japanese view China as untrustworthy.

Which reminds me:  Not content with snatching Taiwan & Tibetan flags, Chinese ultranationalists have decided to bring some joy into their dreary little lives by snatching Japanese flags as well.

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UPDATE:  The Chinese Communist Party spends millions on propaganda to inculcate rabid anti-Japanese sentiments in its citizens . . . then spends millions more to PROTECT Japanese against those very same citizens.

UPDATE (Nov 9/2010):  The Chinese Communist Party is so concerned about the anti-Japanese Frankenstein's monster it created, that it fills the stadium with well-behaved astroturfed government workers to prevent racial violence against Japanese spectators.

The Truth Will Out

During the Senkaku incident of September 2010, newspapers mistakenly claimed that a Chinese fishing vessel "collided" with two Japanese coast guard vessels.

Now the video has leaked, so we can all decide:  Collision...or deliberate ram?

You make the call: (It's an 11 minute video, with the impact taking place at 2:18.  There's little of interest beyond the 5 minute mark, but knock yourself out if you like.)

Another video shows the Chinese ship ramming (sorry, "colliding with") the second ship.  This one has English subtitles:

No wonder the current Japanese government wanted to keep these under wraps -- for they clearly show that Prime Minister Naoto Kan released guilty men under pressure from the Butchers of Beijing.

Best thing Japan can do now is release ALL the tapes in the interests of transparency.  We've got all the money shots now, but for completeness sake the rest need to be made public.

And the worst thing?  Attempt to cover it all up by maintaining the current fiction that the tapes are part of "an ongoing judicial investigation" and cannot be released.  Because in case Prime Minister Kan hasn't noticed, the case ceased to be a judicial one the day the Chinese took Japanese hostages in order to get Captain Ramboat back.

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UPDATE:  Good story, bad headline -- Senkaku collisions video leak riles China.  (Bad headline because the story itself makes it clear that China doesn't seem too "riled".  And of course, the two ramming incidents were more than mere "collisions").

Nonetheless, it seems the Japanese government is blustering about prosecuting those whose only crime was revealing the totality of Kan's surrender on this issue.  Idiots.

UPDATE #2:  Great stuff from the Afterword of this post by Ampontan:

"Had the Kan government been born with a spine, they would have done [what Adlai Stevenson did at the U.N. during the Cuban missile crisis].  They could have shown the world what the Chinese did, just as the world saw what the Soviets were doing in 1962."

UPDATE (Nov 9/2010):  Japanese government seizes YouTube records to find identity of leaker.  Dunno how well that's gonna go over -- freeing Captain Ramboat but punishing the guy who revealed C.R.'s guilt.

UPDATE #4:  Prosecutor's office bombarded with over a thousand requests from the Japanese public to drop the inquiry against the leaker.

Meanwhile, opposition parties in Japan grouse that the government has shown them less footage (6 minutes in total) than were leaked to the public.

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.

 
(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)

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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 . . .)

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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.