The Foreigner in Formosa

Shadowy Chinese-American Bund Delivers Communist Party Propaganda On U.S. Airwaves

Sounds like the CCP is circumventing few laws, if not violating them outright:

Su declined to describe how he makes money when most of the U.S. stations [delivering his Chinese Communist Party propaganda] air virtually no commercials. He also declined to say how he got the money to finance his radio leases and acquisitions.

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UPDATE (Nov 6 / 2015): Some commentary from Forbes.

With The Necessary Changes, This Applies Also To Chinese Nationalists

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(Image from Imgur.com)

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Did Crooked Chinese President Xi Jinping Attempt To Assassinate The Queen Of England?

Well, he did recently try to smuggle a Chinese spy into Queen Elizabeth's horse-driven carriage -- lying to his British hosts that the spy was his "translator".

So why the hell should his motives NOT be viewed in the harshest possible light?

Will The KMT Tap Comrade Historian Joe Hung To Revise Taiwanese Textbooks?

Joe Hung, the veteran China Post columnist goes full Maoist in his latest. He used to try to dance around it a bit more, but he's not gettin' any younger, and #YOLO:

"Then, Mao sent his Army to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea to fight the Americans in the Korean War..." [Emphasis added]

If it's a Joe Hung column, one expects bizarre Sinofascist Big Lies, and Hung fails to disappoint:

"...rising China...may turn out to be the true caretaker of the United States to keep world peace." [Emphasis added]

Yeah sure, Comrade Historian. That could happen.

But only if Beijing can exercise enough self-control to abandon its belligerent threats against its neighbors and drop its illegitimate territorial claims against Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

Oh, and resist the temptation to manufacture any NEW territorial claims...

This Message Is Brought To You By The Chinese Communist Party...And The Committee To Elect Hung Hsiu-chu

CCP releases computer simulation of Chinese invasion of Taiwan to lend "support" to KMT presidential candidate

What Did The Chinese Steal When They Hacked The American Office Of Personnel Management?

John Schindler of the 20Committee briefly explains the value of the material the Chinese Communists plundered from the American government

How China Contributed To Venezuela's Economic Meltdown

From the Financial Times:

What makes China unusual [among Venezuela's creditors] is not just the amount it is willing to lend but the way it lends. First, Beijing has chosen to be opaque: we know neither the terms of the loans nor the uses of the money. The debt is repaid in oil, making Wall Street bondholders junior to China.

[...]

Second, the debt was never authorised by the Venezuelan parliament due to the specious argument that it was not debt, but “finance”, because it was not to be paid in dollars but in oil... [emphasis added]

China Rejects Rule Of Law To Resolve Its Illegal Territorial Claims, Insists On Law Of The Jungle Instead

Chinese Communist Party angrily announces its intention to flout international law in maritime disputes with the Philippines

Kinda demolishes pro-Communist Joe Hung's lunatic contention that China follows the "kingly way, which is based on benevolence, justice and morality," doesn't it?

This Looks Like A Job For Gavin Menzies!

Turkey's President Erdogan claims Muslims discovered America in 1178 A.D.

China Rewrites History On South China Sea

From Strategy Page:

China has ordered its scholars to dig up any historical evidence for early Chinese presence on rocks, reefs and uninhabited islands in the South China Sea...This Chinese effort has one major flaw; it ignores the fact that for thousands of year the Chinese imperial government (which lasted until 1910) disregarded seaward expansion or exploration.

There were a few exceptions, but yes, that's largely true.

Chinese-Vietnamese Relations, In Two Sentences

“China invaded Vietnam seventeen times. The US invaded Mexico only once, and look at how sensitive Mexicans are about that.”
— Vietnamese diplomat

Boston School Punishes Exchange Student For Advocating Democracy In China

Are Chinese "professional students" similarly punished for speaking on behalf of their evil political system?

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UPDATE (Jun 11 / 2014): School superintendant / Chinese Communist Party hatchetman David Fleishman can't figure out what all the fuss is about.

Chinese Meddling In Burma

Jump down to the 5th paragraph.

How America Should Respond To Chinese Cyberspying

From Technology Review:

There’s still room for escalation. In the indictment they talk about the SOEs [state-owned enterprises] getting this stolen data but didn’t name them. But it’s pretty easy to figure out. These are massive, multibillion dollar companies in China. The next step could be to charge those SOEs. If you want to make an impact you go after the recipient of the information.

Orwellian Quote Of The Week

“Many people believe that a forced war would convince some countries of China’s sincerely peaceful intentions.”
— Chinese Communist Party newspaper, the Global Times

China Attacks Vietnam's Ships, Steals Vietnam's Resources: Taiwan Hardest Hit

Last week, China began constructing an oil rig within Vietnamese waters to steal crude from the third world nation. Vietnam responded by sending ships to the area, which were promptly attacked by Chinese vessels:

Chinese ships have been ramming into and firing water cannons at Vietnamese vessels trying to stop Beijing from putting an oil rig in the South China Sea, according to officials and video footage Wednesday, in a dangerous escalation of tensions over waters considered a global flashpoint.

Just today, Vietnamese mistakenly took out their frustration on Taiwanese factories:

Thousands of Vietnamese set fire to foreign factories and rampaged in industrial zones in the south of the country in an angry reaction to Chinese oil drilling in a part of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam, officials said on Wednesday.

The brunt of Tuesday's violence, one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since the neighbours fought a brief border war in 1979, appears to have been borne by Taiwanese firms in the zones in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces that were mistaken for Chinese-owned companies.

[...]

Gates were smashed and rioters set 15 factories on fire...

China cannot expect Vietnamese to respect Chinese property rights while the Chinese blithely violate theirs.

But it's a shame that this perfectly-understandable anger was taken out on the Taiwanese, though. Because (as readers of this blog are no doubt aware): Taiwanese are not Chinese.

In vain, Taiwanese companies themselves belatedly scrambled to communicate this elementary fact:

Some Taiwanese firms had spray-painted messages on the road and across their gates saying "We Support Vietnam" in an effort to distinguish themselves from Chinese enterprises.

Perhaps the current government of Taiwan might have alleviated the situation if had spent less time pretending to be China, and concentrated its efforts on sending the message that Taiwan is a completely different country altogether.

Without such efforts, Taiwan will always be unjustly blamed for the crimes of the Chinese. And the Taiwanese government will be forced to pay to evacuate its citizens whenever tempers erupt over cases of China's villainy.

As Aesop might've said:

Those who impersonate international outlaws are often mistaken for international outlaws.

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UPDATE: You speak the truth, sir!

“We have to establish a distinct identity [from China],” Mr. [Antonio] Chiang said. “Or not only will this happen in Vietnam, but other countries, too.”

UPDATE (May 18/2014): Others see Taiwan's One China policy as a contributing factor.

Chinese Plotting To Steal Arctic Resources

"All your resources are belong to us." Deutsche Welle has the story on the Communist thieves of Zhongnanhai:

Five countries are considered “Arctic states” - Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Denmark (along with Greenland and the Faeroe Islands). Finland, Sweden and Iceland are also members of the Arctic Council which deals with the future development of the North Pole region. China, Japan, South Korea and the European Union are trying to achieve permanent observer status.

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"Countries closer to the Arctic, such as Iceland, Russia, Canada, and a few other European countries may tend to wish the Arctic were private or that they had priority to develop it," Cui Hongjian, head of the European department of the China Institute for International Studies, told reporters before Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Europe. "But China insists that the Arctic belongs to everyone just like the moon."

Small wonder China finds itself hated by all its neighbors.

Hat tip: Instapundit

China Ponders Putin's Georgian & Crimean Precedents

Is Vladimir Putin just about the world's greatest fool?

There is, however, one country with an imperial past and a renewed craving for empire that has territorial ambitions which make of it a threat to Russia, and that country is China...The majority of those who live there [Siberia] today are not Russian. Many of them are Chinese who have journeyed north in search of well-paid work; and China, which is just across the border from Siberia, is an economic juggernaut increasingly desperate for resources of the very sort that are found in abundance in Siberia.

Vladimir Putin should think hard about the precedent he is setting in the Crimea. The day may come when China does to Russia in Siberia what he is trying to do right now to the Ukraine in the Crimea. Putin's government piously states that its only concern is to protect the majority Russian population in the Crimea from the Tatars and the Ukrainians there. China, in time, will say the like about the Chinese in Siberia. And when that day comes, he will have alienated everyone of any significance who might otherwise have rallied to Russia's defense. [Emphasis added]

More on Putin's folly.

The Chinese Aren't Threatening Europe

...they're just fantasizing:

China has made a major diplomatic faux pas by illustrating its Moon Rover exhibit with a stock image of a nuclear mushroom cloud over Europe.

(Sinofascist dreams of nuclear holocaust. Image from TheWeek.com)

Communist China Demands Britain Return Artifacts

From News.com.au:

One of the most popular questions [posed to British Prime Minister David Cameron on the Chinese Twitter copycat-site] was posted by a prominent Chinese think-tank, the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, which is headed by former vice-premier Zeng Peiyan and includes many top government officials and leading economists among its members.

"When will Britain return the illegally plundered artefacts?" the organisation asked, referring to 23,000 items in the British Museum which it says were looted by the British army.

Interesting question. While the Foreigner is not necessarily opposed to returning plundered artifacts, he does wonder when China will volunteer to return all the tribute it illegally plundered from foreign countries during its Imperial period.

To take but a single example:

Slaves from tributary countries were sent to Tang China by various groups: the Cambodians sent albinos, the Uyghurs sent Turkic Karluks, the Japanese sent Ainu, and Turkish and Tibetan girls were also sent to China.

Anyone care to monetize the value of all those slaves in 2013 dollars?

China's Peaceful Rise? Beijing Slavers For War

Chinese unilaterally declare Japanese air-zone as their own.

If he were an honest man, Joe Hung of Taiwan's China Post would now write a column apologizing for being hoodwinked by claims of "China's Peaceful Rise".

IF he were an honest man...

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UPDATE: Ha. Missed this quote from Yang Yujun of China's Ministry of War:

China "has always respected the freedom of over-flight in accordance with international law".

Sure. With exactly the same respect it affords the territory of its neighbors.

 

China's "Cabbage Strategy"

...for stealing territory in the South China Sea from the Philippines (and the rest of its neighbors).

Hey, Big Spender: China Buys Typhoon Victims Half-A-Can Of Coke

Self-proclaimed financial "superpower" China donates a whopping $100,000 to disaster relief in the Philippines.

That works out to about 14¢ per Filipino left homeless (given that there are about 700,000 left homeless after Typhoon Haiyan).

Or in other words: just about enough to buy each of them half-a-can of Coke.

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Postscript:

A day-laborer, Bill Gates, and Xi Jinping walk into a bar. Each gets a beer, but each finds his mug has a fly in it.

The workman pours off the fly and drinks the rest. Bill Gates sets his glass aside and buys another.

Meanwhile, Xi Jinping grabs the insect by its wings - violently shaking it while screaming:

"Spit it out! Spit it out!"

[Cheapskate jokes. I love 'em!]

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UPDATE (Nov 13, 2013): CNN now reporting that 2 million people in the Philippines require food.

Evidently, the Chinese are either too stupid or heartless to realize that half-a-can of Coke isn't going to make much difference...

Communist China Leans On Western Media To Spike Unfavorable Coverage

Zhongnanhai frowns upon exposes of Princeling corruption:

Mr. Winkler defended his decision [not to publish an investigative report about Chinese Communist Party corruption], comparing it to the self-censorship by foreign news bureaus trying to preserve their ability to report inside Nazi-era Germany, according to Bloomberg employees familiar with the discussion.

Sinofascism is not a dinner party.

Fortunately, There IS No China Threat...

Chinese Communists publish their nuclear attack plans against America
(Image from the Washington Times)

Hey, remember the last time Great Britain trumpeted its nuclear strike strategy against the U.S.?

Me neither!

Russia Abuses Interpol

To seek revenge on its political refugees.

Readers are no doubt aware that Communist China currently games the Interpol system to victimize its Uyghur refugees as well.

Chinese Communist Party Uncovers Insidious American Plot

In the form of a kids movie about giant robots battling cartoonish monsters:

Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim is a box office smash in China, but the Chinese military doesn't like it one bit, calling the movie blatant propaganda used to spread "American values and ideas."

The story's over a month old - don't know how I missed it.

But somehow, I find it strangely comforting that the officer corps of the PLA is composed of a bunch of cowardly bedwetters.

The Wolf and the Lamb(s)

Ran across some commenters at Michael Turton's site asking for the original link to a piece by a Chinese Communist Party militarist. (Fella by the handle of Long Tao demands that the People's "Liberation" Army Navy initiate a bloody war-for-oil against Vietnam and the Philippines in the South China Sea.)

Anyways, here's the original:

Time to teach those around the South China Sea a lesson

Which reminds one of the Aesop's fable:

A Wolf, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, decided not to attack the lamb, but to find some reason to justify to the Lamb why the Wolf had the right to eat him. So the Wolf said:

“Sir Lamb, last year you greatly insulted me.”

“But,” bleated the Lamb mournfully, “I was not born last year!”

Then the Wolf said, “You feed in my pasture.”

“No, good sir,” replied the Lamb, “I have not yet tasted grass.”

Again the Wolf said, “You drink water from my well.”

“No,” exclaimed the Lamb, “I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother’s milk is both food and drink to me.”

Upon which the Wolf seized the Lamb and ate him up, saying, “Well! I won’t remain supper-less, even though you refute every one of my accusations.”

Moral: The tyrant will always find an excuse for his tyranny.

(Wolf-in-Panda's-clothing image from Nelson Minar)

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UPDATE:  Here's a blast from the not-so-distant past.  Taiwan's Chinese Communist-funded newspaper, the China Post, argues that Vietnam is solely to blame for tensions in the South China Sea.

Yeah, you heard me:  Vietnam.  Not China.  (Please don't ask the paper to speak ill of Communist governments that lavish it with heaps of advertorial money...)

It's true that Vietnam is trying to manufacture a war scare over the Spratly Islands, a large archipelago that rides atop very rich oil reserves in the South China Sea.

The way the paper makes common cause with their ultra-nationalist brethren across the Taiwan Strait should raise a few eyebrows, too:

We are positive that no armed conflict will occur over the Spratlys. Despite the hollow saber-rattling, Vietnam and the Philippines have no stomach for a war against Taiwan and China. [emphasis added]

Taiwan AND China.  Interesting proposal for a military alliance there.

Yet another reason why Taiwan will never be offered F-16C/D fighters...

Action, Meet Opposite And Equal Reaction

Google must have figured out I was perusing sites about rare earths after China recently cut off its supply, both to Japan and to the West. So today, AdSense intuited that I might wish to see a banner ad for this site (a Mongolian rare earth mining venture).

Give them credit: that "Checkmate China!" slogan certainly DOES attract one's attention...

The company's transport lines do that, as well. Can anyone spot which neighboring country they AVOID sending cargo through? Why, it's almost as though they anticipate China might engage in politically-motivated export interruptions, or something . . .

Bright lads. Noticing that China's notorious unreliability as a supplier represents a unique marketing opportunity -- for the competition.

(Image from RareEarthExporters.com)

Taiwan's China Post On Zhongnanhai's Payroll

Till today, I never knew the fellow-travellers there were actually on the take -- receiving advertorial money on a regular basis from the Butchers of Beijing.

From their grotesque opposition to defensive weaponry for Taiwan, to their sly anti-Dalai Lama rhetoric, to their enthusiastic support of the Politburo's demeaning "Chinese Taipei" appellation for the R.O.C., down to their unseemly cheerleading for the modern Chinese economic model (& on occassion, its political leadership as well) -- all these stances for several years now have made the paper's sell-out apparent to all.

But I'd always chalked-up the KMT mouthpiece's new-found pro-Communist leanings to the sentiments of Chinese ultranationalists who had made their peace with 'Communism' (if not 'communism'). How wrong I was.

As the paper was once fond of saying, cui bono?

That's Latin for, "Who benefits?" Or in the modern vernacular, "Follow the money".

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.

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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:

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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.

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.

 
(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.

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.

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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.

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.

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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)

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.

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* 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.

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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.

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?

The Chinese Charm Offensive

Beijing's bellicosity wins friends and allies -- for America.  Danke schoen, Kaiser Hu Jintao.

Incidentally -- and I speak only hypothetically -- if China is justified in waging economic war against Japan over the Senkaku Islands, wouldn't America be justified in waging economic war against China for its currency manipulation?  Robert J. Samuelson at the Washington Post seems to think so.

[Let's be clear though on this last point:  As an economic subsidiary of Communist China, Taiwan would suffer terribly from a Sino-American trade war.]

 

When It Absolutely, Positively, DOESN'T Have To Be There...

Google went Galt in China earlier this year, and perhaps it's high time that Japan followed its example.  Because both the Daily Yomiuri and Asahi Shimbun are reporting that Beijing is erecting politically-motivated customs trade barriers to cripple Japanese industry.  From the Daily Yomiuri:

Shanghai customs authorities informed major Japanese transport firms last Tuesday of a decision to immediately boost the ratio of imports and exports subject to sample inspections at the city's customs house from the previous 30 percent to 100 percent.

Shanghai's quarantine authorities have also raised the ratio of quarantine inspections of commodities from the previous 10 percent to 50 percent, they said.

Because of the subsequent delay in the clearance and quarantine procedures, many air cargoes bound for Japan, including electronics parts, remain in Shanghai, according to the sources.

Similar measures have been taken at many other customs houses, including those in Fujian, Guandong and Liaoning Provinces...

Meanwhile, Communist China is denying that it had ANYTHING to do with the decision of Chinese rare earth exporters to cease shipments of their products to Japan.  Just as they denyed that the equipment they moved into the East China Sea had ANYTHING to do with oceanic gas field drilling.

[Surprise, surprise -- the latest word is that the water near the Chinese offshore facility is dirty and turbid.  Which is just the sort of thing that one expects when AN UNDERWATER DRILL BIT MEETS SOLID ROCK.]

The Arctic Ocean Is, Was, And Always Shall Be A Part Of China's Sacred Territory!!!

I seem to have missed the big news. Story from March of 2010.

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?

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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."

Little Laogai On The Zambesi

People's "Liberation" Army of Communist China throws Zimbabwe an economic lifeline instruments of repression...gets blood diamonds in return.

‘You can write 1,000 stories, and print them 1,000 times, but it won’t make any difference,’ smirked the [unnamed Zimbabwean] official. ‘We have all the diamonds, so we have all the weapons — and we will kill anyone who tries to take anything from us.’ 

During an hour-long ­conversation, the intelligence source...also admitted that, without the Chinese pact, the ruling junta would have been driven from power. ‘But now we have all the guns we need,’ he said.

Winning hearts and minds by exporting the North Korean model.  Someday this'll all end in tears for the Chinese.

H/t to Instapundit.

Cheese Commercials Which "Hurt The Feelings Of The Chinese People"

After Zhongnanhai watches these Panda's are jerks! ads, can a major diplomatic row between Beijing and Cairo be far behind?

(Those living in countries bordering China will probably see a LOT of subtext in these ads.)

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UPDATE:  The original link, which has a larger player screen.

Drill, Baby, Drill?

Speculation that China may begin unilaterally drilling in a gas field, the ownership of which is disputed with Japan.  And that Japan may therefore follow suit.

All this is contingent on whether Beijing is lying or telling the truth about the purpose of some heavy equipment they've moved into the area -- which it claims is simply for maintainence work.

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UPDATE (Sep 19/10):  Starting to look like the Chinese Communist government was lying.  Aerial reconnaisance photos of the machinery appear to show that it's drilling equipment.

UPDATE #2:  Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara is quoted as saying, "Territorial disputes do not exist in this region."

In your dreams, pal.  Wherever China's borders lie, there's a dispute to be had.

UPDATE (Sep 20/10):  Rather than aping China's infantile behavior, Japan may instead take the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.  Good for them.

Pack Hunters

"You are an excellent tactician Captain. You let your second in command attack, while you sit and watch for weakness."

-Khan Noonien Singh, ST:TOS

Perhaps that's the only explanation I have for China's relatively mild reaction to the recent incident off the coast of Japan's Senkaku Islands.  I mean, think about it:  Japan arrests a P.R.C. fishing boat captain for violating Japanese waters, and what does Beijing do?

It blusters, dresses down the Japanese ambassador a few times, cancels a few underwater resource meetings, and sends a SINGLE fishery escort vessel.  (For good measure, it also leaves open the possibility that it "may not be able" to control anti-Japanese mob action.)

A relatively measured response, given that it's Communist China we're talking about.

Shortly thereafter though, Taiwan does a curious thing.  Remember, absolutely none of its mariners are cooling their heels in Japanese detention.  Yet despite this, President Ma Ying-jeou reacts far more militantly than the P.R.C., making the "independent" decision to dispatch not one, but twelve --- 12! --- coast guard ships to the Japanese islands.

Like the man said, the second-in-command plays the heavy.

While the boss sits back, watching for weakness.

 

(Khan image from Zaphodsheads.spaces.live.com)

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UPDATE:  The Chinese might be breaking their pledge not to drill in a disputed undersea gas field.  This, we don't know for sure, yet.

The Great Firewall Of...Sri Lanka?

Chinese IT specialists dispatched to Sri Lanka to help construct web censorship systems.

An old story, from Feb 2010.  Which I hadn't heard of until now.  Axis of authoritarianism indeed.