Sunday, December 06, 2015

Chen Deming goes Godwin


'Where such laws hold,' said Gandalf, 'it is also the custom for ambassadors to use less insolence. But no one has threatened you. You have naught to fear from us, until your errand is done. But unless your master has come to new wisdom, then with all his servants you will be in great peril.'

Brainless, belligerent PRC envoy to the KMT went all Godwin this week, comparing DPP Presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen and her popularity to Hitler (TT):
Chen said that while people do make correct judgements, sometimes it takes time for them to gain an understanding of the problems, citing Germany under the rule of Hitler during World War II as an example.

“The German people elected Hitler as their leader with a big majority, which in the end caused a tragedy that was mourned by the whole world. Germany was the victim and the German people were subjected to the greatest woes,” Chen was quoted as saying.
The Hitler comparison caught a lot of attention among foreigners, but in fact Chen was threatening to kill Taiwanese and take their island in the usual PRC manner: Tsai would lead them to disaster! The disaster is the PRC attack on Taiwan, of course.

ALSO: Frozen Garlic has a laff.

UPDATE: Commenter observes:
Apart from the stupidity to refer to Hitler at all, there are at least two factual errors/misrepresentations in this short paragraph by Chen Deming: Hitler himself was never elected at all let alone with a big majority. His party became the strongest party in 1933 but only got a small majority together with the Conservatives above the other parties.

To name Germany a 'victim' blandly disregards all the other countries and peoples who were hit much harder during WW II. It also neglects that Germany started WW II in the first place. This is revisionism of history, a technique not unknown to the PRC (and many other countries). btw I'm German
_______________
Daily Links;


_______________________
Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apart from the stupidity to refer to Hitler at all, there are at least two factual errors/misrepresentations in this short paragraph by Chen Deming: Hitler himself was never elected at all let alone with a big majority. His party became the strongest party in 1933 but only got a small majority together with the Conservatives above the other parties.
To name Germany a 'victim' blandly disregards all the other countries and peoples who were hit much harder during WW II. It also neglects that Germany started WW II in the first place. This is revisionism of history, a technique not unknown to the PRC (and many other countries).
btw I'm German

Anonymous said...

The Hitler comparison has a different connotation to foreigners as opposed to Taiwanese. Many Taiwanese, especially the older generation, typically have a positive impression of Hitler as an ally. The worldview of many Taiwanese is the same as the Japanese worldview. There are many shops, restaurants, and other businesses in Taiwan and Japan today that are named in honor of Hitler.

Anonymous said...

Can't we agree that Hitler, like Mao, was 2/3 good and 1/3 bad?

I think Nazi comparisons are very apt, as long as we are speaking of one-party states with revanchist or irredentist policies, and /or serious violations of human rights and minority rights. If I struggle I may be able to think of a regional example.

Anonymous said...

To Anon at 4:13 AM:

The Mao comparison has a different connotation to foreigners as opposed to Taiwanese. Many Taiwanese, especially the older generation, typically have a negative impression of Mao as an enemy. The worldview of many foreigners is the same as the Chinese worldview. There are many shops, restaurants, and other businesses in the West and China today that are named in honor of Mao.

==> Distance makes things look blur and less threatening.

Anonymous said...

Nazi Germany was of course a former ally of both the KMT (1933 to 1941) and Imperial Japan (1940-1945, making for an awkward overlap period), so the two most recent colonial overlords of Taiwan can both lay claim to being friends with Hitler.

Unknown said...

Anonymous@December 6, 2015 at 11:55 PM
So you're saying it wasn't Poland who started the war by refusing to reunite peacefully with Germany and Russia?

"To name Germany a 'victim' blandly disregards all the other countries and peoples who were hit much harder..." Germany was it harder than pretty much anyone else else except for the other three countries that started the war: Italy, Russia and Japan. I'm not sure how I would rank the four that started the war in comparison to each other but they seem to have been hit the hardest compared to everyone else.

Unknown said...

Quite a coincidence that we would be talking about the start of WWII today.

an angry taiwanese said...

@anonymous
To my knowledge, the Japanese Empire did not promote NAZI agenda or propoganda in Japan, let alone Taiwan, before or during WWII. The Taiwanese populace at that time, except a dozen of elites, cared only where the next meal would be, and if they got extra for their gods in festivals.
Whenr KMT arrived in Taiwan, this Chinese nationalist party tacitly put NAZI in a favorable light for the reason you know why. Election 2016 is another battle against those Chinese colonial nationalists.

Mike Fagan said...

"There are many shops, restaurants, and other businesses in the West and China today that are named in honor of Mao."

And the owners of those establishments are very likely cunticulated twats of the first water.

Anonymous said...

Found a Chinese restaurant named Chairamn Mao in ANZAC Parade, Kensington, NSW. A tad ironic. Signature dish is CM's favourite - "... slowly cooked pork belly, its striations of fat and skin rendered to blubbery softness.' hhhmmm - and 30 million wretches were out there starving!

Anonymous said...

Putting the record straight on whether or not Hitler was elected: he was:
"In 1933, Hitler emerged triumphant from democratic elections during a long German constitutional crisis that had already centralised power in the office of the chancellor. His National Socialist party .... claimed a staggering 230 [seats] in July 1932, falling to 196 in November 1932. Hitler was named chancellor of a coalition government in January 1933 ......" from Black Earth - The Holocaust as History and Warning" by Timothy Snyder.

Unknown said...

I've lived in America for quite a long time and have never seen a restaurant or anything else honoring Mao here. The closest I've seen are old photographs (from the 1960s or early 70s) with idiots wearing a Mao suit or carrying his red book. I've seen people honoring Che and even Castro, but not Stalin or Mao who were in a whole nother league. I have seen a very few things that could be considered pro-Hitler but I think those were more in the interest of trying to shock and offend than there were actually infavor of Hitler. The big three murderers of the 20th century don't get much honor here.

cephaloless said...

@Anonymous of 12:24PM

Need some work on reading comprehension: Hitler was NOT elected.

"... Hitler['s National Socialist party] emerged triumphant from democratic elections ... claimed a staggering 230 [seats]"

"Hitler was named [selected and appointed by President Hindenburg; maybe some solicited opinions but no votes counted] chancellor of a coalition government in January 1933"

Any one have some more on prevailing attitudes in China/Taiwan on Hitler?

Anonymous said...

Most of the Taiwanese I know know that Hitler is a no no. That's why there's an Attack by comparing to Hitler in the first place. But personally I do know one person with a SS fetish, but that's probably just chuunibyou syndrome. (But a Jewish paper did criticize our underestimation and dismissal of that fetish as comedic, several years ago, when someone flew that flag, as a lack of awareness of the seriousness of that offense)
Met Three black Panthers, in the states of course, who spoke highly of the little red book; when asked about opinion on Mao, they evaded it by saying that people should think and judge based on their own findings.
As for the Chinese, they seem to feel and know about Hitler as much as we do, funny little mustache, angry video, that is. On the internet, that's another story;revisionists abound, on neoleft forums, people who blame the famine on liberals instead of Mao tend to defend Hitler too; many alternative history novels that side with the Nazi on qidian.com