Since then we have seen Beijing's claims against Taiwan condemned as aggressive, despite the fact that every Western nation, including the U.S., has formally recognized or accepted China's claim to sovereignty over Taiwan. China's efforts to assert control over Tibet are also branded as aggression even though Tibet has never been recognized as an independent entity.
The US does not recognize Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan, and if Clark were living here with Chinese missiles point at him, he'd recognize them as aggressive as well.
Nevertheless, some interesting historical assertions in the article.
[Taiwan] [China] [Asia] [Japan]
2 comments:
Clark's commentary is just one of many he has written over the years in the Japan Times excusing China. In this latest one, he gets his history wrong (by suggesting that the US intervened in the Chinese civil war as a result of Korea, when in fact the US was already inolved by the time the KMT fled to Taiwan in 1949 and the Korean War didn't begin until the summer of 1950), praises Lee Kwan-yew as an "intelligent Chinese" (which he no doubt is) but makes no mention of the man's authoritarianism, excuses China's attack on India in 1962 (and ignores China's military actions against the Soviet Union in 1969 and Vietnam in 1979) and justifies China's occupation of Tibet (with no references of course to the ongoing Chinese attempt at erasing Tibetan cultural identity). Gregory Clark is a modern-day Edgar Snow, willing to overlook the more unpleasant aspects of China which might fog up his rose-colored glasses.
His sympathy towards the revolts of ethnic Chinese in Malaya and Sarawak (as a result of ethnic discrimination) also must be tempered by the fact that Clark is notorious among the foreign community in Japan for his contemptuos attitude towards those foreigners who fight discriminatory practices against non-Japanese in Japan by filing lawsuits among other actions (see http://www.freelists.org/archives/club99/02-2005/msg00011.html and http://groups.google.com/group/GregoryClarknet. Here's also an amazing commentary he wrote last February in the Japan Times. Note the final paragraph http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?rc20050213a3.htm). To put the man in an American perspective, he probably would have told Rosa Parks that her proper place was at the back of the bus.
Thanks! That's the impression I got from reading the two commentaries I've seen from him. I understand authoritarians -- unlimited power is enticing. What I don't understand is their apologists.
Michael
Post a Comment