Up today over at the anthro blog Savage Minds is a hilarious map showing A Taiwanese View of the World.Also up is the new issue of China Security, which focuses on the Taiwan issue. The TOC:
More Carrot Than Stick: Beijing’s Emerging Taiwan Policy PDF 535KB Chong-Pin Lin
Peace Agreement: The Long Road Ahead PDF 195KB
Huang Jiashu
Wild Card: A Democratic Taiwan PDF 241KB
Ted Galen Carpenter
Peace or War: Taiwan at a Critical Juncture PDF 146KB
Peng Guangqian
Ensnared by Beijing: Washington Succumbs to the PRC’s Diplomacy of Panic PDF 222 KB
Alan Wachman
Whither Taiwan-China Relations? PDF 226KB
Arthur S. Ding
Time for "New" Thinking on Taiwan PDF 218KB
Wang Jianwei
Change: Mainland’s Taiwan Policy PDF 167KB
Chu Shulong & Guo Yuli
How China "Wins" a Space War PDF 394KB Brian Weeden
And in Liberty Times today Antonio Chiang observes that one reason China doesn't want foreigners in central quake zone is that it is the area where China's nuke research labs are located.
[Taiwan]
I still say the main reason is so that the Chinese army can look like the only hero, after Wen Jiabao of course. The Chinese are in just a better position to go it alone than the Burmese.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I am disgusted at how quickly Burma has been forgotten in Hong Kong. News reports primarily show what is going on in Sichuan. Burma gets one minute later on. I hate to say one disaster is worse than another, but the fact remains that, whatever their motives, the Chinese leaders are not about to let this problem fall through the cracks when they have been under so much criticism for other things recently. They want everyone to see them and only them doing a good job.
The leaders of Burma are just nuts. There are already more confirmed dead there (government figure) and things will get a whole lot worse if aid cannot start flowing.
In Hong Kong, everyone asks for money for Sichuan only. It is starting to make me sick. I know that there is a tendancy to see the problems of your country as worse than the problems of other countries, however, let me just say bravo for good government spin!
If I heard correctly, on last night's Talking Show (大話新聞), Hsu Chi-chih (許啟智) said that China's weapons production and storage is done in the quake zone. (See the 08:25 mark of part 2-1 of the show, linked in the previous sentence.) If he knows what he's talking about, I bet there's lots there that the unelected Chinese leaders don't want foreigners (Taiwanese included) to see.
ReplyDeleteTim Maddog
It is beyond my comprehension to fathom why the Chinese would locate nuke facilities in a central quake zone. If they have sense enough to develop nukes, putting them in a delicate geography is really stupid. It is not a small island, after all.
ReplyDeleteUntil before the Tibet protests and the start of the Games season, foreign tourists could go to Sichuan without too much difficulty. What would prevent them from spying on the same nuke facilities? This question is what keeps me from thinking that the interdiction of foreign aid groups is about nuke facilities. The same places have never been off limits before.... unless there has been some damage that the Chinese don't want others to see.
ReplyDeleteI still think that the real reason is the desire to score a PR coup.
Hey, that's why we hit China with our H.A.A.R.P which causes the earthquake. Viva Nikola Tesla! Okay, I am crazy...
ReplyDeleteHi thomas,
ReplyDeleteI feel that it's very natural to have increased news coverage of a disaster in your home country, compared to one in another country.
It is unfortunate and slightly inhumane, but the same thing happens in every other country. Although many more people are suffering in disasters elsewhere, the US will cover hurricanes, tornadoes and illegal immigrants more promptly and in more passionate detail than a desert famine in Africa.
People just relate to their own countries better.