A rare light moment from the Senkaku mess this week as Taiwan-based "activists" seek to sue the Japanese government for "emotional distress" caused by Japanese resistance to their illegal and provocative incursion into the Senkakus last month. Gee, d'ya suppose someday all 1.3 billion Chinese might sue the world for emotional distress?
Maybe I shouldn't give them any ideas....
From the realm of propaganda: Stephen Harner in Forbes with a transparently awful piece on how China really owns the Senkakus. It follows the standard Chinese propaganda line -- blaming Japan for being provocative, wrongly citing history, and as a special bonus, even claims Okinawa was autonomous in 1885! You'll be unsurprised to find that he runs a financial/consulting business in Shanghai.
Also from the realm of propaganda... this one will really make your blood boil. Back in 2009 the Ma Administration released as set of highly chauvinist cartoons depicting ECFA opponents as Taiwanese hicks and ECFA supporters as educated, intelligent people (post). Part of that drill was the appointment of the notorious Yen Ching-piao as "spokesman." MOFA has done it again, this time with the Senkaku claims of the ROC on video. This revolting pile of crap, in Taiwanese, has a couple of comedians presenting the claims, and scarily, linking love of Taiwan with support for the ROC claim. It gives a powerful insight into the way these Deep Blue China expansionists think about the Taiwanese. Very sad.
Fortunately, longtime scholar Bruce Jacobs produced an excellent piece on the shoddy scholarship that underlies the Chinese claim to the Senkakus.
UPDATED: A friend observes:
Speaking of the video, MOFA minister David Lin believes that: "The film features the complicated and subtle themes in an interesting, funny and easy-to-understand style," cf. http://focustaiwan.tw/
While Jiang Yi-hua says today that the Cost Guard will continue to escort Taiwanese fishermen in the Senkakus zone: http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?
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5 comments:
Sue Japanese gov't for "emotional distress"?
If DJP was in power they'd have a goof chance. But Abe
might counter sue, and I hope he does.
" ... with a transparently awful piece ..."
from another awful Stephen Harner piece
The U.S. Could Have Prevented the Senkaku/Diaoyu Crisis. Why Did It Not?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenharner/2013/02/14/the-u-s-could-have-prevented-the-senkakudiaoyu-crisis-why-did-it-not/
More to the most critical point, why did the United States—which could have vetoed Japanese ‘nationalization’ of the islands, the action that guaranteed a full blown crisis—not do so?
Let me repeat: it was U.S. acquiescence in (if not encouragement of) the Noda government’s decision to nationalize the disputed islands—creating a direct and immediate challenge to China’s claim to sovereignty—that enabled this crisis.
These articles are beyond awful.
According to Chinese history taught in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Okinawa was a small protectorate nation of the Ching dynasty, but was invaded by Japan, and the Ching was too corrupted and cowed to response to the call for help, so it became part of Japan. If you ever visited Okinawa, you can actually hear about the same version from the original Okinawa people.
To 1ctCMalaysia:
Forces from the Shimazu clan, based in Satsuma (present-day Kagoshima)on the Japanese island of Kyushu, attacked and subjugated the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1609. For the next 260 years or so (up until the Meiji Restoration), the Shimazu ruled over the Ryukyus, but maintained the illusion of an independent kingdom paying tribute to first the Ming, and then Qing dynasties. This was done to allow the Shimazu clan to get around the closed-nation policy of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and conduct trade with China. Following the overthrow of the shogun's government in 1868, in 1872 the new Japanese government dissolved the Ryukyu monarchy, and then in 1879 formally annexed the islands as Okinawa Prefecture.
If you visit Okinawa today, you might hear about how the Shimazu daimyo ruthlessly taxed and exploited the people of the Ryukyu Kingdom over the course of 2 1/2 centuries. What you won't hear is the fantasy tale being taught to students in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.
What's up with the video? It says it's private, was it taken down? What was the title, is it possible to find it elsewhere? Thanks...
You have hurt the feelings of the [1.35 billion] Chinese people! You'll be hearing from our lawyers...
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