tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post2657083837059155357..comments2023-10-22T18:25:39.688+08:00Comments on The View from Taiwan: Foreign Policy VignettesMichael Turtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-70072685196308689922010-11-19T06:26:28.527+08:002010-11-19T06:26:28.527+08:00What the hell? These people are overseas Chinese....What the hell? These people are overseas Chinese. You, of all people, should be up in arms cheering on a divorce between overseas Chinese communities and "Taiwan".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-79965820314657934112010-11-18T23:34:19.309+08:002010-11-18T23:34:19.309+08:00Well said, Michael.
Thanks.
DonWell said, Michael.<br /><br />Thanks.<br /><br />DonDonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01071798130626903767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-29999935036713960102010-11-18T21:38:34.684+08:002010-11-18T21:38:34.684+08:00For the past two years, Japanese and Taiwanese new...For the past two years, Japanese and Taiwanese new leaders have been attuning their public opinion to a China-friendly mood.<br /><br />Former DPJ PM Hatoyama's dream of "friendly seas" required gutting the US-Japan alliance to better cozy up to China. His China-slanted platform, both in its domestic and foreign policy sections, reads like a page taken from Ma's book on how to sell out. Both men have been dealt merciless dope-slaps by their intended partner.<br /><br />For the time being, at least, Zhongnanhai seems to favor the more polarized Asia-Pacific area that it knows. Feel-good friends of China are welcome in all walks of life but not in government, they seem to intimate. You must admire how masterfully they are burning the bridges their friends have staked their political survival on building. <br /><br />But to what end? What does Zhongnanhai read in the breeze that those China-huggers could not? Is not that onslaught of friendly vibes that spooked them the most? Did they foresee a threat to their grip on power?<br /><br />And there’s another aspect of the Chinese simple, no-nonsense way of thinking. When they size up Japan or Taiwan against the hulk the US represents, their response can only be, “who cares about you, dwarves? Bugger off!!”<br /><br />Taiwan and Japan are only relevant as specks which the gaze relies on to eventually focus on the lap of China’s Shangrila (桃源郷), America. Look at the landscape from China, and Taiwan is snuggly tucked right there. It’s feng-shui on a global scale. <br /><br />Take US-occupied Japanese Taiwan out (tsk, tsk! don’t bother even raising an eyebrow, it’s the Chinese view we are talking about here), take US-occupied Japanese Taiwan out, I said, and the whole balance goes awry, the painting looks dull. Which do you like best, China’s culturally, esthetically rooted view of Taiwan in the grand scheme, or ours –<br />Taiwan, the outpost on the trail to that last American frontier?<br /><br />The best part of acquiring something is spent drooling over it. Once you have it, it can prove high maintenance and burdensome. A lesson America paid billions of aid dollars to Taiwan for learning.jerome in valsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-88558141679372778772010-11-18T12:17:22.454+08:002010-11-18T12:17:22.454+08:00it's disheartening when the foreigner blogosph...it's disheartening when the foreigner blogosphere can call stuff like this, but the damn <em>president of the country</em> doesn't get it. you keep asking "<em>what did he expect?</em>" clearly, he has no idea what the Chinese are going to do to him and his party! pitiful....MJ Kleinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16859263977094071677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-13340363333785434292010-11-18T09:17:52.544+08:002010-11-18T09:17:52.544+08:00"Also, buying me beers when you come to Taipe..."Also, buying me beers when you come to Taipei would certainly help relations...."<br /><br />Aha! Is that a good tip for avid century bikers?<br /><br />FiantAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com