Posted on 10/18/2001 10:02:07 PM PDT by super175
Most Chinese people - along with most of the international community - think the central Government's decision to side with the United States and its partners in the fight against international terrorism is Beijing's wisest decision in a decade.
President Jiang Zemin, who was among the first foreign leaders to telephone President George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, has handled the crisis well. He has condemned the September 11 assaults, expressed his shock and condolences to the American people, and reiterated his full support for the fight against terrorism.
In the past, Beijing has disappointed its people with poor foreign-policy decisions - for example, the central Government has been soft on Japan and stayed mute when Pakistan's military staged a coup two years ago.
The worst episode was in 1990, when Beijing abstained in the United Nations Security Council's vote endorsing the use of force to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait. China has been victimised by Japanese and other foreign aggression, so most Chinese are baffled as to why their government is sympathetic towards Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
China's unconditional support of the US-led war against terrorism is refreshing for the world and the people of China. A week after the attacks, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan went to Washington on a trip that had been scheduled earlier to prepare for this weekend's summit between Mr Jiang and Mr Bush at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting in Shanghai. During Mr Tang's visit, the two countries agreed to share intelligence that might aid the Bush administration's war on terrorism. Soon after, Beijing sent a delegation of counter-terrorism experts to Washington to explore avenues of co-operation.
But for most Chinese, humiliations at the hands of America - for instance, the US-led Nato bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May 1999, and the mid-air collision of a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet resulting in the loss of the fighter pilot in April this year - are still fresh in the mind.
Chinese people simply do not believe US claims that the embassy bombing was an accident because they think US intelligence systems are too sophisticated to allow such an error. As for the spy-plane incident, most Chinese are less concerned with the actual cause of the accident than with the fact that the US was spying on their country. Most insulting, in their view, is Washington's dismissal of its surveillance activities as "routine" and its resumption of such flights shortly after the accident.
Given this angry backdrop, many Chinese, although shocked, took some solace in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon because they revealed America to be as vulnerable as China. These people believe that to some extent the US Government's unilateral policies are to blame. That does not mean they think Islamic extremists are blameless or that ordinary American people deserve to be hurt, just that the US has reaped what it has sown.
There are plenty of reasons for Beijing to co-operate with the US-led international coalition against terrorism. This will burnish China's international image, improve its relations with Washington and legitimise its fight against terrorism in Xinjiang province, where pro-independence Islamic extremists periodically stage violent attacks.
Initially, Beijing might have attempted to link its co-operation with US support for its fight against separatists in western China and Taiwan, but it later decided this was unwise during such a crisis. But Beijing might still be concerned that US retaliation against Afghan-supported terrorist organisations could result in a long-term US presence in Central Asia and an expansion of Japan's military role.
Sino-American relations are at a crossroads. The US should stop demonising China, which cannot be a "strategic competitor" for the foreseeable future, even though Beijing prefers a multi-polar world. And China should initiate political reforms and abandon its policy of making the fight against US hegemony its security priority. In fact, the Chinese people and the American people are friends - it is just their governments that do not get along. One lesson to be drawn from the September 11 attacks is that it is much safer to make friends than enemies.
When Beijing and Washington drop their Cold War mentalities, they will find they are more constructive partners than strategic competitors. They will find a new world in which all people can live peacefully and co-operatively.
All the nations of the world - especially such powers as China, Russia and the US - are re-evaluating their foreign policies after the terrorist attacks. Most noticeably, Washington is co-operating more with the UN and its member countries and is involved more in the Middle East peace negotiations (the US has even come out in support of a Palestinian state).
The US-led military strikes on Osama bin Laden, who is alleged to have masterminded the September 11 attacks, and the Taleban regime harbouring him in Afghanistan have so far been proper and limited, although some hawks in the Pentagon want to expand the war.
These are signs that a new world is coming and Beijing and Washington should seize this opportunity.
Zhang Tianguang (zhangtianguang@yahoo.com) is a senior engineer who studied American Studies, as a civilian, at the PLA's Foreign Language University in Luoyang, Henan province.
It is true the comfort women sufferred a lot in the Japanese army. No question about it. The dispute here is: "Were they forced to become comfort women?" Some Taiwanese said, after interviewing the women, many of them joined the Japanese army voluntarily. There are differences between the women from Japan, Korea and Taiwan and those who were taken by the Japanese amry from China and other Japanese-occupied countries. Korea and Taiwan were Japanese colonies at the time and they were viewd like Japanese citizens. The nationalist sentiments encouraged those women to take part in the war in order to serve the Emperor. There were also professional prostitutes who liked to take advatege of the opportunity to boost their social status and make money. The Japanese culture and values are weird in that men have the natural right to abuse women, which is still true even today to some extent. If you looked at the pictures of the Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese comfort women captured by the allied forces in WWII, you wouldn't believe they were mistreated. Some looked shy. Others looked indifferent. Because Taiwanese were treated like second citizens by the Japanese it was a privilige for Taiwanese girls to marry Japanese men. There has been enough evidence showing Japanese atrocity in China and other countries, but I have never seen the facts that shows Japanese did so in Taiwan. Otherwise there wouldn't have been such pro-Japnese sentiments in Taiwan.
It's not my problem. Those Taiwanese don't think they are Chinese.
>>Lee was and is a lier and betrayed his own people.
Politicians always lie. No big deal. The point is Lee's own people don't think he betrayed them. They always vote for him.
US is going back 50 years to Taiwan's time or Taiwan was doing the right thing?
Don't forget we are at "WAR".
1. The Chinese are only interested in fighting terrorism b/c it currently suits them. Remember President Bush said "...you are either with us or against us .." and they currently do not have the military strength to take on the US so they have to bide their time
2. According to the '95 article by Bodansky on Beijing's surge for the Straits of Malacca, many of the islamic insurgents are financed, supported, trained by the Iranians and Pakistanis with Chinese support. These insurgents are causing regional problems that diverts US attention from what they are doing and that is building up their army to project power to regain a certain amount of clout in Asia.
3. The Chinese government is not a democracy; it is a military dictactorship that uses all means to further its goals. Those means can be overt with trade or covert as espionage (Los Alamos nuclear spy story), money (Clinton's money trail), buying of satellite technology, and on and on.
4. The article and I believe that we will be at war with them before 2010. So why do let them rise?
I say that we must take much more pro-active approach to this war, including ditching the rule book, more disinformation, jamming the signal from Al-Jeezera and replacing it with our own Al-queda broadcast of misinformation to areas where they have support to divide and conquer, etc.
I really wish that we would have waited for the winter to set in before attacking. We would have pulled our food aid and the Taliban would have to fill the void in feeding their people. Cameras could have filmed the dying children and asked the Taliban why don't they help their brethen instead of protecting a foreigner. On top of that their fighters would have to fight in much more difficult conditions, we can use thermal imaging to see what is going on, even at night, etc. However, now we need to finish them off. Let's also make sure we don't take prisoners.
Actually, 100% true - there were women who signed.
Professional prostitutes very logically thought working for the government would be a better deal and many joined up. It turned out they were wrong.
Japanese of course forced a lot more in to it.
There is too much poltical correctness, ChiCom style, on this issue. Your comment is an example of that. It makes so simple stements of history can't be made without someone saying good grief give me a break.
At the same time there are those whould would use the fact that women did voluntarily sign up to try and distort history to make it seem like most or all did it voluntarily or that Japan's actions were't so bad.
Perhaps all the women involved in this were forced in to it, Ma backs off promise to rid Taipei of prostitution
I'm talking about the comfort women from Japan, Korea and Taiwan, not the Japanese atrocity.
>>Try telling any Korean old enough to remember those days that they were "viewed as Japanese citizens."
Korea was a different case. Koreans fought fiercely against the Japnese invasion in the beginning and many people died during the resistance. They set up a government in exile in Shanghai and resistance forces in Manchuria after Korae was annexed to Japan. They never stopped fighting for their independence. However, Japan didn't have such resistance in Taiwan. Looks like many Taiwanese welcomed the Japanese occupation and they even abandoned their Chinese names and started speaking Japanese. One of the examples was Lee Teng Hui, who volunteered to join in the Japanese army to fight against the allied forces. Every year on the day of the anniversary of the Japanese surrender, Taiwanese celebrate the END of war, not the V-J day, in Japanese tradition, singing imperial amry's songs, raising Japanese flags. Some Japanese said today the true Japanese spirit can only be found in Taiwan, not in Japan. The current vice-president of Taiwan went to Japan a few years ago to thank the Japanese for defeating China's Qing dynasty and annexing Taiwan to Japan.
They could do a lot of damage.
Personally I think this whole 'China is helping the Taliban' thing stems from the fact that some Chinese authorities are trying to find a way to contain that threat. The threat is far more than just in the West too. There are Muslims all over China.
The Muslims inside of China (not just the in the West) could well represent another 'hui' inside of China. In CCP eyes, "hui" = popular uprising.
If they try to crush all the Muslims then they have a problem for sure. Therefore the only other option is to make friends. That is most likely exactly why the Taliban was invited to Beijing a few years back, etc.
They might not think the Taliban is all that great, only they tell them "you are so nice" "let me buy you dinner..."
In Chinese there is a saying "kou shi xin fei", in other words 'smile, shake hands, pat them on the back, but in their hearts they think 'what an SOB'... such is totally Chinese. To the West it looks reeal bad though. It looks like they might have some kind of guanxi (relationship)...still no one knows...
People of Hui nationality are actually Hans who converted to Muslims. They don't want separation. What do you mean by "uprising"? Uprising for what? Many Huis in the cities don't follow muslim rules, they eat pork and drink alchole. They never pray Alah.
>>If they try to crush all the Muslims then they have a problem for sure.
Why do they have to crush ALL the muslims?
>>That is most likely exactly why the Taliban was invited to Beijing a few years back, etc.
It's not only for crushing Xinjiang separatist. The doctrine of Chiense diplomacy is to make an many friends as possible, especially with those who are from the developing countries and abandoned by the western countries.
>>In Chinese there is a saying "kou shi xin fei", in other words 'smile, shake hands, pat them on the back, but in their hearts they think 'what an SOB'... such is totally Chinese.
That's not a virtue in Chinese culture.
>>To the West it looks reeal bad though.
To the Chinese it looks even worse.
Hui jiang de hui...
Meaning like an organization, or a secret society of sorts...
The KMT ran their comfort women stations for decades after the war as well.
Iris Chang has nothing to do with this.
This is now a politically correct issue used by victocrats who hold prejudice against Japan.
We all know how horrible the Japanese were.
But some seek to use historical atrocity for their own political benefit today. ChiComs are top on the list.
Right. The difference is it's a shame for Koreans to be the elite in the Japanese colonial times,but for Taiwanese it's glorious. In China who who collabrated with the Japanese are Han Jian (traitors) and the KMT executed many Han Jian's after WWII. I believe the KMT also executed such traitors in Taiwan and confiscated their properties. Maybe that's one of the reasons those Taiwanese hate the KMT.
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