A taste of American politics part 5

Note: If you are new here, read this then this, first.


During the Super Bowl last week, there was an ad for a Senator's reelection campaign that many deemed, racist. See for yourself (if its not taken down):



Take note of the rice patties and broken English.

Unity/politics

Dear Chinese guy

Why do Chinese people have no political power in the UK?

Kayce


Dear Chinese guy

How come casual racism seems almost accepted in British society? Why has it become acceptable? My work colleagues talk about Chinese food as Chinky food.

Brian.


Dear Kayce/Brian

Its a simple question of numbers and unity. The Chinese population in the UK is somewhere around 600,000 people, which out of about 62 million is absolutely nothing. The fact that we are spread out all over the place unlike Muslims who are concentrated in Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford and London. Politicians are focusing their efforts on the bigger shares of the votes. I.e. the natives then the majority groups in their areas. Chinese people are not a majority group anywhere in the UK.

I mean when living in the South West people looked at me as if I were an alien or something.

Therefore since we represent so few votes politicians completely ignore us.

Secondly the lack of unity. I've written before that China is not one country. It is more like the USA - United States. China is similar in structure (if not in politics) in that it is a union of provinces under a sort of federalised centralised government. Its a bit like when I see Americans on their travels, a lot of them don't seem to call themselves Americans. They'll say I'm from Texas or I'm from California or Ohio or something (though this may well just be the lack of interaction than any Representative view).

Therefore while an outsider sees a group of Chinese people as 'Chinese people' They aren't Back in the 70s it was Hakka people Vs Cantonese people. Today its Fujian, Hakka, Hong Kong, Cantonese, Malaysians etc. Although they have commonish roots they are different.

The lack of unity is exacerbated by the fact there is less unity than other communities in other ways and less intermingling. Muslims and Indians have religion and worship to get them to join together and discuss problems they have. They are obliged to attend such forced gatherings while Chinese are not.

The Wai Yin Society in Manchester for instance the attendance is low, very low. You go sit in the waiting area at any Chinese restaurant for tea and only people who know each other talk to each other.

All of the above means there is no unity and no political power and thus we're ignored completely.


Which leads onto Brian's point, because there is no unity there is no pressure to change things. I.e. Chinese communities in general tend not to fight back.

Consider the Islamic community about 20 years ago. When Salmand Rushdie wrote the Satanic verses he had to go in hiding for decades due to the unified death threats against him.

A few years ago there was a play which was considered inflamitory to the Sikh community, they held a massive protest and applied political pressure to get it closed down after a few.

While


Oriental themed parade.... yellowed up people, coolie hats, fu-manchu costumes, stereotypical BS which doesn't actually exist. Even people pulling their eyes for news paper photos. Even bowing and the stupid Thai hands together praying sort of greeting. TCG does none of those things.

The Chinese community response? Nada nowt nothing, well one strongly worded letter to a shopper newspaper. No outcry, no violence to stop it......... hey nobody complained which means its OK....

For starters the PRC doesn't care about us. (The UK foreign office does semi look after British tourists trapped overseas). Thus there is nobody to challenge such casual racist attitudes. With a less confrontational society we're raised in few people challenge these sorts of things. I don't always challenge such things 100% Sunday for instance on board a small light aircraft somebody made a nasty comment to me. He should have known better as he's an old man. I was so very tempted to start a fist fight on board. He was most surprised when we got to the ground and I told him it wasn't funny and quite offensive.

And thus casual racism is to the natives seen as completely acceptable as apparently 'nobody complains about it'


Still blacking up these days after decades is no longer considered acceptable, maybe by 2030 it will be unacceptable to 'yellow up'

Voting

Dear TCG,

How do elections in Hong Kong work? I know it isn't completely democratic
but can you give more clear explanation than Wikipedia?

凱文



I'm afraid not, namely because I don't actually vote, no I am not a non voting felon either its just that tbh I don't believe in voting and believe it is an activism sponge when really only direct action works.

A Taste of American Politics Part 4

It just keeps getting better.




Heres a bonus video for the lolz

American Politics Part 4

Guess Hu's coming to Town

Chinese President Hu Jintao will be making a special visit to the White House later this week, and they will be rolling out the red carpet for him. With two state dinners, a state lunch with Biden, and a meeting with American CEO's over entering China's markets.

It will be Obama's first state visit by the Chinese President and it will be interesting to see what kind of dialogue will be exchanged. Obama was hammered for not being more assertive towards China during his visit there in 2009 and during the G8 summit. Diplomatically, America has been China's bitch lately. The US government has so far failed to get China to budge on its undervalued currency or lack of transparency. They also pretty much stuck a big middle finger in our faces by unveiling a new stealth fighter while Robert Gates was there to get them be more open about their military operations (even though many of the J-20's parts are American).

Most of Obama's administration officials have said to the press that they tend to be more assertive this time around although this may just lead to more finger pointing as Hu said in an interview with American newspapers that he wants the US to end the "cold war mentality" of the relationship. It will be interesting to see how this visit goes and what kind of (if any) progress is made. No matter how it goes, I sense that a new Cold War is going to start soon.

In the meantime, China's State Council Information Office will be broadcasting ads on American TV to boost China's image as a soft power. It will feature various Chinese celebrities such as Jackie Chan, Yao Ming and Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei. I will definitely post it here as soon as I can.

China trying to boost its image in America? Where have I seen that before?

Gee, I wonder if Hu will be staying in the White House China Room?

Thats right, two puns in one post!

50 cent?

Dear Chinese bloke.

Are 50 cent'ers real? Do they really exist? Or is it just a load of bollocks?

Berdn.


Dear Berdn.

Tbh I am not entirely sure. Btw for those who don't know what 50 centers are they are not fans of the famous rapper above no no they are something entirely different. The story goes that there is an army of 200,000-500,000 of them. They go around and make pro china posts and make posts which are an antithesis of ANY criticism of the CCP. For this they are paid 50cents US per post. Incidentally the TCG wishes he was paid 50 cents per post, by now I would probably have enough for a case of beer. It is alleged that scour the online universe and will attack, flame and go all ad hominem mostly on websites found in China hoping to drown out views which the CCP does not like. But are also spreading to the wider Internet to propagate their propaganda wars.

However I suspect that such an operation does exist in China to make the CCP look good. I mean think about it, in western economies and societies we have something called astroturfing. The British Labour party in power from 1997-2010 had no need to do this when they first got into power. But then they reneged on their promises and their popularity dropped like a stone. Thus there were carefully controlled media events. Such as this



Or the terrorist heckler incident Walter Wolfgang who was arrested by heavies as a terrorist.

Or when the labour party was caught editing Wikipedia to put themselves under a better light. Even the New Zealand government is involved with these sorts of astroturfing activities. They were even caught astroturfing support being totally pro ID cards here.

Hell the UK government even cheats in elections! With fraudulent postal voting or surprise snow ball in hell type events happen here. Heh no surprise that Labour wanted Diebold machines 'to encourage higher voter turn out."

So I ask you if an apparent free 'Representative democracy'* (It's not but I put this rather than explaining what it really is as it would take reams of time and space). Does such things to artificially generate support or will artificially do this to give the impression of support. Then why would China and the CCP be above this level of deception themselves?

However it is most probably not how the media portrays it.

For the Americans.

China is a repressive totalitarian state...

Hmm replace the word China with the name of another country.....

Currency Wars

Epic

UK pm goes to Beijing

In the news.

This prat

Is going to Beijing to attempt to seal vital business deals..... to talk about human rights and to improve exports.

Human rights? Erm the UK doesn't exactly have a stellar record of human rights anymore you know, we have a policy of torture we have extra judicial executions. We have detention without trial, thought crimes and as of 2 years ago we also have political prisoners. Pot kettle black?

Also I hope when he says exports he doesn't mean an export of more UK jobs, the economy is already bad already!

A taste of American Politics Part 3

With all of the squabbling and political mudslinging, there seems to be a trend of making China as a scapegoat for America's economic problems. While Chinese outsourcing is certainly a major part of the massive decline in US manufacturing jobs, you can't pin the collapse of the housing market or Wall Street market dives solely on them. Thank God this will be over in a few days. If Im not mistaken, political TV ads are banned in the UK and many other countries. We need those laws here.

First, some Pics:

And lets finish off with some NMA Win

A taste of American Politics

Problem China?

From China Hush:

“Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo on Friday October 8, 2010, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Obviously China is not happy about this, no news about the Nobel Peace Prize is reported on Chinese media; the name “Liu Xiaobo” along with “Nobel Peace Prize” became sensitive keywords which will give you empty search result on Baidu. The following article is probably the only thing you will find on China’s news sites.

(From Xinhua News) Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ma Chaoxu said on October 8, the Nobel Committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo is completely going against the purpose of the award, and also is an insult to the Peace Prize.

On October 8th, the Nobel committed awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. During the Q&A sessions Ma Chaoxu said, the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded “to someone who promotes national harmony, international friendship and disarmament; someone who works hard on holding and promoting peace meetings”, which is Nobel’s wish. Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced to imprisonment for violating the Chinese Law, his behavior was going in the opposite direction of the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee awarded such person is completely going against the purpose of the award, and also is an insult to the Peace Prize.

When Ma Chaoxu answered the question of whether Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize will affect Sino-Norway relations, he said, in the recent years, Sino-Norway relations have maintained sound development, which is beneficial to the interests of both countries and both countries’ people. However the Nobel Committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo is completely contradicting the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize, and also will damage the Sino-Norway relations.”

In a symbolic victory for human rights in China, political dissident Liu Xiaobo has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”. Despite threats from the Chinese government, the Peace Prize Committee awarded him the prize along with $1.5 Million cash, both of which he is unable to claim. Liu created Charter 08, a manifesto signed by thousands of Chinese calling for political reform. In response, the Chinese government did what it always does in this situation. They arrested him, gave him an unfair trial, and threw him in jail for 11 years. After he was awarded the prize, his wife disappeared, likely by the hands of the CCP. China also summoned their ambassador to Norway and said the award would hurt Sino-Norwegian relations, despite that the Nobel Prize Institute is independent from the government. The last time China was this mad was in 1989 when the Dalai Lama got the prize, but that was 20 years ago and the Tiananmen Square Protests were taking place, putting China in poor position to lash back at Norway. That has apparently changed now, and I bet next time a Chinese dissident is awarded the prize, the diplomatic consequences will be more severe.

New York Times

Asia Sentinel

One defends and the other conquers

The year is 1991. The Soviet Union has fallen and Operation Desert Storm is nearing its end. If you were a high officer in the People's Liberation Army, you would be shitting your pants.

You have just lost your most powerful ally and you are forced to watch as US forces lay waste to Saddam's armies, who are using technology similar to your own.

This was the reality for China at the time. It is likely that this is what triggered China's massive military growth since then. Over the past 20 years, the Pentagon has become increasingly concerned over the growth of China's military prowess.


As you may have been able to tell from my post on Red Dawn, the astonishing rapid growth of China’s military is of serious concern to me. I recently came across an article on China’s new Dong Feng 21D SSM. US security officials believe this missile is capable of sinking a Nimitz class Aircraft Carrier, something no country was ever capable of doing. It has always pondered me as to why China would need such sophisticated military equipment. China’s only real “enemy” is Taiwan, but they pose almost no threat. This could only mean that China feels threatened by the the US and the Western powers in general, but China has no reason to feel threatened by America as long as they do nothing too aggressive on the world stage. That brings up the question, what are China’s long term intentions? China’s military spending has had an annul increase in the double digits for over a decade. China claims all of that money is going toward “defense”, but as I said above, defense against what? Why do I feel this kind of military build up has been done before? By a certain island nation not far away less than a century ago?

Oh thats right! Japan! Despite having no real enemies, Japan spent the latter part of the 19th century building its military, with the intent of creating an empire in the pacific, particularly in attempt to usurp China as the reigning power of the eastern world. Surely enough, Japan soon invaded China in the first Sino-Japanese War, starting a deadly chain of events that would eventually lead to the Pacific War.

Now switch the positions of China and Japan, and keep in mind Japan is used by the United States to assert its influence in the pacific. Scary isn’t it? It leads me to wonder if China is attempting to challenge America’s influence in East Asia. So far it is only doing so through intimidation, but it doesn’t take much for things to turn bloody. Im not so sure China is intending on creating an empire, but they certainly see America as a roadblock in asserting dominance in East Asia. It seems like this military build up has the intention pushing America out through intimidation and if necessary, through force.

For those conspiracy theorists out there who want to dig into this topic more, there are some interesting documents worth reading:

United States Department of Defense: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China

This is an annual report to Congress issued by the Pentagon that assesses the threat posed by the PRC as well as other concerns regarding the People's Liberation Army.

A Critique of the China Threat Theory: A Systematic Analysis

China the US and Clashing Aims: A rising Superpower confronts a fading one

WikiLeaks - Category: China

The Rise of China a Security Threat?

World War III anyone?

Say No to Mandarin!

There is a war of words occurring in China. Literally. Since the PRC’s founding, the communist party has been pushing the country to adopt Putonghua (common speech) as a way to promote national unity. Putonghua is the establishment of adopting Beijing Mandarin as a lingua franca for all Chinese. While over 53% of Chinese already speak Mandarin natively, half of 1.3 billion people is still a lot. As a way to push Putonghua, the PRC government has banned using any dialect other than Mandarin in all television broadcasts, with the exception of Cantonese and Wu (Shanghainese) as they are the largest of the minority dialects. Non-Mandarin dialects are also discouraged in the public education system. Students can have their grades penalized for using Cantonese or other dialects.

Recently, the people of Guangzhou took to the streets under rumors that their TV broadcasts would mandate Mandarin. Many feel that the government is trying to replace all other dialects with Mandarin and that it will lead to a loss of identity.

While I agree that a national language is crucial for a strong unified nation, a national dialect is a little more of a hairy issue. In a country as vast and diverse as China, it becomes even more complex. In Imperial China, people rarely ventured far from their home villages (except for the Beijing bureaucrats). This resulted in thousands of dialects in different pockets all over China. It wasn’t unusual for the town over the mountain to speak another dialect. Ever since the Ming Dynasty, the government has tried to implement Beijing Mandarin as a national dialect. From then to the present day, it has been mostly successful. 53% of China speaks some accent of Mandarin but it took over 700 years. In the southeast of China, the mountainous terrain had isolated most communities from these national language efforts until modern times. As a result, lands from Shanghai to Guangxi still hold on to these pocket dialects, and they have firmly resisted Putonghua.

Democracy!

Here

as a continuation of this

Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, both nearing retirement, go different ways on reform

An intriguing talk by Premier Wen Jiabao in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has thrown light on Wen's intensifying discord with President and Chinese Communist Party Chief Hu Jintao.

While visiting Shenzhen on Aug. 20 and 21 to mark the 30th anniversary of the zone's establishment, Wen surprised local cadres and Chinese observers by appearing to criticize unnamed CCP officials for dragging their feet on reform.

After making a deep bow to the statue of Deng Xiaoping, the Chief Architect of Reform, Wen pointed out that CCP cadres "must continue to liberate their thinking and make bold explorations" in reform. "We cannot afford to stop," he warned. "More importantly, we must not retrogress." Wen reiterated that without the "guarantee" of political reform – which is seldom mentioned in the official media nowadays – "it will be impossible for the goal of economic reform and modernization to be realized." Then Wen repeated the well-known caveat that Deng had used against the party's conservatives: "If we don't push forward with reform, the only road ahead is perdition."

Who in particular was Wen targeting? An informed party source in Beijing said Wen, the nation's No. 2 leader, was laying into none other than the No. 1, President Hu. In his capacity as CCP General Secretary, Hu is responsible for the party's overall direction, particularly in relation to ideological matters.

In the past two years, Hu, in conjunction with conservative commissars in the Politburo such as Ideology Czar Li Changchun and Director of the Propaganda Department Liu Yunshan, has presided over old-style political campaigns to "Sinicize, modernize and popularize Marxism."

In internal sessions, Li and Liu have also slammed Wen for advocating political liberalization as well as the adoption of "universal values."

That Wen and Hu are not seeing eye to eye on ideological issues has also been indirectly confirmed by the fact that latter failed to show up in Shenzhen for the anniversary festivities.

This was despite the fact that Shenzhen authorities had from beginning this year begun preparations for a visit by Hu – not Wen – to mark the important milestone. Hu's predecessor as president and party chief, Jiang Zemin, was on hand to observe the SEZ's 10th anniversary in 1990 and 2000.

Moreover, Wang Yang, Party Secretary of Guangdong, where Shenzhen is located, is a protégé of President Hu's and a key member of Hu's Communist Youth League Faction.

Hold on if democracy doesn't work elsewhere (or rather sham democracy say Japan which has only ever had one party in power for the last 55 years) or one of two powers like the UK Tory or Labour. Which are the opposite sides of the same shitty coin, then how can China expect it to work and resolve their problems?

China must reform or die?

Link

Considering EVERYTHING which comes out in China is censored heavily, it is a big surprise that these comments came out and the general isn't dead or in a Laogai. Either the CCP is testing the waters or he has gone renegade.... I suspect they are testing the waters.

Either way the CCP looks to be more devious than first imagined.... in something I ghost wrote a few months ago. I wrote a conversation between Beth and Robert. Where they spot the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong (where this is 100% legal and allowed).... Copyright assignment says Nein about posting this conversation as it is no longer mine anymore. I swapped it for some £££ But it went like this. Effectively our democracies have become kleptocracies and broken. We have two party systems where nothing ever changes.

The painting of the government a different colour changes nothing. In the UK I mean how different really is Tory from Labour? While there might be some peripheral differences such as Tories being slightly more liberal (Anti ID cards) and Labour being heavily authoritarian. Effectively the puppet masters pulling the strings are the same. Like in the USSA* (see footnote).... erm I mean USA. the Politicians are controlled by the same big companies and interests.



In that in Taiwan Lee Teng Hui in the 1990s moved Taiwan to a democracy (NK calls itself a democracy too!). Yet Taiwan has pretty much STILL been ruled by the KMT old men as previously. So in effect nothing has changed, bar maybe the political prisoners are released. But the wholesale theft and kleptocracy keeps going on as normal

Henry Ford said something similar to this:

"Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black"


Interesting times, article is below verbatim.

A Chinese two-star general has warned his conservative Communist Party masters and firebrand People's Liberation Army colleagues that China must either embrace US-style democracy or accept Soviet-style collapse.

As officers of similar rank rattle their sabres against US aircraft carriers in the Yellow and South China seas, General Liu Yazhou says China's rise depends on adopting America's system of government rather than challenging its dominance off China's eastern coast.

''If a system fails to let its citizens breathe freely and release their creativity to the maximum extent, and fails to place those who best represent the system and its people into leadership positions, it is certain to perish,'' writes General Liu Yazhou in Hong Kong's Phoenix magazine, which is widely available on news stands and on the internet throughout China.

The fact of General Liu's article suggests China's political and ideological struggles are more lively than commonly thought, ahead of a rotation of leaders in the Central Military Commission and then the Politburo in 2012.

''The secret of US success is neither Wall Street nor Silicon Valley, but its long-surviving rule of law and the system behind it,'' he says. ''The American system is said to be 'designed by genius and for the operation of the stupid'.

''A bad system makes a good person behave badly while a good system makes a bad person behave well. Democracy is the most urgent thing, without it there can be no sustainable rise.''
General Liu was promoted recently from deputy political commissar of the PLA Air Force to political commissar of the National Defence University. His father was a senior military officer and his father-in-law was Li Xiannian, one of Chinese communism's ''Eight Immortals'' - and a one-time president of China.

While many of China's ''princelings'' have exploited their revolutionary names to amass wealth and power, General Liu has exploited his pedigree to provide protection to push his contrarian and reformist views.

But General Liu's latest writings are extraordinary by any standards. His article urges China to shift its strategic focus from the country's developed coastal areas, including Hong Kong and Taiwan - ''the renminbi belt'' - towards resource-rich Central Asia.

But he argues that China will never have strategic reach by relying on wealth alone. ''A nation that is mindful only of the power of money is a backward and stupid nation,'' he writes. ''What we could believe in is the power of the truth.

''The truth is knowledge and knowledge is power.''

But such national power can only come with political transformation. ''In the coming 10 years, a transformation from power politics to democracy will inevitably take place,'' he says.
General Liu inverts the lesson that Chinese politicians have traditionally drawn from the collapse of the Soviet Union - that it was caused by too much political reform - by arguing that reform arrived too late.

Since 2008 the Communist Party has steadily tightened the political screws to stifle dissent.
Many Chinese are concerned that reforms have been blocked by powerful military, security, corporate and family groups that benefit from the status quo.

General Liu was famously outspoken until he stopped publishing his essays about five years ago.
It is unclear how his latest article appeared and whether he has backing within the system.
Last year Hong Kong's Open magazine published a leaked report of one of General Liu's internal speeches which raised the taboo topic of how some generals refused to lead troops into Tiananmen Square in 1989.

General Liu returned to the subject of Tiananmen in his Phoenix article, saying ''a nationwide riot'' was caused by the incompatibility of traditional power structures with reform.
Link here:

USSA ~ I mean look at the bail outs, there is something fundamentally wrong with the fact that banks fuck it all up and the tax payer bails them out regularly

A nation divided.

Hey TCG,

You think China will separate into 2 or multiple nations anytime in the future? I just think that over billion people is too much of a task for one government?

Thanks
Marcus


Dear Marcus

For the most part China is already a divided nation. I don't mean the SAR Macau or SAR Hong Kong. Quite simply they have virtual SAR like states within their own borders.

Firstly there are SEZs, Special economic zones.

• Shenzhen
• Zhuhai
• Shantou
• Xiamen

Where commerce laws, taxes etc labour laws are all different in these zones. But as I said much earlier the autonomous zones are still really under control of the CCP anyway. Not to mention Taiwan and the Client state North Korea.

It is divided in other ways though, via ethnicity's, language, food and wealth. I think as I have touched on many times eventually there will be separatists. The CCP will probably try to hold on to it as long as possible or bribe them to stay. But who knows about the future? It is like one of those debates about a new US civil war coming. It's possible. Though I give the CCP of China another 10 years 15 tops as some real big issues are stacking up and anger is being stoked such as Chinese ant colonies.

Shanghai expo 2

Hey The Chinese guy,

I have a question for you!

I visited the Shanghai expo last month! It was impressive in its size and displays. But I got a sense that this was mainly for the Chinese public NOT for foreign tourist because I only saw few of them including myself. If this is the case, why the HUGE Chinese pavilion, I mean that thing covered several blocks. Don't the Chinese public know this already!

Is my view right in that the expo is primarily to impress the Chinese people or maybe the gov. are trying to say something here?

Thanks
Marcus from USA


Dear Marcus

Excuse the lack of lucidity, last night was a night on the town and my hangover is killing me.

You got it in one there, the Chinese expo in Shanghai is merely a dick waving opportunity for the Chinese communist party (CCP). They have not missed a chance at dick waving for a very long time. Though sometimes they go a bit far, like the Song Class Sub appearing in a USN exercise.

Quite frankly it is for the CCP to say how great they are and how wonderful they are. the British government near election time does this all the time. The thing is there are no elections in China . Well strictly this is not true as there are sort of elections right down at the street level who then elect others etc. But the old men who embezzle and drink the blood of the citizens cannot be touched.

But there is a big fear of the old men that there will be a big insurrection, 1989 proved people would pay in blood for chance, change happened (to be rich is Glorious) but not in the way the demonstrators quite wanted. They changed from an nasty state where the old men of the government lived lives of champagne socialism, to a capitalist state where the old men of the government lived lives of champagne socialism....

Oh wait a minute did I just describe the U K?

Thus everyday is potentially (correct me if I'm wrong) 2nd Amendment type election day meaning they have spread propaganda daily as if it is a normal election day about how good their lives have been. Granted the CCP HAS improved the lives of SOME, however the income gap is HUGE. This is just one of the parts of the jigsaw of the state control machine of course.

Recent other propaganda things have been the China space programme and also the Olympics, though admittedly the Olympics were mildly impressive. Wandering around through China even HK they regularly show propaganda alluding to the above. However when you have an endless pool of cheap expendable labour anything is possible. (regarding the Olympics). The CCP needs this propaganda because quite simply support for the CCP is waning.... especially in their core, i.e. the rural communities.

I've mentioned it before but the community bonds which tied the Chinese together are being destroyed and exploited. The young don't really give a damn about Mao's personality cult and are not exactly nationalistic. Kaiwen has an excellent article about China's rising ant colonies I archived somewhere. That the Chinese children are being screwed over too, they too were tricked into the MYTH education = good career. This hasn't been true in the Westernised nations for a good 10 maybe 15 years.

It's a bit like the book 1984, but just not so sinister... if anybody has read it Winston Smith works for the ministry of truth, he edits old newspaper articles to make it seem as if Big brother was right all along and for revisionista history purposes. Or he will edit it such that Big Brother underestimates the industriousness of the people in Oceania.

Some might say it mirrors the book closely what happens in China with the simplification of the language, though personally I don't think it is as sinister as normal people find Chinese bloody difficult to read and write therefore a simplification which is run in parallel with the old style language as well as wide spread English teaching isn't to oppress ideas. Guns are more useful for these purposes.

Anyway back on topic, it's more of a buy British Campaign or Buy American Campaign. If you're old enough you'll probably remember such things, when the Japanese products were arriving on our shores our own companies were caught with their pants down. China gives limited space to others to make itself look bigger... AND so less people can see other countries technical wizardry.

The Toyota violin playing robots for instance are great. And thus there are stunningly big queues to see things which we consider to me mundane and completely ordinary in our home countries. But really this I suppose is because there are plenty of poor people who haven't travelled and thus haven't seen tech of the rest of the world and want to have a glance. Which is funny in a way because it actually lessens the propaganda value of the Chinese pavillion* as it shows others are better in some ways than the CCP.

Though I suppose this demonstrates less of a strangle hold unlike the NK propaganda.

*A funny story was done by Kawasaki once in the 1980s, they released the new an improved GPZ1100 or something. They also bought along their older GPZ900 so journalists could try back to back how improved the bike was compared to the old model... Journalists had rides and most of them prefered the older bike to the new one and thus the new bike was canned and the older bike improved and continued for several years instead.

It has been... A Red Dawn

Many have heard of the infamous 1984 movie “Red Dawn”, were the Soviet Union and Allies in Latin America launch a full scale invasion of the United States and (presumably) start World War III. While a group of students from a small town in Washington form a guerilla army resistance group called the “Wolverines” and fight back. Well, Hollywood is at it again. And its not the Soviets this time.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, that symbol is made of the Chinese characters for 8 (八) and 1 (一). It is the seal of the People’s Liberation Army. The numbers 8 and 1 signify the month and day the Chinese communist militia was organized; August 1^st, 1927.

This remake of Red Dawn replaces the Soviets with Communist China. There is a huge amount of irony in this because in the original Red Dawn, the Chinese were on our side because the Soviets were invading them as well.

The Film is set to hit theaters November 24. There have been rumors that the film may be delayed due MGM’s short of funds, however it is still officially set for a November release.

There is no official trailer yet, but there is an unofficial news and information site for the movie here.

I do not know what to say about this film. On one hand I feel it will be downright epic, on the other hand I feel that this may just be capitalizing off of the average Westerners ignorance and uncertainty of China’s growing military and economic power.

China is obviously butthurt over this movie. Many of its state run newspapers have bashed the movie saying it portrays China negatively. There is no doubt it will be banned there.

But this film raises a much larger question; Would the US and China ever go to war?

In the near future? Highly unlikely.

Way down the road? Unless the regime collapses some other way, I see it as inevitable.

China and the US have major unresolved disputes that are not frequently discussed. Such as the manipulation of currency, human rights, Taiwan, Tibet, secret military spending, exploitation of third world countries, cyber terrorism, North Korea, the list is huge. But as in any situation were those on top (The US) become threatened by a rising underdog (China), there is eventually going to be conflict.

Its just like Lieutenant Tanner said;

“The two toughest kids on the block, I guess...Sooner or later they gonna fight.”

Now before you go start investing in that bomb shelter, Id like to reiterate that a war of that scale is incredibly unlikely during our lifetime. If the war happened tomorrow, the US would certainly win, especially with back up from NATO and our 10,000 nuclear warheads FUCK YEAH!

Even if China wanted to invade, they wouldn’t even be able to get here, as they have no blue water navy. However, they do have over 300 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and nuclear warheads capable of destroying any city in the western world, as per this map.

The relationship between the United States and China will decide the course of the 21^st century. Just as our relationship with the Soviet Union defined the 20^th century. There will be no war in the near future. But if China continues its aggressive expansion on the global stage and continues to build up its military, there is a chance that our grandchildren’s neighborhood may look something like this.