伊拉克與香港：劉曉波的矛盾 - Liu Xiaobo's Contradictions on Hong Kong and Iraq

End-of-year commentators and so-called journalists, specialists of the Chinese scene single out Xiaobo's incarceration as one of the momentous events in Chinese politics for 2010. What they fail to point out is the lack of common sense often displayed by Liu Xiaobo (and the Chinese government) in his own analysis of western events and history. The first of his controversial statements, available in many websites in the west, is his declaration that the west has been able to modernize Hong Kong in a hundred years and that it would take China 300 hundred years to accomplish similar modernization for the whole country.

Liu Xiaobo's demands for democratization in his own country are legitimate and his work in the drafting of the Chart 08 零八憲章 a formidable and courageous act. The Chinese government's reaction to its signing would make one believe that it has no plan B should economic growth fail except one of utter panic. An economic crisis or financial and banking bubble in China would certainly bring extreme unrest and lift many Chinese out of political apathy that repression would find nearly impossible to control.

Liu's second declaration, his approval of Bush's invasion of Iraq is more difficult to comprehend. We don't have to agree with him but Liu's extreme desperation at his own government policies within China proper might very well have blinded him to the consequences of the war for Iraqi citizens. At the time, China's position was very similar to France's position, namely that weapon's inspections should continue. Liu's reaction to China's policies might very well have turned into a systematic opposition: do not trust the messenger, China, and therefore do not trust anything China might decide on the world stage, internally and abroad.

香港 Hong Kong 1843

Liu has no confidence in China's leaders intention to modernize China. He, however, like most Chinese Leaders, in spite of his noble ideals, still has an amateurish approach to worldwide politics. In particular, he is not aware of Hong Kong's social problem and history. Hong Kong was not a Chinese city that has been undergoing modernization: it was nearly created from scratch and was built into a "modern" 19th century British colony. Its special status has made Hong Kong what it is today: a vibrant city where the latest immigrants are always available as a source of cheap labour and a multi-faceted culture. Like Taiwan, it also enjoys a compulsory pension scheme, something sorely lacking in Mainland China.
Taiwanese friends who have recently moved to Hong Kong find its mix of East and West attitudes, culture and languages fascinating and puzzling. Liu Xiaobo's hastened declarations do not do justice to Hong Kong.

Would Iraqi people be happy with Liu's support of Bush's war? Most of Iraqi citizens have become deeply disillusioned with the war that was supposed to bring them democracy but instead have brought a huge number of casualties. Iraqis, however, would not like to return to Saddam Hussein's. They find themselves in a limbo state, forced to move forward, if they can. Like many small countries and colonized peoples, they are not totally in control of their own destinies. They have other concerns than the Nobel Peace Prize.

Iraqi casualty figures

Source	Iraqi casualties	Time period
Iraq Family Health Survey	151,000 deaths	March 2003 to June 2006
Lancet survey	601,027 violent deaths out of 654,965 excess deaths	March 2003 to June 2006
Opinion Research Business survey	1,033,000 deaths as a result of the conflict	March 2003 to August 2007
Associated Press	110,600 deaths	March 2003 to April 2009
Iraq Body Count project	98,170 — 107,152 civilian deaths as a result of the conflict. 150,726 civilian and combatant deaths[1]	March 2003 to October 2010
WikiLeaks. Classified Iraq war logs[2][3][4][5][1]	109,032 deaths	January 2004 to December 2009

伊拉克戰爭平民傷亡

來源	伊拉克戰爭平民死亡人數	自2003年3月
伊拉克家庭健康調查	15萬1千例暴力死亡	截至2006年6月
柳葉刀（Lancet）雜誌調查	60萬1027例暴力死亡	截至2006年6月
ORB（Opinion Research Business）民調機構調查	衝突造成103萬3千例暴力死亡	截至2007年8月
美聯社	11萬6百例暴力死亡	截至2009年4月
伊拉剋死亡統計網站（Iraq Body Count)	衝突造成9萬5888—10萬4594名平民死亡	截至2010年4月

  China's reaction to the Nobel Peace Prize does not factor in human casualties, neither does Liu Xiaobo's statement on the rightfulness of Bush's war.  The Nobel Prize has usefully laid bare contradictions from the Chinese Government and Liu Xiaobo. Not everything in China is as simple as black and white.


Wen Jiabao's declarations on China's need to move towards a more democratic system have not been broadcast in China. One wonders at China's number 2 declarations not deemed safe for home consumption.
Surely Wen can see reason in Liu Xiaobo's position and create a momentum for change.

新加坡經濟失敗 Failure of Singapore's Economic Wonder

The Intelligent Singaporean

According to research by journalist Ravi Philemon，a basic family would need SGD$ 1325 a month for survival in Singapore. As Philemon points out this calculation does not include costs for tuition (if the children need any), costs for entertainment (the occasional McDonald’s or movie), insurances or emergencies. Visitors to Singapore might be forgiven to believe in the so-called Singapore's economic miracle, with few visible signs of extreme poverty in the central district. But being poor is not something anyone would gladly flaunt away.

Leong Sze Hian in Singapore's independent on-line media The Online Citizen reports that real wage growth has only been above 1.1% over the last ten years. These disturbing findings go some way towards explaining a latent pent-up resentment from ordinary Singaporeans' towards foreigners' perceived advantages. The real culprits seem to be the Singaporean elite which are not prepared to pay just and fair wages to willing workers. To this elite, nationality does not matter as long as their privileges are safeguarded.
Unequal development and social inequalities have never been a long term winning strategy to turn a country into an advanced and debt-free economic society. The recent examples of Greece, Ireland and Portugal where debt had been accumulated through graft and corruption by the elite and which finally burst their financial bubbles leading to widespread hardship for ordinary citizens could be a harbinger of things to come for Singapore.
And this time, it'll be hard to blame on the Euro.

中印：印度放棄 «一個中國» China-India: India leaves behind "One China Policy"

Shalimar Bagh शालीमार बाग़

Diplomats are expert at issuing statements that have no other purpose than to save face. The visit by Premier Wen Jiabao in India has produced one of the most wonderful ways of proclaiming that nothing has been accomplished. The two most populated countries of our planet have said they realize that there is a "mutual trust deficit" 信任赤字. Their solution is to "cooperate hand in hand for a mutual win-win."
At first sight, this is what it appears to be. But China, having been recently less impressive than ever on the diplomatic front with its handling of Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Prize, is not being as convincing as before. Reacting to China's ignoring India's claims to Jammu and Kashmir 查謨－喀什米爾邦 as an integral part of its territory, India's Prime Minister has stopped mentioning its commitment to the "One China Policy." Without even trying to be cynical, the Indian Express explains, that the basis for mutual cooperation between the two countries is "mutual respect and sensitivity for each other’s concerns and aspirations."


Wikileaks from Indian embassies are requested without delay.

誰來奧斯陸頒獎禮 Who was at Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony？

諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize

 Red: Countries which boycotted Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Prize Ceremony
 Blue: Countries which attended Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Prize Ceremony
挪威：黑色 Norway in black

諾貝爾獎牌 Nobel Prize Medal

孔子和平獎 Confucius Peace Prize

"Confusing Confucius Peace Prize Award Ceremony"

The Chinese authorities genuinely miffed by so many countries attending Liu Xiaobo 劉曉波 Nobel Prize Award ceremony in Oslo decided to have their own ceremony celebrating their own "small" Peace Confucius Prize. The problem is that it looks more like a Who Wants to Be a Star contest organized by Hunan Television with the difference that, this time, young Chinese people did not get the opportunity to vote for the winner on their mobile phones. I'm not sure Confucius would have approved.

Wikipedia said that this prize was created by "a non-government-related organization within the People's Republic of China in response to a proposal by business person Liu Zhiqin."
The recipient Lien Chan 連戰 did not attend. Instead, an anonymous little girl is holding the trophy. While a dapper young man is holding the prize money in small bills to the value of ¥100,000 RMB (US$ 15,000). No wonder Lien Chan did not attend!

Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan 賴幸媛 in Taipei said that the Taiwanese government found this "amusing." Obviously, a better sense of humour than China's spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Jiang Yu 姜瑜. But with such funny material everybody can be a comedian.


I really feel for the seemingly bewildered little girl holding the trophy.

中國幫助顯露出反對和平國家•China Helps Name Peace Hating Countries

Clown Delegates in Norway for Nobel Prize Ceremony?

China's spokesperson for (or against) Foreign Affairs, Jiang Yu 姜瑜 can't do her sums. Maybe, like some of my childhood friends, she suffered heavy trauma while in primary school and developed an aversion to arithmetics. Ms Jiang Yu has stated that more than 100 countries supported China's stance on the Peace Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee's Secretary said that only 65 countries were invited at Liu Xiaobo's 劉曉波 prize awarding ceremony. as reported in the UK's Guardian. Currently, 44 countries have confirmed they will attend the ceremony. He has described supporters of the Nobel Prize Liu Xiaobo as clowns. Ms Jiang does not understand clowns. I would be happy to invite her to a circus so that she can see that clowns are very profound artists who express what most of us barely dare bring to the surface of our consciousness.

姜瑜 Jiang Yu

The 44 countries coming to the award ceremony should be proud to be considered clowns; it's an honour to be a clown, it can be therapeutic and even cure paranoia such as Ms Jiang's delusional vision of 100 countries supporting China's position.
Ms Jiang declined to name any of these supporting countries. Does Hu Jingtao or Wen Jiabao agree with Ms Jiang? I do hope they'll tell her to take a rest somewhere with other clowns.

China's stance does have some uses: it has forced 18 countries to declare themselves as officially not interested in peace: Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco. We don't need Reporters without Borders 無國界記者 or Amnesty International's help. China has gracefully asked these 18 countries to come out clean and say: we don't like the idea of being associated with peace.

Norway's Curling Team dressed as Clowns

We can only be grateful to China for pointing them out to our attention: Send in the Clowns!

Wikileaks - Lee Kuan Yew: Hu Jintao does not want China Taiwan Reunification

Singaporeans have learned to take Lee Kuan Yew's (李光耀) declarations with a profound sense of pragmatism. It's then all the more surprising to see him saying that Hu JIntao (胡錦濤), according to cables released by Wikileaks, Hu is a patient man and will wait 10, 20, 30 years for Taiwan "return" to China. On second thought, he explains these 30 years could be 40 or 50 years. Maybe he was talking about Singapore's opposition party being at the head of the government in Singapore.

"1964 Race Riots" in Singapore

We even learned, according to Lee, that China's goal is not reunification! Its real policy is to prevent Taiwan's independence and then "bring back" Taiwan to China.
He probably thinks that after 50 years of separation from China, on top of the 111 years that Taiwan has been growing separately from China since 1895, Taiwan might still be waiting, like a long lost bride, to be reunited with China.

Lee might do well to remember Singapore's history when he practically cried over Singapore being imposed partition from Malaysia. Do Singaporeans now want to be reunited with Malaysia? The 1964 Kallang Riots might not be talked about every day in Singapore but they are as painful as the 28th of February in Taiwan.

1947 February 22th "Incident" 二二八事件

Maybe China could follow Malaysia's example when on August 7, 1965, it expelled Singapore from the Malaysian Federation. One of the few cases, if not the only one, when a country was forced to become independent. I wonder whether some Chinese leaders have ever considered it in some cables sent by negotiators that led to the Consensus of 1992 九二共識 that both countries, Taiwan and China, agreed on unification but also accepted that each country had its own interpretation of unification.

Back to the future.

歐元被攻擊 台灣中國幫助它的忙嗎？The Euro being attacked - Taiwan and China to Help?

Taiwan's Animation Spin on the Euro, Ireland's "Leader" Brian Cowen (布雷恩•考恩) Called a Traitor

The Euro is being attacked and Financial centres the world over are waiting to see whether they will be the target of the senior bond holders. China has shown itself willing to help Greece pay its huge debt caused by serious mismanagement of its economy. Ireland the most recent target has being the victim of its government amateurish handling of its banking crisis caused by a bank, Anglo-Irish Bank, being set up mainly to help crooked property developers in cahoot with its government.
A Taiwanese animation firm has placed Ireland at the centre of the current Euro crisis with the production of a well-crafted video explaining the secret of the Emerald island finances and its most famous villain, Brian Cowen, Ireland's Prime Minister or Taoiseach.

中國跟北韓再沒有耐心 China losing patience with North Korea

조선인민군 北韓人民軍

Wondering how they're able to fight in such uniforms, probably in competition with the most beautiful Chinese female soldier as in our previous posting • (Petar Kujundzic/Reuters & The New York Times)

Following up on last posting and in the light of Wikileaks publication of cables between American Consulates in China and the Chinese government, it has become obvious that both governments are eager to defuse the tension and find a solution to the North Korea problem. Apparently, the South Korean government has been very creative in this respect. It has started to make contacts with Chinese authorities and companies and promised them to give them  wide oportunities for the exploitation of North Korea  mineral resources as revealed in Wikileaks and reported by the New York Times.
The Chinese and American seem both to be wondering what to do with the enfant terrible that has become the mark of Kim Jong-il and his chubby son Kim Jong-un. Wikileaks reveals that even the Chinese did not believe in the regime's nuclear capabilities and are a bit petrified by its sudden mastery of nuclear bombs.

Unfortunately, there does not seem any crucial cable revealed by Wikileaks about Taiwan and China, just the usual information about arm sales to Taiwan; no wonder, Taiwan is an invisible country in world diplomacy, even Wikileaks is silent about Taiwan. We'll just have to learn what American spies were capable of in the movie Formosa Betrayed .   
Let's hope that if the North Korea State crumbles, and it could happen within a year, that North Korean won't suffer the fate of Chinese miners.

延坪島虚弱的借口 Yeonpyeong island a feeble excuse

Main Population Centers

It is a piece of good news to hear that China has sent emissaries to both North and South Korea while receiving a high placed official from North Korea. It might finally have no choice but finding a solution to the recurrent problems on its north eastern border. It is no secret that China's policy in that region is based on avoiding at all costs having a share a border with an ally of the United States.
It might have to face reality even more than Kim Jung-un in waiting leader of the seemingly recluse nation.

Wouldn't the obvious solution be to have America and China sign a formal international treaty whereby the US would accept not to station troops less than, for example, 100 miles from the northern border? A solemn and formal decision that could create a 100-mile-wide demilitarized zone south of the border. South Korean Troops would be allowed limited military posting and the Chinese could have the necessary troops to watch the now porous border. Not that it would be necessary to keep an eye on that border; it is hard indeed to imagine China invading North Korea when it has enough trouble on its western front.

Yeonpyeong 연평도

This is no wishful thinking: already an estimated 200 000 North Koreans live on the Chinese side of the border and people move back and forth bribing, among others, the North Korean border patrols. Smuggled Chinese mobile phones can be still be used 30 km inside North Korea and enable North Koreans to keep in touch with escapee relatives in South Korea. News filter in from the outside into North Korea and this, more than anything, could explain the recent bout of violence that killed two civilians in the South after the army bombed houses on the island of Yeonpyeong.
A show of force by the new North Korean leadership is only part of the reason for this unprecedented violence.

Reporter Barbara Demick wrote a book based on two years of extensive research with escapees, Nothing to Envy, which describes daily life within North Korea. It destroys completely the idea that it is a totally hermetic country. It also redeems our faith in human nature when some human beings always succeed to see through a wall of lies, no matter how well conceived.

China could very well face its very first test in real international diplomacy for the good of the rest of the world. This is an exam it cannot fail.
No joke.

中國軍隊最美麗的女性戰士 Most Beautiful Chinese Female Soldier

11 pictures

China's People's Daily Online has just posted its renown "Most beautiful Chinese Female Soldier." Its site has put online 11 pictures of the beautiful soldier. The editors of the Global Times must be fuming for not having been given first choice of the news. My apologies, trying to cover both sides of the Strait and using all existing search engines, I just could not find Taiwan's most beautiful soldier.

Probably is a state secret or there could be too many competitors.

蘋果個哦那是司救命中國字嗎？ Apple's iPhone to Save Chinese Characters?

台灣和中國同意救命中國字 Taiwan and China Agree Chinese Characters Should Be Protected

Today's Chinese young people are forgetting how to write Chinese characters. They spend more time typing Chinese characters using pinyin on phones and computers that they have lost practice writing characters. China's People's Daily on-line reports that smart phones such as Apple's iPhone are bringing back old practices of actually writing characters with a pen, or in this case, with your finger.

五筆鍵位圖 ——Wubi Keyboard Layout

For a while in the 1990's and at the beginning of this century, many Chinese secondary schools taught the Wubi Method 五筆字型輸入法 input method. Wubi is based on the constituents parts of Chinese characters, therefore users have to remember how to write Chinese characters and their strokes or elements. However, today, many young Chinese haven't had the opportunity nor the desire to learn Wubi, an efficient method which enables its users to type 150 characters and above a minute; the learning curve is however extremely steep.
This might not be an issue anymore since the introduction of smart phones such as Apple's iPhone and the iPad which lets users use their fingers to input Chinese characters.
It's comforting to see China and Taiwan agree to meet at the first Cross-Straits Chinese Character Art Festival, which took place in Beijing and included experts from China and Taiwan. The problem seems to be more serious in China where the use of touch screens is not so prevalent.
The question remains whether software might correct "Republic of China" and change it automatically into "Chinese Taipei."
This has become irrelevant since at the conference "Chinese Taipei" had been rectified into The Taiwan Region by The China Region Authorities.

 

陆克文成首位澳大利亞國語電視台嘉宾 Kevin Rudd speaking Chinese on Australian TV

The Great Harmony 世界主義 大同思想

From November 24, Australia's multicultural broadcasting service, SBS, will be flying on its own wings. Until now it had been making available news in Mandarin relayed from CCTV news, China's government controlled TV network. It will inaugurate its first national news in Mandarin by interviewing Australia's current Foreign Affairs Minister and former Australia's PM, Kevin Rudd 陸克文. When he was Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd gave a speech in Peking University 北京大學 where he declared himself as being China's "true friend" 諍友 , one who would have no hesitation to tell off a friend of his mistakes and errors in judgment. At the time Rudd, who learned Chinese in both Taiwan and China, spoke in Chinese quoting Lu Xun 魯迅 and Kang Youwei 康有為 both critical of the Chinese government of their time, the latter having to flee in exile.
Kevin Rudd has also told humorously of his days as a junior diplomat when he tried to speak a more classical form of Chinese and ended up, unwittingly, saying that "China and Australia were experiencing fantastic mutual orgasm."

Kevin Rudd by Simon Bosch

One of the reasons for SBS setting up an independent Mandarin news service could be related to complaints from the Vietnamese community in Australia, which had been complaining that just relaying Vietnam's Television Service on their network was offensive to them because of its lack of reports on political arrests and religious oppression.

The Global Times enthusiastically reporting on the event in its Chinese language edition is probably wondering whether this may go against the Chinese government's policy of harmony. They have no reason to be worried: Kevin Rudd while in Peking University did remind his audience that Kang Youwei in exile, after 1898, started to write about The Great Harmony 世界主義 大同思想 which he saw as "a Utopian world free of political boundaries."

The Nobel Peace Prize Academy in Oslo was probably thinking along these lines when awarding its prize to a Chinese writer.

Singapore Parties: 別牢騷 Stop Complaining！ 美滿人生 Singapore Dreaming

The Singapore government parties, the PAP and the YPAP have found an easy way to solve problems: Stop complaining. As the Temasek Review, an opposition Web site discovered. This is true, no complaints, no problems, no disturbing news. The Temasek Review thinks it might even make terrorist disappear.
This philosophy is probably at the root of why six ambassadors won't attend Liu Xiaobo 劉曉波 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. Russia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Morocco, Iraq and China's ambassadors have decided not to attend. Oslo's government is not complaining, neither are the other five govenments; they probably hope that China's ambassador won't attend if one of their citizens is awarded a Nobel Prize in the future.

Coming back to Singapore, is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's complaining? Certainly not! Not when your pay jumped to 2.4 million US dollars, nearly 6 times US President Obama's US$ 400 000. Singapore is classified as the country with the least corruption in Asia: who needs to be corrupt with such salaries.

SMRT said: "In this instance, the state flag should be treated with respect."

Nobody should be complaining either that one of Singapore's best movies Singapore Dreaming 美滿人生 is unavailable in Singapore. HMV's database does not even have it listed in its database. There is no problem, nobody is complaining. Its trailer was practically banned in Singapore. At least you can buy it on the web or in DVD stores in Taiwan.
No matter that the opposition parties with 36% of the votes never get more than two seats in the parliament. Anyway, Singapore's government is rated by the World Bank's as high on rule of law, control of corruption and government effectiveness.
Critics are just a bunch of whiners.

Xinhua: "World should know a true Tibet"

Having read a press release from Xinhua.net that encouraged the world to know about Tibet, how it was peacefully liberated by China in 1958, improved living standards for Tibetans, a good friend of mine, Dan, journalist by trade, decided to take up the Chinese Government's offer to know more about Tibet.

གམ་པ་རྫོང Nyalam, བོད Tibet, 1993

I was not there when he called the cultural attaché at the Chinese embassy, but I was told the conversation went along those lines:

CA (Chinese Embassy): Hello, Chinese Embassy.
Dan: Hello, Ni hao! I have read the article on the Xinhua website ...
CA: I'm sorry Sir, I think the phone line isn't working very well; I heard you actually read an article on the Xinhua web site.
Dan: That's right. In fact, I find the web site well done and very well informed. I learn a lot about China. It's a very positive and harmonious web site.

CA: Hng? We're very glad to hear this. How can I help you?
Dan: I've just read today's article about Tibet.
CA: What article about Tibet?
Dan: The one where it says that the World should know about a true Tibet.
CA: I'm sorry, are you quoting from the article?
Dan: Yes, I am. In fact, the article is quoting remarks from a Chinese scholar.
CA: Oh! Could you tell me the URL of the web site. My apologies, Sir; you see, I'm so busy at work, I hardly have the time to read Chinese web sites.
Dan: Oh, of course.
CA: I mean, we get a press review about all the foreign newspapers, and I have to spend half a day reading them everyday. China has become so popular. So the address is ... yes … yes … Thank you. How may I help you?
Dan: Yes, I would like to go and visit the true Tibet.
CA: Certainly, a lot of foreigners go to Lhassa these days; it's a very harmonious place.
Dan: Well, in fact, I'd be more interested to go to small villages. I really like the idea of discovering and learning about a true Tibet and its small cities or villages. Something as in the movie Mountain Patrol, Kekexili.
CA: Mountain Patrol? You mean, you've seen the movie and you like it. I haven't got the chance to see it myself.
Dan: Yes, you see it's a whole different approach; it doesn't talk about the usual things. You know, like the negative articles in foreign newspapers about Tibet. Of course, this might be true but …
CA: We really strive to establish a true and harmonious understanding between Tibetans and other Chinese. Ah! I got it, I can read the article. Mr Hao of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said this when he was in Chile.
Dan: Yes this is the article. Maybe he wanted to learn about the Chilean miners and how they were rescued and use the experience to do the same in China. In fact the article doesn't say much about the visit.
CA: OK, so, you want to apply for a visa. We can issue you with a visa to go to Lhassa, but I'm afraid it won't be possible to issue you a visa for places outside Lhasa.
Dan: But your Secretary-General said we should learn about the true Tibet.
CA: Of course, this is why we're only issuing visas for Lhasa. I'm not sure you're listening.
Dan: Thank you, I've learned everything I wanted to know about the true Tibet.

Last time I heard of Dan, he was on his way
to Inner Mongolia 內蒙古

溫家寶訪奧文 示威遊行受挫 Protesters blocked for Wen Jiabao's visit to Macao

Both French and Macao Police Forces anxious to make protesters invisible.

Although the Assistant to Macao's Police Commissioner, 馬耀權 Ma Lo Kun, had declared on Nov. 10 to the Macau Daily Times that the "Police welcome all persons who meet Macau's immigration regulations to come to Macau," the chairman to Hong Kong Democratic Party, Albert Ho 何俊仁 and four other activists were refused entry to the former Portuguese Colony.

Macau does have a constitution which guarantees political freedoms and freedom of speech.

Let's not forget also that during Hu Jintao's visit in Paris, protesters who had positioned themselves at strategic points in the capital, but at a distance from the official route, had their umbrellas forcibly removed from them by the French Police. The demonstrators were protesting against Liu Xiaobo's detention and bearing the 08 Charter's name.


The demonstrators had managed to sneak near the barriers carrying white umbrellas carrying Liu Xiaobo's name. When they opened the umbrellas, the police rushed to seize the offending objects.

In Macau, some protestors did manage to sneak in a couple of days before Wen Jiabao's arrival to protest. They were eventually sent back to Hong Kong after they had succeeded in protesting against Liu Xiaobo's imprisonment.

It is a sign of China's rising power that it is their heads of state and government which generate the most protests abroad. Where are the Americans when we need them?
Now that former President Bush has retired he might be looking for a part-time job training Chinese leaders on how to travel abroad and face demonstrators in every city. But then, Bush had ample experience at home, Americans had been demonstrating against him for years; an opportunity Chinese leaders sorely miss, I'm sure.

諾貝爾和平獎委員會邀請翁山蘇姬來奧斯陸 | Aung San Suu Kyi invited to Oslo by the Peace Nobel Prize Committee |

Aung San Suu Kyi

အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်

According to the Norwegian News Agency, NTB, Aung San Suu Kyi အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည် has been invited by the Peace Nobel Prize Committee to come to Oslo to receive her prize.

She was originally awarded the prize in 1991 but was banned from travelling. She has been under house arrest since 1990 when her party, the National League for Democracy won Burma's (Myanmar) general election with a vote percentage of 58% and 80% of the seats.
Her recent release by the Myanmar Junta Government from house arrest has made her travelling to Norway a possibility. It is not certain that the Chinese government was notified in advance of her release. The Myanmar generals might have failed to realize that the Nobel Prize Committee, being of an independent mind, would seize the opportunity to invite and honour in person Aun San Suu Kyi.
Unfortunately for Liu Xiaobo | 劉曉波, this announcement probably means that his chances for release have sunk even deeper. Some officials in China must be watching Myanmar's developments with intense trepidation.
I wonder whether, as in Norway, a Chinese Minister was sent to Rangoon | Yangon 仰光 to warn Burma's generals not to release Aung San Suu Kyi. What they did not know is that the Myanmar Junta can be as stubborn as Norway's Nobel Prize Committee.

Hope this piece of news has reached Liuxia64 on Twitter. Liu Xiaobo's wife has not twitted since Oct. 18. 希望沒事吧！

Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou using the F. word | 馬英九講「幹」！

President Ma has said the F. word. Apparently not the first time, but this time the Taiwanese media are having a field day with it. Nor is he the first politician to utter the unmentionable word, many elected representatives in Taiwan's Parliament | 立委 have certainly used this word on many occasions!

In fact, President Ma said this in the South Central region where his party, the Kuomintang is not the most popular. Is it a slip of the tongue? probably not, just his way to be a man close to the people.


Now all Taiwanese children will be able to swear and say "President Ma said it, one day I will be President, I'd better start practising now."

No Time to Lose • 機不可失 !

台灣國旗在釣魚台群島 | Taiwan's flag on Diaoyutai Islands?

釣魚台群島 | Diàoyútái Qúndǎo | Pinnacle Islands

The Chinese government claims the Diaoyutai Islands are an integral part of China. At the same time it does not allow its own Chinese nationalists to land on the main island. On the other hand, some Chinese are protesting over Japan's action against the Chinese ship. Demonstrations never take place in Chinese cities unless the police, and therefore the government, agrees with them.

The well-known Chart 08 signatory, writer and human rights campaigner, Ran Yunfei 冉云飞 explains on his blog that these anti-japanese demonstrations always take place in less important cities because it is then easier to make sure demonstrators don't go beyond certain limits if fuelled by their own fervour; most importantly, these medium-sized cities seldom are the recipients of Japanese investments and do not have Japanese consulates. Some people are always willing to demonstrate, if you can't do it against your government, do it against your neighbour. Please remind me, when was the last time the French, world-wide champions of street protests, demonstrated against Germany, their 200 years' enemy before WWII? Let me think, how many times? No prize for guessing the right number：零！

冉雲飛

It is alleged that there is a secret agreement between China and Japan. In return for China's ban on overzealous militants, Japan does not arrest Chinese fishermen. Just that, this time, new staff at Japanese Foreign Affairs were not aware of the pact.

In the meantime demonstrations are taking place in Japan to support Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Nobody has been arrested. After all Japan is a democratic country, even though it still has the death penalty on its books.

Taiwan, for once not shy, also lays claims on the island. Is President Ma Ying-Jeou going to don a yellow (blue?) life jacket and plant Taiwan's flag on Diaoyu Island on China's behalf?

尖閣諸島 | 釣魚台群島 | Senkaku Islands | Japan/China maritime collision

Diaoyutai / Senkaku Islands

The collision between the two ships seems to have been an attempt by the Chinese or the Japanese side, or both, to manipulate the whole thing into an International incident to their own benefit. See report and discussion on Senkakus: who rammed who?

Like a referee watching a tennis game with foul-mouthed players, the Taiwanese can sit back and relax. Some of the Chinese missiles might be pointing away from them now. Although, Both China and Taiwan agree that Diaoyutai Islands are part of Taiwan; but then China strongly believes that Taiwan is part of China and Taiwan thinks that it is ... I'm getting seasick already. And nobody lives on those islands just about 300 goats (Are these Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese?). Of course, there must be natural resources for all this fighting, because if there aren't any, then the reason for all this bad blood must be plain saving face or bullying, isn't it?

Are German boats trying to ram British or French vessels now more than 60 years after the end of WWII? Of course not. At least China has an excuse, it does not believe in western-style democracy, but Japan?
Let's petition for immediate negotiations for Taiwan's entry into the EU, surest way of making sure no boat, Japanese or else, will ram her ships. Maybe Taiwan's former and first masters, the Dutch, could help.

Video of Japan/China maritime collision

Mobile phones will soon be banned on all Chinese and Japanese ships.

新加坡死刑被非難 Singapore's Death Penalty on Trial

Yale Daily News

The writer Alan Shadrake is being prosecuted by the Singaporean government for criticizing the justice system. Alan Shadrake, who lives just across Singapore's border in Malaysia, has published a book, Once the Jolly Hangman: Singapore's Justice in the Dock in which he explains that the death penalty applies primarily to "the poor and disenfranchised."

After having been arrested in July 2010 and his room turned upside down he was imprisoned for two days and was then released due to widespread media coverage and world-wide pressure, including Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders. His case was heard on the 18-20th of October. He was declared guilty on November 2. The 76-year-old writer is due to be sentenced on Wednesday, November 10th.

Yale University, which planned a partnership with NUS (the National University of Singapore) has declared that their primary hesitation is the low level of academic freedom. Alan Shadrake's arrest has not led Yale's authorities to cancel their plans.

The UK Guardian wrote that Singapore's "rise from colonial backwater to economic powerhouse (...) co-exist with an unapologetic contempt for freedoms taken for granted in other developed Asian economies."
The list of these Asian countries where freedom is taken from granted would probably fit on a post-it note. Someone better stick it on Yale's bulletin board.

艾未未軟禁 Ai Weiwei under House Arrest

Ai Weiwei, the artistic consultant who helped design Beijing Olympics Stadium has been put under House Arrest. Ai Weiwei had been active denouncing the corruption scandals that led to shoddy constructed schools in Sichaun. Due to their poor designs and the use of cheap building materials, the schools collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake killing thousands of schoolchildren. Apparently, this is not what led to his arrest. According to an article in the New York Times he was arrested because of incoming publicity about corruption in Shanghai involving political figures.

Ai Weiwei kept an active blog, one of the few open blogs which Chinese authorities tolerated. Maybe Shanghai's local bosses thought that China had become too liberal.

我爸是李剛! My Father is Li Gang!

The Global Voices independent site, made up of bloggers, reports on a driver who ran over two girls on a school campus in Hebei University. One of the girls is dead. The driver, stopped at the gate by security, arrogantly defied the guards saying: "My father is Li Gang." Li Gang is the deputy director of the police department in Baoding 保定 (Hebei Province).
This time the censorship guardians have been sleeping on the job and the info is freely available on Chinese web sites. Unfortunately, since killing the chicken to frighten the monkey is official policy in China, one wonders what fate awaits the rogue driver who might be sacrificed to assuage some public vigilantes.
Human Rights do apply to everyone, don't they?
Many Chinese bloggers are letting off steam against the arrogance of many officials who always seem to be above the law until public anger vents its discontent.
Meanwhile, Chinese top official is visiting Sarkozy. Not a pip about foreign embassies in Norway having received letters advising them not to endanger relations with China. In diplomatic language, the message is clear, don't go to the Peace Prize awarding ceremony on December 10th. Norway, a negligible country in Chinese terms, did not pay attention to Chinese threats. It remains to be seen whether the Chinese government will be more successful with other governments
The Chinese could then hold demonstrations about the conditions for detainees in French prisons and the treatment of migrant workers in the EU.

放開公視 Hands off Taiwan's Public TV

The blog Taiwan Matters reports on recent media manipulation in Taiwan and recalls incidents when 200 Tibetans were rounded up. This happened in Taiwan's Liberty Square right after Human Rights Day. They were in the right place and on the right time, well done!

Taiwan's Public TV Logo

It also worries that Taiwan's Public TV's freedom of reporting could be threatened. Make no mistake, Taiwan's Public TV is one of the best public television services in the world. Multi-cultural, multi-lingual, it doesn't shy away from any difficult issue.

Taiwan Matters was voted Taiwan's best blog in 2009 and 2008.

The Chinese are probably relieved; these shenanigans are typically Taiwanese. The Global Times and CCTV are making sure nobody can accuse them of manipulation.

Democracy is Chaos 沒有混亂, 就沒有民主

Chinese Heritage 中華遺產

The Wall Street Journal reveals in one of its blogs that the Chinese Magazine China Heritage tried to identify the "100 Chinese Characters that carry the most meaning for Chinese culture." And the winner is ... 和 hé. This is a very popular character since it helps to form the word harmony 和諧. Harmony is the primary motto of Chinese society, at least according to Chinese authorities. (In Taiwan the same character is often pronounced hán, how dare they!).
You can't escape harmony in China, it's even the name of the train between Shanghai and Hangzhou. And there was not a free seat on the train. If you don't strive for harmony, you are not a good citizen since it destroys the harmonious society that the government is trying to create.

Don't laugh! I just happen to agree: Because democracy is the opposite of harmony. Democracy is chaos. Too much harmony means there is no room for dissent. The more chaos, the more democracy, just ask Sarkozy, the French President, who has had millions of people demonstrating against his plans to reform the pension system. Think of the Tea Party in America where they do have the freedom to want to regress to a pre-adolescence state. Too bad that tea, the drink, is getting a bad name.

The same blog, rightly so, notes that you run the risk of being banned for using this popular ideogram. A few days ago many Chinese were unable to send SMS messages on their mobile phone after they tried to tell their friends the name of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize winner 劉曉波 Liu Xiaobo. You see "peace" in Chinese is hépíng 和平. Not a trivial matter, some Shanghai uncooperative citizens even had their SIM card disabled.

I can't help thinking that the chaotic mixture of simplified and full-form (traditional) characters on the cover of the magazine gives a whole new meaning to the word harmony.

消失的南島語言 頭目兒子都不學 Hla'alua Language fading away - Leaders' children all not learning language

Taiwan Aborigines' Tribes before the arrival of the Han Chinese

Aborigines Today in Taiwan

The 沙阿魯阿族 Hla’alua aboriginal language in Taiwan is slowly fading away as reported by 聯合新聞網 United Daily News in its "Important Home News Section" 國內要聞. The Hla’alua tribe is located in Kaohsiung country 高雄縣 in southern Taiwan.
The Hla'alua are a branch of the Tsou aboriginal group. They now barely number 500 and only 10 of them are still capable of speaking their ancestors' language fluently. 
Today having been swamped by modernity, they have switched to Taiwanese.

The Hlua'lua tribe's situation is not unique. Before the Han Chinese came 300 years ago, encouraged by the Dutch, the Aborigines inhabited the whole island. As in many countries, the ethnic minorities were pushed back away from the main urban centres.

Many years of successive assimilationist policies by the Japanese and then the Kuomintang governments have had their toll.  The recent positive support first by the DPP 民進黨 and even President Ma Ying-Jeou's belated tepid support have had little effect.
When I went to Hualien and talked to young people from the Truku tribe, I couldn't find a single youth who could talk the language of their tribe. This they told me with a gentle smile of resignation. I left wondering what they themselves would be transmitting to their own children. Dancing for camera-mad tourists is not something I would relish. Neither taking part in these tours where you stare at dances you don't understand is something I could never do, just not me.
The Hlua'lua leaders explain that maintaining food, wedding and religious traditions is possible; but just pass on the mother tongue is not easy (唯獨母語傳承不易). They go on explaining that the children don't want to feel different at school.

84 year-old Yu asks, "you can speak the language, but with whom would you speak it?"

97 Sichuan workers three months homeless 乌鲁木齐97名民工因工程泡汤蜗居桥洞3个月

ئۈرۈمچی‎ Ürümqi (in red)

At a time when the western media is focusing on continuing ethnic troubles in China as reported by the BBC, many foreign correspondents and so-called China watchers might have missed Chinese-language news about how desperate Min Gong's fate can be. Min Gong 民工 or workers emigrating from the country side and desperate for a life beyond survival are ready to go anywhere for work. Some of them are even willing to look for work in the multi-ethnic province of Xinjiang in spite of repeated clashes between the Chinese Han and the Uyghur, among others.

Welcome to the Wild West

烏魯木齊 (Wūlǔmùqí)

The Internet Chinese-language paper, Beiqingwang 北青网 （North Youth Network) reports on a group of 97 workers from Sichuan，among them 10 women, who were hoping for a better life in Ürümqi / ئۈرۈمچی ‎ / 乌鲁木齐 (Wūlǔmùqí) the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region in China. For the last three months, they have been sleeping in dire conditions under a highway bridge. The news has now reached the Beijing press. Beiqingwang reports that their boss has disappeared without paying them the wages which are due to them. The contracting company was an empty shell. Their dream of making money and returning home has vanished. All that is left them is shivering with cold in slippers.

They are still waiting for a job and a place to live. They could be offered some accommodation on the set for the popular Hunan TV series, 蝸居 [Snail House] aka Narrow Dwellings (sic). It features the tribulations of a young graduate couple trying to buy a home. The show has now been cancelled, some say censored, for its racy dialogue and realism.

No television station, Chilean or otherwise, has offered to turn the 97 workers' lives into a TV series, yet.

老外說廣東話 A Foreigner's Cantonese

How well can a westerner learn Chinese or even Cantonese? The Hong Kong based newspaper 文匯報 Wenweipo (in Cantonese) has an interview in Chinese with Robert S. Bauer 包睿舜, an American who is bilingual in Cantonese and Mandarin. His Cantonese is so good that he has taught Cantonese to the People's Liberation Army in Hong Kong. Maybe the PLA thought native Hong Kongers would only teach them dirty Cantonese. They should have thought twice then about choosing Bauer because he is the world's top expert on Cantonese. He has even published a "Dictionary of Cantonese Slang: The language of Hong Kong Movie, Street Gangs and City Life."
Strangely enough Bauer first learned Cantonese in Taiwan. He is adamant that it's better to be able to speak two Chinese dialects than one. Putonghua being the "dialect" that one can't avoid...

老包 Bauer believes that Cantonese will be an endangered language by the beginning of the 22nd century.
I hope he's wrong; what 老包 doesn't say is whether Hong Kong will switch to English or Mandarin.
How boring and bland Hong Kong would be without Cantonese. Like Dim Sum in a MacDonald's.

Getting your facts right 資訊越詳細越糊塗

Alien war2 for the iPad
Taipei 101 attacked by aliens!

The otherwise knowledgeable computer news site Techeye.net has managed to top the amount of misinformation you can squeeze in about Taiwan and China on a single Web page. According to Techeye.net "this sunny subtropical island nation just 100 miles off the coast of China" is baffled by complex Chinese. Never mind that everyone in Taiwan knows that leaving home without an umbrella is a sure way of ruining your clothes.
Techeye.net managed to find one Taiwanese college student who claimed that she could not read Traditional characters: "It's Greek to me." This is quite a feat since all bookshops in Taiwan now have a floor dedicated only to books in simplified characters including Eslite 成品. Never mind that many Taiwanese use some form of simplified character for private communication.

Poor Chairman Mao 毛主席 is blamed for this problem as "the bloke who made China go 'simplified,' jettisoning 5,000 years of Middle Kingdom history for the sake of his throne."

The 外星人 Aliens from Galaxy Gliese 581 have just landed in America.