Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Happy Double Ten Day?


The Sacred Tree of Taiwan's Alishan Mountain; long fallen hope for independence
     The Republic of China, established January 1, 1912 after the October 10, 1911 uprising against the Qing Dynasty, should have ended when the People's Republic of China, established October 1, 1949, defeated the corrupt, fascist KMT, but the U.S.  make Taiwan available for their retreat, ignoring the will of the Taiwanese people. The U.S. perpetuate the lie, embargoed China for thirty years, and kept U.S. power in Asia with Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea; the spoils of WW II. In 1947 Taiwanese leaders were murdered by Chiang Kai-Shek in the 228 Massacre. Then, expelled from the U.N. in  1979 in favor of the PRC, Chiang's son, the new family dictator, refused to be an independent Taiwan,  A happy Double Ten Day? More like  a sad double loss for independence for the good Taiwanese people.  
     We have to get U.S. military and intelligence off foreign territory and spend those tax dollars improving Staters living standard, but China is doing well despite the obstacles, even with an infiltrated Hong Kong added to the list. China has to keep up its policy of a great firewall to keep western subterfuge out. They have to continue raising the living standard of their people and connecting the world with fair trade; the Silk Road initiative is great. They have to continue leading the world with environmental measures like Three Gorges Dam hydroelectricity and cutting fossil fuel emissions.
      This "Replica of China" in Taiwan with its sham democracy, stagnant economy, dwindling birth rate, elderly population, cannot survive as the behest of the U.S. Taiwan deserves nationhood; a voice in the world, and since the dream of independence has been squandered and denied since martial law ended, China beckons. Why is Taiwan still celebrating Double Ten today? Why have they come up with some gimmicky "Taiwan Forward" campaign when Taiwan is going nowhere? China can wait. 
     Taiwanese will continue to suffer in its pleasant chaos and political circus until someone starts a grassroots movement for reunification; until a critical mass realizes the U.S. presence is more harmful than good. Until then, all China has in Taiwan is White Wolf, a unification mafia head, a bumbling ex-president, and a clown in Kaohsiung voted mayor, but, most of all, Taiwan perpetuates Chinese culture, classic writing, food, music, and customs.  Pity Taiwan or blame Taiwan; it doesn't matter. But love Taiwan, as I have done for forty years, because it is a beautiful place, great place for an expat to start an ESL teaching career, to live in, and to retire.   

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Hong Kong’s Great Leap Backward

Image result for Kill the chicken to scare the monkey
 It is a great leap backwards for the future as Hong Kong's elite embraces colonialism and falls for the American dream. Who has the audacity to call it “Chinese Mainlander colonialism” in Hong Kong that brings no benefit to any of the forcibly absorbed”? Last I looked, Hong Kong has been part of China forever until stolen by the British in the Opium Wars until 1997, but not before the British had poisoned the populace with elitist sensibilities over their own Chinese cultural cohort. 
If bourgeois Hong Kongers are offended by tourists from China, if they don't want their real estate prices to go down, they are showing their real desire: wealth. They have always gloated they were more sophisticated than their cohorts in China; even better than those in Taiwan. They wanted Hong Kong to be Singapore. In New York City, you feel it. Hong Kong expats wouldn’t speak with my Taiwanese wife in Mandarin using Cantonese instead of the national dialect. The arrogance, mercantilism and lack of desire for assimilation with their American neighbors, especially black or Latino, is well known. It spills into the streets of Chinatowns. They are the elite escapees; native New Yorkers are the ‘wai-guo-ren’-foreigners.
There is a healthy hankering for the good old days. I guess British colonialism is better than “Chinese colonialism” to self-effacing white supremacists. The people of Hong Kong have always had a chance to fight for independence or remain a British colony but willingly, and proudly, returned to China. They are cutting off their noses to spite themselves. I too saw the beautiful colonial building China tore down. It is subterfuge that is agitating the Hong Kong scions to cut loose. They have had a chance to fight for independence or remain a colony since the ‘90’s but willingly, and proudly, returned to China. They are cutting off their noses to spite themselves. I too saw the beautiful colonial building China tore down to stamp their own mark on the territory. It was plain and simple sour grapes and subterfuge that was agitating the elite scions to cut loose.
He dug his prejudices deeper saying, “The handover itself was absurd... Britain should have voided the whole process after the Tienanmen Square massacre, if they had any respect for human rights over corporate profits, or making a killing in Canadian real estate.” I had enough of this adhesion to the old company line.
“The U.S., U.K., France and every imperialist liar should have the progress China has made for its billion people. I say let Hong Kong rot. Put a wall between it and Shenzhen. Take away their Chinese passports and leave them nation-less like Taiwan,” I wrote despondently. I had written my most succinct responses to a Facebook share sympathetic to the anti-government demonstrators in Hong Kong. I won't share it on Facebook though because trolls would attack it. 
One fellow wrote that I didn’t sound like a very nice chap for saying that. Then another got personal figuring out I lived in Taiwan and asked, “Why do you live in Taiwan? From your above posts; it seems you should be living in the PRC?”
     It was disturbing to see an old comrade, Liana Foxvog, from Sweatfree Communities in Boston, had joined the China-bashing bandwagon over the Hong Kong riots sharing on Facebook a bumbling Democracy Now report on the riots they called “pro-democracy”. Instead of going to the root of the disturbance, they choose to focus on the long-overdue reaction to the rioting by Hong Kong police. It is amazing that the PLA may not be called in to end the sporadic riots as the U.S. hoped, and that it wasn't done before the PLA birthday on Oct.1 as the Taiwan spin doctors rumored. They both want to make a mockery out of China to the world. China does not want to injure its own people any more than a father wants to hurt an errant child, a child with bad friends urging them on. Liana should be aware, as a defender of workers’ rights, how China has raised its peoples' standard of living. There is no protection for the immigrant workers in Hong Kong or the western businessmen that use Hong Kong and Taiwan as conduits for outsourcing, drugs, and slave trade. Sweatshops have left China for Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and even the United States where there are more opportunities to exploit workers. I will not donate to her organization or Democracy Now as I have before. I am insulted that Liana, knowing I am living in Taiwan and aware of politics here, didn't bother to ask my opinion. Now I see she questioned if I had listened to the video she shared like I know nothing about it.
I almost feel depressed but I know it is only fatigue and disgust for the state of the world, in this instance, the way progressive stateside acquaintances are falling over themselves supporting the anti-China riots in Hong Kong. My only reliable Facebook comrades are at Workers World, Telesur, Mao Zedong Thought Discussion Group, Friends Who like New Afrikan Communist Party, China Daily, and a few China cultural groups. I feel more isolated than usual with a few anarchist and Wobbly groups blaming China for Hong Kong’s chaos. All day long, I had to keep the latest casualty of fog, Liana and her proxy off my mind. She doubted my word after I voiced my disapproval of her sharing propaganda without checking other points-of-view and answered her defender who misconstrued what I meant. I let her save face blaming the person she shared the post from for misleading my anti-sweatshop comrade. I am fed up 
As Taiwan media obliges with news angles designed to “kill the chicken to scare the monkey”, coddled Taiwanese youth sit terrified of the violence in Hong Kong and the DPP co-opts them will calls to ‘support democracy’ and get votes for Tsai Ying-Wen in the upcoming presidential election; democracy in Taiwan is a sham. They take out the play book and throw a “Hail Mary” to anyone that would doubt it. Know that the initial demonstration against an extradition law proposed, and since retracted; that any other demands are for clemency from property destruction and causing bodily harm to police. It has never been about unemployment, minimum wage, austerity, or other elimination of social concerns. 
If Hong Kong leader Lin Zheng-Yue’s move is to "lead the snake out of the hole" and make Hong Kong more chaotic to use more emergency law and let Hong Kong enter a state of martial law, so be it.  The Chinese idioms are flying. Western imperialists bent on destabilizing China have their stooges in impressionable youth led astray as NGO's and Western media feed them justifications for  their self-destruction. The "Forbidden Mask" law won’t mind if the people go to the streets because of anger on weekends and Sundays. The more chaotic, the better, so that Lin Zheng can just use emergency laws and more forcible actions like curfews and martial law.
Copyright © 2019 by David Barry Temple. All rights reserved