China's treatment and indignation over Taiwan is completely petty and juvenile. I don't even pretend to comprehend why there isn't direct mail, shipping or air links. Just to rub it, good thing the National Palace Museum is in Taiwan. Instead of wasting money and resources over Taiwan, maybe China could be using those resources to shore up the banking system, modernize the legal system, clean up corruption (especially rurally), and deal with problems such as this toxic mess: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/04/international/asia/04CHIN.html
It's pretty pathetic to use a basketball game to ignore the horrible system that you are protecting. I suppose you have no comments on the Christian who was beat to death in prison a couple of weeks back.
So the government can modify the gospel? That violates both the Chinese constitution (not that the ChiCom government follows it) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Having the government decide which churches are permitted & which are banned is counterproductive & bad for business. Trust me on this.... Hugs & Kisses, Brigham Young
Actually, the Chinese Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. The government, of course, ignores it. Taiwanese have freedom of religion. Why do you think Taiwanese would actually want to embrace a "motherland" who doesn't allow the Taiwanese to participate in an activity that is a basic human right? BTW: A recent poll in Taiwan shows that more people in Taiwan consider Taiwan to be a separate country than Taiwan to be a part of China.
China's human rights record including freedom of religion is excellent and this fact is universally accepted by the international community. Any seperatist activities aimed at splitting the motherland under the pretext of human rights is doomed to failure. Taiwan authority "president" chen shuibian's policy of gradual independence goes against the wishes of 1.3 billion chinese including our compatriots in Taiwan and overseas chinese all over the world. Foreign organisations which criticise China's human rights record have ulterior motives and we urge them to stop this irresponsible behaviour now. The recent "poll" organised by the Taiwan independence forces is not going to have the desired effect because the majority of the Taiwan people embrace the motherland.
HA HA HA HA! China's human rights record is accepted UNIVERSALLY? What is your version of human rights? Beating people to death in prison because they don't agree with what the government spouts out? Putting people in prison for practicing their religion? Putting people in prison for PEACEFULLY advocating freedom? This is human rights? You may fool others Shenhua, but I have lived in China and I have seen it first hand. As for your compatriots in Taiwan, they make up on 15% of Taiwan's population. The vast majority of people in Taiwan are NOT Chinese in citizenship. The only people in Taiwan who generally consider themselves Chinese are those who came over in 1949 with the defeated KMT and those who were brainwashed during the White Terror. The poll I am referring to was conducted by the China Times, a PAN-BLUE (pro-China) newspaper. It wasn't conducted by pro-independence media, but by PRO-UNIFICATION! President Chen is far more a president than Hu is. Chen was elected by the people of Taiwan. Hu was selected by the oligarchs in China. http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/china/china_report09032001.html http://www.hrw.org/asia/china.php http://iso.hrichina.org/iso/
You're talking about this like it were a bad thing, Ludahai. If it weren't for thousands of political prisoners in Laogai factories, all the Walmarts would have nothing to sell. And I would not have anywhere to go to see some really impressive mullets. Can't those selfish political prisoners think of someone besides themselves for a change?
LOL!!! Just remember, buying goods made in China merely helps them to contribute to the military machine that will be used to invade their neighbors and use nuclear blackmail to keep the U.S. from helping DEMOCRATIC nations. President Chen has the Chinese nervous. He is calling their bluff! http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031107/wl_asia_afp/china_us_taiwan_031107200641
Not only that. buying goods made in China keeps America's interest rate low and avoiding federal government's going bankrupt, so that American people can live way beyond their means.
invade our neighbours? We have good relations with all our neighbours. We have mended fences with Vietnam and we will be holding joint naval excercises with India in the coming weeks. The navy also held search and rescue excercises with pakistan recently. We have good relations with both koreas. The only possible conflict that China could get into is with the renegade province. Nuclear Blackmail? we have a No First Use policy, America doesn't. We have a minimal deterrence policy of 20 ICBMs while america has thousands. The only reason why we have the bomb is because the yanks kept threatening to use it on us.
In reality China probably wants Chen to win. Another 4 years under the imcompetent leadership of this man will speed up the re-unification process.
What are you talking about? Taiwan's diplomacy is at its highest point in decades and the economy is rebounding, and is far more diversified than it was under the KMT!
China doesn't have very good relations with many of its neighbors. It still claims large chunks of Arunachal Pradesh in India and it has alliances with Pakistan and Myanmar, encircling India. There is still the pesky territorial dispute with Viet Nam concerning the maritime boundary in the Gulf of Tonkin as well as the Paracel Islands. The Philippines is getting ready to formally protest increasing Chinese activity along the Philippine frontier. Don't forget the illegitimate claims that China has in the South China Sea. And of course, there are the constant threats against the sovereignty of Taiwan. Some peaceful neighbor. As for nuclear policy, according to recent reports, China may soon nix the no first use policy. China has far more than 20 nuclear missiles. Defense analysts have noted China's recent buildup in nuclear capabilities. They will use it to blackmail the U.S. China has already made a threat to use them against L.A. and other U.S. cities should the U.S. intervene in the Taiwan issue. China is peaceful right now because it has zero power projection capabilities. China could not take Taiwan right now, unless it used nuclear weapons. China is simply biding its time and trying to lull the rest of the world. Unfortunately, it is working.
From foreignaffairs.org Throughout the 1990s, China also moved to resolve a number of territorial disputes that have historically caused tension between it and its neighbors. Since 1991, China has settled border conflicts with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam -- and it has sometimes done so on less-than-advantageous terms. In fact, in most of these agreements, China received only 50 percent or less of the contested territory; for example, in resolving a long-standing dispute over the Pamir Mountains, which Tajikistan inherited from the Soviet Union, China accepted only 1,000 of the contested 28,000 square kilometers. Relations have improved even with India, long one of China's adversaries (the countries fought a border war in 1962). Although the two sides remain unable to settle their differences formally, tensions on their disputed border have decreased dramatically, thanks to confidence-building and troop-reduction agreements signed in the 1990s. Similar agreements have been reached with Russia and the Central Asian states. As a result, China's long land border, the site of many of the country's major wars, has never been more secure. Beijing has likewise adopted a more pragmatic approach to the management of offshore territorial disputes, such as those over the Paracel, Spratly, and Senkaku Islands. Although China still clings to its claims over the islands, it has now repeatedly committed itself to settling the disputes peacefully, based on international law. After four years of negotiation, ASEAN and China signed a long-awaited declaration on a code of conduct for such matters in 2002. Interestingly, the final document included most of the draft language sought by ASEAN -- and little of what was offered by China. As for the no first use policy, don't jump the gun. Regarding the missiles, let's say China had 100 ICBMS it wouldn't make any difference because America has thousands. You say that there is a "build-up" of China's nuclear capabilities. It's not really a build-up but more of a "modernisation". The current DF-5 liquid fuelled missiles which require hours of launch preperation will be replaced by the DF-31 solid fuelled road/rail mobile ICBM. Is this a threat to America? not really when they can pack 24 nukes in one of those SSBNs. BTW China could take Taiwan is the Yanks are not involved, i can assure you. The days when the wanwan military had a qualitative edge are long over.
Considering that the Chinese claims in most cases had no validitity in international law, they actually benefited in the long run to get what they did. Also, none of those disputes are as important to China as India, the South China Sea, Taiwan, or the Senkaku Islands. Tensions have reduced dramatically, this is a good thing. However, this does not mean that the relations are particularly good.
And even more important than that, it means that the Taiwanese that manage these factories can stick with their 3-pack a day habit, instead of having to cut down to 2 packs.
Gee, I would love to be at the beach at Taichung Harbor when the ChiCom soldiers finish their swim with their weapons packs on. "Look, another one. Let's shoot him while he's panting!" LOL!!! Easy pickens!!! Why are you so determined to end the freedom of the Taiwanese people? Taiwan does not belong to China, PERIOD!!!! Find me the treaty please by which Taiwan is given to China, because the last treaty China signed concerning Taiwan was in 1895 when it surrendered it forever.
The coast would be long clear after the MKK bombing sorties. The pathetic F-CK-1 "indegenous" defense fighter would be the real "easy pickens"
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/taiwan/airforce-intro.htm "TAF weapons systems and training qualitatively surpass those of their cross-Strait peers." "The IDF has faced numerous developmental and operational problems since its inception in the 1980s. Nevertheless, its technical sophistication, with its fly-by-wire controls and blended wing-body design, is believed to be superior to any aircraft produced and deployed by China to date." At least Taiwan can domestically produce fighters. You have to go off and buy them from a foreign supplier. If China was so good, why can't you make your own?
LOL this is the dumbest thing i've ever heard. Ludahai don't talk about shi+ you know nothing about. Globalsecurity.org is a great site about AMERICAN systems, its section on China is ridiculously outdated and hasn't been updated for donkey's years. The IDF is not better than the INDIGENOUS J-10. Although the IDF has two engines, the combined thrust of the 2 TFE1042 engines is less than the J-10's AL-31F. The J-10 has 50 percent more power than the IDF and a slightly heavier max take of weight, therefore providing a massively superior thrust to weight ratio. The planform of the j-10 is the European style delta canard similar to fighters like EF, JAS 39 and rafale. It has Quadruplex digital FBW and the Type 1473 radar developed by Nanjing Research Institute of Electronic Technology which beat out radars from Phazatron and ELTA. J-10 is better than IDF get it into your head. Oh and don't forget, The IDF is a Lockheed Martin design. It is not "indigenous" at all. The Americans also put a "thrust limit" on the engines they sell to Taiwan. They won't sell engines with a power output of more than 40kN and because Taiwan can't make engines, they can't do shi+ about it. Your last statement shows your ignorance. Taiwan imports all it's fighters, the IDF is it's only "indigenous project". China on the other hand has been making combat aircraft for both national defence and the export market for 4 decades. The list of Chinese Indigenous fighter aircraft is long and includes J-8, j-10 FC-1 JH-7, K-8 and Q-5. This list of aircraft includes High speed interceptors, 4th gen multirole fighters, tactical bombers, jet trainers and tank busters. After the soviet union and China fell out between the early 60's to early 90's, where do you think we got our equipment from? Taiwan couldn't even make one submarine, yet we were able to build SSNs and SSBNs even during the cultural revolution period. You obviously have not read the korea china rivalry thread. So please, don't just quote globalsecurity or FAS if you want to get into a defense discussion. Here is a clip of the first flight of the FC-1. This plane is designed for Pakistan to replace the F-16 and will not enter service in China. http://www.pakistanidefence.com/videos/AirForce/FC-1TestFlight/TestFlightOfFC-1JF-17.html