2013-04-03, 11:20 | Link #641 | ||||
Master of Coin
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Sure, not access to slave like labor right? These Koreans earn as much as 1/4th as the average chinese worker, so it is ok to exploit North Koreans, but not the Chinese? Also, the purpose of sanctions it to ensure change in other people's behavior, and what good is it if it is expressly flaunted? Wasn't there a big scandal about Iraq's oil for food scandal a few years back? Quote:
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But you love our 95 billion dollar a year trade surplus right? I was not aware Taiwan's designation was ROJ and wrote in Japanese, and not ROC and traditional Chinese. |
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2013-04-03, 11:21 | Link #642 | |
Nyaaan~~
Join Date: Feb 2006
Age: 40
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Polls do indicate the preference for Taiwanese to stay independent beyond the "One country two systems" policies of HK and Macau, but "identity" wise many Taiwanese still view themselves as both "Taiwanese" and ethnically "Chinese" .. so it's not so simple. People still have relatives in both countries as well. Hey Archmage, no need to be snarky, he's talking from his own personal perspective -- and admittedly China is very aggressive about anything related to sovereignty and territorial issues with respect to Taiwan. External allegations of support or otherwise.
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2013-04-03, 11:24 | Link #643 | ||
Logician and Romantic
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Within my mind
Age: 43
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And we don't go by ROC anymore. Just Taiwan. ROC was created by Chiang who fantasied about "striking back and re-conquering China". Him and his gang died, and his crazy fantasy died with him. Quote:
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2013-04-03, 11:34 | Link #644 | |
Master of Coin
Join Date: Mar 2008
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And I am not sure where you got the "culturally same as the Japanese", especially since Japan has no traditional history with China other than the occupation from end of Qing Empire-1945 while China been around since the 17th century. And the aborigine people (currently 2% population if wiki is right) isn't exactly speaking Japanese either. You are still writing Chinese, speaking Mandarin, fly the flag etc. So what make you Japanese? |
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2013-04-03, 11:41 | Link #645 |
Nyaaan~~
Join Date: Feb 2006
Age: 40
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Hm, this is a bit surprising, VCV -- are you ethnically indigenous Taiwanese?
There are very few people that I have met that can claim that. AM -- let's not go back to 1945 Qing Empire .. there are still issues with minor tribes in China desiring separate non-Chinese racial identities. A country is a bit of land with lines drawn around it somewhat arbitrarily and require its own population to identify themselves as a cohesive whole identity. Plus then we get in to "Who is China?" "Who is Taiwan?" .. I'm not sure anyone would still claim Italy "was" the Roman Empire anymore ..
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2013-04-03, 11:50 | Link #646 | |
Banned
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Dai Korai Teikoku
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2013-04-03, 12:08 | Link #647 | |
Love Yourself
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Northeast USA
Age: 38
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North Korea is an interesting case, and how you perceive its actions have a lot to do with the young leader Kim Jong Un. He was educated in the West and reports claim that he was basically living a life of leisure. He was called back to North Korea when his father grew ill and died. He likely doesn't have that same level of indoctrination that his father probably did. What's going through his head right now? Does he just want to return to his previous life? Does he care about what he's doing? Does he want to make North Korea a better place and free the citizens living under him? Is he taking up the hardline stance? News sources are assuming that he's basically following his father, but he's unskilled by comparison. The example they like to cite is when North Korea made its usual threats and demands, secured aid in the usual exchange for promising to back down, and then reneged on their part of the deal before the aid was delivered. Now with no aid and less trust than before, they earned nothing more than further condemnation and sanctions. That isn't how the game used to be played under Kim Jong Il; under the rules of that game, Kim Jong Un dropped the ball. But what if his intent is different? He's lived outside of North Korea and knows how the world perceives the nation. He knows how deprived North Koreans are compared to the rest of the world. What if he really wants to improve the lives of the North Korean people? How do you go about doing something like that in a nation under military rule? What glorified military that runs the place with little to no resistance from the population would willingly give up what they have? If you can't change the military complex from within, it seems that your remaining choices are all external. By screwing up the delivery of international aid, North Korea is weakened internally and the population is further pushed toward a tipping point. Ratcheting up the rhetoric is partly what enabled the aid to be averted, and it's also the safest course of action for those on the inside. In a nationalistic country you are unlikely to be accused of treason for becoming more extreme; those who question you will seem less patriotic and more suspicious by comparison. Ratcheting up the rhetoric also forces the world community to unite and take action of some sort. If we assume that Kim Jong Un really doesn't care to be in power and that he wants what is best for the North Koreans, he probably realizes that having North Korea run by anyone other than the current government would be the best course of action. Weakening North Korea from the inside, forcing the world to work together to take action... it's a near-perfect method for saving North Korea from its current ruling structure. It all comes down to what Kim Jong Un's true intentions and plans are.
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2013-04-03, 12:18 | Link #648 |
Banned
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Dai Korai Teikoku
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Well, things to consider:
1. Where Kim Jong Un was educated. 2. Legitimacy of his rule (his father had decades of grooming, but still took four years to consolidate power) 3. Party internal affairs (aunt is ill, possible power struggle) 4. Party-Military conflicts (Military grew very strong under Kim Jong Il) |
2013-04-03, 12:25 | Link #649 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Australia
Age: 41
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2013-04-03, 13:15 | Link #651 | |
Master of Coin
Join Date: Mar 2008
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2013-04-03, 13:28 | Link #653 | |
Love Yourself
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Northeast USA
Age: 38
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Granted, experience living abroad doesn't necessarily mean that he'll want to change North Korea. There have been plenty of Muslim extremists who lived in the United States of America for years, only to continue claiming that they desire to impose Sharia law over the entire world. But you have to wonder... if Jong Un really did want to make a change, how could he do it?
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2013-04-03, 13:29 | Link #654 | |
思想工作
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Vereinigte Staaten
Age: 31
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The Japanese did do quite a bit to modernize the island, this is true, and they also tried to make the Taiwanese think they were Japanese. But the fact remains that the vast majority of Taiwanese are people who speak Sinitic (i.e. Chinese) languages and are culturally Chinese. When the KMT first arrived, they were welcomed as liberators until it was discovered that most of their men were crooks. Then everyone started going "boo hoo mainlanders are mean we don't want to be Chinese anymore", as if the KMT=China, and then you have things like the DPP pop up. If all Chinese were to go by the narrow-minded pan-Green logic, nobody would be Chinese since strictly speaking modern Mandarin is not the native language of any Chinese region, and each region has their distinct variation of Chinese culture, just like Taiwan. Should they all be independent too? Last edited by LeoXiao; 2013-04-03 at 17:30. |
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2013-04-03, 13:38 | Link #655 |
Nyaaan~~
Join Date: Feb 2006
Age: 40
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Yes? Hahahaha.. no, I kid. Oh dear, that was a good laugh.
As populations get more and more mobile and technology and transferable skills make populations and workforces more mobile .. I wonder at what point to national boundaries become more porous? Maybe because I'm Canadian, but depending on opportunities available, I can work pretty much anywhere in the world. I can move my capital and do what I want. Canada just happens to be awesome. At some point you can't govern over people that don't want to be governed .. and sometimes even if people don't want you to govern them or group them up, it makes sense to "manage" due to geographic, cultural or economic to manage groups as .. well, "a group" As for sino-ethnic identities -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...roups_in_China There's a lot more subdivisions to those tribal and ethnic identities. I recall an academic paper written .. wow, nearly a decade ago that dived into the construction of these identities and how frankly much of the categorization is arbitrary. Much of the rural countryside population do not ascribe to these officially recognized identities..
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2013-04-03, 14:43 | Link #656 | ||
Sensei, aishite imasu
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Hong Kong Shatterdome
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I think the international community understands that since it'd be South Korean cities getting bombed if war should happen, the South Koreans kinda get more leeway when it comes to deciding how to deal with North Korea than other nations do. Quote:
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2013-04-03, 15:06 | Link #657 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Australia
Age: 41
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What the Norks have done here is effectively a hostage situation without them needing to lift a finger to throw anyone in jail. They simply said,"Nah, your replacement shift hasn't arrived, so you can't leave and need to keep working till they get here. Oh yes by the way we've barred all future access from the south, so your replacement shift isn't getting here. ROFL."
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2013-04-03, 15:14 | Link #658 | |
Not Enough Sleep
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: R'lyeh
Age: 48
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2013-04-03, 15:16 | Link #659 | |
Banned
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Dai Korai Teikoku
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Ignorant people blabbering around. It sickens me. |
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2013-04-03, 15:21 | Link #660 | |
Sensei, aishite imasu
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Hong Kong Shatterdome
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This would all be a rather convoluted attempt at hostage taking honestly. And I don't think that is what's going on.
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