2013-05-27, 06:14 | Link #28561 | |
Senior Member
Artist
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: The Middle Way
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That's all I can say about...that. |
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2013-05-27, 06:42 | Link #28562 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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In China, food scares put Mao's self-sufficiency goal at risk
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...94L17J20130522 German brewers warn fracking could hurt beer industry http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...94M0NE20130523
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2013-05-27, 09:26 | Link #28563 | |
Logician and Romantic
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Within my mind
Age: 43
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China NEED farmland. They don't think they do, but they do. But they didn't realise the consequences until now. Food security is a matter of national importance, and finally there are warning signs.
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2013-05-27, 09:34 | Link #28564 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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2013-05-27, 10:01 | Link #28565 | |
Master of Coin
Join Date: Mar 2008
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You really need to understand China before making these silly comments. |
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2013-05-27, 10:03 | Link #28566 | |
Logician and Romantic
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Within my mind
Age: 43
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But seriously, I have been reading about reports of productive land being turned into industrial zones before the collapse of the Soviet Union. This has been going on for decades. Local governments in China just don't care about the big picture, they just want more money than what farmers can provide. And by the way it is going there is going to be a shortage of edible food, leading to increase food prices. THAT can cause the government to panic.
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2013-05-27, 14:00 | Link #28569 |
AS Oji-kun
Join Date: Nov 2006
Age: 74
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The Dispute between Taiwan and the Philippines
I realized just today how quickly the dispute between Taiwan and the Philippines had fallen off the front pages of the world's newspapers. I did read this Western perspective in the International Herald Tribune which reports the views of two Western observers. One points disapprovingly to "Han chauvinists," for whom "an apology from the president of the Philippines is not enough. The Filipinos must grovel, be reminded that they, like Malays generally, are the serfs of the region." The other commentator downplays Han chauvinism and focuses on the domestic Taiwanese political situation stressing "local legislators’ political ambitions in fishermen’s constituencies, as well as opposition parties’ efforts to criticize [President] Ma no matter what he does, especially at a time when he is vulnerable.”
To this Western observer, the key sticking point described in the article is Taiwan's demand for a formal state apology from the Philippines. This puts the Philippines, an adherent of the "one-China" policy, in a difficult diplomatic box. I did a quick search to see how other military or, as in this case, quasi-military disputes with Taiwan have been resolved so far. In January, 2006, a Taiwanese fisherman in the "Philippines Sea" was killed by men dressed in military uniforms. They were suspected of being pirates, and the Philippines' defense ministry claimed none of its units were in the area. If there were other cases in the past decade where Taiwanese fishermen were killed or injured by Philippine forces I cannot find them. I do see articles about Taiwanese fishing ships being seized by the Philippine Coast Guard, but none about their occupants being shot. I also don't see any indication that there has ever been a state-level exchange over events like these. I must say I can understand why someone might think "Han chauvinism" could be a real political force after reading this reply in the Comments section to the article. I'll refrain from reposting that racist piece of trash here.
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Last edited by Daniel E.; 2013-05-27 at 14:37. |
2013-05-27, 19:56 | Link #28573 | |
Meh
Join Date: Feb 2008
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A lot of it is really just caused by internal pressure from both sides. Philippines was just days away from their election, and their president runs on his tough foreign policy platform, while Taiwan had to assert itself due to both their president's low approval rating and how PHL's lackluster response was perceived by the public. I've written about it earlier in this thread, but suffice to say the PHL government really shot itself in the foot when it came to its response to the incident, especially initially - denying the claim never looks good, even if you admit it later, and publicly invoking the one-china policy as your response to Taiwan is always going to piss them off. Basically, the PHL government's handling of the incident was about as good as Microsoft's Xbone reveal The "han chauvinist" bit is just nonsense, that's something you're more likely to see from China, and one really shouldn't draw any conclusion from internet comments sections about, well, anything other than people are a**holes Meanwhile.... Man accused of killing elderly couple, sexually assaulting 2-year-old in Alaska http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/27/us...html?hpt=hp_t3 "Active had previously been convicted of sexual assault that involved an 11-year-old child, Markiewicz said." What a good thing that we were able to rehabilitate him (in such a short time!) and released him to be a worthwhile member of the society |
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2013-05-27, 23:27 | Link #28574 | |
Logician and Romantic
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Within my mind
Age: 43
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Quote:
That's right. Chiang's Henchmen didn't just have the Audacity of claiming China was a part of Taiwan, they also denied that Mongolia had the right to get their own nation. When I was a child, I didn't understand why the "correction" was there. Not until a decade later did I understood how silly it was. Dictator's privilege, I guess.
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2013-05-28, 01:40 | Link #28575 | |
Senior Member
Artist
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: The Middle Way
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Though it was years ago, I think. Philippine TV last I saw was paying a lot of attention to this still, focusing on Filipino workers being attacked in Taiwan. |
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2013-05-28, 02:45 | Link #28576 |
Meh
Join Date: Feb 2008
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So far I'very seen one confirmed case of it, with the perpetrators caught couple days later. There was a big dust up with store refusing to sell to Filipinos, mostly because it turned out to be a hoax, with a reporter fired and a TV exec resigning because of it.
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2013-05-28, 03:06 | Link #28577 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Quote:
The commentator quoted in the IHT story was referring to the collective ethnic chauvinism of the Chinese. That has little to do with national "brainwashing". It's more an expression of ethnic pride. Nationalism and ethnicity are two separate things for the Chinese, given that so many have emigrated from China and settled down as citizens of different countries with very different national identities. And I think the commentator Philip Bowring is seriously misinformed about Chinese identity if he actually believes that an ethnic conspiracy is at work behind the scenes. His assertion is almost as preposterous as that of Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad, who once claimed that a Jewish conspiracy sparked the Asian financial crisis of 1998. |
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2013-05-28, 03:38 | Link #28578 |
( ಠ_ಠ)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
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Right, it's a typical western confusion between differentiating the nationalism of PRC Chinese mainland, and the pride of being 華人・漢人 as a cultural, ethnic pride. Many Taiwanese very much identifies themselves as the latter.
To draw a comparison for Americans to identify, its similar to how many members of African-American community prides their origin and inheritance, but not at all emotionally attached to specific current nations in Africa.
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2013-05-28, 04:47 | Link #28580 | |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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U.S. report says major weapons designs compromised by Chinese
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...94R02720130528 Quote:
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