Cadence – Page 56

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, August 3, 2015

SymphonyAugust 3, 2015

Propaganda backfired this week. Beijing wants more Internet censorship, almost to create a “Chinanet” akin to another Great Schism not seen since the Orthodox Church split from the West. TPP failed. Students in Taiwan stormed government offices to keep out China-propaganda over “minor” changes to national curriculum. An Australia-India-Japan alliance plumed out of nowhere. Taiwan and Japan are kissing and making up. And some truth came through well-kept gates.

An 18-year-old got back from his year in North Korea. The North Koreans shower together like Americans and Romans. North Korean students are curious about mundane life in America. And, notably, North Koreans seem to agree with a Americans: Government is the problem, not the people.

Joshua Wang, Hong Kong, had an interview with the BBC and explained that the Umbrella Movement never really had a plan and never communicated a plan to the public. But they did succeed in raising public awareness. · · · →

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, July 27, 2015

SymphonyJuly 27, 2015

Propaganda. Taiwanese students protest “rewriting” history curriculum. Taiwan’s Ministry of Education responded on cue: police to arrest protesters—as well as three reporters. Notwithstanding Mark Twain’s “Never argue with people who buy ink by the barrel”, taking action against the students will fall into the playbook MLK used in Birmingham. Had the police not responded, there might not have been any news. The backlash will whack the Taiwan party that caves to China—just before an election. And, the stories reveal that freedom of Taiwanese’s own press in their own country is as bad as it is in China. Reportedly, the press aren’t allowed to cover a protest unless the government invites them.

Chinese TV shows a simulated assault on the Taiwan presidential palace. This raises questions about whether China has also simulated the vast mountain range and beach landing necessary to reach Taiwan’s presidential palace. China’s propaganda within its own borders could backfire—not that the international world should be concerned with whether China tells the truth to its own people, but if the public gets unhappy with the Beijing bullhorn, it would create another battlefront, on top of the other battlefronts expanded under Xi Jinping. · · · →

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia July 20, 2015

SymphonyJuly 20, 2015

“Pacific fever”—the state of forgetting which country one is in.

China is headed for an all out tailspin, economically and politically. Beijing was smart with money, courting foreign investment, and even smart with religion—allowing Christianity on the condition it did not form a de facto political caucus. The economy went up. The number of Christians soared. But China made a mistake in trying to expand borders.

During natural disasters, Taiwan helps its neighbors, Japan and the Philippines, two other countries being pushed-around by Beijing. The Communists’ old enemy, the KMT (Nationalist Party), is still in Taiwan and has remained Beijing’s primary target in the Pacific. If war breaks out, China would not be outnumbered, but they would be surrounded and out-witted by multiple enemies, each whom China has ever failed to conquer.

The “peripheries” around China—Taiwan, the man-made islands in the South China Sea, parts of Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan, possibly even Tibet and the Mongolia claim, not to mention the way of handling the Hong Kong policy—all these diluted China’s power and alerted other countries. · · · →

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, July 13, 2015

SymphonyJuly 13, 2015

With China’s economy failing, the Chinese KMT-Nationalist party living in exile at Taiwan may have made a mistake in trying to merge the fates of the New Taiwan Dollar with the Chinese Yuan. Election time in Taiwan could mean a political “pay day”. China is in financial crisis.

Weapon sales from the US to Taiwan have stalled during the tenure of Obama and Ma, Taiwan’s president. Both elections are in 2016 and analysts are wondering why the US won’t deliver on its sales to Taiwan. The obvious answer seems to evade experts and pundits. Even with America’s failed negotiations with China, the Pentagon doesn’t seem stupid enough to sell weapons to a nation run by leaders who don’t know how to explain their own foreign policy. The Pentagon delivery service will deliver once Taiwan clearly announces which country should appear on the shipping label.

In the meanwhile, China’s bad economy seems more scary than Greece’s. · · · →

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, June 6, 2015

SymphonyJuly 6, 2015

China moves more and more with money. The economy is crashing, largely due to the Communist doctrine that citizens do not own land—something we rarely read about.

China also gears up for both war and investment contingency. BRICS was ratified this week. New national “interests” rhetoric and policy came from Beijing, implying war against Taiwan more than recently.

The Taiwan problem comes from documentation. When the Japanese surrendered in 1945, they gave up Taiwan, which China had surrendered properly to Japan. But Japan never stated who they were giving Taiwan over to, technically rendering Taiwan an already independent State. Taiwan has been fought over by China’s Communist party after China’s KMT-Nationalist party was forced to find a place to live in de facto exile. Both Communist and KMT-Nationalist parties seem to be attempting to rewrite history, as the Taiwan education fiasco shows.

China

China’s national security law gives PLA mission to protect overseas interests

…Old rhetoric, made more official. · · · →

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, June 29, 2015

SymphonyJune 29, 2015

China’s economy is tanking if you look at sales reports, or, no, wait, it’s going up if you ask the Chinese. China is also losing in the battle for Vietnam’s alliance: Moscow is now buddy-buddy with Hanoi.

Taiwan’s internal politics are all over the map with a presidential election schedule running near-parallel to the US 2016 election. Both countries look like they will elect a leader that wants to “deal smart” with China—against Beijing’s de facto policy of demanding that the world allow itself to be annexed by Beijing. Beijing has already rejected what looms in 2016 like a slave owner rejecting a slave’s desire to “normalize relations”.

Speaking of slavery, China is now an expert on human rights, lecturing the US. It is almost comedic, not because of the gross difference in numbers, but because China has so consistently told the US that countries should mind their own business. It seems Beijing has reversed that precedent with a new one. · · · →