Showing all posts in Prelude

The Taiwan military rhetoric of last week was compounded by a food oil scandal affecting many large Taiwan food suppliers. The ultimate effect will hurt the pockets of the de facto pro-Beijing KMT Nationalist party controlling Taiwan. As the spirits of HK and Taiwan strengthen together, from valuable mistakes, Beijing faces a new weapon: human resolve.

The Japanese development of not being solely dependent on the US for defense came with consideration: A nation needs more than weapons for defense; it needs ethics, values, and a narrative. The region is realizing that this conflict won’t be fought in one single battle, but every day, with small run-ins and decisions to become strong or to bow to the big bully of the Pacific.

Regional

Top US security adviser expected in Beijing

…Strategically at the same time as the West plans to move against ISIS in Iraq.

Political Cartoon: The unfairness of “fairness” between China and Taiwan in trade agreement, CSSTA, illustrating why the Sunflower movement’s takeover of Taiwan’s Legislature made some sense.  · · · →

You know that point… where you’ve been trying to persuade a friend to get smart, think about his actions, and change his ways… and you’ve finally convinced him to open his eyes and he sees his situation… but then he looks at you as if he’s been violated… then he shrinks back into his emotional cave, stops listening, buckles down, and walks away?

We reached that point this week with China.

More importantly, we reached another point with Taiwan: shock and realization.

In China’s defense, the Communists don’t want Hong Kongers to have “buyer’s remorse” similar to what many Americans and Taiwanese feel for their presidents. But, more from Chinese domineering culture than from Communism ideology, Beijing’s solution is to seize control from the people, rather than allowing the people to learn from their consequences of their voting.

Chinese reportedly violated Taiwan’s airspace, then denied it, then moved military vehicles through busy streets of Hong Kong.  · · · →

Asia has a bigger problem now: A Beijing spy investigation. This could tip the balance in the US military favor because the Western public doesn’t like Beijing spies. Beijing is unlikely to back down. Even in online gaming, the Chinese have trouble knowing when they are losing. They are also easy to provoke on accident.

The official “story” is that Taiwan may have gotten rid of a Beijing spy. But it gets deeper and harrier, with flashbacks to Blagojevich’s self-defense in Illinois, along with two main questions: Who helped him and why did only one person resign?

Whether it was intentional, no one helped the supposed “spy” (Chang 張顯耀) more than Taiwan’s Nationalist party (KMT). Top government leaders enacted and proposed agreement after agreement with China that encouraged secret talks between Beijing and Taiwan’s government. Spies love secrecy every bit as much as the KMT does.

Why did only one head roll?  · · · →

Israel disappeared from Taiwan’s headlines while Iraq takes the new spotlight. It couldn’t last forever and, after more than a month of Taiwan learning about Israel every day, it doesn’t need to continue.

China, South Korea, and the US are angry that Japanese ministers visited their own Japanese war memorial. Should this be interpreted as the world having newfound permission to complain about what China, South Korea, and the US do within their own borders? At least China should mind any more if the US and South Korea criticize Beijing’s own internal policy.

More trouble in Taiwan with rain and explosions, though not as big as the Kaohsiung blast that shook the controlling “Nationalist” party from China.

And now, the Pope pipes-in.

Pope sends message to Beijing as China bars Catholics from attending South Korea event

Pope beatifies 124 in Seoul, praises faithful

At Least 10 Injured After Police Fire on Tibetan Protesters

Who’s Waving Those CCP Flags (and Beating People Up) at Taipei 101?  · · · →

“Introspection”—The escalation went underground this week as nations look inside themselves. It all began August 1. A gas line explosion in Taiwan could change politics forever. Earthquake, a factory explosion, protests, and anti-Muslim laws in China. Manila finally jails the 12 Chinese fisherman who entered Pilipino seas and ran aground the 400-year-old reef. Ebola scare in Hong Kong—false alarm that woke up the region. Hong Kong’s discussions in democracy introduce Jimmy Lai’s funding of the recent “Vote”, the Vatican gets involved, and the police are pitted against “Occupy Central”. Motives for Chinese “Air Defense Zones” are analyzed as pointing to Taiwan. And, once again, China’s aircraft carrier is discovered to be even more vulnerable.

Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, jounst fingers at each other. Kerry was 30 minutes late to a meeting. Again, Chinese PR FAIL… Friends don’t care about 30 minutes of tardiness and we always bring our biggest complaints first.  · · · →

Last weeks Prelude received a stereotypical “seminar” comment sympathetic to media control. The Prelude considered this comment seriously, even after it was censored. Here is the comment, followed by the Prelude’s response:

This article is a typical anti-China piece which misreports, omits and distorts. The Chinese Central Government supports democracy in HK and has agreed to have it materialize in 2017. For 156 years of colonial rule, the British Government gave HK zero democracy. The so-called “pro-democracy” movement is a name created by the ill-intentioned Western press and anti-China elements to confuse the world.

The Prelude has never taken sides between the West and China. The only thesis that the Prelude has ever and will ever seek to prove is that conflict is as much foreseeable as it is avoidable. Because of the repeated choices and reactions from both the West and China, conflict in Southeast Asia, affecting the rest of the world, is growing.  · · · →