Gordon Chang about China... in the Year of the Dragon — Good Fortune.

Discussion in 'Asia' started by Onward James, Jan 26, 2012.

  1. Onward James

    Onward James New Member

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  2. reedak

    reedak Well-Known Member

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    Dear friend, thanks for your good wishes to all "decent" Chinese people. If you have wished the Rule of Gods for the Chinese, I shall definitely support you with both my hands and legs. Whether democracy or not, all the people on earth still have to be ruled by Men, not God or Gods, hence all the countless earthly troubles.

    If you happen to drift ashore onto a remote island in the middle of ocean after a shipwreck and live there alone like Robinson Crusoe, you will gradually lose the sense of time. Then whatever year, dragon or otherwise, whether it brings good fortune or not, will have no meaning to you. Similarly, whatever _ism you choose will not matter much to you on the remote island or anyone else in other parts of the world.

    Talking about democracy, I hope I won't dampen your spirit with the following quote by John Adams (1735—1826), First VP and second President of the United States, in his letter to John Taylor [15 April 1814].

    "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

    Mr Chang should have named his book "The Expected Collapse of the CCP" instead of "The Coming Collapse of China". All earthly things are transient and fleeting, hence such things as the CCP, communism, democracy, etc are no exceptions. The reign of the CCP is just another dynastic rule in China. It is just one of the countless chapters in China's history.

    While we expect the CCP to collapse like all its predecessors, the collapse of China, however, will be more difficult. In its 5,000 years of history, China has survived countless tribulations, foreign invasions, civil wars, turbulance, trials and natural calamities, besides going through many times of splits and reunification, reunification and splits.

    Yes, China is situated on the Earth hence it must be transient, but it will only die together with the Earth on Doomsday.

    Following are some interesting quotes on transience at http://www.someworthwhilequotes.com/TRADITIONTRANSIENCE.html

    We are tomorrow's past.
    --Mary Webb (1881—1927)
    English novelist.
    _Precious Bane_, "Foreword" [1924]

    *********************************************************
    The tusks which clashed in mighty brawls
    Of mastodons, are billiard balls.

    The sword of Charlemagne the Just
    Is Ferric Oxide, known as rust.

    The grizzly bear, whose potent hug,
    Was feared by all, is now a rug.

    Great Caesar's bust is on the shelf,
    And I don't feel so well myself.

    --Arthur Guiterman (1871—1943)
    American poet.
    "On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness"

    **********************************************************
    "And the King wanted an inscription good for a thousand years and after that
    to the end of the world?"
    "Yes, precisely so."
    "Something so true and awful that no matter what happened it would stand?"
    "Yes, exactly that."
    "Something no matter who spit on it or laughed at it there it would stand
    and nothing would change it?"
    "Yes, that was what the king ordered his wise men to write."
    "And what did they write?"
    "Five words: THIS TOO SHALL PASS AWAY."
    --Carl Sandburg (1878—1967)
    American poet.
    _The People, Yes_ [1936]

    **********************************************************
    I take delight in history, even its most prosaic details, because they
    become poetical as they recede into the past. The poetry of history
    lies in the quasimiraculous fact that once, on this earth, once, on
    this familiar ground, walked other men and women, as actual as we
    are today, thinking their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions,
    but now all gone, one generation vanishing after another, gone as
    utterly as we ourselves shall shortly be gone, like ghosts at ****-
    crow.
    --G. M. Trevelyan (1876—1962)
    English historian.
    _Clio, A Muse_ [1913
     
  3. Albert Di Salvo

    Albert Di Salvo New Member

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    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr6gQG-CruM"]Gung Hay Fat Choy - YouTube[/ame]
     
  4. Albert Di Salvo

    Albert Di Salvo New Member

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    I bet you didn't clean your house or pay your debts. :)
     
  5. reedak

    reedak Well-Known Member

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    Perhaps the girl, most likely playing the piano, seen with her head popping up and down in the foreground, is Catch.
     
  6. reedak

    reedak Well-Known Member

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    This Too Shall Pass Away. :)
     
  7. Albert Di Salvo

    Albert Di Salvo New Member

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    Unlikely.

    In any event, Happy New Year.
     
  8. reedak

    reedak Well-Known Member

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    Happy New Year.

    Thanks for your good wishes and beautiful Chinese New Year song.
     
  9. Onward James

    Onward James New Member

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    And I wonder what Prime Minister Harper will say about the recent problems with Tibet to Hu Jintao, when he visists China in February.

    TIBETAN PROTESTS SPREAD IN WESTERN SICHUAN, POLICE FIRE AGAIN KILLING ONE MORE TIBETAN- by B. Raman

    Protests by Tibetans have spread in Western Sichuan, resulting in one more incident of firing by the local police causing the death of one more Tibetan.

    2. According to my sources, there have been three incidents of Police firing since January 23,2012, resulting in the deaths of 12 Tibetans, but the Chinese authorities have admitted only three deaths in three incidents. They have strongly denied reports of larger fatalities.

    3. The latest incident of police firing has been reported from the Barma township, where one Tibetan youth died on January 26 when the local police opened fire on protesting Tibetans. The Barma township is located in the Zamthang (in Chinese, Rangtang) county in Ngaba. The Tibetans were protesting against the arrest of Tharpa, another Tibetan, by the police for disseminating anti-Beijing leaflets along with the Tibetan youth (Ugyen), who was killed in the subsequent firing. The death of Ugyen led to nearly 10,000 Tibetans from the nearby areas of Dzitoe and Dzime rushing to Dzamthang to join the protest against the arrest of Tharpa and the death of Ugyen.

    4.On January 26, there were also reports of protest and solidarity demonstrations by Tibetans of Qinghai’s Golog (in Chinese, Guoluo) Tibetan prefecture.

    5.According to Radio Free Asia, funded by the US State Department, Chinese security forces have become more aggressive in containing the protests, with two Tibetans reported killed by official Chinese media in protests in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on Monday and Tuesday.

    6.The Police have tightened security in Lhasa, the capital of the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region, after one incident of anti-Beijing leaflet dissemination near the Jorkhang temple.

    7.Chinese micro-bloggers have been reporting movement of trucks carrying police reinforcements to the affected areas in Western Sichuan and cancellation of the Chinese New Year leave of police personnel posted in the Tibetan areas of Western Sichuan.

    http://www.southasiaanalysis.org
     
  10. Onward James

    Onward James New Member

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    Though I am basically Conservative, I laud U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for seriously criticizing China at the Davos forum.

    U.S. Raps 'Damaging' China Policies
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204573704577187330862272506.html

    China's state-led capitalist system emerged as a hot topic at the World Economic Forum this week, as participants pondered the country's economic success in contrast to recent challenges faced by more free-market systems in the U.S. and Europe. Even within China, there has been rising debate over how fast to move ahead with liberalizing reforms and what kind of economic model the country ultimately aims for.

    On the issue of the Chinese currency, Mr. Geithner argued that though the yuan has appreciated, it remains undervalued and is "still below almost all measures of fundamentals."
     
  11. reedak

    reedak Well-Known Member

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    When Harper visits China in the coming month, he may discover Hu would have asked his staff to gather whatever information concerning Canadian police brutality (such as the few examples below) in response to your so-called "recent problems with Tibet".

    1. No criminal charges in police shooting of native artist
    http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110216/native-artist-john-williams-shot-110216/

    2. Families of people killed by police rally for changes
    http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20101023/montreal-police-rally-101023/

    3. Condemn the Police Attack Against the OCAP Demonstrators!
    http://www.modern-communism.ca/mc11802.htm

    4. Missing/Murdered Native Women in Canada
    http://www.missingnativewomen.org/

    5. The Canadian Holocaust Genocide Of The Indian Peoples In Canada
    http://www.akha.org/content/humanrightsdocs/thecanadiangenocide.html

    The recent spate of violence and extremism by some followers of the Lama indicates that the Lama knows his days are numbered. Your so-called "recent problems with Tibet" are part of his final desperate life-and-death struggle in his last breath. After 2020, we may find him crying like a baby in some remote part of the world.
     
  12. Albert Di Salvo

    Albert Di Salvo New Member

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    Very few people on this forum understand this reference. You sound like an evil shaman I met in a previous life. :)
     
  13. reedak

    reedak Well-Known Member

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    First of all, don't underestimate the IQ of the netizens in this forum.

    If your memory has not gone haywire, you might be one those nasty things I had exorcised in my previous life. Now I realise why we are fated to argue as uncle and nephew in this forum -- so as to continue with our unfinished game of our past lives. :)
     
  14. Onward James

    Onward James New Member

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    Canadian brutality is no longer... of course there are individual incidents. You might appreciate a poem by Ojibway Elder friend, a world-class poet whose father was a chieftain. There are problems on the reservations and private properties might change some of it, some chieftains are crooks, as well as the treaties and government agencies must change or removed entirely. But we are improving.

    I AM A CANADIAN - DUKE REDBIRD
    http://onwardjames.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-am-canadian-duke-redbird.html
     

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