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Nov 10

The Fall of the Berlin some 20 years ago is again on the mind of many. According to the NYTimes, “[t]he historical legacy of 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and the cold war thawed, is as political as the upheavals of that decisive year.”

For many in the West, the events of 1989 represents the ultimate triumph of the West over East – of democratic, capitalistic liberalism over communist authoritarianism. Many envisioned that we were entering an “End of History.” Writing in 1989, Francis Fukuyama (a professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University) wrote: Continue reading »

Sep 29

I would like to thank btbr403 for translating Zhang’s article that was recently posted on to Fools Mountain. In it he said that he had never found an example of a developing country that had “realized its modernization through democratization”. He then proceeded to refute examples cited that could apply and called for a non-western form of democracy for China.

However, Zhang’s conclusions and the method he used to reach them are fundamentally flawed. It starts with a serious lack of understanding of what democracy means these days. As I discussed in a previous post, democracy is not just having elections. It is about an entire system that crosses the country, in regards to not just elections but also the media, judiciary, rule of law and civil rights. If one does not recognise how they are all linked and that if any particular aspect is attacked the rest can be equally compromised, the entire discussion becomes pointless. It also doesn’t help that he gives no definition of “modernization”. Continue reading »

Sep 29

In my prior post about Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama’s opinion piece on the NYT, I was encouraged by Hatoyama’s view of an Asian Union. This is an interesting trend I encourage our readers to follow. Xinhua reported Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and ROK Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yu Myung Hwan has met in Shanghai on September 28, 2009 to “deepen their all-round cooperative partnership.” This is in preparation for the three countries top leaders to meet in October in Beijing. It will be interesting to see what new trilateral agreements they reach by then, at which time the top leaders will endorse and announce.

Sep 25

Here is something interesting I found on Youtube.  For all the talk about China spreading propaganda and indoctrinating their children – you know teaching children about the greatness of their nation, their leader, their history … about the importance of social harmony …  instilling hope for a better future – does the U.S. really look that different?

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Sep 20

admin’s note. The following is a blog post from 多维博客(h/t to Snow). Besides re-posting an article originally published on the Study Times (a weekly publication of the CCP’s Central Party School) in 2008, it drew a vigorous debate among Chinese with nearly 300 comments (I hope that someone could translate them too), many of them are interesting. Although we posted the Chinese version last year and A-gu commented on that, it was until recently that btbr403 volunteered to translate it. DeWang and Allen helped with the translation.

Following is the translation of the original post:

The Study Times of The Central Party School published an article by Zhang Weiwei (he was Deng XiaoPing’s interpreter, and he wrote an opinion piece The allure of the Chinese model ), a senior research fellow at the Modern Asia Research Centre, University of Geneva, Switzerland. He showed his excellent eloquence in the invitation only Marshall Forum on Transatlantic Affairs, saying that he had visited more than 100 countries, but couldn’t find one that achieved modernization via democratization. The European and American scholars present couldn’t find any examples to refute him.
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Sep 16

rolf Says: September 12th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
rolf, you’ve been warned against thread-jacking and off-topic nonsense before.
Post deleted (probably by Raj)

I think this is quite serious. In a way I am warned that if I mention CIA/NED once more, I will be banned. The person(s) who is doing this wants probably the discussion on Xinjiang to focus on the contradictions between Hans and uighur, which will make Hans the main culprit and harm Chinas unity.

In my opinion it is impossible to have such strong and cruel riots as in Xinjiang and Tibet, without a strong organization and outside backing and training. Ordinary people just don’t kill, invalidize and hurt so many in such a short time. It can only be done by trained killers. The main culprits are Al-Qaeda, some Istanbul based Big-Turkey-organizations and CIA/NED. CIA is the most plausible. If you look at www.ned.org you can see that CIA supports the Xinjiang and Tibet separatists economically. If you listen to or read http://www.voa.gov the link to the American government is strengthened a lot. The same if you read http://www.uyghurcongress.org

It has been very alarming to look at some of the You Tube videos from the riots in Tibet and Xinjiang – where you can see how well-trained and focused some of the rioters are.

I am now not allowed to mention CIA in connection with Xinjiang. I protest this censorship. The person(s) who censor these views are not at all deserving their administrator responsibility.

Fools Mountain is indirectly and unintentionally supporting separatism by suppressing views about imperialism. I felt this at once when I first looked at your site about a year ago. It is a bit sad because you are the only “Western” site on the internet which is positive about China. In a way by your administrator policies you are leading the discussion astray.

Regards Rolf

Sep 12

In the continuing saga that is Chen Shui Bian’s colorful life, a trial court in Taipei sentenced Chen to life in prison yesterday as the first phase of his dramatic corruption and embezzlement trial came to an end. Chen’s wife, Wu Shu-chen, received a life sentence on corruption charges. Their son and daughter-in-law, convicted of money laundering, received relatively lenient 2 1/2 – and one-year terms. Continue reading »

Sep 01

Yukio Hatoyama will become the next Prime Minister of Japan with his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).  Since WWII, Japan has been mainly ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).  This is a big deal and a big shift within Japan. DPJ has also won about two-thirds of the seats in the Japanese Diet.  Hatoyama has an Op-Ed in the New York Times, “A New Path for Japan” which I highly recommend.  This is an abridged version of a manuscript which NYT said were circulated in business and diplomatic circles signaling Hatoyama’s policies for his administration.
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Aug 31

P1010462 (Large) Welcome to APHAFIC, the Association for Preserving Historical Accuracy of Foreign Invasions in China. This organization was started in San Diego by Nancy Lo, the current president, as a rebuttal to some of the historical inaccuracies coming out of Japan concerning the Japanese invasion of China in the early to mid 20th century. Nancy is wearing a floral dress in this photo. She was very good friends with Iris Chang (The Rape of Nanking) and felt this issue wasn’t getting the attention it deserved.

The mission of the Association is as follows:

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Aug 28

Dalai Lama is set to visit Taiwan next week. The Dalai Lama has been invited a group of local DPP officials representing several southern counties – where DPP support is especially strong.

The Dalai Lama has visited Taiwan twice, once in 1997 and 2001. However, soon after Ma took office on a platform promising to amend ties with the Mainland, a request for the Dalai Lama to visit was turned down by Ma, citing the timing as not proper. A Dalai Lama visit then could have derailed Ma’s plan for closer ties with the Mainland – and still has the potential to do so the same. Continue reading »

Aug 27

We’ve had many discussions here on Chinese Nationalism. Last year, Chinese nationalism was stoked in the aftermath of the West’s response to the riots in Tibet and in the lead up to the Olympics. Many in the West chided China on a host of issues – from domestic human rights abuses to China’s policies in Africa. Many viewed with wary eyes the rise of Chinese nationalism, with some depicting Chinese nationalism as a force for instability in the world – some going as fars as comparing Chinese Nationalism to Hitler’s Naziism. Many painted the notion of Chinese Exceptionism (the vague idea that China occupies a special place in history and has a special role to play in the world) in dark, ominous terms. Continue reading »

Aug 20

President Hu recently met with a delegation of ethnic minorities from Taiwan, and pledged further support from the mainland for whatever help Taiwan may need.  Ethnic minorities in southern Taiwan, living often in remote villages, were the hardest hit group in Taiwan by the recent typhoon. Here is a translation of a story on the People’s Web by China News Wrap:

Hu meets delegation of ethnic minorities from Taiwan

Hu meets delegation of ethnic minorities from Taiwan

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Aug 18

This post is not a comparison between the system in China and western democracy. It doesnt in any way imply the system in China is a better system, either economically or politically.)

Recently, there is “war” in USA about obama’s plan of healthcare reform. It has become an issue of if government should be allowed to butt into the private business of healthcare insurance. I am not here to judge which way is better, but after reading most media reports, it seems to me that media is trying to make it a conflict between government stand and public opinions; to make it an issue if government should have such power (or do you want socialism in US?).
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Aug 17

From August 6-9, southern Taiwan was hit with the worst typhoon in 50 years. Per the Associated Press story:

“Morakot dumped more than 80 inches (two meters) of rain on the island last weekend and stranded thousands in villages in the mountainous south. A total of 15,400 villagers have been ferried to safety, and rescuers are working to save another 1,900 people. The storm destroyed the homes of 7,000 people and caused agricultural and property damage in excess of 50 billion New Taiwan dollars ($1.5 billion), Ma told the security conference.”

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Aug 03

According to an article on Sina.com, Xinhua reported Rebiya Kadeer’s family in Xinjiang province has officially asked Kadeer to not organize violence: “Family asks Rebiya Kadeer not to organize violence, undermine harmony.” Continue reading »

Jul 28

Few threads ago, I brought to FM readers attention that WSJ had held a “debate” between two Indian nationals (college-age students in fact) on whether economic sanctions can drive democratic change in China.  The “debate” turned out to be pretty ignorant – so WSJ essentially pushed it aside (I think that was their reason) – WSJ readers bashed the debators – and – handful of FM readers (those commented anyways) agreed that the debate was indeed ignorant. Continue reading »

Jul 25

I am sorry to say, WSJ has really gone to the extreme.  On their “China” section, they have an article titled, “Can Economic Sanctions Drive Democratic Change in China?
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Jul 23

unity

The ethnic protests and clashes in China’s westernmost region of Xinjiang on 5-6 July 2009 and the following days have caused around 200 deaths. The deadly violence, mainly between the Uyghur (and Muslim) population and the Han Chinese – but also involving the security forces killing some protesting Uyghurs, in circumstances that are not yet clear – has shocked and polarised public opinion across China. They have also focused renewed attention on the sensitive and complex theme of the relationship between different ethnic groups in the People’s Republic of China.
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Jul 17

Given all the rhetoric about ‘not playing politics’ that was seen last year, and the fact that the Taiwanese team will be competing as Chinese Taipei, I was quite surprised to hear that the PRC team was boycotting today’s opening ceremony. Here’s how Richard Hazeldine of the Taipei Times saw it: Continue reading »

Jul 15

This is the full session between Niall Ferguson and James Fallows at the recently held Aspen Ideas Festival. Allen had posted excepts and we promised you the complete discussion as soon as it became available. Niall Ferguson had coined the term “Chimerica” to describe the symbiotic relationship between the economies of China and the United States. He currently sees this relationship as being in jeopardy, while James Fallows feels the relationship is far stronger the most realize. This video is slightly over 75 minutes.

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Jul 11

Amid all the debates regarding how and to what extend Uighurs benefited or suffered from preferential policies or discriminations in Xinjiang, there is much confusion in one particular subject. Namely, are Uighurs subject to the (in)famous population control regulation (AKA family planning)? And if so, what kind of restrictions do they face? This post tries to answer these questions with some concrete details.

Update: According to reading notes from Chistiane Reinhold, Uighurs were exempted from family planning till 1988.
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