BEIJING, Feb. 1 -- Taiwan "president" Chen Shui-bian's latest remark that he might scrap a key policy body on China's reunification "is against the will of the people across the Taiwan Straits," a renowned mainland expert said in Beijing yesterday.
"It shows Chen is taking an important move towards implementing the policy he delivered on his New Year's Day speech, which features nothing but active guidelines towards Taiwan 'independence'," said Yu Keli, director of the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
He said such a move runs against the people's wishes on promoting cross-Straits relations and safeguarding peace and stability.
Given the profound change in the political geography on the island since last year, "Chen's attempt to seek Taiwan 'independence' would never win support from the people on the island, nor would he succeed," Yu said.
On Sunday, also the first day of the Lunar New Year, Chen told a rally it was time to consider scrapping the island's National Unification Council and its guidelines on reunification.
The two other goals he listed include drafting a new constitution and entering the United Nations with the name of Taiwan.
Set up in 1991, the council was formerly the island's top policy-making body on crucial questions of reunification.
It adopted the council guidelines the same year to pursue reunification with the mainland.
By trying to scrap the council and the guidelines, Chen is actually seeking to reverse the trend of history and has violated his earlier "four-nos-plus-one-without" commitments, Yu said.
In his 2000 inauguration speech, Chen pledged "he would not declare 'independence,' not change the name of the island, not constitutionalize the description of Taiwan's relationship with the mainland as 'state-to-state,' and not push for a referendum on 'independence'."
The "one without" was Chen's pledge without question not to abolish the National Unification Council or the National Unification Guidelines.
We never heard what the people on the other side of the strait wants, because they are not allowed to express their opinions.
As long as that situation exist, there can be no “will of the people across the Taiwan Straits”.
As long as there is no free will acoross the strait, the free and democratic Taiwan should feel free to decide for themself shat they want their future to be.
[quote=“One of the most incredibly astute pundits I’ve ever heard”]Chen Shui-bian’s latest remark that he might scrap a key policy body on China’s reunification “is against the will of the people across the Taiwan Straits,” a renowned mainland expert said in Beijing yesterday.
[/quote]
Well, golly gee whiz! Who would ever have thunk such a thing? Truly this analyst is a man amongst men! I bow to his incredible perception and his daring move to say what no-one else has said!
What, I wonder, could have been coursing through his mind as he penned those deep, deep thoughts? Oh, I know – “Column inches. Gotta fill those column inches.”
That phrase “the will of the people” is a pet peeve of mine. The Judicial Yuan uses it constantly as a “secret mantra” which means; when translated:
“actually we have no fucking clue what the guy on the street wants because our taxpayer paid for car and driver takes us back and forth to our upscale closed and locked residence and our shoes have not touched the streets in 30 years—all of which is okay because in fact I/we do not give a fuck what the ‘children’ [the Mandarians favorate way to refer to the ruled] think about anything. And we dredge this phrase out whenever we are about to utter our own personal views but rather than say ‘I think’ or ‘I am going to do…’ we stick in the phrase ‘the will of the people’”.
I suspect that meaning of “the will of the people” is fairly uniform across political science.
[quote=“brianlkennedy”]That phrase “the will of the people” is a pet peeve of mine. The Judicial Yuan uses it constantly as a “secret mantra” which means; when translated:
“actually we have no fucking clue what the guy on the street wants because our taxpayer paid for car and driver takes us back and forth to our upscale closed and locked residence and our shoes have not touched the streets in 30 years—all of which is okay because in fact I/we do not give a fuck what the ‘children’ [the Mandarians favorate way to refer to the ruled] think about anything. And we dredge this phrase out whenever we are about to utter our own personal views but rather than say ‘I think’ or ‘I am going to do…’ we stick in the phrase ‘the will of the people’”.
I suspect that meaning of “the will of the people” is fairly uniform across political science.
yours in political science phraseology,
Dr. B.[/quote]
Ever hear of the quote “The will of the 1.3 billion Chinese people is for Taiwan to reunify”. Hint, its from King Wu’s “most-trusted news source”.
[quote=“ShrimpCrackers”]
Ever hear of the quote “The will of the 1.3 billion Chinese people is for Taiwan to reunify”. Hint, its from King Wu’s “most-trusted news source”.[/quote]
More trustworthy than that crappy Taipei Times and Epoch Times.
[quote=“king wu”][quote=“ShrimpCrackers”]
Ever hear of the quote “The will of the 1.3 billion Chinese people is for Taiwan to reunify”. Hint, its from King Wu’s “most-trusted news source”.[/quote]
More trustworthy than that crappy Taipei Times and Epoch Times.[/quote]
Exactly. We should get together and send them all to be reeducated.
[color=red]United, the Masses will advance into a Glorious Future! It is a historical inevitability![/color]
I’ve seen other photos associated with the one above (with the “after” photo being especially gory), which was being passed off a few months ago on an English-language Tibetan-independence website as being a Tibetan political prisoner being executed.
The other photos, however, showed the above woman wearing a placard showing her (Chinese) name, as well as her crime as murder.
[quote=“cctang”]I’ve seen other photos associated with the one above (with the “after” photo being especially gory), which was being passed off a few months ago on an English-language Tibetan-independence website as being a Tibetan political prisoner being executed.
The other photos, however, showed the above woman wearing a placard showing her (Chinese) name, as well as her crime as murder.[/quote]
Yes, I’m sure it’s common practice that after a Chinese murder convict has passed through all the stringently controlled appeals processes (read: police promise on their Scout’s honor that the confession wasn’t coerced), he or she will be held by two guys leaning aside so as to dodge the bullet while a third guy, alone, puts a tap in the back of her head. Give me a fucking break. The execution in that photo, if not doctored, is heinous even by the PRC’s standards.
Being a murderess was not that woman’s problem; her problem was not being well enough connected with the Chinese Communist Party in her neighborhood/town/county. That is why she is being shot. Murder is a-ok if—you are connected.
As an American I really support a corrupt CCP and a corrupt PRC because it puts those sorry assed fools in the same stinking position the last Chinese dynasty (the Qing) was in. I look forward to Charlton Heston riding into Beijing again some day in the future (wait, that was a movie, 55 Days in Peking) when the Chi-Coms get too far out of line.
Having said that, I am sorry for the average Chinese guy on the streets to have to live in that environment without a way out. Although as far as that goes I am sorry for the average Taiwanese for exactly the same reasons. But the Chinese and Taiwanese have been slogging along for hundreds of years without my advice so that is that.
[quote=“cctang”]I’ve seen other photos associated with the one above (with the “after” photo being especially gory), which was being passed off a few months ago on an English-language Tibetan-independence website as being a Tibetan political prisoner being executed.
The other photos, however, showed the above woman wearing a placard showing her (Chinese) name, as well as her crime as murder.[/quote]
Actually the photo series were originally passed around by Epoch Times, and then made their way into other places with completely altered descriptions.
Pretty typical. It’s really ironic that people who have a beef with the PRC’s legal trials would do pretty much what they accuse. I mean, who needs to make logical arguments when one can much more easily appeal to emotion and argue guilt by association, right?
All right, enough with the sarcasm. Let’s stick to facts shall we? The only thing the photos show is that this is an execution of an ethnic Han woman for murder, sometime, somewhere. There are three issues we can argue, none of whose existence requires this specific photo to be seen: (1) PRC’s legal system; (2) PRC’s penal code; (3) PRC’s execution method.
(3) is being resolved as the PRC has been moving towards lethal injection whereas countries such as Singapore still uses hanging and the US still uses the chair;
(2) is not uncommon in Asia; the controversy surrounding the death penalty is ongoing in the US, too;
Only (1) is worth having a PRC-centric discussion about, but then, the photos are just red herring to rile up the mouth-frothing do-gooders and distract them.
Pretty typical. It’s really ironic that people who have a beef with the PRC’s legal trials would do pretty much what they accuse. I mean, who needs to make logical arguments when one can much more easily appeal to emotion and argue guilt by association, right?[/quote]
Well…these are from Tiananmen…as you can see, the Party and the Government were [i]more[/i] than willing to listen to the People.
[color=red]The Party is the Vanguard of the Future and the Masses joyfully follow!
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Well, hell, you can’t argue with a well-articulated point like that.
By the way, anyone wanna debate the politics of Islam, Iraq, terrorism, human rights, and democracy? Oh, what’s the point… I should just pull the intellectual equivalent of Comrade Stalin, take a short-cut to the end, and pull out my pictures from Abu Gharib. Nothing says “bringing freedom to the world” like a naked Arab forced to masturbate in front of a hostile German shephard.
Just doing my part to raise the level of discourse in this thread.
