They don’t?
Cancels NZ plane ticket
Jeremy Hunt the new minister for funny walks referring to his Chinese wife as Japanese, on an official UK trade visit to China… Couldn’t make this stuff up. Looks on the Chinese sides faces are… hmmm…
Having those hobbies one of these days your friend is going to get deported.
Probably he can try Ireland next time.
Relevant youtube video.
They could be actors, though. I mean I hope they were, or it’s just too sad.
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Is that the best you can do?
https://www.ft.com/content/d103b7d6-8f19-11e8-b639-7680cedcc421
First time I could read it. Now I get a paywall…
Hong Kong and Taiwan on the frontline as Xi chases ‘China dream’
Beijing sees squeeze on opposition parties and push against independence as essential.Andy Chan, a young independence activist, and his Hong Kong National party’s tiny band of supporters do not look — or sound — like a serious threat to the territorial integrity of an emerging superpower.
So the recent proposal by the Beijing-appointed government in Hong Kong to ban his fledgling organisation on “national security” grounds looks to some observers like a serious overreaction — akin to using a jackhammer to crack a nut.
But from Beijing’s perspective, its intensifying squeeze on opposition groups in semi-autonomous Hong Kong — and its pushback against de facto independent Taiwan — is not only proportionate and justified, but essential.
Communist party officials see Taiwan and Hong Kong’s democratic values as a direct threat to Beijing’s one-party rule — and to its new mission to promote the Chinese authoritarian model of development overseas.
As President Xi Jinping has amassed more personal authority than any leader since Mao Zedong, he has promised to fulfil the “China dream” of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.
As well as turning China into a prosperous, technologically advanced nation, the “dream” requires Taiwan, which Beijing insists is its territory, to be “reunified”. It also requires Hong Kong, which was guaranteed a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years after the 1997 handover from the UK, to be integrated into the mainland.
The move against the Hong Kong National party is the latest step in a widening crackdown that has seen protesters jailed and opposition politicians ousted from the territory’s partially democratic Legislative Council and barred from running for election.
Activists like Andy Chan are seen as a danger to national security and part of an ‘anti-China alliance’Meanwhile, Beijing has upped the pressure on Taiwan by picking off its diplomatic allies, blocking its participation in international forums and stepping up military exercises around the island.
Surveys in Taiwan show that the majority of the island’s 24m people reject Beijing’s rhetoric about unification and want to maintain the status quo, in which they elect their own independent government.
Similarly in Hong Kong, most people support the city’s democratic opposition, rather than pro-Beijing parties.
To Beijing, this presents an existential threat. Communist party theorists have long railed against the danger of “peaceful evolution”, in which Communist rule is slowly undone as democratic ideals, from civil society to the rule of law, seep in through the back door.
Mr Xi warned as much when he visited Hong Kong a year ago to mark the 20th anniversary of the handover. He said that any attempt to use the city to “carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland” crossed a “red line” and would be “absolutely impermissible”.
Activists like Mr Chan who call for Hong Kong to be independent are a danger to China’s national security and part of an “anti-China alliance”, according to the Hong Kong police officer investigating his party.
Western governments have raised concerns about the threats to Hong Kong’s autonomy and have made efforts to boost unofficial ties with Taiwan. Beijing dismisses such moves, insisting that the fate of both territories is an internal Chinese matter.
But as China seeks to expand its influence globally, this clash of values will broaden beyond a regional clampdown. As Tsai Ing-wen, the Taiwanese president, said on Twitter last week: “[G]lobal solidarity is needed more than ever, as Taiwan is the canary in the coal mine of China’s rise.”
For all the talk of win-win diplomacy, it will be increasingly difficult for Beijing — and democracies around the world — to avoid the fact that their respective political values put them on a collision course.
They all look the same. How can he be sure that’s his wife?
The important thing to know about New Zealand is that it isn’t important to know anything about New Zealand.
Once china fucks the world, with the help of a couple others, and we go into catastrophe mode, you guys are going to be begging to be let into new Zealand.
Location, location, location…
Got me thinking of Australia. They’ve got nice beaches, s Nevil Shute pointed out.
If the only justification you can come up with for your existence is that people will want you when there are no other options, then…
On the other hand, always have a plan B.
The irony of that statement on a site about Taiwan
Doesn’t this thread make everyone feel better? Taiwan is desired. For those forumosans living on this lovely island—isn’t it nice to be in a desired location? : D
Guy
Interesting read:
Winnie the Pooh, everywhere. People like Xi can’t handle being mocked. It triggers them into insanity, and then they do stupid things to undermine their own position. A narcissist contains the seeds of his own destruction.
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Leading the cries of protest was the US president, Donald Trump. In a strongly worded statement released on May 5, the Trump administration lambasted the CAAC’s letter as a blatant attempt to enforce “Chinese political correctness” as a global standard.
Yet the vast majority of air carriers have chosen to bow to Chinese pressure rather than heed the US president’s words.
so you know who holds the real power then. Money talks, bullshit walks.
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I find this an interesting concept. What could China actually do? Ban all foreign airlines from entering Chinese airspace or landing at Chinese airports? Yup, that’d be a productive solution.
They’d give them bad landing/take-off times, refuse direct terminal access (bussing of passengers from tarmac), deprioritze in take-off queues, the usual bullshit. Same as the KMT did to EVA when it began flying.
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One of our clever officials said that in retaliation Taiwan should restric the amount of time airlines can hang to teh gates or something like that. Let’s just say his proposal was me with criticism, to say teh least.
Which would reduce their razor-thin profit margins to zero, and (if they had any business sense) they’d simply shut down those routes as pointless.
People go to China to make money, not because it’s a lovely country. That’s the bargain: put up with our repressive government, and we’ll give you access to our markets. If China prevents businesses from making profits, they’ll exit like rats from a sinking ship.
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