[quote=“Tomas”]
What touched a nerve with me recently was the use of this phrasing by the CCP: “The Chinese government is not afraid of a delay in economic development, not afraid of not hosting the Olympics or the World Expo and not afraid of sacrificing [no matter] how many people.” Reminds me too much of TianAnMen. The folks in charge of things in Beijing don’t care much about human life. They probably care more about economic gains. I was also under the impression, based on foreign policy analysis pieces I’d read, that China wouldn’t do anything before the 2008 Olympics. The CCP seems to know what we’re all saying about the reasons why they wouldn’t attack Taiwan, because they countered all three of the key arguments with this statement.
If you’re telling me that this sort of rhetoric is not an escalation, then I’ve been missing something. Either that, or I’m getting paranoid, but I’m not usually a paranoid person. Cautious, yes, but not paranoid.
Please, others, do chime in with something intelligent, a la daltongang.
“Oh, quit worrying, scaredy-cat!” adds nothing to the discussion. Give us some analysis.[/quote]
I talked to my father the other day on this issue. My father was born in China and fled to Taiwan after the civil war. He worked in Army and retired as a colonel and then worked in the government. My mom is a Taiwanese. When my father was 17 or 18 (1945-1946), he almost joined the communists. During that time, communists were considered as the “idealist” who were on the people’s side. But my grandfather asked him to stay.
My father told me that if Taiwan doesn’t declare independence, there won’t be a war. He talked to a relative from China who visited taiwan last year about this issue. That relative worked as a high-level official in China.
It’s kinda ironic that he worked for the “Propaganda” department.
http://www.jstz.org.cn:5001/
And his father was a general of KMT’s army during WWII. His name is An-lan Tai, who fought Japan with the British/US Army and died in the Burma Campaign. He’s the first
Chinese solder to receive the Legion of Merit from US.
Info of the Legion of Merit:
http://foxfall.com/fmd-common-lom.htm
Burma Campaign:
http://homepages.force9.net/rothwell/burmaweb/index.htm
The reason I brought these history up is that I am proud to be seen as a Chinese from the “free” part of China: Taiwan, especially when I was in the US. Why declare independence and say my ancestors came from some islands of south Asia? Why declare independence and say these wonderful historical heritages of China has nothing to do with me? All these wonderful ideas from Confucius, SunTzu (the art of war)…etc are part of me.
According to my relative, China won’t start a war easily because there has been too many wars in China since 19th century. Because of these wars, people in China have lived the “poor” life for a long long time.
And a war between Taiwan and China will destroy the economical progress they have now.
Anyway, China is changing. And they understand the “wonderful” life they are having now came from “peace”.