During the Lunar New Year holidays, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) visited Europe, where he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the EU headquarters in Belgium as well as Germany, Spain and the UK.
China’s meticulous arrangement of the trip to the five countries surrounding France clearly showed its hostility toward France. It was an example of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) united front strategy to consolidate its strength and isolate its enemies as much as it possibly can.
The Chinese government is hostile toward France simply because French President Nicolas Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama last December, immediately turning France into a PRC enemy. Interestingly, former US president George W. Bush met the exiled Tibetan leader several times, but the Chinese government did not assume an antagonistic attitude toward the US. This is a clear manifestation of the fundamental Chinese attitude of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.
In September 2007, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the Dalai Lama for private talks. This upset the Chinese leadership, which then terminated dialogue with Berlin. Merkel refused to give in and suspended negotiations on a financial rescue package with China. Beijing soon curried favor with France and signed a 10 billion euro (US$12.8 billion) agreement with Sarkozy when he visited China that November. Now that Sarkozy has met with the Dalai Lama, however, that agreement seems to be going up in smoke.
Beijing has signed a number of economic agreements with Germany. These include Germany providing some of its magnetic levitation technology to China and China’s Sanyi Heavy Industry Co investing 100 million euros in Germany — the largest Chinese investment in Europe — although Berlin has continued to bring up human rights issues with China. It is thus clear that as long as Western countries insist on their principles, Beijing’s threats are ultimately ineffective.
Of course, this time Wen unexpectedly pressured the French government by saying a labor strike in France was the result of the French government’s inability to deal with the financial crisis.
But Wen hit a brick wall in the UK. Not only was he forced to leave the Chinese embassy in London through the back door because of pro-Tibet demonstrations, but a protester even hurled a shoe at him as he delivered a speech at Cambridge University.
Bush’s farewell visit to Iraq last December was marred by a similar incident when a journalist threw two shoes at him during a press conference, but he managed to dodge the attack.
Bush joked: “If you want the facts, it’s a size 10 shoe that he threw.”
In contrast, Wen reacted with anger, saying that “this kind of despicable trick cannot stop the friendship between the Chinese and the British people.”
It is precisely this kind of behavior that highlights the vast difference between dictatorship and democracy. Still, some Taiwanese media outlets actually praised Wen for his composure.
The protester yelled “dictator,” loudly asking the crowd, “How can this university prostitute itself with this dictator here? How can you listen to the lies he’s telling without saying anything? How can you listen to him unchallenged?”
It is indeed shameful that some prestigious Western universities have allowed representatives of a communist dictatorship — including a premier who has tried to avoid blame for the melamine scandal — to preach on campus, and for some Western countries to submit to temptation and pressure from the Chinese Communist Party at the expense of their own ideals.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
TRANSLATED BY TED YANG
Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Wu Qian (吳謙) announced at a news conference that General Miao Hua (苗華) — director of the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission — has been suspended from his duties pending an investigation of serious disciplinary breaches. Miao’s role within the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) affects not only its loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but also ideological control. This reflects the PLA’s complex internal power struggles, as well as its long-existing structural problems. Since its establishment, the PLA has emphasized that “the party commands the gun,” and that the military is
Two major Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-People’s Liberation Army (PLA) power demonstrations in November 2024 highlight the urgency for Taiwan to pursue a military buildup and deterrence agenda that can take back control of its destiny. First, the CCP-PLA’s planned future for Taiwan of war, bloody suppression, and use as a base for regional aggression was foreshadowed by the 9th and largest PLA-Russia Joint Bomber Exercise of Nov. 29 and 30. It was double that of previous bomber exercises, with both days featuring combined combat strike groups of PLA Air Force and Russian bombers escorted by PLAAF and Russian fighters, airborne early warning
Since the end of former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation has taken Taiwanese students to visit China and invited Chinese students to Taiwan. Ma calls those activities “cross-strait exchanges,” yet the trips completely avoid topics prohibited by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such as democracy, freedom and human rights — all of which are universal values. During the foundation’s most recent Chinese student tour group, a Fudan University student used terms such as “China, Taipei” and “the motherland” when discussing Taiwan’s recent baseball victory. The group’s visit to Zhongshan Girls’ High School also received prominent coverage in
India and China have taken a significant step toward disengagement of their military troops after reaching an agreement on the long-standing disputes in the Galwan Valley. For government officials and policy experts, this move is welcome, signaling the potential resolution of the enduring border issues between the two countries. However, it is crucial to consider the potential impact of this disengagement on India’s relationship with Taiwan. Over the past few years, there have been important developments in India-Taiwan relations, including exchanges between heads of state soon after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third electoral victory. This raises the pressing question:
RSS