Category: China

Tweet of the Day: Maybe This Will Help Stop the Yellow Dust

| October 13, 2014

Korean Coast Guard Kills Chinese Fishermen During Raid

| October 11, 2014

Considering the violence used in the past by Chinese fishermen against the Coast Guard to include murder, I wonder if this shooting was in response to violence against the Coast Guard personnel?

A Chinese fisherman was killed during the Coast Guard’s crackdown on his ship’s illegal fishing in South Korean waters Friday, officials said.

The 45-year-old skipper, only identified by his surname Song, was shot by a South Korean Coast Guard officer on the ship in waters near Wangdeung Island in Buan County, North Jeolla Province, and transferred to a hospital in the southwestern port city, where he later died, Coast Guard officials said.

“He died at Mokpo Hangook Hospital around 11:20 a.m. An autopsy is underway to determine the exact cause of his death,” an official told Yonhap News Agency.

The Coast Guard used guns during the raid as Chinese fishermen on board fought with the Coast Guard officials, the officials said.

“The cause of Song’s death is presumed to be the penetrating injuries sustained from a bullet,” said Jeong Jong-hyun, an emergency doctor at Mokpo Hangook Hospital.

“The piece of bullet about 1.6 centimeters was found inside Song’s body,” Jeong said, citing a CT image.

Expressing regret over the incident, the Seoul government said it has explained the details of the incident to China through diplomatic channels.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: China’s New Anti-Stealth Radar

| October 10, 2014

Tweet of the Day: What’s Next for Democracy In Hong Kong?

| October 8, 2014

Tweet of the Day: Hong Kong Information Operations

| October 7, 2014

Chinese Government Uses Same Tactic to Put Down 2008 Olympic Torch Protest In Seoul Against Hong Kong Protesters

| October 4, 2014

It appears that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are reaching deep into their playbook to put down the Hong Kong protests.  Instead of the world media seeing pictures of protesters being beaten by security forces the CCP has instead outsourced the beat down to organized crime syndicates:

Pro-democracy demonstrations in two of Hong Kong’s most crowded shopping districts came under attack on Friday from unidentified men who assaulted protesters and tore down their encampments, after a week of erratic and unsuccessful attempts by the Beijing-backed government to end the protests.

The protesters said the attackers were pro-government gangs, and several protest groups called off planned negotiations with the government in response.

Crowds of residents, fed up with the inconveniences of the protests, had cheered on the attacks on the camps.

On Saturday morning, a police spokesman said 19 men, including eight with links to organized crime syndicates, or triads, had been arrested in connection with the violence in one of the districts, Mong Kok, according to Radio Television Hong Kong.

The police also said that at least 18 people had been injured in the violence, including six police officers…….

They shoved and punched protesters, sometimes kicking them after they fell. Others grabbed the scaffolding of canopies and pulled them down until the tents collapsed . Residents said the police were outnumbered and slow to react, and hours passed before reinforcements arrived to protect the protesters from a hostile crowd.

Some threw cans and plastic bottles at the protesters; others spit at them. One protester was led away bleeding from his head as angry residents pressed forward, hurling insults and threats. Another was rushed out on a stretcher, an oxygen mask on his face. Several protesters said the attackers groped and sexually harassed female protesters, and Amnesty International alleged that police officers watched and did nothing.  [New York Times]

You can read more at the link, but long time ROK Drop readers may remember that the Chinese government used this same tactic in Korea when the Chinese Embassy organized and bussed in Chinese students in Korea to attack and beat Free Tibet activists who showed up to protest the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay in Seoul.  The Chinese government sponsored mob attacked Koreans and other foreigners at the protest:

A Tibetan protester is beaten by pro-Chinese protestors.
Seoul citizen Park Cheol-hoon is kicked and beaten by three young pro-Chinese protesters.

Some of the Free Tibet activists tried to run into the Plaza Hotel in downtown Seoul to escape the mob and the Chinese thugs followed them and beat them in the middle of the hotel:

Could you imagine what the reaction in Korea would be if a bunch of GIs ran amok in Seoul beat down Koreans like this?  Well the reaction from the Korean government was to deport some of the Chinese thugs and tighten visa rules.  There was no demands for an official apology from the Chinese government or removal of the Chinese ambassador from Korea.

Since this strategy worked so well in Seoul the CCP probably thinks it will work in Hong Kong as well which they are probably right about.  I do not see the CCP backing down from their decision to remove democracy from Hong Kong and will use their hired thugs to wear down the protesters.

Tweet of the Day: Tone Deaf Chinese Government

| October 1, 2014

Tweet of the Day: Protests Paralyze Hong Kong

| September 30, 2014

Tweet of the Day: Chinese Utopia?

| September 29, 2014

The China Dream versus the American Dream

| September 22, 2014

Here is a good read in The Diplomat that compares the concepts of the Chinese and American Dreams:

In a previous article for The Diplomat, I argued that the “China Dream” does not challenge U.S. global leadership. A brief comparison between the China Dream and the American Dream can further explain how the China Dream is different. Ultimately, the China Dream is not meant as a universal dream but as one alternative among many.

All politics is cultural, just like all politics is local. While individualism has prevailed in Western societies and political cultures for hundreds of years, China has a strong tradition of collectivism and even authoritarianism. Collectivism and the spirit of unity have virtually dominated Chinese culture, society, and politics for thousands of years, ever since the time of Confucius (551-479 BCE). Chinese culture, or in a larger sense Chinese civilization, helped cast and shape China’s unique contemporary domestic politics and its political culture. Underpinning Chinese contemporary politics are a great number of traditional values and beliefs such as the importance of order, reverence for authority, the virtue of rulers, and most importantly, collectivism or unity.

These cultural backgrounds determine political perceptions and ideals. Many Westerners view the state as a “necessary evil” and believe that individuals should constantly remain alert in their efforts to confine and try to contain the beast. By contrast, the traditional Chinese view sees the state as an extended and (more importantly) a united family to which they should show their love and reverence. In fact, the word for country in Chinese, guojia, combines the characters for kingdom (guo 国) and family (jia 家).

Based on this cultural perspective, one difference becomes clear: the China Dream is “our dream”; the American Dream is “my dream.” [The Diplomat]

You can read much more at the link, but what people need to realize is that the Chinese government is playing into this cultural trait by pushing their nationalist agenda.  The Chinese Communit Party’s (CCP) legitimacy for one party rule used to be centered around the country’s economic growth.  As wages rise this growth will slow down.  So now the CCP are positioning themselves as the defenders of the Chinese dream.  They push propaganda that China has long been the center of the world and only for a brief period of over 100 years did China’s place as the center of the world crash down when the nation was exploited by foreigners. 

This is why now there are so many anti-Japanese movies, territorial threats against neighbors, and anti-foreigner protests in China.  We even saw in Korea this anti-foreigner sentiment when the Chinese embassy sponsored thugs to assault Koreans in the streets of Seoul during the 2008 Olympic torch relay.

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