Cringe but free
And Taiwan's performance and soft-power push has gained it a lot of supporters in the recent motion to restore its WHO membership, which didn't sit well with the CCP as favourable votes in international bodies are one of their most prized currencies.
One thing about Tsai in particular is that she's the first Taiwanese head of state of both Hakka and Aboriginal (Paiwan) descent, which has informed some of the moves taken during her presidency and goes against the Han/Mandarin-speaker supremacy that the Xi regime is pushing.
Edited by eagleoftheninth on May 29th 2020 at 9:44:53 AM
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
Oh, bother.
The CCP likes the image of "legitimacy" (as in Legitimate Businessmens Social Club) alright.
But every now and then, they pull something that reminds the rest of the world what they really are. Like the recent security plan concerning Hong Kong.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Cringe but free
Anyway, here's an article on how China's gig economy is recovering from the pandemic,
including the innovations taken for workers' safety and the public push for greater social and legal protections.
"This is the equivalent of an abusive partner threatening to break into their ex's home with a gun if the ex doesn't return. "
The best way to chararterize china is like your typical tiger mon who control all their children(or what she see as their children), emotionally castrating one(tibet), proping a piece of shit because is loyal(north korea), hate another for not be like her(taiwan) and now her another for being a western loving hoe(hong kong).
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Seems that the CCP wants badly to pick a fight with the rest of the world, even if they don't know if they're going to win or not.
Oh, bother.
They want to present the image of strength at least. Whether they're actually willing to back it up...well, it's telling that the CCP had to backpedal when their own netizens demanded they invade Taiwan due to being high on the very nationalism Xi has been stoking all this time.
Disgusted, but not surprised
Cringe but free
If the CCP was the bug-eyed insane parent that Taiwan was lucky to escape, then the old ROC/KMT regime was a marginally less abusive but still hella toxic one that tried to control its every move and punished it for not being exactly what it was supposed to be. Now it's growing up and figuring out what it wants to be without either of them telling it around. Part of that is deciding whether it's still "China" because that's what it's been told to be for the past 70 years, or whether it's going to be something else altogether.
On the military front, the current balance of geography, logistics and weapon systems still favour Taiwan on the defence, but it's suffering from a serious manpower shortage and a general sense of pessimism, with many taking a Chinese victory as a Foregone Conclusion. Maybe the Taiwanese are underestimating the US commitment to their defence, or maybe the rest of the world is overestimating it, but the lack of a proper defence treaty hasn't really helped; the Taiwan Relations Act was founded on strategic ambiguity and doesn't really cover its defence from a Chinese invasion. It doesn't really help morale to know that no matter what you do, the international community might just throw you to the wolves anyway.
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
The big problem facing Taiwan is that their position gets worse and worse the longer the status quo is maintained. If things came to a head now, sure, it would end poorly for China. That becomes less true the further you project into the future, which may be one of the reasons why China is saber rattling so much over Taiwan right now.
Edited by CaptainCapsase on May 29th 2020 at 5:41:37 AM
A procrastination in of itself
It’s only not tenable if Taiwan gets more isolated, as the PRC grows in power it is creating enemies, not just the US but also Japan, India and South Korea.
A strait is a very defendable position, that’s before one considers the big possibility, the reactivation of Taiwan’s old nuclear program (possibly helped by the US’s recent accidental shipments of nuclear missile parts).
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
A Taiwanese nuclear program would almost certainly trigger an immediate war, that’s clearly a red line for China, and given the extensive network of spies China has in Taiwan, there’s very little prospect of that being pulled off in secret, so that particular ship sailed the first time around. As far as being isolated and making local enemies, that’s far from guaranteed to work out in favor of the US or Taiwan, given China is the largest economic partner of pretty much every country in the region, including Japan and South Korea. What enabled the US to isolate and contain the Soviet Union was the pointed lack of economic ties with the outside world.
Meanwhile, the US is trending back towards isolationism, which makes the prospect of US military intervention in a cross-straight war increasingly questionable going forwards.
Edited by CaptainCapsase on May 29th 2020 at 7:14:53 AM
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
India having nukes doesn't stop China from continuing to claim Arunchal Pradesh as its territory and sending unarmed troops to try to cross the border to "assert control".
Nukes didn’t stop saber rattling between the US and Soviet Union, they did stop all out war.
A procrastination in of itself
India’s nukes may well be a key part in why the soldiers are unarmed.
X3 There is no clear trend in US foreign policy towards or away from isolationism, let’s not pretend otherwise.
What do you call Trump then? Just recently he was talking about withdrawing from the Word Health Organization, and has made no secret that he has very little interest in the US participating in international institutions like the IMF, WHO, or the United Nations. It’s quite likely he loses in November, and maybe he’s a fluke but I consider that wishful thinking. Trumpism, like it or not is going to define the GOP going forwards, so in eight or so years they’ll be back in power.
That's because the Russians are not crazy enough to commit suicide along with the rest of the world, even in the worst case, and I think they would have used nuclear weapons only as a last resort, and when I say last resort, I mean the possibility of having exhausted all possible options to wipe out their enemies using conventional means.
Edited by luisedgarf on May 29th 2020 at 9:21:04 AM
A procrastination in of itself
A representation of the current isolationist ideology within the Republican Party.
One party holding an ideology for 4 years does not a national trend make. You’re assertion that the GOP will both remain Trumpian forever and contain to win elections without any ideological change are not based in fact.
Edited by Silasw on May 29th 2020 at 2:04:16 PM
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Cringe but free
Trump hammers China over Hong Kong, China responds with: What about Minneapolis?
Trump on Friday ordered the United States to begin the process of revoking Hong Kong’s special status under U.S. law in response to Beijing’s plans to exert greater controls over the territory.
Trump also vowed to bar an unspecified number of Chinese nationals from entering the United States for graduate study. And he unleashed another round of accusations about China “ripping off” the United States, unlawfully claiming territory and unleashing the “Wuhan virus.”
As expansive as those accusations were, Trump’s actions could have been much worse. The president did not outline a time frame or other specifics about the actions he wanted taken. Nor did he announce financial sanctions or threaten to back out of the first-phase trade deal the two countries signed in January.
“When you look at what Trump announced, China must be relieved because there is not much substance in there,” said Minxin Pei, an expert on U.S.-China relations at Claremont McKenna College. “The dilemma for Washington is that the things that they are going to do will punish Hong Kong rather than China directly.”
'Chaos in Minnesota'
Chinese officials had expected as much. And their propagandists had a convenient counterpoint for the root of the latest battle: China’s move to impose a national security law on Hong Kong, effectively bringing about an end to the “one country, two systems” framework that was supposed to continue until 2047.
They seized on the protests in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities to portray the United States as a hotbed of hypocrisy.
“Hong Kong’s rioters and police should carefully watch how the ‘democratic U.S.’ deals with the chaos in Minnesota,” wrote Hu Xijin, the nationalist editor of the Global Times, a state-affiliated newspaper that often reflects the foreign policy views of the Chinese Communist Party. He called out the United States for its “double standards.”
CCTV, the state broadcaster, ran a commentary saying that the use of force by police in the United States “shows the deep social contradictions” in the United States
Across the Internet in China, commentators and ordinarily people alike co-opted a phrase House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) used to describe the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong last year: that the protests were “a beautiful sight to behold.”
Posting photos of buildings on fire and looters smashing up a Target store, the Central Committee of the Communist Young League asked: “A beautiful … a beautiful sight to behold?”
The character for “beautiful” and the first character of “United States” are the same in Chinese, making the phrase a play on words. The post was trending on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, on Saturday.
Hong Kong priorities
Chinese state media likes to play up social and economic divisions within the United States as a way to make its system look better in comparison.
It has adopted the same approach with the coronavirus outbreak, emphasizing the confusion and high death toll in the United States to diminish the Chinese Communist Party’s shortcomings.
But the timing of the current unrest in the United States could not be better for China’s purposes: It is not China’s rise that is scary, the authorities are saying between the lines, but the United States’ decline.
It also feeds into the prevailing view in Beijing that all of the Trump administration’s actions are designed to stop China’s rejuvenation and its elevation to what it sees as its rightful place at the top of the global hierarchy.
“Chinese leaders would likely recognize that President Trump is using China as a scapegoat in a bid for reelection, but that doesn’t change the mind-set for many in Beijing that the United States is intent on constraining its rise,” said Natasha Kassam, a former Australian diplomat and China expert at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
The Trump administration has given repeated warnings since Beijing announced its plan earlier this month to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature and impose a national security law on the city, so Trump’s vow to act would not have come as a surprise to the Chinese Communist Party.
“Beijing would likely have factored in the loss of Hong Kong’s special status in its decision-making process; this is unlikely to come as a surprise and won’t change the CCP’s plans,” Kassam said. “Ultimately for China, quelling dissent in Hong Kong is more important than retaining the special privileges offered from the United States,” she said.
Bill Bishop, a respected China-watcher who publishes the Sinocism newsletter, agreed that China’s leaders had decided that Hong Kong’s political security and the territory’s “place in the Motherland” were more important than whatever increase in U.S.-China friction may come.
But the weak response from Washington now “will add to the view already held by more than a few in Beijing that Trump and the U.S. are paper tigers, as Mao liked to say, and Beijing can increasingly act with impunity,” Bishop wrote. “It is a toxic dynamic.”
The immediate loser in this process, analysts say, is Hong Kong, whose people and companies will be treated the same as Chinese ones if the United States goes ahead with its plan to stop recognizing the differences between the territory and the mainland. This will hit visas, customs and trade.
'Another opportunity' with WHO
What’s more, Trump handed China another gift by pledging to “terminate” the United States’ relationship with the World Health Organization, which he has accused of being effectively controlled by Beijing. His administration would be diverting the $400 million it gave to the WHO each year to other groups, Trump said.
On a previous occasion when Trump suspended some contributions to the WHO, China stepped in to give an additional $30 billion to the organization — portraying itself as a magnanimous and responsible global leader in the process.
“China will see Trump’s withdrawal from the WHO as another opportunity,” said Kassam. “President Trump is diminishing the appeal of the United States’ model by mishandling the virus outbreak and then abandoning the key global institution during the pandemic — this will increase skepticism of U.S. leadership, undermine alliances and alienate prospective partners globally.”
While the details of the Trump administration’s action remain to be seen, one thing is already clear. Relations between the world’s two biggest economies are at their worst since President Richard Nixon went to China in 1972, paving the way for the normalization of relations later in the decade.
“Then, China was viewed as a potential partner. Now it’s an enemy,” said Pei of Claremont McKenna College. “Now, the relationship is completely adversarial, there is nothing cooperative about it. And the sad thing is, that it’s only going to get worse.”
Foreign Troper
This is really like the Cold War all over again.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
We are already in a cold war situation, and the sooner we accept that, the better, so to speak.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the main reason why the US is doing so badly is that they seem to be the only player who hasn't yet acknowledged that they're in a new Cold War.
Edited by Reflextion on May 30th 2020 at 1:06:17 PM
Shin Megami Tensei IV
![[awesome]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/minis/award_star_gold_3.png "[awesome]"){kind=small}
I weirdly think that some officers already do, but the mindset really haven't entered to the average person
Edited by KazuyaProta on May 30th 2020 at 12:20:08 PM
Watch me destroying my country
Anka Aquila
To accept that we are basically in Cold War II requires two things:
- Accept that China is an equal in terms of power to the US.
- Acknowledge this means lines will be drawn once again.
Foreign Troper
I mean there is no Iron Curtain this time, guess that makes things not obvious enough for certain people.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
There's been an attempt to form an Iron Curtain in Southeast and East Asia, but it's not working out. This is a new type of Cold War too.
They're pissy about a lot of things. Especially since not only has Tsai's approval rating risen, their former KMT toadies are also becoming increasingly critical of the CCP.
Disgusted, but not surprised