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Curzon
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Curzon

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March 5th, 2008

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Six Questions and Answers about the PRC

Adapted from a back and forth between commenters wjk and fenghuang at St. Marmot.

With the taunt, “answer if you can, we’ll see whose mind is controlled and is cowardly,” Korean(-American?) commenter WJK asked Chinese commenter fenghuang to answer some tough questions about the PRC. Fenghuang answered most of them, and I have included the more interesting Q&As below.

1. Is Tibet Chinese territory? Can it remain Chinese territory without use of military force? Most importantly, are people in Tibet happy?
If I say Tibet people are happy, will you believe me? No, nor do I trust your media which told you they are not. You’d best go to Tibet and see yourself. Also, Tibet was Chinese territory from the Tang dynasty, and before 1949 was a slave society.

2. Can you vote for anyone else than the Communist Party of China? Or, is it not important, because everyone is making money and that’s of supreme importance?
I am not the member of the CCP but I support it. There is not only one way to realize democracy as the US.

3. Ever heard of the one child only policy?
I have a brother.

4. Do you think certain religions in China get brutally suppressed by the government? Ever heard of Falun Gong?
My aunt died because of Falun Gong, it’s an evil religion that forbid believers to go to hospital when they are ill.

5. Why does China feel a need to build up its military to match the US, when it is doing so much commerce with the US?
Look at the enormous military budgets and hi-tech armies of South Korea, Japan, and the US.

6. Is China being ethical in sending North Korean escapers away from South Korea and towards North Korea?
North Korea is poor in some ways as China was before it. We hope North Korea can develop economically, but we cannot control them and stability of the region is more important than anything else.

Comments to this entry

Jing
March 5, 2008
2:38 pm
I can't believe a year old blog post is still getting comments. I bow to your thread necromancy skills curzon.
Curzon
March 5, 2008
3:58 pm
Something wrong with that? I would have thought that you of all people would have a real comment.
tehag
March 5, 2008
6:55 pm
So do "Curzon" and "Younghusband" agree with the questioner or the answerer?
dj
March 5, 2008
7:03 pm
Text Book PRC answers there.

Tibet was not continuously "Chinese Territory" since to the Tang Dynasty. Funny you admit that though, because Tibet and Xinjiang were colonies and so you are admitting the PRC is still practicing colonialism (Proper term now is Internal Colonialism). So when the Europeans did it to you it was EVIL1!1!!1! but when you do it to others it is justified?

Second, on the Internal Colonialism (Specifically Xinjiang)the CCP has given up on trying to assimilate the population of turkic peoples there. It is interesting that they have come to the conclusion that no amount of economic development will mitigate the cultural divide. So what is the CCPs solution? Flood the "autonomous region" with Han Chinese. In 1949 the Han population was around 4%, now it is around 45+%. The irony.........this is a very un-marxist conclusion to social issues that the "marxist" CCP is practicing.

More Hypocrisy from Bad China. It was never about social issues and the "people" with the Red Dynasty. It was just a bunch of nationalist Chinese who wanted to live like emperors and enslave many nations of peoples.

The underling motivation of every PRC action is to maintain the CCPs power in China.
jim
March 5, 2008
8:24 pm
Flooding an area with your fellow nationals seems like a extremely effective form of colonization.

Personally, I've never quite figured out what's inherently wrong with colonization. Sure, it sucks, from a national pride angle, to be the one colonized, but it's good for the colonizer. And, if the colonizer is much more technological advanced, the living standards for the locals will actually improve. The "colonization is evil" line is on I've always just taken as political sloganeering.

As an expansionist American, I'm holding out hope that enough rich Americans move to Baja California that we can take it someday. We need more coastline!
Jing
March 5, 2008
11:00 pm
Well to be frank Curzon, I don't actually see the point of this post. You have (A) asking stupid rhetorical questions that he already has preconceived answers for and (B) responds with the standard Communist Party talking points. I just don't see what you are trying to prove or elucidate upon beyond the fact that the internet is full of idiots talking past one another.
Jana
March 6, 2008
12:52 am
FAlun Gong is not an evil xxxx. The Ccp is the evil cult. if your grandmother died it was not for practising Falun Gong and FAlun Gong practitioners are not forbidden to go the hospital if we are sick.

Read this report about how 32 million have quit eh Ccp and its affiliated orgs in the last 4 years. Read the 9 Commentaries at http://ninecommentaries.com/
http://en.epochtimes.com/211,95,,1.html

And after reading the 9 Ping if you want to quit eh Ccp here is the site to do it on
http://declaration.epochtimes.com/



Read the report about the Chinese communist regime committing live forced organ harvesting to the peaceful Falun Gong practitioners and selling their organs for large money to the rich foreigners.
http://organharvestinvestigation.net/

Crimes Against Humanity and the Olympics cannot co-exist in China.

Some truths are intolerable
Our Governments know about it
Our media know about it
Human Rights organisations know about it
Now you know about it

Please do something now!!
Curzon
March 6, 2008
2:43 am
Jing: Thanks as always for your participation.

tehag: Hard to tell, I have mixed feelings. DJ is right in that they are textbook party line answers, but China's got in 80% right on economic, military, and political policy. I just wish the other 20%, namely freedom of press and environmental concerns, would get more attention.
sun bin
March 6, 2008
4:23 am
"environmental concerns" is definitely getting more attention, not just in tibet, but across china everywhere. not as much as we wish, but gaining a lot and still gaining.

ironically, the steam behind such attention is really the abysmal situation at Beijing for over a decade, where the party leaders feel for themselves.

---
as for press freedom in tibet? you will have to put it in lower priority, i am afraid.
dj
March 6, 2008
4:32 am
China, if it continues this current source, if going to die of thirst or poisoning. I don't know which will come first. But some estimates have 600 million now without access to clean water.

Water may be a bigger issue than oil in Central Asia. Even Nuclear reactors need water.
aceface
March 6, 2008
5:23 am
Japanese military budget is mostly eaten up by the wages of personnels.The amount spended for purchasing of new weapon is smaller than that of South Korea.

Most of the experts now think China had surpassed Japan in the amount of defense budget.

Has Falung Gong killed more Chinese citizen than CCP? I think not.

And China was part of the Mongolian empire back in Yuan dynasty.
Jing
March 6, 2008
5:36 pm
I was under the impression aceface that budgeting for military pensions was outside the normal defense budget. The JSDF only has about 240,000 active personnel. Assuming they are on average making $40,000 (quite generous considering the number of E-1s) that still comes out to less than $10 Billion USD for personnel expenditures. Less than a quarter of military expenditures.

Even factoring in extra perks of being in the military, it likely won't exceed a third of total military spending which is I believe the percentage the U.S. allocates for personnel costs in it's budget crunching.
Sonagi
March 6, 2008
9:31 pm
I concur with Jing that this Q&A is "internet idiots talking past one another." I did wish to clarify one point on political parties in China. Many readers probably already know that the CCP is not the only officially recognized political party. There are a handful of other small, toothless parties with nifty names like the Chinese Peasants and Workers' Democratic Party, which exist to give the illusion of a multiparty system. Members of these small parties collect honoraria and send representatives to the rubber stamp legislative body that is the People's Congress.

Fenghuang may have spouted textbook answers, but that doesn't mean he doesn't believe them. The CCP has done a highly effective job of encouraging nationalism among the youth.
Leo
March 6, 2008
10:19 pm
In my impression, Chinese nationalists actually accuse CCP of kowtowing to the foreign devils by giving up Outer Mongolia, Russian Far East, Pamir, Northern Burma, etc etc. By Chinese nationalists I mean the brethren across the strait.
dj
March 7, 2008
12:49 am
Chinese nationalists see the UK giving Hong Kong up as appeasement. They think if they pressure other nations they too will appease the Panda.

I have heard some chinese claim the whole first island chain (Aleutians, through Japan and to Taiwan).

Many Chinese believe the myth that Japanese are actually Chinese sent by the Qin emperor to explore the eastern Islands. That is false.
Michael Hancock
March 7, 2008
5:19 am
I'd like to see more studies on the validity of claims that Japanese/Korean being a branch of the greater Turkic/Mongolian/Native American language family. They certainly have similarities of agglutinative structure [use of prefixes/suffixes] and some vocab intricacies in common. Turks love to hear how there could feasibly be a 'nation' state stretching from the Dardanelles to the Aleutians [and beyond?]

If nothing else, it would shut the Chinese up about the Chinese origin of the Japanese, Koreans, and Mongolians.

China asking for the 'old' territories back is akin to cranky Soviet vets saying that the lease is up on Alaska, and that it was only a long term loan, the tsar hawking Russian territory to pay his debts [true in part, of course]. While Europe fragments into smaller and smaller states, does China really think they can subsume more and more land without notice?

Looking to Uighurstan and Tibet, the answer must be yes.
Aceface
March 7, 2008
3:41 pm
Jing;

OK,My mistake.
I mistranslated Japanese 人件費as"personnel wages".It's more"personnel cost".That includes not only wages but also other living costs such as rations and housing.2007 Japanese Defense White Paper says "Personnel costs" consists
almost 44% of the anual defense budget,while purchasing of equipment consists about 19.1%.The rest is for fuel,rent,training costs etc.
http://www.clearing.mod.go.jp/hakusho_data/2007/2007/html/j2251100.html#j225300f

You are partially correct on pensions.Imperial Navy and Army(which was disbanded in 1945)pension comes from the budget of Ministry of Health,Labor and Welfare,not the Ministry of Defence.
However,pensions for those who served in JSDF(Founded in 1952) and it's former body National Police Reserve(1950-52)gets pension from the defense budget.

BTW,I was under the impression that equipment purchase
from abroad and research&development costs was outside the normal Chinese defense budget....