No Barbarian Birds Abroad

A Bill to Support Programs that Offer Instruction in Chinese Language and Culture and for other purposes, sponsored by Rep Susan Davis; co-sponsored by Rep Charles Boustany jr., Rep Steve Israel, Rep Mark Steven Kirk, and Rep Rick Larsen.

The short title is U.S.-China Language Engagement Act (HR 2313 IH), and the text of the bill is here. It states goals of both physical and virtual exchange; meaning an academic, professional or cultural exchange between the U.S. and China, requiring international travels, plus exchange which does not require such travels. An entire section refers to school language technology enhancement – i.e. with a priority to communications technologies or equipment, especially in elementary and secondary schools.

Another China-related bill of the same day is the United States-China Energy Cooperation Act (HR 2312 IH), apparently much in tune with the administration’s goal to curb on global greenhouse-gas emissions., and sponsored by the same Representatives (but Steve Israel as a sponsor there, and Susan Davis as a co-sponsor).

Meantime, NPC [update: NPC stands for China's National People's Congress] deputies apparently suggested a bill which would reduce the pressure of English during this years plenary session, according to Zhai Hua‘s blog of May 17. This apparently refers to suggestions by Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine’s principal that English should not be compulsorily assessed in university entrance exams.

The contrast is ironical, writes a commenter on Zhai Hua’s blog:

I hope people won’t conclude that “China is already so strong that it makes America submissive (让美国俯首贴耳) – Chinese language is already as mighty as to make America pushing ahead for fear of falling behind, so why should we still learn the language of barbarian birds abroad?”

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Related:
The Three Eight Hundreds, April 19
An Inconvenient Truth, January 31

Lee Teng-hui: ECFA “Most Serious Mistake”

Taiwan’s former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said that president Ma Ying-jeou, by signing the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA, 两岸经济合作架构协议) with China, would bow to business pressure, thus falling into China’s plot of hijacking Taiwan economically to force unification. In a message to a forum on the impact of ECFA, hosted by the Taiwan Advocates think tank, Lee also accused Ma of back-pedaling on human rights and democracy. Lee sent a message and chose not to attend himself because of a cold (China Post), or pneumonia (Lianhe Zaobao).

Reacting to Lee’s criticism, presidential spokesman Tony Wang (王郁琦) said that the Presidential Office respected Lee’s views, but that ECFA was aimed at revitalizing Taiwan’s economy. Less serenely, KMT deputy secretary general Chang Jung-kung said that Lee Teng-hui’s two-states theory had failed.

Taiwan’s economic minister Yiin Chii-ming said that the government would continue to negotiate with opponents to the ECFA plan, so as to achieve consensus on the plan. On the Taiwan Advocates‘ forum, an official from the economic ministry argued that given the existing free trade agreement between ASEAN and China (to take full effect by 2010), Taiwan’s competitiveness vs ASEAN would suffer without signing ECFA, as customs to be paid by Taiwanese exporters to China would then be five to ten per cent above ASEAN exporters’.

Taiwan hopes to participate in ASEAN and neighboring countries’ summits in the future. So far, ASEAN plus Japan, South Korea and China had regular summits in a ASEAN-plus-three pattern;  Australia, New Zealand, and India more recently became part of ASEAN-plus-Six summits. The Philippine’s finance minister Gary Teves told an audience at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) in March this year that Taiwan had good opportunities to join ASEAN-plus-Seven summits in the future, but this would require a nod and a ‘yes’ from China.

An article on a government website in April this year (by an author whose views are not necessarily those of the website) suggests that the proposed ECFA should include a clause stipulating that each party is willing to allow the other to sign RTAs [regional trade agreements] with other WTO members, for caution about an asymmetric dependence on China, created by ECFA. If the government will insist on such a clause in its negotiations is obviously a different question.

Lee may not only be driven by an innate feeling that any kind of dependence on China would be dangerous anyway. President Ma and his cabinet have also come under more general criticism for not handling the ECFA negotiations in a steady and professional way. That and an apparent unwillingness by the government to keep the public informed may have alarmed the elder statesman, too.

JR’s Saturday Review: “Immense Pleasure”

There is a new bilingual magazine (in Chinese and German) in the market. The following is from its preface…

The Eight Represents: "For this edition, we have interviewed eight ordinary Chinese women."

“There are more and more people in the West who are interested both in the Chinese language, and in Chinese culture. People everywhere know China, many even long for China, but knowledge about the country is comparatively small, so that against the background of this, the monthly Hua Lan developed.Hua Lan is mainly written in Chinese and German, with annotations in German.

[...]

We are sure that Hua Lan will bring every reader – he may be a beginner, or a connoisseur of the Chinese language, or blissfully ignorant of it – immense pleasure.“

Thank you for the Music

However, we must understand that China is a peace-loving country with an old civilization (and that the highlands of Tibet, as an integral part of China, adds a lot of charme to China with its wide-ranging and beautiful landscape).

And China had to go through unhappy experience of aggression and debasement during the modern age. But the Chinese people never gave up, but exerted great effort and mastered one crisis after another. Page 52 and 53 explain further by reprinting 大中国 or Great China. So let’s learn some Chinese with Hualan:

我们都有一个家，名字叫中国…
We all have one family which is China…

You can find a music video and the complete lyrics there on 52 Harmonies. It’s cool. Or, as Hualan puts it, it expresses the hot love of the Chinese for their country.

中国祝福你，你永远在我心 里，
中国祝福你，不用千言和万语。

China, you will always be in my heart, China, I wish you happiness, that doesn’t need endless talk.

That was hot, wasn’t it? But why the endless talk? At 4.95 Euros per copy? To learn Chinese, JR prefers the internet. It’s more comprehensive. After all, most people from everywhere love their country.

The good news is that JR didn’t spend money on the paper. It’s probably been sent to some public institutions for free, for advertising. Just wondering if it’s a vulgar Vogue rehash, or an Epoch Times propaganda maneuver to ridicule the sublime CCP.

JR suspects the former. Grass Mud Horse.

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Contact:

Hualan-Kundenservice / VIA-ECEC, Rossitter Weg 8, 30657 Hannover, Germany

Hualan International, Room 302, Meilixingcheng No. 40, Huting Rd Lane 240, Jiuting Town, Songjiang District, Shanghai 201615, PR China

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Related:

Chinaweekly Relaunch: Hu Jintao pointed out, “Difficulties and challenges test us, responsibilities and missions inspire us.” History tells us: the time is ripe for us to show off who we are. Danwei, May 16

Three Eight Hundreds, April 19

Tai De Meets Muen Te

Franz Müntefering arrived in Verden (some 40 km south of here) today to celebrate the local SPD’s 140th birthday.

Tai De was there, too, and offers us a remarkable glimpse of politics in the German countryside.

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Related: Great Quote, September 7, 2008

Run-Up to June 4

Zhao Ziyang’s Memoirs

We haven’t heard Zhao Ziyang‘s voice for a long time. Four years after his death, audio tapes with memories and ideas recorded by the former CCP general secretary himself have apparently reached the world via Hong Kong. There doesn’t seem to be much doubt that the tapes are authentic.

The New York Times published some quotes and content from Zhao’s memoirs yesterday. The NYT also makes excerpts and audio clips available. It’s an old man’s voice, but very clear Mandarin.

“Sorting Fact from Fiction”

CNREVIEWS has condensed a rather long piece by Mark Anthony Jones (Australia) about the Tiananmen Massacre, with the declared goal of  sorting fact from fiction. The commenter thread which follows it seems to include a lot of mortifications, not all of them related to the topic.

Pretoria: Dalai Lama can visit anytime

South Africa’s new International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said on Thursday that the Dalai Lama could now visit the country whenever he wants. She said she wanted to clarify a previous statement that no visa would be issued between now and the World Cup.

“The Dalai Lama is more than free, like any other citizen of the globe, who would want to visit our country,” she told journalists. She also said the new government believes that South Africa’s strong and friendly relations with China should be strengthened further.

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Related: South African Government Blocks …, March 23

Beijing, Taipei: Big Project, Weak Foundations

Old Specters from the Stone of Orthanc?

Last Saturday’s edition of the Economist sees a lot of good in Taiwan’s improving relations with China (The Economist, May 9, page 57):

Of the two sides, Taiwan stands to gain hugely more from all this. Its strengths are in fields such as electronics, information technology and biotechnology. Even with Chinese involvement, these industries will stay in Taiwan, for they depend on decent regulation and copyright protection, both lacking on the mainland. Meanwhile, top Taiwanese brands will get readier access to China’s huge domestic market, so shielding Taiwan’s exports somewhat from the vagaries of the global economy. More mainland Chinese visitors, already running at 3,000 a day, will be a boost to flagging tourism. (Hoteliers report that groups first lock themselves in their rooms, to gawp gobsmacked at politicians being insulted on television chat shows). Recently a pariah among foreign investors because of poor cross-strait relations, Taiwan has suddenly become the only bull-market story in town. [.....]The chairman of his Mainland Affairs Council, Lai Shin-yuan, says that economic integration will increase security by making Taiwan so valuable for China that it will think twice about jeopardising stability. Others argue that an unprovocative island more firmly enmeshed in the global economy will bring about greater American commitment.

In short: “a watched frog never boils”.¹⁾

Michael Cole, in an article published by the Taipei Times on May 8, is less sanguine. The former Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s analyst argues that a 12 per cent minority stake in Far Eastone, Taiwan’s third-largest telecoms service provider – also referred to by the Economist – could widen the door for PRC spying, especially on the company’s subscribers.

Adding to the unease of people critical of the rapprochement with China is “work into the direction” of allowing Chinese law enforcement personnel to be stationed in Taiwan, as reported by the Taipei Times on May 10.

However, comments from Taiwan’s Crime Investigation Bureau (CIB) are conflicting. A spokesperson said that there was no such plan – at present, that is. Thinking of Chinese police stationed in a democratic country is a disturbing thought indeed. It’s pretty debatable if they would play along with constitutional rules. Which country’s courts would be in charge when Chinese police overstep?

Michael Cole’s argument on the other hand seems to hold little water without more elaboration. Obviously, there is reason to suspect that any future Chinese member of Far Eastone’s board would be happy to collect intelligence concerning splittist elements in Taiwan. But Mr Cole does little to enlighten his readers as to how Chinese stakeholders could gain access to data that goes beyond reports relevant to investors whose interests are merely commercial.

Still, no matter how much Taiwan may have to gain from the improved cross-strait relations, there is one factor that will keep the project unstable: the lack of public trust in Taiwan’s government’s policies. Many Taiwanese citizens will feel let down by the DPP after revelations and accusations against former president Chen Shui-bian and his family. They have good reasons to watch the KMT with suspicion, too. President Ma Ying-jeou is reviving the old spirit of Chiang Kai-shek on every occasion these days – the spirit of a man who used Taiwan as a platform for his plans “to recover the mainland”, and who had the Taiwanese pay the price with decades of often brutal KMT dictatorship.

Politicians from either the KMT or the DPP, when in power, are faced with a historical and a more recent heritage which make the business of government no easier. And under the pressure of China’s demand for “reunification”, a “sellout” label on KMT officials may stick only too easily. Justifiably or not.

The DPP is as much (or little) a loyal opposition as the KMT used to be during the eight DPP-lead years. Civic resistance against president Ma’s policies is supported by a DPP rally on May 17.

A major prerequisite for a successful cross-straits project would be public trust. It is weak now, and it was weak three years ago. Remember that one?

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¹⁾ refers to Yeh Chu-lan, “like frogs gradually cooking alive…”

Residential Areas

Achim, Germany – Once in a while, when going by bike and taking a shortcut, I get lost in a residential area – one of those places which have been developed during the past five to thirty years. Normally, I find it easy to get back to the real road, but not from such places. By now, when noticing I’ve got myself into such an area, I turn around and get back to the place where I deviated from my familiar route.

It’s striking how disconnected many residential areas are. They are in the middle of nowhere, apart from the roads which link the villages and cities. Their small streets are named Fir Street or Cedar Street, people keep their lawns short, there is a carport next to most houses (as if the owners had run out of money before building a decent garage), and it is hard to imagine how they leave such environments for work (i.e. real life) every morning, and return to it every night. The places are very green, and very boring. The housewives must be desperate. If Chinabounder considered sex with big, bored German women, maybe he should try here.

Life is elsewhere. A place in the wilderness would be better. Before moving to a newly-developed residential area, I’d prefer a place in the center of a city – or a village – any time. Even next to a road with heavy traffic.