Xi Jinping’s ‘assertiveness’
Although it would be easy to portray Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平) as an “assertive future leader,” as Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) does (“China’s assertive future leader,” Oct. 27, page 8), one cannot as a necessity attach this to Xi’s time in the military. This equation is problematic for several reasons.
First, growth in Chinese military budget numbers as well as growing Chinese international assertiveness and vocal nationalism have taken place, oddly, during the post-Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) period. Deng’s military stature alone allowed him to underfund the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the 1970s and 1980s. Deng’s military reputation alone allowed him to take measures that effectively downsized the PLA, something his civilian successors would probably have been unable to do even if the international situation had permitted them to do so.
Let’s not forget, either, that the most strident Chinese actions toward Taiwan since the 1960s occurred on former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s (江澤民) watch during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1995-1996. The missile tests and bellicose behavior originated at least in part from military pressure on Jiang and his need to demonstrate, as a civilian leader, his military resolve. Deng could have, although at some political cost, put down protest within the military and survived politically, but such actions from Jiang would have been political suicide.
Moreover, documents with the most threatening language toward Taiwan since the reforms in China began three decades ago, the 2000 Defense White Paper (also during the Jiang period) and the 2005 “Anti-Secession” Law, under Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), were also formulated and published under civilian, not military, leadership.
PLA budget growth began after Tiananmen and accelerated rapidly under civilian, not military, leadership. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been at pains to professionalize the military and further civilianize control of the party. In this context, Xi’s assertiveness has more to do with the civilian aspects of his background than his military service. And even if one were to focus on his military background, one would find it dwarfed by the status of Deng.
To equate international assertiveness with a military background is, therefore, a mistake. It means more for a former soldier with combat experience than a peace activist to say, “War is hell.” In any case, Xi has no combat experience and he lacks the stature of Deng. And serving as a secretary in the Central Military Commission is far from being a grunt, little less a general. To point to his modest military record and say it is the cause of his occasional flashes of international assertiveness is to ignore a good deal of the evidence and to lack a bit of common sense.
NATHAN NOVAK
Kaohsiung
Diagnosis: politician
From where I sit, it would appear that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is afflicted with the same “disease” many politicians here in the US have — it’s called “foot in mouth.”
This is an affliction that stems from making statements without really thinking them through first.
Case in point: former Alaska governor and US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin claiming that she “could see Russia from her back door.”
Virtually impossible!
President Ma is fluent in the English language.
He has been an interpreter for former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). He is a graduate of Harvard Law School — and they most certainly do not teach in Chinese at Harvard.
Could it be that what we are seeing are Freudian slips? Just a word of advice: Mr President, before you speak, think it through first!
TOM KULECK
Jordan, Minnesota
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
Within Taiwan’s education system exists a long-standing and deep-rooted culture of falsification. In the past month, a large number of “ghost signatures” — signatures using the names of deceased people — appeared on recall petitions submitted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) against Democratic Progressive Party legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶). An investigation revealed a high degree of overlap between the deceased signatories and the KMT’s membership roster. It also showed that documents had been forged. However, that culture of cheating and fabrication did not just appear out of thin air — it is linked to the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
On April 19, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) gave a public speech, his first in about 17 years. During the address at the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei, Chen’s words were vague and his tone was sour. He said that democracy should not be used as an echo chamber for a single politician, that people must be tolerant of other views, that the president should not act as a dictator and that the judiciary should not get involved in politics. He then went on to say that others with different opinions should not be criticized as “XX fellow travelers,” in reference to
RSS