While China is enjoying an economic boom, it is also faced with a great deal of depressing news. In fact, its dictators are exasperated because more than 12 million people have quit the Chinese Communist Party since the launch of the "Nine Commentaries" on the party. Hundreds of thousands of angry peasants have rioted on the streets and we have seen the shocking exposure of large-scale organ harvesting targeting Falun Gong practitioners.
Among the chaos, there is suddenly a new campaign to reinforce the party. Chinese President Hu Jintao's (
I call it desperation. It is pretty safe to assume that this euphoria is not shared by everyone. In the West, Jiang will always be remembered as the butcher from Beijing who cleverly orchestrated the Tiananmen Square Massacre just to get ahead. He also began the persecution of the Falun Gong to gain more power.
His hands are stained with the blood of countless innocent people.
He has put humanity to shame -- why revere him?
Marie Beaulieu
Victoria, British Columbia
As it has striven toward superiority in most measures of the Asian military balance, China is now ready to challenge the undersea balance of power, long dominated by the United States, a decisive advantage crucial to its ability to deter blockade and invasion of Taiwan by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). America expended enormous treasure to develop the technology, logistics, training, and personnel to emerge victorious in the Cold War undersea struggle against the former Soviet Union, and to remain superior today; the US is not used to considering the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN)
The annual summit of East Asia and other events around the ASEAN summit in October and November every year have become the most important gathering of leaders in the Indo-Pacific region. This year, as Laos is the chair of ASEAN, it was privileged to host all of the ministerial and summit meetings associated with ASEAN. Besides the main summit, this included the high-profile East Asia Summit, ASEAN summits with its dialogue partners and the ASEAN Plus Three Summit with China, Japan and South Korea. The events and what happens around them have changed over the past 15 years from a US-supported, ASEAN-led
President William Lai’s (賴清德) first Double Ten National Day address had two strategic goals. For domestic affairs, the speech aimed to foster consensus on national identity, strengthen the country and unite the Taiwanese against a Chinese invasion. In terms of cross-strait relations, the speech aimed to mitigate tensions in the Taiwan Strait and promote the coexistence and prosperity of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in China and the Republic of China (ROC). Lai is taking a different stance from previous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administrations on domestic political issues. During his speech, he said: “The PRC could not be the
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is pressuring Taiwan using high intensity tactics to tire out Taiwanese forces and force them into making mistakes, The Economist cited Navy Commander Admiral Tang Hua (唐華) as saying in an interview published on Thursday last week. China is “using an ‘anaconda strategy’ to squeeze the island,” he said, adding that it is “slowly, but surely” increasing its presence around the nation. “They are ready to blockade Taiwan at any time they want,” Tang said. It is welcome to see a high-level official give an interview to international media on this matter. Although Taiwan is one
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