陈凯论坛 Kai Chen Forum
不自由，毋宁死! Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!
陈凯博客 Kai Chen Blog: www.blogspot.com
陈凯电邮 Kai Chen Email: elecshadow@aol.com
陈凯电话 Kai Chen Telephone: 661-367-7556
Nixon Library Used by Chinese Government before Beijing Olympics 中共利用尼克松图书馆为北京奥运涂脂合法性
American/Chinese Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Rematch, Set for Nixon Library June 10, 11, and 12, 2008
Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:00am EDT
YORBA LINDA, CA, Apr 28 (MARKET WIRE) --
The Richard Nixon Presidential Library will be the venue for American/Chinese Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Rematch, a historic sequel of the extraordinary 1971 and 1972 table tennis events between United States and Chinese table tennis teams that became internationally known as "Ping Pong Diplomacy."
The three-day table tennis tournament, scheduled for Tuesday, June 10 through Thursday, June 12, will feature greats from both countries. They'll take part in a series of table tennis exhibitions, including instructional clinics for school age youngsters, collegiate challenges, competitions against the public, and the official Rematch of players from the original "Ping Pong Diplomacy" teams.
Festivities will occur in the Library's spectacular East Room, a full-size replica of the White House East Room in Washington, D.C., considered America's Grand Ballroom.
"We are privileged to welcome some of the brilliant architects of 'ping pong diplomacy' to Yorba Linda as we remember the world-changing events of 1971-1972 and look forward to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing," said John H. Taylor, Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation Executive Director.
"Like a great athletic contest, ties between great powers such as the United States and China are fraught with tension, disappointment, and triumph. Besides reminding people how this vital new relationship began, The Rematch will be further evidence of how healthy state-to-state relations should always be founded in thriving people-to-people relations."
The clinics, exhibitions and Rematch competition events will be under the supervision of the USA Table Tennis (USATT), which is also selecting players to represent the American side in Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Rematch.
Michael D. Cavanaugh, Interim CEO - USATT, said: "Ping Pong Diplomacy will aptly commemorate the significant role that the sport of Table Tennis has played in United States-China relations. Just as in 1971 and 1972, the sport remains one of the most powerful unifiers between two great nations."
Ping Pong Diplomacy
On April 6, 1971, while in Japan for the 31st World Table Tennis Championship, the United States National Table Tennis Team was invited to China by Chinese Premier Chou En-lai for an all expense paid visit. The U.S. team accepted, and on April 10, 1971, nine players, team officials, and two spouses became the first group of Americans to visit China since 1949. From April 11 - April 17, the U.S. team played against the Chinese team in a series of internationally publicized table tennis exhibitions.
The 1971 China visit by the United States National Table Tennis Team servedas a prelude to President Nixon's February 1972 trip to China, when he became the first American President to visit China. His historic journey paved the way for the normalization of relations between the United States and China. "Ping Pong Diplomacy" would continue in April 1972 when the Chinese National Table Tennis Team joined President Nixon at the White House for matches in the Rose Garden.
Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Rematch
Thirty-seven years after the events of 1971, the world will again focus its attention on China, this time for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. As hundreds of American and Chinese athletes prepare for the Games, it is appropriate to commemorate the 37th anniversary of "Ping Pong Diplomacy" with a historic Rematch at the home of America's 37th President.
A highlight of Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Rematch will be the exciting competition between two of the original players, Tim Boggan who played for the Americans, and Liang Geliang, a member of the original Chinese team.
Representing USATT as Manager of the American Team, as well as a participating player, will be Tawny Banh, a member of the U.S. Olympic table tennis teams in 2000 and 2004.
The Nixon Foundation invited USA Table Tennis (USATT) to assist in the planning, staging, selection of players, and execution of the exhibition competition, and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), which will be sending a formal delegation from China led by Madame Li Xiaolin, CPAFFC Vice President.
Steve Bull, White House personal aide to Richard Nixon, and organizer of the Chinese National Table Tennis Team's "Ping Pong Diplomacy" 1972 visit to the White House and Rose Garden matches, and now Director of Government Relations at the United States Olympic Committee in Washington, D.C., said: "On the eve of perhaps the most important Olympic Games in its history, Ping Pong Diplomacy:
The Rematch will cast a light seen throughout the world on the 1971 and 1972 Table Tennis exchanges that led the way to opening relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China."
The Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Rematch schedule includes:
Day 1: Tuesday, June 10, 2008: Official Welcome and Banquet
-- 10:00 am: American and Chinese delegations arrive at the Nixon Presidential Library for an official Welcome Ceremony and Reception, formal wreath laying at the memorials of President and Mrs. Nixon, and a guided tour of the Library and Birthplace.
-- 6:00 pm: Welcome Banquet
Day 2: Wednesday, June 11, 2008: Exhibitions
The American and Chinese delegations will return to the Nixon Library for a full day of table tennis activities in the East Room:
-- 10:00 am: Instructional Youth Clinic and Skills Exhibition -- led by members of the United States and Chinese "Ping Pong Diplomacy" Table Tennis Teams.
-- Collegiate Challenge -- local college table tennis teams will compete.
-- Challenge a Champ -- members of the public are invited to compete in a table tennis match (first to reach 5 points) against a member of the United States or Chinese "Ping Pong Diplomacy" Table Tennis Teams for $5 per match.
-- 5:30 pm: Private reception hosted by the Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles.
Day 3: Thursday, June 12, 2008: The American/Chinese Rematch
-- 9:00 am: The American/Chinese Rematch will be a one of a kind event, appealing to youngsters and adults alike. It will begin with a formal Opening Ceremony, highlighted by the presentation of American and Chinese National Colors, musical performances, and American and Chinese entertainment. Accomplished junior table tennis champs will get things started by facing off in youth competitions. In the second part, collegiate challenge finalists from Day 2 will be paired for a collegiate challenge championship match. This will all set the table for The American/Chinese Rematch, unquestionably the centerpiece of the three-day table tennis tournament.
All times are PDT.
Ticket Information
VIP Ambassador Passports are $125 (Members $105) and include one VIP seat to The Rematch on June 12, a private reception with the American and Chinese players and VIP dignitaries, admission to Day 1 and Day 2 events, and one "Challenge a Champ" entry on Wednesday, June 11.
Diplomat Passports are $35 (Members $30) and include one General Admission seat to The Rematch on June 12, admission to Day 2 events, and one "Challenge a Champ" entry on Wednesday, June 11.
Consulate Passports are $10 and include admission to Day 2 events. ("Challenge a Champ" for $5 per match extra.)
For ticket sales information, please call 714/993-5075 or visit www.nixonlibrary.org.
The privately financed Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation works to promote President Nixon's legacy of peace and to support the Presidential Library and Museum.
The federally funded Richard Nixon Library and Museum is part of the Presidential libraries system administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, a federal agency.
The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is located at 18001 YorbaLinda Blvd., Yorba Linda, CA 92886, and is open daily from 10:00 am to 5:00pm and Sundays 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.
FOR EVENT COVERAGE OPPORTUNITIES: Contact Sandy Quinn, Assistant Director, Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation, at (714) 364-1153 (w), (213) 215-5555 (c), sandy@nixonlibrary.org or Anthony Curtis, at (714) 364-1199 (w), (714) 420-2199 (c), anthony@nixonlibrary.org
FOR TOURNAMENT AND EXHIBTION FORMAT INQUIRIES: Contact Michael D. Cavanaugh, Interim CEO - USA Table Tennis (USATT), at (719) 866-4583 ext. 3, or email at mike.cavanaugh@usoc.org
FOR UNITED STATES OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Contact Stephen Bull, Director of Government Relations, United States Olympic Committee, at (202) 466-3399.
Media Contact Sandy Quinn (714) 364-1153 Email Contact
After I and my colleagues initiated the petition to collect signatures to remove Mao's statue from the Nixon Presidential Library, 150 courageous people with moral clarity have signed up. Here I want to thank them deeply from the bottom of my heart. They are from all over the world, from all walks of life with different ages and different backgrounds. But one thing unites them: They all understand without eradicating Mao's image as the symbol of evil in the world from people's mind, peace, freedom and human dignity will not be possible. China will have no meaning. The Chinese people will only be perverse, cowardly, pathological slaves under despotism forever.
I have received some harassing phone calls at home lately aimed as intimidating me and distracting me from my tasks. This phenomenon only shows that I have indeed hit the fatal spot of the Chinese communist regime. The evil Mao's image is central in maintaining the evil regime's stability and pseudo legitimacy. Now I call upon more of you with moral clarity and conscience to join me in this mortal struggle of good against evil, so that our children can have a life in freedom, happiness and human dignity.
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輪迴於暴君與暴政之間/胡蝶 A Vicious Cycle - Worshipping Biggest Murderer
This young man has a great sense of moral duty and clear vision of what is right. With his consent I now post this moving message here to share with all of you. I am deeply moved by his courage and sincerity and I feel very proud to have him as a friend.
American left and the Obama administration's appeasement toward China with its own socialist (environmentalist) agenda will invariably endanger the health of American political culture, weaken American economy's competitiveness and national security. --- Kai Chen
By: William R. Hawkins FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, July 01, 2009
When the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (HR 2454) by a narrow 219-212 margin in the last Friday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the China’s Communist government both celebrated for the same reason: the vote was a sign of their growing power. The environmentalist bill aims to reduce alleged global warming pollution by 17 percent in 2020 from its 2005 level. All sides of the debate agree on one thing: the cost of this effort will be enormous. The Congressional Budget Office says the new carbon “cap and trade” system established under the bill will rake in $846 billion in taxes over the next decade. The Heritage Foundation estimates that increased revenues will amount to $5.7 trillion by 2035, adjusting for inflation. Heritage and Obama agree that electricity prices will “skyrocket” by 90 percent and gasoline prices by 74 percent, beyond normal price fluctuations. The negative impact on U.S. economic growth and living standards will be tremendous. And the Chinese welcome the news as another step toward eroding America’s days as the world’s lone superpower. Beijing has played a cynical game of supporting strict climate change standards for its enemies while refusing to impose any on its own economic growth.
Nancy Pelosi, who has had a stellar record on human rights issues since her election to Congress two decades ago, has been one of the chief enablers of this policy. On June 4, back on U.S. soil, Pelosi led other members of Congress and Chinese human rights activists in commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, among them Harry Wu, perhaps the best known Chinese dissident in exile, whom she thanked “for leading the effort to display the Tiananmen Photo Exhibition here in the Rayburn Building.” But when she was in China’s corridors of power a few days earlier, her tone had been more about cooperation with Beijing than confrontation, reflecting more the posture of President Barack Obama than her own long record as a critic of the Communist dictatorship. Madam Speaker spoke briefly about human rights and delivered a letter calling for release of certain prisoners of conscience to Chinese officials. But she conceded her “focus was on climate change and what we can do between our two countries to help reach some agreement that will help serve us all well in a multilateral decision that will be made at Copenhagen” – the UN conference scheduled to meet at Copenhagen in December to draft the treaty that will replace the Kyoto Protocol and set targets for reducing carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases. In an attempt to square the circle, Pelosi claimed dubiously, “protecting the environment is a human rights issue.”
Traveling with Pelosi to China was Rep. Edward Markey, D-MA, a prime author of the cap-and-trade bill. At the June 2 press conference heralding the return of the delegation, Rep, Markey said “The Speaker did a masterful job of explaining to the leaders of the Chinese government that environmental justice requires the United States and China to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.” He then patted himself on the back, nothing Chinese leaders, including the president, “were each aware” of “the Waxman-Markey legislation, under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi. And they were discussing climate change and energy issues with us in that context that there was now significant movement in the United States Congress on these issues.”
This was but one of a string of environmentalist delegations the Obama administration has sent to China, starting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in February and running to Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern last week. Stern’s post is a new one created within the State Department to serve as the administration’s chief climate policy advisor and negotiator. Stern had worked on the staff of Sen. Pat Leahy, D-VT, and for the Center for American Progress. When Secretary Clinton made the announcement of Stern’s appointment in January, she spoke of “the complex, urgent, and global threat of climate change.” Last week, Stern stated the Chinese “need to take significant national actions that they commit to internationally, that they quantify, and that are ambitious.” President Obama hoped his Chinese charm offensive would unite Washington and Beijing in a fight against global climate change.
He has enjoyed mixed success: China has embraced global climate change legislation – for the rest of the world. At home, it has made clear its economic gain – and the military might its growing economy funds – take primacy.
This was on display at the UN climate conference held from June 1-12 in Bonn, Germany. When representatives of Japan announced the nation’s goal of reducing emissions by 15 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level, China immediately attacked the proposal as insufficient. At the June 11 Foreign Ministry press conference, spokesman Qin Gang said Tokyo’s plan “clearly falls short of the urgency of tackling climate change and the common aspiration of the international community.” He then restated Beijing’s position:
“For a successful Copenhagen Conference [the following UN climate conference], we uphold that countries should adhere to the framework of...the Kyoto Protocol, strictly follow the authorization of the Bali Roadmap and stick to the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities.’ Developed countries should take the lead in emissions reduction and set their targets in the second commitment period at the Copenhagen Conference, that is, a 40 percent reduction by 2020 from the 1990 level. Developed countries should also honor their commitment of providing capital and technological transfer as well as support to the capacity building of developing countries.”
At the same conference, the Chinese delegation said its country would be increasing its greenhouse emissions as it continued to develop its economy, and would not sign on to any plan for mandatory cuts. In a time of rising energy costs, Beijing does want to explore alternative sources, but the motive is economic rather than environmental. Beijing would also like to reduce urban pollution for health reasons, but not at the cost of growth. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said it was impossible for China, which depends heavily on coal, to accept mandatory emission reduction targets. But he said developing countries could help contain carbon emissions as long as the wealthy industrial countries give them the needed technology and money. In China’s view, the developed countries of America, Europe and Japan have to be the ones to make all the sacrifices.
Chinese officials gave this same message to Special Envoy Stern on his visit.
Some have pondered how to enforce global climate sanctions against Beijing. During her June 2 press conference, Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Markey were asked how to compel China to adopt more stringent emissions standards. Markey noted, “The Ways and Means Committee now will have the ability to construct a standby tariff,” adding ominously this was “not to be imposed until years from now.” Specifically, no repercussions would be enacted until the year 2025. This is the position, not only of Markey and Pelosi, but of the Obama administration.
This is a most ignoble state of affairs for Speak Nancy Pelosi, who earned a sterling record on Chinese human rights, better than many Republicans.
Rep. Pelosi was in her second term when the Beijing regime ordered troops to assault pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, killing thousands. She seized the issue as a centerpiece of her agenda. The biography posted on her official website states, “She has fought to improve China's human rights record, attempting to tie trade to increased human rights standards. She has also been a leader on efforts to free the people of Tibet.”
In 1991, Pelosi led reporters and others on an unauthorized visit to Tiananmen Square where she unfurled a banner dedicated, “To those who died for democracy in China.” Her group was immediately surrounded by security forces. The Chinese Foreign Ministry denounced the incident as a “premeditated farce,” and Pelosi’s host, the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, called it a “deliberate anti-China incident.” Six years later, when Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Washington, Pelosi led a demonstration across the street from his Blair House reception.
She has clashed with both Republican and Democratic presidents over China policy. In 1991, Pelosi sponsored a bill to give Chinese students the right to remain in the United States rather than risk returning home. President George H. W. Bush vetoed it. The House overrode the veto, but the Senate upheld it. Under public pressure, the senior Bush issued an executive order to protect the students.
The following year, Pelosi was a leader in tying “overall significant progress” in human rights, trade practices, and weapons proliferation to the annual presidential grant of Most Favored Nation trade status to China. President Bush vetoed the legislation, believing that doing business in China was a key part of an “engagement” policy meant to improve relations. Pelosi opposed MFN for China on the grounds that economic progress without political reform would only strengthen the dictatorship. The transfer of technology and capital has given the regime more resources to support is ambitions.
During the 1990s when I worked for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-CA, we often found common ground with Rep. Pelosi on China policy, even though our two offices were generally on extreme opposite ends of the political spectrum on every other issue. Indeed, China brought Pelosi into alignment with some of the most conservative Republican members, who were themselves considered mavericks because they defied the business lobby that was rushing to invest with Beijing. Carolyn Bartholomew held top staff positions with Pelosi during those years, and is now the chairwoman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission where some of Washington’s best work on China is being done.
Rep. Pelosi openly criticized President Bill Clinton for visiting Tiananmen Square during a 1998 trip to China to advance trade relations, seeing it as a gesture of appeasement rather than a protest. “What do they expect me to say?” Pelosi asked. “That it's not OK for a Republican president to coddle dictators, but it's OK for a Democrat?”
Is the Congresswoman who opposed President Clinton now willing to oppose new Democratic President Barack Obama on China?
Speaker Pelosi knows from years of study and experience the aggressive and brutal nature of the Beijing regime. And Chinese statements have only served to confirm its intent to exploit the Western mania about climate change to:
1.cripple Beijing’s rivals, in particular the United States, Japan, and Europe; 2.push for the transfer of capital and technology under the guise of Green cooperation; and 3.expand existing competitive trade advantages as a haven for high emission industrial production. The ultimate aim of Chinese policy is to fundamentally change the global balance of power in its favor.
Rather than parrot the naïve White House line about a partnership with China, Pelosi and her colleagues need to set the administration straight. They should argue vigorously for a change in policy to one that will support the strong American economic growth needed to raise living standards here and keep the United States the preeminent power in world affairs. China’s unfettered rise is not just a danger to the environment, it is a threat to America’s prosperity and security.
The angry youths, the Eunuslawhores now come out to attack me and the petition to remove Mao statue from the Nixon Library/Museum. The force of good and the force of evil now engage in a deadly struggle. I call for every man/woman with conscience, every free soul to pluck up your courage to fight for what America is about, to fight for your and your children's freedom and happiness. The fight is on. --- Kai Chen [/size]
[size=24]Attacks on me and this petition begins:
Wenshan said...
you never really know how the world at a whole evaluates Mao's contribution to the Chinese people and the third-world people. With personal prejudice and hatred, you carry out this petition and will only end up being a laughstock. The former president had has own choice and will to retain Mao's statue there and that is not your choice. Of course you may choose to set your father's statue at your own home or any museum that you donate money no matter whether other people like him or not but you have no right to change the former Present N.'s will. Show respect President N please. On the other hand, I must point out your understanding of great people is of narrow mind. You say that Mao killed a lot of people; my question is which so-called great people, including those forefathers of America, was free of history of killing, and massive killing? Mao was of course formidable to President N.and the formidability existed in the mind of N. but not in yours since you have never been the real rival of Mao. In Mao's days you would have been nothing; today, you are still nothing which can be best exhibited by the response from the people that your letter is addressed to. Cheers with your cause of anti-Mao campaign; but predictably Maoists in world will win. If you want to be great too, be Mao or be Nixon.
June 28, 2009 7:45 AM
Kai Chen said...
Dear all:
Now attack on me begins. Freedom and tyranny now engage in a deadly battle against one another. May your yearning and pursuit for freedom and liberty triumph over your fear of tyranny and moral confusion/corruption.
尼克松图书博物馆的回复与陈凯的答复 Nixon Library/Museum's Official Response & Kai Chen's Reply
Mao and Zhou statues in Nixon Library/Museum in "World Leaders" display. 毛与周铜像，世界领袖展览，尼克松图书纪念馆
June 26, 2009
Faxed to: 323-734-3071
Mr. Kai Chen Los Angeles, CA
Dear Mr. Chen:
I thank you for your letter of June 16 and I appreciated our telephone conversation on June 19. I also received your letter yesterday which was faxed to me and Susan Donius, Deputy Assistant Archivist for Presidential Libraries, and I understand you have conversed on this topic as well with her.
As I mentioned to you on the telephone, the current museum was transferred to the National Archives from the private Richard Nixon Foundation in July 2007. Starting that year we undertook a phased revision of the museum to make its exhibits consistent with the best standards of nonpartisan public history.
From the day I began my tenure as Director of the Richard Nixon Library and Museum, I have been uncomfortable with having the statue of Mao Zedong in a federal museum. When I asked why Richard Nixon would want a statue of Mao in his private museum, I was assured that President Nixon did not identify with Mao’s brutality – after all, he was long a champion of noncommunist Chinese leaders. Mao, I was told, was included in the gallery because of the former president wanted the likenesses of all the formidable international figures he has to deal with in his career.
As we work to change the nature of the museum, we have taken on one gallery at a time and I am just now completing the Watergate gallery. In response to your petition, I am having my museum staff post a notice in the World Leaders gallery that makes clear that President Nixon chose these figures for this gallery because they represented the formidable international figures he dealt with in his career. The US government is not honoring any of them by their presence. I hope that this will, at least, reduce the moral confusion that you perceived. Furthermore, as part of our program to update and revise the museum galleries which were originally conceived and installed by the private Nixon Foundation, we do intend to make changes to the World Leaders gallery in the near future.
Thank you again for raising your concerns to my colleagues and me. I very much appreciate your interest in the transformation of the Nixon Library’s museum.
Sincerely,
Timothy Naftali Director, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
Mr. Timothy Naftali (Director of Nixon Library/Museum) Nixon Presidential Library/Museum 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd. Yorba Linda, CA 92886-3903
6/26/09
Dear Mr. Naftali:
Thank you for a prompt written response. I deeply appreciate it.
I thoroughly understand Mr. Nixon was an anti-communist throughout his dealing with USSR as Vice President in the Eisenhower administration, as well as a President with the Chinese communist regime. As I have indicated in the previous correspondence, I deeply appreciate what President Nixon did with regard to opening the door in China. I would not have met my future wife without his initiatives.
The crucial aspect of this very important issue is to distinguish Nixon's motive which was to defeat USSR to achieve world peace from that of Mao's which was only to maintain his own despotic power in a totalitarian society. To equate Mao with any figures in the "World Leaders" section is a gross perversion of the truth. World Leader? Mao was the world leader in only one respect - he murdered and caused deaths of millions upon millions of innocent lives, domestically and internationally. The number of deaths caused by Mao far exceeds that by any murderous monsters in human history. Even today, his evil shadow still dominates the Chinese and causes bloodshed in many places in the world. Mao is not formidable. He was despicable and diabolical. Only two men in human history can compare, but not surpass, Mao's crime/brutality against humanity - Hitler and Stalin. Today the Chinese despotic communist authorities continue to use Mao to mystify, to confuse, to intimidate and suppress all dissent in the world, from domestic to international, from inside China's society to overseas Chinese communities. Mao's statue, with Zhou's (an accomplice of Mao's atrocities in China and the world), only serves to legitimize a criminal regime. Recognizing China diplomatically must be separated from recognizing Chinese communist moral authority. In this regard, Nixon Library/Museum failed. And I am saddened but very certain because of the display of a world criminal in a heroic and romantic posture inside an American institution, many Chinese and freedom loving people in the world are legitimately (by the rhetoric of the despotic regimes) being tortured, persecuted and murdered. The Nixon Library/Museum must rectify this perversion morally, must come clean in its conscience, must face the moral responsibility and the monstrous consequences of its own action/decision. The Nixon Library must remove Mao's (and Zhou's) statue from the premises of this prestigious American institution. Moral confusion and corruption should not be the message it wants to send to the freedom-loving people in the world.
I deeply appreciate your initial moral concerns when you took over the Nixon Library/Museum operation. The conscience in all of us should be our moral compass to direct us and guide this great country of ours. Recording history must bear a moral purpose in mind - to advance the cause of freedom in the world. Nothing is value-free.
I will continue to collect signatures for the petition to remove Mao's statue from the Nixon Library. I will see it through, with or without your help to question everyone's conscience. Maybe the first step, as I suggest, is to remove the title "World Leaders" from the section of display. The next step is to make a public announcement to remove the Mao statue, along with Zhou's, and to inform the world the moral considerations of your decision. The existence of this great country of ours is not to please anybody. It is to advance human freedom. If we as American citizens lose our sight of our moral purpose for existence, we will be no different from other despotic, nihilistic, purposeless countries. We are not passive recorders and receivers of history. We are the active interpreters and makers of history. The choice is ours.
I thank you again for your attention on this very important issue. If you have any questions or you want to inform me about the changes you intend to make in the Nixon Presidential Library, please don't hesitate to let me know. I will appreciate that.
When has the most notorious, the biggest mass murderer in human history become one of the "world leaders"? Why does Mao - the murderer of more than 70,000,000 Chinese people in peace time get enshrined in one of the most prestigious US presidential libraries? Why does interest trump over values in America nowadays? Let's go to Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California to witness a most distressing and despicable scene in American political cultural landscape. There Mao's statue along with Zhou's statue sit in a dignified and heroic posture, enshrined as some kind of saviors of the world. What has happened to America?
Today we as freedom-loving new immigrants from China and American citizens, demand the immediate removal of Mao and Zhou's statues from the Nixon Library. They should be discarded to where they truly belong - the garbage bin of human history. We are to collect signatures of those whose consciences still remain, who still demand that the historical wrongs must be righted. Butchers of innocent people, the sworn enemy of freedom with American blood in Korea and Vietnam wars should never be eulogized and commemorated. It is the victims of communism who must be remembered and whose deaths and grievances must be addressed.
Hereby we are to appeal to the board of directors of the Nixon Library to remove Mao and Zhou's statues immediately from the premises of the library and dispose them in a proper fashion.
The initiators of the signature collection: Kai Chen, Henry Zhang, Jojo Guo, Decheng Lu. Petitioners to contact via email: elecshadow@aol.com or henryzz65@yahoo.com or phone: 323-734-3071
Kai Chen 1705 Victoria Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90019 Email: elecshadow@aol.com Phone: 323-734-3071 June 16, 2009
Mr. Tim Naftali: (Director of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum) Nixon Presidential Library and Museum 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd. Yorba Linda, CA 92886 Phone: 714-983-9120, 714-993-5075
Dear Director Tim Naftali:
My wife and I visited the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum a few months ago. When I went to the section with display of bronze figures of “world leaders”, I was shocked to have found that Mao’s figure along with Zhou’s figure was displayed in a prominent position with intention to glorify and romanticize the biggest mass murderer in human history. (70,000,000 Chinese, many millions of Cambodians, many American soldiers killed in Korea and Vietnam, along with countless people still suffering misery/death under the current communist regime in China.)
The gross moral confusion and corruption in the decision made to display such figures horrified my wife and me. I am collecting signatures for a petition to remove and dismantle Mao and Zhou’s statues from the Nixon Library & Museum. I attach the petition form with this letter for your attention and reference.
Please contact me if you have already made the decision to remove Mao and Zhou’s statues from the premises of the facility.
From the Chinese Character “人” to see the Chinese Despotic Values and Slave Culture
从中文字“人”看中国的专制价值与奴役制文化 From Character “人”to See Inhumanity
By Kai Chen 4/24/2004 陈凯
Those of us from China with some conscience all admit that there is an undeniable and un-dismissible fact of life we have painfully experienced in China: The Chinese simply don’t treat human beings as human beings.
有一点良知的中国人都会承认那个不容否认的事实：中国人不把人当作人。
Human beings are treated as animals, as tools, as a cog on a big machine, as a burden on the government, with the “one child policy”, they are even treated as pollution that needs to be controlled and eliminated. Culturally and philosophically, we also have to admit a fact we have all sensed and experienced, though may be unable to put into words – somehow human beings in Chinese sense are only flesh and blood, are only fleeting images without any meaning. Each individual, much like each Chinese written character, has no meaning by himself, unless he is combined with others to form a group to have some meaning. Those of you who deny that Chinese character-based, syllabic language has anything to do with how the Chinese treat human beings, should at least have the decency to admit this is indeed a fact of life in China.
“Serve the People” and “Serve the State” has become the only meaning in a Chinese life – from the Chinese athletes, to Chinese intellectuals, to Chinese common people, to Chinese officials; from the old Cultural Revolution day when human being were praised when they sacrificed themselves to save a sheep that belonged to the collective, to today’s Olympics in which Chinese athletes endured pain and hardship to earn glory for their motherland; everything is revolved around human beings being used to serve something that human beings created themselves, namely the State, the culture, the language.
This pathology and perversion of humans toward the environment they have created themselves has never been adequately addressed, discussed, debated or raised as the fundamental issue of human condition. Strange indeed, isn’t it?
Why do the Chinese treat human beings that way for thousands of years? Why are the Chinese unable to see human beings not only as physical being and pictorial image, but mental and spiritual beings with inalienable freedom and rights? Why are the Chinese unable to comprehend the abstract concepts about humans that are distinctly different from those of animals or simply a rock? Why do the Chinese always rather focus on the superficial appearance such as “face” and “skin” and impressions upon others than focus on each individual himself as the ultimate beginning and end to himself? Why are the Chinese unable to comprehend that each individual’s dignity, freedom, happiness, interests are not means to an end, but the ultimate end in itself? Why do the Chinese somehow always appear to be some soulless empty shells, some walking dead ready to prey upon the soulful, until everyone is like a zombie?
Let’s start from the Chinese written character “人”: (human)
让我们从那个简单的中文字“人”开始吧：
“人” , due to the nature of the Chinese written language, is the only word in Chinese to depict human in a pictorial image, unlike in English (human, human being, person, man, individual, humanoid), there is no other expression to depict human. This pictorial image of man （人）tells us much about how the Chinese see humans – an insignificant simplistic image of a physical being that is composed of two legs in walking fashion. The image of human has no head, no arms, and no torso. Yet it is the only expression in the Chinese language to visualize and to comprehend the concept “human”. “众”is the Chinese character for “masses” and it is simply composed of three “人”. Thus the physical appearance, not the essence and substance of human via a pictorial language, has become the central focus of the Chinese in their understanding of “human”.
The implication of this superficial understanding has profound and enormous negative connotations and consequences on the Chinese psyche and their dehumanizing treatment of human beings. Humans have thus, in Chinese mind-set, become some meaningless image of flesh and blood, nothing more, and nothing less. Mao had once threatened to sacrifice half of the Chinese population to achieve world dominance. Today’s “one child” policy has the same implication that humans are only burdens for the government and the Party-state on their way to some world glory. It is no surprise since in Chinese understanding of humans; they are nothing more than two-legged animals of flesh and blood with no feelings, no significance, no original thoughts and ideas, no spiritual yearnings. They are all here, as the Chinese National Anthem extols, to be “used as flesh and blood to build a New Great Wall”.
Cannibalism has always been a part of Chinese history, from old days of venting hatred and utilizing human body parts as traditional medicine, to recent survival from famine and nowadays organized human organ harvest. Human degradation and dehumanization has accompanied the Chinese all through China’s history. The infamous Chinese cruelty toward animals is only the extension of how the Chinese treat themselves.
In this human degradation and dehumanization, only one thing remains as the value of all human interests in China – the State. State is God to all the Chinese and such a culture of “State Worship” has subsequently become the focus of Chinese individual identity. Since the two-legged “人” by itself has no meaning, the focus of meaning is on the invisible, omnipresent and omnipotent “State”. All the Chinese morals are focused on loyalty to emperors and the State. All the Chinese songs are sung in praise of the meaning of the Chinese State. All the value instilled into a Chinese is that without the State – the Big Family, one is nothing. All the Chinese proverbs and old sayings propagate the idea that “if the big river has water, the small creeks will be full and if the big river is dry the small creeks will be dry too”. No one has ever questioned this very fundamental Chinese value, for is one does, he will be ostracized to being “none-Chinese”. The essence of despotism is thus protected, educated throughout the population and propagated generation after generation. Authoritarianism and totalitarianism have always thrived on this fertile soil composed by countless decomposing flesh and blood of “人”.
Living in China is no longer with a life; existence gives way to nothingness; passing time and prolong physical existence supersedes the distinct human yearning for meaning and spiritual fulfillment; functions of body cavities replaces function of human brains and souls; education becomes a method to create more and more “State Serving” slaves with no originality and creativity; face, border, money and power defines the word “Chinese”.
It has all started with emergence of ‘人” and lack of humanity, human beings and individuals in China. It has all started with the formation of Chinese pictorial characters with its dehumanization features. And do we really hope to build a human and humane society in the future with “人”??
To understand why China is a desert of knowledge, one must grasp all aspects of such a phenomenon - political, historical, cultural, linguistic, social, psychological, etc... The Chinese have to have willingness and courage to embrace the truth in order to progress out of the desert. --- Kai Chen
The more insecure the Chinese communist regime feels, the more effort it will exert to control information flow and stifle people's mind. Trying to harvest a moon in the reflection of the water is always the typical behavior of despotism. --- Kai Chen
Tibetan TV Dishes Pulled 中共在西藏捣毁禁止卫星电视天线
2009-06-21
[size=18]Tibetans cite a new government effort to control what news they hear. [/size]
Photos courtesy of Invisble Tibet.
KATHMANDU—Chinese authorities have begun to remove satellite dishes in a Tibetan-populated region of China in an effort to block access to foreign broadcasts, according to Tibetan sources.
Tibetan-language broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America appear to be particular targets of the campaign, one source said.
“Beginning in April of this year, the local broadcasting department in Kanlho [in Chinese, Gannan] prefecture [of Gansu province] dispatched staff to the counties to install cable lines and to pull down the satellite dishes used by local Tibetans to listen to foreign broadcasts like RFA and VOA Tibetan programs,” a Tibetan woman in the Labrang area of Kanlho said.
“They also installed cable lines for listening to government-approved programs,” the woman added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Local Tibetans were told by officials that they were carrying out the directives of central and provincial level authorities,” she said.
“They distributed copies of the letters issued by the government.”
A Gannan prefecture document obtained by RFA, citing State Council document #129, describes what it calls “unprecedented efforts to collect satellite dishes” to restrict access to long-distance broadcasts in Gansu province, a site of repeated Tibetan protests against Chinese rule during the past year.
Anyone failing to comply with government directives to remove the dishes would be “dealt with in accordance with law,” the memo said.
Begun in 2000
Tibetan writer Woeser, in the June 15 entry of her blog “Invisible Tibet,” noted efforts “as early as 2000” by China’s government to block broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America.
Hundreds of jamming towers have been built in Tibetan regions for this purpose, she wrote.
“The Chinese government is now forcing Tibetan monks to pull down satellite dishes so that they cannot listen to RFA and VOA broadcasts. In May this year, the Chinese authorities carried out the policy vigorously in Kanlho.”
“In their place, the local Tibetans are forced to listen to [state-controlled] local TV programs connected through land lines,” she wrote.
Originally reported by Lhumbum Tashi for RFA’s Tibetan service. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Translations by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
The display of Mao's statue inside of the Nixon Library/Museum is a manifestation of people's confusion in the realms of rationality and morality. Nixon visited China with only one purpose in mind - to defeat the Soviet Union who posed as the most dangerous threat to world peace and freedom. Mao's reception of Nixon was only motivated by expediency to secure his own power and to stabilize/maintain the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party. There was only contrast between the two with no comparison. Today to compare and to confuse the motives of Nixon and Mao is not only an intellectual dishonesty, but also a moral confusion and corruption. --- Kai Chen
The reason I protested and plan more actions over the display of Mao's statue in the Nixon Presidential Library/Museum is a simple one - to clear some confusion and to defeat moral corruption caused by the Chinese communist infiltration in America and the Americans' complacency over the threat to freedom in the world from the "soft cold war" championed by the despotic Chinese Party-State. As far as I can see, the Chinese communist party-state is winning the "soft cold war" by turning America into China-like state with big, omnipresent and omnipotent government (government Not as servant of the people, but as savior of the people) and helpless individuals.
A simple story in my family during the Cultural Revolution tells it all:
At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, red guards started to ransack people's homes at random, based on suspicion and perceived problematic family background. My parents hang out a group photo on the most conspicuous place with my father as a staff member of the Chinese Customs with Mao, Zhu, Liu in Zhongnanhai compound. We credited our survival from that part of period partially to this photo, for people would hesitate before they destroy our home, fearing the connection between my father and Mao. But the truth is my parents were exiled by Mao and his cohorts to Manchuria. It was Mao who caused all the misery and atrocities. It is like when a doctor infects you with germs and viruses and then tries to cure you the disease he causes. Do you want to curse him to hell or do you want to thank him for trying to cure the disease? People with the Stockholm Syndrome will certainly thank him. But people with common sense and moral decency will curse him to hell.
If you understand the moral clarity in my action, you will understand the confusion and corruption both in China and in America today. I, as an American citizen, will fight for the principles established by the founding fathers - life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Despotism/tyranny has no room in America and should never be accepted as something we can tolerate, or worse, appreciate. Despotism/tyranny is the same everywhere in the world, regardless whether it is white, black, brown or yellow.... Affirmative action is just as insidious in destroying people's moral decency in the realm of education and job preference in America as in fighting against the enemies of freedom in the world.
I will always thank Nixon for I had a chance to have met and married my wife who was an American exchange student in 1978. But I will never thank Mao for anything. The world would have been much better without Mao what what he had created.
Let's pluck up our courage, clear our vision and take actions to protect and preserve the values of America.
Professor Bruce Herschensohn's words are worthy our attention: The four biggest threats to Taiwan's security and freedom come from PRC, idiotic investment from Taiwan merchants toward the mainland, KMT's appeasement and weakness toward the communist regime and the US principle-less foreign policy. --- Kai Chen
Four Great Threats to Taiwan People 对台湾自由人们的四大威胁
Professor Bruce Herschensohn, Pepperdine:
Bruce Herschensohn is Adjunct Professor of Public Policy at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy. He is the editor of Democracy: The Bridge between Mainland China and Taiwan and Hong Kong at the Handover. He was former Assistant to President Nixon. Below are Professor Herschensohn's comments.
PROFESSOR BRUCE HERSCHENSOHN: "Our policy inaugurated by our State Department can be encapsulated within two phrases, One-China Policy and Retaining the Status Quo". (Pepperdine University)"I believe that there are four great threats to the 23 million people of Taiwan. The first threat is obviously The People's Republic of China (PRC)".
"The second threat, in my opinion, are the business people who continually invest in China hoping to make money, and have produced a super power that will haunt all of us for a long time to come".
"The third threat is the major opposition party in Taiwan, the Koumintang (KMT). It has become in my view a proxy for The PRC".
"The fourth threat is U.S. Policy, which I consider to be absurd, antiquated, and flies in the face of President Bush's most magnificent pursuit in the history of mankind, in my view, which is the support of democracies around the world so that everyone becomes free".
"Our policy inaugurated by our State Department can be encapsulated within two phrases, One-China Policy and Retaining the Status Quo ".
"That One-China policy was born near the beginning of the cold war when Mao Tse-Tung took over China, called it the People's Republic of China, and said I am the legal government of China. And the vanquished government of Chiang Kai-shek, The Republic of China, was moved to Taiwan. Chiang Kai-shek and his followers went there. He said no, I am the legal government of China. I am the Republic of China. And so there were two Chinas. We immediately inaugurated a One-China policy".
"We did not want to have two Chinas, we could not recognize two Chinas. And the China that we chose at the beginning of the cold war was Chiang Kai-shek and the Republic of China on Taiwan. After all, Mao was a Stalinist communist, and the head of a communist government. Chiang Kai-shek was an ally in World War II and a friend of the United States".
"We retained that policy from President Truman all the way through Gerald Ford's administration to the beginning of Jimmy Carter's administration. But one night on December 15 of 1978 when the congress had just gone on Christmas vacation, Jimmy Carter asked for television time to give a major speech to the United States, in fact to the world. And he sure did. It was a total surprise. He switched Chinas, traded in Chinas".
"No longer are we going to recognize a Republic of China on Taiwan, we are going to recognize the People's Republic of China on the continent of China. Congress was mad as the devil. They came back to Washington after the first of the year in 1979 and enacted the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) that does call for the defense of Taiwan. So the TRA has really become the cornerstone of our policy there and it is still current today".
To seek happiness in a culture of despotism is like to create an ocean in a chamber pot with human urine, then wishing to extract pleasure in swimming/living in it. It is an extreme form of self-deception. China's despotic culture from ancient to modern is just like such a chamber pot full of human waste with all kinds of poisons, viruses, germs and parasites.... The self-deceiving Chinese boast that to swim in such a chamber pot is just like to swim in the real ocean, for the liquid tastes the same - all salty. The yellow color is only a distinctive "Chinese characteristic", only different from the ocean's blue. But what they haven't told you is that in such a "chamber pot lake", there can never be any healthy form of life, nor can there be any hope and future. The truth? In this filthy liquid of human waste there have already been countless deaths, pain, suffering and misery. There can only be perverted creatures, orgasmic illusions and endless nihilistic pollutant to poison the world. --- Kai Chen
I always have a distinct feeling that the Chinese have always lived in a chamber pot full of the urine from their own ancestors and themselves. Somehow they have never been able to smash/defeat/extract themselves from such a "chamber pot lake" to walk toward a true blue ocean. The self-deception is so deep that I wonder if they can ever wake up.
When the Chinese talk about China, it is like that is the only world they know. It is as if that is the only world they care to live in - a world of nihilistic deception and falsehood. Somehow they have swum in it for thousands of years thinking it is no different from swimming in a true ocean, with the only difference of color. Unless and until that one day they wake up to discover in their "chamber pot lake" there is only death, misery and despair, in contrast to a real ocean with life, liberty and endless possibilities, they will forever be mired in the poisonous filthy human waste created by no other than themselves.
一个好友在中国入狱服刑时发现并保留了这幅象征中国人们的真实状态的画面。 我在此深表感谢。 A good friend gives me this cartoon he preserved when he was serving a sentence in a Chinese prison for crime against the state. Here I thank him for bringing forth this poignant cartoon for everyone to contemplate.
A free being is one who uses his body to express his soul, who uses his action to express his values, who uses his sex to express his love. He is an integrated being with uncompromising free will and will never allow any force in the universe to tear him apart.
A creature by a despotic, enslaving culture is a disintegrated being with his own body separated from his own soul, his own action separated from his own values, his own sex separated from his own love. He/she is in a perpetual state of paralysis. Fear of the unknown dominates these pathetic, perverse and despicable beings. Yearning for freedom while fearing and evading freedom with their inaction/passivity characterizes those who occupy the ancient land of China. Perverted and fake "love stories" such as those in some classic Chinese literatures with sexless love and loveless sex permeate Chinese cultural landscape and have effectively castrated the Chinese males and females of any possibility of true love and happiness. One's body is oppressed by one's fear to oppose one's soul, one's action is obliterated by one's moral and intellectual confusion to oppose one's values, one's own sex is utilized by animalistic urge against one's own love and true emotions. A disintegrated individual thus takes his/her own sex as something to indulge to escape reality or something to be feared and obeyed to maintain a superficial despotic order by procreating for the collective. Human dignity, integrity, freedom and true love thus have long disappeared from the Chinese literary world. Those soulless bodies, valueless behaviors, sexless love/loveless sex, and nihilistic beliefs/faiths inundate China and very effectively turn everyone else into only some bricks of flesh and blood for building the despotic Great Wall. No wonder now zombies are synonymous with being Chinese.
Passion only comes when an individual maintains his/her integrity and dignity. A split character soaked with poisonous despotic cultural elements can only experience a permanent silent desperation. To live or to just merely breath? The choice is yours. Between a nihilistic, materialistic Chinese Eunuslawhore and an integrated, dignified free being, one must choose. There is no such thing as a virgin whore.
PS. You must have surely often observed such a phenomenon that in China most people seem to yearn for freedom. But then you will discover that when true freedom and happiness approach them they will evade the necessary responsibility and the courageous exploration into the unknown to escape into the temporary calm/safety of despotism. A long time of such a repeated pattern of behavior results in a severe atrophy of their spiritual muscles for freedom. Intellectual and behavioral paralysis prevails. Many who have come to the West find it very difficult to exercise their muscles of freedom, for they have to make extraordinary effort to restore the function of the atrophied muscles. Then the "angry youths" and "angry elders" appear. Escaping into the little circles of mini-despotism (from one's family to all kinds of groups) hence becomes the prevailing patterns of the overseas Chinese. --- Kai Chen
The above observation and analysis surely will offend many Chinese. But then again I am not here on this earth for the purpose of pleasing people. It is this pathological and perverse urge among the Chinese to please others that disgusts me. It seems the only purpose of any Chinese is to please the family, the elders, the authorities, the state, the powerful, the rich, the majority, etc.., to please all others but himself/herself....
What about truth? Is there any Chinese left in the world who is interested in telling the truth? If there is none, then let me be the first.
Cold War (the struggle between freedom and despotism) has not ended, and will never end because of the demise of USSR. Today the evil forces to challenge freedom have regrouped/revamped around a new "Axis of Evil" headed by the Chinese communist regime. A new round, more insidious and dangerous Cold War is happening right now around us, by a more capable, more adaptable and more determined foe against freedom. People need to wake up to this reality. --- Kai Chen
A free man is a moral being pursuing only truth. A eunuslawhore is a corrupt being infatuated with only being loyal to the state/emperor, hiding in the collective to escape personal responsibility while taking only "middle road" to nowhere. A free man has no taboos in his/her pursuit of truth/true knowledge. No matter where the truth will take him/her, he/she will embrace the truth and the destiny with courage and conviction. A eunuslawhore, as the opposite, will always chain himself/herself with all kinds of taboos. His/her life will forever be bond by shackles and misery. A free man welcomes and explores into the unknown with passion and eagerness. He/she will be the fountainhead for the reservoir of true knowledge and happiness for humanity. A eunuslawhore only aims at being a maggot inside others' feces as the entire purpose of his/her life. He/she is in a constant state of panic and fear, like a top without self-motivation, yearning for the whip of despotism, perpetuating his/her own spin without progress inside others/ancestors' dictations. What kind person are you? What kind person do you want to be? Only you yourself can answer the question. --- Kai Chen
A "Eunuslawhore" (a eunuch, a slave, a whore in one) is a term I invented to describe a meaningless existence in despotism. To combat such an insidious mindset perpetuated by thousands of years of despotic tradition in China, one must consciously choose to become a free being. Such a process from a slave to a free man is indeed treacherous with many dangers involved and a dear price to pay. But freedom itself is priceless and I know personally it is worth the price one must pay.
Without freedom, one's own life is meaningless and colorless. Without freedom, one's own life is only an endless endurance of boredom, misery and pain. Without freedom, one's own life becomes nothing but the tool in the hands of others and the state. Without freedom, all possibilities cease to exist and humanity will stop progressing. Without freedom, love is an empty word and sex is only a physical motion to procreate. Without freedom, human beings are nothing but zombies seeking to exterminate others' meaning in their existence. Without freedom, the world is a dark place without joy, happiness, knowledge and hope. Without freedom, life is not worth living.
My dear fellow human beings: One must ask oneself this question every day and every moment: Am I truly free as an individual existence with uniqueness by God's creation? Do I dare to shout "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death"?
Best wishes to you all. May you forever remain free. Kai Chen 陈凯
From ancient time to today's China, merchant class has always been a pawn for the Chinese despots. It plays an important role in stabilizing the power of the ruling class in a despotism. The core reason for this phenomenon is a total lack of the concept of individualism in the Chinese society. The perverted but prevailing moral code in the merchant class is to serve the emperor and the state. Thus, there is a sharp contrast between the Western middle class and the newly emerged Chinese middle class. The former is a force for societal transformation. The latter, a force for stagnation.
Traditionally, the Chinese merchants only want government connection and protection. They corrupt themselves morally to please the ruling elite. A twisted commercial moral code thus has dictated the Chinese merchants to behave like slaves for the state/emperor. The Chinese despots and the current illegitimate communist government would never have to worry about the Chinese merchants sabotaging their authority. （90% of the "Newly Rich" in China have bloodline connected to the Chinese officialdom anyway.) The Chinese merchants are part of the despotic system. Their function in history has always been reactionary toward societal progress. China does not have capitalism today. China, in truth, only has a "bureaucratic mercantilism" which is typical in a Fascist society. --- Kai Chen
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Dear Visitors:
I have had some experience in dealing with some of the Chinese merchants today in the US. It has been indeed a learning experience for me. I had hoped them to be a mechanism for social change in China, and indeed I had helped them to establish their businesses in the US.
But after a while and through further contact with them, I have found that the truth is the opposite from what I had expected/assumed. What I learned in Western Social Sciences in school does not apply to the Chinese merchants. I found out that they are nothing but a sub-branch of the Chinese communist machine. All the Chinese merchants seem to have a pathological complex, feeling guilty to earn money for themselves but happy to say that they are doing it for the Chinese state, for the Chinese people, for China's society.... (and some other damn lofty titles)
Their business tactics are nothing more than to bribe the Chinese officials for a little favor and advantage. They fear if they lose the official connections they will not only lose money, they will endanger their own safety and their familys' safety. They behave like they are under the gun 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. They look like some panic-stricken rabbits under the constant watch of the big bad wolf. The best they can do is to find ways to please the Chinese communist authorities, to bribe them, to donate to some meaningless public projects, to bring the children of the Chinese officials to the US, etc.... There is no pride or righteousness in their eyes. There is only fear, uncertainty, guilt, false sense of national greatness.... No wonder many Chinese merchants today help the communist authority spy on dissidents, steal political, military and business intelligence, host government intelligence agents in their business establishments, intimidate or seduce the people in overseas Chinese communities around the world, etc...
I then realized that I was wrong in putting hope into these Eunuslawhores. I must recognize the reality: Chinese merchants were, are and always have been the pawns of the Chinese despotism and tyranny.
Freedom is a state of mind in which one is at peace with oneself. Freedom is often NOT a state of safety. Taking risks is essential to ensure one's freedom. In this article below, the saying by the Chinese youths today "if you don't mention certain things, in China you are free" is a big lie to deceive themselves and the world. It is only true if they replace the word "Free" with the word "Safe".
Fearing freedom and escaping from it are the essential characteristics in the Chinese despotic/nihilistic culture. Confusing concepts to evade the truth and the smallness/fear of themselves is the traditional trick/tool for the Chinese. --- Kai Chen
China's Shadow/20 Years after Tiananmen 中国的阴影 - 天安门二十年后
A prominent slogan at a space center vows world conquest, but should that shouldn't be taken literally.
By Simon Winchester May 31, 2009
Jiuquan, a small town in the gritty deserts of northwestern China, was a place once moderately celebrated around the world as the birthplace of that most singular vegetable, rhubarb. But, along with the profound changes that have engulfed modern China, this remote and half-forgotten town has lately taken a very different direction from its botanical beginnings. It has become instead -- and largely because of its splendid isolation -- the main launch center for China's ever-swelling armada of space rockets.
And at the entrance to its interplanetary complex there is currently a billboard, half in English, that bristles with pride at the community's makeover. In very large letters at its base there is written a slogan that Western visitors may find more than a little chilling. It proclaims, and without apparent fear of contradiction or challenge: "Without Haste. Without Fear. We Will Conquer the World."
It is a sentiment well worth bearing in mind the next time you go -- as all visitors to Beijing should -- to see China's daily national flag-raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square. This event takes place in precisely the location where the tragedy of two decades ago happened. And it is everything that what these days is referred to as merely "the incident" was not. It is precise, disciplined, impeccably choreographed and hugely impressive.
The reverent crowds that show up in the chill before sunrise to watch do not seem to be aware at all that 20 years ago the pavement on which they stand was soaked in blood, that crushed bicycles and injured demonstrators lay all about, that trucks filled with soldiers careered wildly along the grand avenues, rifles blazing in all directions, and that the square was ringed with tanks and armored cars -- all directed at a few thousand defenseless young campaigners for freedom and democracy.
Today's only connection with that gruesome past -- personified by the soldiers of the goose-stepping honor guard who strut out from beneath the portrait of Mao Tse-tung toward the flag podium like giant automatons -- is that, on one level, the ceremony is a reminder of the raw and ever-present power of the Chinese state. The very power -- patient, measured and implacable -- that is suggested by the proclamation on the faraway space center billboard.
A question that troubles so many of the world's China-watchers, and quite reasonably, is this: Will that raw power ever be directed again toward the very people it is supposed to protect? Could there be another Tiananmen massacre? Would the government ever again risk bringing a firestorm of critical wrath down on the country that, in the last 20 years, has vaulted into the front row of the world's nations.
It is a difficult subject to discuss in China itself. It is said still to cause grave dissent among the ruling elite, and former dissidents are still subject to arrest -- a student leader, who had lived in the U.S. since 1993 and was trying to visit his ailing parents in China, was picked up in Hong Kong late last year and remains behind bars. But, generally, it is a non-topic in the media and has been essentially written out of the country's history.
Bringing it up among young Chinese, many of whom weren't born when the killings occurred, one becomes aware of what it must be like to live in a society in which information is so rigidly controlled. Most have only the vaguest idea that the tragedy ever occurred. It took several minutes of tactful prompting to remind Daisy, a 21-year-old Beijing sophomore, of what had happened -- and when the penny dropped, she blushed to the roots of her hair, began to stammer and gestured at the back of the taxi driver's head. "We would be in great trouble if he knew what we were talking about. I know now -- the 'incident' in the square. It is something that we know of, but we don't talk about it. Never."
I had much the same reaction from a student at Shanghai's Fudan University named Frederick. "This is a subject that we are afraid to talk about. When we try to do so, China suddenly feels like North Korea, a place that is terribly secretive and paranoid. Normally China ... isn't paranoid. It is a very free country, though I know Americans cannot imagine it being so. It is free, as long as you don't discuss certain things. And 'the incident' is one of them. The people who got into trouble, what happened to them? We don't know. We will never know. We are told not to care. There is no information."
And of those who died? I asked. "Some died, I know. Not many, probably. But we just don't know."
They are free as long as they don't discuss certain things. That is the key, the cleverly engineered way in which the Chinese government manages its population and that ensures, in my view, that, no, Tiananmen will never happen again.
Because to people like Daisy and Frederick, and even to those generations that have a more vivid recollection of the events of 1989, today's China offers up sufficient freedom for most to live a remarkably content life. Materially, most urban and educated Chinese are in clover; and most Chinese I know seem perfectly willing to accept some curbs on their liberty -- not even setting a particularly high value on those liberties, as once they did. They read of what they believe are the consequences of unfettered freedoms in the West -- violence, corruption, drugs, anomie -- and count themselves lucky that their society suffers so few of them.
Cynics will say that they have sold their liberties for a mess of pottage. But others will say -- and Daisy and Frederick did say -- that the corollary to China's growing economic well-being and contentment is the soaring condition of the country when compared with the rest of the world. A keen sense of national pride -- something the Olympics did much to nurture -- has the Chinese people in its unyielding grip.
And that, students of realpolitik argue, could lead to what truly matters: that though China's power will not again need to be directed at its own people, might it instead -- for the first time in China's history -- be directed beyond its borders?
For what did the signboard in Jiuquan mean? Precisely what ambition did the slogan "We Shall Conquer the World" truly signify?
Local officials explained to me that it did not mean military conquest; China wasn't about to invade a neighbor, wasn't going to make threats or commence a program of assertion, expansion or hegemonistic swagger. The slogan merely suggested, and mildly, that China might offer the world another way -- an alternative to the cultural influence of McDonald's, Exxon Mobil and General Foods -- a reminder that Confucian ideals, for instance, matter too.
Others are less sure the intent is so innocent. There is talk of China acquiring an aircraft carrier. American sailors have recently felt the lash of Chinese anger after straying into contested waters north of the Philippines. Chinese anti-piracy patrols off Somalia have been a great success. There is a growing impression that the Chinese government is beginning to turn its face to the world beyond and look the rest of us in the eye.
As it may need to. China's immense and ever-growing economy demands raw materials from abroad, secure trade routes, alliances, partnerships and treaties.
Now, with an almost cast-iron guarantee of domestic tranquillity at home, how best can China, in a fickle and dangerous world, guarantee a lasting peace abroad? I suspect that China will work that out, without haste. And I imagine China will accomplish it, without fear. Just as it has so adroitly managed to achieve what will most probably be a lasting peace at home.
Simon Winchester is the author of, most recently, "The Man Who Loved China."
Sat Oct 15, 2011 2:18 pm
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