Who Will Save Taiwan?

Despite vigorous finger wagging by foreign politicians, the Chinese continue to crack down on Tibetan dissent with a massive amount of troops. In Taiwan, the Chinese crackdown has the effect of helping the DPP's chances of keeping the presidency and the passage of the DPP-backed U.N. referendum. The KMT candidate's once insurmountable lead has been almost completely wiped out as events unfolded this week in the PRC.

Where Chiang Kai-Shek statues go to die

Coincidentally, the USS Nimitz and USS Kitty Hawk will be conducting training exercises right next to Taiwan this weekend during the election. If the DPP referendum passes, there is a small, but real, chance that the PRC may attack Taiwan. So who can the people of Taiwan count on for "official" support? The answer is quite pathetic.

The only thing between Taiwan and total annihilation

Since the 1970s, the ROC has been losing allies like an untreated, advanced-stage leper. Today, only a handful of banana republics recognize Taiwan as the real China. They are:

Africa:
Burkina Faso, Gambia, Sao Tome and Principe, Swaziland

Latin America/Caribbean:
Belize, Dominican Republica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines

Oceania:
Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, St. Kitts & Nevis, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu

Miscellanea:
The Vatican

Let's hope people on both sides of the Taiwan Straight think and act reasonably this weekend.

Maybe Benny will send his guards to Taiwan

CKY

Ambassador Doraemon

The Japanese Foreign Minister, pictured, just named Doraemon Japan's anime ambassador. No word yet on Hello Kitty's appointment to the Japanese Supreme Court.


CKY

Flaming San Francisco

On April 9, the Olympic torch will make its only North American stop-- in San Francisco. Hundreds, maybe thousands, will protest. But their voices will be muffled. Why? The torch relay organizers are releasing the relay route as late as possible. Permit applications by human rights organizations to assemble in San Francisco have all been rejected. The police will designate "free speech areas" "associated with the route" for protesters. It seems Mayor Newsom has learned a great deal about political freedoms from his Red Chinese counterparts.

China's Latest Export

I believe the best strategy is to place protesters with hidden signs, banners, and flags at strategic positions throughout the city: the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf/the Embarcadero, Lombard Street, and Chinatown. The relay will inevitably pass these landmarks. At just the right moment, the protesters can unfurl their signs, banners, and flags and shout away. The media will love it.

Protectors and Guarantors of Our Freedoms

As a side note, I looked up the torch relay route in China. First, Kashgar has been taken off as a torch stop recently. Furthermore, Lhasa and Mt. Everest continue to be on the schedule. All I have to say to the Olympic organizers and the Chinese government is: Good luck with that.

Original, Pre-2008 Lhasa Uprising Relay Route

CKY

Tibetans in Gansu Raise Tibetan Flag

CKY

"Mercedes Never Made A Rally Car."

On last night's Top Gear, the dynamic trio drove a 1963 Opel Kadett A (Hammond), a 1981 Lancia Beta (Clarkson), and a W123 Benz 230E (May) across Botswana. Laughing at the Merc's long wheelbase and general tubbiness, Clarkson noted that's why Mercedes never made a rally car. I'm pretty surprised that he made the comment and even more surprised that the Top Gear staff kept it on the air.

The R107 450SLC 5.0 was an odd bird. It was HEAVY, had a powerful V8, and had an automatic transmission. Not your typical rally car. Between 1978 and 1981, Mercedes spent a lot of money in rallying from Portugal to New Zealand. With extravagances such as servicing via helicopter, it was rumored that Mercedes spent more per event than Ford or Opel spent in an entire season.


What is even more remarkable is that during my research, I found out that a W123 280E won the London to Sydney rally in 1977. This is essentially the same car May drove from Zimbabwe to Namibia. Who says Mercedes never made a rally car?

CKY

Is Xinjiang (East Turkestan) Next?!

As far as the Uyghurs are concerned, Urumchi, the capital city of Xinjiang, has already been lost to the Han Chinese. In this modern metropolis, only about 10% of the populace is Uyghur. The Chinese government has literally dumped millions of Han Chinese into the city to peacefully destroy the Uyghur culture and people.

Lost cause: Urumchi.

But in the historic and fabled cities of Kashgar (Kashi) and Hotan, the Uyghur influence is still strong. The Han are doing their best to annihilate Kashgar as well, installing the country's largest Mao statue in the central square, razing traditional Uyghur neighborhoods, and building drab concrete shopping malls/office buildings/apartment blocks over the fresh rubble.

Kashgar's Id Kah mosque-- largest in China.

The Chinese government recently announced that a 19 year old Uyghur girl tried to bring down a China Southern airliner with a vial of kerosene. Security experts doubt the government's claim, and many believe it is being used as a pretense to clamp down on any possible Uyghur agitators before the Olympics.

Fly the friendly skies.

The government also claimed that in January, it killed more than a dozen men in the Pamirs just south of Kashgar (near Karakul Lake) in a East Turkestan Islamic Movement terror camp which was stocked with arms and explosives. The 19 year old girl was supposedly avenging the January raid.

Terror (allegedly) lurks near this serene road.

In light of the 2008 Lhasa Uprising, word is slowly leaking out that China has imposed a 10 pm curfew in Kashgar and Hotan. Police, paramilitary, and army troops are making their presence known. Curfew violators have been quickly snatched, detained, and questioned.

The Uyghurs' grievance list is just as long as the Tibetans'. Chances are high that the Uyghurs of western and southern Xinjiang will rise up soon.

Skybox seat overlooking chaos.

CKY

Red China Kicks It Up A Notch

The 2008 Lhasa Uprising has spread to the neighboring provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan. The central government has shut down all access to youtube due to unflattering crackdown footage.


In Lhasa, the police, paramilitary, and army have kicked it up a notch. The tried and true olive green Dong Feng trucks used to transport troops are slowly being replaced by hundreds of camo'd out armored personnel carriers (wheeled and tracked) equipped with 12.7 mm machines guns. Let's hope the tanks stay on base.





CKY

Black Is the New President,....

Funniest and most right-on endorsement of Obama to date.



CKY

China's Lhasa Stand

It's now Day Two of mainstream media's coverage of the 2008 Lhasa Uprising. New pictures are finally coming out of Tibet.


In my previous post about army trucks of the Burmese junta, I talked about the Chinese-made Dong Feng trucks used to crack down on the Burmese populace. They are now being used in Tibet, although with more opposition. For a city that has been thoroughly and savagely transformed by Han Chinese and soul-sapping concrete and asphalt, Lhasa seems to still have an abundance of fist-sized rocks.

I'm not an expert on this, but that does not look like laminated safety glass.


Here's another Dong Feng (East Wind) meeting head-on with decades of pent up rage.


I did not expect to see Mercedes trucks in the People's Liberation Army, but they're there (or at least a cheap knock-off version). Trucks similar to these were used less than a month ago by those freedom loving Turks when they invaded northern Iraq to eliminate Kurdish freedom fighters.


This small but not insignificant gesture caught my eye. This very brave man is showing his resistance to Han Chinese hegemony with a simple act that has enormous consequences, from his personal safety to the morale boost given to those Tibetans who witness this treasonous crime. This is a perfect example of why flag burning, though repugnant to many, should be a fundamental and universal human right.


CKY

Tu-160 Blackjack

Cold War tribute week continues with the heaviest, most powerful combat aircraft ever created, the Tu-160 Blackjack supersonic bomber. With a 14,000km range, it was the U.S.S.R.'s analog to America's B1-B bomber. Its anti-flash white paint was designed to reflect most nuclear thermal radiation in order to protect the bomber and its occupants.

When the U.S.S.R. broke up, some of the small Soviet fleet that was on Ukrainian soil became Ukrainian property. But after years of neglect and disuse, Ukraine gave them back to Russia in exchange for forgiveness of millions of dollars of debt from natural gas imports. Today, the Russian fleet numbers little more than a dozen, and almost definitely less than 21.

Blackjack!



CKY