伊拉克與香港：劉曉波的矛盾 - Liu Xiaobo's Contradictions on Hong Kong and Iraq

End-of-year commentators and so-called journalists, specialists of the Chinese scene single out Xiaobo's incarceration as one of the momentous events in Chinese politics for 2010. What they fail to point out is the lack of common sense often displayed by Liu Xiaobo (and the Chinese government) in his own analysis of western events and history. The first of his controversial statements, available in many websites in the west, is his declaration that the west has been able to modernize Hong Kong in a hundred years and that it would take China 300 hundred years to accomplish similar modernization for the whole country.

Liu Xiaobo's demands for democratization in his own country are legitimate and his work in the drafting of the Chart 08 零八憲章 a formidable and courageous act. The Chinese government's reaction to its signing would make one believe that it has no plan B should economic growth fail except one of utter panic. An economic crisis or financial and banking bubble in China would certainly bring extreme unrest and lift many Chinese out of political apathy that repression would find nearly impossible to control.

Liu's second declaration, his approval of Bush's invasion of Iraq is more difficult to comprehend. We don't have to agree with him but Liu's extreme desperation at his own government policies within China proper might very well have blinded him to the consequences of the war for Iraqi citizens. At the time, China's position was very similar to France's position, namely that weapon's inspections should continue. Liu's reaction to China's policies might very well have turned into a systematic opposition: do not trust the messenger, China, and therefore do not trust anything China might decide on the world stage, internally and abroad.

香港 Hong Kong 1843

Liu has no confidence in China's leaders intention to modernize China. He, however, like most Chinese Leaders, in spite of his noble ideals, still has an amateurish approach to worldwide politics. In particular, he is not aware of Hong Kong's social problem and history. Hong Kong was not a Chinese city that has been undergoing modernization: it was nearly created from scratch and was built into a "modern" 19th century British colony. Its special status has made Hong Kong what it is today: a vibrant city where the latest immigrants are always available as a source of cheap labour and a multi-faceted culture. Like Taiwan, it also enjoys a compulsory pension scheme, something sorely lacking in Mainland China.
Taiwanese friends who have recently moved to Hong Kong find its mix of East and West attitudes, culture and languages fascinating and puzzling. Liu Xiaobo's hastened declarations do not do justice to Hong Kong.

Would Iraqi people be happy with Liu's support of Bush's war? Most of Iraqi citizens have become deeply disillusioned with the war that was supposed to bring them democracy but instead have brought a huge number of casualties. Iraqis, however, would not like to return to Saddam Hussein's. They find themselves in a limbo state, forced to move forward, if they can. Like many small countries and colonized peoples, they are not totally in control of their own destinies. They have other concerns than the Nobel Peace Prize.

Iraqi casualty figures

Source	Iraqi casualties	Time period
Iraq Family Health Survey	151,000 deaths	March 2003 to June 2006
Lancet survey	601,027 violent deaths out of 654,965 excess deaths	March 2003 to June 2006
Opinion Research Business survey	1,033,000 deaths as a result of the conflict	March 2003 to August 2007
Associated Press	110,600 deaths	March 2003 to April 2009
Iraq Body Count project	98,170 — 107,152 civilian deaths as a result of the conflict. 150,726 civilian and combatant deaths[1]	March 2003 to October 2010
WikiLeaks. Classified Iraq war logs[2][3][4][5][1]	109,032 deaths	January 2004 to December 2009

伊拉克戰爭平民傷亡

來源	伊拉克戰爭平民死亡人數	自2003年3月
伊拉克家庭健康調查	15萬1千例暴力死亡	截至2006年6月
柳葉刀（Lancet）雜誌調查	60萬1027例暴力死亡	截至2006年6月
ORB（Opinion Research Business）民調機構調查	衝突造成103萬3千例暴力死亡	截至2007年8月
美聯社	11萬6百例暴力死亡	截至2009年4月
伊拉剋死亡統計網站（Iraq Body Count)	衝突造成9萬5888—10萬4594名平民死亡	截至2010年4月

  China's reaction to the Nobel Peace Prize does not factor in human casualties, neither does Liu Xiaobo's statement on the rightfulness of Bush's war.  The Nobel Prize has usefully laid bare contradictions from the Chinese Government and Liu Xiaobo. Not everything in China is as simple as black and white.


Wen Jiabao's declarations on China's need to move towards a more democratic system have not been broadcast in China. One wonders at China's number 2 declarations not deemed safe for home consumption.
Surely Wen can see reason in Liu Xiaobo's position and create a momentum for change.

新加坡經濟失敗 Failure of Singapore's Economic Wonder

The Intelligent Singaporean

According to research by journalist Ravi Philemon，a basic family would need SGD$ 1325 a month for survival in Singapore. As Philemon points out this calculation does not include costs for tuition (if the children need any), costs for entertainment (the occasional McDonald’s or movie), insurances or emergencies. Visitors to Singapore might be forgiven to believe in the so-called Singapore's economic miracle, with few visible signs of extreme poverty in the central district. But being poor is not something anyone would gladly flaunt away.

Leong Sze Hian in Singapore's independent on-line media The Online Citizen reports that real wage growth has only been above 1.1% over the last ten years. These disturbing findings go some way towards explaining a latent pent-up resentment from ordinary Singaporeans' towards foreigners' perceived advantages. The real culprits seem to be the Singaporean elite which are not prepared to pay just and fair wages to willing workers. To this elite, nationality does not matter as long as their privileges are safeguarded.
Unequal development and social inequalities have never been a long term winning strategy to turn a country into an advanced and debt-free economic society. The recent examples of Greece, Ireland and Portugal where debt had been accumulated through graft and corruption by the elite and which finally burst their financial bubbles leading to widespread hardship for ordinary citizens could be a harbinger of things to come for Singapore.
And this time, it'll be hard to blame on the Euro.

中印：印度放棄 «一個中國» China-India: India leaves behind "One China Policy"

Shalimar Bagh शालीमार बाग़

Diplomats are expert at issuing statements that have no other purpose than to save face. The visit by Premier Wen Jiabao in India has produced one of the most wonderful ways of proclaiming that nothing has been accomplished. The two most populated countries of our planet have said they realize that there is a "mutual trust deficit" 信任赤字. Their solution is to "cooperate hand in hand for a mutual win-win."
At first sight, this is what it appears to be. But China, having been recently less impressive than ever on the diplomatic front with its handling of Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Prize, is not being as convincing as before. Reacting to China's ignoring India's claims to Jammu and Kashmir 查謨－喀什米爾邦 as an integral part of its territory, India's Prime Minister has stopped mentioning its commitment to the "One China Policy." Without even trying to be cynical, the Indian Express explains, that the basis for mutual cooperation between the two countries is "mutual respect and sensitivity for each other’s concerns and aspirations."


Wikileaks from Indian embassies are requested without delay.

誰來奧斯陸頒獎禮 Who was at Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony？

諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize

 Red: Countries which boycotted Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Prize Ceremony
 Blue: Countries which attended Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Prize Ceremony
挪威：黑色 Norway in black

諾貝爾獎牌 Nobel Prize Medal

孔子和平獎 Confucius Peace Prize

"Confusing Confucius Peace Prize Award Ceremony"

The Chinese authorities genuinely miffed by so many countries attending Liu Xiaobo 劉曉波 Nobel Prize Award ceremony in Oslo decided to have their own ceremony celebrating their own "small" Peace Confucius Prize. The problem is that it looks more like a Who Wants to Be a Star contest organized by Hunan Television with the difference that, this time, young Chinese people did not get the opportunity to vote for the winner on their mobile phones. I'm not sure Confucius would have approved.

Wikipedia said that this prize was created by "a non-government-related organization within the People's Republic of China in response to a proposal by business person Liu Zhiqin."
The recipient Lien Chan 連戰 did not attend. Instead, an anonymous little girl is holding the trophy. While a dapper young man is holding the prize money in small bills to the value of ¥100,000 RMB (US$ 15,000). No wonder Lien Chan did not attend!

Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan 賴幸媛 in Taipei said that the Taiwanese government found this "amusing." Obviously, a better sense of humour than China's spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, Jiang Yu 姜瑜. But with such funny material everybody can be a comedian.


I really feel for the seemingly bewildered little girl holding the trophy.

中國幫助顯露出反對和平國家•China Helps Name Peace Hating Countries

Clown Delegates in Norway for Nobel Prize Ceremony?

China's spokesperson for (or against) Foreign Affairs, Jiang Yu 姜瑜 can't do her sums. Maybe, like some of my childhood friends, she suffered heavy trauma while in primary school and developed an aversion to arithmetics. Ms Jiang Yu has stated that more than 100 countries supported China's stance on the Peace Nobel Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee's Secretary said that only 65 countries were invited at Liu Xiaobo's 劉曉波 prize awarding ceremony. as reported in the UK's Guardian. Currently, 44 countries have confirmed they will attend the ceremony. He has described supporters of the Nobel Prize Liu Xiaobo as clowns. Ms Jiang does not understand clowns. I would be happy to invite her to a circus so that she can see that clowns are very profound artists who express what most of us barely dare bring to the surface of our consciousness.

姜瑜 Jiang Yu

The 44 countries coming to the award ceremony should be proud to be considered clowns; it's an honour to be a clown, it can be therapeutic and even cure paranoia such as Ms Jiang's delusional vision of 100 countries supporting China's position.
Ms Jiang declined to name any of these supporting countries. Does Hu Jingtao or Wen Jiabao agree with Ms Jiang? I do hope they'll tell her to take a rest somewhere with other clowns.

China's stance does have some uses: it has forced 18 countries to declare themselves as officially not interested in peace: Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco. We don't need Reporters without Borders 無國界記者 or Amnesty International's help. China has gracefully asked these 18 countries to come out clean and say: we don't like the idea of being associated with peace.

Norway's Curling Team dressed as Clowns

We can only be grateful to China for pointing them out to our attention: Send in the Clowns!

Wikileaks - Lee Kuan Yew: Hu Jintao does not want China Taiwan Reunification

Singaporeans have learned to take Lee Kuan Yew's (李光耀) declarations with a profound sense of pragmatism. It's then all the more surprising to see him saying that Hu JIntao (胡錦濤), according to cables released by Wikileaks, Hu is a patient man and will wait 10, 20, 30 years for Taiwan "return" to China. On second thought, he explains these 30 years could be 40 or 50 years. Maybe he was talking about Singapore's opposition party being at the head of the government in Singapore.

"1964 Race Riots" in Singapore

We even learned, according to Lee, that China's goal is not reunification! Its real policy is to prevent Taiwan's independence and then "bring back" Taiwan to China.
He probably thinks that after 50 years of separation from China, on top of the 111 years that Taiwan has been growing separately from China since 1895, Taiwan might still be waiting, like a long lost bride, to be reunited with China.

Lee might do well to remember Singapore's history when he practically cried over Singapore being imposed partition from Malaysia. Do Singaporeans now want to be reunited with Malaysia? The 1964 Kallang Riots might not be talked about every day in Singapore but they are as painful as the 28th of February in Taiwan.

1947 February 22th "Incident" 二二八事件

Maybe China could follow Malaysia's example when on August 7, 1965, it expelled Singapore from the Malaysian Federation. One of the few cases, if not the only one, when a country was forced to become independent. I wonder whether some Chinese leaders have ever considered it in some cables sent by negotiators that led to the Consensus of 1992 九二共識 that both countries, Taiwan and China, agreed on unification but also accepted that each country had its own interpretation of unification.

Back to the future.

歐元被攻擊 台灣中國幫助它的忙嗎？The Euro being attacked - Taiwan and China to Help?

Taiwan's Animation Spin on the Euro, Ireland's "Leader" Brian Cowen (布雷恩•考恩) Called a Traitor

The Euro is being attacked and Financial centres the world over are waiting to see whether they will be the target of the senior bond holders. China has shown itself willing to help Greece pay its huge debt caused by serious mismanagement of its economy. Ireland the most recent target has being the victim of its government amateurish handling of its banking crisis caused by a bank, Anglo-Irish Bank, being set up mainly to help crooked property developers in cahoot with its government.
A Taiwanese animation firm has placed Ireland at the centre of the current Euro crisis with the production of a well-crafted video explaining the secret of the Emerald island finances and its most famous villain, Brian Cowen, Ireland's Prime Minister or Taoiseach.