(Edited for spelling and completeness)

Computer problems have kept me occupied while the news keeps coming. Where do I start?

Xinhua = Newspeak?
China -- you know, "China"? -- has some kind of a weird bug up its collective butt which has them saying that because of their "one China principle," it's disrespectful for Taiwan to call them "China."

From Xinhuanet:

BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- China says Taiwan authority's change of form of address towards the Chinese mainland is disregarding the "One China" principle.

[...]

Recently, Taiwan authorites officially started referring to the Chinese mainland as "China" instead of the "Chinese mainland".

They leave out the fact that this change only refers to internal government documents and that a Chinese official (was it Zhu Rongji?) once scolded a Taiwanese reporter for referring to China as "Communist China" (Zhong Gong), retorting that "We are China (Zhong Guo)." [NOTE: Still searcing for exact words and link! See "UPDATE" at the bottom of this post.] Of course, the opposition pan-blues still insist on calling it "mainland China" just like someone in Hawaii would refer to California as being on the "mainland." Only difference is that Hawaii and California are both part of the same country.

That'd almost be funny if not for those 600 damn missiles China has pointed at Taiwan. (Disclaimer: If California has any missiles aimed at Hawaii, I'm completely unaware of them.)

Boogers and buttocks
The pan-blues are having a grand old time scolding Taiwan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (AKA Chen Tang-shan) for recently saying that Singapore is no bigger than a booger and that they are kissing China's ass. Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo blamed tensions in the Taiwan Strait on Taiwan rather than on its bellicose neighbor, China during a recent speech at the United Nations. Chen struck back, while the the pan-blue cowards were cowering behind their current idiotic attacks on the military budget set for the purchase of defensive weapons (Patriot missiles, submarines, and maritime patrol aircraft) to protect Taiwan from China's missiles.

The pan-blues say that Chen offended Taiwan's allies, some of which are smaller than Singapore. One clear difference is that they are Taiwan's allies, and they stand up for Taiwan in international forums rather than bashing it.

Some other points to enlighten Yeo's hypocrisy:

* Singapore unilaterally declared independence from Malaysia on August 9, 1965.
* Taiwan was one of the only countries in the region to support Singapore's independence.
* Taiwan has helped train Singapore's military since 1975.
* This assistance has continued for almost 30 years.

Mark Chen was right, and he was right to use the words he used. When bullied, the worst thing you can to is to act as if it's not happening.

Taiwan's premier Yu Shyi-kun also stood up in the face of adversity -- the threat of those 600 Chinese missiles, to be more precise. He turned the faces of China's leaders redder than ever by "threatening" to "counterattack" if China attacked Taiwan. Sounds to me like he's just telling them to back off and not start any shit, which I gather from the key word "counterattack."

From the article:

... Cabinet spokesman Chen Chi-mai said yesterday that Taiwan would absolutely not provoke China, nor would it launch a first strike.

Duh!

Truth or dare?
The pan-blues have also opposed President Chen Shui-bian's recent interest in giving a "State of the Union" address to Taiwan's legislature, insisting that lawmakers have the chance to debate the president afterward. As usual, when President Chen agreed to do so, the pan-blues started tripping all over each other. I guess they never expected that the president would dare agree to face them. The chickenshits can't even attend their own fight!

Spitball wizard
In lighter news, there was the Elton John extravaganza last Thursday. Taiwan's regularly rude media hounded him upon his late night arrival at the CKS Airport. He called them "rude, vile pigs" and told them to "fuck off." One of the reporters even taunted the singer, "Why don't you get out of Taiwan?" (Nice, huh?) The "Pinball Wizard" is hardly the first non-native celebrity to have a run-in with Taiwan's porcine media, and if the vile pigs keep it up, Taiwan's dearth of quality entertainment is guaranteed to get even worse.

The silver lining
Well, at least it sounds like Taiwan is getting the world's attention for a change.

Coming soon?
In the near future, I hope to post a multi-part response to the pan-blue brochure "Bulletgate," which is jam-packed with lies which attempt to support their twisted imaginations regarding the March 19, 2004 shooting of President Chen Shui-bian and Vice-president Annette Lu. Both of the incumbents were lightly wounded in the election eve shooting which had the pan-blues crying "Unfair!" and rioting for weeks on end, blaming their loss by a hair's breadth on the shooting, which they claimed -- without ever producing any evidence -- was "staged." The content of the brochure can be disproved almost line for line, and barring further computer difficulties or more pressing responsibilities, I hope to get it online soon.

UPDATE (10/15/2004): After more than 2 weeks of searching, I finally got some relevant hits. It was not Zhu Rongji who scolded the Taiwanese reporter for using the words "Zhong Gong" ("Communist China"), but rather China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan. It occurred sometime in the week prior to October 21, 2001 at the APEC summit in Shanghai. According to the Taipei Times:

Tang corrected a PowerTV reporter for using the term "Communist China" -- which he labeled a throwback to the Cold War -- in her question at a press conference during the APEC leader's summit last week. He said that "Communist China" is now "a phrase relegated to history. Everybody knows that there is only one China in the world which is the People's Republic of China."

A Taipei Times editorial from November 6, 2001 says this:

At a press conference during the recent APEC summit in Shanghai, China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan lambasted a reporter who referred to his country as "Communist China." Later, President Jiang Zemin used "China" as an abbreviation for the PRC.

To complicate matters further, a Chinese-language article has this to say (translation mine):

When the (Taiwanese) reporter spoke the words "Communist China," foreign journalists present heard it translated in their earpieces simply as "China," and had no idea what the commotion was all about.

So, there you have it. According to Chinese officials from China, China is "China" (unless you're from Taiwan), not "Communist China," so stop saying that! (For more on what you "should" or "shouldn't" call "China" -- if I may be so bold as to use the word -- read this recent op-ed piece by New York political commentator Paul Lin.)