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November 1st, 2010 By Phillip Charlier
The recent and ongoing dispute over the territorial sovereignty of the Diaoyu Tai/Senkaku islands is becoming one episode in a rapidly developing re-polarisation of the geo-politics of the Asia-Pacific region.
Both the Republic of China (Taiwan) and People’s Republic of China agree that the islands, located 186 kilometres northeast of Keelung, are part of Taiwan and administered as part of Toucheng Township in Yilan County. Therefore, when the PRC claims that the Diaoyu Tai are part of China, they are also, by implication, asserting their territorial claim over Taiwan.
Pro-unification President of Taiwan (ROC) Ma Ying-jeou recently… Read more…
October 13th, 2010 Written by Li Rui (李锐), Hu Jiwei (胡绩伟) and others
Dated: October 01, 2010
Dear members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress:
Article 35 of China’s Constitution as adopted in 1982 clearly states that: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.” For 28 years this article has stood unrealized, having been negated by detailed rules and regulations for “implementation.” This false democracy of formal avowal and concrete denial has become a scandalous mark on the history of… Read more…
August 16th, 2010 By DC Rapier for The Wild East Magazine
It is often said that Noam Chomsky, emeritus professor of MIT’s Institute of Linguistics and Philosophy, ‘speaks truth to power’, meaning he has the courage (or temerity, depending on one’s point of view) to challenge the powers-that-be with straight talk. He himself contends that the label, though succinct as a slogan, is neither appropriate nor accurate.
In an interview with David Tresilian in Paris for the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram Chomsky stated,
”First of all, you don’t have to speak truth to power, because they know it already. And secondly, you… Read more…
April 8th, 2010 The Wild East Opinion Desk
There’s something creepy about Chinese people trying to breed pandas. What’s this about showing ‘Panda porn’? ‘Sexercise’ for pandas? I wouldn’t go into oestrus, either, if only out of spite.
China should back off its panda ‘preservation’ programs, stop intervening in panda sex by practically holding the poor bastards’ willies for them when they wanna do it, and set aside additional protected preserves in the wild.
There’s even evidence that the panda population would be better off — and better at propagating — if they were just left to their own ‘devices,’ if you will, in… Read more…
March 28th, 2010 By Phillip Charlier
The centenary of the Republic of China logo was unveiled today, without fanfare, but just the correct level of decorum not to offend anyone in particular.
According to vice-chairman of the ROC Centenary Foundation, S.P. Tsai, the logo is free to be used by anyone, and associated with other symbols as one likes. This sounds like a politico-marketing version of ‘copyleft‘. Open Source politics in the age of democracy.
Both sides of the strait will be commemorating ‘National Father’ Sun Yat-sen and the Wuchang Uprising of October 10, 1911.
Minister of… Read more…
March 11th, 2010 By Jonathan Chandler, in Qingdao
Lantern Festival marks the end of Chinese New Year or Spring Festival as it is officially known here and the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China is in its annual nod-off.
Though glimpses of spring are in the air, right now Qingdao is blanketed in snow and a blizzard rages. With the big show happening in Beijing, there is also a lot of official activity here in Qingdao which is the apparatchiks’ favorite watering hole. Just 342 miles from Beijing and 41 minutes from wheels-up to… Read more…
February 16th, 2010 Jonathan Chandler
The Wild East
The snow which fell a week or so back has yet to melt completely and the winds are still bitter in Qingdao.
This ultra-wealthy city where two-wheels are banned and all the cars are brand new is a Party town.
Not that kind of party unfortunately.
Thus, the new Year of the Metal or White or Golden Tiger came in with but a few muted fireworks.
The changes that have been wrought on this formerly quiet German concession seaside town are pole-axing.
In less than 20… Read more…
January 28th, 2010 Jonathan Chandler
The Wild East
It snowed dream-like and blew bone-flaying gusts of Artic wind last week. The sky was bleeding lead with pure white snowflakes floating along and then for two days a purplish sea-fog rolled in and tied Qingdao into a manky, ice-cold blindfold.
Sombre enough for the news that broke of the death of Kate McGarrigle, the great Canadian folk singer, at age of 62 from a heart attack. Kate with her twin Anna, were singers of mesmerizing purity and in the spirit of those wild and free times, told it like it… Read more…
January 6th, 2010 By John Hancock, in Beijing
Special to The Wild East
Democracy and free expression are thriving in China — in cyberspace.
While Big Brother asserted himself in 2009, this did not prevent foreign ideas from invading his Internet space and there has been a renaissance in self-expression, comparable to the invention of movable type printing during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Netizens stayed one virtual step ahead of the censor by finding new ways to circumvent controls, and using “human flesh search engines” to expose abuses of power.
It wasn’t always pretty. The rioting in Urumqi, on July 5,… Read more…
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