We are watching with open mouth of astonishment, on October 1st 2009 in our small hotel room in the Taiwanese capital of Taiwan, the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. The channel we are watching, CNN, is broadcasting the celebration live. When just after the start of the live transmission a disastrous earthquake hits the western part of Indonesian Sumatra for the second time in less than 24 hours, leaving more than a thousand people dead, CNN doesn’t interrupt the transmission but just mentions it in a couple of words on the bottom of the screen. China is at the moment the centre of the world and nothing can change that. Exactly how China likes it to be.

The Chinese president Hu Jintao stands erectly in a black limousine that drives him along a kilometres long military parade. At the beginning we only see thousands of chilling identical Chinese soldiers, which make it almost hard to believe that the Chinese are not already cloning people. Eventually, we also see the military equipment, hundreds of tanks at first, but later also missile launching systems that can also be equipped with nuclear warheads. This kind of military muscles showing is something that we fortunately didn’t see a lot anymore last decades. But that is something China doesn’t mind. China doesn’t hesitate to show the world that they are not only an economical super power, but also a military one. This behaviour does not only intimidate us as common-sense people from the west, but it definitely also intimidates the people from the country that we are presently visiting: the Taiwanese. China never denied that it wants the ‘apostolate province’ of Taiwan to be part again of China, no matter at what cost. The question is: when will it happen and how?

If you think that the celebration of the 60th birthday of the Republic of China is a people’s party, you are wrong. Just like the Olympic Games in Beijing a year earlier, the ‘festivities’ are planned with military precision. China has with this celebration just one goal: to show the world, but also the Chinese people, that China is a superpower that can’t be overlooked anymore and that the communist party is still in charge sturdily. Nothing can go wrong today. It would be a disaster for the men in power if the festivities would be disrupted by a person running over the Tiananmen Square waving a Tibetan flag. Therefore, the normal Chinese people are not invited for the party. To the contrary, they are told to stay at home and watch the festivities on the television. Windows must be kept closed, it is not allowed to stand on the balcony, kites are forbidden and even the domestic pigeons must be caged for the day. Everybody is warned to comply with the strict regulations. Uninvited people that show up near the festivities can be gunned down.

It is astonishing to see that a television channel like CNN is giving so much attention to this kind of military muscles showing. Of course, the fact that China is celebrating its 60th anniversary is world news, but a live broadcast of their military parade is over the top. But it can be even worse. To congratulate the Chinese dictatorship with the anniversary of their 60th birthday, the Americans decided to put the top floors of the Empire State Building, one of the symbols of free America, in red and yellow spotlights. They probably forgot in the US that the dictatorship in China doesn’t really care about human rights, and that they do not only repress their own people, but also people outside China by supporting other dictatorships in countries like Burma, North Korea and Sudan. China managed also to become the world’s biggest supplier in small arms, especially to African countries, fanning conflicts and helping military regimes to stay in power. But as mentioned before, China really doesn’t care. They are on the road of becoming the superpower of the world, and nothing can stop them. Collateral damage in the form of human toll is not an issue for them. The fact that the Chinese have the Americans already in an economic trap is probably the reason why CNN gives so much attention to this dictatorship that is so eager for both economic and military supremacy, and that the Empire State Building decided to change their light bulbs. Let’s hope that the Chinese don’t get also a lot of political influence in the States, for example by financially supporting China-minded presidential candidates or senators. That’s something the American people must take care of, because if the chance passes by, the Chinese won’t hesitate to take it.


China’s ‘celebration’
Taipei (Taiwan), October 2nd 2009

We are watching with open mouth of astonishment, on October 1st 2009 in our small hotel room in the Taiwanese capital of Taiwan, the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. The channel we are watching, CNN, is broadcasting the celebration live. When just after the start of the live transmission a disastrous earthquake hits the western part of Indonesian Sumatra for the second time in less than 24 hours, leaving more than a thousand people dead, CNN doesn’t interrupt the transmission but just mentions it in a couple of words on the bottom of the screen. China is at the moment the centre of the world and nothing can change that. Exactly how China likes it to be. The Chinese president Hu Jintao stands erectly in a black limousine that drives him along a kilometres long military parade. At the beginning we only see thousands of chilling identical Chinese soldiers, which make it almost hard to believe that the Chinese are not already cloning people. Eventually, we also see the military equipment, hundreds of tanks at first, but later also missile launching systems that can also be equipped with nuclear warheads. This kind of military muscles showing is something that we fortunately didn’t see a lot anymore last decades. But that is something China doesn’t mind. China doesn’t hesitate to show the world that they are not only an economical super power, but also a military one. This behaviour does not only intimidate us as common-sense people from the west, but it definitely also intimidates the people from the country that we are presently visiting: the Taiwanese. China never denied that it wants the ‘apostolate province’ of Taiwan to be part again of China, no matter at what cost. The question is: when will it happen and how? If you think that the celebration of the 60th birthday of the Republic of China is a people’s party, you are wrong. Just like the Olympic Games in Beijing a year earlier, the ‘festivities’ are planned with military precision. China has with this celebration just one goal: to show the world, but also the Chinese people, that China is a superpower that can’t be overlooked anymore and that the communist party is still in charge sturdily. Nothing can go wrong today. It would be a disaster for the men in power if the festivities would be disrupted by a person running over the Tiananmen Square waving a Tibetan flag. Therefore, the normal Chinese people are not invited for the party. To the contrary, they are told to stay at home and watch the festivities on the television. Windows must be kept closed, it is not allowed to stand on the balcony, kites are forbidden and even the domestic pigeons must be caged for the day. Everybody is warned to comply with the strict regulations. Uninvited people that show up near the festivities can be gunned down. It is astonishing to see that a television channel like CNN is giving so much attention to this kind of military muscles showing. Of course, the fact that China is celebrating its 60th anniversary is world news, but a live broadcast of their military parade is over the top. But it can be even worse. To congratulate the Chinese dictatorship with the anniversary of their 60th birthday, the Americans decided to put the top floors of the Empire State Building, one of the symbols of free America, in red and yellow spotlights. They probably forgot in the US that the dictatorship in China doesn’t really care about human rights, and that they do not only repress their own people, but also people outside China by supporting other dictatorships in countries like Burma, North Korea and Sudan. China managed also to become the world’s biggest supplier in small arms, especially to African countries, fanning conflicts and helping military regimes to stay in power. But as mentioned before, China really doesn’t care. They are on the road of becoming the superpower of the world, and nothing can stop them. Collateral damage in the form of human toll is not an issue for them. The fact that the Chinese have the Americans already in an economic trap is probably the reason why CNN gives so much attention to this dictatorship that is so eager for both economic and military supremacy, and that the Empire State Building decided to change their light bulbs. Let’s hope that the Chinese don’t get also a lot of political influence in the States, for example by financially supporting China-minded presidential candidates or senators. That’s something the American people must take care of, because if the chance passes by, the Chinese won’t hesitate to take it. © copyright - Babakoto.eu / 2009