The Guardian strikes again!
When Condi went to China she didn't get far with the leadership on the whole be nice to Japan issue which was obvious but,
"what has not been reported in the western media is the reception Rice was given...
One way of taking the temperature in China is the Internet, a very important indicator of public opinion in a country where more traditional media are tightly controlled. The importance of - and recent upsurge in - nationalism, for example, has found powerful expression on Chinese websites. The Internet response to Rice's visit has been revealing...
...Liu Xiaobo, a veteran critic of mass movements in China since Tiananmen...
He says that of 800 messages he has read about her visit, no less than 70 involved racist comments about her color: of these, only two were relatively moderate; the rest were vicious, describing Rice as a "black ghost", "black dog", "black woman" and "black bitch". One stated, "You are not even like a black ghost, a really low form of life," and another, "Her brain is even more black than her skin." One writer said: "I don't support racism, but this black ghost really makes people angry, the appearance of a little black who has made good."
In fact, the reaction is not that surprising. Although it is rarely written about or commented upon, Chinese culture remains deeply racist. For the most part, the Chinese are in denial of their own racism, while white commentators, in their great majority, are either oblivious of it, or simply regard it as unimportant."
If anyone reads book any more, Barbara Tuchman's "Stilwell and the American experience in China" is an excellent book.
She reveals just what a piece of dirt Chiang Kai Chek was. After Wendel Willkie left, after his visit, Chiang said the windows should be opened to the get the smell of the white man out.
The middle kingdom syndrome went as far as to be a hindrance to allied strategy. At the Casablanca meetings, the first time Roosevelt and Churchill met Chiang, the idea of attacking the Japanese before the monsoon, was met with a blank stare from the Chinese side. Chiang had never heard of a monsoon because they didn't have them in China!
There is much more. A very interesting subject and important as China's influence and military grows. Also, it is important to know the history of our relationship with China over the years to get a better idea of why we'll be fighting in the Taiwan Strait at some point.
See also a good description of the China/America relationship.
Posted by bushmeister0
at 10:26 AM EDT
