US economist Richard Wolff: American is becoming laughable arrogant, for a country waging 20 years war in the Middle East against Muslims least qualify to criticize China’s Muslims policy. The theatrical acts is to fool the Americans audiences when the rest of the world puzzles. Many US politicians still have the Cold War mentality and corporate America is not going to allow them to destroy their billions of business and investments in China. 美國經濟學家理查德沃爾夫：美國人正在變得可笑傲慢，因為一個在中東對穆斯林發動20年戰爭的國家最沒有資格批評中國的穆斯林政策。 美國的戲劇表演是用來愚弄美國觀眾但使世界其他國家覺得困惑. 許多美國政客仍然有冷戰思維，美國企業不會允許他們破壞他們在中國的數十億業務和投資. https://vimeo.com/559972645 https://youtu.be/RXclSCJuNsI https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/506379483918715/?d=n
Taiwan TVBS news video: China offer Taiwan Province residents FREE COVID19 vaccines, but refused by Tsai Government, Feb – Apr 2021 48,000+ Taiwan residents went to China to take COVID19 vaccines. China offers advance online reservation and special arrangements once they landed in China. There is no need to go to United States. China is much closer and provide far superior logistics to benefit Taiwan residents. 台灣 TVBS 新聞視頻：中國向台灣省居民提供免費 COVID19 疫苗，但被蔡政府拒絕，2021 年 2 月至 4 月 48,000 多名台灣居民前往中國接種 COVID19 疫苗。 落地中國後，中國提供提前在線預訂和特殊安排。沒有必要去美國。 中國離台灣更近，並提供更優越的物流，以造福台灣居民。 https://vimeo.com/559945005 https://youtu.be/gWgM4i2rmFA
There is a Chinese saying “If you want to beat a dog you have to watch who the owner is”…….. 打狗也要先睇主人.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of modern China, once told a story about a Chinese merchant in the Dutch East Indies.
The Dutch government imposed a curfew that specifically targeted the Chinese populace there. The merchant was out visiting his friends one day, and it was only when night fell that he remembered he had forgotten his identification papers.
So the man went to a brothel, and paid a coin to a Japanese prostitute – not for her “services”, but simply to have her walk him home. He did so knowing the Dutch police would never antagonise a Japanese national.
Why did the Dutch victimise the Chinese, but not the Japanese?
Because Japan was a rising power, and China was weak.
You can be the most successful and richest merchant where you live, but if your ancestral homeland is weak, then even the lowliest prostitute will command more respect than you, simply for being from a strong country.
Hard to swallow, but it’s true. And it doesn’t matter which nationality overseas Chinese see themselves as, because in the eyes of their adopted countries, the Chinese will always be outsiders and/or inferior. Whatever you think you are, others will see you as Chinese first.
Most in China already know this to be true, but COVID just made it more explicit.
Unfortunately, many overseas Chinese still do not, or perhaps do not want to, get the point. They think that by denying their heritage, and throwing their own people and homeland under the bus, they will be more accepted by their new found tribe.
By the way, you can easily buy a US, Canadian, UK, Australia or New Zealand Citizenship, but you cannot buy a Chinese Citizenship.
Chinese is based on your heritage and roots. It took us 5,000 years and it is not for sale.
Video#2: Bay Area China Group met at Edward Liu’s house for afternoon tea, followed by 9 courses Chinese Seafood dinner with fine wines celebrating birthdays of George Koo and Edward Liu on Saturday June 5 2021 灣區中美關係協會華人於2021年6月5日星期六在劉文貽律師家見面喝下午茶閒談天下事, 然後以9道菜的中國海鮮晚餐和美酒慶祝顾屏山和劉文貽的生日 Prominent Chinese including 2 retired California Superior Court Judges, all friends of China. Edward Liu: I will let my photos speak for themselves and the great company about the Yummilicious dinner and get-together we had last night together.
Thank you.谢谢你们。Mararaming Salamat! Teremah Kasih!
Johnson and Carmen Choi put the feast together. They know how to eat.
Video: Bay Area China Group met at Edward Liu’s house for afternoon tea, followed by 9 courses Chinese Seafood dinner with fine wines celebrating birthdays of George Koo and Edward Liu on Saturday June 5 2021 灣區中美關係協會華人於2021年6月5日星期六在劉文貽律師家見面喝下午茶閒談天下事, 然後以9道菜的中國海鮮晚餐和美酒慶祝顾屏山和劉文貽的生日 Edward Liu:
I will let my photos speak for themselves and the great company about the Yummilicious dinner and get-together we had last night together. Thank you.谢谢你们。Mararaming Salamat! Teremah Kasih! Johnson and Carmen Choi put the feast together. They know how to eat. Let’s meet in Guangzhou, China in the foreseeable future… when I take y’all to my favorite yum-cha tea house in LaiWan District. And my favorite roast goose restaurant in Shunde, 顺德- the Cantonese gastronomic capital of China.
We all remembered when the rioters trashed and destroyed Hong Kong Legislative Council Building in June 2019 and fires set by NED paid rioters throughout HK, US House Speaker Nancy Palosi said “What a beautiful sight to endure for freedom, democracy and human rights”. But when the rioters attacked US Capitol Building for freedom, democracy and human rights on January 6 2021, a different standards applied and people got prosecuted. No one could imagine Karma hits home so quickly. 沒有人想到報應來得那麼快.
The Washington Post: Putin questions U.S. prosecution of Capitol rioters, saying mob carried only ‘political requests’ by Isabelle Khurshudyan
ST. PETERSBURG —Less than two weeks from a first face-to-face with President Biden in Geneva, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday criticized the U.S. prosecution of rioters who took part in the January attack on the Capitol, calling it an example of American “double standards.”
Vladimir Putin wearing a suit and tie: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg on June 4, 2021.
The comments are likely to add to the pessimism in both Moscow and Washington that the June 16 summit will lead to a breakthrough between the two countries. Relations remain deeply strained over issues such as cyberattacks that Western intelligence says originate in Russia.
Meanwhile, Putin on Friday claimed that the United States wants to “suppress” Russia.
He suggested the agenda for the summit with Biden could cover issues of potential common ground, such as climate, the pandemic, disarmament and combating terrorism.
That differed from Biden’s preview of the summit last week, when he said he would press Putin on human rights abuses such as Russia’s treatment of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In response, the Kremlin has attempted to draw an equivalency to the U.S. treatment of the Capitol rioters. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called it a “persecution” earlier this week.
“These are not looters or thieves, these people came with political requests,” Putin said of the pro-Trump mobs that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The moderator at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum then asked Putin to clarify if he was defending the rioters, adding in a joking tone that the comments could lead to Putin “being banned online.”
“I’m not giving any evaluations to the actual event. I’m talking about what followed after,” he said, adding that he does “not give a damn” if he is banned from social media sites.
Applause from the crowd followed.
[Biden plans to hammer Putin over ransomware attacks] About 500 people have been charged in the investigation into the Capitol riot for offenses such as assaulting police officers, violent entry to Congress and disorderly conduct.
In a separate interview with state television after his session at the St. Petersburg conference, Putin called Biden “a very experienced man. He has been in politics all his life. He is experienced, I hope, and very sensible and careful as a person.”
“I very much hope that our meeting will be positive,” Putin added. “I don’t expect any breakthrough in Russian-U. S. relations, anything that could amaze us all with its results.”
One subject that could come up between the leaders is Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko after Putin did nothing to break ranks with his strongman ally.
Lukashenko last month sparked international outrage for forcing down a civilian jetliner flying over Belarus last month to arrest an opposition journalist, Roman Protasevich, who was on board. Also arrested was Russian activist Sofia Sapega, who was traveling with Protasevich on the flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania.
Lukashenko has claimed that Belarus air traffic controllers diverted the plane because of a emailed bomb threat purporting to be from the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The email, however, appeared to be sent after the plane was diverted, according to the email service provider. Hamas also denied issuing any bomb threat.
[Detained Belarus opposition journalist breaks down in state TV interview, renewing claims of coercion.] Asked if he believed Lukashenko’s explanation, Putin said, “Honestly, I don’t know.” He added that he preferred not to give an opinion, but Russian special services did not play a part.
The moderator then posed a hypothetical: “Would Russia force down a plane flying, for example, from London to Thailand over Russia if there was someone on board on Russia’s wanted list?”
“I won’t tell you,” Putin answered, drawing laughter and applause from the crowd.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s crackdown on its critics has continued.
Earlier this week, Russian authorities detained opposition politicians Dmitry Gudkov, a former parliamentarian who has been critical of Putin, and Andrei Pivovarov, director of Open Russia, a now defunct opposition group linked to exiled businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Navalny marked his 45th birthday on Friday, while serving a more-than two-year prison sentence on charges international observers and his allies have said were fabricated as a way to silence him.
Putin avoided referencing the United States for the majority of his session, a rare in-person appearance by him since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. He instead boasted that the first line of Russia’s controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline — linking Russia and Germany — was completed just hours earlier.
The multibillion-dollar pipeline has been a point of contention between the United States and Russia. Putin said the second line of pipes will be finished within a couple of months.
The Biden administration last month eased sanctions on the pipeline, billed as an effort by Washington to mend relations with Berlin and other European partners. It was criticized by some Republican U.S. senators as allowing Russia to use Nord Stream 2 to increase some European Union states’ dependency on Moscow. The United States is an exporter of natural gas to Europe, but Russian gas is cheaper.
“I think it should go ahead especially now that the new U.S. administration said it wants to build friendly relations with its partners in Europe,” Putin said at the St. Petersburg forum. “How can you build good relations with your partners and completely disregard their interests?”
Nury Vittachi: How NOT to talk to mainland Chinese friends about June 4 . DO NOT SAY: “So your government gunned down all these poor students who were in Tiananmen Square pleading for freedom and democracy; the young people were so brave, one guy stood in front of a tank, but tens of thousands were massacred.” . Instead, if your Chinese friend is interested, you can suggest he or she read some books and papers on the subject: there are some good ones available, and there’s a list at the end of this piece. . LAZY JOURNALISM What happened in Beijing on June 4, 1989 is too important to mess up with half-truths and lazy journalism. . As a Hong Konger, I strongly believe in the annual remembrance of the dead on the anniversary, but we are probably all aware that there have always been two starkly different versions of the story of what happened in the early hours of that day. . In the Western version of events, the students were gunned down in a hail of machine gun fire (Wen Wei Po) leaving “tens of thousands” dead (NBC news). . The official Chinese version of events (when they can be pushed to speak about it) says student protests triggered civil unrest in Beijing and elsewhere. Fighting broke out in the city and several hundred people did lose their lives, but no one died in Tiananmen Square. . MOVING TOGETHER Good news: For those of us who still read books and papers, we can see that today, 30 years later, the two versions have been moving steadily together, thanks to the work of writers and reporters who set their prejudices aside to review and compare eyewitness accounts. . It is this writer’s hope that an issue that has divided east and west will one day be a shared story of lost people who can be commemorated by both sides. . 10 THINGS TO TALK THOUGHTFULLY ABOUT . People who have studied what actually did happen have a more nuanced understanding of the events of that tragic night. Here are 10 suggestions about things to think about when talking about it. . 1) DON’T SAY that the student demonstrations were a call for freedom. . You see that written everywhere, but scholars agree that the students were complaining about the widespread corruption that they saw as preventing the achievement of what they wanted: a fair and just communist society. The students were fiercely patriotic and proud of China and its socialist stance. They wanted their protest to echo a historical event – the 1919 May 4 student protests against imperialism. . 2) DON’T SAY that the protests were a call for democracy. . In truth, they were calling for reform within communism. It was only when students noticed that international reporters would race to photograph placards with English words such as “liberty” that democracy was elevated to a major theme. Work began on the “goddess of democracy” statue on May 27, just days before the end of the six-week protest. The sculptors modelled it on the work of Russian revolutionary communist sculptor Vera Mukhina. . 3) DON’T SAY that as armoured vehicles tried to get to the square to clear it on June 4, one brave man stood in front of them, temporarily blocking a line of tanks. . The famous “tank man” video was filmed by AP’s Jeff Widener one day later, on June 5, and shows a line of vehicles leaving the square, not entering. These facts do not take anything away from the courage of his act—but it does remove it from the mythology of that night. . 4) DON’T SAY that soldiers arrived with machine guns and started firing indiscriminately, mowing down hundreds of students. . The majority of soldiers who arrived to clear the square were unarmed. The story of “machine gunners” slaughtering students comes from an anonymous article printed in Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po—an account disavowed by all witnesses. Separately, the student leader who claimed to have seen 200 students mown down was Wu’er Kaixi. He was disgraced after his fellow student protesters jointly confirmed that he had left the square early, many hours before the events he claimed to have personally witnessed. . 5) DON’T SAY that Tiananmen Square was the site of the massacre. . In 2011, Wikileaks revealed classified cables in which US diplomats recorded an interview with a Chilean eyewitness, and noted how it matched Chinese accounts, not Western journalistic ones, which tended to echo the Wen Wei Po and Wu’er Kaixi accounts. . The US diplomat said: “He watched the military enter the square and did not observe any mass firing of weapons into the crowds, although sporadic gunfire was heard. He said that most of the troops which entered the square were actually armed only with anti-riot gear – truncheons and wooden clubs; they were backed up by armed soldiers.” (Witnesses later said the gunshots heard were from soldiers shooting out the students’ speaker equipment.) . A protest leader, Liu Xiaobo, urged the students to depart the square. The witness, a Chilean diplomat, said: “Once agreement was reached for the students to withdraw, linking hands to form a column, the students left the square through the south east corner.” They were gone by 5.45 am. . 6) DON’T FORGET that the real tragedy took place elsewhere in Beijing. . Where did the slaughter take place? The most violent fighting was between workers groups (adults, not students) and soldiers in the West of the city. (About two weeks earlier, Ni Zhifu, chairman of China’s labour unions, had threatened to “cripple” China with a general workers’ strike.) . Most of the photographs and footage of dead bodies and crushed bicycles were taken from a massive and bloody fight that took place in an area called Mixudi, several kilometers away from Tiananmen Square. . In 2009, James Miles, who was the BBC correspondent in Beijing at the time, admitted that he had “conveyed the wrong impression” and that “there was no massacre on Tiananmen Square. Protesters who were still in the square when the army reached it were allowed to leave after negotiations with martial law troops… There was no Tiananmen Square massacre, but there was a Beijing massacre.” . 7) DON’T MAKE the soldiers into the sole villains. . Yes, soldiers slaughtered unarmed people. “And to find out why the soldiers did such an atrocious thing we do not have to look much beyond those widely publicized photos of military buses in rows being set on fire by those protesting crowds,” wrote Australian diplomat Gregory Clark. . “To date the world seems to have assumed that those buses were fired by the crowds AFTER the soldiers had started shooting. In fact it was the reverse —the crowds attacked the buses as they entered Beijing, incinerating dozens of soldiers inside, and only then did the shooting begin. Here too we do need not go far to find the evidence — in the not publicized photos of soldiers with horrible burns seeking shelter in nearby houses, and reports of charred corpses being strung from overpasses.” . 😎 DON’T SAY that the number of people who lost their lives in Beijing that night was “tens of thousands”. . The “tens of thousands” quote came from Tim Russert, NBC’s Washington bureau chief, in a television interview. No respected source on either side of the discussion agrees with this figure. It was 100s or maybe a couple of thousand at most—still too many people, but a far cry from tens of thousands. . 9) DON’T SAY that anyone who doesn’t uncritically accept the Western popular media version of the event is doing something evil. The truth is important—for the sake of the many dead on all sides. . “A few people may have been killed by random shooting on streets near the square, but all verified eyewitness accounts say that the students who remained in the square when troops arrived were allowed to leave peacefully,” said Jay Mathews, former Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, and a critic of Western journalistic coverage. . “Hundreds of people, most of them workers and passersby, did die that night, but in a different place and under different circumstances,” he said. . 10) DO REMEMBER all the victims. . UK Journalist Brendan O’Neill explained why we need to remember all three groups of victims: the students, the soldiers, and the main victims: the workers. . “Where Chinese officials have reduced the brave uprising in Beijing to a mere ‘incident’, western observers have mythologised it as a peaceful student protest in a central square that was cut down by gun-wielding soldiers. . “They have subtly, and unforgivably, written out of history the most numerous protesters of June 1989 and those who suffered the most: the workers in the suburbs of Beijing, miles from Tiananmen Square.” . REMEMBER JUNE 4 So let’s remember the tragedy of Beijing on June 4, 1989. But let’s resist the temptation to turn it into a simple, political China-bashing fairy tale in which good guys (the students) were mercilessly slaughtered by bad guys (the soldiers). Instead, let’s recognize it as what it really was: a societal convulsion in which many people sadly lost their lives: students, workers and soldiers. I will be remembering them on June 4. Feel free to take a moment of silence and join me, wherever you are. . SOURCES AND FURTHER READING: . BOOK: Black Hands of Beijing: Lives of Defiance in China’s Democracy Movement, by George Black and Robin Munro . The Tiananmen Papers, a set of leaked documents that allegedly cover internal Communist Party meetings and reports. . Wikileaks: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html
