An Historic Day - For the Chinese

(From RealClearWorld)

While the world had its eyes peeled to the US election, riveted by the yearlong drama finally coming to a close, November 4, 2008 will be remembered for something else in Chinese history.

For the first time since 1950, direct air, shipping and mail links will be established between Taiwan and mainland China. The agreement came swiftly, on just the second day of the direct talks between Chinese and Taiwanese representatives in Taipei. The deal will be in effect within 40 days - before the end of 2008.

It was a win-win of sorts. For China, the symbolic agreement at least provides the perception that Taiwan, separated from the mainland at the end of the Chinese Civil War, is coming to a closer embrace. For Taiwan, the benefits are more tangible, as the island's economy is now inextricably linked to that of the mainland, and these links will allow Taiwan to serve as the gateway to the burgeoning mainland market.

Not everybody in Taiwan is happy about closer ties to China. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party is making its living off stirring anti-China sentiments. But for the majority of the island's 23 million residents there is an understanding that whether they like it or not, China will be in their future - for better or for worse - so they may as well make the best of it.

Taiwan Needs a Serious Opposition Party

(From RealClearWorld)

If physically assaulting a visiting dignitary is proof of a vibrant democracy, then please, bring back Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek!

This can't be all that Taiwan has to show for being Asia's freest society.

With another Chinese delegation scheduled to visit next Monday, topic No. 1 on everyone's mind is whether they will receive proper protection. A protest is scheduled. A demonstration is planned. And perhaps another assault is being mulled. All the more reason the Taiwanese need a new opposition to replace the ideologically bankrupt Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The DPP had been a transformational force, the vanguard that helped usher in true democracy to Taiwan after years of authoritarian rule under Chiang and his Kuomintang Party (KMT). It won the island's first free and fair election in 2000, bringing about a peaceful transfer of power as Chen Shui-bian took office as president.

But in the intervening eight years, it all went south. Chen proved to be a corrupt political opportunist, doing everything he could to funnel funds to his and his family member's bank accounts. He rigged the election in 2004 to stay in power, and in the meantime, has done little other than stir the pot to raise the temperature in the Taiwan Strait.

The collateral damage to Chen's incorrigible behavior was his party. The DPP, under his stewardship, became a one-trick pony: Being anti-China at all cost. The party's only platform and raison d'etre was, and is, the promotion of fictional Taiwan "independence," and with it igniting ethnic tensions between the mainlanders and islanders.

But the Taiwan electorate, fickle but with growing maturity, resoundingly rejected the DPP in this year's elections. First, in the Legislative Yuan, the former majority party is now relegated to irrelevance as the KMT picked up an astounding three-fourth majority. Then, in the presidential election, KMT's Ma Ying-jeou won 60 percent of the votes to easily sweep into office.

Ma's campaign slogan was pretty much "It's still the economy, stupid!" With Taiwan's economy underperforming amidst a global boom, the Taiwanese wanted to get back in while the getting was still good. Unfortunately for Ma, his timing was awful.

And his political skills were equally inept. With a milquetoast personality, Ma seems ill-equipped to take command of his mandate and deal with opposition intransigence forcefully. He was right to open channels of communication with China, but so far he has not been able to effectively answer the criticism that he's "soft" on the communist dictatorship.

To be sure, Taiwan's frayed relationship with the mainland will require years of fence-mending; it can't be done overnight. Repairing that relationship will become more crucial to Taiwan's welfare in the face of sagging U.S. support. With the U.S. increasingly reliant on China to stabilize the current financial crisis, Taiwan will have little chance of receiving unflagging American backing should things get hot in the Strait.

Of course, the DPP, marginalized as it is, jumped on Ma's perceived weakness toward China as a tool for its own long march back to relevance. It orchestrated last week's unprovoked physical attack on Zhang Mingqing, vice chairman of mainland China’s semi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), while he was touring in Tainan. Afterward, the DPP - and the always-bombastic Chen - had the temerity to insinuate that Zhang "asked for it."

Instead of unleashing a torrent of condemnation, Ma's reaction was muted, further enhancing his image as someone incapable of standing up to anyone. While China remains undaunted and pledges to stick with Monday's visit as scheduled, the situation is so out of control it remains to be seen if anything can get done at this time.

For Taiwan's democracy to survive, and thrive, it is necessary for it to have a meaningful opposition party that's dedicated to protecting the best interests of its citizens. The DPP isn't it. The party's sole agenda, if carried out, ensures the island's physical annihilation - hardly something worth voting for.

The DPP needs to reform itself, moderating the anti-China, de-Sinicization nonsense into something more in tune with reality. Taiwan may - and should - continue to fight for international space and deal with China. And there are other issues dear and near to Taiwanese people: The economy, first and foremost.

If the DPP is incapable of generating new ideas and reforming itself, it should get out of the way in favor of a more meaningful and moderate opposition party. The fear is not a potential KMT hegemony - it can easily lose the next round of elections - but what a return to power by the DPP may bring for Taiwan.

If last week's event is any indication, don't expect China to turn the other cheek the next time around.

China and the Financial Crisis

(From RealClearWorld)

I was the guest Thursday on The Ed Morrissey Show on Hot Air. You can listen to the entire 30-minute banter here. This is part of our continuing effort to get RealClearWorld into different media. There may be more appearances in the future.

Learning the Right Lessons from 1936

(From RealClearWorld)

Jesse Owens was the star of the Berlin Games in 1936. True.

Adolf Hitler used the Olympics as a propaganda opportunity to sell Nazi Germany. Also true.

Owens’ runaway success debunked Hitler’s Aryan superiority theme, rendered the Berlin Olympics a colossal failure and brought personal humiliation to the Fuhrer himself.

False, false, false. A thousand times false.

History has a funny way of repeating itself. What’s not funny is this kind of revisionist history -- wrong and sending the wrong message.

It’s become de rigueur to draw comparisons between the Games in Berlin and this year’s Beijing Olympics. It’s easy to see the parallels: Totalitarian regimes. Human rights abuses. State-sponsored planning and “cleansing.” And a bubbling nationalism that’s difficult to miss.

But in order for those comparisons to make sense it’s paramount to understand what actually had happened in 1936 and what long-term consequences came of the Berlin Olympics. Thinking that they were a setback for the Nazis would be the wrong place to start.

The 1936 Games were a spectacular success for the Nazis, one that made Hitler’s future genocidal pogroms and aggressive wars possible. Germany was the undisputed winner on the competition fields and in the arena of public opinion.

To assuage the fears of foreign visitors, “Jews not welcome” signs were quietly removed from all over Berlin. The omnipresent Gestapo were made conspicuous by their absence. Even Julius Streicher’s notoriously anti-Semitic Der Sturmer disappeared from the newsstands. Athletes, media and tourists were treated to lavish receptions.

For those visiting Nazi Germany for the first time, they saw a first-rate world power with magnificent infrastructure, clean streets, friendly people and a benevolent government.

For Owens, in particular, it was an unforgettable experience – and a positive one. He was adored by the German public, with crowds chanting his name when he entered the stadium and mobbing him on the street for autographs. And unlike in his segregated homeland, he was free to use whichever public facilities he pleased.

Much has been made of the “Hitler Snub,” a reference to the German leader’s refusal to shake his hand after victories. That was utter nonsense, too. Warned by the IOC to be impartial to competitors, Hitler greeted no one after the first day of the Games. (Who knew Avery Brundage had that much pull?) Owens himself said that Hitler did in fact stand up and acknowledge him during competition. It was Franklin Roosevelt who declined to take his hand upon his triumphant return to America.

The Nazi Games owed part of their success to Olympia, superbly cinematographed by Leni Riefenstahl. The Olympic torch relay, now considered an ancient ritual, was in fact a Riefenstahl invention for the film. For the Berlin Games, the torch run was the first of many glorious moments.

The torch relay for the Beijing Games, in contrast, was marred by international protests of the Chinese regime’s behavior in Darfur, Tibet and in China itself. On that point alone, it’s clear that the Beijing Games will bear little resemblance to its 1936 predecessor.

The Nazis were simply and vastly better at sinister manipulation.

The Beijing Games, three days old, would already have to be considered a mild PR disaster. Showing few abilities to grasp the subtleties the Chinese are purportedly famous for, the communist regime has failed several important tests.

The torch relay was the first opportunity. It would have been better to allow the protesters to run amok instead of strong-arming them with track-suited secret police – on foreign soil. Then came the reneging on a pledge to allow the visiting media unfettered internet access, for which the Chinese government earned universal scorn before somewhat relenting.

With tantrums resembling a neighborhood gangster instead of a global power, the regime caught few breaks from the international press descending on Beijing. Everything it does is viewed with cynicism. Every decision it makes is scrutinized, mostly unfavorably.

For all that, we should all breath a sigh of relief. The Chinese authorities just aren’t as shrewd and devious as Hitler. The Nazis were willing to do anything and everything – even demurring to the toothless IOC – to advance their ultimate agenda. The communist authorities simply can’t help but be their bullying selves.

So for history lessons, there's limited value in comparing these Games 72 years apart - except hopefully this: Olympics do not lead to happy endings for totalitarian regimes.

Nine years after the Berlin Games, Hitler’s Germany lay in rubble and swastikas were wiped off the face of Europe. Nine years after the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Empire soon dissolved. Nine years after the 1984 Games in Sarajevo, Tito’s Yugoslavia was no more.

Can’t wait to see what will happen in 2017.

Surprise! The IOC Capitulates to China

(From Sinotaneous)

Yesterday, "negotiations" went on between the IOC and Chinese authorities regarding unrestricted internet access for the media covering the Olympics. Today, we know how it all went down.

Just call it an unconditional surrender.

The bullying Chinese government has won the day and once again proved that rules are for suckers and promises are meant for babes. Despite all its previous assurances guaranteeing press freedom, China had no intention of keeping its word at all.

According to the International Herald Tribune:

Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC's Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.

The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that China places on the Internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, that China had agreed to provide free Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Rogge has long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that the event would make China more open.

"For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet," Rogge told Agence France-Presse just two weeks ago.

Rogge and the IOC simply capitulated. Unable to persuade the Chinese Communist regime to stick to its pledge, the IOC just shuffled off and threw up its hands. Unwilling to take a stand at the risk of damaging his brand, Rogge preferred to eat his own word.

With one week to go before the Games, the totalitarian regime has gradually revealed its ferocious fangs. It has proven that it intends to carry out its will with impunity. And so far, no one has dared to challenge it. The IOC could've threatened to pull the Olympics out of Beijing altogether. But taking a page out of Marshal Petain's book: Why fight when it's so much easier just to surrender?

There is but one person with enough clout to at least make Beijing squirm: George W. Bush. Previously I had counseled in favor of Bush attending the Opening Ceremony to provide China some cover for relaxing its death grip on all matters relating to freedom. But in the face of renewed and heightened Chinese intransigence, it's clearly time for Bush to reconsider.

Somebody should resort to the stick after all the carrots are devoured, right?

Olympic Press Freedom Still Being Fought

(From Sinotaneous)

Is Leni Riefenstahl somewhere in the building?

Only fools -- i.e. the International Olympic Committee -- bought into China's promises guaranteeing press freedom during the Beijing Games. There was no reason to ever believe that the Chinese government intended to keep its word once it has the hosting rights secured.

Even as of today, about one week before the Games were to commence, internet access to some of the most basic sites such as Wikipedia is still restricted. While the "Great Firewall" might be removed temporarily around the press center and hotels housing the western media, do not expect such measures to be expanded or long-lasting.

As for the event itself, you will not see any highlights that involve anything political, according to the Sydney Morning Herald:

The other problem foreign media will have is that Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co Ltd (BOB) is responsible on behalf of the Beijing organising committee for releasing footage of all aspects of the Games, except protests.

Depending on their budgets, Olympic rights holders can put their own cameras into venues but most of the world’s media will rely on the footage BOB provides. Asked this year whether BOB would film and immediately release footage of disputes or protests, a senior executive told the Herald that “Beijing Olympic Broadcasting will do its best to avoid it”. “Why would we [film and release protests]?” the executive said. “We are not a news organisation. We’re there to film the event.”

While it's unclear whether China plans on making a sequel to "Olympia," this much we know: At least the foreign press will have some access and freedom. If you're a Chinese citizen watching this glorious event on your TV at home, you're not going to see anything the state doesn't want you to.

From the Chinese-language, Hong Kong-based Ming Pao:

Chinese authorities have ordered a 10-second broadcast delay to avoid “undesirable” incidents - such as protests or anti-Chinese slogans - being seen by the domestic masses.

The Chinese have learned well. They've now taken NBC's "plausibly live" to a whole new level.

Clean Air Requires More Than Olympic Effort

(From Sinotaneous)

Chinese authorities have busied themselves the last couple of weeks in a last-ditch effort to clean up Beijing's foul air. Factories are shut down temporarily. Cars are taken off the roads. Even smoking is now banned in many places.



The result is somewhat improved air quality. But to be fair, Beijing, usually under the overhang of a gray sky, is geographically challenged. Ringed by mountains on three sides and surrounded by industrial plants in nearby cities and provinces, polluted air tends to drift toward Beijing and make itself home.

All that central planning might buy Beijing enough tolerable breathing space to get through the Olympics. But if the Chinese government is actually serious about improving Beijing's nasty air -- instead of just putting on a show -- a more sustained effort is required.

It can be done, though.

Taipei, the city where I was born and raised in and lived until my teenage years, has some of the same geographical handicaps that trouble Beijing. A land-locked basin with hills on all sides, Taipei was an air-pollution death trap. Indeed, my childhood memories were filled with gray skies and lung-busting bad air.

But things have changed quite dramatically over the past decade or so. Much to my amazement, Taipei is now one of the greenest cities in Asia. On a recent trip to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, about the only place that didn't cause me to suffer an episodic coughing spell was Taipei.

And just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, it's comforting to know other people were thinking of the same thing.

Beijing can learn much from Taipei's transformation. And in some ways, it's taking the same steps. The mass-transit projects, many of them completed recently, will help. Newly imposed environmental requirements for factories should have an impact, too.

But more important, this has to be more than just a quick-fix. Maybe Beijing's citizens will like what they're breathing now and do their part to mitigate air pollution. The government, meanwhile, has to decide whether it was making an investment in the future or merely paying hush money to get through the day.

I guess we'll find out in the next decade or so.

Chinese Ambition? There's More to It

(From Sinotaneous)

China and Russia settled a territorial dispute Monday when Russia agreed to return Yinlong Island (known as Tarabarov Island in Russian) and half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoi Ussuriysky) to China. The 67 square miles of territory are on the northeast border with China.



No doubt some would read this as China flexing its growing international muscle. After all, who'd thought Putin and Medvedev's Russia would voluntarily cede its territories, no matter how small.

Besides, the sprouting Chinese presence in the Russian Far East, particularly in Vladivostock, has been viewed with ill ease by ordinary Russians. They're not comforted by the fact that many Chinese continue to refer to the port city by its Mandarin name Haishenwai (海参崴), even though the erstwhile Manchu fishing village has not been under Chinese sovereignty since 1860.

For over a century, Chinese school children were taught that Vladivostock, and a good chunk of the Russian Far East, were given to Czarist Russia in the unequal treaties of Aigun (1858) and Peking (1860). Near the nadir of its existence, a weak Qing Dynasty, fearful of the superior guns and boats of the west, surrendered acres of its ancestral lands without a shot being fired.

As China grew in strength over the last quarter century, the Chinese sought to right some historical wrongs. Flush with cash, China also had the option of settling border disputes without the use of force. The framework of the agreement was first negotiated in 1991 and continued through 2004. On the surface, the Chinese seemed to be getting the better of the Russians.

While the Chinese were busy earning the all-important "face" for the benefit of an increasingly nationalistic populace, Russia got what it wanted, too. For the price of a few small islands on and around the Amur River, Russia got China -- at least the PRC -- to renounce all future claims in the Russian Far East.

But the real worrisome fact from this China-Russia peace fest was just that. Once bitter rivals who fought several border skirmishes along a frozen river, China and Russia, each with its own anti-West ambitions, are closer than ever. Joined by a common desire to check American hegemony, the former communist rivals are putting their differences aside.

Any wonder why these guys are getting along famously at U.N. Security Council meetings?

A Test of Heavenly Proportions

(From Sinotaenous)

In the most vulnerable hour, China has looked its most sympathetic.

If the Chinese communist government failed miserably in its first test of the year, during the Tibet uprising and subsequent worldwide torch relay, then it's getting at least a passing grade in its handling of the Sichuan earthquake tragedy. In some quarters, it's getting rave reviews.

The adroit and deft management of such a humanitarian disaster has earned the Chinese government some breathing room. But it should not be surprising. If anything, Hu Jintao has shown during his tenure that he's a quick study and much more in tune with the fast-changing nature of global public relations.

For starters, the quake came on the heels of Burma's devastating cyclone, during which its military junta deservedly earned universal scorn. So whatever Beijing did was probably going to be viewed more favorably. But Hu was even smarter than that.

Understanding that the flow of information would be difficult to stop in such a chaotic environment, he instead allowed it to transmit relatively freely. The world got a rare unfiltered glimpse of sorrow and grief of a nation and its people and understandably lavished them with ample amounts of sympathy. And China's surprising decision to swiftly allow foreign aid groups to reach the disaster area gave credence to the notion that its government took responsibility for the welfare of its citizens.

Rescue teams from Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan gained nearly immediate access to the disaster zone. Untold number of lives were perhaps saved because of this action. Contrast that with how Russia handled the sinking of the submarine Kursk in 2000, when Vladimir Putin let his sailors die on the sea floor instead of swallowing national pride to allow foreign help. In this case, China lost face hardly at all. Instead, it's widely viewed as a shining example of a growing global village that thrives on mutual assistance.

The cynical among us might question the true motives of the Chinese government, but no one can question that the event was unplanned and the swift response was un-rehearsed. The Chinese view momentous events, like a massive earthquake, as heavenly intervention. In this context, the communist government shook to its core, but came out with the right answers.

Hu and his inner circle know that the groundswell of sympathy and support will not last forever, so they best take advantage of this goodwill and use it as a foundation to build more trust. There are indications that they will. Hu's conciliatory gesture toward Taiwan, including the unearthing of the rarely invoked "1992 Consensus" was well received. His willingness to at least engage Dalai Lama's representatives -- whether it's somewhat coerced or not -- has helped to cool the Free Tibet fever.

So just where is China headed from here? That's becoming more interesting and complex by the day. If anything, the earthquake may have ended the days when China sealed all outside contact at the first sign of internal distress. And with that as the new reality, China might be on the verge of yet another transformation.

For the better, we hope. Perhaps it's a mandate from Heaven?

New Day at the Zoo

Dear Reader:

We're excited to bring you some news at The Berlinzoo. Rest assured that you'll still find all the quality postings here uninterrupted. But if you're interested in any particular topic, you now may go to places that devote exclusively to what you're looking for.

The BCS Guru is getting a facelift. The end result is that the site will have a dual existence as a resource center and a blog. All postings and comments will now be archived at the Guru's blog site. And a new RSS feed from the Guru is now available.

As the Beijing Olympics are approaching, I will be providing more insights and analyses to everything about China and the Olympics. Since China obviously is not going away even after the Games, it's fitting that we'll now have a blog devoted exclusively to China. It will also double as a resource center for everything pertaining to China -- history, culture, current events and of course, politics. Go to Sinotaneous.com and have a look. An exclusive RSS feed for Sinotaneous will be available soon as well.

I want to thank you for your continued support. And if you are one of those people who just can't get enough of me, then please come back to The Berlinzoo, as everything I write will appear here. It's like a zoo that has more species than any other in the world.

Now which zoo would that be? Hmmm ...

Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Life (Part II)

(From Sinotaneous)

(Continued from Part I)

By 1986, Mr. Chi had indications that there might soon be a way for him to at least get in contact with the remnants of his family, if not reuniting with them. Through intermediaries, he was able to receive and send letters to his two now adult daughters. It was from the correspondence that he found out his wife had died in the 1960s, during the tumultuous times of the Cultural Revolution.

A few years went by, after a slowdown precipitated by the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, the opportunity to visit China finally presented itself. Not having seen his family for more than 40 years now, Mr. Chi was determined to go at the first chance he got.

With Taiwan also relaxing its restrictions on contact with China, Mr. Chi finally made the trek back to his birthplace and ancestral home in 1993, nearly 50 years since he last set foot there. It was an emotional reunion. His two daughters, now in their 40s, both have been married and have children of their own. The living conditions in Yifeng was far from ideal, and Mr. Chi took steps to make sure they improve.

With a somewhat generous pension from the KMT and years of frugal living in Taiwan, Mr. Chi freely dispensed with his cash on his children and grandchildren. He helped to fund the building of two three-story concrete and stucco buildings as single-family homes for his two kids. And with his brother also taking part, they built a kindergarten — big enough to accommodate 100 local children — in yet another adjacent building.

He and my grandfather made a triumphant return to Yifeng in 1997 to see the fruits of their labor. Now both in their 80s, the journey from Taiwan was quite an ordeal. First, a 90-minute flight to Hong Kong. Then a long overnight train ride from Hong Kong, through Guangzhou, to Nanchang. From there, it was a four-hour car trip on mostly unpaved roads.

But Mr. Chi wasn’t going back. He had decided to come back to Yifeng and stay. He bid my grandfather goodbye, with both knowing that it would be the last time they’d see each other. My grandfather had made Taiwan his home, and to this day, he would not want to have anything to do with Communist China.

Since coming home to Yifeng, Mr. Chi learned many painful details of his family’s plight. His older brother, deciding to stay in China and hoping to ride things out, was summarily executed by the communists when they entered town. His ancestral home, a modest brick and masonry building with a small courtyard, was nearly demolished for being a reactionary element before being divvyed up and distributed to various communist party apparatchiks and other locals.

His extended family scattered about China for a time before finally returning home. A couple of his nephews spent years in re-education camps for sins of being a “landed elite.” Kids a generation down could not enroll in schools or get decent jobs because they were deemed class enemies and incapable of being “reformed.” Life was hard.

Things got better in the 1980s. Communist orthodoxy lived on in name only. To get rich was glorious, even for those previously blacklisted. Money opened doors, even if it came from the KMT, the communists’ sworn enemies for much of the 20th century.

Mr. Chi lived out another decade in the Yifeng house he built. He endured yet another tragedy when in 2007, one of his daughters died of breast cancer. He had to bury his hard-luck child in the hills not far from Yifeng — in a place he had reserved for himself.

I last visited him in 2006. He was nearly blind and very hard of hearing, but he was glad to see me. He was too frail to accompany me to the kindergarten down the street, yet I sensed that it was truly his pride and joy. I shared with him some photos of my own family, and a letter from my grandfather that I had promised to deliver discreetly.

Two year later, Mr. Chi finished a journey that was full of turbulence and turmoil. He lived in a time that saw China taking a dramatic leap from a insulated feudal society to a giant economic engine. He saw democracy sprout and flourish in Taiwan and withering, yet not dying, in mainland China. He bore witness to the transformation of the Sick Man of Asia, to emerging global superpower.

Yet, at the end of the day, the most important development in his life was being reunited with his family after half a century of separation. Despite all the heartbreaks and heartaches, that’s what made it worth living. It made him whole again.

I will miss you, er gon gon. R.I.P.

Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Life

(From Sinotaneous)

Chi Xia-Sheng （漆俠生）passed away on April 22, 2008, in his native Yifeng, Jiangxi, China. He was 96. I can think of few lives that symbolized the heroic struggles and monumental changes that took place in China over the century than Mr. Chi's.

His story is one that I know intimately well. He was my great uncle.

Born in Yifeng in 1912, Mr. Chi's birth coincided with the founding of the Chinese republic. But the most turbulent time in modern Chinese history was just beginning. His native province Jiangxi was a fertile ground first for warlords and then the nascent communist insurgency. It was in the poor villages of Jiangxi where Mao first set up shop, looting and shooting, all in the name of revolution. One of the unfortunate souls, whose lifeless body was dragged around the streets of Yifeng in 1927, was Mr. Chi's mother -- my great grandmother.

As did the rest of his family, Mr. Chi became an ardent anti-communist and joined the Kuomintang. Chiang Kai-shek, fresh off a successful Northern Expedition that nominally united China, was beginning his chase for Mao. It was during this time that Mr. Chi and my grandfather, his younger brother, joined the KMT. They spent a few years flushing the Reds out of Jiangxi, as Mao embarked on his Long March.

With the Communists out of Jiangxi, Mr. Chi took on new duties to reform the countryside. But the time of tranquility proved short lived. The Japanese invaded China in 1937, and within two years, Nanchang, the provincial capital of Jiangxi, fell. Mr. Chi, as with the rest of the KMT forces, fell back, first to Changsha, then Chungking, China's wartime capital after the fall of Nanking.

During the protracted retreat, Mr. Chi was unable to maintain constant contact with his family, who was left in the Japanese-occupied Jiangxi. He finally returned home in 1945 following Japan's surrender, but again peace proved fleeting. The guns roared once more as the Chinese Civil War broke out. And within four years, it was to swallow China whole.

By the fall of 1948, a storm was sweeping China from north to south. The Communists, nearly vanquished by Chiang before the Japanese invasion, now had emerged as an irresistible force. Mr. Chi's various postings took him to Shanghai, Nanking and Wuhan. But by the beginning of 1949, it was nearly certain that Mao's troops would emerge victorious.

The fall of KMT in mainland China was stunningly swift. By April 1949, the Communists crossed the Yangtze River, the last natural barrier in their quest of a complete victory. The remnants of KMT fell back, first to Chungking, then Guilin and finally, by the end of 1949, to Kunming, in the southwestern corner of China.

This was when another tragedy, and a dilemma, awaited Mr. Chi. My grandfather, by then had risen through the ranks to become the adjutant of Chiang Ching-Kuo -- son of Chiang Kai-shek -- was able to bring along his family during every step of KMT's retreat. And a large family it was -- his pregnant wife (my grandmother) and four children, with my father the eldest. Mr. Chi, in contrast, had to leave his own wife and two young daughters behind.

By this hour, there was neither time nor opportunity for Mr. Chi to retrieve his family. He had two choices: Help my grandfather to shepherd along his family to the next safe haven; or return to his family in Jiangxi but face certain torture and death as an officer in the KMT army, and one with intimate connection to the Chiangs. After a few agonizing days, he made up his mind.

It was a decision that would haunt him for the next half century. With the governor of Yunnan Province about to switch allegiance to the Communists, Mr. Chi and my grandfather's clan boarded one of the last few flights leaving Kunming on a chilling December morning. By nightfall, the Reds' takeover of mainland China would be complete.

Along with my grandfather's family, Mr. Chi would settle in Taiwan, facing an uncertain future. While a Communist seaborne and airborne invasion never materialized -- thanks to the outbreak of the Korean War, for the most part -- there was a sense that, for the 2 million KMT refugees who followed Chiang to Taiwan, they would never see China again.

It was against this backdrop that Mr. Chi went about his business. I was born in 1969, and got to know him as a toddler. Whereas my own grandfather was stern and demanding, my great uncle was just that, great. He was optimistic and gregarious. He loved to travel but was hemmed in by the political isolation of Taiwan. Going to China, of course, was out of question.

He never let on how much he regretted leaving his family behind. But he struggled daily with this decision. With no contact whatsoever between China and Taiwan for 30 years, he had no way of knowing whether his family members were even alive, let along well.

A breakthrough, finally, came in the 1980s, as China reopened its doors to the outside world, as well as Taiwan.

(Continued in Part II)

Free Tibet? Enough Already!

(From Sinotaneous)

Whenever I see a "Free Tibet" bumper sticker on the back of a car, I just want to gag. Actually, I want to pull the driver out of her car and demand that she find Tibet on a world map. Five bucks say she can't. Five more bucks say she can't name one Tibetan city besides Lhasa.

So what is this all about? Free Tibet is a favorite left-liberal cause. Hollywood types love to triangulate between Cuba, Tibet and Palestine. Pretty senseless, really. One is one of the planet's last totalitarian communist regimes, one is under the armed occupation of another communist regime, and one freely elects a terrorist organization to govern.

But without a doubt, Tibet is a cause celebre of the activist types. For the life of me, I can't quite figure this one out. If you're truly interested in liberating people from an oppressive regime, why not look at the billion Han Chinese first?

Unbeknownst to most of the Free Tibet rabble rousers, Communist China has traditionally treated Tibet with kid gloves (comparatively speaking, of course). Since the invasion of Tibet in 1950, there may have been hundreds killed and hundreds jailed in over a half century on the Roof of the World. Communists frequently murder and incarcerate that many in China proper, in a single day.

The Beijing Olympics, with the world-wide torch relay, have become a convenient target for the Free Tibet movement, even before the riot/protest in mid-March. After the crackdown, Tibet will be a hot topic throughout the Olympics, foreshadowed by a potential boycott of the Games.

A boycott of any sort will serve only to enrage the Chinese -- more than just the communist rulers, but the ordinary Chinese within and outside of China. A groundswell of anger over Tibet will not only fail to improve the situation in Tibet, but embolden the Chinese government to treat the dissident Tibetans harshly. Indeed, it's been rightly speculated that the Beijing regime is under far greater domestic pressure in its dealings with Tibet.

That's why it would be foolish for President Bush to snub the Chinese at the Olympics. The Beijing regime needs an excuse to lighten up on Tibet and Bush's presence will provide that cover. Of course, while he's there, he'd need to do more -- for example, standing up for the dissidents, jailed journalists and a cornucopia of political prisoners.

But this is where the carrot should carry the day, not the stick. No matter how boisterous and in-your-face the Free Tibet crowd gets around the world, their protests will be pointless except to potentially strengthen the Chinese government. By boycotting the Olympics over Tibet (or even more senselessly, Darfur), the Free Tibet circus may only unwittingly entrench the position of the communists among the Chinese citizens.

The point, which obviously escapes the frenzied leftist Tibet-mongers, is that in order to truly help the Tibetans, they need to help the Chinese do away with their government first. Without a Free China, there will never be a Free Tibet.

Olympic Boycott? Only a Matter of Size

(From Sinotaneous)

You can almost hear the muttering and moaning inside the Zhongnanhai compound. The Chinese Communist leadership knows its dream Olympic showcase is slowly turning into an unfathomable nightmare.

The fuse was lit by a small and somewhat organized riot/protest in Lhasa in mid-March. After some killing and shooting, it's become a worldwide spectacle. First, London. Then, Paris. Tomorrow, San Francisco. Unless China and the IOC decide that they've had enough and send the torch straight to Hong Kong and never wander outside of the Bamboo Curtain again.

But this had to happen. Even if it's for all the wrong reasons. Yes, China's oppression in Tibet is deplorable. Yes, China's continued enabling of the Sudanese regime is regrettable. But at the end of the day, China's most egregious violations of human rights occur everyday in China proper. If anything, the protests really should be about the billion-plus Chinese who are not free.

China has chucked all of its promises -- the promises that won it the Games in 2001 -- into the vast cesspool of the Three Gorges Dam. Press freedom? What are you talking about? One more word out of you it'd be jail time, or deportation if you're fortunate enough to have a non-PRC passport. Respect for human rights? Sure, but if you don't toe the company line then we'll try -- and certainly convict -- you for treason and subversion.

For all their meticulous scheming, the Chinese Communists never made much contingency for this kind of spontaneous, globe-trotting combustion, timed precisely to ruin their best-laid plans. All the activists out there, whether their cause is Tibet or Darfur, have been licking their chops at this opportunity to make China squirm. All the better for them, they're getting maximum press coverage while exercising their freedom of speech in the friendly confines of western cities.

Short of shutting down the torch relay now, there is no way that the Chinese government can contain a worldwide opposition to its hosting of the Olympics at this point in time. There will be more trouble ahead in New Delhi and Canberra, and maybe other points in between.

And disruption of the torch relay now serves merely as a prelude. French president Nicolas Sarkozy has suggested snubbing the Opening Ceremonies. Attendance by President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also has become a hot topic of discussion. With it, a number of western nations will have to seriously consider boycotting the Games all together.

The Chinese Communist leaders are in full damage-control mode. Is it possible for them to stifle all dissent within China, including Tibet, until August and allow all this furor to die down? It's possible. But in this internet age, even a totalitarian regime cannot be certain of controlling all information to its liking. Should there be more bloodshed or more show trials, the rest of the world will find out about them soon enough. And when it does, China will pay the price.

The train has left the station. The 2008 Beijing Olympics promise to be the most politically charged Games since the semi-aborted affair in 1980. The question is: Will they be befallen by the same fate that doomed the Moscow Games?

Yes. A boycott is all but a certainty, only the size of the boycott is in question.

An Olympic Opportunity

(From Sinotaneous)

Even last week, I thought about urging President Bush not to attend the Beijing Olympics. My logic was simple: Did FDR show up in Berlin as Der Fuhrer's guest of honor? Was Jimmy Carter ever going to grace Moscow with his presence even if he hadn't ordered its boycott? Why would Bush want to have anything to do with a regime that has so much blood of innocents on its hands?

But after viewing the events in Tibet the last couple of weeks, I changed my mind. At the crossroads of history, the best thing for America to do, vis-a-vis China, is to engage her, instead of further enraging her.

I'm hardly the appeasement type. Usually, I advocate fighting to the death. But here is a strategic opportunity for real reform to take place in China. This kind of opportunity doesn't come often, and it must not be missed.

To be sure, the Beijing regime is treating the Summer Games as China's coming out party. Totalitarian outfits love using the Olympics as a showcase. Berlin 1936, with Leni Riefenstahl working the cameras, will never be topped as the finest hour for the art of propaganda. Though Moscow 1980 and Sarajevo 1984 tried in vain.

The leadership in Zhongnanhai has dusted off Hitler and Goebbels' playbook and choreographed accordingly. Beijing was to be transformed from the massively polluted and congested grime into the beacon for Chinese-style socialism. And the rest of China, as far as anywhere the visitors can see, was to be made into a 21st century workers' paradise, with a capitalist twist.

There's just one problem on borrowing the Nazi script -- this ain't 1936. News get out, fast, and therefore you just can't control everything, especially information.

Try as it might, the Beijing government is hardly omnipotent even within its own borders, thanks to rapid global communication. The skirmishes in Lhasa, no matter whose side you believe, proves this point. And trust me, that's only the beginning. Between now and the opening ceremonies in August, there will be more bloodshed.

The communists are in a pickle here. Every group with a grievance will use this opportunity to be seen or heard. And there are plenty of them in China. If the regime employs a high-handed crackdown, it risks a possible international boycott and a massive loss of face. If it goes for a half-hearted slapdown, as it apparently did in Tibet, then it will only encourage more dissonance.

For this reason, it actually makes sense to fully engage China. President Bush no doubt will be keeping constant communication with China's Hu Jintao during the period leading up to the event. There's plenty to talk about: Human rights, Tibet, North Korea and of course, Taiwan. Luckily for Hu, thanks to Taiwan's voters, his most thorny problem is at the moment the least of his concerns.

Bush needs to constantly remind Hu the commitments that China has made in order to win the bid for the Olympics. Sure, those commies are not really into keeping their word, but under a harsh international spotlight, they'd at least make a show of it. Liberty must always be topic No. 1, even if it annoys the hell out of Hu.

As good faith, Bush should fulfill his pledged appearance at the Games -- even if Sarkozy and other European leaders bail at the last minute. The presence of a sitting American president will be an enormous boost to the Chinese leadership. But instead of allowing Hu and Co. to use this as a propaganda tool, Bush instead should be there as part enforcer, part shrink, counseling temperance over reprisal when and if more stuff hits the fan during the Games.

Will his mere presence help usher in an era of political reform in China? That's doubtful. But by being there, Bush will do more good than harm. China's government has invested so much in staging the Olympics, it's not willing to let it fall to pieces by being trigger happy, especially with the leader of the world's only uber-power on site as a distinguished guest.

That's why this is one heck of an opportunity. By being in Beijing, Bush isn't sticking up for the communist leadership, he will be serving the cause of liberty -- for the billions of Chinese, for whom it's long overdue.

A New Day in Taiwan

(From Sinotaneous)

Ma Ying-Jeou's resounding victory in Saturday's presidential election will usher in a new age in East Asia. Stability, the spirit of cooperation and perhaps, a sustainable peace, may finally find their place in the long troubled waters of the Taiwan Strait.

For that, we should thank Taiwan's incredibly astute voters. Despite much speculation and media hand-wringing, the Taiwanese electorate never lost sight of what's fundamentally important to them -- economic recovery and political opportunity.

Taiwan has lost much during Chen Shui-Bian's reign of terror over the past eight years. While the steaming Chinese market train chugged along, Taiwan missed out on the great opportunity despite all its advantages. And politically Taiwan continued to be marginalized because of Chen's insistence on provocative yet unproductive rhetoric that incensed China and heaped untold annoyance on the United States -- Taiwan's security patron.

Chen's failures as president has disastrous consequences for his party and its future. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was the majority party in parliament when Chen won the presidency in 2000. It was dominant in the south and competitive in the east and north. He won a disputed re-election in 2004, but mistook his narrow victory as a mandate, as he invested all his time plundering the government while sowing seeds of division between the islanders and mainlanders.

Taiwan's electorate, who had its first taste of democracy only in the mid 1990s, at first was easily manipulated by Chen's politicking. But remarkably, over the past four years, that electorate has grown considerably wiser. It delivered a devastating rebuke to the DPP in January's parliamentary election, reducing it to a fringe minority party with fewer than one quarter of the seats. And last Saturday, DPP's free fall from ruling party to political wilderness was complete.

Ma's Kuomintang (KMT) was clearly the beneficiary of voters' resentment of DPP's -- and Chen's -- abject failures. But Ma and his party had better not squander this goodwill. Taiwan's voters have given Ma and the KMT the next four years a carte blanche to get things done, and they'd better hit the ground running.

First and foremost, Taiwan needs to reach a long-term and meaningful detente with China. Essentially, without Chen's idiotic saber-rattling, China will have no rational reason for military action against Taiwan. A political accommodation will improve Taiwan's diplomatic standing in the world and a NAFTA-like pan-China trade agreement will be mutually beneficial.

Secondly, Ma's election gives him an opportunity to rid of the divisive identity politics that Chen so treasured. A mainlander himself born in Hong Kong, Ma was nevertheless trusted by the voters who are overwhelmingly islanders. He won points with a clean campaign that's focused on issues and also gentlemanly manners in great contrast to Chen's (and his DPP successor Frank Hsieh's) unrefined junkyard dog behavior.

Finally, and most importantly, a free, stable and peaceful Taiwan will have the greatest influence on China's continued liberalization. As traffic between the island and mainland increases, Taiwan will become a shining example for many Chinese what future may hold for them. Most mainland Chinese are fascinated with Taiwan -- for its democracy, prosperity and vibrancy. Taiwan has transformed itself from authoritarian rule to a full-fledged democracy in a quarter century -- it can easily become the model for a country and people who know political reform is long overdue for an oppressive and corrupt regime.

Taiwan's voters have chosen wisely. Now it's up to their chosen politicians to carry out their agenda. For Ma, much is given and much is expected.

A Maturing Democracy

(From Sinotaneous)

In 1988, Taiwan was under martial law, one-party rule and a sham of a legislature packed with holdovers from Chiang Kai-shek's regime in mainland China.

Twenty years later, Taiwan has one of the most vibrant democracies in the world. And Saturday's election further advanced that -- Taiwan now has a democracy that's mature enough to rival any in the western world.

The people of Taiwan deserve all the credit for this dizzying progress. In Saturday's watershed legislative election, they sent a resoundingly clear message: They want their democratic, capitalistic system to work for their benefit.

That means not to provoke a fight Taiwan can't possibly win. That means long-term prosperity and peace. And that also means forever repudiating the empty rhetoric of Chen Shui-bian, who has delivered nothing but trouble in his eight years as president.

And that means, ironically, investing almost all the political power back into the Kuomintang (KMT), the party that used to rule Taiwan with an iron fist.

No political party in the history of the world has undergone a metamorphosis quite like the KMT. Founded by Sun Yat-sen and consolidated by Chiang Kai-shek, KMT was a driving force during the birth of the Chinese republic when it overthrew four thousand years of dynastic rule in China.

Yet, overtime, Chiang's party became a neo-fascist dictatorship -- first in war-torn China, and after losing the Civil War to the Chinese communists, in Taiwan for 40 years. During its rule in Taiwan, opposition was suppressed; dissidents were jailed; and only KMT members could occupy high office and key positions that controlled the lever of power.

But it was also the KMT that voluntarily scrapped one-party rule and held free elections, the first of which took place in 1992. In 2000, a party split enabled Chen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to win the presidency, ending the KMT's hold on power in Taiwan after 51 years.

In the intervening eight years, KMT kept reinventing itself, and found in Ma Ying-jeou a charismatic representative. The NYU and Harvard-educated former mayor of Taipei is the prohibitive favorite to win back the presidency in the March election. Currently, he's ahead of DPP candidate Frank Hsieh by over 20 points in survey polls.

Should Ma be elected, he will have a legislature with 81 of its 113 members from his own party. KMT took all but two seats from the entire northern, central and eastern parts of Taiwan. But more astonishingly, KMT made inroads in traditionally DPP strongholds Tainan and Kaohsiung. In Kaohsiung City, KMT took three of five seats. In Kaohsiung County, it reeled in three of four.

Saturday's election left DPP in tatters. With KMT and its allies holding a super majority that exceeds three-fourth of the legislature, DPP is in danger of being cast aside as a fringe party. For that, they have only one person to blame.

In his eight years in office, Chen Shui-bian's only interest -- besides enriching his own inner circle illegally -- has been to fan an anti-China passion to the island's own detriment. He never tired of endless political games aimed at irritating China and the United States (Taiwan's security guarantor) that achieved nothing.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's robust economy slowed to a crawl. While commerce with mainland China continued to flourish, restrictions on trade with China capped economic growth. To this day, Taiwan has no direct air, sea or mail link with mainland China. To go from Taipei to Beijing, you have to detour through Hong Kong or Macau.

Chen's latest political adventure was a referendum on joining the United Nations with the name of "Taiwan," instead of the country's official title, the Republic of China. He also embarked on a series of desinicization activities, stripping the word "China" out of many state-controlled entities at a great expense to taxpayers.

After eight years of putting up with Chen's shenanigans, the voters decided they've had enough. Chen is prohibited by law to run for another term, but the people of Taiwan didn't want to wait until March to get him out of office. Saturday's election was a referendum on Chen, and it was a resounding vote of no confidence.

At the moment, Taiwan is one of the world's leading economies -- a great achievement for an island of 23 million people. Taiwan's GDP exceeds that of Australia. Its per capita income is on par with France and Germany. It has few people living in poverty (less than 1%) and a low unemployment rate (4.2%).

All of that would be gone in a flash if Taiwan and China resume the unfinished Civil War. China, now preoccupied with the 2008 Summer Olympics, will be training its guns on Taiwan if the island continues to drift away under Chen's stewardship. Even a hint of hostility will negatively impact Taiwan's future greatly.

While the people of Taiwan yearn for international recognition and legitimacy, they're pragmatic enough to know that preserving their way of life is more precious above all else. As a people who enjoyed freedom and prosperity for nearly a quarter century, they have gained an understanding and appreciation for their worth.

They made that known at the ballot box.

UN Rejects Taiwan, Again

(From Sinotaneous)

As predicted, Taiwan's bid to join the United Nations failed during the 62nd Session of the General Assembly. It's the 15th consecutive time that the island nation has submitted a bid and failed.

I've had a couple of readers blasting me for the previous post about this issue. But let me clarify my position on this: 1) Do I think Taiwan should have a seat in the United Nations? Answer: Absolutely. 2) Do I think Taiwan should keep trying? Yes, but only if the conditions are ripe.

Let's face it, Taiwan has a very weak hand to play here. China is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. Besides a veto power, China also holds a lot of sway over other member nations, including the United States. As long as China is adamantly opposed to Taiwan's membership, then it's just not going to happen.

Part of politics is dealing with reality. Chen Shui-bian knows what the reality is, but he wants to recklessly play with the emotions and hopes of the Taiwanese people. By whipping up this non-starter issue, Chen basically showed that he has nothing else better (or more constructive) to do, then to antagonize China and continue his "de-Sinization" efforts. And by extension, he's ticking off the United States, too.

Taiwan's UN membership will continue to be just a dream as long as Chen, or any DDP politician holds the presidency of Taiwan. The only chance, and a remote one at that, of Taiwan actually gaining membership in the UN is if the island achieves some normalization of relations with China. That would entail high-level bilateral talks that lead to a more open relationship between the sides.

Until then, Taiwan should stop wasting all this emotional capital on a sure loser. Taiwan has very few allies (24 nations with diplomatic ties, out of 192 UN members) to help its cause, and the U.S. has already shown its displeasure in this latest go-around.

Besides, a UN membership means nothing but paying dues -- and with Taiwan having the world's 16th largest economy, that means a lot of dues. So all that money can go to the pockets of some third-world despot. Taiwan should just be thankful that it's not part of that worthless mess anyway.

The Ultimate Political Hack

(From Sinotaneous)

Some say Chen Shui-bian is a brilliant politician. That may be true in that he has managed time and again to survive one political crisis after another. But ultimately politicians are judged on their leadership abilities, of which Chen has none.

His latest political trickery is a referendum on whether "Taiwan" belongs in the United Nations. He has managed to whip the island nation into a frenzy with this call of "basic democracy." But as a political comedy, this is absurd, but not funny.

Taiwan has no chance of becoming a member of the United Nations. It's not going to happen as long as the People's Republic of China is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. It doesn't make things right, but that's the reality. China particularly will not tolerate the blatant challenge to its own absurd "One China" policy by allowing an entity called "Taiwan" -- not the legal name of the Republic of China -- into the U.N.

Chen knows this, but just as everything he's done in his seven years of utter failure as the president, he is more interested in preserving his own power via political gamesmanship than doing anything useful for the island's 23 million inhabitants. His approval ratings are in the low 20s or high teens, which make George W. Bush's numbers look robust. The island's economy has remained stagnant since he took office in 2000. And relations with China continue to deteriorate while he's in office.

But he knows how to put his rival Kuomintang (KMT) on the defensive. A rather feckless lot, the KMT leadership constantly is playing catch-up and never seems to be able to take advantage of the recent troubles experienced by Chen and his Democratic Progressive Party. Chen's U.N. gambit of course took the KMT by surprise, as the party is now scrambling to find the right message to connect with the voters, who are suddenly deluded by Chen's rhetoric.

Getting a whole country to act delusional may be a political master stroke, but it's a dangerous game with deadly consequences. Taiwan will not get into the U.N., period, so it's a zero-sum game. This move has already peeved off the United States so much that Taiwan's latest fighter jet purchase to replace the aging F-5s has hit the skids. And of course, China is seething.

Chen doesn't care. He never stops scheming, whether it's bashing Chiang Kai-shek's statues or changing all entities with the name of "China" to "Taiwan," it's just a game for him. As long as the electorate is willing to be suckered, he will continue to invent new games.

Taiwan has languished over the last eight years under Chen's "leadership." While engaging in these political shenanigans, Chen has neglected to make a real pitch for Taiwan to gain actual political clout and international respect. And he has unnecessarily inflamed an already volatile situation across the Taiwan Strait by endlessly antagonizing China and testing the patience of its only patron, the United States.

China's leadership, on the other hand, has been rather shrewd in dealing with Chen. Unlike his predecessor Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao has kept his saber rattling to a minimum, knowing that he can better affect Taiwan's elections by keeping mum. He is hoping that the KMT and its presumed candidate Ma Ying-jeou will win the presidential election next March. Such an outcome would serve China's interests better because the KMT is far more likely to seek accommodations and normalize relations with China than the DDP.

But if the DDP pulls the upset -- and why wouldn't it, Chen already did it twice -- then all bets are off. China will rapidly seek a political endgame if it feels Taiwan is drifting further away. Since the Beijing Olympics is of monumental importance to the regime, China isn't likely to pursue any militarily aggressive stance until the Games are over. But after August 2008, things could get hot.

And when the missiles start flying across the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese people will have only one guy to blame. Not the brilliant politician, but the ultimate political hack.

Made in ... Chinese Taipei

(From Sinotaneous)

It's that time of the year again. Little League World Series. My native team of Taiwan, winner of a preposterous 17 championships since 1969, is back in Williamsport again.

Uh, make that Chinese Taipei.

Is there a dumber name for Taiwan, the Republic of China, than Chinese Taipei? And never mind the indignities this name has visited upon untold number of teams and athletes from Taiwan. All this, just to placate the insanely monomaniacal government of Communist China.

Chinese Taipei makes as much sense as, say American Ottawa for Team Canada. Or Deutschen Wien (German Vienna), for Team Austria.

Think about this for a moment: Taiwan, or the Republic of China, has been a sovereign nation since either 1912 or 1949, depending on your point of view. The ROC was established in mainland China by Chinese revolutionaries who overthrew the last of China's dynasties, the Qing (Ching) in 1911. In 1949, following its defeat by the People's Liberation Army, the ROC regime, headed by Chiang Kai-shek, essentially set up a government in (permanent) exile in Taiwan, with the capital city in Taipei.

In any event, the People's Republic of China, the Communist outfit that controls all of mainland, has never ruled Taiwan for one second. For the PRC to claim "ownership" of Taiwan is as ridiculous as the United States claiming Canada as a "renegade province."

Further, while the heritage and lineage of Taiwan is undeniably Chinese, the island of Taiwan has been ruled by a mainland Chinese entity for exactly four years since 1895. Germany has ruled Austria for twice as long over the past 100 years (the Anchluss of 1938 made Austria part of Grossdeutschland Reich until the Nazis were crushed in 1945), but does that give the Federal Republic a mandate over Austria now? Don't think so.

So where did this rubbish of Chinese Taipei come about?

To make a long history short, after Taiwan was booted out of the United Nations in 1971, the ROC struggled to maintain diplomatic viability due to a vicious squabble over who's the legitimate government of China. Unlike the Koreas and the Germanys that eventually reached a truce that allowed both sides independent diplomatic standings, that never happened with the "two Chinas." Things got worse for Taiwan as the United States finally abandoned it in 1979 and officially recognized the PRC. As of now, only 24 nations around the world have embassies in Taipei.

As PRC gained political clout, it became increasingly difficult for Taiwan's athletic teams to compete internationally under the banner of China, which they did until the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the two Chinese delegations reached a settlement in 1979 that allowed teams from Taiwan to compete as Chinese Taipei, as a compromise.

This insulting offer compelled Taiwan to compete with the idiotic moniker, with its Olympic Committee banner as the flag, in lieu of the national flag, and the "Flag-Raising Song" in lieu of its national anthem, to be played when occasions warrant.

I experienced this first-hand in 1984 during the Olympics in Los Angeles. It was a lousy feeling, worse than a man without a country -- it's like a man with a country but can't say what it is. In 1996, during the Olympics in Atlanta, security personnel confiscated flags from Taiwanese spectators in arenas because they weren't "approved" by the IOC. Keep in mind, this was on American soil.

During the World Baseball Classic in 2006, the official logo of the tournament intentionally left out one of its participants. If you guessed it correctly, I have some Chinese Taipei souvenirs for you!

While various sports organizations have adopted this approach to kowtow to China, it really befuddles me why the media is buying into this crap. Listening to announcers on ESPN talk about Taiwanese Little Leaguers as "the kids from Chinese Taipei" makes me want to laugh, cry and throw my Chinese Taipei paperweight through the TV screen all at the same time.

There is no place like "Chinese Taipei". Toto. No one has ever come from the land of "Chinese Taipei." Please. Do us all a favor. Call them Taiwanese, people from Taiwan, even Chinese people from Taiwan. Just no more Chinese Taipeisians.