I'm aware of China's dark past, thats why i thought you may have had your house taken by them, so watching them with an evil eye would be understandable. All these claims of land and sea, are disputable since both sides can't bring solid proof to validate them. But how much land has China gained from all this? as for the south China sea, the poor fishes will have to be Chinese. China's playing like the big boys now.
Actually, they're playing a lot more aggressively than the big boys. There is an accepted way and manner of processing competing international claims that is recognized by law; unilaterally sending in troops and building structures is not one of them. However, the Chinese government frequently uses such tactics. As for unfair claims to waters, I ask you this, if the United States decided to say that all of the Gulf of Mexico (up to 12 miles from the beaches of South America) should belong to it; would you consider that a fair claim? Or, if the United Kingdom stated that the entire English Channel (since it is called the ENGLISH channel), should belong to it; is that a fair claim? So this is China's claim: Since you're going to suspect my motives and say that anything I link to will be of "questionable" source, I suggest that if you really want to know what the issue is, research the matter on your own; specifically, China's territorial claims on the South China Sea. China relies on diaspora ignorance, that is, that overseas Chinese only superficially know about what it actually does and doesn't bother to ever deeply research a dispute. The PRC banks on the ethnic knee jerk response to defend "one of our own" from negative comments. All I'm saying is, one needs to educate oneself regarding the issue before doing so. Oh, and btw, don't bother reading wiki's references to any of the territorial disputes as they're just about all reedited to be favorable to China's claims. Even the wording, syntax, and linguistic usage on those wiki pages seems to step right off a Chinese state controlled journalist web page. So in essence, I suspect that the PRC have legions of wiki "editors" working full time to rewrite history as they see it. A part and parcel of this is the recent Chinese "Fisherman" incident: [video=youtube;lv031K_lV4I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv031K_lV4I[/video] [video=youtube;PDaOs-KJjvc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDaOs-KJjvc&feature=related[/video] Would a fisherman really do that? Risk his livelihood, capital assets (his ship), and his life, by ramming a Japanese war ship? Or perhaps it was really Chinese Special Operations conducting what the Russians called maskirovka?. In other words, military deception to stoke Chinese and world public opinion against Japan. At any rate, whether or not that ship is really a fishing vessel, I'm sure that nations involved can easily find out.I don't know what the real answer is, but my personal suspicions is that the whole thing was a set up by China. If you want to read up on other fascinating boat tricks, investigate the USS Liberty, SS Mayaguez, and the USS Pueblo.
Information is always censored, on wikipedia and on the internet. Do you know who is writing these articles? and who do they work for? but some people think only the Chinese are capable of propaganda. I'm not here to defend the PRC or make it out like they're some sort of saint. The main thing i don't agree with is that they're aggresively claiming territory with expansionist views. Expansion on land, minimal. The South China Sea, yes they're flexing their muscles there, but nothing has really happened. The youtube video... Why would the fisherman stop, if they believe the japanese don't have jurisdiction over those waters. Even from the video itself labeled "Chinese fish boat rams the coast guard" looked nothing like what the title implies. To me it was more like the coast guard cutting off the fisherman. Apparently, all overseas Chinese have fallen to Chinese propaganda and are ignorant of China's evils, but fear not cause we have Ralph watching you, China. I guess playing like the big boys would be to bomb the hell out of a country, set up army bases, and then instill a puppet government. Is that how big boys play?
The Chinese aren't the only propagandists out there, but they certainly seem to devote a lot of time and assets to it. As for "flexing" muscle and "...nothing really happened," I suppose if Vietnam sent in military troops and took over Hong Kong you would say then that "...nothing really happened" too? As for the ship ramming, one can easily tell the direction of travel just by looking at a ship's wake; the Chinese boat purposely steered itself into the Japanese coast guard ship. As for your final comment about "Ralph watching you..." you may think that to be satirical and biting remark, but I actually thank you. It is exactly public commentary holding Zhongnanhai responsible that forces it to treat its population with higher regard. And as for being a big boy setting up puppet governments? Why, China's been doing that for years; it's called Tibet. Look, we obviously don't see eye to eye on many things, so I'm just going to leave it as is. In terms of the OP's original question, I believe myself ethnically and culturally of Chinese pedigree, but my home, land of birth, and political affiliation is with the United States. And no, my mom didn't just fly over from Shanghai to have me be born in the US and then fly back to China, like some rich Chinese are now doing. I was here for the long haul, so the US is my country.
I'm saying nothing has really happened in the South China Sea, and if you want to use these youtube videos to further your argument of "aggresively claiming territory with expansionist views" it's not the least bit convincing. If you look 38 seconds into the second video, what does the wake look like to you? the coastal guards cut him off from the outside, and you can even clearly see the change of direction from the wake. So, Chinese fisherman being harrassed by Japanese coastal guards more aggresive or invading iraq and causing over 100,000 civilian deaths? *warning you will see innocent people dying and not just boats rubbing against each other. [video=youtube;5rXPrfnU3G0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0[/video]
Well, I am GBC (German Born Chinese). My parents both from HK moved to Germany in the early days and we were living there til i moved to London 6 years ago. If people in Germany ask me where I come from I usually said "Hong Kong". The normal response then is, "oh you are from China". I would deny that for some reason, I still think HK is different from Mainland. Anyone else feel the same? Well, and now here in London I use to say I am German...its really funny to see those confusin faces of them ^^
I've already seen this when it was first released last year. The problem I have with your comparisons would be that if you're going to post US inadvertently killing civilians, then I'm going to have to post videos of the PRC purposely killing civilians (snipers killing fleeing Tibetans, bullet in the head executions). I wholeheartedly agree that the killing of those Reuters reporters and civilians was a wrong and the US military should be brought up on charges for failing to clearly ascertain targets as per their own rules of engagement (they mistakenly thought they saw weapons), during what is defined as legal combat operations. Further, just listening to their radio chatter indicates to me that whatever mistakes they made in target identification, those units remain under strict command and control. Can you say the same about the Chinese military in Tibet? [video=youtube;mNCvUWT4Zoo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNCvUWT4Zoo[/video] [video=youtube;HUnPq-pDyeA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUnPq-pDyeA[/video] IMHO, the illness of one patient is not mitigated or relieved by the illness of another, and this is the main problem with just about all Chinese nationalistic arguments. They tend to always use what someone else has done to deflect the guilt or failings of their argument. If a doctor tells you that you have cancer, are you going to say, well, the guy in the next bed has cancer AND high blood pressure, SO THERE!!! What's really interesting about the video that you posted is that if you watch it to the very end, you will see that the US military later not only realized that civilians were wounded but also rushed to provide them with medical assistance. This is why it's sometimes senseless to even discuss this with pro-China nationalists, as they can never seem to talk about China without referring to the US as being worse. But frankly, what I'm waiting for is Julian Assange to release a Wikileaks China version. The problems I have with Wikileaks is that they've chosen a very soft target; that is, one that would always play by civil rules. If Assange really had some gonads he should do reports not only on the US, but also on China (both), DPRK, Colombia, Russia, Turkey, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Israel, Cuba, Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia, just to name a few. If he ever did something like that, I bet he would be fish shit in less than a month. Further, if you want to talk about how "bad" the US is, you can also say that the US was the only nation to ever use a nuclear weapon, but that does not take anything away from the PRC's political policy. And up next, "nothing really happens as the US invades and takes over Paracel Islands."
I think you are missing the point i am trying to make here. So just let me set things straight, what we are arguing here is "aggresively claiming territory with expansionist views" which i have mentioned a couple times already. Has China gained any land on the map over these years? none that i can see. Ok, bring in the South China Sea. Things are still in negotiation and as i had said "nothing has really happened" unless you want to use those youtube videos as reference again. Those Videos were nothing more than the very thing you despise, propaganda. I brought in Iraq to draw a comparison as to what i believe is "aggresively claiming territory with expansionist views" since you say and i quote you, "Actually, they're playing a lot more aggressively than the big boys." Now when you compare the two, which one seems more aggresive? who practically has an army base in everyones backyard? As for Tibet, what you conquer becomes yours is that not how all countries are built? Example: America. But as for the treatment of the Tibetans, that is not something i agree with. You can bring in the Tiananmen massacre or other Chinese atrocities that have nothing to due with the argument or you can expand on your claim of "aggresivly claiming terrority with expanisionist views."
