~ “I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.” Ronald Reagan.
On March 18, Taiwanese student protestors took over the Legislative Yuan assembly hall in Taipei, Taiwan, and have been camped out there ever since. On March 26, President Ma Ying-jeou agreed to meet with the protestors to attempt to end the standoff and get Taiwan’s government back to business as usual.
The protests are over a service trade pact with the People’s Republic of China, which would allow greater investment on both sides of the Formosa (or Taiwan) Strait. It would open eighty percent of China’s service sectors to Taiwan, and sixty-four percent of Taiwan’s to China. The protestors are up in arms about the fact that not only does it threaten Taiwan’s independence in their eyes, but the majority party, the Kuomintang, signed the pact without bipartisan deliberation, leaving the Democratic Progressive Party completely cut out.[…]
Translation from China to Obama: The U.S. owes us big time and that makes you our bitch now!
My mother taught us not to borrow money. She said, “if you don’t have it and cannot afford it, do without.” She said that when you borrow money from anyone, you are instantly put into the position of owing people on many levels. She said, “if you make it a habit of borrowing enough, it may one day cost you your soul.” And so goes the relationship between the United States and China as they are now in the position (or so they think) of telling the President of the United States who American officials can and cannot meet or greet.
“Strained ties between the US and China could deteriorate further if President Obama goes ahead with a meeting with the Dalai Lama, Beijing warned today.
China’s anger at the Tibetan spiritual leader’s overseas visits and the warm reception he is afforded by foreign leaders spilled over in tough words from officials in Beijing who led the latest round of talks with his representatives last week.
Zhu Weiqun, executive deputy head of the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, who is in charge of the talks, said that a meeting between Mr Obama and the Dalai Lama would ‘seriously undermine the political foundation of Sino-US relations’.
An increasingly assertive Beijing even issued a veiled threat that such a meeting would not only fail to serve the interests of diplomacy but could damage the US economic recovery. A view has become widespread that the strength of the economic revival in China, the largest holder of US treasuries, could help to lead the world out of the current downturn.
Mr Zhu said: ‘If the US leader chooses this time to meet the Dalai Lama, that would damage trust and co-operation between our two countries, and how would that help the United States surmount the current economic crisis?’
He added that the Dalai Lama was a troublemaker bent on inciting world hatred of China for its control of his mountainous homeland.
Mr Zhu gave no details of how China would retaliate if President Obama met the monk, whom Beijing views as a dangerous separatist working to win independence for the Himalayan homeland he fled in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Beijing rule.
He said: ‘We will take corresponding measures to make the relevant countries realise their mistakes.’
President Obama could meet the Dalai Lama as early as this month, when the monk is expected to make a visit to the United States from his home in the north Indian town of Dharamsala.”
To be quite honest, even with the amount of U.S. debt that China has undertaken on our behalf, I do not see China taking such a strong stance with George Bush or even Bill Clinton for that matter. We knew all those bows (1:03 of video) would one day come back to bite Obama in the rear.