Asia Blog: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam

The infamous hate group known as the Westboro Baptist Church recently issued a press release titled “Thank God for the Great Killer Earthquake,” in which they thank God for killing Chinese:

Thank God for the Great Killer Earthquake that He sent to kill thousands of stiffhearted Chinese rebels against God. Our prayer is for many more earthquakes to kill many more thousands of impudent and ungrateful Chinese.

This is why American free speech sucks–it has to allow even vile hate speech such as the above. When 20,000 people die in a random act of nature, Americans everywhere should be sending aid, flying to China to help rebuild with their own hands, or raising support in the USA. Instead, we have handfuls of crackpots producing insane press releases in the name of American conservative Christianity. China, with its distaste for organized religion and hateful speech, would never allow an organization like the Westboro Baptist Church to prosper. To any Chinese that might read this, true Americans and Christians extend love and compassion to you.

For more constructive ways to assist China in its time of need, Shanghaiist has made a nice list of charities you can contribute to, such as the Red Cross.

The People’s Republic Of China were definitely cheering for 张梓琳 (Zhang Zilin) this year, as she won the Miss World 2007 beauty competition. Tall, at 5′ 11.5″, Zhang was born in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, in 1984 then moved to the capital, Beijing. She attended the University of Science and Technology Beijing and attained a Degree in Business Administration, and is now working as a fashion model.

The Hindu includes the following quote, “There are 1.3 billion people behind me,” Zilin said during the 40-second interview stage of the contest, referring to her country’s population. “If I win I want to become a link between the Olympic Games (in Beijing next year) and the Miss World Organisation.”

You can read her official blog at Sina.

The USD, our dollar, is falling against basically every currency out there. It’s so bad that Jay-Z doesn’t flash greenbacks, he flashes Euros in latest music video:

The song, by the wildly successful rap artist and businessman Jay-Z, is on an album of songs accompanying/inspired by the Ridley Scott movie “American Gangster,” starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crow. But it wasn’t sex, drugs, violence or explicit language that shocked my conscience. It was the Euros. The Jay-Z video flashed large stacks of €500 Euros. When I start seeing rap stars flashing euros instead of U.S. dollars, I know our economy is in trouble.

So who is coming to the rescue? China, of course. Since they control about 1.4 trillion dollars of our currency, it’s important that they don’t liquidate it:

“Beijing is not about to shoot itself in the foot by carrying out a mass sell-off of greenbacks,” Stratfor, a private US intelligence firm, said in a bulletin to clients. Such a move would wipe out much of China’s foreign reserves “in less than the blink of an eye”, it said, adding that Beijing wanted “just to slow or stop its purchase of new batches” of the greenback.

I wonder how much of the yuan is owned by the United States. My feeling isn’t that much, so we definitely need China on our side or our economy will continue to plummet.

This is old, but I love this Fuck Bush t-shirt that Peking Duck points out:

It literally says “去你马的,Bush” which literally means “Go to your mother’s [implied], Bush.” It’s equivalent to the english “motherfucker” literally, which in this context I find quite charming! How better to voice your opposition of the Western influence in China!

After US President George W. Bush shooks hands with Taiwanese representative Joseph Wu during a commemoration for victims of Communism in Washington DC, “Chinese government leaders threatened to plan new war games and heighten military readiness in anticipation of any attempt by the U.S. to defend Taiwan should a Chinese invasion occur, or simply if Taiwan declares its independence” (src).

The current state of political affairs between the two contentious “Chinese governments” is an uneasy truce across the straits. The PRC and KMT both assert legitmate control over China, Taiwan, Mongolia, and Myanmar, and are expected to use no force against each other. However, if peaceful reunification fails, there will definitely be an international disaster.