Tomorrow the Empire State Building, once the tallest building in the world, long a symbol of New York and probably the most famous New York City landmark alongside the Statue of Liberty since the destruction of the World Trade Center will be glowing bright red to honor the victory of the communists in China. I only wish I were joking. The skyscraper will be bathed in red and yellow light to mark the 60th anniversary of when communist dictator (and history's most blood-stained mass murderer ever) stood over the Tianenmen gate to the Forbidden City and proclaimed the birth of the "People's Republic of China"; managing to insult the imposing memory of the greatness that was Imperial China while crowing about his victory over the nationalists of the Kuomintang. Why on earth would New York choose to celebrate this event which heralded the birth of probably the most murderous regime in human history?Keep in mind that, at the time of the Chinese civil war, the United States supported the Republic of China (the nationalists) against the communists. The Red Chinese were the "bad guys" as far as the U.S. was concerned, and for most of the rest of the "Free World" as well. The same party is still in power today, the same government founded by the same man that the United States opposed in their war against the Kuomintang, the same government that the U.S. fought in North Korea, the same government that gave early support to the communist Vietnamese we were fighting and the same government that was the primary ally of Pol Pot in Cambodia and Kim Il-Sung in North Korea. This is the same government that has brutalized and erradicated entire populations within their own borders, the same government which routinely condemns people to death simply for being in favor of having more than one "choice" in politics, for speaking unfavorably of their regime, for being Christians or being a Tibetan with some pride.
Besides all of this, the red flag of communism is a symbol that should be spurned simply on principle. It is a corrupt, unnatural, blood-soaked ideology that has brought war, ruin and death to hundreds of millions of people from Cuba to Korea. Nazi Germany never managed to wipe out as many human beings as the communists have, yet we trade with Red China, we borrow money from Red China and so we have to kiss-up to the Chairman in Beijing. I am against the whole disgusting relationship but at this point we are in too deep to them to be overtly hostile. However, we do NOT have to honor them and their violent seizure of power by turning the Empire State Building into the world's tallest red light district. Let me compare this to another salute New York gave via the ESB and that was when the lights were turned purple in honor of the jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II. It was a fitting tribute to a great monarch who has shown dignity, courage and devotion to her people for a lifetime as well as a salute to the British kingdom that, in the post 9-11 world and before, had been America's most loyal ally. How on earth, for the love of all the saints and angels in Heaven is this same salute to be given to blood-soaked regime of a bunch of revolutionary communist dictators?!
Words cannot begin to describe my outrage and I can only be grateful that I have nothing at all to do with New York and am very proud to hail from a state where the local Chinese community is still represented by the dragon flag of the Great Qing; the only place in the world as far as I know that the standard of the Chinese Empire still flies. If the ruling elites of New York want to honor some people from the Chinese part of the world and wish to salute their flag I could suggest a couple of options just off the top of my head that might be far more worthy than the blood-red banner of Chinese communism:
I am, dear readers, the VERY, Mad Monarchist.
What?! This is beyond belief, honestly...
ReplyDeleteIt staggers the imagination. Times like this I ask myself, would so many countries be this cozy to Germany if the Nazi Party was still in charge and had a huge portrait of Hitler hanging over the Brandenburg Gate? Would they? Because Chairman Mao actually killed far more people than Adolf did. *Staggers the imagination*
ReplyDeleteI think, perhaps, it is because the Chinese Government is quite insular, and takes great pains to force governments to toe their line or suffer... shall we say consequences?
ReplyDeleteConsider the issues between Australia and China on trade. A Chinese bid for a constortium that had an interest in Defence land was knocked back, and meetings by Government and Opposition Ministers with the Dalai Lama are always opposed by the Chinese embassy. They seem to me like spoilt children, so used to having their way that they have a hissy fit when it doesn't.
A principled stand, firm but polite, is called for. Make no mistake, China is too economically active in the world for any war to be made on it without a great loss of prosperity (not to mention the Americans are essentially living on Chinese loans, considering their government's enormous debt). But that doesn't mean that we can't tell them to take their preferences and stick them... shall we say in their donkeys?
Exactly. They have the largest army and air force in the world, have been building up their navy and nuclear arsenal in addition to owning a huge chunk of US debt and are the primary source of cheap labor for the "workers paradises" in Europe -so at this point there is only so far anyone can push them. But this is going way, way overboard. My only hope for the long term is that they will be killed by their own prosperity (and I mean the CCP not the Chinese people who I hope live '10,000 years') as they now have managed to merge communist oppression with capitalist greed. Add that to the one-child policy and they may be headed for quite an abyss.
ReplyDeleteThis isnt the worst of it, as President Obama actually flew the Red Chinese flag on the Whitehouse Lawn, well in he Elipse, to honour the regimes 60th Anniversary.
ReplyDeleteMy mom watched the parade on CCTV 9 (the English language channel from Beijing) last night.
ReplyDeleteI watched a portion of it: the flag raising and the military parade. I kept my comments to myself since my mom is Chinese and this occasion meant a lot to her.
Elisa, it meant a lot to me too, but I suspect not the same as your mother, for to me it was rthe commemoration of a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteI can sort of Sympathize, though I have known Chinese nationals who despise Communism, hence why hey live in the States.
That's understandable. I often watch CCTV myself. At times it is downright humorous how they react to world events through their programming. Around the uproar over the last crackdowns in Tibet CCTV was awash with various shows all about how wonderful things were in Tibet and how much the public appreciated the Chinese presence and communist rule. Purely coincidental I'm sure...
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