America has more in common with China than most think—oil spills.
MSNBC reports about the Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. After an April explosion that killed eleven workers, BP’s deep water well spilled as much as 184 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Fishing industries and tourism has been devastated while oil washes ashore turning beaches black with goo.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that China is struggling to recover from their worst oil spill ever.
China is new to this type of disaster and yet, they quickly mobilized an army of volunteers and anglers to help clean the pollution from the area around the port of Dalian, one of China’s most important strategic oil reserves.
China’s oil spill came from an explosion in an oil pipeline. Witnesses report that China may have responded faster than the US did for the British Petroleum spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The pipeline that exploded belonged to China National Petroleum Corporation, Asia’s biggest oil and gas producer by volume. Source: Uncoverage.net
This is the price for being a modern nation where so many depend on oil for electricity and transportation.
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
John Pomfret writes in the Washington Post that China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea. World leaders protest but China says it will honor international law regarding shipping.
I know a few American’s who will bridle at China’s claim. After all, the world’s oceans have been America’s bathtub since World War II, and before World War II, the British Empire ruled the waves.
It’s about time the West awakes and sees that China is serious about regaining its political position in the world. In the 18th century, China had the largest global economy and was more powerful than the Roman or British Empire for more than two millennia.
It seems that the Chinese may be serious about building a navy to rival America. Automation Technology and Industry reports that by 2013, China will become the largest shipbuilder. China is already the world’s second biggest economy and may surpass the US in more than a decade to become number one.
Remember America’s Monroe Doctrine where in 1823, an upstart US announced to the world that any interference in Western hemispheric affairs would be seen as a threat to its security.
China hasn’t gone that far yet, but they are learning fast.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
When my wife and daughter made their annual summer pilgrimage to China, I asked them to bring back a DVD of the new Confucius with Chow Yun Fat. Unfortunately, the copy they brought would not play on any of the American DVD players we have at home. The world is divided into regions and each region has its own DVDs that won’t play in other regions.
Determined, I resorted to e-bay to find a DVD for the US and Canada. It cost me about $10 plus postage. The above link will take you to Amazon where you may order one.
The movie’s visuals are stunning and Chow Yun Fat does an incredibly convincing job of playing Confucius, who, no matter how much he was abused by the rulers of his homeland, he still honored them.
If you don’t speak Mandarin and must rely on the English subtitles, be warned that most of the subtitles are mangled and do not stay on screen long enough. The challenge is to read the subtitle while keeping an eye on the stunning visuals.
This movie is an epic equal to Cleopatra, Moses and Spartacus. However, if you expect a potboiler, you won’t get one most of the time. Yet, the battle scenes were amazing no matter how brief they were.
It’s obvious that this movie was filmed for a Chinese/Asian audience and their tastes are not as shallow as what most Americans prefer. I’m sure the Chinese didn’t want to ruin the movie by letting Hollywood get hold of it.
Confucius with his students
The DVD I bought and watched had a photo of Confucius with a beautiful woman on the cover. They must have added her to the cover for that Hollywood sexy touch to appeal to an American audience. In the movie, she plays a minor role and is assassinated for wanting power in a violent world dominated by men busy killing each other.
From what I know of Confucius, the movie showed him close to who he must have been—an honorable man wanting to bring peace to a war-torn land and end the people’s suffering. He spends more than a decade homeless wondering the land in search of someone who will listen besides the rag-tag band of students who stuck to him like glue.
If anything, we could learn something about dedication and loyalty from this band and their master.
At the bottom of the DVD box, it says, “His teachings were banned under Mao Zedong, who oversaw the destruction of his family home during the Cultural Revolution.”
Ironic, considering that Mao stayed in power his last decade because of what Confucius taught the Chinese about piety.
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
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We have a friend who came from China to the US to study in the 1980s. She thought about defecting but didn’t. She loved her family and friends too much to hurt them, so she went back to China. Years later, she returned to the US legally and become an American citizen without defecting, and no village in China suffered for her act.
In China, every defection is considered a loss of face by the government. In a collective society like China, the individual is not the only one to carry the burden of guilt. The family, friends and comrades left behind also carry that burden.
Defecting is a two-way street Joe Dresnok – U.S. Army Defector one nation’s defector/hero is another nation’s deserter/traitor
When defectors from China arrive in the US, they are often treated as heroes and the media splashes the defector’s story on TV, newspapers and magazines. Many defectors are rewarded and they prosper in their new country. In fact, until 1988, Taiwan paid defectors a handsome sum in gold.
However, whatever the reason for defecting, in the ideological war between the “isms” (Communism versus Capitalism), those left behind often become collateral damage. See Media Slugfest Using Taiwan
Merriam-Webster’s Online dictionary defines “traitor” as one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.
The most famous Chinese defector/traitor may have been Sun Tianqin, a fighter pilot in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, who flew to South Korea in 1983 in an advanced fighter aircraft.
From there, Sun went to Taiwan to live. He left behind his mother, Mrs. Liu, his 18-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter.
While Americans see these defectors as heroes, the Chinese see dishonorable and selfish individuals. While Americans help one Chinese man or woman defect, an entire village in China pays the price.
Before defecting, Sun’s mother was so proud of her son that she displayed a large picture of him in uniform at their home and after learning of her son’s defection, she was so devastated that she fell ill and never recovered, finally dying, for which Sun’s family members put the blame on him.
Sun eventually married another defector, Ms. Li Tianhui, a musician. The sad fact is that all Chinese defectors leave knowing that those left behind related to them will pay a price. After all, they are Chinese and they grew up in the same collective culture.
Chen Yonglin, a former Chinese Diplomat, defected and liberated his spirit, but how many suffered in China for that act?
Sun Tianqin was not the first PLA fighter pilot to defect. Soon after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, Jiang Wenhao, defected to Taiwan. Wiki lists the first PLA pilot defecting on January 12, 1960 and the last in August 1990. Source: Wikipedia
Since the standard of living has improved in China and people have more personal freedom, defections have decreased and it is much easier to travel to the US.
Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.
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