China Protecting its Teeth in 1950 Korea– Part 1/9

February 22, 2011

While searching Google for a Monroe Doctrine link, I stumbled on PCMS Social Studies and a post that appeared January 20, 2011.

Quote: “The Monroe Doctrine was put in place on December 2, 1823 by (President) James Monroe….   He did not want European Countries coming back and taking over the United States….  I know that I would definitely not want someone telling me I have to change the way I believe.”

China’s reaction was the same in 1950 when the People’s Liberation Army entered the Korean War.

Because Korea sat precariously between China, Russia and Japan, Korea had always been at the mercy of its bigger neighbors. For centuries, those nations had fought each other in Korea.

As World War II was ending, in July 1945, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin used his troops in coordination with the US to force the Japanese out of Korea. The Soviet and US armies met at the 38th parallel and agreed to divide Korea along that line.

The Soviets would control the northern half of Korea and the US the south.

While Soviet Russia and America were dividing the spoils of war in Europe and Asia, China was involved in a bloody civil war between the Communist and Nationalist Parties that would last until 1949

Prior to Japan occupying Korea in 1900, Korea had been a tributary state of China for centuries. However, China was in no shape to protest what Russia and the US was doing in Korea.

Two years later, the super powers left Korea leaving behind a Communist state in the north and a capitalist republic in the south ruled by a Korean authoritarian dictator educated at America’s Princeton University.

On June 5, 1950 at 4:00 AM, the Korean War started when North Korea declared war and invaded South Korea by land and sea.

Since the US had deprived South Korea of weapons and ammunition in fear that the south might invade the north and start a war, the North Korean army met little resistance.

The US strategy of restraint had backfired. South Korea had no weapons to defend itself. In two days, Seoul, the capital of South Korea fell to the invading army.

North Korea counted on America doing nothing. However, the majority of Americans in the US was outraged and demanded action, which caused President Truman to send in the United States air force while the US Navy bombarded Korea from the sea.

On July 19, 1950, President Truman called on the United Nations to act quickly and stop the aggression of Communist North Korea.

In the beginning, the US army was weak and far from Korea mostly in Europe. The huge American army that won World War II in 1945 had been disbanded resulting in a much smaller force.

In early July, 1950, an American brigade entered Korea and fought North Korean troops thirty miles south of South Korea’s captured capital of Seoul. The first battle didn’t go well for the US.

Learn about The Lips Protecting China’s Teeth

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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.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, capitalism, China, Chinese history, Communism, cultural differences, history, military, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

“Nixon in China” at the Met – Feb. 12

February 21, 2011

The headline of the Global edition of Xinhua on February 11, 2011 said, “Met celebrates Nixon in China.”

Xinhua said, “John Adams’ musical masterpiece has made its long-awaited debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and a prominent feature of it is the revolutionary ballet The Red Detachment of Women.”

 


A scene from Red Detachment of Women where the lead character has been rescued by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from an evil landlord that raped her and ordered that she be killed. In fact, the PLA was support by China’s peasants due to harsh treatment from the ruling class. After the Communists won the Civil War, almost a million landowners were executed for crimes against the people.

 

Nixon arrived in Beijing on February 21, 1972.

On February 27, he left China with a pledge from both nations to normalize relations and that neither should seek hegemony in the Asia Pacific region while opposing the efforts of any other country that attempted such an action.

Thirty-nine years later, on February 12, I sat in an audience in California and watched the opera televised in a local, stuffy theater. The house was not packed but it was crowded.

During a break between acts, director Peter Sellars said the play had been restaged and rewritten since more is now known of what happened in China before and after the historic meeting between Nixon, Kissinger, Mao and Zhou Enlai.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams, said, “The meeting of Nixon and Mao is a mythological moment in world history, particularly American history.”

Nixon’s visit to China lasted less than a week but the opera covers years.

The demon in the opera is Mao’s wife. Soon after she appears on stage, it is clear she is responsible for the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. Several times, the Nixon character casts suspicious glances at her as if she is crazy.

At the time of Nixon’s visit, Mao’s wife was grooming herself to become China’s leader after Mao died and to continue the horrors of the Cultural Revolution.

Mao believed that to save China he had to erase China’s ancient culture and reinvent the country.

To reinforce this fact, there is a scene where Mao denounces Confucius.

Mao blamed Confucianism for making China weak and the victim of Western Imperialism and Japan between 1839 when the British and French started the Opium Wars until the end of World War II after Japan was defeated. During that time, almost a hundred million Chinese would die due to famines, rebellions, wars, and civil war.

Little did Mao’s wife know at the time of Nixon’s visit that a few years later fate had something else in store for her when Deng Xiaoping appears from the shadows and has her arrested for crimes against the people.

In fact, at her trial after Mao’s death, which wasn’t covered in the opera, she shouted, “I was Mao’s dog. When Mao told me to bite, I bit.”

Sellars or Adams should have mentioned the revelations that run through the play covering years of Chinese history revealing the role of each major Chinese character.

Near the end while Zhou Enlai is in pain and slowly dying from pancreatic cancer, it is obvious that the people loved him. There is a moment where it appears he has died and his bed is surrounded with flowers and a communist flag is carefully draped over him.

In fact, near the end of the Cultural Revolution, Zhou Enlai protested the horrors that were happening in China and protected many Chinese from Mao’s teenage Red Guard responsible for much of the crimes that took place during the last decade of Mao’s life.

For this risky act, the people of China honored and loved Zhou Enlai. Almost every other Chinese leader that spoke out against Mao died or went to prison. Few escaped Mao’s wrath. Even Deng Xiaoping had his son tossed off a three-story building to survive but be paralyzed from the neck down.

Meanwhile, in another bed, Mao is having a tryst with his wife soon after having his crotch fondled by one of the women that cares for him.

When Mao rests on a bed at the end, the Communist flag is dropped over him without much ceremony and there were no flowers.

Zhou Enlai would die eight months before Mao in 1976.

Discover more of Nixon’s Trip to China

The world premiere of Nixon in China took place at the Houston Grand Opera in 1987. I have embedded a seventeen-part series discovered on You Tube of the original. If interested, scroll down and enjoy.

 

Nixon in China -– Part 1/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 2/17
  

Nixon in China – Part 3/17

 

Nixon in China – Part 4/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 5/17

Nixon in China – Part 6/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 7/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 8/17

Nixon in China – Part 9/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 10/17

Nixon in China – Part 11/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 12/17

 

Nixon in China – Part 13/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 14/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 15/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 16/17
 

Nixon in China – Part 17/17

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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.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

2 Comments | America, capitalism, China, Chinese history, Communism, history, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China versus the US – Comparing Nuclear Arsenals

February 18, 2011

The Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry reports on China’s Nuclear Capabilities saying, “As Presidents Hu Jintao and Barack Obama meet in Washington, DC, it is important to note that this is different from Cold War era summits, as the United States and China share far more common interests, including economic concerns, than the US and the USSR ever did.”

The Foundry then points out that China is modernizing its nuclear arsenal with new warheads and a new ballistic missile submarine (one), while the US does not have a modernization program for its nuclear arsenal.

However, what The Foundry doesn’t say tells a different story.

The US has 18 Ohio class nuclear-powered submarines. Fourteen of these so called out-dated submarines carries 24 (each carry multiple warheads) Trident II SLBMs (updated in the 1990s), and four are capable of carrying 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles with either conventional or nuclear warheads.

The oldest Ohio class submarine is thirty-five and the latest fourteen. Considering how well the US military cares for its operational equipment, I am sure they are well maintained.

In 2005 and 2006, the Department of Defense’s annual report on China’s military forces included a detailed table of China’s ballistic missiles. The table suggested that China had 250-296 launchers with 793-916 missiles of seven types. Of these, approximately 105 are thought to be armed with nuclear warheads. Source: FAS

In comparison, the Arms Control Association says, “The United States has approximately 500 operational tactical weapons, and approximately 2,645 inactive warheads (with a total of more than 5,000).”

In fact, France, Russia and the United Kingdom each have more nuclear weapons than China.

Why is the Heritage Foundation making a big deal of the fact that China has one ballistic missile submarine and is updating its nuclear arsenal with more modern equipment?

How much of a difference is there in the death and destruction caused by 105 nuclear bombs compared to 500?

Learn from experts why China is not a Threat

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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.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

4 Comments | America, China, military | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Modern Chinese Military is Not a Threat

February 17, 2011

I often find Al Jazeera to be one of the best sources to find unbiased and educational reports of China, and in August 2010, Al Jazeera’s Inside Story questioned if China is attempting to become a major, global military power and if following the US example to modernize the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will achieve this goal.

Inside Story starts out showing a Chinese military parade with troops marching in precision much as I did in the U.S, Marine Corps when taking part in military parades after serving in Vietnam.  It’s just that Americans seldom see the American military on parade. Believe me, the precision you will see at the beginning of this Al Jazeera video is no different from military precision in the United States military. The style of how they march may be different but the precision is the same.

While serving in the US Marines 1965 to 1968, I took part in military parades where Marines were required to be perfect while marching, doing drills with unloaded weapons, and standing in the summer heat at attention for hours without batting an eyelid. 

If a Marine passed out in the heat, it helped if he or she fell while still standing stiffly at attention all the way to the ground. The chewing out that might come later wouldn’t be as harsh.


Al Jazeera English – Inside Story, Modernizing China’s Military – 23:24 minutes

On the 83rd anniversary of the PLA, the Liberation Army Daily said, “China’s army should modernize to boost combat capability using the US as an example.”

The Liberation Army Daily reported, “History and reality have shown again and again that a country which does not have a world view is a backward one. A military which lacks global vision is one without hope.”

To discuss this issue, Al Jazeera convened three military experts from around the globe: Shunzi Taoka from Japan, Lei Wang of Harvard University, and Richard Weitz of the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.

Lei Wang says that the topic of a modern military in China is not new. It is a topic that has been discussed in China for centuries. He points out that in the 19th century many countries invaded China, which caused people to rethink how to protect China.

Wang says, modernizing the Chinese military will serve economic achievement, China’s role in global peace keeping, and fighting global terrorism. In fact, Wang points out that Chinese troops are always the first to reach a site in China devastated by a natural catastrophe to provide aid and protection to the people.

Richard Weitz agrees that the Chinese military has been modernizing all through its history, which means more than two thousand years. In fact, the Chinese military was technologically superior to the Roman Empire at the time of the Han Dynasty, and maintained that position for centuries until the 19th century.

Shunzi Taoka says he is not typical Japanese. He says he does not believe in the theory that China is a military threat. He points out that China’s navy is no match for the US, and China’s military expansion is over emphasized.

Lei Wang then says that the key mission of the Chinese military is to protect all of China’s economic development—not to intervene or invade other countries. He says, “It is important to look at the culture of Chinese and to also look at what China has done…” and China is now part of global trade and feels a responsibility to provide global protection for free trade.  To achieve that goal, the military must be modern.

When asked about China’s military secrecy, Richard Weitz says that is somewhat understandable.  However, he points out, we have seen cooperation. China has become a major contributor to UN global peacekeeping operations on the ground.

Shunzi Taoka says to see China as an enemy of the United States as the Soviet Union was during the Cold War is outdated.  China is too heavily invested in America and depends on American trade for its economic development. China is very, very different from the Soviet Union.

In fact, China sponsors the US with economic support.

In summation, all three military experts did not see China as a military threat to other nations.

Discover Why China’s Generals Laughed

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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.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, military spending | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Valentine’s Day in China

February 13, 2011

One Chinese market sells 12 million flowers for Valentine’s Day.

In fact, Dounan Flower Market located in Yunnan’s provincial capital sells 12 million or more flowers every day and is the largest marketplace for cut flowers in China.

Due to increased sales for Valentine’s Day, Dounan Flower Market extended its trading hours 10 days ahead of the February 14 lover’s holiday. Source: Prokerala News

The real Chinese Valentine’s Day, not the one from America on February 14, is celebrated on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar.


Sufei, the host of Sexy Beijing, hits the streets to discover Valentine’s Day in China and has fun doing it.

There is a love story about the seventh daughter of Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd.

When the couple fell in love, the emperor separated them.

The daughter was forced to move to the star called Vega and the cowherd to the star named Altair.

They are allowed to meet once a year on the 7th day of 7th lunar month. Talk about heartache.

China’s ancient Valentine Day is also called The Daughter’s Festival.

However, the foreign Valentine’s Day is gaining popularity among younger Chinese.

The China Daily reported the “Desire for Valentine’s roses is pushing up prices.”

Liu Xu, who owns a florist shop in the capital, was quoted saying, “I think I can charge at least 15 yuan per rose on February 14. The better ones can cost up to 20 yuan each.”

Discover all about Banning Virtual Love for the Troops in China.

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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.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

2 Comments | America, China, Chinese men, Chinese women | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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