Hacking from China – Maybe

April 16, 2010

China-based hackers are at it again.  Since Google fled to Hong Kong to escape being attacked in mainland China, the virtual ghosts slipped into the Dalai Lama’s office and sucked up 1,500 e-mails. I wonder what they discovered.

Researchers at the University of Toronto traced the hackers to the city of Chengdu but didn’t blame China or demand answers as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did when Google was hacked.  The Canadians said there is no evidence of involvement by the Chinese government.

Instead, the evidence points to a cyber-spy network that has hacked into government and private organization in 103 countries.

It is estimated that close to four hundred million Chinese are connected to the Internet.  In 2008, China required Internet cafes in Beijing to take the photographs of anyone using the Internet as a mean to control public use of cyberspace. Could that also mean discovering who is doing the hacking?

Cybercafe Police in China

Since the Chinese government does not like to be embarrassed, I’m sure they want to stop the amateurs who keep being traced back to China. Then again, some group in another country, like Germany, could be routing the signal through China.

See Google Recycled http://wp.me/pN4pY-2r

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2 Comments | China, government, media | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Building Virtue

April 16, 2010

Regardless of the fact that the West calls the rulers of China Communists, it is clear that to the Chinese mind, the Mandate of Heaven shifted from Mao to Hua Guofeng and Deng Xiaoping and their predecessors. It will be up to China’s future rulers not to lose that mandate.

Milk and Tea for Chairman Hua

It doesn’t matter if the words ‘The Mandate of Heaven’ are invoked or not. It is obvious that the ‘Five Great Relationships’, as taught by Confucius, and the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ are infused in the Chinese thought process. Most born in China do not take a class to learn what this means, as students have to do in America to learn what the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights mean. In China, one is raised with these philosophies in mind.

Piety, face, The Five Great Relationships, and the Mandate of Heaven are the foundation guide the behavior of the majority of Chinese.

The Western media and the political rulers of Western nations infer that Communism is evil because it is one party, (so-called) socialist political system, but most Chinese don’t see it that way.

To most Chinese, if the current rulers of China do their job and rule with the blessings of Heaven. The Western democratic political process is foreign to Chinese. To them, “Why change something that works? Leave it to Heaven.”

See The Mandate of Heaven http://wp.me/pN4pY-nc

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Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, government, politics | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Change Mandated by Heaven

April 15, 2010

To many Chinese, the Taiping and Boxer rebellions failed because they were not blessed by Heaven. After World War II, when Mao’s Communists defeated the Nationalists, who— protected by America—fled to Taiwan, a case could be made that it was the Mandate of Heaven that brought about this change since World War II caused many in China to lose their lives demonstrating the Kuomintang’s inability to protect the Chinese people.

Chang Kai Shek - Leader of the Kuomintang

When Mao died, the new chairman of China’s Communist Party, Hua Guofeng, ordered the arrest of the Gang of Four. Almost everyone connected to the Gang of Four, which included Mao’s wife, Jian Qing, became non-persons. Some went to prison and died like Mao’s wife. Others were pushed aside and ignored. Since millions died due to the Cultural Revolution, they had lost the Mandate to rule.

Deng Xiaoping repudiated the Cultural Revolution and in 1977 launched the ‘Beijing Spring’, leading to a market economy and China’s prosperity today. The suffering that occurred during much of Mao’s twenty-seven year rule was criticized openly making if official that Mao had lost the Mandate of Heaven. After all, more than thirty-million Chinese died horrible deaths due to the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

See Deng Xiaoping’s 20/20 Vision http://wp.me/pN4pY-2o

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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, government, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Heaven Grants the Right to Rule

April 15, 2010

The Mandate of Heaven is based on four principles:

1. The right to rule is granted by Heaven
2. There is only one Heaven therefore, there can be only one ruler.
3. The right to rule is based on the ‘virtue’ of the ruler.
4. The right to rule is not limited to one dynasty

When the Ch’ing Dynasty fell in 1912, and the Nationalists stepped in, a claim could be made that this change occurred because The Mandate of Heaven made it so. After all, history tells us that the Manchu of the Ch’ing Dynasty were brutal rulers. In addition, during the nineteenth century, China suffered through droughts, famines and rebellions that cost millions their lives.

The principals from the Mandate of Heaven and Confucius’s Five Great Relationships must be on the minds of the members for China’s central government. That’s why, after Mao, China’s government revised the constitution and built-in term limits (two five-year terms) unlike the United States and other Western democracies. There is also an age limit in China set at sixty-seven. In China, we will not see deaf men nearing ninety falling asleep in their senate seats.

See Power Corrupts http://wp.me/pN4pY-40

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Leave a Comment » | China, Chinese Culture, government, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Twin Disasters Shine a Light on Bias

April 10, 2010

In China, a coalmine is flooded and traps more than a hundred. The Huffington Post reports this and says, “The real issue for the government (China’s) is to learn the lessons from this…The fundamental issue is, the miners should never have been put in this situation in the first place.”

In another piece, “A West Virginia coal mine explosion demands action”, Washington Post. “A huge explosion at the Upper Big Branch coalmine…claimed the lives of 25 miners.” This happened even after Congress passed the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response act to make it safer.

After the US Congress passed this tougher law, the company that owned the West Virginia mine was cited with several safety violations prior to the explosion but was allowed to continue operating.

It seems the miners didn’t speak out for fear of losing their jobs. True Slant.com said, “Interesting how the West Virginia state police are necessary to allow the mining company CEO to speak now. He probably wouldn’t need them if the miners had been allowed to speak months ago.”

The US Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech but that freedom was written to protect US citizens from the government—not to protect people from corporations. The Huffington Post was right about one thing, “The miners should have never been put in this situation in the first place.”

See Human Rights the Chinese Way http://wp.me/pN4pY-m7

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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