China’s Next Step

June 22, 2010

In 1950, Mao promised his people that China would stand equal to the world’s major powers. That day is close.  After the Soviet Empire collapsed, the United States treated the world as if it were America’s back yard.  What did that get the US?  9/11, deep debt and three conflicts: Iraq, Afghanistan, and fundamentalist Islamic terrorists whose goal is to destroy America—not China—yet.

I read what Dr. Michael Economides had to say at Forbes.com, and he writes as if we must not allow China to develop into a modern nation that benefits all Chinese.

Dr. Economides is wrong. America should encourage China to globalize and modernize.  Let them drink at the fountain of oil. We need China to be our equal and our ally.  By encouraging China to depend on oil reserves from around the globe, they will have no choice but to be America’s partner and help police the world.

Shanghai

The challenge Americans face is to keep what we already have. What America must do is switch to green energy and break our addiction to oil as soon as possible. In fact, India has the same goals that China has—to have what America has had for decades.  Since China and India have more than 2 billion people, let them share the wealth, and the responsibility that comes with it should be larger too.

See Volting all of China into the 21st Century

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning My Splendid Concubine and writes The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Leave a Comment » | America, China, economy, environment, Islam, politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

When Islamic Fundamentalists become Activists

May 31, 2010

I’ve never seen the Western Media mention that Xinjiang is in Central Asia when reporting violence in that region of China.

Why are Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan called terrorists and militants, but Islamic fundamentalists in China’s Xingjian province, just across the border from the Afghan war and the fighting in Pakistan, are referred to as activists in the Western media?

The Uighur people are Islamic and native to Xinjiang province in China. They are also culturally tied to Central Asia. Rebiya Kadeer, an “Uighur activist”, lives in exile in Washington D.C.   The walls of her small office are covered with photographs of meetings with former President G.W. Bush and Laura Bush.

I have never seen any mention of the fact that China has a history going back hundreds of years when the Ch’ing Dynasty (the Manchu) put down several rebellions by Islamic Uighur rebels in Xinjiang province. I wonder if Rebiya Kadeer is aware of this history.

In fact, with an estimated 74 billion barrels of oil in Xingjian province (three times the proven reserves in the US), China isn’t going anywhere for some time.

See China’s Oil Hunger Grows

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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2 Comments | China, Chinese history, Islam, media, politics | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Clear Case of Western Media Bias

May 31, 2010

When an Islamic fundamentalist is killed or arrested anywhere in the world but China, they are labeled a terrorist in the Western media but when the same forces do something similar in China they are called activists. China’s Xinjiang province is located east of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.  All of these Central Asian countries share a border with China’s Xinjiang region.

Here are two examples from the Western media that were published in July 2009. Time printed a news piece Afghanistan’s Deadly Export: How the War is Spilling Over into Central Asia, by John Wendle/Moscow

The lead paragraph starts, “When five militants, all Russian citizens, were shot and killed in a gun battle at a remote military checkpoint near Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan, the Tajik government was quick to label the dead as “members of an organized terrorist group.” The group has not been named, but the shootings highlight the grim irony of the struggle against terrorism in Afghanistan.”

A few days later, Chisa Fujioka wrote for Reuters, Uighur leader says 10,000 went missing in one night.  The lead said, “Nearly 10,000 Uighurs involved in deadly riots in China’s northwestern Xingjian region went missing on one night, exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer said Wednesday, calling for an international investigation.”

See What is the Truth about Tiananmen Square?

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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

Cultural Differences, the Ignorant American and Star Trek

May 21, 2010

I’ve watched Star Trek since the 1960s and have seen most of the spin offs.  In the Star Trek Universe there are many cultures and races—far too many for even Christians or Islam to convert since that seems to be a driving force behind both of these major religions even if it means using war and violence to make it happen.

One way to look at this is to consider cultures and countries like China, Japan, both Koreas, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and others as if they are light-years away from Western culture.

If the US sent a spaceship to a far off world around another star and discovered a culture that was alien to our way of life, but these aliens had powerful, modern weapons and a strong military to defend themselves there would be no way to force them to change as the West did to so many cultures during the 19th century and a good portion of the 20th.

But what if this culture around that foreign star had products and materials  we wanted or needed for our civilization to survive. To do business with them, we would have to accept that culture the way it was and not attempt to change them or judge them as if that planet were an American Territory to be terrorized and converted.

None of the Asian cultures on our earth developed from Christianity, Judaism or Islamic roots. Even our staunchest allies in Asia, Singapore and Thailand, are Asian cultures with governments that do not fit the America model.

What does loss of Face mean to most Chinese?

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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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Leave a Comment » | Christianity, Confucianism, cultural differences, Islam, religion, Taoism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Four Equals One China—Minority China (Part 5 of 7)

May 16, 2010

There are 56 ethnic Chinese minorities with about 100 million people among them. These minorities have their own languages and cultures. The majority, the Han Chinese, have seven languages. There is one written language in China.

Learning Mandarin and English are mandatory in the public schools. It is expected and mandatory that “all” students will spend 11 years in school.

Until the 11th, Five-Year Plan, urban schools were much better than China’s rural schools.  It’s too early to see the results yet. After all, it took more than three decades to achieve what China has already accomplished.

Uighurs in Xinjiang province

The two minorities best known outside China are the Tibetans (4.6 million) and the 8 million Uighurs in China’s northwest Xinjiang province. Few of the province’s Uighurs speak the national language of Mandarin. They are educated in their own tongue in Uighur schools, and they are treated in Uighur hospitals that they claim are sub-par.

The Uighurs have a history of insurrection with the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). There were several rebellions during the 19th century that were put down ruthlessly by the Manchu.

Go to Four Equals One China: Part 6

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. 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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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Chinese minorities, Islam, politics, Tibet | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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