Unryu Suganuma: The Rising Eastern Yellow-Dragon

While the U.S. spent $700 billion to bailout gamblers in Wall Street, the Chinese government spent much time “bailing out” its reputation in global business as the result of the recent tainted milk scandal. Two different social systems created two different issues for the global community. American financial gamblers dealing in sub-prime loans destroyed global business confidence. At the same time, the Chinese milk scandal fundamentally destroyed global consumer confidence. However, both the American financial crisis and the Chinese tainted milk crisis have one common mistake. That is, both governments failed to supervise the systems strictly and effectively. Accountability for business practices whether under capitalism in the U.S. or socialism in China, should be a priority for all.

The Financial Times chief economics commentator Martin Wolf made a strange argument about the recent financial meltdown on Wall Street.  He published a newspaper article entitled “Asia’s Revenge,” accusing China and others of creating what he called a “Bretton Woods II” or “export-led growth” plan in order to seek revenge on the USA because Western hedge funds created the Asian crisis in 1997-98 (Financial Times October 8, 2008). It is easy to blame “others” rather than oneself. It was not the Chinese president that signed the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. This was Bill Clinton wit overwhelming bipartisan support from congress. Nor was it the duty of the head of the Bank of China, to tighten regulations of financial derivatives and not allow cheap money on Wall Street; this was Federal Reserve former Chairman Alan Greenspan’s job. Moreover, no CEOs in China were awarded tens of millions of dollars in bonuses for creating a scheme that resulted in financial meltdown and financial chaos. It was greedy Americans who broke the law by selling subprime loans to American citizens. Nobody believes that the Chinese or the Arabs, had a plot to destroy American wealth. Unfortunately, even Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, did not understand what was going on in Wall Street; Bernanke needed a special lecture from people in Wall Street to learn the current complicated financial methods. How can one blame everything to China or others. It is American self-destruction on the Wall Street!

“We have made clear to the Chinese Government, and publicly, the we do not support Tibetan independence. Like every other EU member state, and the United States, we regard Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China,” stated by the United Kingdom foreign office website on October 29th, the days before the meeting taking place between Dalai Lama and the Chinese government. Dalai Lama’s “genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people” might not be achieved anytime soon as reflected by meetings his representatives Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen had with Du Qinglin, the head of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee on November 6th in Beijing. This is the 9th round of negotiations between envoys of the Dalai Lama and the central government. Mr. Du states that China will never tolerate any attempts at “Tibet independence” or semi-independence” or “independence in any disguised form.” “Tibet independence is out question,” he said. Instead, Mr. Du urged the Dalai Lama to honor the promises he made during the July negations. According to the Chinese media (Xinhua News) Dalai Lama’s envoys accepted the central government’s requests in July:

a. Not supporting plots aimed at inciting violent criminal activities;

b. Not backing terrorist activities of the secessionist “Tibetan Youth Congress,” and instead taking concrete steps to check them;

c. And not supporting statements or actions seeking “Tibet independence” to split the region from the country.

Now, the entire Tibetan movement is at a crossroads.  Dalai Lama needs his wisdom to overcome a number of difficult issues when a special meeting in Dharamsala, India, to be held during November 17th-22nd. Will he give up his idea — “genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people?” Will he directly talk to the central  government? Will he make any concessions?? In the final analysis, time for the 73-year old Dalai Lama is running out. 

On October 31^st, Gen. Tamogami Toshio, Chief of Staff of Japan’s Air Force, was fired because of his essay, “Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?,” which expressed an odd view of  world history much different from the majority of global audience. Tamogami, was praised by the right-wing former Defense Minister, Koike Yuriko, as a “Tom Cruise in the SDF.” Tamogami’s essay was made available both in English and Japanese over the internet, after Tamogami won the $30,000 first prize in a writing competition organized by a hotel and condominium developer, APA Group. Right-wings scholars were the reviewers on the prize-winning committee. Japanese politicians often have a different view from others regarding WWII history. No one should be surprised at Tamogami’s essay and his views which are probably representative of the mainstream Japanese political view. Since the 1990s, the Japanese right-wing has created what is often referred to as an iron triangle: politicians-media-scholars, to poison the views of Japanese youth who were born after the WWII.  One way the Japanese right-wing politicians have pushed their political policies and agenda is through the public education system which often uses right-wing broadcasts and propaganda written into comic and history textbooks.  Particularly upsetting is the fact that through textbooks, right-wing scholars have attempted to rewrite WWII history.

The following passages are the major arguments in Tomogami’s paper.

General View of WWII:

“Even now, there are many people who think that our country’s “aggression” caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War…. But we need to realize that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation…. We must take back the glorious history of Japan. A nation that denies its own history is destined to pursue a path of decline…. If Japan had not fought the Greater East Asia War at that time, it might have taken another 100 or 200 years before we could have experienced the world of racial equality that we have today….”

China: “The current Chinese government obstinately insists that there was a “Japanese invasion,” but Japan obtained its interests in the Chinese mainland legally under international law through the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and so on, and it placed its troops there based on treaties in order to protect those interests.”

Korea: Japan occupation was “very moderate” because the rise of the population in the Korea Peninsula during Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation as “proof that Korea under Japanese rule was also prosperous and safe.”

USA: “Roosevelt had become president on his public pledge not to go to war, so in order to start a war between the United States and Japan, it had to appear that Japan took the first shot, Japan was caught in Roosevelt’s trap and carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor…. Roosevelt had been a puppet of the Comintern, the international communist movement founded in Moscow in 1919….”

On November 3rd, Tamogami Toshio had the press conference regarding his paper by saying, “There is nothing wrong in my paper,” and “Japan is not an aggressive nation.”   

On September 22, former President Lee Teng-hui visited Okinawa, Japan for the first time. He was treated with VIP status with more than 400 police protecting him. When Lee met the Governor of Okinawa, Nakaima Hirokazu, for lunch on 24th, Lee Teng-hui remarked “The Tiaoyutai (Diaoyu/Senkaku) Islands have belonged to Japan since long ago,” which is the same remark in September 2002. However, Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Lee’s statement as “personal opinion.”

According to China Youth Daily (July 5, 2008), Zhongguo Qingnian Bao, some officials from other parts of China used the excuse of inspecting the Sichuan earthquake for recreational purposes. These officials, spent large amounts of Chinese money (300,000 Chinese yuan) and took delegations of 20-30-people delegation on the trips spending very short periods in the earthquake areas and provided extremely little money to the disaster areas. This is the typical Chinese way of corruption. Under the guise of the inspecting earthquake victims, some officials stayed at lavish hotels and enjoyed delicious southern meals, while a majority of earthquake’s victims are homeless, workless, and assetless, living shelter home. People are wondering if this is the way the Communist officials “serve the people?”

The year, 2008, is not a usual year for China. Internationally, surrounding countries have been chaotic. To the East of China, people in South Korea have protested imported American beef for months; the new regime in South Korea is in crisis. To its South, people of the opposition party demand that the Thai government resign; the Thai regime has not resolved the issue with the opposition party even though it survived a non-confidence vote. In the north, Mongolia had riots after the opposition Democratic Party lost the election. The Mongolian government imposed martial law to address political unrest.

       Domestically, the Olympics that started at 8 o’clock of August 8, 2008, was a huge event in Chinese history. The Chinese believe that the number “8″ is a lucky number; and therefore, the Olympics opened at 8:08 evening of August 8, 2008 in Beijing. But, the Tibet riot that started on March 14, and Sichuan earthquake on May 12, both add up to “8″ also (3+1+4=8 and 5+1+2=8). Yet, the Chinese successfully finished the Olympic performance in August, and safely returned three Chinese astronauts on the Shenzhou VII spacecraft to earth, as well as completing the nation’s first space-walk on September 29. The number “8″ might bring the luck for China too. Even though the Chinese economy has slowed in October during this chaotic financial crisis, China has been one of emergent global leaders who have been respected and looked upon around world.