Pride and Prejudice

On July 27, President Hu Jintao of The People Republic of China sent President Ma Ying Jiu of Taiwan a congratulatory telegram on his electoral success. Ma Ying Jiu has been elected as Chairman of the Kuomintang, the political party that the president belongs to. In the telegram, Mr. Jintao offered good wishes for the Chinese nation.

China has been claiming sovereignty over the independent nation of Taiwan for the past 60 years. In my mind, its seems demeaning that Hu Jintao, president of China and Chairman of the Communist Party, had just wished us a bright future for all Chinese citizens. Many Taiwanese, if not most, have a heritage and ancestry that is Chinese. A lot of whom came over as recent as 1949 with Chiang Kai Shek and the Kuomintang after being defeated by Mao and the Communist Party in a civil war . This 60 year separation has created two drastically different cultures in terms of just about everything. The language, religion, government, customs, and society are asymmetrical.

I suspect that the world is insensitive to the rhetoric of the Hu Jintao and the Communist Party and its implications for three reasons: One, there are not a lot of people in the west who do not understand Chinese do not pay much attention to China's publications for numerous reasons. Secondly, because of the world's business interests and investments in China they are willing to ignore the rhetoric of China and the predicament of the Taiwanese future. Many Taiwanese are also starting to not worry about China's policy toward Taiwan as they increasingly consider China a solution to their economic problems. Lastly, because China does not have a blue water navy which makes it less "imperialistic" than Western countries that have blue water navies. China, with the exception of Tibet, Xinjiang, and Taiwan, rarely interferes militarily or politically with other countries.

Imagine if Britain had sent George W. Bush a telegram congratulating him on his nomination as Republican presidential candidate with hopes of a bright future for the "English Speaking Nation". I think a lot of people would consider this imperial and incredibly prejudice if not racist.