To: marginmike who wrote (96934 ) 4/8/2001 5:54:34 AM From: Seeker of Truth Read Replies (2) | Respond to "Chinese " have an axe to grind etc. In my opinion this is intolerable racism. You and the many similar posters should say clearly "Chinese Communists". Ordinary Chinese, without any political power, include people who are the salt of the earth. The phrase "butchers of Beijing" would be accurate but even here we have to be more sophisticated. For example the present president of China, Chiang, had nothing to do with the massacre at Tien An Men. That was perpretrated by three men, two of whom are dead. The third, Li Peng, is powerful enough to prevent a public reexamination of the event. In my opinion the proper way to deal with the Chinese Communists is to appeal to and stress common interest. It is idiotic to call them competitors. They lack superior technology, a superior political system, superior anything. Where's the competition? Anyway your idiotic president takes that tack. The common interest is the industrialization of China. The Communists imagine they can keep their power if the country is industrialized and the people can eat well. We assume, I think correctly, that an industrial China will be less primitive and more democratic. Tang dynasty poets wrote movingly of the sufferings of the common people. They are still suffering. The masses of China are our potential allies and should constantly be wooed. We shouldn't give the hard liners material for deceptive propaganda. As for the surveillance by pilots, what's wrong with the satellites? Surely the U.S. defense department can see from above any preparation for an invasion of Taiwan, without listening in to telephone conversations. It is stupidly provocative to fly military planes near by China.
