Dealing with a tough Beijing

EDITORIAL

Published: 25 Feb 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

A disturbing report from China last week highlighted the increasing tension that surrounds Beijing's expanding interests in our region. According to Liu Yuejin, commander of the formidable anti-drug police in southern China, Beijing had prepared plans and planes last year to attack the drug lord Naw Kham inside Myanmar with a drone aircraft. It would have been the first such use of drones in the Asean region. China would have become just the fourth country to use drones to attack another nation. And it could have been an act of war.

Mr Liu's superiors cancelled plans to use the drones to attack Myanmar. They wanted Naw Kham captured alive, for a show trial. The Shan drug lord was accused of masterminding attacks that killed 13 Chinese sailors inside Thailand on the Mekong River. The Chinese succeeded in capturing Naw Kham, and he is on death row in China, and likely to be executed soon.

The casual reference by Mr Liu to the planned drone attack, however, is the latest threat from China concerning the Asean region. Beijing's claims on the China Sea are better known, and are currently taken more seriously because they have brought armed clashes in several cases. But both the air and naval warnings are part of a new Chinese tone in its foreign relations. It bears directly on our region.

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jamjon01
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Discussion 16 : 25 Feb 2013 at 21.4716
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Why on earth are you griping about Westerners? We will see how long it takes you to give us a call once China has it's foot on your throat....Then we will be okay? We will pass your 'goodness' test then? We have done nothing to you and yet all you do is run us down...Have ya even ever left your shore? Have you ever read a book that wasn't written by some BIASED historian? Try traveling this big ol world and see what's true and what's BS..Don't just show your ignorance by hiding behind some cyber wall.
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jamjon01
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Discussion 15 : 25 Feb 2013 at 21.3915
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Hehe, as I read these comments, they are not even about the subject. Most can't wait to talk of the EVIL Westerners, hehe, YOU haven't even been there. Propaganda and the desire to actually believe that life simply cannot be that good anywhere is all you want to spout, hehe. Life is that good. Get over your bad self, dudes. Is noone pushing anything on you so what's all the gripe? I think you have enough to worry about than us Westerners.
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geoffo
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Discussion 14 : 25 Feb 2013 at 20.2114
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D12 Musashi. You say the Chinese were humiliated for thousands of years- yes true- but by other Chinese.

Closer to our time the US helped China during WW11 and China repaid this "debt" by sneakily attacking them through their proxy North Korea just 5 years later.

A US President visited and offered access to US markets to encourage China to open up. China responds today with hacking. Now China claims all of the South China sea and threaten war for something they had no interest in just a few years ago.

China want to make up its centuries of self inflicted humiliation by humiliating others.
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felixqui
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Discussion 13 : 25 Feb 2013 at 16.1713
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For an example of a Western country getting free speech totally wrong, see the report "Iceland's Internet porn ban sparks uproar" in the Post's "breaking news" section.

There is no double standard.
What is wrong when done by China is every bit as wrong when done by a Western power choosing injustice over justice and ignorance over the possibility of knowledge.
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musashi
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Discussion 12 : 25 Feb 2013 at 15.3712
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“No Dogs, No Chinese Allowed” signs were put up by westerners and Japanese in the early 1900s.
“Sick Man of Asia” was used by them up till WWII to refer to Chinese.

The Chinese civilization of thousands of years were humiliated and "woke up" recently after further decades of inward looking communist policies. Now, everyone can see the economic and social progress made by Mainland and Overseas Chinese.

There is no need for Chinese or Asians to kowtow anymore to westerners, especially to those who may be jobless in their own countries and who act condescendingly in their host countries (eg. a minority who regularly call Thais stu
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felixqui
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Discussion 11 : 25 Feb 2013 at 15.1011
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ATNN, re D8,
The difference is that in the West, as the Aaron Swartz case shows, knowledge is at least possible - the possibility has strong legal protection - whereas in China, the law strongly enforces ignorance, and thus renders worthless the opinion of all law abiding citizens.

Thankfully, many Chinese feel that justice is more important than the law.
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felixqui
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Discussion 10 : 25 Feb 2013 at 15.0310
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ATNN, re D8
Your comment proves my point. Aaron's death led to uncensored discussion.

Where free speech is possible, such a comment can be made, and errors can be corrected.
In the West, errors can be corrected because free speech is possible. In China, you could not post such a comment that might lead to a well founded opinion.

I am not arguing that the West is without errors, merely that in the West, free speech allows errors to be corrected, eventually. Maybe.

In China, errors and evils often cannot even be brought to light because of the prevailing censorship, and therefore cannot be corrected. Nor can opinion be of any wo
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onlyasking
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Discussion 9 : 25 Feb 2013 at 14.399
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China will only go to war if it's used to divert its population from internal problems. As long as China are internally stable they will chip away at the other countries. As for Thailand, they are historically very good at walking the tight rope between super powers. They need the US military back up but also need the Chinese market.
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ATNN
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Discussion 8 : 25 Feb 2013 at 14.178
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#7 The West is simply more clever and insidious in terms of censorship and manipulating its population. As far as "freedom of speech," ask Arron Swartz, web activist about how "enlightened" the West is... oh wait, you can't, he was literally hounded to death. Big business, special interests are universal, and must be guarded against. There is no lesser of two evils.
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felixqui
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Discussion 7 : 25 Feb 2013 at 13.047
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ATNN, re D5.

There is no double standard. The West also has its faults, but forced ignorance via censorship to render worthless the opinion of all law abiding citizens is generally not one of them.

In the US, citizens can and DO speak out against their government. There are no gags on saying that Bush or Obama are lying about something, such as WMDs in Iraq. It is at least possible for law abiding US citizens to have a well founded opinion on matters of great public concern. The same is not true for China and all other lovers of despotic censoring of free speech of citizens.
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Dealing with a tough Beijing | Bangkok Post: opinion