Listen
to the voice
All took money: Chen’s
daughter
OUTBURST: Cornered by reporters near her office, Chen Hsing-yu said she
doubted any Taiwanese politician had ever declared all of his or her campaign
funding
By Ko Shu-ling, Meggie Lu and Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 1
The daughter of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) accused Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) members yesterday of taking money from her father when
they were running for public office but not declaring it.
Describing the money laundering scandal enveloping her father as the result of
“political strife,” a visibly angry Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) called the honesty of
all politicians — both in the DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — into
question, saying she wondered whether they ever truthfully declared their
political donations or leftover campaign funds.
“Oh, yes, the KMT wants us dead. Chen Shui-bian is their No. 1 enemy,” she said.
“If Chen Shui-bian were dead, [President] Ma Ying-jeou would not have to do
anything and would easily get elected. It doesn’t matter that his approval
rating is as low as 1 percent or he sells out Taiwan to China.”
Chen Hsing-yu, known for her quick temper and sharp tongue, lambasted DPP
members she said had taken money from her father but now pretended to be clean.
She singled out former premiers Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) as
well as Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊).
Her outburst came in response to questions from reporters as she headed into her
office yesterday morning.
The former president created a political shockwave last Thursday when he
apologized for failing to fully declare his campaign funds and for wiring a
large sum overseas, while denying embezzling money from the government or being
involved in money laundering. He said his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) had been in
charge of the couple’s finances and that he knew nothing about them.
Chen Shui-bian’s office later said that more than US$20 million had been sent
abroad.
Prosecutors have said they believe Wu used figureheads, including her husband,
brother, son, daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, to wire money overseas.
Saying her father had told her to keep quiet, Chen Hsing-yu was trying to call
her mother on her cellphone to tell her that she was going public even as she
yelled at reporters that the alleged scandal was a political attack on her
family.
“It is OK that I die, but I cannot die for nothing,” she said. “Before I die, I
want the public to know who took the money.”
She criticized the campaign finance laws as “unreasonable” and said that it was
not fair that her father was taking all the blame.
She said that all she knew about the scandal was that all the money that had
been wired overseas came from her father’s surplus campaign funds, but that she
did not know if money laundering was involved.
When asked about why her parents wired the money abroad, she said: “Do you think
it was legal to keep it here?” before asking if reporters knew why and where KMT
officials had sent their money overseas.
She also shouted at a reporter who asked her why the money had not been
deposited under her parents’ names, but under those of her and her brother and
other family members.
“Do you think that would work? If you ask around, people will tell you they
always use figureheads,” she said.
She said she had not known there was an overseas bank account in her name until
she read about it in the newspapers. She said she had never thought she had so
much money.
“If I had that much money, I could have just stayed home. Why do I have to work
so hard?” she said before stepping into her office.
Meanwhile, Hsieh’s office issued a statement denying that he had taken money
from Chen Shui-bian during “this year’s presidential election,” adding that it
was natural for party members to help raise funds for candidates.
A staffer for Su denied that he had ever taken money from the former president,
but thanked him for his campaigning efforts.
Chen Chu said she had received “resources distributed by the party headquarters”
when she was running for Kaohsiung mayor in 2006. She said it had been the
former president’s duty to raise funds for the DPP given his seniority, but his
problem now had nothing to do with party fundraising.
The DPP’s Taipei chapter decided yesterday to suspend the party rights of Wu,
her son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚). They
have 15 days to appeal the decision with the DPP’s Central Review Committee.
DPP Secretary-General Wang Tuoh (王拓), speaking on behalf of the party, said that
if there were widespread problems in declaring leftover campaign funds across
party lines, then the law should be amended to resolve the problem.
However, the DPP did not know about individual fund declarations, Wang said.
Meanwhile the DPP caucus convener and financial management director Ker
Chien-ming (柯建銘) said most of what Chen Hsing-yu said was true, and that he had
received fundraising help from her father.
However, in regards to political contributions, Chen Shui-bian had opened the
biggest Pandora’s box in politics, he said.
Every political party and figure has problems of this nature — the problem was
not who received money from whom, but that there was no firm set of laws to
regulate fundraising, Ker said.
In an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister
newspaper) yesterday, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that she expected
the party’s anti-corruption committee to investigate all members who may have
involvement in corruption.
The committee has the authority to initiate investigations and to rule in any
corruption cases, Tsai said after a meeting with DPP representatives yesterday.
In addition to the former president, the committee would “investigate all the
cases that occurred in the past,” so that the DPP could be answerable to the
public, she said.
She also said the DPP will rely on small donations in the future
Meanwhile, Ker said that while the Chen Shui-bian scandal would hurt fundraising
efforts in the short run, the party would continue to push its small-donations
program, since it would be beneficial in the long run, the Central News Agency
reported.
In related news, Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien told reporters
yesterday that any public official found to have helped the former president
deposit large sums of money abroad will be punished.
“The Control Yuan will investigate any crimes or malfeasance committed by
government officials, but we must discuss how and when we should intervene [in
the investigation of this case],” he said.
“Former president Chen’s case involves not only the former president but also
the former director-general of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau [Yeh
Sheng-mao (葉盛茂)] and may also involve other government officials,” he said.
“Those who have helped Chen with his bad deeds should also be brought to
justice,” he said.
Tibet activists accuse
China of increased repression
AGENCIES, BEIJING
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 1
China has stepped up repression in its ethnic Tibetan regions to prevent any
protests during the Beijing Olympics, an activist group said yesterday.
“To prevent potentially embarrassing protests inside Tibet, China has turned
large parts of Tibet into a virtual prison for the duration of the Games,” Matt
Whitticase, spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign, said in a statement.
China poured security forces into its Tibetan areas after riots in March to
quell the unrest, and the Free Tibet Campaign said the military build-up was
accompanied by policies aimed at punishing activist monks and monasteries.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not have any immediate comment.
But an editorial in the state-run China Daily said foreign countries had been
unfairly critical of Beijing’s treatment of its ethnic minorities: “Many should
feel ashamed of their groundless accusations once they know what the Chinese
government has done for ethnic minorities.”
China is planning to build six new railway lines in and around Tibet that will
go into operation before 2020, the Ministry of Railways said in an announcement
on its Web site on Saturday.
It said two of the new lines would run from Lhasa to other areas in Tibet, while
the other four would be built in other provinces on the Tibetan plateau.
In other developments, the government received 77 applications from 149 people
who wanted to hold protests during the Olympics, but all were withdrawn,
suspended or rejected, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
The complaints ranged from labor and medical disputes to inadequate welfare, it
said.
Citing a spokesman for the Public Security Bureau, Xinhua said 74 of the
applications were withdrawn because the problems “were properly addressed by
relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” Two other
applications were suspended because they did not provide sufficient data and one
was rejected because it violated laws against demonstrations and protests, the
spokesman said.
Human rights groups and families of people who have applied for permits to
protest say some were taken away afterward by security agents, prompting critics
to accuse officials of using the plan as a trap to draw potential protesters to
their attention.
Wang Wei (王偉), vice president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee,
yesterday defended the protest plan to journalists.
“Many problems have not been solved, not even by the United Nations, and some
want them to be solved during the Olympic Games, putting pressure on the
International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Olympic Committee,” Wang said.
“This is not realistic ... We think that you do not really understand China’s
reality.”
A China has stepped up repression in its ethnic Tibetan regions to prevent any
protests during the Beijing Olympics, an activist group said yesterday.
“To prevent potentially embarrassing protests inside Tibet, China has turned
large parts of Tibet into a virtual prison for the duration of the Games,” Matt
Whitticase, spokesman for the Free Tibet Campaign, said in a statement.
China poured security forces into its Tibetan areas after riots in March to
quell the unrest, and the Free Tibet Campaign said the military build-up was
accompanied by policies aimed at punishing activist monks and monasteries.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not have any immediate comment.
But an editorial in the state-run China Daily said foreign countries had been
unfairly critical of Beijing’s treatment of its ethnic minorities: “Many should
feel ashamed of their groundless accusations once they know what the Chinese
government has done for ethnic minorities.”
China is planning to build six new railway lines in and around Tibet that will
go into operation before 2020, the Ministry of Railways said in an announcement
on its Web site on Saturday.
It said two of the new lines would run from Lhasa to other areas in Tibet, while
the other four would be built in other provinces on the Tibetan plateau.
In other developments, the government received 77 applications from 149 people
who wanted to hold protests during the Olympics, but all were withdrawn,
suspended or rejected, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
The complaints ranged from labor and medical disputes to inadequate welfare, it
said.
Citing a spokesman for the Public Security Bureau, Xinhua said 74 of the
applications were withdrawn because the problems “were properly addressed by
relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” Two other
applications were suspended because they did not provide sufficient data and one
was rejected because it violated laws against demonstrations and protests, the
spokesman said.
Human rights groups and families of people who have applied for permits to
protest say some were taken away afterward by security agents, prompting critics
to accuse officials of using the plan as a trap to draw potential protesters to
their attention.
Wang Wei (王偉), vice president of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee,
yesterday defended the protest plan to journalists.
“Many problems have not been solved, not even by the United Nations, and some
want them to be solved during the Olympic Games, putting pressure on the
International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Olympic Committee,” Wang said.
“This is not realistic ... We think that you do not really understand China’s
reality.”
Also See: China confiscates Bibles from
US Christians
A newer KMT method of
torture
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 8
Although there is no historical evidence that it was invented by the Chinese, it
may be appropriate to note that one of the oldest forms of coercion is known as
“Chinese water torture.” By continuously dripping water on a victim’s head over
an extended period of time, it is said that the technique can drive a victim
insane.
Nowadays, it seems like those drops of water are being applied to Taiwan’s
forehead, with each droplet taxing the nation’s identity a little more each
time. What’s worse is that — like a real victim of torture — Taiwanese appear to
be strapped to a chair and fated to a long period of suffering. And the torturer
is a tag team: the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Drip: “Chinese Taipei.” Drop: “Chunghwa Post.” Drip: No WHO or UN application
under the name “Taiwan.” Drop: Our elected president is but a “Mr.” Drip: The
possible renaming of National Democracy Memorial Hall, after the murderous
dictator the monument was built for. And drop: In the Dominican Republic over
the weekend, where President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) delegation was referred to —
for all to see and without as much as a complaint — as “China, Taiwan.”
This latest instance, however, may just be too much to bear, as it was not only
unacceptable but also an insult to the intelligence. Queried by reporters about
the name, a Taiwanese embassy official in Santo Domingo (the ambassador could
not be bothered to meet the media) said that “China, Taiwan” had no ideological
connotation because when people in the Dominican Republic say “China,” they mean
“Taiwan.”
National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起), who was part of the
delegation and who himself seems to find it difficult to differentiate between
the two countries, echoed those comments.
Not only are we supposed to swallow that asinine explanation, but Su and the
official’s comments were insulting to the people in our allied country, who are
said to be unable to tell the difference between Taiwan and the country next
door, in the glare of the Olympic Games media frenzy as we speak, 267 times the
size of Taiwan and whose population is about 57 times bigger. To think that
people in the Caribbean cannot tell the difference between the two countries is
condescending and fails to explain how using “China, Taiwan” could help those
supposedly ignorant people differentiate between Taipei and Beijing.
At the minimum, it is no way to treat a diplomatic ally who has stood by us for
more than 60 years. At the worst, it is consistent with a blurring of the lines
the Ma administration has undertaken and the confusing signals that make it
increasingly difficult for the rest of the world to tell the difference between
Taiwan and China.
If those signals continue, the world could very well reach the conclusion that
Taiwan just doesn’t care whether people can tell the difference between the two
countries, which can only result in further isolation for Taiwanese.
Before the penultimate drop drives us insane, let’s give those straps a good
yank and get up from that chair. The torturers have had enough fun.
Ex-first couple and son named
suspects
‘money laundering’: The justice ministry
said it had expanded its cooperation with countries where Chen Shui-bian’s
family was suspected of wiring its funds
By Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19,
2008, Page 3
Chen Chun-ying, the wife of former president Chen
Shui-bian’s brother-in-law, is rushed to hospital after she fainted during
questioning by the Special Investigation Panel of the Supreme Prosecutors’
Office in Taipei yesterday.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Prosecutors yesterday named former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), his wife Wu
Shu-jen (吳淑珍), Chen’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), Chen’s daughter-in-law Huang
Jui-ching (黃睿靚) and Wu’s brother Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂) as the five main suspects in
their investigation into money laundering.
Prosecutor Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮) said that prosecutors had summoned Wu Ching-mao
and his wife Chen Chun-ying (陳俊英) for questioning on suspicion that their
overseas accounts served as the depository for the funds the former first couple
remitted out of the country.
However, the questioning came to an abrupt end at around 5pm when Chen Chun-ying
passed out during the interview, Chu said.
Chen Chun-ying was sent to National Taiwan University Hospital for treatment.
Wu Ching-mao, who accompanied his wife to the hospital, told reporters that his
wife tried to commit suicide by taking a number of sleeping pills because she
felt had been “unfairly” treated during the interview.
“Prosecutors asked her [Chen Chun-ying] to admit doing things she did not do and
refused her request to have lawyers present during the questioning.”
— Wu Ching-mao, brother of former first lady Wu Shu-jen
“Prosecutors asked her to admit doing things she did not do and refused her
request to have lawyers present during the questioning,” Wu Ching-mao said.
Chu said the interview of Chen Chun-ying was conducted in accordance with the
law.
Chu said that Wu Ching-mao detailed to prosecutors the process they used to
deposit or transfer money for the former first family over the years.
The prosecutor added that former state-owned China Steel Corp (中鋼) chairman Lin
Wen-yuan (林文淵) was also summoned for questioning yesterday morning as a witness.
Lin was in charge of Chen Shui-bian’s campaign funds during the 2000
presidential election.
Lin left the prosecutors’ office at 12pm.
Chu said prosecutors learned that Chen had four undisclosed bank accounts used
for political donations for the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections — three for
2000 and one for 2004.
The former president admitted last Thursday that he failed to truthfully declare
funds collected from two mayoral and two presidential elections between 1993 and
2004 and that his wife had wired surplus campaign contributions overseas.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced on Saturday that Chen Shui-bian and Wu
Ching-mao had been barred from leaving the country. Wu Shu-jen has been
prohibited from leaving since May.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said yesterday it was cooperating with
law enforcement authorities in several countries to probe Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁)
overseas accounts.
“The MOJ is expanding its legal assistance with several countries. The ministry
not only has cooperated with Swiss authorities to investigate Chen’s accounts
there, but it has also contacted Singapore, the US and other countries where the
former first family had allegedly wired funds,” Deputy Minister of Justice Huang
Shih-ming (黃世銘) told a press conference yesterday.
He said the ministry was determined to clear all bank accounts the former first
family opened overseas and to retrieve the funds.
The deputy minister asked businesspeople who know where the Chen family’s money
came from to report the matter to prosecutors, and prosecutors would handle them
according to the Witness Protection Law (證人保護法) and grant them a NT$10 million
(US$319,000) reward.
He also urged businesspeople involved in the scandal to come out and act as
state witnesses.
Meanwhile, Taipei Prosecutor Ching Chi-jen (慶啟人), who traveled to Switzerland to
trace the alleged Chen family funds, returned to the country on Sunday night.
“I offered legal documents involving Chen and the former first family to Swiss
prosecutors to assist in their investigation into suspected money laundering,
and I also expressed the hope that Switzerland would return the money to
Taiwan,” Ching told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
Huang said prosecutors were also investigating Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂), a former
chief of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, on suspicion of
concealing information about the suspected money laundering.
Prosecutors were still questioning Huang as of press time.
Prosecutors on Sunday asked immigration officials to notify them if they found
Yeh trying to leave the country.
Yeh had said on Sunday that the bureau’s Money Laundering Prevention Center had
received information from the Cayman Islands in late January that the former
president’s daughter-in-law had a bank account there and that it was likely
being used for money laundering.
In related news, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday it would not rule out
filing suit if it found any trading irregularities in the auction of Changhwa
Bank (彰化銀行) shares in 2005.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) has accused the former
first family of taking bribes from Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) in
exchange for Changhwa shares.
As a result of the auction, Taishin Financial won a majority of the seats on
Changhwa Bank’s board, with a 22.5 percent stake, compared with the government’s
18 percent.
A high-ranking ministry official said on condition of anonymity that he believed
investigators would soon ask the ministry for trading documents to see if there
were any irregularities in the transaction.
“The ministry and failed bidders could lodge lawsuits if the auction turned out
to be tainted,” the official told reporters. “It would be up to the court to
settle the dispute. No one can predict the outcome.”
The official, however, said it was unlikely that the Changhwa deal would be
invalidated.
“People who played unfairly would not be able to shake off their legal
responsibility,” the official said. “They would be unfit to chair the company,
but the company’s dealings would probably remain unaffected.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CRYSTAL HSU
TSU to rally against China policy
‘Mistake’: The party said that the
administration’s adoption of China-friendly economic policies was a ‘flawed’
strategy that had seriously hurt the country
By Ko Shu-ling
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 3
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is set to proceed with a demonstration
tomorrow to protest against the government’s pro-China economic policies.
TSU Secretary-General Lin Jhi-jia (林志嘉) said the demonstration would be a
protest against the administration’s China-friendly economic policy, which he
called a “mistake.”
“The policy, which is irresponsible in nature, has caused the economy to bleed
and seriously hurt the country,” he said.
As the party has suspended the party rights of Mainland Affairs Council
Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛), a TSU member, for her endorsement of the
administration’s liberal economic policy toward China, Lin said his party would
wait until the demonstration was over to “carefully consider” possibly early
next month how to deal with Lai.
There have been calls for Lai’s resignation from the post or expulsion from the
party.
POLL
Citing a survey conducted by its opinion center, Lin said that most people
considered the administration’s cross-strait economic policy was flawed and that
his party was duty-bound to reflect public opinion.
The survey, which questioned 1,029 adults around the country between Aug. 12 and
Aug. 15, showed that more than 72 percent of respondents believed the recent
relaxation of cross-strait regulations would benefit big businesses more than
the general public.
The policies included loosening the regulation restricting a listed company’s
investment in China to a maximum of 40 percent of its net worth and banning
Taiwanese companies from setting up 12-inch wafer fabs in China.
The poll also found that nearly 38 percent of the people polled said the
administration had eased cross-strait policy too hastily, while only 12 percent
said it should pick up the pace.
More than 41 percent said the deregulatory measures had not helped the stock
market, but nearly 31 percent said they did.
More than 46 percent of those polled said the economy had worsened since
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May, while about 11 percent said it
had improved.
Nearly 35 percent of respondents said their quality of life had deteriorated
since May. Only 6 percent said it had improved.
However, not all the respondents were unhappy with the administration’s
cross-strait policy.
Nearly 48 percent said the relaxation of cross-strait measures had helped the
economy, while 35 percent said it had had little effect or none at all.
MIXED VIEWS
Fifty-six percent said the measures helped improve cross-strait relations, but
about 31 percent said they did not.
In addition, 45 percent said they were generally satisfied with the new
measures. About 37 percent said they were unhappy with them.
Regarding Ma’s performance over the past three months, nearly 43 percent found
it satisfactory, while about 42 percent said they were not satisfied.
‘One dream’ Beijing can’t
deliver
By Cao Changqing 曹長青
Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008, Page 8
The Chinese government went to great lengths to show China’s best face to the
world by having a large-scale Olympics opening ceremony that cost a lot of
money, with loads of fireworks, lots of color and droves of people. Many Chinese
Internet users, however, criticized the ceremony for being a big mishmash, even
saying the ceremony resembled “an upscale version of a North Korean group
calisthenics performance” and that was “overly large with too many people
involved and was devoid of content and human nature.”
Some said all the colors and modern lights used during the ceremony merely
turned it into “an elegy to China’s superficial and extravagant past,” while
others said the huge sums of money spent only served to make “the most tacky
opening ceremony in the history of the Olympics.”
After seeing the sheer size of the opening ceremony and the large-scale
performance, one cannot deny that director Zhang Yimou (張藝謀) really did go to a
lot of effort in planning and choreographing the event. Zhang gave attention to
every last detail and did a very professional job. Why then has Beijing’s
opening ceremony received so much criticism? The real reason is that Zhang
failed to understand the true spirit of the Olympics.
The official theme of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, “The Power of the Dream,”
and the symphony Summon the Heroes perfectly represented the spirit of the
Olympics, which, among other things, is the spirit of freedom, realizing one’s
dreams and becoming an individual hero.
Zhang may not understand the Olympic spirit, but he does have a profound
understanding of the spirit of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) government.
During the opening ceremony, Zhang showcased the knowledge that Chinese have had
spoon-fed to them since birth, using historical imagery such as the four great
inventions of ancient China and the Silk Road. Zhang also used rows and rows of
people to form the Chinese character for peace (he, 和). This clearly and
skillfully put forward the exact message Hu wanted to express: a message of a
“harmonious society” and a “peaceful rise to power” that was in perfect harmony
with China’s official ideological line.
Zhang primarily focused on showing the pride Chinese feel about their country
and themselves as a people — not the Olympic spirit. As a result, no matter how
spectacular the lighting, colors and digital technology Zhang used, and
irrespective of how many people he had line up in neat, geometric formations,
shouting at the top of their lungs, he was still unable to inject the Olympic
spirit of freedom into the opening ceremony.
Regardless of how painstakingly Zhang worked in planning the ceremony, the
Chinese culture and history that he tried to express was very hard even for
Chinese with an understanding of Chinese culture and history to grasp, let alone
the non-Chinese people watching the show. And even if some people watching could
clearly understand the content and its meaning, because it was devoid of spirit
and soul, no matter how technically perfect it was, all they could do was stand
in the crowd and look on at the “fun.” However, the opening ceremony’s “fun” was
not fun in the true sense of the word, nor was it pleasing to look at.
The entire opening ceremony was painfully slow and monotonous, and apart from
the fireworks displays that punctuated the show at appropriate intervals, the
show had no single point capable of moving anybody in the audience.
On special occasions such as the Olympics, especially when people are watching
the event on their television sets, they do not want or need the profound
thought of philosophers or the research of historians; what they want is music
and performances that resonate deep within their hearts.
The music and songs used at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta moved people on a deep
level and made them want to see the Games for themselves. The music and theme
song of the Beijing Olympics, on the other hand, were very bland in comparison
and were so boring that they almost put the audience to sleep.
The slogan of the Beijing Olympics is “One World One Dream.” Let’s leave aside
the fact that this is a typical empty slogan — the only dream common to all
mankind is freedom, the one dream Beijing does all it can to eliminate — but
even if it made sense, the opening ceremony did nothing to express the main
theme of the slogan. There was no expression of “one dream,” nor of “one world.”
It was all a self-obsessed attempt to place China at the center of the world. It
was, however, very Chinese to see this poor and backward dictatorship portray
China as a paradise characterized by harmony between heaven and man since the
beginning of time.
Cao Changqing is an independent
political commentator.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
