Chinese Troops in Zimbabwe

CHINESE TROOPS IN ZIMBABWE

Olympic thugs to protect Mugabe?

Image courtesy of the irrepressible Beau Bo D’or

It is only a matter of a number of days ago when we witnessed the sight of blue track suited Chinese thugs (as described by Lord Coe) pushing their weight about in Downing Street as the Olympic Torch bade a fiery welcome to the UK. Men chosen from the same division of the National People’s Liberation Army that suppressed political protests in Tibet are making sure that the rest of the world doesn’t get too close to the flame that burns in the hearts of the free competitive athletes from around the globe.

These blue suited marathon running highly trained policemen probably know the identities of the Chinese troops who have been reported as being seen on the streets of Mutare in Zimbabwe, after checking into a hotel resplendent with nice shining pistols.

So why are the Chinese there? Have they been sent to protect and supervise the shipment of 77 tonnes of arms that is sitting off the coast of South Africa, waiting for someone to be brave enough to unload it? Are they the vanguard of a larger force that will help keep Harare’s streets quiet while Mugabe and the Zimbabwean electoral commission “officially” fiddle the result of the recent parliamentary and presidential elections?

It worries me that for all intents and purposes the British government appears to sit back and watch whilst Africa becomes an important outpost in the Chinese sphere of influence (just think of Darfur). It worries me too that we should give the Chinese international behaviour and alliances legitimacy by sending our Prime Minister to Beijing to collect the Olympic torch, if the (reputed) world’s fastest growing economy is intent upon the continuing oppression of it’s own, and other nations’ people, then the Prime Minister ought to dither again, and decide to send his Sports Minister to Beijing instead.

Besides, the torch probably has “made in China” stamped on the bottom anyway.

Links:
[1] http://curly15.wordpress.com/2008/04/19/chinese-troops-in-zimbabwe/

America Missed the Parade

1. 1500-1800hrs, 19 April 2008, at the Bundestag, Platz der Republik, Berlin

2. 1300-1500hrs, 19 April 2008, two routes (from Talie – Hotel de Ville – Bastille) or (Republique – Bastille – Hotel de Ville –Bastille, Paris

3. 1100-1500hrs, 19 April 2008, Downing Street outside of Whitehall, England

4. (No time given) 19 April 2008, Amsterdam, Holland

The protests appear to be well organized, with the coordination of donations, banners, flags, T-shirts…etc. While it is of course impossible to tell how widespread the demonstrations will be, an online keyword search, using Chinese, did produce several hundred hits.

One link Heike provides emphasizes that the protesters are furious and are promising demonstrating will flood Europe with a sea of red flags:

Now, we know why the USA is afraid to demonstrate. China would foreclose on them.

Racist Jack Cafferty [CNN] denounces the Chinese race.

To those responsible at America's Cable News Network:

At 6pm EST on the evening of April 9, your network's anchorperson Jack Cafferty, made racist remarks on the program The Situation Room that insulted and shocked the entirety of the Chinese people. He said, "(the Chinese) they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years."

The Chinese people of the world fully understand that your country has always upheld the principle of free speech, and respect Jack Cafferty's political stance, but as a public persona and a news professional, what Jack Cafferty said has gone way beyond the line of freedom of speech, and [we] believe that any respectable Chinese person cannot accept this kind of invective towards the entire Chinese race.

Comments:

If Jack was in a Repug hobo village roasting a rat on a skewer for dinner, we could understand his bitterness. As a self-styled news professional, he could have outlined the shortcomings of his race as well.

I hold a modest sum in dollars to pay for my burial. Racists like Jack encourage the Chinese to unload dollars, so I may be buried in paupers’ field.

An Exile Returns to Tibet

Mayank Sufi Austen talks to a young Tibetan; who went back to Lhasa and says;

"I was a foreigner in my homeland. I didn't know Chinese and it was everywhere. In restaurants, menus would be written in Chinese and I would ask stewards what was what. I would pass by the city's only theater that screened Hollywood films, dubbed only in Chinese. It was difficult to make out things. I was lost."

Global Voices

Chinese London Protest Never Seen on BBC

Congratulations Brits!!!
Your journalists have joined the US MSM in the bottomless pits of depravity.
You might airlift 2600 tanks to your precious sons in Basra. They could use the help.

'China: Chinese protest in London you never see on BBC'

by John Kennedy

Bridge-blogging has taken on a whole new meaning now in China since armies of multilingual netizens started scouring the known media universe last month for inaccuracy or distortions in reports regarding China or, more specifically, Tibet.

Though there was no mention of the anti-China protests which took place in London today on Chinese state-owned media and very little to be seen on all incoming media, many people inside and out of China are quite capable in English, and it took about nine seconds for someone at anti-CNN.com to find reason to start yet another 'anti-CNN' thread: the large protest from the London Chinese community right near 10 Downing Street wasn't covered today by the BBC.

You may view the latest post at

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/04/06/china-chinese-protest-in-london-you-never-see-on-bbc/