Posts Tagged ‘diplomacy’

Yay, McCully's holiday is finally over

Few days ago I blogged in my Chinese Blog on Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade(MFAT)'s slow reaction to the Crisis in Gaza. New Zealand was like one of the very few Western countries which didn't have a offical response to the crisis there. It looked like that all MFAT people were enjoying their summer holiday and forgotten there was a war going on. Some even attributed MFAT's silence to the fact that John Key is a half Jewish, which I don't agree and many right wing bloggers fiercely attacked that suggestion.

But finally, Foreign Minister Murray McCully, issued a response today:

"New Zealand is deeply worried by the mounting humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a result of the continuing Israeli ground offrensive," Mr Murray McCully said.

"We call for Israel to immediately cease military attacks and for Hamas to immediately cease rocket and mortor attacks.

"New Zealand also supports the intensive efforts of world leaders, including President Sarkozy of France, to halt the fighting.

"It is imperative both sides -- Israel and Hamas -- focus on the mounting humanitarian situation for the civilian population of Gaza.  Both sides have obligations to avoid putting civilians in danger."

Given the fact on the nature of the governing party we have, I wasn't surprised on this kind of the response at all, and I have to say, it's fairly balanced as both sides are responsible for the large amount of civilian casualties.

Hurt feelings, the real discussion

If you are here looking for an English version of my post, sorry, it won't be here, I generally only talk about NZ related topics here.  The site that directed you here should did a much better job than me so I don't feel the need to translate the original post.

However, I do like to talk about it a bit. My original post was trying to make fun out of  this "hurt feelings" phenomena to make the topic looks less serious -  as I do in pretty much every political issue. I did express a bit of my opinion but it was quite blur and was largely undetected by translators.

By publishing that post, I hoped that  my fellow countrymen can have their own opinion on these four questions:

• Did those countries really hurt their feelings?
• Why more than 1/5 of the world are such "culprits"?
• Is there any country that has genuinely hurt their feelings not on the map?
• Or is there something wrong with that kind of diplomatic expression?

I don't mind how they would be positioned on the political spectrum, as long as they start to think themselves, not to just follow what's being said in People's Daily or Global Times, then I'm happy.

It wasn't just a pointless internet research to kill some time, I got many previously unknown facts to me out of it. The biggest "feeling hurter" of Chinese people's feelings for the last century, which is Russia in my opinion, despite the fact that it has accommodated the Dalai Lama's visits before, was not on the map. The phrase was never used on Russia even in the worst times between the two countries.

Instead, it's the countries like Nauru or St Lucia, which most ordinary Chinese would have great difficulty of finding them on a world map that have hurt the "Chinese people's feelings".

It was also discovered that meet the Dalai Lama does not necessarily "hurt Chinese People's feelings". It is highly circumstantial - Sarkozy suffered a storm of Chinese criticisms for having a conversation with the Dalai Lama; but the Polish president did that too, and hosted the Sarkozy - Dalai Lama meeting on Polish soil, and yet still got away with it.

Compare with that, Iceland and Jordan, hurt Chinese people's feeling by allowing the visit of former vice president of Republic of China Lien Chan in the late 90s. Needless to say, he later turned out to be an "old and great friend" of Hu's.

The reflections of my findings I gathered from China-related blogsphere were surprisingly diverse - as long as my fellow countrymen start to think themselves rather than just follow what's being said in the People's Daily or the Global Times, then I'm happy that my effort is worth something.

Most people seem to agree with me on the fact that the vast majority of the "hurt feelings" incidents happened after 1970s is as the result of China opening up itself to the world  - the famous economic reform（改革开放）started in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping.

However, some attributed that fact to Mao's death in 1976, suggesting that his departure left Chinese people's feelings unprotected and vulnerable to the outside world, and the economic reform has severely undermined the interests of ordinary Chinese people.

Some Chinese netizens were equally surprised as myself to discover that countries like Australia, South Korea or Russia were not the map. Equally, other people were surprised to find countries like Albania ("the only shining beckon of communism in the sea of Soviet revisionism/Capitalist Europe? [I'm not quite sure]") in the list. What do these facts mean is up to their own interpretation.

It also raised discussions about the phrase "hurt Chinese people's feelings" itself. I always regarded it as a very absurd and childish thing to say on the diplomatic stage.  Countries don't hurt each other's feelings - they speak with 'carrot and stick'(at least for now). You don't say somebody hurts your feelings when he attacked you
with a stick, you either fight back (... well, if you are powerful enough) or just get over with it.  Put yourself in a 'weak' position and make yourself sounds like the "justified" side does not do anything good but only fuels unhealthy hate and revenge thoughts among the general public as people discover that crying for "hurt feelings" won't solve anything.

And even worse, repeated use of the phrase diminishes the power of the "real" feelings of the Chinese people. The value of Chinese people's feelings deflates every time the phrase is being used - it looks less important in the foreign eyes as the feelings can be "hurt" repeatedly with no apparent consequences.

There are people who do feel that their feelings have been genuinely hurt by the countries I listed, and made a good use of my map by keeping it for future "revenge".

However, for most of the Chinese who remain apolitical for most of the their life, the expression is just something demonstrating the total
disconnect between the State's affairs and real people's life. What's the point to care who's been hurting me lately? I don't run the country, and I never had a say on anything even regarding of my own feelings.

What do you think? Any different thoughts? I would love to hear it from you.

Guns 'n' Roses

Unlike most people of my age, I do not have any interest in any kind of rock music. I'm more of a fan of classic, country and pop music.

But if the is named  "Chinese democracy" ... well, the word "democracy" itself is enough to draw attention from the most sensitive government in the world, the Chinese government.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang was asked by BBC China correspondent, James Reynolds about the music, he replied:

"According to my knowledge, a lot of people don't like this kind of music - because it's too noisy, and too loud. James, I think you are a mature adult, aren't you?"

Actually I would agree the first bit, Classic and country music are far more gentle than rock, that's why I liked them rather than rock. But I just find it hard to believe that a foreign ministry spokesman, who frequently attacks others "hurt the feelings of Chinese people", to label rock lovers as "immature".

I don't think this smug, ignorant spokesman would never realise how many "immature" people out there who loved the band for more than two decades.

This sure adds to my collection of jokes from Chinese Foreign ministry. I have chinese blog entry on their laughable comments on human rights, if my collection accumulates to a reasonable level, I'll translate them to English or maybe create a hall of fame for them.