China not perfect but not rabid

China not perfect but not rabid

I feel compelled to rebuke with indignation the brusque and
harsh comments made by Brien Doyle in his letter to The Jakarta
Post on June 20, titled China's umbrage hypocritical, which
contained unfounded and extremely biased comments that China's
government is Asia duplicitous rabid dragon.

He should know that Yasukuni is not only a shrine that
worships Class A and Class B war criminals, but is also a
militarism "museum" with exhibits of war materials and propaganda
exhorting militarism.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi canceled her meeting with Japanese
Prime Minister Koizumi because she had been "humiliated" as one
day before and during her trip in Japan, Koizumi had reconfirmed
his wish to continue visiting Yasukuni and his ministers
continued to deny the nation's war atrocities, such as the
massacre of 300,000 Chinese in Nanjing.

On the East China Sea, despite China's rightful claim to the
East Asian Sea gas/oil field, based on the internationally
accepted law of the sea on continental shelves, China has offered
joint exploration and exploitation, whereas Japan's claim is
based on a median line from a disputed territory

As for the Chinese military, Andrew Scobell, associate
research professor at the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S.
Army War College, after study and investigation of the actual
records of China's use of force over the past half-century,
concludes in his recent book titled China's Use of Military Force
that there is a cult of defense in Chinese strategic culture.

Henry Kissinger wrote in the International Herald Tribune of
June 9 that military imperialism is not the Chinese style,
Chinese seeks its objectives by careful study, patience and
accumulation of nuances, and that the Chinese state in its
present dimension has existed for 2,000 years.

Concerning Taiwan, Brien Doyle could spare his energy as the
Chinese people and leaders on both sides are wise enough to learn
from their long history of 5,000 years of union and disunion to
settle their present dispute. Lien's and Song's recent trips to
China confirmed this wisdom. The independence activists led by
Lee Teng-hui of SDU are no more than 8 percent of Taiwan and the
majority of Taiwanese prefers the status quo with increasing
contacts with mainland China.

For more than 2,000 years of human recorded history, East
Asia, with a predominant China with a pacifist culture, has seen
more peace and prosperity and less war compared with Europe and
elsewhere.

SIA KA-MOU, Jakarta