| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Red Mosque: the Chinese connection |
| 2007-07-13 |
| Long, but it makes a hell of a lot of sense. Somewhat snipped. The facts may be murky, but the situation itself is riddled with hints that favor certain interpretations. Seminarians in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, who were associated with the city's notorious Red Mosque, site of a recent gun battles and a military siege, were scouring the town in search of redoubts of "loose morals." After weeks of free rein in the city attacking fellow Pakistanis, the squads of self-appointed enforcers of strict Shariah, consisting of armed male and female students, raised the stakes, and selected a foreign target. On June 23, the seminarians entered a Chinese-run health care center, which is often a euphemism for sex parlor, and kidnapped seven Chinese people, including five females whom they believed to be prostitutes. Loss of face for China - there are no Chinese prostitutes! Within Pakistan, and indeed much more widely among people who have followed these events closely, this incident, along with the killing two weeks later of three Chinese people in the western Pakistani city of Peshawar, is believed by many South Asian diplomats to have precipitated the decision by President Pervez Musharraf to lay siege to the mosque, mounting a rare, direct confrontation with the forces of radical Islam in his country. Alarmed by the attacks on their citizens, and on the sensitive question of public perception of these events, Chinese leaders are widely reported by these diplomats to have put strong pressure on Musharraf to take action. And China being an increasingly important ally, militarily and economically, for Pakistan, that is exactly what Musharraf did. This understanding of events may be common elsewhere, but it has gone all but unheard of here in China. There has been scarcely any mention of a possible role of the anti-Chinese attacks in the Pakistani government's decision to take on the radicals at the Red Mosque, and none at all in the Chinese media. Moreover, almost no one in the press has printed, even speculatively, what many Chinese themselves presume to be the truth of this matter, that the women kidnapped and later released in Islamabad were sex workers. After all, there are important myths to protect: One of them is the essential goodness of the Chinese people, and the other, that China does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs. Chinese citizens and Chinese interests are fanning out around the globe at a rate that is unequaled in this country's long history. Wherever they land the Chinese are very often reproducing a Chinese way of life, as Americans did in the postwar era over half a century ago. As with overseas Americans - the "Ugly American" became a cliché in Asia - among the Chinese, naturally enough, there is good and bad. Along with fresh injections of capital and ingenuity and China's famous entrepreneurial bustle, the Chinese also often bring an insular clannishness, a driven style of management, an unblushing attitude toward corruption, and as the case in Pakistan suggests, an acceptance of things like brothels, which are common in China but in many other societies are seen as undesirable or are illegal. Cognitive dissonance is as common as dirt. Hypocrisy is stock in trade. I deal with this sort of thing every single day. Beyond the very real issue of the problems such things might cause abroad, there is an issue of growing importance in China itself, one of information and candor and an ability to accept criticism, or more to the point where the events of Pakistan are concerned, to promote and accept self-criticism. In online discussions of the massage parlor kidnappings, Chinese who mentioned the possibility that the abductees were prostitutes were quickly denounced. Others who had been fed sanitized accounts of the incident demanded military action. I've dealt with this before, too. Utterly deranged nationalism, unfounded by any sort of facts. Usually, nationalism rests upon a foundation of good deeds or other...in China, it's just because we are Chinese and we deserve everything, and we don't need to do anything to get it, because we are Chinese. Why does any of this matter? Because as the Chinese presence in countries around the world grows and as the country's overseas interests deepen, nationalistic reasoning like this, fed by skewed and censored news accounts - filled with conspiring foreigners and innocent Chinese - is likely to grow. Chinese are always innocent. Those pesky foreigners find all sorts of ways to screw things up...wreckers, all of them. It's sort of like Bush Derangement Syndrome. During the negotiations for the release of the "health center" workers, the Red Mosque seminarians insisted at one point that the masseuses appear on television and make an apology. According to the newspaper, Chinese diplomats strongly rejected this, arguing that it would cause a "loss of face" for the country. Yup. Better to kill hundreds of people. Another man wrote, "Hell! Prostitution in an Islamic country. Isn't that looking for trouble?" Indeed, my friend. There are a few sane voices out there. |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #13 Chicom support for the Red Turbans has been known since Reagan-Bush 1 - iff I were the Pakis I would be very concerned attitudes by post-9-11 pro-China bloggers + mil Perts belabeling Pakistan as future Chinese territory ala North Korea. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-07-13 23:21 |
| #12 I left the manuscript for the "Breathless American" in a uranium lined vault. |
| Posted by: Graham Greene 2007-07-13 16:54 |
| #11 What the author glazes over is the history of the Red Mosque. Taking a guess one might speculate that the kidnappings were used as an excuse to deal with the pricks. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-07-13 16:27 |
| #10 often bring an insular clannishness Read: Poor cultural assimilation. a driven style of management Read: Unpeturbed about such petty issues as slavery. an unblushing attitude toward corruption Read: Being Chinese On an interesting note: When "The Ugly American" was first published, the CIA suspected Burdick and Lederer of having gained access to top secret files on American operations in Southeast Asia, despite their having made up the entire story. Anyone who has not read this book really needs to. It was one of the early works that exposed Soviet misinformation and the methods by which America's gestures of good will in Asia were routinely turned against it. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-07-13 14:05 |
| #9 J: "The Ugly American" was a book written by WILLIAM J. LEDERER AND EUGENE BURDICK. The book was the basis of a movie by the same name starring Marlon Brando. As I recall, it wasn't a particularly good movie. Hollywood tripe. If you've read the book, you'll know that the phrase "Ugly American" referred to the guy's looks. He was, however, the good guy. The phrase has been deliberately confused with the portrayal in Graham Greene's (the Communist) book "The Quiet American", where the American is the bad guy creating problems for the nice Vietnamese communist guerrillas. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-07-13 13:14 |
| #8 "The Ugly American" was a book written by WILLIAM J. LEDERER AND EUGENE BURDICK. The book was the basis of a movie by the same name starring Marlon Brando. As I recall, it wasn't a particularly good movie. Hollywood tripe. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-07-13 12:08 |
| #7 The Chinese may have encouraged Mush to take down the Red Mosque terrorists but he had his own reasons (i.e., several attempts on his life). |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-07-13 10:17 |
| #6 J: "The Ugly Chinese" as in "The Ugly American" in the 1950s? The Ugly American is a myth spread by communists. Let's not perpetuate this myth. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-07-13 10:02 |
| #5 A: So far, they have only attacked Chinese. However, when some group decides to start attacking Chinese nationals or Chinese interests in other countries, it is not unimaginable that these enforcers might start doing hits on them. I think this idea is about as likely as the notion of James Bond operating seamlessly among the natives. Chinese stick out like sore thumbs in Pakistan. There is no chance they will locate their adversaries before they themselves are tracked down. It's pretty easy to blend in with Chinese dissident groups because all they have to do is lie their butts off about their personal beliefs. Blending in with Pakistani madrassa students is a whole different ball of wax. Besides, if Chinese operatives don't dare to actually kill people here in America, where the worst that can happen is that they might go to jail, they certainly won't kill people in Pakistan, where they can be tortured to death by highly imaginative means over extended periods of time. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2007-07-13 10:01 |
| #4 Chinese citizens and Chinese interests are fanning out around the globe at a rate that is unequaled in this country's long history. Wherever they land the Chinese are very often reproducing a Chinese way of life, as Americans did in the postwar era over half a century ago. "The Ugly Chinese" as in "The Ugly American" in the 1950s? It doesn't appear the Chinese embrace cult of death notions as do the muslimes. Prostitution in a muslime country would be asking for trouble. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-07-13 09:46 |
| #3 As an interesting aside, the Chinese are also getting very assertive in sending enforcers to attack Chinese nationals outside of China that criticize China's government. So far, they have only attacked Chinese. However, when some group decides to start attacking Chinese nationals or Chinese interests in other countries, it is not unimaginable that these enforcers might start doing hits on them. Imagine that, whacking some Mullah who orders his followers to attack the Chinese...what a charming idea. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-07-13 09:38 |
| #2 It's not the leverage, it's why they chose to apply it in this situation. It speaks more about China than it does Pakistan. Musharraf is risking a hell of a lot to pacify his Chinese sponsors. And the last two bold sentences should be highlighted instead...my mistake. |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-07-13 09:29 |
| #1 After a quick read I admit to some confusion. Isn't this the type of leverage/reaction the USA should have in similar situations? Aren't we craving our government to tell Musharraf and his like, "take care of this or else" and to see them jump? Understand, China is evil, but it's better to be feared than loved. |
| Posted by: Captain Lewis 2007-07-13 09:21 |