Chinese embassy bombing
May 18th 1999 09:54
I lived in Hong Kong for 16 years until 2007. In 1998 and 1999 I wrote a series of political and social commentaries for a quirky institutional newsletter - quirky in that it was intended to be as much contentious, offbeat and humorous as it was informative. I was working as an editor, and I wrote the articles under the pseudonym Red Inque. I post them here for anyone interested in a look at life in Asia at the time, and in Hong Kong just after its return to Chinese sovereignty.
A few sage words for President Pickle
US President Bill Clinton called a top secret meeting in the White House steam room late last week where he told the assembled interns that he was gravely concerned at the recent lack of commentary from Red Inque.
Sorry about that, Bill. We’ve been very busy crying over the rise and rise of the stock market, which we missed, but we will now turn our attention to international affairs.
The leader of the world’s most powerful nation has got himself into a pickle. Again. Although it is not clear at this stage whether public opinion rates a mention in Oval Office dialogue, we would point out that just about nobody any longer has a good word to say about American cartography.
We’re sorry to have to break this to you, Bill, but the people here in China are pretty upset with you. Some of them weren’t quite convinced by your explanation, and pictures of you writing a letter of apology didn’t really compete with pictures of the Chinese embassy dead arriving back home.
Meanwhile, you‘ve thrown the worms amongst Pandora’s pigeons when it comes to China’s entry to the WTO. It’s almost funny really – there are powerful factions within China lobbying both for and against WTO membership, and America’s double-bogey bombing has given both of them ammunition, so to speak. The conservatives in Beijing have become increasingly strident in their claims that China is selling its interests short in pushing for early WTO entry. Their outbursts are more often than not directed at Moftec, the senior government trade organisation which has overall responsibility for WTO negotiations. It was perhaps therefore not surprising that Moftec was amongst the first to get stuck into Nato, scoring some patriotic brownie points and thereby easing the pressure of criticism.
We see you nodding. They might be burning your picture, Bill, but as a fellow professional we’re sure you respect a nifty bit of political dualism.
Try not to feel too guilty, but another consequence of your crappy mappies is that people around here are suddenly very nervous about China stocks. The biggest concern is the myriad companies which will receive no direct benefits from WTO entry but whose prices have risen recently on generally bullish WTO trading sentiment.
We are telling people, however, that these should not be confused with major players whose current share prices are well justified by their fundamentals, about which we remain positive and which represent good buying value on current weakness. These stocks include COSCO Pacific, China Merchants, Shanghai Industrial, Beijing Enterprises, Zhejiang Expressway and Shenzhen Expressway.
We suggest you target some of these, Bill. You can’t miss.
Major cities in China have seen their biggest and angriest demonstrations for years in response to the destruction by Nato bombs of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade with the loss of four lives. Hundreds of students chanting anti-American and anti-Nato slogans marched in Shanghai, Chengdu and Guanghzou. In Beijing about 100,000 people invaded the embassy district, massing on streets littered with rocks and broken bottles from earlier protests. -- British Broadcasting Corporation, May 9, 1999
After two days of varied official accounts, the least credible explanation for Friday night's NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade is that it was a pure accident. On Sunday, a US official in Washington told news agencies that the CIA had simply supplied inaccurate information, wrongly identifying the embassy as a Yugoslav weapons warehouse. It was the fourth version of events produced within several hours. -- www.wsws.org, May 10, 1999
After two days of varied official accounts, the least credible explanation for Friday night's NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade is that it was a pure accident. On Sunday, a US official in Washington told news agencies that the CIA had simply supplied inaccurate information, wrongly identifying the embassy as a Yugoslav weapons warehouse. It was the fourth version of events produced within several hours. -- www.wsws.org, May 10, 1999
A personal message for President Clinton in 1999 after the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade resulted in four dead
Picture: BBC
US President Bill Clinton called a top secret meeting in the White House steam room late last week where he told the assembled interns that he was gravely concerned at the recent lack of commentary from Red Inque.
Sorry about that, Bill. We’ve been very busy crying over the rise and rise of the stock market, which we missed, but we will now turn our attention to international affairs.
The leader of the world’s most powerful nation has got himself into a pickle. Again. Although it is not clear at this stage whether public opinion rates a mention in Oval Office dialogue, we would point out that just about nobody any longer has a good word to say about American cartography.
We’re sorry to have to break this to you, Bill, but the people here in China are pretty upset with you. Some of them weren’t quite convinced by your explanation, and pictures of you writing a letter of apology didn’t really compete with pictures of the Chinese embassy dead arriving back home.
Meanwhile, you‘ve thrown the worms amongst Pandora’s pigeons when it comes to China’s entry to the WTO. It’s almost funny really – there are powerful factions within China lobbying both for and against WTO membership, and America’s double-bogey bombing has given both of them ammunition, so to speak. The conservatives in Beijing have become increasingly strident in their claims that China is selling its interests short in pushing for early WTO entry. Their outbursts are more often than not directed at Moftec, the senior government trade organisation which has overall responsibility for WTO negotiations. It was perhaps therefore not surprising that Moftec was amongst the first to get stuck into Nato, scoring some patriotic brownie points and thereby easing the pressure of criticism.
We see you nodding. They might be burning your picture, Bill, but as a fellow professional we’re sure you respect a nifty bit of political dualism.
Try not to feel too guilty, but another consequence of your crappy mappies is that people around here are suddenly very nervous about China stocks. The biggest concern is the myriad companies which will receive no direct benefits from WTO entry but whose prices have risen recently on generally bullish WTO trading sentiment.
We are telling people, however, that these should not be confused with major players whose current share prices are well justified by their fundamentals, about which we remain positive and which represent good buying value on current weakness. These stocks include COSCO Pacific, China Merchants, Shanghai Industrial, Beijing Enterprises, Zhejiang Expressway and Shenzhen Expressway.
We suggest you target some of these, Bill. You can’t miss.
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