SHANGHAI, Dec. 9 -Residents of a fishing village near Hong Kong said Friday that as many as 20 people were killed by the paramilitary police this week, in an unusually violent clash that marked an escalation in the widespread social protests roiling the Chinese countryside. Villagers said as many as 50 other residents remained unaccounted for since the shootings on Tuesday.
It was the largest known use of force by security personnel against citizens since the killings around Tiananmen Square in 1989. That death toll is still unknown, but is estimated to have been in the hundreds.
The Bush administration's justification for invading Iraq was little more than "Saddam killed his own people."
Based on their previous logic, Bush and his war council must this very minute be planning a US invasion of China. China has stockpiles of WMD (actually verified by the UN), weapons that could "one day pose a threat to our interests." Better we kill the enemy "there" before we have to face him "here." We mustn't wait for the "mushroom cloud over an American city." They "gotta understand" we are not "reprehensible" cowards unwilling to "take freedom and democracy" to their enslaved masses. Remember, they killed their own people.
What more do we need? Don't we have in China the prime antecedents, based on the Bush doctrine, for a preemptive war? Shock and awe, baby! Bring it on.
Or not.
Unlike Iraq, China would defend herself with an army like the one we were falsely told that Iraq possessed in 2003 (remember "Saddam, the new Hitler?"). China is a world economic power, a major US trading partner and holder of our national debt -- an exporter of cheap goods, but an importer of O-I-L.
The Bush administration told us that Iraq was an enemy to be feared and destroyed: that China was our friend. I wonder whether China's prisons have room for a few planeloads of Iraqi insurgents who need a good, swift rendering far away from prying eyes?
Could that be any more hypocritical than what our shanghaied government is already doing in our name -- with our blood and treasure?
Related stories...
- Protesters Say Police in China Killed Up to 20
- Shanwei massacre
- Chaos in south China village after clashes
- China breaks silence on protest deaths
Dec. 12 update from New York Times:
Dec. 13 update: China and India beat US on direct investment destination.BEIJING - The commander of paramilitary forces who opened fire on villagers protesting land seizures has been detained by the authorities in connection with the shootings, an extraordinary response that suggested high-level concern over whether the crackdown was justified.
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