It is said in the People’s Republic of China you must do three things in your life in order to be successful: (1) Have a male heir; (2) Make lots of money; (3) Build a monument to yourself.
There are MANY monuments in China. They’re the most interesting thing that I find about traveling in Big China.
Tibet HAD monuments before the Chinese blew them up…because there is only room for Chinese monuments.
China built a monument to islet-building in the Spratly Islands.
On 23 April, Chinese authorities held an unveiling ceremony on Fiery Cross Reef for a monument to islet building in the Spratly Islands, according to a report in the People’s Liberation Army Daily.
During the daily press session on 24 April, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang was asked about the new monument.
“It is reported that yesterday the Chinese side held a monument unveiling ceremony to celebrate the building of islets and reefs in the South China Sea. Could you brief us on the relevant situation? What are the purposes of holding such an activity?”
Lu said, “Xinhua News Agency released relevant information yesterday.”
“The main purposes of the Chinese side’s building islets and reefs of the Nansha Islands are to perfect relevant functions on the islets and reefs, improve the working and living conditions for personnel stationed there, fulfill the Chinese side’s assumption of international responsibilities and obligations in an even better way, provide more public goods for the international community, which is helpful to ensure the safety of navigation passage in the South China Sea which is vitally important for the development of China and regional countries.”
Lu dodged the question, which was about the purpose of the monument. Lu explained the purpose of the islets.
Lu’s remarks are curious. The seven reefs and shoals that are now man-made islets were under water before China started dredging. They had no functions and were uninhabitable. They are located so far from any shipping lanes that they posed no hazard to navigation except to unwary fishermen.
There was no functional or safety reasons for China to build islets, but there were resource and sovereignty issues. All the inhabitable islands were occupied by other claimants, so China made its own islets, which no other nation could claim. Then it asserted Chinese sovereignty of the South China Sea and to all its sea and seabed resources.
Satellite imagery shows the Chinese have done an impressive job of terraforming and building on all seven islets. Three have runways for commercial and military jets. All possess defenses and have military garrisons. Some have green spaces and a park that grows grass and trees. Everything had to be transported from mainland China. Next hotels will pop up and it will be a tourist destination.
Monuments are curious things. Dallas is busy removing its monuments because they say it'll make the blacks prosperous and free.
Hillsboro, on the other hand, isn't removing its monuments.
It'll be interesting to run a prosperity/freedom test on the two towns to see how the monument removal experiment works.
I'll happily wager my fighting monkey on the outcome.
Makes me wonder how much work will be required to maintain those islands, or if they'll revert to the sea on their own.
I recall hearing of a Chinese massacre in the Spratly Islands, and find it was in 1988. At least, an easy to find one was in 1988, in which the Chinese army fired heavy guns at some Vietnamese fishermen. Was this an early move to have complete control over the islands?
All monuments are equal but some are more equal than others?
I was involved in situation in that time period. On July 12, 1988, a US Navy CT-39E (Saberliner) ditched off the coast of Vietnam and because of the situation in the Spratleys, it created a flap with the Vietnamese. They recovered our aircrew and took them to Vietnam for interrogation. At the time USGOV didn't know what happened to the aircraft as it hadn't shown up in Manila per flight plan. (It lost all power and they couldn't put out a Mayday).
The aircraft crashed in 150 feet of water and the Vietnamese sent down divers, who found that it was NOT a recon craft. Just a hapless cargo hauler that had a catastrophic malfunction.
Once the Vietnamese were satisfied it was benign, they put the word out. USGOV sent a team in to pick them up and debrief them. I was the debriefer from the Navy/Intelligence Community.
The big problem at the time had to do with the Chinese/Vietnamese conflict over the Spratleys. The US became involved as a minor tangental issue when we had an aircraft go down in the disputed area.
I don't know that much about the specifics of Chinese engineering on the islands. How much damage would a tidal wave or typhoon do? It remains to be seen.
Chinese ways seem to work for them, at least part of the time.
>Dallas is busy removing its monuments [for Reasons]
At this point, magical thinking can hardly hurt, seeing as what went before clearly hasn't helped. And magical thinking is what in large part got us as a society into this mess. (Yes, LBJ [may he be rotting in hell next to FDR] famously said "I'll have [those people] voting Democratic for the next 200 years" but it's been more magical thinking than the deliberate, evil cynical motives LBJ espoused that got us into this mess in the first place.)
Jordan Peterson says something in this lecture:
youtu.be/LH2FBAod4ws?t=1m35s
which I think is relevant, not just to the "evil racist monuments" but the mental illness of progressivism in general. There is a bit of chicken-and-egg problem, but by warping language and definitions the left has de-moored itself from reality.
Monuments come and go.
Ozymandius (Shelly)
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert… near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
All glory is fleeting – see my comment below.
Well put, as usual.
"the lone and level sands stretch far away," and always will.
Thank you for the report, LL.
These fake islands are quaint. We should ensure the south china sea remains open and free with a continual presence of our floating armada monuments IMO.
Sic semper tyranus.
I appreciate that you appreciate.
Indeed.
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