Reason Number 33 - Marching On

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 63

“Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves; 

With our very flesh and blood 

Let us build our new Great Wall! 

The peoples of China are at their most critical time, 

Everybody must roar defiance. 

Arise! Arise! Arise! 

Millions of hearts with one mind, 

Brave the enemy’s gunfire, 

March on! 

Brave the enemy’s gunfire, 

March on! March on! March on, on! 

The above words, China’s National Anthem, were written by the poet and playwright Tian Han, in 1934. Tian died like so many of China’s other citizens during the ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1966-1976). ‘In 1968, Tian Han disappeared after endless torture of being criticized and beaten. He never left a word to anybody. Even his bone ashes couldn’t be found. Ten years later, [he] was finally exonerated,’ following the normal in-and-out of favor process, says the state-run China Radio International.

When the national anthem was written, the target of ‘marching on’ was clear – the Japanese armies which had invaded China. It was ‘fighting’ against the Japanese on which the People’s Liberation Army hangs it reputation after being formed in 1927. But today its goal is less clear, less defined, obscured by military inactivity and often politicized by grand-sounding rhetoric.”

‘Fault Lines On The Face Of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great’ - Excerpt 64

“How should one interpret China’s ‘unconditional’ pledge ‘not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states’ and its ‘policy of no first use of nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances’? Do the words ‘not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states’ imply that use of nuclear arms against nuclear states is open and available as part of national policy?

Let us here remind ourselves of the words of PLA general Zhu Chenghu who, in mid 2005, said that if America came to the aid of Taiwan in the event China invaded the country, ‘I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons.’ Zhu said that “We . . . will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds . . . of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.”

And it is interesting that while Zhu said these remarks were his personal opinion, and while Beijing said they did not reflect official policy, internal criticism of General Zhu was remarkably limited. A senior general in an army in a developed nation that made such inflammatory remarks would face almost certain demotion, perhaps even forced retirement. Yet General Zhu apparently went unpunished, keeping his post as a head of the College of Defense Studies at China’s National Defense University, where he was still making policy pronouncements in 2006 and 2007.”