Eric's Beijing Diary

I have been agitating about doing this for some time. I basically grew up with this issue. As a child, I went to bed every night about 2000 miles from Beijing, 1500 miles from Taipei, and 500 miles from Vladivostok. Not surprising that the Japanese people always considered Russia a greater threat than China. It's partly, I suppose, because Japan had occupied large parts of China in the past, and didn't consider them a threat. For us as Americans, Red (Communist) China always seemed more forboding than Russia. And throughout my childhood, Free China (Taiwan) was led by Chiang Kai-shek, who had been the president of China before the KMT escaped to the island of Taiwan. But I said "had been" the president. From his perspective (and from ours at that partular time in the cold war), he still was the president of China. Remember, the name of the country is not Taiwan. Taiwan is the name of an island, not the name of a country. The official name of the country is Republic of China (not People's Republic of China), and that government moved to Taiwan to get away from the Communists, but still considered themselves the "real" government of China. They even took the treasures of the Forbidden City with them.