Chinese diplomats on Wednesday said Congress’ decision to rename the street in front of Beijing’s embassy in the U.S. capital after a Chinese dissident is "really absurd" [...] On Tuesday the House Appropriations Committee voted to rename the street outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., to “Liu Xiaobo Plaza” — after a Chinese dissident who received the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia and is currently serving an 11-year prison term for subverting the government’s authority. — Al Jazeera
This is not the first time that place-naming – or toponymy – has provoked a political dispute. Actually, it's pretty likely that as long as people have been naming places, other people have been getting upset about it. For example, as immortalized by Jimmy Kennedy in the classic song, Istanbul has been called Constantinople, Byzantium, and Stamboul among other names. What isn't mentioned in the song is that these name changes signal major political shifts, in particular the waves of (often violent) colonization by the Greeks, the Romans, and the Turks. More recently Russian cities were renamed to commemorate Soviet leaders, then changed back to their older names following the collapse of the USSR. Likewise, after the Arab Spring, squares and streets in Tunis and Cairo were renamed to obliterate mention the deposed dictators Ben Ali and Mubarak, respectively.
13 Comments
Hahaha! This is like office drama on a world stage.
I'll meet you at the corner of 3rd and Liu Xiaobo.
Americans were like "lol there gonna be so mad lol"
Chinese were like "oh no you didn't."
Continuing to show the high levels of maturity and cleverness that United States foreign policy has become so renowned for.
The Chinese said they will retaliate by literally "going pee pee in your coke"
In other news the cost of a visa for China has just doubled. Thanks a lot assholes
"China furious over US plan to rename street"
While the world ignores the human rights violations that keep China's ruling elite in power.
Why on Earth would you want to piss off the people who supply you with everything?
Not to worry. They can punish us more fully once the takeover is complete, and rename our streets. Then, the Library of Congress will be located on "Snooki Boulevard."
They'll get over it. In the scheme of things, they have bigger worries.
Uhh...don't you know you're at war with China?
and
Leveraging "Human Rights"
The hypocrisy doesn't end there. The corporate-financier run Western media has been recently beating their chests over the imprisonment of Nobel Laureate and "human rights activist" Liu Xiaobo, a proponent of ending China's strong central government and politically active military in favor of a weak, Western-style system run by corruptible, feckless, incompetent leadership that invites multinational corporations to entropically infest state institutions and seize control of the nation's people and resources. Liu Xiaobo's support goes beyond the media's scornful chastisement of China's government on his behalf, and includes "pro-bono" legal aid from theCouncil on Foreign Relations lined "Freedom Now" organization. Readers may remember "Freedom Now" from their extensive involvement in supporting the Syrian opposition leading the recent unrest against the Assad government.
Freedom Now is also providing legal services for Gao Zhisheng, a human rights lawyer also imprisoned in China. Gao had written an open letter to the US Congress detailing human rights violations in China, and his family currently resides in the United States. Council on Foreign Relations minion Jerome Cohen, Canadian MPIrwin Cotler, and former Canadian MP David Kilgour are personally leading the campaigns for both Liu Ziaobo and Gao Zhisheng. All three, are also involved in meddling around the globe in similarly hypocritical gambits revolving around "human rights activists" who just so happen to be fighting governments the West would like to see changed.
Citizen I take offense...."Snookie Boulevard" I woooked hard for this namy. Please don't sheet on my perade....or I will .....i don't know what..
Uhh...don't you know you're at war with China?
No worries, it's only a cold war. Lots of posturing and profits.
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