The letter was sent in 1840, not 1940.

i knew that!

thanks, fixed.

I am just piling on here: Your headline writer should have written, ET ALII or ET ALIIS, rather than, "et alia." (These are people rather than things.)

I already am the Official Latin Consultant for King Kaufman's sports column. Please go ahead and ask me any time you want good Latin (no charge for great writers).

dirty little secret -- Salon's bloggers write their own headlines. i am abashed. I took four years of Latin in high school.

“The memories of Chinese humiliation at the hands of the West are still very much alive, and anyone who wishes to twist the Middle Kingdom's arms should bear that in mind.”

5000 years of Chinese history, opium trade, foreigners bullying China yadda yadda yadda, blah blah blah.

This is an old, tired cliché that is unfortunately still in use. A cliché used to gain cover for potentially un-popular policy changes. Only in this case, said changes will benefit Chinese upper-class people (ie. professional class, and political elites) who want to buy foreign status-goods, and hurt US consumers by making all imports more expensive.

Who is Wu Yi really addressing here? This BS is what the Chinese government puts out to rally Chinese people around “victim-hood” and I'm sick of it. The purpose is to get Chinese people to think of the many bad things evil foreigners did to them in the past, and by the way, lets overlook the harm we did to ourselves during The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution…”We are victims of foreign aggression and you are trying to victimize us again!”

These “memories” are alive because keeping them alive might keep some people from turning a critical eye toward the present situation.

the Chinese economy will develop a dirt-cheap meth methodology, and the Chinese government will insist that Chink-Meth be sold along with the fat bags of consumer goods at Sam's Clubs.

Withholding interest payments on the debt that the Republicans have run up this last quarter-century would be more devastating than all the volleys the British navy ever discharged.

Salon itself had a great article 7 years ago by Orville Schell: "Prisoner of its Past"

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/06/08/china/index.html

I disagree with Wu Yi. This one sided history about China given by the government will not make for a country that wants for a peaceful rise. It makes for a group of pissed off citizens with a vendetta. Only economic interdependency can help stem such thoughts.

Although, Korea and Japan like to play the victim game as well.

Stopping the interest payment on government debt run up by the Republicans likely has the unfortunate side effect of scaring off the Chinese central bank from investing in the mortgage debt run up by the homeowners in this country. This will certainly sink the US economy.

Ms. Wu Yi's comment does seem to serve as postering to the Chinese people also. Already criticized by many for not protecting the environment and workers' rights in the race to supply the cheapest exports, Beijing certainly does not want to appear "weak" to remind the Chinese of past governments that were disconnected from their people.

I would love to read some news regarding what Paulsen was able to accomplish in China on his most recent trip. I understand that he is a very sharp guy and probably a shrewd negotiator, so I hoped that he might persuade the Chinese to make some economic concessions. From what little I have heard about this trip, it sounds like he came away with the ususal vague promises about doing something for us in the distant future.

I think that the Chinese realize that they have us by the short hairs and the Bush administration will change nothing of consequence on international trade. Therefore, there is no reason for them to change what has worked so well for them in recent years.

Andrew - What are your thoughts on this?