Sunday, May 18, 2014

They're coming after the chicken legs now...

Chinese territorial claims spark violent protests in Vietnam*

Years ago, I worked for a Bay area start-up. We hired a young Chinese guy who worked for us for about a year.  He was a hard worker but contributed no patents or publications (intellectual property), and left, returning to China.  He ended up (according to my former boss) appropriating a decent chunk of alkane activation technology back to China.

Zhu-lin (I recall his name) spent what little time he socialized talking about how the map of the real China resembled a giant chicken, with the Korean peninsula as the wattle and Vietnam being the feet and legs.  You can see this rightward facing chicken if you look at a map and use a little imagination. He said (ca. 1998) that it was only a matter of time before the chicken was whole again.


China has ancient enemies in Asia who have historically been weaker but who may not wish to remain so, though that may be inevitable.
_________________
*h/t Legal Insurrection

11 comments:

edutcher said...

The Monster Chicken Heart is on the loose!

chickelit said...

That was the best illustration I could find. You have to look at a modern map of the region to appreciate how long a chicken's legs are.

The Dude said...

What, like several thousand years?

ricpic said...

Maw Ha' Sau'

The East Is Red!
Mao is Dead!!
The Dragon is a Chicken!!!

The Yellow glows,
The Yangtze flows --
Middle Kingdom lickin'!

The Dude said...

Kung Pow!

edutcher said...

YoungHegelian said...

The Chinese have the same problem in their near-abroad as the Russians: i.e, their neighbors hate them.

The Chinese are fooling themselves if they think they can piss off the Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Thais, Mongolians, Russians, & Indians, all backed by the US in their resistance to Chinese expansion & get away with it. The history of Chinese military adventurism in their near-abroad has not been a series of successes for China.


If their plans run a-fowl of all their neighbors does it mean they were a bunch of dumb clucks?

(I know, had to...)

Chip Ahoy said...

I never noticed that similarity between the shape of china and a chicken.

chickelit said...

I never noticed that similarity between the shape of china and a chicken.

That's because it's like Calgon detergent.

I never knew it until that guy told me.

William said...

China and Vietnam had a brief, nasty war back in the seventies. If I remember correctly, China lost 40,000 men. It was not a military success.....The Chinese army is made up of only sons. One or two of the old style human wave assaults and China will become a nation of Cindy Sheehans.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

That pic is sweet.

Mitch H. said...

How many commenters on this blog personally knew a Chinese national harvesting IP in the US? I knew a guy in college who extended his degree because he was busy trawling the technical libraries at our very large land-grant university for his father's concern's purposes. chickenlittle makes two.