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John Cena Shows ‘Gutlessness’ In Apology To China, Critics Say
Movie star and pro wrestler John Cena was taken to the mat by critics Tuesday for apologizing to China after he called Taiwan a country in an interview.
Cena told Taiwanese media that Taiwan would be the first “country” to be able to see his new “Fast and Furious” film “F9,” prompting backlash in China, which considers the self-ruled democratic island nation its own territory, The Associated Press reported. China often takes suggestions of Taiwan independence as an insult.
“In one interview, I made a mistake,” Cena said in Mandarin in a video posted Tuesday to Chinese social media, per AP. “I need to say now that this is very, very, very, very, very important. I love and respect China and the Chinese people. I’m very, very sorry. As for my mistake, I really apologize for it.”
Video of John Cena apologizing in Mandarin.
Taiwan vs. West Taiwan.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @03:53PM (21 children)
china will invade taiwan within the next 5 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @04:22PM (7 children)
context:
with the pandemic, China knows that it can sort of handle reduced commerce (i.e. economic sanctions).
with Hong Kong, China knows that nobody is willing to actually stand up to them --- maybe someone will offer citizenship to the Taiwanese, like the UK did with a few million HK residents, but no more than that.
also with the Uighurs, China knows the UN won't act against forced labor camps.
I don't know what kind of resistance Taiwan citizens would offer.
the HK response wasn't really a response.
however, I doubt it will matter in the long term.
China will probably be a nicer place to live within 20 years, as far as human rights and freedoms are concerned.
they can't fight the fact that old people die and young people have different ideas about these things.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday May 26 2021, @04:56PM (1 child)
Taiwan and Hong Kong are vastly different situations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan%E2%80%93United_States_relations [wikipedia.org]
Maybe the U.S. will throw Taiwan under the bus, but Hong Kong didn't even have a military and was already completely under China's control at the time of the "takeover". Hong Kong is easy mode compared to Taiwan.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 26 2021, @05:50PM
Falklands on steroids
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 26 2021, @06:16PM
You have noticed that the old do die, but perhaps you have not considered that the young also age. And as one ages, you will often find the world you envisioned, and the world you get to experience - well, life's not quite like the brochure promised. And this experience, called "wisdom" by some ancient cultures, is a bit rapey. It tends to reshape you, whether or not you want it. Even if you might try to resist at first with all your might, it's one forceful beast. #MeToo
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 26 2021, @10:11PM (3 children)
The CEO of the (US based) multi-national corporation I work for doesn't give a toss about Hong Kong, or Taiwan, or the Uighurs, or anything that might interfere with the billions of dollars profit (literally) that the corporation he runs makes from China.
Every huge multi-national corporation has an interest in China one way or another, and because of that forced labour camps and political repression are not something "we" are ever going to have any influence over.
I imagine they are discussed at meetings like Davos, but the UN is not going to get to act, because the people who run the world won't let them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @02:39AM (2 children)
Jacinda too huh? No surprises [wikipedia.org] for corporate but things can change very quickly. I was modded down 12 months ago for mentioning a lab-leak was the most likely source of the pandemic. This week, the NPC mod squad got new instructions. [cnn.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday May 27 2021, @03:09AM (1 child)
Missing the point?
Oh yes, missing the point.
Oh, and using terms like "NPC" shows you for what you are.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @04:37AM
No, it really emphasizes his point.
There's been no new information to support the lab leak theory. It's the exact same stuff that was being said many months ago. The one and only difference is that the political establishment has now tried to push it, and so it goes from insane conspiracy theory to "true fact" simply because some lying and exploitative politicians have said so. And the people following this nonsense, one way or the other, just change their tune 180 as if there was just an update in their programming - because they have no independent thought, whatsoever. "I believe what [party] says is true."
And this is not only amusing to watch, but also dangerous. Because this sort of mindless follower behavior is precisely how you get all of the dystopias of the past that we are supposed to have learned from.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 26 2021, @10:03PM (8 children)
No they won't. There is zero chance of that happening. Why would they?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @01:34AM (7 children)
China has two major reasons to invade Taiwan. The first is ideological: Taiwan's very existence as an independent state is a rejection of the principles the PRC is built on, it is proof that defiance against the central government is not only possible but beneficial, and it stands as a symbol of what China could have been if not for the CCP.
The second is economic: TSMC is the largest and most advanced semiconductor manufacturer in the world, producing about half of all computer chips made in the entire world. Controlling it would give China both a major technological leg-up as well as tremendous control over the international economy that would likely take decades to challenge, let alone break.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday May 27 2021, @03:11AM (6 children)
Neither of those reasons are real things.
If China invaded Taiwan, they'd risk a war with the US, and they'd lose, and they know it. The guys who run China are cleverer than you.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @04:54AM (3 children)
Oh would they? Do, pray tell, share how you see this playing out.
Have you not been paying attention to the past 70 years of history? The US has gradually become incapable of winning wars. We lost Vietnam, we drew in South Korea, we're losing Afghanistan, and even in places like Iraq our "victory" comes down to having our forces huddled into tiny ultra-fortified green-zones that can never step outside of them without outside of heavily armed convoys because, otherwise, that trip out is going to be a one way affair. And that was against an enemy with next to no defenses.
And that is with conventional war. In practice the US would likely never attack China, because of Russia. Russia would immediately join with China, as would a number of other nations and continents including Africa and the Mideast. The US, in turn, would be joined by the UK and Australia. Europe and India would likely remain mostly neutral simply because in this war there would be no winner, only losers. If either power came viably close to victory, nukes would come into play. And both powers would be turned into rubble.
Military spending != military power.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday May 27 2021, @09:40PM (1 child)
You have entirely misunderstood. No surprises there.
Just because China would lose, does not mean the US would win. They are both nuclear armed, there would be no losers, which China understands, which is why they're never going to invade Taiwan.
The rest of your World War III story would make a good movie as long as you keep James Cameron away from it, but it is not reality.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28 2021, @07:46PM
The one trick of history is the one I'm borrowing. It tends to endlessly repeat itself. Predicting the future is, in many ways, no more difficult than reciting the past. This is how the writings of the great philosophers remain relevant. It's not that these individuals had some unprecedented, or preceded, intellect - but rather they were simple and objective observers of history, recounting it while generalizing to the most fundamental patterns.
When the political establishment of a country ever-longing for war starts injecting stories into the media about another country being responsible for millions of deaths - while just previously insisting such notion was a completely impossible conspiracy theory that must be censored, what - you think they've just decided now's a good time to start keeping the public informed? Iraq didn't start with "we're invading Iraq." It was a slow buildup around a completely fabricated narrative of Saddam having WMD (which we believed so much that we landed hundreds of thousands of soldiers there, because that's what you do in a destabilized country you believe has WMD). Remember all the inspections, posturing, and gradual demonization of anybody who thought war with Iraq was not smart?
People never thought WW1 would happen. And once it did happen, they immediately thought it could never happen again. Before just having a number attached to it, it was being called "The War to End All Wars". With any luck we're "only" entering into Cold War 2 now, likely with the goal of economically destabilizing China. Of course how we could manage to do that without destabilizing ourselves, given our dependence on them, is something I have no answer for.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday May 28 2021, @02:27AM
"rope-a-dope"
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @08:52PM
Only if the US actually follows through. What Russia has repeatedly demonstrated over the last twenty years is that if you are a nuclear power (which China is) then the US will make some grumbling noises and otherwise ignore what you do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 09 2021, @03:12AM
China won't invade Taiwan for the same reasons Hitler didn't invade Britain. It would have to be on the scale of D-day to have any chance of success.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Wednesday May 26 2021, @10:05PM (3 children)
If China let go of Taiwan it would instantly become another US military base, which is why they will never do this. As long as China can maintain the polite fiction that they own Taiwan and keep the US military out, then they have no reason to escalate. Of course the US is constantly innovating potential excuses to poke the camel's nose into the tent. If the US tried to do a regime change in Taiwan then China would definitely invade.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @01:36AM (2 children)
The US has neither the need nor the interest in a regime change in Taiwan. Quite the opposite. The PRC are the ones pushing for that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @08:26AM (1 child)
I think you're having a semantic difference here.
I suspect the person you're responding to was speaking of regime change in the US style - color revolutions, supporting "moderate extremists" aka terrorists, and so on.
The regime change you're speaking of with the PRC are things like trying to support politicians who advocate for pro-PRC policies, such as e.g. Carrie Lam in Hong Kong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 27 2021, @09:10PM
Not just in the US style, but an actual regime change instigated by the US. But why would the US bother? Taiwan is a profitable trade partner and destabilizing them politically would jeopardize that.