Painting the eyes of war on the Buddha.
In many traditions, when you paint or sculpt a Buddha, the eyes are the very last to be painted. It’s only after the eyes have been completed that the sculpture is fully alive and empowered.
The US has just approved a $75 million weapons package to Taiwan province involving the sale of the Link 16 communications system.
The acquisition of Link 16 is analogous to “painting the eyes on the Buddha”: a last touch, it makes Taiwan’s military systems and weapons platforms live and far-seeing. It confers deadly powers, or more prosaically, in the words of the US military, it completes Taiwan as the final, lethal link of the multilateral coalition kill chain against China.
The what now?
Lol okay
Apple, the second largest American company, refers to the region as Taiwan, China to its suppliers and as Taiwan Province in its regional Apple Maps.
Hm.
Kinda grim view to think Apple, a megacorp, is the one deciding what is a country and what is not.
I’m not sure what you mean as regional map. I’m looking at it right now and it just says Taiwan, nothing about China.
Not that it would be wrong to say it is China. Taiwan is officially called Republic of China and I think they still claim the mainland and that’d make Taiwan (the island) just one province or whatever of China (RoC). The island China (RoC) is usually called Taiwan to differentiate it from mainland China (People’s Republic of China) but also confusingly the island alone is called Taiwan. It’s a mess. It’s usually just said it is a province of China to claim it’s not a country of it’s own.
Consult Apple Maps in China, or in Asian countries which don’t recognize Taiwan.
I think that’s just a legal requirement for operating in PRC. They do NOT like it when people acknowledge Taiwan as a country. In other parts of the world it’d be just Taiwan (or maybe ROC).