This afternoon, drudge points to an AP article about China’s military buildup. One little sentence caught my eye.

China’s military spending is largely oriented toward possible conflicts over Taiwan, which split with the mainland in 1949 and has refused Beijing’s offers for peaceful reunification.

It turns out one could have easily written that same sentence, exchanging Taiwan and China. After all, Taiwan’s miliatry is similarly oriented. And they too have offered “peaceful reunification” to the mainland. The difference, of course, is that Taiwan would spread democracy, and PRC’s form of peaceful reunification consists of donning the yoke of communism. Heck, even Al Qaeda offered peace to the world, if only certain reasonable (?) conditions were met. Clearly, not all “peace” is equally desirable.

So why would an AP reporter use misleading language like that? Hmm, let’s see, the writer is named Audra Ang, and several other writings by this person identify his/her work location as … wait for it … Beijing. Ah, that explains it.