China is not a panda, despite the claims of the wannabe panda-hugger historians and advisors to the United States State Department. China is in reality a growing 800 lb. gorilla, bullying and buying its way through Asia and the world; in the process it tries to recapture the glory of past myths perpetuated by court historians. Ironically, in the gorilla's way is Taiwan, a nation that fought off a similar paternalistic autocratic gorilla to achieve its own democracy. It is Taiwan that exposes the hegemonic 800 lb. gorilla on the other side of the Taiwan Strait for what it is and it is Taiwan that can help deconstruct the gorilla.