Yyyyyyaaaaauuuuuppppp! now is that you being straight or sarcastic Mr O

and here is the Chinese ( simplified) version of the School kids grafftti:-
"Latin is a language,
Dead as Dead Can Be,
First it Killed the Romans,
Now It's Killing Me"

Just for you when in 2049, Chiana will complete its 100 strategic plan for world domination! unfortunately OLO poster converts it into computer code!

拉丁是一种语言
死如死，
首先它杀死了罗马人，
现在，它正在杀死我。
Lādīng shì yī zhǒng yǔyán
sǐ rú sǐ,
shǒuxiān tā shā sǐle luómǎ rén,
xiànzài, tā zhèngzài shā sǐ wǒ.

Alison Jane,

If you want to catch some Latin in action I suggest watching the 6 part TV series 'Barbarians' currently streaming on SBS.

Also keep in mind that Latin is alive and well in modern cultures like French, Italian and Spanish and makes up a lot of the English language.

You can even get a copy of Harry Potter printed in Latin.

Up unto the 19th century it was the lingua franca of the scientific community.

It's just unfortunate who didn't progress beyond a secondary education.

Mr O, while I stooped being taught how to read, write and speak latin at 14 years old, and my elder sisters became linguists (French and German) and then teaches, I di have to do French and German till 16 years old ( UK O levels. While we all giggled at the latin is a "dead dead language". it help me thru German and English language O levels, after that Science ruled my A levels and Uni and career.. But I still have my latin-english dictionary and tattered text book.

And as I recalled to a friend last night over a wine or two while watching the rain, we got on to Wilfred Owen and i still could recall one of his finest pieces " Dulce et decorum est". Strong deep words in this "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" full of self pity and hubris!

ps Mr O... while " dulce et decorum est" is so relevant today " the phrase almost as famous "pro patria mori," is something I was once prepared to hold, but would not now as our society is so selfish and short-sighted.

Alison Jane,

What area of science are you in?

China probably already controls Taiwan using business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan#Economy

10% of Taiwan residents work in PRC.

This is interesting...

"
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the economic ties between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China have been very prolific. As of 2008, more than US$150 billion[243] have been invested in the PRC by Taiwanese companies, and about 10% of the Taiwanese labour force works in the PRC, often to run their own businesses.[244] Although the economy of Taiwan benefits from this situation, some have expressed the view that the island has become increasingly dependent on the mainland Chinese economy. A 2008 white paper by the Department of Industrial Technology states that "Taiwan should seek to maintain stable relation with China while continuing to protect national security, and avoiding excessive 'Sinicization' of Taiwanese economy."[245] Others argue that close economic ties between Taiwan and mainland China would make any military intervention by the PLA against Taiwan very costly, and therefore less probable.[246]

Taiwan's total trade in 2010 reached an all-time high of US$526.04 billion, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Finance. Both exports and imports for the year reached record levels, totalling US$274.64 billion and US$251.4 billion, respectively.[247]
Because of its conservative financial approach and its entrepreneurial strengths, Taiwan suffered little compared with many of its neighbours in the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Unlike its neighbours, South Korea and Japan, the Taiwanese economy is dominated by small and medium-sized businesses, rather than the large business groups. The global economic downturn, however, combined with poor policy co-ordination by the new administration and increasing bad debts in the banking system, pushed Taiwan into recession in 2001, the first whole year of negative growth since 1947. Due to the relocation of many manufacturing and labour-intensive industries to the PRC, unemployment also reached a level not seen since the 1970s oil crisis. This became a major issue in the 2004 presidential election. Growth averaged more than 4% in the 2002–2006 period and the unemployment rate fell below 4%.[250]"