29 May 2020

China

China seems likely to become a significant issue in this year's US election.  It's important to remember the grim reality behind the various narratives which will be constructed for domestic political reasons.

China today is a nightmarish fascist state.  China is committing de facto genocide against the Uyghur native population of Xinjiang, with over a million Uyghurs held in "re-education" camps, widespread forced sterilization of Uyghur women, and large-scale migration of ethnic Chinese into the territory.  China imposes internal surveillance, and restricts its people's access to information, to a degree almost no other state has managed.  China is destroying what remains of Hong Kong's freedom in brazen disregard of its 1997 commitments.  China is probably the most racist country in the world.  China is engaged in naked territorial expansionism and aggression in the South China Sea, encroaching on the rights of neighboring countries such as the Philippines.  China aims to absorb democratic Taiwan on the basis of shared ethnicity, language, and history, much as Hitler's regime laid claim to Austria.  China, not Trump's US, is the new Nazi Germany.  China's rise toward superpower status is an intolerable menace to the democracies of East Asia and the world in general, and will eventually need to be stopped at almost any cost.

As in the 1930s, there are appeasers at large among the leaders of other countries, people who for whatever reason prefer not to acknowledge the seriousness of the threat or the nature of the regime.  Foremost among them, in our own country, is of course Trump himself.  Whatever he's saying now, Trump previously kowtowed to the Chinese regime as he has done with so many other tyrant states.  In the early weeks of the covid-19 pandemic, Trump repeatedly praised the regime and took its shoddy lies at face value.

Fortunately Biden seems willing to be blunt about the issue:


The economic shock wrought by the pandemic seems to have awakened some other democracies to the madness of allowing themselves to become dependent on China.  The UK and Japan, for example, are already taking steps to lessen that dependence and bring critical production capacity back home.  We, too, will need leadership that can see the problem with clear eyes and act in our real national interest.  That can't be provided by a man whose positions shift around like a wind sock as political expediency dictates, and whose first instinct has always been to coddle dictators while sabotaging our relationships with fellow democratic nations.  Trump's utter failure to recognize and confront the covid-19 threat is closely paralleled by his similar failure with China.

7 Comments:

Blogger Sixpence Notthewiser said...

China (and Xi) are dangerous. Or maybe I should say China's government and its voracious desire to become the biggest player in the world theater. I think it's been smart of Japan and the UK to wean themselves off China's cheap, sweatshop driven production. IMPOTUS and his spawn have invested in countless trademarks with the Chinese. The corruption never ends.
Hopefully, Uncle Joe will talk about this during election time. I'd love to see what Cheeto has to say...

XOXO

29 May, 2020 02:26  
Blogger Mary Kirkland said...

With this whole Coronavirus thing most Americans that China can't be trusted.

29 May, 2020 13:36  
Blogger Mike said...

If the UK had any guts they would march back into Hong Kong because of the failed agreement.

29 May, 2020 18:32  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Sixpence: IMPOTUS and his spawn have invested in countless trademarks with the Chinese

Good point. All their brand-name crap seems to be made over there. We need to disengage like the UK and Japan, but it won't happen until they're out of power.

[At the commenter's request, I have deleted the comment which was formerly in second position.]

Mary K: If the pandemic makes people wake up about that, it will have done a little good, at least.

29 May, 2020 19:05  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Mike: That would take more guts than sense, unfortunately. The UK isn't powerful enough to beat back China on the doorstep of its own territory.

29 May, 2020 19:08  
Blogger yellowdoggranny said...

i think right in the middle of the cold war with Russia I said we had more to fear from China..damn..I was right for a change..although putin's russia is scary as fuck too.but none of them are scarier than trump..

29 May, 2020 21:01  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Russia is still dangerous, but it's a declining threat. China is a growing one.

05 June, 2020 04:29  

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