By Godfree Roberts selected from his extensive weekly newsletter : Here Comes China
This week’s selection includes a separate explanation on just how the Chinese Communist Party and Government operates. For those that visit these weekly Sitreps to learn, this may put an end to the regular discussion items of just how bad the CCP is. You did know that China has six political parties, did you? The people that I’ve consulted say the following: China’s system works for China. We do not suggest you adopt our system, so, there is no reason for you to insist we adopt yours.
From a regular Twitter Feed by ShangaiPanda, here is how it actually works, by meritocracy. What this means is that Xi Jinping for example already had 40 years experience in governing, before he was both selected, and elected to his position.
From Godfree’s newsletter which is just brimming with interesting items this week, we’ve selected items about:
- space,
- Islam, communism and the BRI,
- trade war and trade deficit,
- and a highly educational piece by ‘Chairman Rabbit’, who analyses America from a Chinese perspective.
On studying China it is good to remember that unlike many other countries, China as a country holds together from two perspectives, a long lasting civilizational unity, as well as a sovereign state.
Space – high technology that is green technology
China has safely landed a reusable spacecraft which it claims will provide a “convenient and inexpensive” method of getting to and from space. The craft launched on September 4th and landed on September 6th after spending two days in orbit, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. Very little is known about the spacecraft, including even its basic design. There are no picture or renders of the craft, but there have been rumors it is a spaceplane similar to the Air Force’s X-37B. A Chinese military source told the South China Morning Post they could not provide details on the mission but that “maybe you can take a look at the US X-37B.”[MORE]
Islam, Communism and the BRI
The significance of having 52 Muslim countries (37.6%) that comprise 87.5 per cent of World Muslims in the BRI alliance, is not lost on the United States and its allies who are not particularly pro-Islam, which may explain their sudden interest to ‘care’ about the plight of Muslims in Xinjiang! Soon after the Bolshevik uprisings, Communism and Islam seemed destined to liberate the Muslim world from European Imperialism, but that was not to be due to their ideological differences. This presented an opportunity to the United States and its allies, where they coopted anti-Communist Jihadism to disrupt Communism. This had the unintended consequence of being the impetus for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which presented the U.S. and its allies with new challenges.
Soon after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, Communism and Islam were the impetus for revolutions against European imperialism in Egypt, Iraq, India, Caucasus and Central Asia, and the Indonesian Archipelago. However, divergent views about Communism proved divisive among Muslims (who are also quite divergent in their theological interpretations of Islam) and this quasi- ideological alliance was all over by the onset of the Cold War. Those irrevocable divisions may have been due to the essence of Islam’s socio-economic and political system. It is more consultative (‘Shoura’ or democratic theocracy) and entrepreneurial in nature, which is more compatible with social democracy and capitalism, than with communism’s autocratic state planned economy.
The other reason for such failure is the proactive role of the United States (and some Western Europeans, like Britain and France) in using Christian missionaries and NGOs in intelligence gathering while spreading Christianity in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. In the 1970s, it was revealed that the CIA sponsored missionaries in Kerala and Nagaland to not only block the advance of Communism in India, but also to establish sufficient tensions between India and China and prevent any regional stability that continues to our present day.
In the 1980s, the CIA’s material support to the Afghan Mujahideen (and by default the Afghan Arabs, like Osama Bin Laden and his followers, who were rounded up from the different Arab and Muslim countries by their intelligence services and sent to Afghanistan, via Pakistan for their paramilitary training by the ISI, in the hope that they would never come back) only exacerbated extremist violence ever since. In the 1990s, the predominantly Muslim former Soviet Republics of Central Asia; Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and other Islamic countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan opened their doors to Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi Islam (probably with the ‘blessings’ of the CIA).
This resulted in an upsurge of Islamist fundamentalism and separatist movements in central Asia, like al-Qaeda affiliated Turkestan Islamic Party(TIP), Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), which have presented a challenge to China and others in the region. Since the rise of anti-Communist Jihadism in the 1980s and its coopetition by the Anglo-Americans to disrupting Communism ever since may have been the impetus for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The $8 trillion investment by China in its bold, innovative and strategic Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) alliances with 138 countries comprising 51.7% of world GDP offers an infrastructure backbone of maritime, land and digital trade alliances. The BRI alliances represent 4.8 billion people (61.7%) of the world population. Of which an estimated 1.4 billion (29.2%) identify as Muslim and are part of the 52 member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), including all 22 Arab countries.
China’s BRI strategic alliances with Arabic and Muslim countries can only help neutralise the existential threat of global Islamist fundamentalism in the long-term by spreading economic prosperity and alleviating poverty. Also, it will not only bring prosperity and stability to China’s underdeveloped north-western part (Xinjiang holds 1.33% of China’s population and contributes 1.35% to China’s GDP), but also to (its ideological partner in the new world order) Russia, and other BRI partners on its western border.
Coupled with technological innovations in global cross-border trade and finance, the BRI projects would no doubt accelerate global economic growth and revive China’s historical legacy in boosting entrepreneurships without compromising necessary protections of the weak. Those infrastructure-driven alliances are building a global community with a shared future for mankind. This is so important at a time when our world is divided by poverty, crippling national debts and the rise of ultra-nationalism.
The clash of civilizations, anti-(Muslim)-refugees’ sentiment and Islamophobia are just symptoms of the rise in white supremacism and alt-right extremism sweeping the Anglo-American and European nations. Those groups subscribe to a conspiracy theory of cultural and population replacement or nativism, where white European populations are being replaced with non-Europeans (predominantly Muslim Arabs from Syria and elsewhere) due to the complicity of ‘replacist’ elites.
For example, the ‘Génération Identitaire’ (GI) movement in France, which considers itself a ‘defender’ of the European civilization has affiliated youth groups in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. This heightened sense of ultra-nationalism is driving Western democratic politics away from economic concerns, in favour of issues related to culture and identity. No doubt, Anglo-American and European anxieties about China’s technological, economic and geopolitical dominance may be rooted in their innate fears about being displaced by an Asian culture and the potential spread of Socialism with Chinese characteristics to the 138 countries that joined the BRI alliances, after having spent a good part of over 70 years fighting Communism.
America’s continued rise as a world power—from the 1890s through the Cold War—and its bid to extend its hegemony deep into the twenty-first century through a fusion of cyberwar, space warfare, trade pacts, and military alliances – is now limited by the reality that it has to dismantle China’s BRI alliances as it did to the USSR. This is why the ‘five eyes’ alliance is going on the offensive with (a) sanctions and visa restrictions for Chinese officials, (b) bans on China’s technological 5G innovations (Huawei, Tik Tok and WeChat under the guise of ‘National Security’ concerns), (c) tariffs trade wars, and (d) a particular focus on ‘human rights’ in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
The significance of having 52 Muslim countries (37.6%) that comprise 87.5 per cent of World Muslims in the BRI alliance, is not lost on the United States and its allies who are not particularly pro-Islam, which may explain their sudden interest to ‘care’ about the plight of Muslims in Xinjiang! Thus, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the sole purpose of those disruptive policies by the “five-eyes” alliance is to intensify the global anti-China sentiment that is already aggravated due to COVID-19, and to inflame Muslim sentiment in particular, so as to torpedo China’s largest economic and geopolitical Belt and Road alliances.[MORE] [George Mickhail is an LSE trained academic and a geopolitical risk analyst with 30 years’ experience in major global accounting firms and business schools.]
Trade War and Trade Deficit
The US trade deficit with China widened in July – an embarrassing situation for President Trump, who Taiwan’s Liberty Times said had been left with a ‘green face’ (a crude expression that makes plain this is a bad outcome for him). When the US President campaigned four years ago, he strongly accused China of seizing American wealth in what he hailed as “the biggest theft in history.” After his election, he maintained this position against China. However, the latest data will hardly please him. The United States had a $31.6 billion trade deficit with China in July, which was an 11.5% increase from June. The paper noted that before the outbreak of the coronavirus, the US trade deficit with China was narrowing, but it has gradually expanded since the epidemic spread. Data released by the US Census Bureau on Thursday showed that the trade deficit with China in Q2 increased by 36.8% compared to Q1. The deficit in July was 4.36% larger than that in July 2016.[MORE]
‘Chairman Rabbit’ Analyzes America
Editor’s Note: Tu Zhuxi (Chairman Rabbit) is the nom de plume of Ren Yi, a Harvard-educated Chinese blogger who has amassed more than 1.6 million followers on Weibo who seek out his political commentary, much of which falls under a genre we might facetiously call “America-watching.”
Today, I scrolled through the interview Professor Ezra Feivel Vogel gave with the Global Times: “90 year-old Professor Vogel: Unfortunately, there is a possibility of armed confrontation between the United States and China.” The veteran professor—who has researched China and East Asia all his life and promoted the development of ties between the United States and China—conveyed intense unease after witnessing two years of sharp downturn in Sino-U.S. relations under the Trump Administration. He could not bear not to air his concerns.
This interview comes at an opportune time. As you can see, I have excerpted a short comment from the interview. This excerpt perfectly echoes the content I have wanted to expand on these last two days:
Vogel: There is a new article in the Atlantic magazine by James Fallows that gives the most comprehensive explanation of what has happened. And it clearly is the Trump administration.
Before the coronavirus, there had been plans in earlier administrations for dealing with an epidemic. We had a good overall plan. Trump did not use those plans at all. He even acted when he first heard about the coronavirus pandemic as if there was not a big problem. So things were delayed. It clearly is Trump’s responsibility.
At the time of writing, the United States has around 3.8 million confirmed cumulative cases, 140,000 deaths, and a daily increase of about 64 thousand cases. The diagnosis of experts and intellectuals around the United States: this is all due to the Trump Administration.
First of all, the United States’ so-called “good overall plan” for epidemic response was targeted towards a type of infectious disease that resembles the flu in infectiousness, hazard, and lethality. The United States after all has quite a few documentaries and special television programming about pandemics, and every year in every corner of the country drills are held about pandemics, but all of these were with the assumptions of a flu-like disease. COVID-19 was not within the expectations of an American plan for epidemic response, and indeed was beyond the response plan of every country in regard to an infectious disease with respiratory transmission. COVID-19 is an especially potent epidemic, a disease with an extraordinarily high death rate. The epidemic response plan that the United States currently had in place was entirely insufficient for COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci brought up this topic several times in the last few months, especially in the early stages of the epidemic: the American system and design is either insufficient or entirely ineffectual against COVID-19. Dr. Fauci was speaking only from the standpoint of public hygiene and healthcare system and his analysis did not broaden past these considerations.
I have been following the news, media, and commentaries of the U.S. right and left. Criticisms of the epidemic response have generally been from Democratic Party, anti-Trump, and/or liberal-aligned intellectuals. Even after several months, I have rarely encountered essays or discussions that analyze in-depth the full extent of the difficulties facing the U.S. COVID-19 response by synthesizing broader observations on the nation’s political system, society, governance, culture, and economy.
Basically, all the analyses have taken the question and subsumed it under the issue of “political leadership”—usually pointing towards the President, the White House, and state governors. The majority of these analyses lay blame onto the very person of Trump.
Basically, all the analyses have taken the question and subsumed it under the issue of “political leadership”—usually pointing towards the President, the White House, and state governors. The majority of these analyses lay blame onto the very person of Trump.
According to this logic, the reason for the U.S.’s weak response to the epidemic is Trump and Trump alone. If only there was only another person in charge, the U.S. could have defeated COVID-19.
Readers who follow me should know my methods well: I have always begun my analyses from a sociological point of view. How could the U.S. use influenza as the primary lens to understand COVID-19, and how did this understanding influence the U.S.’s subsequent responsive actions? I have since wrote many essays on this topic, for example my April 1st, 2020 essay: “Can the United States Shut Down Entire Cities and Thoroughly Practice Social Distancing Like China? A Discussion of American Exceptionalism” (link in Chinese).
In that piece, I argue that due to the U.S. political and legal system, enacting a comprehensive and stringent social distancing program, including measures such as quarantining cities, is simply not possible.
In the next few months, I will continue my analysis and extend towards the political level. Not too long ago, I collected a few writings into this listicle: “13 Reasons for the Ineffectual Response towards COVID-19 of the United States and ‘Society Construction’ During an Epidemic” (link in Chinese).
I summarized thirteen reasons for the U.S.’s weak response to the epidemic:
- Government system: the separation of powers between the federal, state, and local governments
- Government system: the separation of powers between the legislative, executive, and judiciary bodies
- Wide racial and class disparities
- A culture that understands individualism as a cardinal virtue, even to the point of opposing social or collective interests
- An overwhelmingly one-sided emphasis on political and civil rights
- “Gun culture”: the spirit of Manifest Destiny, rugged individualism, and militarism
- “Bible culture” and anti-intellectualism
- A pluralistic society without common understanding or consensuses
- A government and media that intensifies rather than ameliorates social tensions
- A values system that does not respect the elderly and does not assign elders special protections
- Family structures which are not suited to fighting against COVID-19
- The precarious economic situation of the United States’ middle and lower classes (like walking on a tightrope, i.e. living from paycheck to paycheck or credit problems)
- Other cultural factors, such as resistance against wearing masks
There are certainly many more reasons than the ones I have listed. But what I wish to express is that the U.S.’s weak response to the epidemic is the combined result of political, legal, social, cultural, economic, and other factors. The White House, as one of the holders of broad public authority (the executive section of the federal government), has in fact significantly limited power over this broader structural context.
The U.S. cannot manage stringent social distancing, large-scale quarantines of cities, nor restrictions on interstate travel. Health QR codes on mobile devices are entirely impossible with citizens’ insistence on privacy protections. A vast society led primarily by individualism and anti-intellectualism can hardly speak of epidemic management. These factors are not problems that can be resolved with the changing of a president. I believe that even if it were Obama, Hillary, or Biden as president, they would not be able to reverse the tide of the battle against COVID-19, even if they would be slightly more effective—for instance if they had taken the initiative and emphasized the importance of masks. This is because fighting an epidemic does not depend on the lobbying or practices of a president, but rather on the public health and prevention system of an entire country, one which from top to bottom must act in unity and move together. Public authority must comprehensively, effectively, and consistently implement policies (such that each locality will not have its own variant policies), and also cannot allow any level of the judiciary to interfere in the problems of any level of government. On the balance between citizen and society, preparations must absolutely be made to cede rights to the collective. “Political and civil rights” must in these times yield way.
The very design of U.S. political and legal institutions is meant to inhibit collective rights. Balance of powers is at the core of American governance. Political and civil rights are the bedrock of American political values. To deny these values equates to the very denial of the U.S.’s fundamental being.
The very design of U.S. political and legal institutions is meant to inhibit collective rights.
Therefore, to take the U.S.’s weak response to the epidemic and shove it at “political leadership” and at the feet of Trump is not merely skin-deep, but avoids the real problem and focuses on easy answers. It is simply not looking at the substance of the situation.
For several months I have followed U.S. political commentaries on the left and right, and I can confirm I have not seen any analysis of depth. The overwhelming majority of analyses are overly narrow and concrete, pointing at an individual perhaps. Rare is the person who can leap outside the U.S. political structure and carry out a detailed assessment from a third point-of-view. Why? I summarize two reasons:
(1) Americans are sort of like the baffled participant in a game; sometimes the onlookers see more of the game than the players. Americans honestly believe that the American system is exceptional, the best in the world. This is an earnest and steadfast faith, an authentic “self-confidence in path, self-confidence in principles, self-confidence in system, self-confidence in culture” [the “Four Self-Confidences” of Xi Jinping Thought]. They simply cannot bring themselves to doubt or oppose the American system. Since the American system is perfect, once the epidemic creates problems, by the process of elimination, Americans reason that the problem must stem only from electing the right or wrong politician. From this line of thought, pick out the one who has the most power: this is Trump’s fault. After him, perhaps we blame the governor of Florida, DeSantis. This is about as deep as the majority of Americans introspect.
(2) Criticizing the American system is a serious political error. It’s taboo. This is because it is anti-American, “unpatriotic,” “un-American.” It is a stance that doubts the very foundations of the United States. So when there is an elephant in the room in regards to the American system, everybody can see it but dare not speak up. I believe that the majority of people do not even see this elephant in the room because they have been so thoroughly brainwashed by the perfection of the American system. It is only a minority of people who can see this. These people very well could be Democrats or liberal intellectuals. This small number of people aware of reality cannot point out the elephant, however, even if they can see it. This is because pointing it out cannot change the situation on the ground, yet will still result in censure and criticism. One would rather polish a cannonball and lob it at Trump.
In summary, if we compare China with the United States, we would discover an interesting phenomenon.
When Chinese people criticize, they are accustomed to focusing criticisms on the system. “Systemic problem.” “Systemic-ism .” Even though there are indeed problems at the individual level, these problems are thoroughly rooted in the larger system. “Because the system produced this type of person,” “because the system could not restrain or check this particular person.” At any rate, any analysis fundamentally leads back to systemic problems.
When American people criticize, it is focusing the problem onto the physical body of an individual politician. It is not the system at fault, because the system is already perfect or close to perfect, so it can only be a problem birthed from the politician: this pundit’s personality is bad, their abilities did not cut it. All criticisms are of this sort. With that, if an impotent pundit is continuously elected or re-elected—for instance if Trump is re-elected, then this is a problem of the voters. But at this time, the analysis simply cannot proceed further. In the calculus of American political values, the political values of every person are equal: one cannot belittle the voters. In 2016 during the presidential race, Hillary Clinton belittled Trump’s supporters and faced an overwhelmingly negative backlash, costing her the ultimate price (this could perhaps be why she lost the presidential race). What is left then is to criticize the political influence of the media, campaign funding, and interest groups. But even here the analysis must end. Within the proscribed limits of the dialogue, it is easy to enter into another level of analysis—for example, could it be that the U.S. electoral system has fundamental faults? If one gets to this level, it touches upon the very body of U.S. democracy and its electoral system. One would be entering a live mine zone, teetering on the edge of political error.
In this sort of environment, Americans naturally will avoid hard problems and search for easy answers. They will not explore systemic problems, but rather focus their entire attention on electoral solutions.
Under this existing electoral process, one can only, perhaps, push their preferred candidate onto the political stage and wish only for their own candidate to ascend to the office, so that in the next few years that candidate can advance their own political programs and thereby protect the interests of the candidate’s supporters. In this sort of environment, Americans naturally will avoid hard problems and search for easy answers. They will not explore systemic problems, but rather focus their entire attention on electoral solutions.
Therefore, American politics are entirely driven by the short-term. They will look at long-term problems as a certainty before avoiding them, exerting only in order to resolve short-term problems. Even though there are scholars and intellectuals who can produce long-term analyses of wide historical and societal scale, this sort of analysis remains locked in the library and Ivory Towers, away from the stain of political practice.
The American “Revolution”
In the week after the conclusion of the 2016 election in the United States, Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders published his book Our Revolution. As everybody knows, 2016 was the contest between Trump and Clinton. Yet Bernie Sanders was the more extreme, more left (called a “socialist”) candidate of the Democratic Party, who was ultimately knocked out by the mainstream Clinton in the primaries. But he retains many fans among the Democratic Party’s “progressive wing”, including many youth. In his book, he introduced his thoughts as well as his explanations and analyses on all sorts of issues of the day, including the wealth gap, race relations, environmental problems, healthcare problems, the problem of media and interest groups binding politics, gender pay disparity, and the problem of Wall Street and big corporations.
Sanders’ diagnosis of American problems intersects with Trump: it is only that while Sander’s target audience was quite broad (for example, minorities, vulnerable groups, and women), Trump’s was much more parochial. On similar problems, Trump would provide right-wing resolutions to his limited audience of voters, but Sanders provided left-wing resolutions to his broad audiences—because of this, he was smeared as a “socialist”. Of course, during Sander’s entire campaign, there remained an unspeakable doubt: that is, can a big-city Jewish American ‘elite’ from Brooklyn, New York actually win the votes to be elected as President of the United States? This same problem may apply to Michael Bloomberg. To date, it seems this question answers in the negative.
But I do not wish to talk about Sanders’ propositions or ethnicity, but rather his slogan: “Our Revolution”.
“Our Revolution” has now become a left-wing action organization with roots in the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign, and it continues to organize movements within the Democratic Party and in other broader social contexts.
“Our Revolution” has three key actions: “Win on our issues,” “Transform the Democratic Party,” and “Elect progressives up and down the ballot.”
It is of note that Sanders is the most mainstream American politician to date to support the idea of a revolution. However, what I wish to point out to Chinese readers is that this concept of “revolution” is nothing more than propagating his own thoughts and policy proposals to a wider audience, in order to get his own people elected and achieve electoral success himself.
People more familiar with Chinese political discourse should know the difference between “revolution” and “reform.”
Revolution is overturning and starting over again: toppling the old system and the old order, and constructing a new system. Revolution is often violent, of great force, compelled, and refuses to abide by the present system. From the standpoint of Marxism, revolution is class struggle, a fiery worker’s movement. From the standpoint of Leninism, it is a violent movement. From the standpoint of Mao Zedong:
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
In the Chinese context, and indeed in the majority of cultural and social contexts, “revolution” is an intense action: revolution demands the overthrowing of the present system. Abiding by the present system, or moving within the current system and order, can only be reform.
But it is different in the United States. In the United States, challenging and overthrowing the system is taboo. It is simply impossible. This is because the American system is considered sacred, perfect. It is only particular individuals who have problems, only particular problems that cannot be handled well. The system itself has no problems. Therefore, all actions can only be carried out within the purview of what the system allows. The only path is by election—use a successful election to construct the starting point and foundations of societal change.
The American system is considered sacred, perfect. It is only particular individuals who have problems, only particular problems that cannot be handled well. The system itself has no problems.
Because of this, in the political rhetoric of Bernie Sanders, we see not a radical revolution or transformation, but a complete obedience to the American system. Due to the American people’s 100% approval and obedience to the system, any possibilities that people may have substantive critique or doubts vis-à-vis the system are cut off, and no action can be taken. The American system has completely limited their space for movement. Even “radicals” similarly can only raise high the banner of the American system, and can only work and influence society within designated limits: by pushing their own candidates in elections.
A few weeks ago, the police brutality case of George Floyd caused massive numbers of Americans to take to the streets and protest without ceasing.
Yet have we seen any protestor put out protest against the very structure of America’s political system, institutions, and government? Will there be any person who comes and burn the Constitution? Burn the American flag? Will there be any person who will put forth concrete plans of actions towards subversion?
There wasn’t any. The protestors could only protest a few “conditions.” Each path towards resolution is diverted back into elections.
The United States uses the separation of powers mechanism to spread the vast majority of social contradictions among the politicians of the various local jurisdictions. Through the possibility of election, in order to resolve these contradictions, the people complain while pointing at the politicians, not the institutions themselves. In the end, the people believe they hold the power and can influence politics through the vote, carrying on their lives under this sort of hope.
The most awe-inspiring politics indeed is this: one in which people believe they have the power and thus maintain steadfast hope in the future, while at the same time changing nothing about the current situation.
A few weeks ago, when riots erupted all around the United States, Secretary of State Pompeo could still proudly boast and simultaneously demean China: Wehave freedom of assembly, expression, and freedom to protest.
The American system has already developed to this point: simply give the people freedom of expression and freedom to protest so that they can feel themselves righteous and superior, after which they may do as they wish.
I have before written an essay “From ‘Moral Licensing’ and ‘black-clad warriors’ to the ‘Sick People of Hong Kong’” in which I explained the concept of moral licensing:
“People believe that if they had prior done something good, they can then possibly condone themselves (or even indulge themselves) when in the future they do something not as good (even actions that do not conform to one’s own or the public’s moral standards).”
The circumstances surrounding the system of the U.S. are such: if we allow people expression, allow them to freely scold the government, this grants the people “political and civil rights.” This itself grants the American system moral superiority; it is the ends not the means. Afterwards, the government need not do anything further: “half-heartedly listen yet decide to do nothing.” That there have been so many racial conflicts and riots in the past few decades demonstrates that this kind of “expression” does not bring any substantive political transformation. American society has not experienced any fundamental changes. The people who can bear it no more cannot help but take to the streets after many a hard years.
The U.S.’s electoral system is a systemic, national form of “moral licensing”:
First, it grants people the right to vote, grants people a few nominal political and civil rights, allowing the people to feel that they have power and agency and thereby perceive moral self-satisfaction.
Afterwards, the politicians and elites can recount the greatness and glory of the system, right and proper as it is. “We allow African Americans to go out on the streets! So our system is progressive.” “We had Obama as president, how can our society be discriminatory against African Americans?”
The first stage of American politics is taking “the right to express concerns” and equating it with “measures to resolve the problem.” I allowed you to express your opinion, so all is well.
The second stage of American politics is taking “the right to express concerns” and using it as legitimization for “tacit allowance of the bad.” I allowed you to express your opinion, and I even allowed a black president, so what are you babbling about?
As one can see, the separation of powers and electoral system in the United States has created a perfect “cognitive trap” — people believe that this system can endlessly empower individuals and provide limitless potential and possibilities, that it can change anything. This system is in fact like a black hole, taking all the potential and sucking it in and dispelling it — even if it means there will be no changes in reality.
This system is in fact like a black hole, taking all the potential and sucking it in and dispelling it — even if it means there will be no changes in reality.
I believe that there will not be an insurrection in the U.S. because there is no power in the U.S. that can overturn or transform the American system. The American system is too powerful, it can already change the meaning of words: turning “revolution” into reforms hemmed in by the limits of the electoral system. This is indeed an extraordinarily powerful system.
Only an enormous outside pressure can cause the United States to change.
China is just such a pressure currently placed on the United States. In the beginning, the pressure was indistinct, unclear, but now it grows more apparent as China continues its rise.
Why Can’t America Criticize Its Own System?
Apart from “empowering” people, giving them the fantastic illusion of grasping political power and being able to influence it, the American electoral system is also importantly related to the system’s construction of an American person’s identity.
As I have written two days prior in the essay “Why the United States Does Not Understand China — From the Original Intention of the Communist Party of China, to European Civilization, to American Politics”, the United States is an multi-national country, assimilating many people from different ethnicities, nationalities, cultures, and societies. To bind these people together, a country cannot rely on blood ties, shared ethnicity, or shared culture, but instead on shared political values—the approval of the Constitution of the United States, and the approval of the foundational political values of the United States.
Political values and the American system: these two formulate the “national identity” of the United States.
Disavowing the American system is tantamount to disavowing the American national identity, necessarily meaning being anti-American.
Every civilization must construct its own foundations for national identity.
The national identities of European countries lay upon race, blood, and land, and, after, language and culture. Denying one’s race, blood, land, and language is to go against one’s own national character, and is hardly acceptable.
China is also multi-national, its national identity based more on culture and language; one able to integrate into the Chinese nation is one who can be accepted. Land is secondary, and ethnicity and blood ties may also be factors. But in summary, the inclusiveness of the Chinese people is quite potent, with ethnicity, blood ties, and other such factors relatively weak considerations. From the point-of-view of Chinese people, disavowing Chinese culture, history, tradition, or the perception of China’s territory and borders, is what it takes to disavow or be disloyal to China.
From the standpoint of the United States, ethnicity, blood, land, language, culture, and history are not key factors; only political values are. To disavow the American system is to disavow the American “nation.”
From the standpoint of any nationality, for one to deny their own national character is very much unacceptable, no matter if it is Europe, China, or the United States. The distinction from Europe and China is that the American nationality is built on the foundation of a political system and values.
In what circumstances then does a society or a nationality go against and disavow their own nationality?
I am currently of the belief that it is only in a cross-ethnic or transnational international setting where one could find serious frustrations which could produce such a self-disavowal.
Only in facing an enormous failure can there possibly be a self-disavowal, even a “self-hatred”.
China’s concept of nationality is built on culture and civilization. In the past two hundred years or so, China has suffered foreign invasion and bullying, thoroughly fell behind and received thrashings, and as a result came to doubt much of its own system and culture. This type of self-doubt and self-disavowal has persisted onto the present day. Chinese people tend to search for their own “inherent weaknesses” among their traditional culture.
Once the Chinese economy grew, and subsequently once its global standing rose, people began to change, becoming self-confident, and more were able to see the good aspects of Chinese traditional culture and contemporary societal practices.
The U.S. is similar. The American concept of national character is its own system and political value. Nothing short of a severe frustration of the American system, perhaps by China comprehensively catching up to or surpassing the United States, perhaps even failing in a competition or struggle with China, would possibly wake up the Americans to their senses. The basis for the United States’ own “four self-confidences” is its absolute leading role in the world for the past close to a century. The U.S.’s strength made people believe that the American system must be superior, and based on this they came to believe that America’s national character must be superior. The U.S. vigilantly guards against and attacks any other country that could challenge its national might, because any challenge would undermine the supposed superiority of the U.S.’s national character.
The U.S. vigilantly guards against and attacks any other country that could challenge its national might, because any challenge would undermine the supposed superiority of the U.S.’s national character.
If China one day rises and is to enter conflict with the United States and comes to outdo the American system, then for certain it would deal a huge blow to the self-confidence of the American people.
Only in such a time may the American people perhaps engage in deeper introspections on their system and models, and thereby possibly search for and implement necessary reforms.
I believe that American politics and society have extraordinarily powerful inertia and cannot initiate any self-led, self-directed adjustments in the short-term, unless there is outside pressure.
China’s rise is by now inevitable and will come to pressure the U.S. more as time goes on. At a certain point, the U.S. will be forced to confront and rethink their own system, to seek more changes and reforms. This is precisely like the period at the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s, in which the U.S. confronted the rise of Japan in industrial and commercial matters. Thus, the U.S. increasingly scrutinizing China is only a matter of time.
As China continues to grow stronger, its influence on international affairs will naturally grow larger as well. At the same time, the United States will experience a relative decline, its soft power and political influence around the world will face relative decline as well. China can indeed throw out or act as a challenge, check, or supplement (the terminology is not important) to the American model in the future, and proceed on a path distinct from that of the West.
The path China takes will also influence the course of human development in the future, and indeed may be a course we will get to see in our lifetimes.
Finally, if there is a lesson that China must draw from the U.S. concerning principles of political systems, it must be that we must constantly remember to remain humble. Under no circumstances can we allow ourselves to become complacent and lose our vigilance. We must constantly look at our shortcomings, search for reforms and improvements, and consistently upgrade ourselves. “Four self-confidences” of course is vitally important, but we must at the same time retain our characteristically Chinese low-key, pragmatic, cautious, modest, and moderate dispositions.
We must never emulate the Americans in their blindness, arrogance and self-importance, lack of introspection, or their coarse self-confidence.[MORE]
Translated by Sean Haoqin Kang. The original Wechat blogpost, “American ‘Revolution’: The ‘Systemic Trap’ and the Lessons China Must Draw” can be found here (link in Chinese).
Selections by Amarynth
Here is an interesting look at a recent publication by a Chinese think tank that looks at what issues concern China about America’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2020/08/chinas-view-on-americas-presence-in.html
This report provides us with some fascinating insight on how “the other side” of this looming conflict has perceived Washington’s agenda for its own backyard and why China’s leadership could perceive America’s actions as a threat to its own stability.
I stopped reading when con-vid19 was mentioned.
You should have continued reading. You may have understood how different the management was in different countries. You may understand as well the difference between commenting on process, instead of the happening itself. I dare you, go and check it out :-)
I stopped reading after the author stated that Corona Chan is “a disease with an extraordinarily high death rate”.
Corona Chan may be infectious, but (even with its engineered extras) no more fatal than a nasty influenza bug.
Even less so when cheap, safe, effective & easily available medicines & supplements are employed early or as prophylactics.
Just like Corona Chan, propaganda seems to be infectious.
You’re reading the Chinese experience, not the Western experience. When this bug broke out in China, there was nothing .. no cheap safe and effective medicines .. these were developed afterwards. The Chinese developed most or many of the different ways of treating. So, to read the Chinese experience with Western eyes, never works. This is why we are running these sitreps, to learn. But alas, some do not understand if we say read the Chinese stuff with a Chinese mindset. But then again, you are free to stop reading with your experience gained over the past 8 months, and not viewing it when it happened in China. And not viewing it in terms of what they do today. They don’t want to treat this thing, they want to eradicate this thing and for the most, they did it and are still running serious public health methods to keep it dead.
Chinese economy is of course up and running.
Yes, it’s the Chinese perspective, but one which is comparing the evolution of the American & Chinese Corona Chan experiences over the last 8 months in hindsight.
China killed Corona Chan – now it’s essentially just a nuisance – and China told the rest of the world how to do it too (never mind that this advice largely fell on deaf ears).
Corona Chan is an ostensible pandemic gifted to the world by the Exceptional Nation which, despite its engineered features and high infectivity, was never in the same league as (for example) the Spanish Flu or Bubonic Plague or similar. The seriousness of China’s response was guided by the recognition that this was yet one more covert act of biological warfare directed against China.
With proper early treatment, Corona Chan is no more of a medical threat than a bad influenza.
That said, Western plans apparently don’t have any intention to allow its proper early treatment, having instead a single-minded focus on the delivery of Big Pharma’s lucrative “vaccines”.
To now state, in the present tense, that “COVID-19 is an especially potent epidemic, a disease with an extraordinarily high death rate”, is to give credence to the propaganda of vested Western political and commercial interests.
I think it’s entirely reasonable to say the virus has “an extraordinarily high death rate” when it’s more than 20 times as lethal as the flu, an “order of magnitude” difference.
https://covidusa.net/
Perhaps you mean Corona Trump? Chan is a very common Chinese (Cantonese) surname.
Yes, you have been conned, but not by China.
“rise in white supremacism and alt-right extremism sweeping the Anglo-American and European nations.”
Yes. White Europeans want their countries back. They also want to stop their elites from invading and meddling in the Middle East. What’s wrong with that?
Do you think China would tolerate mass immigration from Africa and the Middle East? From alien cultures?
I am in a capital city in eastern Europe at the moment. Young girls wander around the streets at night without being molested or pestered in any way. The way it used to be in London and Paris used to be when I lived in these places. I think most white Europeans would like that to come back. The only way is if those invaders are returned to their ancient lands.
Alfred, I have no idea what your comment is in relation to. Is it in relation to anything mentioned in this Sitrep? The answer to you question in terms of China is that they are not looking to bring in more people. They have plenty. Russia for example has programs because they have more land than people.
He quoted the section he’s replying to. I also winced at that passage; it shows a neoliberal-level understanding of the West’s problems with immigration and cultural Marxism. Terms like “white supremacism” are weaponized language designed to demonize Western people’s normal desire to live around their own kind in their own lands. The same people pushing this language are also demonizing Russia, by the way. The greatest evil in the world today is the totalizing, culture-destroying, deracinating globalism that seeks tyrannical control over all institutions, nations and peoples. Ethno-nationalists are part of the resistance to that evil ideology, and shouldn’t be demonized.
So, you say that the Chinese commentator is not to use those terms? I’m just wondering what of what he describes did not happen? Rightly or wrongly …
“The clash of civilizations, anti-(Muslim)-refugees’ sentiment and Islamophobia are just symptoms of the rise in white supremacism and alt-right extremism sweeping the Anglo-American and European nations. Those groups subscribe to a conspiracy theory of cultural and population replacement or nativism, where white European populations are being replaced with non-Europeans (predominantly Muslim Arabs from Syria and elsewhere) due to the complicity of ‘replacist’ elites.”
“rise in white supremacism and alt-right extremism sweeping the Anglo-American and European nations.”
So, you say that the Chinese commentator is not to use those terms?
indeed.
white supremacism and alt right extremism are terms, that are chinese han supremacism and supernationalism of the chinese han.
we are just playing catchup…😉
“Western people’s normal desire to live around their own kind in their own lands.”
The USA is not “their own land”, neither is Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
The fact that you cannot see what is wrong with your attitude is very telling of the racism ingrained in you.
This, what you are saying, is the Israeli mindset. All they want is to just ethnically cleanse the Palestinians so they can live comfortably among their own kind. Can’t we all just please sympathize with the poor Israelis?
Get a clue, for the love of God.
Can’t agree with you more!
Hello Alfred, (Cairns)
You are perfectly welcome to have “your countries” back as soon as you return everything that you have stolen from the rest of the world over the last 500 years plus interest plus damage compensation. Also, “your countries” must pay War reparations for the crimes and atrocities that you have been committing over the last 500 years.
One last point. You cannot compare “your countries” with China that has not committed plunder and genocide for 500 years.
Jamshyd
I imploy the MOD to please allow me to get this across to Jamshyd as this is only means through which I can reach him and I believe this if successful would greatly ebrich thus site. To Jamshyd: Your command of English language is commendable and I the impression that you are resident in Iran, please why not try and do some kind of SITREP like this about Iran. Lots of folks like me go to great lengths to get the little objective reporting that great resistance Nation with immense but underappreciated contribution and sacrifice in the struggle for multipolarity and world and has not been given the recognition it deserves due to western propaganda and lack of information and scholarly articles in the English space from Irano-centric analyst on ground.
To be candid I cannot yet rate your grasp of strategic analysis compare to the likes of Saker, Larchmonter and some other brilliant folks on this site, but at least you can get some strategic analysts there in Iran and relay their thoughts in English on this site to complete the picture of what is happening in the three nodes of Eurasia integration. A summary would do at the beginning, I believe with time you will improve to start giving it flesh. To ease the burden you can divide it into 1. Economy/Science &Research 2. Political/Foreign policy 3. Military/Resistance Axis.
I know it is too much to ask but I believe that just like me such an endeavor will be highly invaluable to lots of people on this site and it will be a form of Jihad on your own part. Thanks
Eventually when BRI gets laid in muslim countries, they will take it hostage on behalf of their bretheren in Xinjiang. Keep in mind, muslim majority means it has to become muslim land with Islamic laws. China will have a new interesting problem in the next decade. I think their greed got them good.
Just some background facts, there are over 20000 mosques in Xinjiang alone. It probably has the highest number of mosques per capital in the world. Muslims in China has a long history, which the Western media like to ignore. One of the oldest mosque In the world is in China guangzhou, it has a 1300 year history, it was built by the Uncle of the Prophet Mohammad
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_mosques
No, Chinese has no problems living with Muslims, they, like all others, have problems living with extremists, terrorists, and jihadists.
“China’s system works for China. We do not suggest you adopt our system, so, there is no reason for you to insist we adopt yours.”
China has relationships with just about every nation on Earth. Some of these have dated back to 1949, when the CCP won the civil war and took control of the Chinese nation.
It has never urged, suggested, insisted, coerced or required any nation for any reason to adopt the system of governance the CCP uses and has succeed with.
Just the opposite. It tells most of its trading partners to develop their own system.
What it is proud of is the state capitalism system it created that is a hybrid capitalist system (with Chinese socialist characteristics). That system is encouraged (and in small steps, Russia is modifying its economic management in some similar ways.)
China is a very unique society, culture and civilization. It can’t be emulated. The Chinese understand this better than anyone.
background history of how a ideological China changed course through the historical meeting of Deng and Lee Kuan Yew the great man of a tiny nation
https://youtu.be/51KwftYosBU
China under Deng has developed an open mind. Especially after the painful experience with Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the Tianamen Square incidence. Before that, the Chinese mind was as closed as ever. I can say this with first hand experience.
More crucially, China developed a form of national humility that came with an open mind.
However, with increasing success, I hope and pray China will never revert to the sort of closed-minded hubris that was characteristic of the late Qing Dynasty and right up to Mao’s Cultural Revolution. For “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall” – Proverbs 16:18.
There have already been ego adjustments with the BRI project, with ASEAN nations, and with the Philippines over Scarborough Shoals. China has listened to the resistance of neighbors and partners and sought accommodation to the needs and demands of other nations. These are good signs that China is capable of compromise and cooperation in vital issues.
Being big and powerful in ways China never was big and powerful before has brought to it challenges it must meet.
An excellent piece of analysis on the present day paralysis and predicament of the U. S. of A! In comparison of how the pandemic is being handled between USA and China, I agree with all 13 points that Mr. Roberts has listed, but would like to add Point #14:
14. Basic competence at leadership levels across all fields.
The pandemic exposed many, many shortfalls within the US system of governance, systemically, structurally, as well as ideologically. But the most damning shortfalls is the pitiful level of competency at leadership positions manifested across all facets of the American society: legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of government (fed, state, and local all included); academia; corporate/financial sectors; media; legal professionals; you name it, they invariably stink it. The leaders seem to know nothing of contingencies, of Plan Bs, of remedial courses of actions. They know enough of blah blah blahs, and they blah blah blah enough to unload blames elsewhere.
It shows that blah blah blah were what got them to where they are. See how a proven moron and a proven demented joker are blah blah-ing their way into the White House on Pennsylvania Ave.? One of them will, competency of leadership be damned.
The Chinese space plane – the initial description in the Chinese media was that it would be a plane that will take off like a normal plane and fly off into the sky. I thought at the time that this was a very audacious claim. But I don’t think China is given to boasting, unless it is true.
I thought that it was likely a boosted vehicle – launched on top of a rocket to gain speed before the scram-jet engine kicks in. But this still did not fit the Chinese media’s description of it taking off like a jet-liner and flying into the sky.
Therefore If the Chinese media is to be believed, then I doubt whether the space plane was launched on a LM 2-F rocket at all. This is likely a red-herring for the US’s military.
If the Chinese media’s description is accurate, then the space plane was likely to have a hybrid engine combining a turbo-fan jet engine, a ram-jet engine and finally a scram-jet engine. The turbo-fan engine will give enough speed for the ram-jet engine to kick in. Then the ram-jet engine will accelerate the plane to enable the scram-jet engine to kick in and boost the plane into space.
I read a few years ago that China was experimenting with such a hybrid engine and then silence.
If what I have surmised is accurate, then China had left the US far behind in real space-plane technology.
Yes Simon, I was quite intrigued with that piece of information and it looked to me (I’m not a specialist in these issues at all), as if it is a leapfrogging of technologies or as you say, engines in series, never used like this before. I got just totally intrigued with this space plane. But China has leapfrogged the US in space technologies .. a probe on the dark side of the moon no less.
What happened to the Gringos. They all got mad. After so much exposure of the “pandemic” hoax, they still believe in it …. Poor morons.