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In Loving Memory of Leslie Cheung (on the 18th anniversary of his passing d. April 1, 2003)3/4/2021 Actually, I do not know Leslie Cheung (張國榮) well, although our paths did cross. When his career took off in Hong Kong, I was toiling in Toronto doing something fraught with difficulties, totally thankless, and certainly not rewarding financially ... that was starting a national Chinese language television station on a shoestring. When one is young, naive, and full of impossible dreams, one will do the darndest thing. But that's another story. Today, I'll talk about my remembrance of Leslie Cheung. For those who do not know who Leslie Cheung was, I'll provide the following short introduction. Leslie Cheung was simply one of the most popular and iconic singer-actor in Hong Kong during the 1980's and 1990's. His unforgettable performance as the opera singer in Chen Kaige's masterpiece "Farewell My Concubine" established him as a serious actor. Leslie was very handsome and was therefore a heart-throb for his female fans. He came out however as a bisexual person and was having a long term homosexual relationship. On April 1st, 2003, Leslie jumped off a tall building and ended his life. Now, onward to the story of my encounters with Leslie Cheung. It starts with me finishing school in Canada. (From Farewell My Concubine) After graduating from McMaster University with an engineering degree in 1977, I returned to Hong Kong upon the expiry of my student visa. Although I had applied for immigration to Canada, the process would keep me in Hong Kong at least until the end of 1978 or early 1979. When I saw an ad from RTV (later ATV) hiring production assistants, I decided to give it a try. It was not something I went to school for, but I had grown up watching movies being made in a film studio. My uncle's (mother's younger sister's husband) father was a film studio boss. Many famous Hong Kong movie stars of old came from his National Studio (國家片場). In Hong Kong's television industry of those days, production assistant (PA) is the euphemism for slave. You basically do anything your boss tells you to, and if anything goes wrong, you're the goat. "No" and "can't" do not exist in your vocabulary. Once, my producer was in charge of a dance-a-thon; I was on my feet for three days straight. I outlasted all the dancers. There is no home and no family. There are no weekends and no holidays. You don't eat, drink, or sleep if there is no time. There is only your job which makes sure programming goes on air on time. on budget, and without a hitch. And the salary wasn't enough to pay for lunch. I have had a single business meal in China that cost more than twice the monthly pay of a PA. Many PA newbies did not survive past the first week. Those who did were probably deranged. Most TV producers started their careers as PAs. If you can survive and thrive as a PA, you can probably succeed in anything anywhere. I ended up building a national TV station from scratch in Canada and running it under very adverse conditions. There was also no orientation at RTV. I was simply thrown into a production that needed a PA. Given the job description, it can be understood that PAs didn't survive very long. They either got promoted or they'd quit. My group was composed of three producers and three PAs. We produced five half-hour youth programs each week. The program was titled "New Generation" (新一代). One of the program's hosts became very famous. In fact he is the host of the Online Concert in Memory of Leslie Cheung, Lawrence Cheng (鄭丹瑞), We worked together on a daily basis for almost a year. Another host became the top billing actress in a well known comedy with the Hui brothers, The Contract (賣身契), but that was about it. Her name is Tiffany Bao (鮑翠玲). My direct superior, producer-director Philip Chow (周偉材) would go on to head the Commercial Radio Hong Kong organization (香港商業電臺). Bravo! (Lawrence Cheng) My most awesome experience at RTV actually happened on my first day. I did not know anyone yet. There was no human resources staff to show me around or introduce me to people. I was still finding my bearings. When lunch time came, I went to the canteen and ate lunch by myself. It turned out that the canteen was not popular and nobody ate there. The only other people eating there that day was the staff of a variety show's studio shoot, occupying two large tables. I sat at the opposite corner of the room, so nobody was bothering anybody. And then, something strange happened. (Deanie Ip) A young woman walked over, and without introducing herself or saying hello, pointed at me and warned, "Young man, do not marry before thirty." This weird woman turned out to be the star of the variety show "Have a Laugh with Deanie" (德嫻笑一笑). Her name is Deanie Ip (葉德嫻), who would become a big movie star and eventually win the Venice Film Festival's Coppa Volpi for Best Actress for her performance in "A Simple Life" (桃姐). On that day we first met, she was already the star of her own show, and I was a lowly PA on his first day at the job, with very bad odds for lasting the week. Completely on her own initiative, with absolutely zero staring or ogling on my part--I was minding my own business chewing the rubbery chicken—she walked across the breadth of the room to befriend me in that strange manner, and we became fast friends. I did not pay heed to her admonishment and I guess we know what happened. All the producers and PAs at RTV worked out of a large room, so that everyone sort of knew everyone else, even if you had never worked together on any projects. After settling down at my job, I began to notice a skinny young man in bell bottom pants and platform shoes frequently wandering into the producers' room. He was a new artiste, an euphemism for any lowly contract performer who was not a star. RTV had a large roster of contract artistes and most of them would end up being nothing. I didn't know any of the artistes, and when we needed someone, it was usually for something inconsequential. So when I started calling people down the list, they would have all kinds of excuses to avoid having to show up, such as being in the hospital, getting married, or someone in the family just died; this is no joke. I got so frazzled I said, "I don't care if your father died, if you don't show up, you need never show up at the station again." This sounds harsh, but I was told that people would walk all over me if I acted too Canadian--that was of course a very different Canada in the seventies, unlike the current Justinian era when being Canadian means lying and slandering without shame. In any case, the artiste showed up; no one died. Everyone had a good laugh. Lying was normal; it was not personal. There were no hard feelings. The show must go on. It was business as usual. So we observed with interest this young man traipsing with some regularity into the producers' room, politely accosting everyone, and chatting up the variety show producers and PAs. Some producers actually didn't think much about this kind of behavior, because if all the artistes did that, the producers and PAs wouldn't be able to work. By showing up even when there was no job, the young man made sure all the producers and PAs remembered him and knew that he was dedicated. His name is Leslie Cheung. For a long time, he did not get any breakthrough jobs. But he persisted. In late summer of 1978, Commercial TV (佳视) failed. Their Wuxia master director Siu Shang, (萧笙) joined RTV taking along his protégés, one of whom was Virginia Lok (乐易玲) who would eventually become the top executive of TVB, the only major broadcaster in Hong Kong after the demise of ATV. Virginia was a hot babe then, and they sat right behind my group. Director Siu was a master of his arts; there is no question. One of my fellow PAs immediately jumped ship and joined Siu Shang. His name is Siu Hin Fai (蕭顯輝). We were good friends. He urged me to leave our group as well. I did not because I knew I was immigrating to Canada by early 1979. Siu Hin Fai gave me a parting gift of a book on Chinese Mythology. I still have that book with me. He would later follow Siu Shang to TVB and became a successful executive producer of many popular shows. I never met most of these friends again after I left Hong Kong, except for Brenda Lo (盧葉媚), well known Hong Kong musician and variety show producer at RTV, who came to Toronto and actually worked at my station for a short while (Brenda and Leslie were of course old friends), Celfen Leung (梁蘊紅), and Siu Hin Fai, my old colleague at "New Generation." Siu Hin Fai came back into my life after many years by a strange twist of fate, but that twist ended up badly for him. He passed away alone at home at the early age of fifty from a stroke. Unfortunately, the story of what happened to Siu Hin Fai cannot be told here due to privacy reasons. In my opinion, Leslie Cheung's first breakthrough was in fact starring in Siu Shang's first Wuxia series at RTV (浣花洗劍錄). You probably won't hear a lot of people say that, but Leslie was a nobody before this; suddenly, he was the star occupying top billing of a Wuxia series directed by a well-known master and aired during prime time. All of a sudden, people in Hong Kong knew who Leslie Cheung was. I know I took notice. Leslie certainly took that opportunity and kept on with his steady ascension. In my opinion, he was probably the only one among his peers during those heady days of Hong Kong filmdom to have natural star quality. Sometimes, it's lonely at the top and the fall may be harder. In the summer of 1997, I was back in Hong Kong to witness the hand-over ceremony. I was also to set up a company in Guangzhou as a subsidiary for ACE, one of the largest television and telecommunications technologies companies doing business in China. A friend Roks Lam (Hong Kong radio jockey of golden oldies) got in touch and invited me to have dinner with him. His wife at the time was a senior producer at RTHK (Gov't owned media) and they were having dinner with a famous executive producer Manfred Wong (文雋) and his actors doing their rounds to promote a new release. I was quite indifferent about Hong Kong movies and did not know that the beautiful girl sitting beside me was Shu Qi (舒淇). (Shu Qi) ... It's almost as embarrassing as not knowing I spent an entire evening talking to Chiang Kai-shek's grandson Chiang Hsiao-yen (蔣孝嚴). After dinner, the whole group went to their favorite watering hole to have drinks. Shu Qi seeing that I didn't pay her any attention, left early (just kidding; she probably wondered what's this guy doing here?). Guess who we bumped into on the street? Yes, the star of our story Leslie Cheung. He was at that time a superstar and he knew everyone in my group except little old me. He was with friends and we went our separate ways. At the end of the evening, when Manfred asked for the bill, the maître d' came over and discretely whispered that Leslie had picked up our tab. According to people there, that was typical Leslie. The next time I heard of Leslie Cheung was the bad news that shocked everyone. You'd think that someone who had succeeded as he had, with all the fame and wealth that a lot of people could only dream of, for which or for much less some people would sell their daughter or kill their brother, that he would think that there was no other way. My favorite Leslie Cheung film is Rouge (胭脂扣). I like the original song too. It was written by Leslie's mentor and music director of RTV (when I worked there) Michael Lai (黎小田). Michael was a La Salle alumnus (I'm a true blue La Sallite as I went from primary one to form seven in that school). The song is however sung by Leslie's co-star and another Hong Kong mega-singer/movie-star whose life was tragically cut short, Anita Mui (梅豔芳). She passed away from cancer only nine months after the passing of Leslie. (from Rouge) Excerpt from Vincent
"For they could not love you But still your love was true And when no hope was left in sight On that starry, starry night You took your life as lovers often do But I could have told you, Vincent This world was never meant for one As beautiful as you."
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After China's retaliation to EU sanctions, and following the outrage in China against foreign brands such as Nike, Adidas, Burberry, and HM, my correspondence group, the China Writers Group, exchanged a few missives on the matter. The thread was started by Frans Vandenbosch, the Belgian author of "Statecraft and Society in China," with responses by Jeff Brown, author of the "China Trilogy," Patrice Greanville, editor of the Greanville Post and author of "The Trojan Spy," and Dongping Han, the author of "The Unknown Cultural Revolution." The following is my two-cents worth.
I have observed China's response to Western slander for many years. even before I first visited China in Jan. of 1981. I have been an interested observer because I wanted to learn the truth, not just accept whatever was inculcated in my head by my parents and the Western civilization I was brought up in. I guess I have always been naturally distrustful of humans. I was able to visit China as an individual visitor and had snuck into Changsha which was forbidden to foreign visitors. This awesome adventure could not have been possible without the help of a good friend in Toronto, who had stolen into Hong Kong from the mainland and then immigrated to Canada. His several attempts to smuggle himself by land to Hong Kong were unsuccessful, and he went to jail each time he got caught. But he persisted and he finally took the most dangerous route, by swimming across the open sea in the dark of night. He could have drowned and no one would have shed a tear for his sad and lonely end. I'd have to thank David for risking his life in his youth so that years later I could learn something about China firsthand. Interestingly, I know someone who swam a mile in the dark of night in the opposite direction, from Taiwan's Jinmen Island to Mainland China. His name is Professor Justin Yifu Lin 林毅夫. He risked his life so that one day he could help formulate the economic policies that would propel the third world China with 1.4 billion Chinese into a global powerhouse. I am certainly inspired by his amazing foresight, perspicacity, and courage. I have benefited in no small measure by the risks both David and Professor Lin have taken in their youth although they went in the opposite direction. David was a private citizen who desired to live a life of anonymity outside of China, while Professor Lin aspired to contribute to the Chinese Renaissance and we'll let history decide what to say about him. Both got what they asked for. As for me, I ended up living and working in China for twenty years, which gives me the insight to write expositions of great verbosity such as this one, That was my first glimpse of China, which happened about forty years and a lifetime ago. I was at that time the most well known Chinese personage in Toronto Chinatown. I was the producer of the Chinese language television program, the only source of entertainment and news at the time for the very substantial Chinese community in the city. Although I didn't realize it then, I was actively courted by the Taiwanese faction. I have shared earlier the anecdote of how I spent an evening with the grandson of Chiang Kai-shek (named Jiang Xiaoyan 蒋孝严) without knowing who he was. Through my Chinese friend David, I made an acquaintance with the cultural attache of the Chinese Embassy at Ottawa (named Kang Chongru 康崇儒). I became the Embassy's trusted friend at the time. They recognized that I held no bias against the mainland and the CPC. I'm not sure if they knew that I usually drove to the Embassy in a car loaned to me by my Taiwanese friend who was closely connected to the Taiwanese Trade Mission. I have anecdotes about the Embassy which I will save for private conversations while having a beer (or a lambic if it's with Frans). They are nothing bad but a bit too mischievous for the normally prim and proper Chinese officials. It shows that away from prying eyes, people are just people, whatever names one wants to put on them. What's in a name? In any case, it became clear to me that China was defenseless in the face of unremitting lies told by our so-called people's representatives and the free press. My China visit in 1981 made me suspect something was amiss with what the media was saying about China. When I returned to China in 1997, the experience was particularly jarring. It was tantamount to a child suddenly discovering that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are lies told by people you have trusted all your life. Why would anyone trust these habitual liars? Why would anyone even treat the lies of these pathological and pernicious liars as if they are real issues to be discussed and denied with endless patience? Why are the liars who have caused so much destruction, death, and suffering by their lies continue to enjoy impunity, and in fact rewards? China would at most send a staid official to repeat the same toothless complaint that they denied and opposed the allegations, which would naturally be ignored by the lying propaganda machines and the mesmerized public of the West. I was to realize a very important truth, which is that in the battle of ideas, one should never discuss or even deny the opponent's narrative, Suppose someone attacks another person that he's a pedophile with no evidence or with contrived evidence, should the accused try to prove that he's not a pedophile? What would be the result of that? Assuming that it is possible to prove a negative--which it is not--and allowing the defense to have very strong arguments, the accused will still end up being stigmatized simply because of the faulty workings of the human mind. Even the most enlightened of humans have a mental disease known as Confirmation Bias, which makes people stick to erroneous preconceived notions rather than accept facts plain as day. We shouldn't expect too much from the unenlightened masses, for most of them, their minds are simply made up, don't confuse them with facts. China's problem in this regard is that they have first spent a lot of their energy in manufacturing and trade, later in STEM education and finance, now only getting into high tech and infrastructure; they have neglected or refused to engage in the war of ideas, certainly they would not engage in a war of words. Having lived in China for 20 years, I notice that China is not a perfect society and does not have a perfect government, which is by the way run by imperfect creatures in an imperfect physical world. We have to allow some deficiencies. There should always be room for improvement. I personally hold the opinion that overwhelming success brings about its own demise. This is something I learn from studying human history. It never fails. So what is to be done about these egregious liars of the West? My opinion is that China should allow the use of Chinese ngos funded by private and independent concerns with the chartered mandate of exposing liars and hypocrites of the West, and to disseminate their findings via various means to the Western society. The stupefied people of the West should at least have access to a glimpse of the truth that is not tainted by the cesspool they live in. For example, the ngos can equally support human rights but that of the victims of the West. Why do companies like Nike, HM, New York Times, and CNN not sanction America and Europe when their Western soldiers bomb and kill innocent people, and when their sieges have caused the death and suffering of millions in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Palestine, Yemen, and Venezuela (just to name a few)? Why are the overt human rights violations, war crimes, and lawless disregard of UN laws of America and its allies not sanctioned and punished? These sanctimonious moralists are obviously hypocrites. So what do we do after exposing these liars for supporting the lies of their Western capitalist masters? How can anyone punish these hypocrites once they're exposed? It must not be by empty words alone. In a capitalist society, there is nothing so painful as a financial punishment. The ngos should sue in class actions these hypocrites for damages and for punitive awards (after encouraging the governments involved to legislate for this purpose) to be used for the victims of their lies. The ngos should propose legislation that makes it a criminal offense or, as a minimum, tort to slander the government (by the way, the American state of Georgia has similar laws). The ngos should organize popular boycotts and sabotages in all the markets where these hypocrites do business. The ngos should apply to the courts to place liens or hold in bonds the hypocrites' assets, both corporate and personal as well as their related not-at-arm's-length entities to prevent asset flight. Make sure these hypocritical enablers of genocidal murders of the West do not enjoy impunity. Let them gorge in their own lies, let them eat their own paper money, and let them repatriate their sweatshop jobs. China will be using AI and robots anyways. In fact hound the hypocrites to their economic deaths or until they mend their ways and admit the egregiousness of their sins. In the words of William Wallace in "Braveheart": "Lower your flags and march straight back to England (or wherever you came from), stopping at every home you pass by to beg forgiveness for a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today." In the words of Liu Yongfu 刘永福, the legendary Chinese militia leader known as the Black Flag General 黑旗将军, who made this threat to the French colonial general occupying Hanoi: "Everyone knows you are thieves. Other nations despise you. Whenever you come to a country, you claim that you have come to preach the faith, but you really wish to stir up the inhabitants with false rumors. You claim that you have come to trade, but in fact you are plotting to take over the country. You act like predators in the wild. You are as ravenous as tigers and wolves. Ever since you came to Vietnam, you have seized cities and killed governors. Your crimes are as numerous as the hairs on one's head. You have taken over the customs and seized the country's revenues. These are crimes punishable by death. The inhabitants have been reduced to misery, and the country is almost ruined. God and man both loathe you. Heaven and earth both reject you. If you are afraid to come out and fight (a pitch battle), cut off the heads of your chief men and present them to me. Then give back the cities you have taken. I am a merciful commander, and I will let you miserable bugs live. But if you delay, my army will take your city and kill you all, and not even a blade of grass will mark where you have stood." This was such an affront that the colonial occupier of Hanoi did go out and fight. It did not end well for the French general. The most important lie to which we should pay attention is the US dollar, which is what sustains the hegemonic empire and its murders. This is the most egregious lie of all in which we are all complicit, even for the victims of the empire. The power of the empire in fact arises from everyone agreeing to believe in this lie. If we want anything to change, this lying narrative of the almighty dollar must be discarded ASAP. One of the reasons why China has not taken this route with alacrity is possibly China's own desire to bring about change slowly and peaceably. That will obviously not happen because the empire does not ever want to stop their rapine and plunder of the world. It wants only change if it means the 1% and their henchmen will get more power. From observation of simple facts available to all, I have come to the conclusion that the current attack on China from the West is led by the MEFSEPTIC (Military, economic, financial, security, entertainment, technology, industrial, press, intelligence complex). Note how everyone has been toeing the line from Obama through Trump to Biden, despite the fact that they all want to kill each other without giving quarters. Just ask yourself what do these clowns know about pivoting to Asia. People behind the scene are obviously pulling the strings. These puppet masters do not change with elections. They don't care who is the president and what political party is in power. Their orders will be obeyed. Also based on observation alone, I believe that certain senior decision makers in China have been forewarned and policies have been made to counter the concerted attack from the West. One tell-tale sign is strategic and not immediately apparent. It relates to not wanting to change your commander in the middle of a war. The fact that it happened suddenly and smoothly not long before the commencement of overt hostilities says that it was not a coincidence. Some people say there is no such thing as a coincidence, only the illusion of one. Whether China acknowledges this full court press from America as war and how China plans to fight this war is a matter for another discussion. I have only one advice; do not use the enemy's narratives. I'm not sure if the Chinese government is cognizant of the importance of not using the opponent's narratives, i.e. their lies. Every time I hear a Chinese official denying that there is genocide in Xinjiang, or refusing to acknowledge the Philippines arbitration win at the Hague (this can be refuted by anyone with the most basic understanding of the word arbitration, which requires both sides of the dispute to agree in order to take place. Arbitration court is not a court of law and one cannot sue another person at an arbitration; the whole Hague exercise is therefore a travesty of the rule of law. Unfortunately, I have not heard a single explanation by anyone with some legal knowledge about this, including the highly respected Dr. Kishore Mahbubani), or responding to accusatory perorations from pontificating journalists and so-called human rights workers viz. paid liars, I have the impression that perhaps not all Chinese officials and people speaking on their behalf understand this important principle of never using the liar's narratives. Commenting on Dongping Han's review of Brian DeMare's Land Wars, I'll have to say that it is up to Han to utilize his forte to counter the Western lies about Chinese land reforms, or indeed about any reforms that deviate from heartless and selfish American capitalism. In any meaningful debate, I believe that it is of paramount importance to first understand who your opponents are. It will help you to kill their lying narrative by describing where they come from, how they have been fed those persistent lies, what kind of rubbish they have expounded in the past, and why they regurgitate the lies that they have been consuming all their life. Maggots after all can only agree that shit is tasty. It is important to expose your opponents as the liars that they are, and the truth will be easier to explain. We must however accept that the truth is somewhat hard to swallow. If we can create a spark that leads to the eventual enlightenment, it would be a job well done. Therefore, we must also hold our truths by the same standard we ask of others, and we cannot allow ourselves to be victims of our own Confirmation Bias. If we fail, we'll only become the same hypocrites against whom we fight. We'll become our own enemy and all will be lost. I will credit my basic understanding of the Chinese revolution to a seminal work titled "Origins of the Chinese Revolution, 1915 - 1949" written by a French author Lucien Bianco. It was gifted to me by the president of the Chinese Student's Association at U of Toronto in 1979. She was actually a cerebral and bodacious babe originally from Hong Kong but well educated about the ways of the world, while I was a frivolous and flighty bohemian who at that age never put very much thought in matters beyond my own immediate pleasures. Whatever could've happened didn't happen, and I might have broken my share of hearts in my salad days when the world was my oyster. One day, after waking up to a world that had changed beyond recognition, I thought about the girl who took pity on an ignoramus so full of himself, and I started reading the book she gave me, making copious notes. I have kept this book with me ever since, crossing the Pacific several times with it, and the book still sits on my bookcase beside me. It was indeed the first spark. Thank you very much, Winnie, wherever you are. Here is an outstanding example of how to deal with the liar's lies by fellow Canadian Daniel Dumbrill. It will be the best 12 minutes you'd ever spend watching Youtube. The Xinjiang Genocide Peter Man
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This is my correspondence with members of a small group of writers self-styled as China Writers Group. They mostly write non-fiction books about China while I write fiction with Chinese characters and China as a backdrop. As one of the writers bemoaned the phenomenon described by the title of this blog, I tried to comfort him with the following irreverent response:
It's a disease of the human mind known as confirmation bias, characterized by the logic commonly used by the afflicted: "My mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts." But there are consequences for people who insist that the headlight of an on-coming train is the light at the end of the tunnel. You can try to save them but they will refuse to be saved, because the lies that they willfully consume provide the opiates for their jaundiced and prejudiced mind. There is probably nothing we can do but prepare ourselves for the inevitable eventuality and witness the spectacle further away from the collision. As I have been prophesying ever since Trump was elected especially since the trade war, the fall of the empire is coming, and it will happen in our lifetime, perhaps sooner than expected because of Trump and the Covid-19 pandemic. Fully half of Americans and a third of Canadians to this day do not comply with even half-ass measures advised by the authorities to help stem the tide. The result is a foregone conclusion. My first reaction at the beginning of 2020 when I saw that China decided to shut down Chinese New Year—we'll have to admit that shutting down Wuhan was nothing compared to shutting down Chinese New Year; it was a sign that SARS-2 was deadly serious--I said "America is f*cked!" I didn't say that out of spite, malice, or schadenfreude. I didn't do any detailed analysis. I didn't do any mathematical or statistical calculations, and I didn't research with any computer modeling. It was just intuition ... right from the gut. Maybe it's my confirmation bias. But my confirmation bias is better than America's confirmation bias. Like it or not, it's based on fact. It was reported that thousands of doctors, nurses, and hospital workers in Wuhan were infected even before they knew what hit them, and many died. My hunch was correct so that was that. It was an on-coming train, folks. By the way, Canada (we-the-north) is now royally and spirally skewered after our rule-of-law prime minister Trudeau junior stuck his head up Supremo Trump's pompous ass. Keystone pipeline more than ten years in the making and billions invested dissipates into thin air like a wisp of Trumpian fart, and Biden is going to hit Canada with his Buy American MAGA 2.0 campaign. No mercy for morons who trumped the king of morons by burning their bridges for flatulence. Since getting relief from China is out of the question with all the bridges burned, Canada can trade with the other Five Eyes allies Australia and England (Scotland and N. Ireland will be dancing the Scotxit and N. Irelandxit; New Zealand has one foot out of the Five Eyes door). As if. This is what happens when the people put a buffoon in charge. Finally, just to demonstrate how clever the people are who proudly call themselves the Five Eyes Alliance; in Chinese, the ass-h*le is known as the fart-eye. They are the alliance of the five ass-h*les. Anybody care to join? Joking aside, confirmation bias is an insidious and infectious disease. We must be vigilant and we must inoculate ourselves against it. Peter Man
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King, "Americans Betrayed Their Country In Vietnam!" Now in Yemen Syria Libya Somalia Iraq Afghanistan -- by Jay Janson
Jay Janson is a well respected political writer, historian, and author who is a Korean War veteran and a nonagenarian. I have followed his political commentaries for at least a couple of decades. I discovered Jay Janson when I was reading I. F. Stone's "The Hidden History of the Korean War." While I. F. Stone peeled off the lies by meticulous research, Jay Janson provided personal experience to enrich my understanding of the unspoken war. My comment is meant to be sarcastic and should in no way denigrate Jay's very salient point. "It's not fair to say that Americans are silent about everything. Americans are very vocal about China stealing and China having no freedom and China having the largest concentration camp for Muslims and China having no human rights for Tibetans. All these must be true because our politicians and free press say so. Americans are right to stand up against China imperialism of Belt and Road. Americans will never be silent about China trying to take over the world's islands and oceans. As for the Capitol insurrection, we blame China for poisoning the minds of Americans with their Hong Kong revolution footage. We also blame Hong Kong freedom fighters for taking American money and then messing it up. In fact, China gave Trump the royal treatment and then suckered him into a trade war which damages America. China is to blame for Trump and his trade wars. China is to blame for discovering the Covid virus. We now know that it's been all over the world with no one the wiser, but China had to make a big stink and shut down the country. China has few Covid deaths but China also has no freedom and no human rights. What do you prefer? Don't forget some spokesmen for some secret American agency said that China may have corrupted American elections. China is to blame for destroying American democracy. Who can we believe if we don't believe in patriotic American elected officials, the free press, and American agencies? Don't worry Jay, Americans will be very vocal about China. They will support more patriotic wars by any means and sanctions against the great evil China with their democratic elections and tax dollars. God bless America.
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Dave Lefcourt's Article: Will the Americans wake up?
My comment: Dear Dave, Even if the American people wake up, it will not help because they'll have to first look in the mirror. The American people are not pawns. They elect the war-mongers and give them impunity. They pay taxes to feed the beasts of war. They send their sons and daughters to perform the atrocities for their ruling class masters. As long as the American people continue to live in the lie of their hypocrisy, they cannot be saved. Ask yourself how is it possible for 99% to be ruled and fooled by the 1% in a democratic and free society if the people don't allow it? It won't even happen in an authoritarian society. Don't blame it on the ruling class and the war-mongers because the American people empower them. Don't blame it on the freedom-to-lie free press because the people want the freedom to lie and slander. Why else would Americans accept 250,000 deaths and blame everything on China? In fact, if this happened in China, such egregious liars and perpetrators of atrocities would be festooned on trees. China does have a long and rich history of peasant rebellions. Don't blame it on that nebulous "they." Blame it on ourselves. We have met the enemy and he is us. By the way, globalization is an American idea. America has the dollar hegemony. It buys everything with money it prints. Others must earn that US dollar in order to pay for things that they need for development and trade. America is the wealthiest, most powerful, and freest country in the world, why would the people want shit jobs mining or making shoes at minimum wage? In American politics, everyone wants jobs. Have the American people turned to brainless zombies? Do people want the freedom to be ignorant? Why would they need 80-hour a week shit jobs that pay two dollars an hour so their children can grow up without a family? China sacrificed a generation of its people to working in shit jobs for Americans so China's children can get educated and be more competitive in the global market dominated by America and the West. Americans don't need jobs. They need the basic guarantee of a home, healthcare, education, food, and the means to communicate. Then they need to stop raping and bombing other countries, stop sanctioning whoever whenever for whatever reasons, and use their spare time to travel the world to learn about how to live and let live. The American people are not pawns. They are America. Wake up indeed and look in the mirror. Change yourself and then go out and change America. That is the only hope for America and the only possibility of peace for the rest of the world.
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In early August, I wrote a blog about the strategic opportunity for China to reunify with Taiwan following November 3 of this year. I have contemplated writing a follow-up but I have been busy writing Book Two (titled “Bellatrix: the Girl Warrior”) of my trilogy (Book One titled “Unconquered”). As the fateful date of November 3 approaches, I’m beginning to receive requests for a follow-up article. I have a feeling it’s about time. On re-reading that first blog, I find that I do not have to retract a single word. In fact, everything that has happened so far reinforces the strategic situation. I wish that I can be as accurate with handicapping the horses. Meanwhile, there has been an explosion of political punditry and blogs about the Taiwan reunification issue. But most of them are still couched in the old thinking of how many carriers and stealth fighters one has, and what happens if America gets involved. I had mentioned that if China was to take action, they should have the means to succeed with very little, hopefully nil, casualties. I quickly realized that most people could not comprehend how that could be possible. Therefore, for this article, I will first update on the development of the strategic situation for Taiwan reunification with some added details relating to the election. Secondly, I will explain what I mean when I say that China can reunify with Taiwan without causing or suffering casualties.
孙子曰:“不战而屈人之兵,善之善者也。” “The best strategy is to cause the submission of your opponent’s army without battle.” – Sun Tzu Let us review the development of the strategic situation:
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how, I would like to make a disclaimer. The following is purely speculation based on my own imagination. I have no insider knowledge nor am I an expert in military matters. I am however an avid reader of history, in particular military history. Therefore I will try to stay within the realm of the plausible. I will make reasonable assumptions of capabilities not based on science fiction, and I will illustrate only one scenario out of many possibilities. Informed readers may look at this as a launch pad for formulating better ideas and add more details. I have decided to write about this reunification issue because I believe it will make absolutely no impact in the real world, and that I can consider writing this blog a frivolous way to spend a couple of days as a break from writing my book, which is expected to conclude before Election Day.
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Is China an Imperious Bully?7/9/2020 I am a member of a small group of writers known as China Writers Group (CWG). We correspond frequently and share our ideas. A member who is Australian got into an argument with his Australian friends in another group. His Australian friend insists that China is an imperious bully, and the proof is that China has all kinds of wars with its neighbors, such as India, the USSR, and Vietnam. He wanted my CWG friend to answer, given that China has invaded so many countries, is China an imperious bully or not? Yes or No? Our CWG friend shared his discussions with the CWG group. The following is my contribution to the discourse.
That guy wanted the "truth" in a short answer. It took me at least ten years, if not more, of long hours of independent research and study to begin to understand where the lies are and how to discover the more nuanced truth. The guy does not want the truth. Don't waste your time. He wants slogans. Just tell him he's right, that's all these people want to hear. China is out to conquer the world. Its 11 carrier groups are terrorizing the world. Its 800 bases surround every country, threatening to bomb everyone back to the Stone Age. It’s torturing and killing civilians from other countries with impunity, sanctioning and starving to death hundreds of thousands of defenseless children, subverting and destroying countries and societies all over the world. Forsooth, they're most evil. As for the Sino-Vietnamese War, it's much more nuanced and complicated. For example, southern Vietnam, including Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City used to be Khmer under Campa rule. It came under Vietnam rule only in the 17th century. For Asians, that's like yesterday. When the French started their colonial adventures in Vietnam during the middle of the 19th century, guess who was the biggest anti-colonial hero fighting the French. He's a Chinese by the name of Liu Yongfu (刘永福), also known as the Black Flag General. I know about him because my mother's side of the family were immigrants from China's Hainan Island living in Saigon. Liu was a borderline bandit living in the mountains with a small personal army. He basically took the scalps of the first two French naval commanders who occupied Tonkin and Hanoi. He was unfortunately not fully supported by the Qing court, and he was abandoned by the Vietnamese government when things got dicey. Here is his proclamation to the French commander who occupied Hanoi: "Everyone knows you are thieves. Other nations despise you. Whenever you come to a country, you claim that you have come to preach the faith, but you really wish to stir up the inhabitants with false rumors. You claim that you have come to trade, but in fact you are plotting to take over the country. You act like predators in the wild. You are as ravenous as tigers and wolves. Ever since you came to Vietnam, you have seized cities and killed governors. Your crimes are as numerous as the hairs on one's head. You have taken over the customs and seized the country's revenues. These are crimes punishable by death. The inhabitants have been reduced to misery, and the country is almost ruined. God and man both loathe you. Heaven and earth both reject you... (and then in the spirit of William Wallace's speech in Braveheart) ... If you are afraid to come out and fight (a pitch battle), cut off the heads of your chief men and present them to me. Then give back the cities you have taken. I am a merciful commander, and I will let you miserable bugs live. But if you delay, my army will take your city and kill you all, and not even a blade of grass will mark where you have stood." The French commander went out to fight and it didn't end well for him or his soldiers. Needless to repeat, the communist movement of Vietnam in the person of Ho Chi Minh (Chinese name of Nguyen Tat Thanh) was made possible by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Everyone glorified the Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu, but one should remember that the Viet Minh was created in China. It was supplied by communist China. The soldiers were trained by the experienced PLA. China probably sent PLA soldiers to the front-lines. They had to help the Viet Minh quietly as they did not want to be seen sending soldiers from Korea to Vietnam killing a lot of Western soldiers. The CIA knew about it and certainly has lots of confidential records about it. The US probably based on this information to get involved in Vietnam. They were concerned about the communist domino. It is a historical fact that North Vietnam in the Vietnam War was strongly supported by China, which sent men, arms, and food during times when China was suffering from embargoes and famines. Part of China's own problems stemmed from its break with the USSR after Stalin's death, when Khruschev began to de-Stalinize. Not only did China lose even its friends in the USSR camp, it lost USSR experts helping China’s industrialization efforts, and it had to repay all loans in gold to the USSR, meaning China had no cash to buy food when they needed it. In any case, China protected North Vietnam by declaring in a secret letter to the US that US soldiers must not cross the 17th Parallel. It was similar to the earlier warning by China to the US not to cross the 38th Parallel. US learned the lesson of the Korean War and never attempted a land attack on North Vietnam. In 1969, China had a serious border war with the USSR. Just like in the Korean War of 1950 and the Indian Border War of 1962, Soviet soldiers didn't believe that China would fight a war against the nuclear armed USSR for a river island in the middle of nowhere. The Zhenbao Island claimed by both China and Russia would become Chinese territory in the 1995 Sino-Russia Border Agreement. China showed the USSR that it would not be bullied. Not only that, it marked the beginning of the fall of the USSR twenty years later. After the fighting began in 1969, the USSR failed miserably in trying to get the other communist countries and communist parties to condemn China. Even China's archenemy India (following 1962) at the time said that it was the fault of the USSR. In 1969, the USSR was still at the height of its power. When Kosygin tried to call Mao for some diplomacy, the Beijing operator slammed the phone on the Soviet leader. Kosygin eventually had to visit Beijing to stop the hostilities. He was only allowed to conduct diplomacy at the cold and lonely Beijing airport. Full out war was averted but China did not get bullied. This little border action got Nixon's attention and respect. Two years later, Nixon would do his pilgrimage as well, and in the middle of the Cultural Revolution, while China was supposedly being destroyed from within. Trump and his China hawks as well as the entire Washington Swamp with their apparatchiks somehow believe that they can bully China today. For anyone who knows a little history, this delusion is laughable and self-destructive for America. Look what hubris can do to people's heads. In this Sino-Soviet conflict, eventually Hanoi would stand on the side of the USSR. Things began to look suspicious to China. The Hanoi government had ceded all South China Seas (SCS) claims to China in 1958. Once it became apparent that final victory of the Vietnam War was at hand in 1975, Hanoi began retracting that agreement. It was completely voided in 1979. By that time, Hanoi had been creating a refugee disaster of the Boat-People, most of whom were ethnic Chinese who had lived in Vietnam for centuries. My mother's side of the family was almost completely purged from Vietnam. My uncle was one of the boat-people. Thousands died at sea and in refugee camps. My uncle lived in a sampan for over a year outside of Singapore, being denied entry, eventually ending up in Malaysia's Bidong Island camp. Its nickname in Chinese means “dolorous.” These are events that happened to my family, not hearsay or lies from the Western Mainstream Media (MSM). Given Cambodia's geographical location and its poor historical relationship with Vietnam as a victim of Vietnamese invasion, China has always kept good relations with Cambodia as a counterweight to Vietnam. The communist movement of Cambodia Khmer Rouge was no doubt supported by China, as it was later supported by Cambodia's king Sihanouk, who was very friendly with Beijing, but who was ousted by the US backed Lon Nol. After the Vietnam War, border clashes occurred with some regularity between Vietnam and Cambodia. It was not simply because of proxy war between cold war foes in global geopolitics. A lot of Cambodians to this day do not get along with the Vietnamese. At the end of 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and occupied it. Vietnam in effect became the hegemon of SE Asia and the Indochinese Peninsula. In 1979, China was just opening up. China established official relations with the US on Jan. 1st. Why did it want to have a war with its neighbor Vietnam? Here is another clue. In 1979, aside from voiding its agreement vis-a-vis South China Seas with China, Hanoi had given Cam Ranh base to the USSR. Let us not forget that at the time, China and the USSR were not on the best of terms. It would take only a few hours for the Soviet's marines to land on Hainan and only minutes for its planes to bomb Hainan's cities. With the backing of the USSR, Vietnam was able to invade Cambodia and kick out the Khmer Rouge; which at the time was supported by China and less openly by the US as well (TP is absolutely correct in this regard). The balance of power in SE Asia, China's backyard, was thus lost. Furthermore, far from Western eyes was the intrusion of the Vietnamese into Chinese territory. This is what happens when hubris infects the head. Vietnam had just defeated the US, conquered Cambodia, and it had USSR ships and planes within sight of China's coast. What could China do? Chinese border soldiers discovered to their chagrin that some heavily wooded high mountain peaks near the border but within China were quietly occupied by Vietnamese soldiers and fortified. They were very hard to dislodge without a great loss of life. Diplomatic protests obviously went to deaf ears. A few explosions would get some attention. Deng declared his intentions to fight a limited border war to the US and the USSR. Everyone knew what was coming. China knew the area well. It was never surprised by how hard the terrain was. They had been supplying Hanoi through these mountains for years. Even over this difficult terrain, within one month, the Chinese army reached its objective of Lang Son, which was about 150 km of weakly defended easy terrain to Hanoi. Characteristic of how China had fought border wars, the Chinese army unilaterally ended the war and went home, retaking all of the fortified positions occupied earlier by the Vietnamese inside Chinese territory. The Vietnamese would never try that again. By the end of the war, the Vietnamese had moved most of their army and weapons from Cambodia to defend their capital. Pathet Lao, the Laotian communist movement also helped into existence and success by China was at that time firmly in the USSR and Vietnamese camp. This Laos-Vietnamese relationship is historical. The Sino-Vietnamese border action basically told Pathet Lao "don’t fuck with me," and China had a quiet border with Laos ever since. The most important result came from the USSR, which sat around watching their puppy getting kicked. The experience told Vietnam not to depend on big brother in a real fight with China, Cam Ranh notwithstanding. In 1991, upon the fall of the USSR, China and Vietnam signed an agreement on their land border. Laos followed suit shortly after. China's one-month border action basically guaranteed peace for the SE Asian peninsula ever since. This view is very different from the one we read in the MSM. It looks deeper into history and about other events around the world at the time. It may not be complete. It may not even be 100% accurate. But it's more than what MSM can offer. It's certainly not short enough to satisfy morons who live and die by slogans like "hope," "change," or make some dead horse run again. It's stressful to learn the truth and sometimes to tell the truth, but that's what we do at China Writers Group.
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Foreword for Dr. Godfree Roberts's book15/8/2020 Dr. Godfree Roberts writes many well researched articles about China.
He asked me to write a short anecdote about China for his book. He wanted something to soften his non-fiction book which is full of hard data and graphs. I submitted the following. It was January 1981. I finally got to see the land where my parents and my parents' parents and their parents scratched out an existence for millennia, surviving through constant floods, famines, plagues, and wars. Growing up in colonial Hong Kong and being brought up Catholic in an exclusive boys-only English school, China was so near and yet so far away. By 1981, I had already started a career and a family in my newly adopted country of Canada. China was as foreign and distant to me as Timbuktu. I stepped off the train with the trepidation that normally accompanied foolhardiness. In those days, traveling with a foreign passport in China was restricted to a few major cities, namely Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing. With the help of a friend of a friend, a bit of blind faith, and my handsome Chinese face, I decided to smuggle myself to Changsha, a city which was off limits to foreigners. I was young, foolish, and adventurous. To me, the whole exercise was harmless fun. I was protected by the invincible armor of ignorance and good fortunes. It turned out that the Chinese Communist Party had more pressing matters to deal with than worry about a Chinese Canadian in Changsha. I tried to blend in with the crowd but my jeans gave me away immediately. Everyone wore blue and grey. No one wore jeans. There were probably no jeans in China. I was advised by the hotel staff not to dine outside of the hotel, suggesting ominously that it would not be safe. Since I was already breaking major rules to be in Changsha, I wasn't going to let a fear-monger stop me from eating wherever I wanted. In fact, just to prove that I was fiendishly clever, I invited the staff to dine with me at any local culinary establishment except the hotel. We ended up in a canteen which was converted from a performance hall with a stage. There were probably fifty tables each seating four. The dishes were simple, tasty, and inexpensive. The place was packed during dinner hours. When I wanted to order rice, the waiter said that rice was free, and that it was self-served. A gigantic vat of steamed rice was placed on the stage and patrons lined up with a bowl to get their own rice. There was an unlimited supply of free rice. Only in a communist country, I said to myself. I also noticed something very odd. Standing against the walls of the hall were men, women, and children with their bowls. They wore clean clothing, and they just stood there quietly without causing discomfort to the diners. As I finished my rice and put down the bowl, several people who were standing at the wall nearest us began to walk slowly and orderly towards us. There was no rush; there was no jostling; and no one tried to cut in. The first to arrive was a family of three. The child was perhaps seven or eight years of age. They were well-kempt and respectably dressed. The father asked politely if we were done. I was perplexed. The hotel staff who was dining with me then told me the truth. It turned out that there had been a flood of the Yellow River in Henan province. Many peasants lost their homes, their fields, and their crops. Some of the refugees were moved to Changsha where the local government would have to help resettle them. In the past, this would have been disastrous. Many victims of the flood would have starved to death or would be sold to slavery. Instead, they survived by eating free rice and leftovers. I watched in wonder as the family put some of the leftovers on their rice, thanked us, and walked away. They knew two young men were lined up behind them, so they left some of the leftovers for the young men. I did not see any police or government officials organizing these refugees. They seemed to be following some form of natural law that allowed the young, the old, and the weak to eat first. There was unlimited rice, so no one needed to go hungry. As for the leftovers, everyone lined up at one table seemed to be able to mentally allot a share for everyone at the queue. I did not feel that these people were beggars or that they did anything that was undignified. Quite the contrary, I was totally impressed by how they were able to share food orderly, and how they comported themselves with dignity. I could not know that twenty years later, I would return to Changsha to do my first project building a digital television production facility for Changsha Television Station. The Changsha I saw again was a bustling city with lots of foreign businessmen coming and going. At the start of the twenty-first century, China's economy was just beginning to take flight. I would experience the fighting and jostling and chaos trying to get a McDonald's hamburger meal that would cost a dinner for four at a local canteen. China would change beyond recognition, and it would continue to change. I would end up spending nearly two decades working in China, traveling all over the country, and learning all about China and its people. There is much about China that I have grown to love, but I cherish most of all the memory of that China in a Changsha canteen so many years ago.
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Disclaimer: This answer does not take any political stand between mainland China and Taiwan and does not advocate for war, peace, or status quo. Furthermore, it is entirely based on public information, reasonable logical deductions, and a bit of personal insight. The answer is not derived from any confidential information and is at best an educated guess. Many things could happen in the interim to change the outcome of this analysis.
In order for the readers to make their own judgment about the writer’s natural bias, which is inevitable, a short background bio is provided here. The writer was born in Hong Kong during British colonial rule. His parents were both staunch anti-communists. His father was an ex-communist who had written popular historical novels that excoriated the Chinese Communist Party. The writer was baptized at birth and had a mostly Westernized upbringing being educated by the Catholic Brothers at a boys-only English school (La Salle). The writer later went to university in Canada and became a Canadian citizen. Now fully half of his extended family in North America is non-ethnic Chinese or of mixed ethnicity. Despite his Westernized and Catholic upbringing, the writer has always been interested in Chinese history and Chinese literature. He can speak Cantonese and Mandarin, and can read and write Chinese both in the traditional and simplified forms. In his youth, the writer was a pioneer of Chinese language television in Canada, establishing the first national Chinese language television station in the country. His position as a licensed broadcaster required neutrality and balance, which was also necessary for bringing harmony to the Canadian Chinese communities served by the licensee’s programming service. The writer later lived in China for nearly two decades working in the broadcasting and digital media technologies industry, personally experiencing business and social life in China, and directly witnessing China’s meteoric rise. He has written a sci-fi adventure novel “Unconquered” which spans across the entire history of China, and its sequel "Bellatrix: the Girl Warrior" to be followed by "Augenblick: the Blink of an eye." His other Quora articles include “What is China?” and “Who is Sidney Rittenberg?” Visit author website at https://stone-man.weebly.com/ or contact him at [email protected] (Subject: Blog reader) With the long introduction out of the way, I would like to outline the following observations:
(ii) Concerns of Hong Kong: China had always supported Hong Kong’s development and wanted Hong Kong to be the vanguard of China’s own development. The success of Hong Kong SAR self-rule and Hong Kong’s reintegration with the mainland would also be a good example for solving the Taiwan problem. Unfortunately, foreign intervention poisoned the heretofore peaceful society of Hong Kong which turned some youngsters into violent extremists. Being myself a citizen of Hong Kong with family and friends living in the city, I have first-hand knowledge of the inveterate hatred towards all things China held by some Hong Kong people. They are visible in schools, among teachers, the media, the press, and even among government officials. Many of these people also receive salaries and funding from the Hong Kong government. While some Hong Kong people are truly concerned about their society and want to express their concerns in the form of peaceful protests, others have engaged in highly racist and violent acts. There are restaurants in Hong Kong with signs saying they do not serve Mandarin speakers (hint, mainland Chinese). Others have engaged in violent secessionist activities. For these people, no other narrative exists about China other than that China is evil. My mother has been a teacher all her life, which in Hong Kong is a government job, and I hear this kind of extreme anti-China vitriol from her every day. No wonder most of her students hold similar views, and now their children will do the same. For a long time, like about twenty-three years, China had been patient and waited for the Hong Kong government to establish the National Security Law according to the Basic Law of Hong Kong SAR. Unfortunately, foreign operatives accustomed to wreaking havoc at other countries with regime change forced China’s hand. After waiting a whole year for Hong Kong to quell the street violence and calm the political waters of the SAR on its own, but seeing a downward spiral instead, China had to step in. Again, by that time, China had nothing to lose except the covert CIA and MI6 operatives. Edward Snowden called the American Embassy in Hong Kong the home-base of CIA agents. As the nations of the West wag their righteous fingers at China and cut ties with Hong Kong, China (PRC) once again arrives at the situation whereas their reunification with Taiwan will not create too much concern of fallout from the West vis-a-vis Hong Kong SAR. (iii) China vs. Taiwan military: Is the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) strong enough to cause the fall of the ROC government? I remember watching a video from perhaps ten years ago of Taiwanese author and politician Li Ao (1935-2018) pressing a minister of defense of Taiwan on how long ROC’s army could withstand a PLA attack. The answer was two weeks. The idea was that a knight in shining armor would come to the island’s rescue during the two weeks of unyielding defense. China’s PLA is ostensibly much stronger today with two operational carrier groups and hyper-sonic missiles. Although some analysts say that China should wait for at least three carrier groups to be operational, and some say that China should secure its trade routes across Central Asia, Pakistan, and Iran, which may take another ten years, before taking military action, other developments are pushing the schedule forward. Purely in terms of military abilities, there is no question that China is ready today. In a civil war such as this, one should not think only in terms of carriers and landing crafts or missiles and bombers. I do not want to speculate on tactical details, as I believe there are career soldiers and qualified tacticians who may have already laid out the plans. Why should China move its reunification schedule forward? If we remember the American full court press, China’s red line on Taiwan is in the process of being crossed. US Congress just approved sales of military equipment to Taiwan. China hawks are talking everyday about decoupling from China and recognizing Taiwan. They are forcing Taiwan’s top electronics and microchip manufacturers to establish production facilities in America and to stop supplying Chinese firms. The longer China waits, the higher likelihood that there will be more complications in the event of a reunification by military action. China’s hand is forced, and again, it has nothing to lose and it should act fast. (iv) The optimum period: There have been of late quite a few articles surfacing on Asian news websites and videos posted on Youtube talking about the Taiwan reunification issue. Most of them are however sensationalist and talk about military action in August or September without strong reasons. Other pundits, especially from Taiwan, refuse to name a date because of the sensitivity of the subject. In my opinion, if China decides to make a move on Taiwan reunification, the most likely timing should be from the day of the presidential election on Nov. 3 until the end of the year. The issue should be settled swiftly, precisely, and with minimal casualties. Whether Trump wins or loses the election, America is expected to undergo some turmoil. This will be in addition to the Covid-19, the street protests, the economy, the gun violence, etc. And we’re only assuming it’s going to be all quiet on the other fronts. Look for China’s friends and allies to light up some low intensity fires at other parts of the world as diversion. There is major upside for China if they succeed in their reunification with Taiwan. Aside from Taiwan’s strategic location, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer Foxconn and the world’s most advanced microchip manufacturer TSMC will become Chinese companies. Coupled with the fact that China already makes everything else for the world, it may be very difficult for countries in the West to sanction China or wage trade/technology wars against China without hurting themselves. China’s successful military action will also demonstrate to the world that the country will not be trifled with. This strategic message may make life a lot easier for Chinese companies doing business in other parts of the world. It may also be easier for China to maintain peace and develop its Belt and Road Initiative from a position of strength. Everything of course depends on successful execution. Conclusion: This is the speculation of an individual made with the intention to provoke thought. Regardless of whether the analysis makes sense or not, it will certainly make no impact, as the world is a complicated place, and no one can predict the future. Even if this analysis turns out to be prophetic, it will still suffer the Cassandra syndrome because no one will believe it.
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Americans left, right, and centre despair of a knight-errand or a messiah to descend from heaven and miraculously right all their wrongs. Here I shed some light on an article of anguish by a lefty writer demanding accountability and culpability.
John Stanton's Counterpunch article: US Commission on the Pandemic of 2020: No Culpability, No Accountability for 70,000 Americans Killed in 60 Days Here is my email to John Stanton: Dear John, America cannot afford to be accountable now. Since the end of the Second World War, the people of America have been electing war criminals, giving them unrestrained authority, funding them with unlimited budgets, sending their own children all over the world to bomb, kill, starve, terrorize, slaughter, rape, plunder, and destroy lives by the millions. The few courageous whistle-blowers are punished severely while the criminals and murderers enjoy impunity, wealth, and prestige. The American people blame the government or the politicians, but then they'll just elect worse criminals and liars to commit more crimes. I can feel the anguish in your words, but even you don't seem to have an answer. The problem, my friend, is not only stupidity, but hypocrisy. Americans as a people who own their government cannot wash their hands of all the atrocities committed in their name and with their funds, while enjoying complete impunity. If Trump is a lying racist misogynist (I forgot to add selfish, greedy, unscrupulous) moron, think of what it says about the best democratic law-abiding god-fearing country that elected him. You may disagree, but Trump represents America; he is the soul of America. After all the investigations and the impeachment, after all the unending and incessant baldfaced lies, even on the day he suggested injecting bleach, Trump's approval rating was 49%. Should we pin our hopes on Biden? No Culpability and No Accountability enjoyed by the American people finally blows back. You can't ask for accountability without being accountable for all of America's past sins and victims (I have an inexhaustible list but I'll just mention Camp 731 as an example of American egregiousness), otherwise it's just hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a two-headed snake; it bites the hand that feeds it. Is there hope? According to the politicians and corporate leaders, we do, and that is "Blame China." What will be China's response? They will likely go their own way, as if the Americans had never come. They had done that before in 1949 and survived. They will do significantly better nowadays. No need to worry about a shooting war between US and China. Study the Korean War and you'll know why. The ignorant lying MSM pundits will make a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The military knows the history. They ain't gonna try. Actually, there is a way out for brave, upright, and intelligent Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. said: "A man can't ride your back unless it's bent." All one needs to do is to stand up. Unfortunately, MLK can't stand up no more. He learned the hard way. You don't take a bullhorn to a gunfight. Peter Man Pounding the sand Blog John Stanton's response: Peter M, Very, very well said. You are right: my words mask despair. Yes, Trump is a product of America. Trotsky said Hitler didn't just fall from the sky into Germany 80 some years ago and so neither did Trump in 2015. The quote from Norbert Weiner that accompanies this text is quite accurate, I think. We are, after all, on Tiny Blue Dot, as Carl Sagan said and all that that means. Thank you so much for your insights and, moreover, taking the time to read the piece. John S |