Many years ago, I was at a cocktail party at a publishing industry conference, and one of the men was claiming that China was going to take over the world. I said something along the lines of “maybe, but I think freedom will prevail, and China will collapse under the weight of its own tyranny.”
Which reminds me of something else …. It had bugged me (back in those days) that John Paul II didn’t do more to counter unorthodox movements in the church. His defenders said he believed error contained the seeds of its own destruction, so all that was necessary was to sit back and watch it collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.
The obvious response is “tell that to the people who lived their whole lives under Soviet totalitarianism,” but JPII knew more of that tale than I ever will, and he still seemed to discourage direct action (although he did have an influence in Poland, so they say).
The point being that while it’s nice to think error will eventually eat its own, it might take 100 years to do that, and who wants to live under the heel of the communists while we wait for them to fall under the weight of their own foolishness?
China is a serious threat to the free world in many ways, but the United States is too busy trying to decide what pronouns we should use. I’m sure President Xi has fits of laughter over that — as he orders a new aircraft carrier with the money he gets from having permanent “most favored nation” status.
With all this confusion bubbling around in my head, I took some small comfort from this: Is COVID China’s Chernobyl?
The Chernobyl disaster cost the Soviet regime whatever credibility it had with its citizens and was the last nail in the coffin for the image of Soviet communism abroad. For the current Chinese communist regime in Beijing, the growing evidence that COVID does not have zoonotic origins — that it did not jump from animals to humans — as China still claims, but most likely leaked from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, points to culpability for a global disaster far worse than Chernobyl: so much so that it is not unreasonable to speculate about its implications for the regime’s survival.
I don’t think COVID will tip the Chinese regime, but I do think COVID is yet another bit of evidence that shows the world how oppressive and untrustworthy the Chinese are. Those examples will continue because of the nature of Chinese oppression and their disregard for either people or the truth. And sooner or later, people might start to push back.
I hope it’s soon enough.
QUOTE: China is a serious threat to the free world in many ways, but the United States is too busy trying to decide what pronouns we should use.
I’m not sure that’s an accurate statement given the US has generally demonstrated it can manage more than one priority at a time and doesn’t seem unduly preoccupied with pronoun proclamation (to the exclusion of other priorities).
That said, I wonder what’s the best way to mitigate threats from China. Is it the US’ sole responsibility to neutralize China? If not, what role should it play, if any, with other nations? As well, given China is a sovereign nation, what tactics would be appropriate? Would it be justified to use China’s tactics to subdue them? If so, what would distinguish the “free world” from China? Would “any” means justify the end?
QUOTE: I don’t think COVID will tip the Chinese regime, but I do think COVID is yet another bit of evidence that shows the world how oppressive and untrustworthy the Chinese are.
Albeit I agree with the sentiment, I wonder how it would play if it was applied to the US. It’s suspected that one of history’s worse pandemics, 1918 “Spanish Flu”, originated in the US. Yet, it doesn’t seem the US has taken ownership of such. As great as this county is, it’s had its shady moments and flaws. Given that, should the world trust the US?
My post is about “the world” standing up to China, not just the U.S. But clearly the U.S. has to lead.
What tactics should we use? I’m no foreign policy expert, but two things come to mind. (1) Aggressively respond to their military build-up with one of our own (especially in cyber war and with more ships), and (2) tariffs. They should not get most favored nation status given their human rights abuses.
The comparison to the Spanish flu is not apt. First, we didn’t have “wet markets,” which had previously been identified as dangerous sources for new pathogens; second, there was no lab, or “gain of function” research involved (which might be just as much our fault as China’s); and third, we didn’t spread disinformation about it to the rest of the world.
We don’t need to punish a country if some random outbreak starts there. But maybe we do if they allowed dangerous conditions to persist, if they engineered it, or if they lied about it.
QUOTE: My post is about “the world” standing up to China, not just the U.S. But clearly the U.S. has to lead.
My post focused on both the role of the “world” and “US”…questioning what role the US could/should play. That said, why does the US “have” to lead?
QUOTE: What tactics should we use? I’m no foreign policy expert, but two things come to mind. (1) Aggressively respond to their military build-up with one of our own (especially in cyber war and with more ships), and (2) tariffs. They should not get most favored nation status given their human rights abuses.
I’d agree. A blend of diplomatic, defensive and offensive strategies might work if the “world” works in concert. Yet, some wish to take a purely offensive military strategy. That leaves me with the question of how a sovereign nation(s) can attack another sovereign nation without becoming guilty of what they are fighting against.
QUOTE: The comparison to the Spanish flu is not apt.
No, the US didn’t purposely initiate the Spanish Flu. It’s still to be verified if China had an intentional purpose in initiating Covid-19. Relative to the Spanish Flu, the US hasn’t had a full-throated ownership of its role…neither has China with Covid-19. Yet, my larger point was musing about if the “world” judged the US based on some of its issues such as: the My Lai Massacre, nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki, prisoner abuse in Guantanamo Bay, Operation Ajax, and the 2003 Iraq invasion. As well, domestic issues such as: the Wilmington Coup of 1898, the Sand Creek Massacre, Japanese concentration camps and the Trail of Tears relative to Native Americans.
Also the US involvement in the 1973 Chilean coup d’état, installing a rightwing dictator, Pinochet. Or the domestic issue of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
People wonder why members of the Weather Underground got off the hook so easily. That is because J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was running amuck and would be exposed if such cases ever came to trial. Trying to throw John and Yoko out of the country was a top priority for that nutcase!
QUOTE: People wonder why members of the Weather Underground got off the hook so easily. That is because J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was running amuck and would be exposed if such cases ever came to trial.
When breaking the law and corruption become the means to uphold the law, there’s something amiss. Yet, for some, the ends justifies any means.
That said, I sometimes wonder what the “world” sees when it compares the “theory” (democratic aspirations) of the US and the actual “practices” within US history. If the world judged the US by the standards we sometimes judge other counties, I wonder how we’d fare?
Still, the good news, despite our flaws, we are a great nation. I hope we don’t allow extreme tribalism to lead to our utter downfall but continue to work towards creating a more perfect union.