The People's Republic of China flag and the U.S. Stars and Stripes fly along Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol in Washington during Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit, January 18, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Hyungwon Kang
New York Times: As Xi Tightens His Grip on China, U.S. Sees Conflict Ahead
WASHINGTON — A few weeks after Stephen K. Bannon left the White House in August, he was invited to a dinner at the Council on Foreign Relations to discuss American policy toward China. With his unbridled China bashing and dark talk of a looming conflict in the Pacific, Mr. Bannon expected to be roughed up by the group, which included China scholars, writers and veterans from past Republican and Democratic administrations.
Mr. Bannon’s hosts were hard on him, but not in the way he expected. Rather than faulting him or his former boss, President Trump, for their hostile approach, they pressed him on why Mr. Trump had not followed through with his tough talk about trade and North Korea. “I walked out of there thinking, ‘Something has changed with the elite,’” he recalled.
China’s relentless rise and its more recent embrace of repressive tactics that recall the Mao era — a process accelerated by President Xi Jinping’s bid to stay in power indefinitely — have fractured a deeply rooted consensus in Washington about the long-term direction of its relationship with Beijing.
Gone is a widespread agreement among diplomats, scholars and businesspeople that China is gradually converging with the United States and, therefore, that Americans should work to manage any flare-ups between the two countries. With China now unabashedly charting its own course — one that diverges rather than converges with the liberal democracies and market economies of the West — conflict, many say, is inevitable.
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WNU Editor: China is not on the same page with the U.S. on multiple issues .... and this has been the case for a very long time. And while I am not sure on where this is going to end up, I do see the days of U.S. passivity and a willingness to accommodate China among the U.S. foreign policy and economic elite in Washington shifting to one that is more realistic and pragmatic.
5 comments:
China has been readying for war for the last decade. This is a war that is fought culturally, economically, politically, and soon militarily
Culturally: China is shielding itself from outside information. It arrests and tortures people who dissent and it uses its massive firewall to filter more and more information coming in. Companies like Twitter and Facebook and now also apple cloud need to keep data either outside or make accessible to Chinese government. See what amnesty international had to say about that just yesterday.
Militarily: China has been and still is supporting north Korea. North Korea has conducted multiple nuclear tests and threatens the USA with nuclear war. China supports north Korea openly by selling the rocket fuel and the mobile missile launchers to the US while telling the US at the same time if they should invade or attack north Korea, China would fight the US. Xi just a few months ago told the Chinese military to swear loyalty directly to him (like Hitler did), and told them "not to fear death". That's not normal behaviour. Also just last week, Xi has now been declared to be permanent president, or Emperor. This is a clear sign that China is getting war ready in terms of leadership now too.
China militarised the south China Sea and keeps expanding its claims. Just see what happened in the Maldives.now India - the Maldives'natural neighbour - gets threatened to not intervene in the Maldives, or else.
Meanwhile China has committed trillions in patent and industrial theft.
How much longer do we all pretend China is a normal country?
How much longer do we pretend we're not at clear conflict with China? In all likelihood - if China doesn't change - war will be coming our way, or we accept living as second class citizens in which China gets to torture and abduct people who dissent at will, while stealing our intellectual property and claiming our lands and telling us not to talk to our neighbours.
Accommodation to China should have ended about 15 years ago. Why it didn't, I'll leave to Johnny Chung to explain. For people lacking Google Foo or having short memories, see this from CNN
"A controversial former Democratic Party fund-raiser has told federal investigators that China's chief of military intelligence funneled $300,000 through him to back President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, CNN has confirmed. "
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/04/04/china.clinton.money/index.html
China has been strategic in bribing Americans to look the other way while China stole everything in sight from the stupid Americans.
It's unlikely we are in a position to fight and win any kind of conventional military conflict with China. I think Russia has their own looming problems with China. Perhaps it is time to seek a reconciliation with Russia instead of pursuing the senseless policies that would make them an enemy for what appears to be no good reason.
Having arguably the two most powerful countries on the planet as adversaries seems hardly a way to run a country/business. Please note I said "arguably." Apparently there has been some confusion of late.
China just moved to further harden its ban on VPNs: This is big. Coming 31 March they will further crack down on VPNs (the crackdown first started 3 years ago when some VPN servers simply got blacklisted/disconnected).. now it's getting serious:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-01/china-s-internet-underground-fights-for-its-life
And, bposter. I have been saying the same thing about Russia. Russia is completely f*cked in their mind if they seek to work with China. China looks down on any race not their own (which Russia certainly is not) and forbids religion more and more (I heard Russians, including Putin, do like the church).. better forget that and bow down to your new masters... OR.. russia stops its silly games and remembers who it worked with for centuries before the cold war started. Silly putin gambling future of Russia ..
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