My American friends have been telling me for years about how bad China and the Chinese Communist Party actually are - how they spy on everyone, how they favour their own companies over others, how they try and influence the politics of others, and most of all, how they don’t seem to trust American government and military. In fact, I suspect most of my subscribers will be reading this and thinking, how could you not see how bad the CCP is - what is wrong with you?
Well let me indulge you in my thinking and why I was not convinced the Chinese government is not as bad as people made out, and why I have changed my mind. First of all, back in the halcyon days of 2000s, people had this idea that China was going to seamless become part of the West. This was never going to be the case. Most Chinese still study and remember the Opium Wars of the 1800s, where the British became so frustrated with a lack of Chinese trade, they forced large numbers of Chinese to become opium addicts just so there was something to trade with China. Of course opium was banned in the UK, but selling it to Chinese and using the might of the British army to achieve this was not a problem for the UK government. With this history, the idea that the Chinese would ever complete trust the UK or the USA is laughable. The average American or British person may have a passing knowledge of the opium wars, but it is burned into the consciousness of all Chinese. To get an idea of this watch Jet Li’s first big film - Once Upon A Time In China - and see the constant references to the Unfair Treaties. Before you write it off as Communist propaganda, the movie was made in Hong Kong, and has a very positive take on Christianity - so even “good” Chinese still remember the Opium Wars.
I also remember that in the 1980s and 1990s, Americans started to get very het up about Japanese economic domination, despite it having no military power and a far smaller population than America. For me, American diatribes against China was another version of this Japanese fear - because nothing defines America more than competition and winning - its a vital part of the American psyche. 1993 film, Rising Sun, starting Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes was a sign of the times. In a similar vein, I had thought of US anti-Chinese sentiment and similar posturing.
Furthermore, when the various accusations of Chinese spying came to the fore, I just remembered how much spying the UK and the USA (and other allies) do on China. I still remember the US spy plane crashing in China in 2001, and thinking that well if China was flying a spy plane that close to the USA, the American would likely lose their minds. In essence, big nations spy on other big nations - always have and always will.
I was also remembering how I felt extremely upset by the US and UK governments statements on weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) back in 2001. When Tony Blair and Colin Powell came out and stated that Iraq had WMDs, I foolishly believed them (I put no faith in George W Bush or Dick Cheney - but I did in Tony and Colin). When no WMDs were found, and the truth of the Second Iraq War came out, I made sure I would never blindly follow politicians ever again.
All of these things have made me extremely distrustful of the US government labelling China as a serious threat. What exactly have they done? What proof can you show me? Which nation have they invaded? Whose citizens have they killed? In all cases, US hostility seemed more driven by the same reason it drove Japanese hostility back in the 1980s - a sense of losing. But this idea that it was also just jostling and politics was broken apart by an article I read in the Economist. I have copied the important part below.
As you can see above, two Chinese ships - Yi Peng 3 and Newnew Polar Bear have been accused of damaging fibre-optic cables and gas pipelines. Why is this a such a big deal for me? Well my experience of China and Chinese people is that they just want to make money - to get ahead. In fact, in general I find Chinese and Americans have a lot in common. So I could understand China retaliating against US tariffs, for example, and I could understand it looking to shore up allies like Russia or North Korea, but I was under the assumption it was doing its best to keep a free trade world going - and to try and copy American free trade policies that were so successful in the 1980s, 90s and 2000s. But how does this fit in with having ships damage vital infrastructure in the Baltic Sea? It doesn’t. A trading focused China would not sanction such an activity in my mind - as all it does is poison a relationship with a important trading partner. For me, this opens up the possibility of various large downside events in the future. Time to have a hard think.
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