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American attitudes towards the Chinese
by
John J. Xenakis
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
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The hostility being directed on a day to day basis towards Chinese students on the MIT campus has become so great that MIT's president has warned the entire MIT community against the growing "toxic atmosphere" directed at Chinese students. However, it's quite possible that this "toxic atmosphere" is within the Chinese community itself.
MIT's president L. Rafael Reif sent a letter to the entire MIT community entitled "Immigration is a kind of oxygen." Excerpts follow:
"MIT has flourished, like the United States itself, because it has been a magnet for the world’s finest talent, a global laboratory where people from every culture and background inspire each other and invent the future, together.Today, I feel compelled to share my dismay about some circumstances painfully relevant to our fellow MIT community members of Chinese descent. And I believe that because we treasure them as friends and colleagues, their situation and its larger national context should concern us all.
The situation
As the US and China have struggled with rising tensions, the US government has raised serious concerns about incidents of alleged academic espionage conducted by individuals through what is widely understood as a systematic effort of the Chinese government to acquire high-tech IP.
As head of an institute that includes MIT Lincoln Laboratory, I could not take national security more seriously. I am well aware of the risks of academic espionage, and MIT has established prudent policies to protect against such breaches.
But in managing these risks, we must take great care not to create a toxic atmosphere of unfounded suspicion and fear. Looking at cases across the nation, small numbers of researchers of Chinese background may indeed have acted in bad faith, but they are the exception and very far from the rule. Yet faculty members, post-docs, research staff and students tell me that, in their dealings with government agencies, they now feel unfairly scrutinized, stigmatized and on edge – because of their Chinese ethnicity alone.
Nothing could be further from – or more corrosive to – our community’s collaborative strength and open-hearted ideals. To hear such reports from Chinese and Chinese-American colleagues is heartbreaking. As scholars, teachers, mentors, inventors and entrepreneurs, they have been not only exemplary members of our community but exceptional contributors to American society. I am deeply troubled that they feel themselves repaid with generalized mistrust and disrespect.
The signal to the world
For those of us who know firsthand the immense value of MIT’s global community and of the free flow of scientific ideas, it is important to understand the distress of these colleagues as part of an increasingly loud signal the US is sending to the world.
Protracted visa delays. Harsh rhetoric against most immigrants and a range of other groups, because of religion, race, ethnicity or national origin. Together, such actions and policies have turned the volume all the way up on the message that the US is closing the door – that we no longer seek to be a magnet for the world’s most driven and creative individuals. I believe this message is not consistent with how America has succeeded. I am certain it is not how the Institute has succeeded. And we should expect it to have serious long-term costs for the nation and for MIT."
Like many universities, MIT has moved far left and is extremely hostile to President Trump and 60 million Trump supporters, who have been publicly referred to as "teabaggers," "racists," "deplorables," and so forth.
Nonetheless, Reif has to walk a fine line because his main job is to beg for grants from agencies in the Trump administration. So the above letter has soft criticisms of Trump's immigration policies, but is careful not to incite further hatred against Trump supporters.
However, it's reasonable to believe that his letter is very wide of the mark.
The fact that Reif felt compelled to write this letter at all indicates how hostility has been growing nationwide towards Chinese students, and to the Chinese diaspora in general. However, in the case of MIT, the question is whether the source of that hostility is Americans or other Chinese students. In the case of Americans and Westerners in general, the question is whether the hostility is directed at the Chinese people or the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Since the 1950s, Americans' public attitude toward has China been almost always favorable. In the 1960s, left-wing college students were carrying Mao Zedong's Little Red Book of Quotations in their back pockets, ready to be pulled out and used to lecture someone at any time about the evils of capitalism, ignoring that Mao was responsible at that time for tens of thousands of deaths from starvation, torture, rape, beatings, and execution. For most Americans, China could do no wrong. Even the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which killed thousands of peacefully protesting college students, didn't change opinions much, but was considered by many to be just a kind of Chinese peculiarity of the wonderful Chinese Socialist system, which was opposed in their minds to the fascist American system.
Furthermore, when China was invited to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2000, it was hoped that this would make China a part of the international community, and that China would become a Western-style liberal democracy, instead of a fascist state like America. That didn't happen, of course.
However, the West's favorable view of the Chinese has been continually eroding since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. This is because the public has become aware of many things that indicate that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is actually a fascist criminal organization. There are many such things, including the following:
I just started typing the above list at random, and I probably could have added a hundred more items. The point is that these events have entered the public consciousness over a period of 30 years, and attitudes towards China and the Chinese have been deteriorating over that period.
I wrote about this shift in public opinion in January, when China-lover George Soros announced that he has turned against China because of its religious persecution and particularly because of the "Social Credit System," which "will subordinate the fate of the individual to the interests of the one-party state in ways unprecedented in history." ( "27-Jan-19 World View -- George Soros speech at Davos marks significant global shift against China")
Another recent example was when Democratic party presidential aspirant Joe Biden recently said that the US has nothing to fear from China, and then had to walk that back a few days later. In the Democratic party debates last week, there was lots of criticism of Trump, but not of the China sanctions, as far as I could tell.
Perhaps the most remarkable sign of this change in attitude is that there have been few serious objections domestically or internationally to the Trump administration's harsh sanctions against China, including tariffs, restrictions on Huawei, and arrest of the Huawei CFO, although some farmers are being hurt.
Reif's letter briefly mentions issues related to national security, and totally evades the issue. He says:
"Looking at cases across the nation, small numbers of researchers of Chinese background may indeed have acted in bad faith, but they are the exception and very far from the rule. Yet faculty members, post-docs, research staff and students tell me that, in their dealings with government agencies, they now feel unfairly scrutinized, stigmatized and on edge – because of their Chinese ethnicity alone."
This is entirely the fault of the fascist Chinese government. It is stated Chinese policy that China sends tens of thousands of students and workers to the United States to collect intelligence information from China's military, and under the 2017 National Intelligence Law, every Chinese person and business is obligated to collect foreign intelligence, even when doing so is against the law.
Reif says that "small numbers" of Chinese researchers may have "acted in bad faith," but even Reif must realize how ridiculous this statement is, since all we know about are the ones who were caught. For all he knows, every person of Chinese descent working at Lincoln Lab is working directly for the Chinese military, but just hasn't been caught yet. This is where Reif's argument completely falls apart. The CCP has forced Chinese citizens to be the targets of suspicion, so Reif's letter should have been directed at China's government, not to the MIT community.
There's a related matter, with regard to "back doors" being installed in Huawei chips and devices. As I've described many times, my personal experience spending five years implementing board level operating systems for embedded systems has made it clear that it would be easy for a Huawei engineer with the right skills to install undetectable backdoors in Huawei chips. Huawei is also required by China's National Intelligence Law, passed in 2017, to fully cooperate with China's military in collecting intelligence, so installation of these undectable backdoors is required by Chinese law. These backdoors would permit China's military to control these devices remotely.
Now I have the skills to do this, and there must be a lot of people at MIT, Americans and Chinese, especially in the electrical engineering department, who have these skills and are also aware of how easy it is to do. So if there are Huawei devices brought into the classroom or the lab, other students are going to wonder if these devices are being used for spying or communicating with China's military. Reif's letter says that "MIT has established prudent policies to protect against such breaches," but the fact is that there are no policies, prudent or otherwise, that can protect against undetectable backdoors.
The CCP has really screwed Chinese students in America by adopting policies that make any one of them a possible spy working for China's military. This is doing enormous harm to Chinese students, and Reif's letter can do nothing about it.
I've written recently about the Hong Kong protests have exposed an increasingly vitriolic split between northern and southern China. Mandarin-speaking Beijing and Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong are, respectively, the current political epicenters of the two sides. ( "22-Jun-19 World View -- Hong Kong protests show historic split between northern and southern China")
I continue to see reports that suggest anecdotally that this split is extremely serious and growing. Here's an extract from a recent article appearing in Inkstone by a Hong Konger who met a Chinese girl in a bar in Coventry, England, and they agreed to go out on a date:
"The vibes were good at the start. Arrived on time. Greetings. Drinks and snacks. And then, at some point, I innocently uttered the phrase: “Because we from Hong Kong...” My date, from mainland China, swiftly interrupted me. She raised her voice and eyebrows, signaling how angry she was. She rapped the table with her fingers and snapped: “Stop saying you are from Hong Kong. You are Chinese and from China.”I decided not to say “Hong Kong” for the rest of our conversation. But she wouldn’t let it go. She derisively attributed Hong Kong people’s denial of our Chinese identity to our low self-esteem. In her mind, people from mainland China seem to be smarter and more financially secure than their Hong Kong counterparts."
As he described, the evening became increasingly tense, and they parted without even saying goodbye. Next day, she blocked him on both WhatsApp and WeChat.
The north-south conflict goes far beyond thwarted love and romance.
Returning now to Rafael Reif's letter to the MIT community, one might infer that he's criticizing the American male white patriarchy for creating the "toxic atmosphere." But there are a lot of Chinese students at MIT, and I wonder if the "toxic atmosphere" is within the Chinese community.
As I've written in the past, my research for my book "War between China and Japan" has revealed that the CCP wants a war of revenge against Japan and a war of annexation against Taiwan, but does not want a war with America, but consideres it necessary because America will depend Japan and Taiwan. There's really very little hatred between Americans and Chinese, while there is great hatred between Chinese and Japanese, and between northern and southern Chinese.
So my conclusion is that the "toxic atmosphere" described in Reif's letter is being created by Chinese and possibly Japanese, but not by Americans.
This is my personal inference from the facts as I know them. Perhaps more anecdotal evidence will emerge that clarifies the situation.
We in America and the West tend to believe that ethnic and racial conflict is a thing of the past. However, what I've seen over and over is that race is everything. Love doesn't make the world go 'round. Racial and ethnic political and military conflicts create the "toxic atmosphere" that makes the world go 'round, and the Chinese and Japanese are about to make the world spin a little bit faster.
John Xenakis is author of: "World View: War Between China and Japan: Why America Must Be Prepared" (Generational Theory Book Series, Book 2), June 2019, Paperback: 331 pages, with over 200 source references, $13.99 https://www.amazon.com/World-View-Between-Prepared-Generational/dp/1732738637/
MIT/RafaelReif, 25-Jun-2019 and NYPost, 11-Jun-2019 and Inkstone, 25-Jun-2019
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Why America must be prepared
by
John J. Xenakis
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
Announcing a new book on China by John J. Xenakis
Book Announcement: World View: War Between China and Japan
Subtitle: Why America Must Be Prepared
 |
$9.99 -- Buy the digital version on Amazon
Click here for Complete Table of Contents
If you buy it, please write a 5-star amazon review. Thanks.
For over 15 years, I've been writing about China's preparations for war with the United States, particularly building and deploying one advanced nuclear-capable ballistic missile system after another with no purpose other than to attack and destroy American cities, aircraft carriers and bases, as well as massive cyberwar. So there's never been any doubt that China is planning to launch a war against the United States.
However, I was never entirely comfortable with that prediction, since there's no apparent hatred of Americans by the Chinese. I've personally known many Chinese during my life, and they were always friendly unlike, for example, some Mexicans. Furthermore, Chinese media has always been critical of US political policies, but there was no hatred directed at the American people the way there is, for example, against the Japanese people. In other words, I knew that China was going to launch a war with the US, but I really didn't know why.
As a result of research on my book, late last year I had a major change in views. China does not want war against the United States, but does want a war of revenge against Japan for the atrocities committed during WW II. China also wants to invade Taiwan, in order annex it. China does not want war with the US, but the CCP knows that it will have no choice, since the US will defend Japan and Taiwan against China's war of extermination against Japan and war of annexation against Taiwan.
There's even an alternate explanation for all those missile systems that China has been developing and deploying for decades. It's possible that the Chinese believe that just having those missile systems will serve as a threat to deter the US and to force the US to remain neutral when China invades Japan and Taiwan. If this is what the CCP hopes, then it's entirely delusional.
Although I've changed my views about China's motives, the bottom line is still the same. China has developed these massive nuclear-capable missile deployments because China expects to use them to attack the US, and they will. It's just that the motives are different than I said prreviously.
When I started writing this book, it was to be a book about China's claims to the South China Sea. I was going to find out who was right, and who was spinning fake news.
So I researched all of China's history going back thousands of years and multiple dynasties, as well as the histories of China's religions -- Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism, and Falun Gong.
I discovered that China had no claim at all to the South China Sea. I mean, it isn't even arguable. China's claim to Taiwan, whether valid or not, is at least arguable. But the claim to the South China Sea isn't even arguable. It is completely nonexistent. It is a complete hoax.
This means that China's activities in the South China Sea are criminal, as the Chinese themselves realize. The Chinese know this. That's why China's president Xi Jinping on September 25, 2015, blatantly lied to the face of Barack Obama during a joint press conference on the White House lawn about China's intentions, just as Adolf Hitler lied to Neville Chamberlain in 1938 about "Peace in our time." Xi said that there were no plans to militarize the South China Sea, even though they were actively militarizing it. In July 2016, the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague issued a ruling that all China's activities were illegal, reaffirming their criminal nature.
China blames this and other criminal activities on its "Unequal Treaties" and its "Century of Humiliation." All of that research from the first objective is included in this book.
So that evolved to become the second objective of this book. I wanted to focus on China's history since the 1840 Opium Wars in order to determine exactly how the unequal treaties occurred, how China was humiliated over the period of a century, and by whom, and how that led to China's behavior today.
So I discovered that there were indeed "unequal treaties," especially the 1860 Treaty of Tianjin and the 1915 Twenty-One Demands that gave concessions to foreign powers in a way that was humiliating to China. I followed this history through the late 1800s to the Republican Revolution of 1911, through World War I and the Versailles betrayal, into the rise of communism, and then the brutal Sino-Japanese war (1937-45), in which the Japanese committed brutal atrocities, and in which the United States saved China from a humiliating defeat.
I also followed China's history after WW II -- the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution that killed tens of millions of Chinese through government-forced starvation, executions, and rioting. Then there was the bloody Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, where thousands of peacefully protesting college students were mercilessly slaughtered by China's military.
So the second objective of the book was achieved, and I had researched the causes of China's claims to Unequal Treaties and a Century of Humiliation. All of that research from the second objective is also included in this book.
However, I began to see the results of the second objective of the book -- that most of the humiliation was caused by China's own faults.
And that led me to an important and obvious question that I've never seen discussed anywhere. The West tried to impose the same Unequal Treaties on Japan as on China. Why didn't Japan also suffer a "Century of Humiliation"?
That led to the third objective of this book -- to compare Japan and China. The research from that objective is also included in this book.
What I discovered is that Japan has repeatedly and consistently bested China in all areas -- economically, diplomatically, militarily, and in governance. The bottom line appears to be the fact that the reason that China suffered a "Century of Humiliation" is because they were inferior to Japan, time after time.
This is not because the Chinese people are inferior. In fact, the same Chinese people in Taiwan and colonial Hong Kong have also beaten the Chinese people in China, by a factor of ten. It's the Chinese government that's inferior to the governments of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. The great and brilliant Chinese people are being led by corrupt idiots in the CCP.
In fact, it's been a lot worse than that for China. Since World War II ended, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong all had "economic miracles," while China's economy languished for decades. Mao's Great Leap Forward was supposed to prove that Marxism, Communism and Socialism are better than anything else, but instead it was a total disaster, causing the deaths of tens of millions through starvation and execution.
After Mao's disaster totally discredited Marxism, Socialism and Communism, once Mao died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping was able to institute an "Opening up and reform" policy that completely reversed Socialism and opened up China to free markets and capitalism. They started using the phrase "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics," which is laughable because it means "Socialism that's really capitalism, but we don't want to call it that." However, China retained its governmental dictatorship, and "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" is really the same as Adolf Hitler's "National Socialism."
So today we have Xi Jinping, a "dictator for life" like Hitler, leader of a "master race" like Hitler, committing genocide like Hitler, illegally annexing regions like Hitler, and preparing to launch a world war like Hitler.
Table of Contents
Part I. Introduction Chapter 1. China today 1.1. China since World War II 1.2. Chinese people vs China's government Chapter 2. Evolution of this book 2.1. Three objectives 2.2. Historical imperative of world wars 2.3. China's preparations for war 2.4. China's historic incompetence compared to Japan 2.5. China's contempt for international law 2.6. Does China deserve sympathy? Chapter 3. Brief summary of generational eras
Part II. China and Japan since the end of World War II Chapter 4. China and Japan during and after World War II Chapter 5. South Korea's postwar economic miracle Chapter 6. Japan's postwar economic miracle Chapter 7. Taiwan's postwar economic miracle Chapter 8. Colonial Hong Kong's postwar economic miracle Chapter 9. China's postwar economic and governmental disasters 9.1. China's failure at self-government 9.2. The Statistics 9.3. The Great Leap Forward (1958-60} 9.4. Mao's justifications for the Great Leap Forward 9.5. Great Cultural Revolution (1966-76) 9.6. Tiananmen Square Incident (April 5, 1976) 9.7. Tangshan earthquake (July 28, 1976) 9.8. Mao Zedong dies (September 9, 1976) 9.9. Deng Xiaoping's 'Reform and Opening Up' of China (1978-1989) 9.10. Socialism with Chinese Characteristics 9.11. One-Child policy 9.12. Tiananmen Square massacre (June 4, 1989) 9.13. Collapse of the Soviet Union (December 26, 1991) 9.14. China's nationalist anti-Japan propaganda (1989-present) 9.15. Yellow race, black hair, brown eyes, yellow skin Chapter 10. Rise of China's dictator Xi Jinping 10.1. Biography of Xi Jinping 10.2. Xi Jinping lies about South China Sea (Sept 25, 2015) 10.3. UN Tribunal declares China's South China Sea claims invalid (July 2016) 10.4. Xi Jinping becomes 'the core of the leadership' of the CCP (October 2016) 10.5. Xi Jinping becomes dictator for life (March 20, 2018) Chapter 11. Xi Jinping adopts harsh, violent, dictatorial policies 11.1. Sources of Xi's policies: Japan and Great Leap Forward 11.2. Document #9 - China's belligerent rejection of Western values (2013) 11.3. Sinicization of religion 11.4. Comparison of Sinicization to Hitler's Kristallnacht 11.5. Genocide and ethnic cleansing of Uighurs in East Turkistan (Xinjiang) 11.6. China's preparations for war 11.7. Role of North Korea and 'denuclearization' 11.8. Japan's and China's views of each other 11.9. Other nations' view of China 11.10. Mutual Defense Treaties of the United States 11.11. China's desire for world hegemony 11.12. The outlook for war between China and Japan 11.13. Winston Churchill vs Neville Chamberlain 11.14. Timing of the war between China and Japan
Part III. China's preparations for war Chapter 12. China's war preparations through cyber war 12.1. Theft of intellectual property 12.2. Huawei's hack of African Union headquarters 12.3. China's National Intelligence Law (June 27, 2017) 12.4. China's weaponization of Huawei 12.5. Installing a hardware backdoor - Technical details 12.6. Installing an undetectable software backdoor - Technical details Chapter 13. China's Social Credit Score system 13.1. Development of China's Social Credit Score system 13.2. Huawei's 'big data' cloud database 13.3. China extends its 'social credit score' system to Americans and Westerners 13.4. China's economy -- Huawei the only money making private company Chapter 14. United Front Work Department (UFWD) and Magic Weapons 14.1. China's biggest resource: billions of expendable people 14.2. History of China's United Front 14.3. United Front Work Department in New Zealand 14.4. China's infiltration of Australia 14.5. United Front Work Department (UFWD) in Australia -- mind control 14.6. University of North Florida closes its Confucius Institute 14.7. Controversy over China's Confucius Institutes Chapter 15. Belt and Road Initiative and Debt Trap Diplomacy 15.1. Debt Trap Diplomacy 15.2. The secret BRI deals and Debt Trap Diplomacy 15.3. The Belt and Road (BRI) contract in Kenya Chapter 16. China's claims to the South China Sea 16.1. China's Nine-Dash Map 16.2. China's 'ironclad proof' of South China Sea claims revealed as hoax 16.3. China's humiliating repudiation by UNCLOS court 16.4. China's claims in South China Sea -- Nationalism, Rejuvenation, Lebensraum Chapter 17. America's preparation for war 17.1. Will America survive world war with China? 17.2. Will America's young people refuse to fight for their country? 17.3. Preparing yourself and your family for war
Part IV. Theory of War: The phases of World War III Chapter 18. How do world wars begin in general? 18.1. How World War I started (1914-18) - an unexpected assassination 18.2. How the Israel-Hezbollah war started (2006) - an unexpected abduction 18.3. How World War II started (1937-1945) - someone had to pee 18.4. Do genocide and ethnic cleansing start a world war? 18.5. Neutrality Chapter 19. The early and middle phases of World War III 19.1. The early days -- neutrality and the salami method 19.2. The euphoria phase: The declaration of war 19.3. The public panic phase: The Regeneracy 19.4. Moral degeneration during a generational crisis war Chapter 20. World War III in Asia - Forecasts and predictions 20.1. A divided America - is civil war in America possible? 20.2. 'Mass Incidents' and civil war in China 20.3. Chinese Civil war and the United Front 20.4. Civil war in China and its effect on Taiwan 20.5. America and China -- Preparedness for war 20.6. China's military strategy 20.7. World War III lineup: 'The Allies' vs 'The Axis'
Part V. China's ancient dynasties Chapter 21. Reference list of China's dynasties Chapter 22. China's population Chapter 23. Early civilizations of the world 23.1. Peking Man (700,000 BC) Chapter 24. Earliest dynasties 24.1. Xia dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BC) 24.2. Shang Dynasty (c.1500 - 1050 BC) Chapter 25. Zhou dynasty (1050 - 221 BC) 25.1. Western (1070-771 BC) and Eastern (770-221 BC) Zhou dynasties 25.2. Eastern Zhou: China's Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) 25.3. Eastern Zhou: China's Warring States period (481/403 - 221 BC) Chapter 26. Qin (Chin, Ch'in) Dynasty (221-206 BC) Chapter 27. Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) 27.1. The Silk Road 27.2. Invention of paper 27.3. Yellow Turban uprising - 184 AD 27.4. End and legacy of the Han Dynasty Chapter 28. Sui Dynasty (581-618 AD) and Korea's Goguryeo Kingdom 28.1. Reunification of Northern and Southern China 28.2. Defeat by Korea's Goguryeo Empire (37-688) and Battle of Salsu River (612 AD) 28.3. The Goguryeo Stele
Part VI. Religious and cultural teachings in China Chapter 29. China's harsh 'Sinicization' policy of religions (April 2018) 29.1. Number of religious believers in China 29.2. Equivalence of Islam, Christianity and Buddhism to CCP 29.3. CCP administrative control of religion 29.4. CCP attitude toward religion 29.5. Pope's betrayal of Chinese Catholics 29.6. Imperialist China view of religion 29.7. Chinese government attitude towards non-indigenous religions 29.8. Rules governing Christian Churches in China Chapter 30. Sun Tzu / The Art of War (500 BC) 30.1. The Art of War 30.2. Sima Qian's biography of Sun Tzu Chapter 31. Confucius (551-479 BC) 31.1. Confucius sayings and aphorisms 31.2. Confucius Analects 31.3. Confucius theology: Tian and the Mandate from Heaven 31.4. Confucius theology: Maintaining stability and harmony 31.5. Relevance of Confucius and Sun Tzu to today's world 31.6. North Korea denuclearization - deception and manipulation Chapter 32. Laozi (Lao Tzu) (-533 BC) and Daoism 32.1. Confucians vs Daoists 32.2. Description of the Dao de jing 32.3. Excerpts from the Dao de jing Chapter 33. Buddhism 33.1. Justification for Buddhism in China 33.2. Secret Societies 33.3. White Lotus Society and Red Turban Rebellion (1351-68) 33.4. White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1804) 33.5. Tibetan Buddhism 33.6. Qigong and Falun Gong Chapter 34. Christianity -- Catholicism and Protestantism 34.1. Catholicism 34.2. Catholicism and Taiwan 34.3. Protestantism - Taiping Rebellion (1850-64)
Part VII. China's 'Century of Humiliation' Chapter 35. China today: Xi Jinping's view of the Century of Humiliation 35.1. Xi Jinping's speech to National Peoples' Congress (March 2018) 35.2. Do the Chinese have only themselves to blame? Chapter 36. China and Japan prior to 1840 36.1. The 'Middle Kingdom' and China's tributary system 36.2. European trade with China 1557-1838 36.3. Japan's Tokugawa era or Edo era (1603-1868) Chapter 37. Clash of civilizations: China vs Japan after the Opium Wars (1840-70) 37.1. The 'bad marriage' of China and Japan 37.2. First Opium War (1839-42) 37.3. Taiping Rebellion (1852-64) and the rise of Marxism 37.4. Japanese view of China's Opium War 37.5. American Commodore Matthew Perry comes to Japan 37.6. Second Opium War (1856-60) 37.7. The 1860 Treaty of Tianjin (Tientsin) and international law 37.8. Consequences today of the 1860 Treaty of Tianjin (Tientsin) 37.9. Tianjin Massacre of Catholic orphanage (1870) Chapter 38. China and Japan prior to World War I (1870-1912) 38.1. European scramble for East Asia (Late 1800s) 38.2. The Joseon Dynasty in Korea (1392-1910) 38.3. Imjin Wars and Battle of Myongnyang (Myeongnyang), October 26, 1597 38.4. Japan's revolutionary social, political and economic changes 38.5. Japan's relations with Korea, China, Russia, Britain and France 38.6. First Sino-Japanese war - 1894-95 38.7. Significance of the First Sino-Japanese war (1894-95) 38.8. Treaty of Shimonoseki on April 17, 1895 38.9. Open-Door Policy (1899-1900) 38.10. Boxer Rebellion (1900) 38.11. Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902, 1905, 1911) 38.12. Russo-Japanese War (1905) 38.13. Japan's annexation of Korea (1905, 1910) 38.14. Sun Yat-Sen and the Republican Revolution (1911) Chapter 39. China and Japan during World War I (1910-1919) 39.1. China versus Japan at beginning of 1910s decade 39.2. Sun Yat-Sen versus Yuan Shikai 39.3. European and Asian alliances prior to World War I 39.4. China and Japan in World War I 39.5. Twenty-One Demands - May 9, 1915 - China's National Humiliation Day Chapter 40. The aftermath of World War I 40.1. New Culture Movement (1915-1920) 40.2. The Versailles Betrayal (1919) 40.3. The May Fourth Movement (1919) 40.4. The Washington Naval Arms Limitation Conference (1921-22)
Part VIII. China turns to Communism Chapter 41. China's alignment with Soviet Russia against the West 41.1. Historic relationship between Russia and China 41.2. Aftermath of the May 4th Movement 41.3. China's disillusionment with 'imperialism' and the West 41.4. Details of the Versailles betrayal and return of Shandong 41.5. Bolshevik government renounces privileges and interests in China Chapter 42. Nationalists vs Communists - Chiang Kai-shek vs Mao Zedong -- 1920-1949 42.1. Warlord era (1916-1927) 42.2. The rise of communism 42.3. The 1927 Nanking Incident (3/24/1927) and Battle of Shanghai 42.4. Aftermath of the Nanking incident (1927) -- assigning blame 42.5. Japan invades Manchuria -- the Mukden incident (1931) 42.6. The rise of Japan's militarism 42.7. The Soviet Communist Republic of China 42.8. Mao Zedong's Long March (1934-35) Chapter 43. Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) - World War II in Asia 43.1. Japan's conquest of Manchuria (1931) 43.2. Unit 731 - chemical and biological warfare (1936-45) 43.3. Marco Polo Bridge Incident (July 7-9, 1937) and Sino-Japanese War 43.4. Aftermath of the Marco Polo Bridge incident 43.5. Battle of Nanking / Rape of Nanking (December 13, 1937) 43.6. Regeneracy and the United Front 43.7. The United Front and Hong Kong 43.8. American support for China before Pearl Harbor (1937-41)
Part IX. Appendix: China's neighbors on the South China Sea Chapter 44. History of Vietnam 44.1. The earliest settlers -- the Sa Huynh 44.2. The Cham people and the Champa Kingdom 44.3. North Vietnam versus South Vietnam (Champa Kingdom) 44.4. Unity and disunion in Vietnam 44.5. French conquest of Indochina (1865-85) 44.6. America's Vietnam war 44.7. China's Vietnam war Chapter 45. History of Philippines 45.1. China's history with the Philippines 45.2. Ancient history of the Philippines 45.3. Philippines Spanish colonial period (1521-1898) 45.4. Philippines under American control (1898-1946) and Japanese occupation (1941-45) 45.5. Modern generational history of the Philippines republic Chapter 46. Brief generational history of Cambodia Chapter 47. Brief generational history of Thailand Chapter 48. Brief generational history of Myanmar (Burma)
Part X. The End Chapter 49. About Generational Theory 49.1. Intuitive description of generational theory 49.2. Use of GenerationalDynamics.com web site 49.3. Theoretical core for Generational Dynamics Chapter 50. Leon Festinger and Cognitive Dissonance Chapter 51. About John J. Xenakis Chapter 52. Acknowledgments
Part XI. Footnotes / References
(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion,
see the Generational Dynamics World View News thread of the Generational
Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.)
(28-Jun-2019)
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Comparisons with 1989 Tiananmen Square riots cause anxiety in Beijing
by
John J. Xenakis
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
 |
Thousands of protesters in Hong Kong blocked police headquarters on Friday, continuing their protests that were triggered by the proposed "Extradition Law."
In the hope of allowing the protests to fizzle out, the Hong Kong police took no action to disperse the protesters. However, larger protests are planned all weekend.
The proposed Extradition Law that would permit Hong Kong's government to extradite anyone in Hong Kong -- citizens, businessmen and tourists alike -- to China, to be tried by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thugs in Beijing courts. The proposed law would also permit mainland Chinese courts can request Hong Kong courts to freeze and confiscate assets related to crimes committed on the mainland, and give control of those assets to the CCP in Beijing.
Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing were shocked last week by the size of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Some two million protesters filled the streets, over one-quarter of the entire Hong Kong population.
With the third protest bringing one-quarter of Hong Kong's population out on the streets to demand that Beijing's hand-picked leader Carrie Lam step down, pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and Taiwan have been emboldened. For the CCP, it's a question of what action must be taken, not whether action should be taken.
When Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997, there was a "one country, two systems" agreement that would allow Hong Kong to retain its own social legal and political systems. There was a strong firewall in the agreement between the Hong Kong and Beijing legal systems that the extradition law would breach.
Carrie Lam has profusely and abjectly apologized to the people of Hong Kong, and announced the suspension of consideration for the extradition bill. With activists planning massive new pro-democracy demonstrations on Sunday of last weekend, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced on Saturday:
"After repeated internal deliberations over the last two days, I now announce that the government has decided to suspend the legislative amendment exercise, restart our communication with all sectors of society, do more explanation work and listen to different views of society."
Activists are demanding that the extradition law be scrapped completely, so this temporary suspension will not satisfy activists. As positions have hardened, this issue has taken on a symbolism that goes far beyond Hong Kong.
No matter how weepy her apology was, she has little credibility among the demonstrators because she didn't announce complete withdrawal of the extradition law, which is a signal that it's going to be revived at a time of the CCP's choosing.
Lam's climbdown was a major humiliation for the CCP, and Hong Kong is Xi Jinping's portfolio, so hardliners in Beijing are blaming Xi for the problems in Hong Kong. Xi is also being blamed for the failure so far of the US-China trade negotiations. So Xi has two crises on his hands, just before the G20 talks. This weakens Xi at a time when there are hardliners in Beijing just waiting for Xi to fail so that they can take over. Xi's position as "dictator for life" is not 100% secure, and a palace coup would undoubtedly bring to power someone younger and even more bellicose and belligerent.
Hardliners in Taiwan will also be strengthened. China has been using a carrot and stick approach with Taiwan. On the one hand, Chinese officials say that any move toward independence would result in military reprisals. On the other hand, China has been on a continual charm offensive to convince the Taiwanese people how much better off they'd be as a province of China. Part of that charm offensive has been to claim that Taiwan could have the same "one country, two systems" perks that Hong Kong has. The protests in Hong Kong have emboldened the pro-independence factions.
The protests last week were the largest that Hong Kong has seen since June 1989, when Hong Kong was still a British colony, and millions in Hong Kong protested against China in support of the millions of students in the pro-democracy demonstrations Tiananmen Square, where the CCP massacred thousands of students on June 4-5, 1989.
Because of the similarity between last week's Hong Kong protests and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, if you want to understand the most likely outcome of the Hong Kong protests, look at the history of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and examine the similarities and differences.
The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests did not begin on June 4. They began in early May, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests that launched the "May 4th Movement" on May 4, 1919. Throughout May 1989, the CCP watched Tiananmen Square with growing alarm, because the pro-democracy protests were actually a repudiation of the ideology of Socialism, Marxism and Communism.
In the perverse, delusional logic of the CCP, democracy is an ideology, not a form of government. Furthermore, the CCP sees democracy as an ideology in conflict with communism. So by the beginning of June, the CCP was so alarmed that they had to crush the protests, to prevent democracy from gaining an ideological victory.
The current pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong so far are on a similar path. They're commemorating the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. As the number of protesters has grown into the millions, the CCP in Beijing is seeing 1989 all over again. And the pro-democracy protests are, once again, a repudiation of the "communist" ideology promulgated by the CCP.
According to unnamed CCP sources speaking to Boxun.com, Xi Jinping has already decided that "The situation in Hong Kong is in danger of getting out of control," and that he will order a military response if the situation worsens.
These sources say that the Southern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Hong Kong Garrison are awaiting orders and prepared to fully respond to all possible scenarios that may arise in Hong Kong.
Since 1997, the Hong Kong Garrison is a group of several thousand PLA soldiers who are stationed in Hong Kong, but are meant to be "invisible." They are confined to barracks, where they wear their uniforms, but are not permitted to wear their uniforms in public. They've never left their barracks in uniform in the 22 years they've been stationed in Hong Kong, but they're prepared to emerge and take military action if ordered to do so.
We've described the similarities with the 1989 Tiananmen Square situation. However, there are significant differences as well.
The 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre took place in Beijing, a region tightly controlled by the CCP, where the international media was well controlled, and was shut down quickly.
However, there's virtually no control of the international media in Hong Kong. The CCP has canceled visas and deported journalists of several publications, but the events of the last two week prove that any violence in Hong Kong will immediately be known and broadcast worldwide.
However, there's a more important difference: The Tiananmen Square massacre took place in Beijing in northern China, while Hong Kong is in southern China.
Southeast China was the starting point of the last two massive Chinese civil wars. Mao Zedong's Long March that led to the Communist revolution civil war (1934-49) started in the south. The massive Taiping Rebellion (1852-64), which was led by a Christian convert who believed he was the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus, began in the south and spread north.
Most people in the West do not make these connections, but you can be certain that the paranoid officials in Beijing are well aware of the dangers of a rebellion from the south that can spiral out of control and travel north to swallow up Beijing.
Try playing around with the interactive "China strike map" from the Hong Kong based China labor bulletin: https://maps.clb.org.hk/strikes/en
If you set the year to 2011, 2012, etc., you'll see that the number of labor strikes is gradually increasing, from 184 in 2011 to 1702 in 2018. Furthermore, most of the strikes occur in southeast China, which was the starting point of the unrest that led to the last two massive Chinese civil wars.
This shows that there's already a level of unrest in southeast China, and it's been growing steadily and relentlessly for years. Xi Jinping is well aware of this.
Throughout China's millennia of history, there have been huge, massive anti-government rebellions at regular intervals. In the last 200 years there have been the the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1805), the Taiping Rebellion (1852-64), and Mao's Communist Revolution (1934-49). Today, China is overdue for the next massive anti-government rebellion, and Xi Jinping is well aware that the Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrations could be the trigger.
Xi Jinping has another worry. There is no surer way to trigger a mass rebellion in China than a failing economy. China's economy has already taken a big hit from the new US tariffs, as many businesses are relocating out of China to neighboring countries.
Hong Kong has always been China's portal to the world financial system, and if Hong Kong become chaotic to the point that this portal is essentially shut down, it will cause the economic failure that will trigger the expected rebellion.
So Xi Jinping is boxed in, with no good choices.
It's hard to overestimate the shock felt in Hong Kong and Beijing over the size of the pro-democracy demonstrations last week, and their similarity to the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
The Chinese are running out of time in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and they know it. The survivors of Mao's Communist Revolution are almost all gone now, and the younger generations are increasingly anti-communist and pro-democracy and pro-independence. At the same time, China's own economy is hugely unstable and under pressure from the US tariffs. China's entire business model, which involves stealing intellectual property from the West, is also under attack.
China cannot tolerate this situation much longer. For 30 years, China has been conducting a vitriolic hate campaign against Japan, and has been planning for war to annex Taiwan and exterminate the Japanese. The Chinese do not want war with the US (because they like us), but they've been preparing for it.
Carrie Lam's weepy apology was certainly not an act of heartfelt atonement or reconciliation, since that's not what the CCP ever does. Instead, it was an act of total desperation, an attempt to head off the worst. Over the next few weeks and months, we'll see if she succeeded.
John J. Xenakis is author of "World View: War Between China and Japan: Why America Must Be Prepared (Generational Theory Book Series, Book 2)"
Sources: South China Morning Post, Hong Kong and China Labor Bulletin, Hong Kong and Reuters, 15-Jun-2019 and ChannelNewsAsia/AFP, 15-Jun-2019 and Bloomberg, 13-Jun-2019 and Bloomberg, 16-Jun-2019 and Hong Kong Free Press, 18-Jun-2019 and Taiwan News, 12-Jun-2019 and Boxun, 11-Jun-2019 and Inkstone, 3-Aug-2018
(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion,
see the Generational Dynamics World View News thread of the Generational
Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.)
(22-Jun-2019)
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