Without Apologies, China Is Now on the Move
Undercover police arrest participants during a memorial vigil Thursday in Mongkok in Hong Kong, China. Thousands had gathered in Victoria Park to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre despite a police ban. (Photo: Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images)
George Floyd was killed in
Minneapolis on May 25
when a police officer used
brutally excessive force to
arrest him.
Minneapolis on May 25
when a police officer used
brutally excessive force to
arrest him.
It was the latest in a string
of high-profile cases
nationwide in which
citizens, most of them
African Americans, died
from reckless police force.
Once again, protests over
police brutality turned
violent and rioting ensued.
The U.S. also is torn apart
over the national mass
quarantine. Liberal blue
states accused red states
of recklessly endangering
national health by allowing
their populations to go
back to work before the
virus has left.
Red states countered that
blue states were
hypocritical in wanting
federal money to subsidize
their locked-down
residents while expecting
other states to generate
needed federal revenue.
They also contended that
there was no longer
scientific evidence to justify
the lockdown.
The nationwide protests
and rioting have
inadvertently adjudicated
the issue: States cannot
jail the law-abiding barber
who wears a mask at work, but allow the arsonist without one to roam the streets burning with
impunity.
There is mounting evidence
that an array of federal
officials had plotted to
disrupt Donald Trump’s
2016 campaign and his
presidential transition,
leaving Trump supporters
furious.
As the U.S. protested and
bickered, China attempted
to strangle what was left of
Hong Kong’s enfeebled
democracy. China’s theory
seemed to be that if it’s
going to be blamed for the
spreading virus due to its
deceit anyway, it might as
well not let such a
pandemic go to waste.
The Chinese strategy in
reaction to disclosures
that it hid vital data about
the virus and exposed the
world to contagion while it
quarantined its own cities has devolved from “So what?” to the current “What exactly are you going to do about it?”
China also decided to ramp up its perennial border confrontations with India, as its forces encroached on Indian soil in the Himalayas. What better way to show the world that a defiant China is dangerous than agitate the world’s largest democracy?
Beijing has warned European nations that if their independent media continued to condemn China, there could be commercial retaliation. A few European journalists still exposed Chinese deceit, even as shaken European Union leaders backtracked and tried to contextualize Chinese misbehavior.
Japan and South Korea worried that China might move on Taiwan. They knew that if China did, only the United States—convulsed by quarantines, riots, and a contentious presidential race—could stand up to Beijing.
For years, China has bullied and waged a virtual commercial war against Asian democracies, such as Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia. It has subverted almost all international trading norms.
The Chinese government assumed that Western elites would get rich by being complicit in China’s cheating and would thus help sell out their own countries. They were mostly right on both counts.
As China westernized its economy, it conned gullible Western officials that eventually it planned to become a useful member of the family of nations.
In truth, China strategically hoarded cash from its asymmetrical trade surpluses. It planted its functionaries throughout transnational organizations and subverted them.
of high-profile cases
nationwide in which
citizens, most of them
African Americans, died
from reckless police force.
Once again, protests over
police brutality turned
violent and rioting ensued.
The U.S. also is torn apart
over the national mass
quarantine. Liberal blue
states accused red states
of recklessly endangering
national health by allowing
their populations to go
back to work before the
virus has left.
Red states countered that
blue states were
hypocritical in wanting
federal money to subsidize
their locked-down
residents while expecting
other states to generate
needed federal revenue.
They also contended that
there was no longer
scientific evidence to justify
the lockdown.
The nationwide protests
and rioting have
inadvertently adjudicated
the issue: States cannot
jail the law-abiding barber
who wears a mask at work, but allow the arsonist without one to roam the streets burning with
impunity.
There is mounting evidence
that an array of federal
officials had plotted to
disrupt Donald Trump’s
2016 campaign and his
presidential transition,
leaving Trump supporters
furious.
As the U.S. protested and
bickered, China attempted
to strangle what was left of
Hong Kong’s enfeebled
democracy. China’s theory
seemed to be that if it’s
going to be blamed for the
spreading virus due to its
deceit anyway, it might as
well not let such a
pandemic go to waste.
The Chinese strategy in
reaction to disclosures
that it hid vital data about
the virus and exposed the
world to contagion while it
quarantined its own cities has devolved from “So what?” to the current “What exactly are you going to do about it?”
China also decided to ramp up its perennial border confrontations with India, as its forces encroached on Indian soil in the Himalayas. What better way to show the world that a defiant China is dangerous than agitate the world’s largest democracy?
Beijing has warned European nations that if their independent media continued to condemn China, there could be commercial retaliation. A few European journalists still exposed Chinese deceit, even as shaken European Union leaders backtracked and tried to contextualize Chinese misbehavior.
Japan and South Korea worried that China might move on Taiwan. They knew that if China did, only the United States—convulsed by quarantines, riots, and a contentious presidential race—could stand up to Beijing.
For years, China has bullied and waged a virtual commercial war against Asian democracies, such as Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia. It has subverted almost all international trading norms.
The Chinese government assumed that Western elites would get rich by being complicit in China’s cheating and would thus help sell out their own countries. They were mostly right on both counts.
As China westernized its economy, it conned gullible Western officials that eventually it planned to become a useful member of the family of nations.
In truth, China strategically hoarded cash from its asymmetrical trade surpluses. It planted its functionaries throughout transnational organizations and subverted them.
It beefed up its military and planted island bases in international waters. It compromised strategically important nations by investing in their infrastructure through its neocolonial and imperialist multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.
China may have been forced by the global epidemic to give up its nice-guy facade. But it has insidiously pivoted from global friend to its new role as overt global villain.
China may have been forced by the global epidemic to give up its nice-guy facade. But it has insidiously pivoted from global friend to its new role as overt global villain.
If the world had been anxious over the intentions of a suspiciously nice China, it will become downright terrified of an overtly hostile China.
In other words, China is not wasting the disaster of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. It once gained a lot by faking friendliness, but now it seems to think it has no choice but to get even more by being authentically belligerent.
As part of the about-face, China no longer flatters the West in passive-aggressive fashion, but rather shows its disdain for a weak Europe and an increasingly divided U.S.
China’s real message to a fence-sitting world?
While America tears itself apart with endless internal quarreling and media psychodramas, and while Europe appeases its enemies, and while the rest of Asia stays mute, waiting to see who wins, China is now on the move—without apologies.
(C) 2020 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY LLC.
In other words, China is not wasting the disaster of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. It once gained a lot by faking friendliness, but now it seems to think it has no choice but to get even more by being authentically belligerent.
As part of the about-face, China no longer flatters the West in passive-aggressive fashion, but rather shows its disdain for a weak Europe and an increasingly divided U.S.
China’s real message to a fence-sitting world?
While America tears itself apart with endless internal quarreling and media psychodramas, and while Europe appeases its enemies, and while the rest of Asia stays mute, waiting to see who wins, China is now on the move—without apologies.
(C) 2020 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY LLC.
