Opinion | Let China be China
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
Once again, bombs and bullets are flying, and thousands are dying. Two wars now rage side-by-side—one in the West, the other in the Middle East. If we are not careful, we could tilt into a reality-redefining World War III to end all wars.
Wars change the fortunes of countries that are not even at war. In China's case, America's non-stop war-waging in Iraq, Afghan, etc. focused its attention elsewhere, buying the Middle Kingdom precious periods of peace.
Global conflicts are at the epicenter of America's geopolitical game. It is knee-deep into the international politics of division, the same kind it practices at home. Except on China, its worst instincts dictate its policies.
The world has two models of governance: the irrational populist American model, and the purpose-driven, rational Chinese model. Governance is like cooking. Countries should be free to choose whatever suits its taste. Just because McDonald's is American-owned doesn't mean that everyone must eat big Macs.
But America is telling us that unless you are a big Mac eater, you violate international rules. The essence of democracy is freedom of choice, except America won't tolerate deviation from its preferred choice.
But is this model good for global politics? Or even good for America itself?
On the surface, an anti-China posture serves America's domestic political interests. But the US is no less divided just because it is united against China. Casting China as its enemy actually runs counter to America's long-term strategic interests, nudging China into technological innovation and self-sufficiency while driving up the cost of living at home.
As practiced in the US and the UK, this populist model is utterly dysfunctional. It gives its people cognitively impaired and egotistical leaders like Boris and Trump. Under the anti-China banner, the US has launched an avalanche of alliances, Five-Eyes, Quad and AUKUS, none of which has done any of their members any favors. Instead, they drain their precious resources, with Australia squandering billions on nuclear submarines it doesn't need against an imaginary enemy. Other hidden costs include racial violence and intolerance. American club memberships don't come cheap.
America is, hands down, the world's no. 1 trouble-maker. It feeds the fiction that China is a threat to the laughably named "rule-based global order", leaving unanswered the questions: whose rules? And whose global order? None of them remotely related to the UN charter.
China deserves a second look. Over the last thirty years, it has offered new hopes for humanity. It is not communist in the North Korea mode, nor socialist like Venezuela with a third-world economy. No single adjective can capture the China experiment. The country is a holy trinity of enlightened socialism, universalist Confucianism and protective consumerism. It doesn't do empty promises, delivering on a stratospheric scale-- in technology, transportation, infrastructure and education. First-time visitors to China never fail to be awestruck by its jaw-dropping progress.
China reminds us of what governments are for---things that we can't do as individuals, like curbing the excesses of greedy big business, universal education, and snatching the poor from the jaws of poverty.
Western critics condemn China for its increased military spending. But with a single coastline, China is vulnerable to US containment. It needs military muscle to keep the South China Sea open for the flow of trade. China's nuclear stockpile of 410 warheads merely serves as a deterrent, vastly outnumbered by 5244 and 5889 in the American and Russian arsenals respectively.
China is a global power only in trade, with virtually no overseas military bases. Unlike America, it boasts a squeaky clean record of never waging foreign wars.
The American brand of politics is now a tidal wave of lies, disinformation and partisanship. British politics is broken, run by a string of self-seeking clowns, half-wits and wholly incompetent leaders. Neither is a shining example of a humming democracy.
When they can't win arguments with facts, they challenge their rival's "values". These moralistic democracies lack a moral compass. They were all guilty of genocide against their indigenous peoples, from Canada, Australia to the US where the native Indian population was decimated from its pre-contact estimated peak of 10 million to a pathetic 237,000 in the 19th century. King Charles is forced to apologize for Britain's colonial atrocities against the native Kenyans. And yet they all have the gall to accuse China of ethnic cleansing. Their double standards are doubly disgusting.
America has hijacked the UN, putting the world under its thrall for three quarters of a century, leaving a trail of death and destruction. How many more wars does it need? How many millions more must die, before the world says, enough is enough?
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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