Posted on 07/24/2020 5:09:24 AM PDT by Kaslin
The all-encompassing geopolitical, military, diplomatic, cultural and economic threat posed by the thuggish Chinese Communist Party represents America's generational challenge. Decades from now, historians will assess the rising generation based, in no small part, upon how we do in mitigating, confronting and ultimately thwarting the ambitions of a CCP that aspires to nothing less than nonpareil global hegemony. It is the one issue that ought to permeate every policy discussion and lurk in the background of every national-level decision.
The idiosyncratic backdrop for this necessary reprioritization is, of course, a pandemic that likely represents the single-most disruptive global event since World War II -- a pandemic that was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world, in Chernobyl-like fashion, by the deceitful malefactors of the CCP. The early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak shined a bright spotlight upon China's troubling dominance of the global personal protective equipment market -- a direct negative consequence of decades of neoliberalism and economic globalization run amok.
Further harrowing metrics abound: An astonishing 97 percent of all American antibiotics, and roughly half of the world's circuit boards, come from China. Equally worrisome, CCP-cozy Chinese firms like telecom giant Huawei and video-sharing site TikTok, giants in their own right, serve as thinly veiled subversive spyware -- coming courtesy of our No. 1 geopolitical archfoe. Oh, and that archfoe happens to be an infamous currency manipulator and intellectual property thief that tramples its jackboot over once-free Hong Kong and forcibly ships certain ethnic minorities to Orwellian "re-education camps."
Younger Americans would be readily forgiven for wondering how in the world America -- and, by extension, large swaths of the West -- got itself into this mess. The answer is just as straightforward as it is depressing. In the nearly half-century that has followed President Nixon's famous 1972 visit to meet Chairman Mao, American elites of all stripes -- with the ostensible imprimatur of a CCP willing to make risible pledges for good global citizenship -- have abetted China's ascendance into the interconnected global economy. We the People are only now suffering the disastrous consequences of the ruling class's self-interested myopia.
American leaders, both Democratic and Republican, repeatedly touted the purported ability of increased economic liberalization and marketization to effectuate political liberalization. The laundry list of nadirs include President George H.W. Bush's much-ballyhooed pronunciation of a "New World Order," then-Senator Joe Biden's helping to usher in most-favored-nation trading status and World Trade Organization membership for the People's Republic, and Senator Dianne Feinstein's going so far as to advocate de-linking that most-favored-nation trading status from the Communist regime's manifold human rights abuses, including the forced abortions and sterilizations that proliferated during the era of the repulsive one-child policy.
To be sure, there have been rare bright spots. Deng Xiaoping, while orchestrating the Tiananmen Square massacre and generally known for his authoritarian streak, at least quelled the influence of China's socialist hard-liners and helped raise standards of living for a terribly impoverished populace. But overall, a bipartisan American consensus of neoliberalism run amok has helped create a vicious, domineering monster of a geopolitical arch-foe. The neoliberals were dead wrong; there has not been substantial political liberalization. If anything, the CCP has only been emboldened by increased interconnectedness, encouraging it to double-down on its deceptions, pilfering, malice, militarization and hegemony. But hey, at least corporate valuations and index funds have soared -- and Wall Street is rewarding longtime CCP sycophant Biden by donating to his presidential campaign at a much higher rate than China-skeptic President Trump's.
Everywhere one looks in America today, it is impossible to miss the seductive allure of China's cheap (slave) labor, mass consumer market and affordable (when not spyware) goods. Thus we see the National Basketball Association, a leftist outfit all-in for the pseudo-Marxist Black Lives Matter movement, beclown itself by briefly banning the sale of "Free Hong Kong" custom merchandise. We see TikTok still flourishing, notwithstanding that its parent company is an effective Chinese government offshoot. We see diminished industrial strength, shuttered manufacturing plants all across the Rust Belt and byproducts like mass despondency and drug overdoses that can only be understood as downstream effects of mass offshoring's concomitant joblessness. We see our No. 1 national security threat presiding over precious personal protective equipment. And we see a menacing geopolitical power, already able to capture international institutions such as the World Health Organization, fixing its envious gaze upon Westernized outposts like Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The American people must make the ruling class pay for the harm it has wrought. The ballot box is one promising method of doing so.
At this rate, our nation won't be survive and be a nation anymore in five to ten years.
Besides, I don't think humanity has "decades" left before God's judgment and wrath.
We might not even have minutes. Best to be prepared.
I believe many people feel the same way right now!
Yep. They’ve bought out almost all of the levers of power. The wealth amassed by these people is hidden down long driveways with security gates and sometimes additional security. I know because of one of my professions. The biggest difficulty in life for me has been that people don’t listen to what they’re told.
——people don’t listen to -——
irrational cranks
What good is being elite if you cannot profit from the sweat of the brow from the unwashed masses? Sarcasm of course then again maybe not.
Besides, I don't think humanity has "decades" left before God's judgment and wrath.
I agree on both counts. My son is training at Holloman right now. He is scheduled to report to his assignment in Dec, if we still have a country by then.
Sure, but we let them. Hell, we demanded it!
Every time a shopper went to Wal-Mart in the 1990’s and demanded a cheap Chinese product, the American demanded it.
When Rubbermaid products costing $10 were replaced by Chinese products at $4, we demanded it.
When $800 Magnavox TVs were replaced by $400 Chinese TVS, we demanded it.
Joe Biden said China is not a problem
And we thought Benedict Arnold was the most well known traitor. What he did pales in comparison to what the Deep State folks have done to us. I think the Russians and Chinese know all of our national security secrets thanks to these REAL traitors!
Hard to believe a lot of that money hasn't gone into some prominent pockets.
Joe Biden drools in his Fruit Loops.
When I was a kid in the 50’s growing up in a very religious community, 7 churches in a town of 2,000, we heard of kids who dropped out of college because there was no need for the additional education.
Christ was coming momentarily.
That was 70 years ago.
With course we demanded it, we were providing for our families, we were making conscious capitalist choices according to our system.
Of course Rubbermaid and the rest of them would supply us with cheap Chinese products made with even cheaper Chinese labor, that was their job to increase shareholder value. In fact, if the Rubbermaid's of the world had not done so their competitors would have driven them out of business by manufacturing in China. So there was a race to the bottom among manufacturers and producers that could only accelerate unless stopped by somebody like Donald Trump or in tears.
Moreover, we were all told by the likes of the Chamber of Commerce that we were simply trading pieces of paper that look like dollars for thin screen televisions. We win they lose. Trade, after all, enriches everybody. Modernizes every economy makes, everybody richer. There is no downside.
There was only one institution in America whose job it was to oversee the balance of trade and that was our government. But our government echoed the Chamber of Commerce and told us that it was more than okay to buy from the Chinese, the more we did so the more they would become Democratic, better neighbors and partners. We would thrive as a service economy, finance center of the world, concentrating on high-tech and innovating into the next century.
Everyone profited, even we consumers for a time, until we have come to learn that there is no free lunch. We say our elites let us down but it was primarily our governing elites who failed to stand watch and do their duty. It was our government elites who recognized a good thing when they saw it and eagerly shoved their snouts into the trough.
Every one of the people and institutions in this chain found ways to rationalize their advantage, including, as you say, us.
I can’t disagree.
We are insane.
We literally trained their work force(brought Western management techniques there), educated their elite and scientists at US institutions, exported a good portion of our manufacturing base to there, closed a blind eye to them steeling us blind of intellectual property...
And they are our #1 geo-political adversary in a real sense. It is obvious who they see as their #1 adversary, since their entire military structure, development of new hardware and training is focused on fighting us - while we buy computers for our DoD where the motherboards are made by them and pontificate if L3 should be allowed to be bought up by a Chinese firm years ago. LOL
“When we hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope we use.” J. Stalin
Two problems that keep biting us in the ass repeatedly:
(1) We are greedy and willing to do deals with folks that are not really lined up with us regards national interests and ideology as long as we can make a buck today or they act as the enemy to our enemies. Saddam was our buddy, so was Noriega, Osama Bin laden (all folks we supported at one point)... Yup, even OBL and the precursor to AQ were fine when they were dealing with the Russians in Afghanistan in the 80s.
(2) Our political system allows itself to be easily influenced by outside players (China was buying influence for decades) and it’s short sighted (no more than a 3 year horizon: 4 year election cycle). Bush H. and Clinton were not concerned about 30 years later when they were pushing hard for US-China trade or voted for China entering the WTO.
We have all these experts with PhD’s, a massive State Department, Intel Community, politicians that talk a lot about patriotism and their love for this country... and we make strategic decisions which a 12 year old would know to be contrary to our long term national best interest.
We might not even have minutes. Best to be prepared.
"No one knows the hour or the day"
Biden's son with $1.5 billion.
Mitch McConnell's wife attached to one of the biggest Chinese shipping firms.
Diane Feinstein's husband's mysterious hundreds of millions while she is driven about by a Chinese spy.
The infiltration of Congress, the media, sports, Hollywood, our universities is so thorough that it is unlikely (I said "daunting") that the situation can be reclaimed.
These multi-national corporations should be ashamed of themselves. They'd throw their mama under the bus for the almighty $$$.
Scores of companies caught red handed utilizing child/slave labor in foreign countries. Paltry compensation, little to no benefits, long hours day in, day out, unsafe/unsanitary working environments all to increase profitability. Working conditions that would NEVER pass muster in the U.S..
Wanna help Americans? Check your labels. Boycott Chinese goods or drastically reduce the amount of Chi-com goods you purchase. Demand a return of American manufacturing.
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