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March 2022
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After China's retaliation to EU sanctions, and following the outrage in China against foreign brands such as Nike, Adidas, Burberry, and HM, my correspondence group, the China Writers Group, exchanged a few missives on the matter. The thread was started by Frans Vandenbosch, the Belgian author of "Statecraft and Society in China," with responses by Jeff Brown, author of the "China Trilogy," Patrice Greanville, editor of the Greanville Post and author of "The Trojan Spy," and Dongping Han, the author of "The Unknown Cultural Revolution." The following is my two-cents worth.
I have observed China's response to Western slander for many years. even before I first visited China in Jan. of 1981. I have been an interested observer because I wanted to learn the truth, not just accept whatever was inculcated in my head by my parents and the Western civilization I was brought up in. I guess I have always been naturally distrustful of humans. I was able to visit China as an individual visitor and had snuck into Changsha which was forbidden to foreign visitors. This awesome adventure could not have been possible without the help of a good friend in Toronto, who had stolen into Hong Kong from the mainland and then immigrated to Canada. His several attempts to smuggle himself by land to Hong Kong were unsuccessful, and he went to jail each time he got caught. But he persisted and he finally took the most dangerous route, by swimming across the open sea in the dark of night. He could have drowned and no one would have shed a tear for his sad and lonely end. I'd have to thank David for risking his life in his youth so that years later I could learn something about China firsthand. Interestingly, I know someone who swam a mile in the dark of night in the opposite direction, from Taiwan's Jinmen Island to Mainland China. His name is Professor Justin Yifu Lin 林毅夫. He risked his life so that one day he could help formulate the economic policies that would propel the third world China with 1.4 billion Chinese into a global powerhouse. I am certainly inspired by his amazing foresight, perspicacity, and courage. I have benefited in no small measure by the risks both David and Professor Lin have taken in their youth although they went in the opposite direction. David was a private citizen who desired to live a life of anonymity outside of China, while Professor Lin aspired to contribute to the Chinese Renaissance and we'll let history decide what to say about him. Both got what they asked for. As for me, I ended up living and working in China for twenty years, which gives me the insight to write expositions of great verbosity such as this one, That was my first glimpse of China, which happened about forty years and a lifetime ago. I was at that time the most well known Chinese personage in Toronto Chinatown. I was the producer of the Chinese language television program, the only source of entertainment and news at the time for the very substantial Chinese community in the city. Although I didn't realize it then, I was actively courted by the Taiwanese faction. I have shared earlier the anecdote of how I spent an evening with the grandson of Chiang Kai-shek (named Jiang Xiaoyan 蒋孝严) without knowing who he was. Through my Chinese friend David, I made an acquaintance with the cultural attache of the Chinese Embassy at Ottawa (named Kang Chongru 康崇儒). I became the Embassy's trusted friend at the time. They recognized that I held no bias against the mainland and the CPC. I'm not sure if they knew that I usually drove to the Embassy in a car loaned to me by my Taiwanese friend who was closely connected to the Taiwanese Trade Mission. I have anecdotes about the Embassy which I will save for private conversations while having a beer (or a lambic if it's with Frans). They are nothing bad but a bit too mischievous for the normally prim and proper Chinese officials. It shows that away from prying eyes, people are just people, whatever names one wants to put on them. What's in a name? In any case, it became clear to me that China was defenseless in the face of unremitting lies told by our so-called people's representatives and the free press. My China visit in 1981 made me suspect something was amiss with what the media was saying about China. When I returned to China in 1997, the experience was particularly jarring. It was tantamount to a child suddenly discovering that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are lies told by people you have trusted all your life. Why would anyone trust these habitual liars? Why would anyone even treat the lies of these pathological and pernicious liars as if they are real issues to be discussed and denied with endless patience? Why are the liars who have caused so much destruction, death, and suffering by their lies continue to enjoy impunity, and in fact rewards? China would at most send a staid official to repeat the same toothless complaint that they denied and opposed the allegations, which would naturally be ignored by the lying propaganda machines and the mesmerized public of the West. I was to realize a very important truth, which is that in the battle of ideas, one should never discuss or even deny the opponent's narrative, Suppose someone attacks another person that he's a pedophile with no evidence or with contrived evidence, should the accused try to prove that he's not a pedophile? What would be the result of that? Assuming that it is possible to prove a negative--which it is not--and allowing the defense to have very strong arguments, the accused will still end up being stigmatized simply because of the faulty workings of the human mind. Even the most enlightened of humans have a mental disease known as Confirmation Bias, which makes people stick to erroneous preconceived notions rather than accept facts plain as day. We shouldn't expect too much from the unenlightened masses, for most of them, their minds are simply made up, don't confuse them with facts. China's problem in this regard is that they have first spent a lot of their energy in manufacturing and trade, later in STEM education and finance, now only getting into high tech and infrastructure; they have neglected or refused to engage in the war of ideas, certainly they would not engage in a war of words. Having lived in China for 20 years, I notice that China is not a perfect society and does not have a perfect government, which is by the way run by imperfect creatures in an imperfect physical world. We have to allow some deficiencies. There should always be room for improvement. I personally hold the opinion that overwhelming success brings about its own demise. This is something I learn from studying human history. It never fails. So what is to be done about these egregious liars of the West? My opinion is that China should allow the use of Chinese ngos funded by private and independent concerns with the chartered mandate of exposing liars and hypocrites of the West, and to disseminate their findings via various means to the Western society. The stupefied people of the West should at least have access to a glimpse of the truth that is not tainted by the cesspool they live in. For example, the ngos can equally support human rights but that of the victims of the West. Why do companies like Nike, HM, New York Times, and CNN not sanction America and Europe when their Western soldiers bomb and kill innocent people, and when their sieges have caused the death and suffering of millions in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Palestine, Yemen, and Venezuela (just to name a few)? Why are the overt human rights violations, war crimes, and lawless disregard of UN laws of America and its allies not sanctioned and punished? These sanctimonious moralists are obviously hypocrites. So what do we do after exposing these liars for supporting the lies of their Western capitalist masters? How can anyone punish these hypocrites once they're exposed? It must not be by empty words alone. In a capitalist society, there is nothing so painful as a financial punishment. The ngos should sue in class actions these hypocrites for damages and for punitive awards (after encouraging the governments involved to legislate for this purpose) to be used for the victims of their lies. The ngos should propose legislation that makes it a criminal offense or, as a minimum, tort to slander the government (by the way, the American state of Georgia has similar laws). The ngos should organize popular boycotts and sabotages in all the markets where these hypocrites do business. The ngos should apply to the courts to place liens or hold in bonds the hypocrites' assets, both corporate and personal as well as their related not-at-arm's-length entities to prevent asset flight. Make sure these hypocritical enablers of genocidal murders of the West do not enjoy impunity. Let them gorge in their own lies, let them eat their own paper money, and let them repatriate their sweatshop jobs. China will be using AI and robots anyways. In fact hound the hypocrites to their economic deaths or until they mend their ways and admit the egregiousness of their sins. In the words of William Wallace in "Braveheart": "Lower your flags and march straight back to England (or wherever you came from), stopping at every home you pass by to beg forgiveness for a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today." In the words of Liu Yongfu 刘永福, the legendary Chinese militia leader known as the Black Flag General 黑旗将军, who made this threat to the French colonial general occupying Hanoi: "Everyone knows you are thieves. Other nations despise you. Whenever you come to a country, you claim that you have come to preach the faith, but you really wish to stir up the inhabitants with false rumors. You claim that you have come to trade, but in fact you are plotting to take over the country. You act like predators in the wild. You are as ravenous as tigers and wolves. Ever since you came to Vietnam, you have seized cities and killed governors. Your crimes are as numerous as the hairs on one's head. You have taken over the customs and seized the country's revenues. These are crimes punishable by death. The inhabitants have been reduced to misery, and the country is almost ruined. God and man both loathe you. Heaven and earth both reject you. If you are afraid to come out and fight (a pitch battle), cut off the heads of your chief men and present them to me. Then give back the cities you have taken. I am a merciful commander, and I will let you miserable bugs live. But if you delay, my army will take your city and kill you all, and not even a blade of grass will mark where you have stood." This was such an affront that the colonial occupier of Hanoi did go out and fight. It did not end well for the French general. The most important lie to which we should pay attention is the US dollar, which is what sustains the hegemonic empire and its murders. This is the most egregious lie of all in which we are all complicit, even for the victims of the empire. The power of the empire in fact arises from everyone agreeing to believe in this lie. If we want anything to change, this lying narrative of the almighty dollar must be discarded ASAP. One of the reasons why China has not taken this route with alacrity is possibly China's own desire to bring about change slowly and peaceably. That will obviously not happen because the empire does not ever want to stop their rapine and plunder of the world. It wants only change if it means the 1% and their henchmen will get more power. From observation of simple facts available to all, I have come to the conclusion that the current attack on China from the West is led by the MEFSEPTIC (Military, economic, financial, security, entertainment, technology, industrial, press, intelligence complex). Note how everyone has been toeing the line from Obama through Trump to Biden, despite the fact that they all want to kill each other without giving quarters. Just ask yourself what do these clowns know about pivoting to Asia. People behind the scene are obviously pulling the strings. These puppet masters do not change with elections. They don't care who is the president and what political party is in power. Their orders will be obeyed. Also based on observation alone, I believe that certain senior decision makers in China have been forewarned and policies have been made to counter the concerted attack from the West. One tell-tale sign is strategic and not immediately apparent. It relates to not wanting to change your commander in the middle of a war. The fact that it happened suddenly and smoothly not long before the commencement of overt hostilities says that it was not a coincidence. Some people say there is no such thing as a coincidence, only the illusion of one. Whether China acknowledges this full court press from America as war and how China plans to fight this war is a matter for another discussion. I have only one advice; do not use the enemy's narratives. I'm not sure if the Chinese government is cognizant of the importance of not using the opponent's narratives, i.e. their lies. Every time I hear a Chinese official denying that there is genocide in Xinjiang, or refusing to acknowledge the Philippines arbitration win at the Hague (this can be refuted by anyone with the most basic understanding of the word arbitration, which requires both sides of the dispute to agree in order to take place. Arbitration court is not a court of law and one cannot sue another person at an arbitration; the whole Hague exercise is therefore a travesty of the rule of law. Unfortunately, I have not heard a single explanation by anyone with some legal knowledge about this, including the highly respected Dr. Kishore Mahbubani), or responding to accusatory perorations from pontificating journalists and so-called human rights workers viz. paid liars, I have the impression that perhaps not all Chinese officials and people speaking on their behalf understand this important principle of never using the liar's narratives. Commenting on Dongping Han's review of Brian DeMare's Land Wars, I'll have to say that it is up to Han to utilize his forte to counter the Western lies about Chinese land reforms, or indeed about any reforms that deviate from heartless and selfish American capitalism. In any meaningful debate, I believe that it is of paramount importance to first understand who your opponents are. It will help you to kill their lying narrative by describing where they come from, how they have been fed those persistent lies, what kind of rubbish they have expounded in the past, and why they regurgitate the lies that they have been consuming all their life. Maggots after all can only agree that shit is tasty. It is important to expose your opponents as the liars that they are, and the truth will be easier to explain. We must however accept that the truth is somewhat hard to swallow. If we can create a spark that leads to the eventual enlightenment, it would be a job well done. Therefore, we must also hold our truths by the same standard we ask of others, and we cannot allow ourselves to be victims of our own Confirmation Bias. If we fail, we'll only become the same hypocrites against whom we fight. We'll become our own enemy and all will be lost. I will credit my basic understanding of the Chinese revolution to a seminal work titled "Origins of the Chinese Revolution, 1915 - 1949" written by a French author Lucien Bianco. It was gifted to me by the president of the Chinese Student's Association at U of Toronto in 1979. She was actually a cerebral and bodacious babe originally from Hong Kong but well educated about the ways of the world, while I was a frivolous and flighty bohemian who at that age never put very much thought in matters beyond my own immediate pleasures. Whatever could've happened didn't happen, and I might have broken my share of hearts in my salad days when the world was my oyster. One day, after waking up to a world that had changed beyond recognition, I thought about the girl who took pity on an ignoramus so full of himself, and I started reading the book she gave me, making copious notes. I have kept this book with me ever since, crossing the Pacific several times with it, and the book still sits on my bookcase beside me. It was indeed the first spark. Thank you very much, Winnie, wherever you are. Here is an outstanding example of how to deal with the liar's lies by fellow Canadian Daniel Dumbrill. It will be the best 12 minutes you'd ever spend watching Youtube. The Xinjiang Genocide Peter Man
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