'..the Chinese military has openly planned to be the dominant world power by 2049. And while many of these documents have been withdrawn, there is no doubt that they were written..
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..Xi Jinping .. wants is to censor all criticism of his government from anyone, anywhere.
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This sets up a clash with Western values that I’m not sure anyone can possibly resolve. The US is not going to stop our citizens and visitors from exercising free speech. It is a core value to us and one that American companies must respect. But that makes it very difficult and maybe impossible for those same companies to sell their products in China.
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..we should stop giving them the technology and tools to improve their military and the potential for their control of our economic livelihoods not to mention our liberties and free speech. It is actually that important..'</i>'..China .. Citizens are routinely arrested and tortured for resisting government edicts. The stories coming from China are frightening to Western minds.
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..Although there have been cautious voices about China for decades, the main narrative has always been that of China will somehow change.
That seems to have ended now, initially for economic reasons, then more and more because the Chinese government’s actions began more obviously diverging from the naïve view of China that a large majority of the West previously held.
Yes, we were all aware of the continual affronts to intellectual property, disregard for basic civil liberties, the treatment of minorities, and the increasing encroachment of the surveillance state, something only mildly hinted at in George Orwell’s
1984.
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And then came the furor over the NBA. The general manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, tweeted out a small and rather innocuous message of support for the Hong Kong protesters. Note that Twitter is not allowed inside of China. This should have been a nonevent. Almost any NBA referee would have overseen it as no harm, no foul.
But it set off a furor within China. Contracts were canceled and the government demanded Morey be fired.
Think about that for a second. Some low-level bureaucrat pressured businesses to cancel contracts and then demanded an American organization tell one of its members to fire one of its employees who had exercised what we over here think of as free speech.
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This was business as usual from the Chinese perspective. It is something every American company that does business in China has to deal with. You don’t criticize the Chinese government. You block access to information the government wants hidden. You use maps that are Chinese-government approved. The list goes on and on.
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..The country is run by the Chinese Communist Party which controls almost every facet of life for everyone there.
Over the last three or four years I’ve become increasingly uncomfortable with China’s ambitions. There has been a surge of research pointing to the fact that the Chinese military has openly planned to be the dominant world power by 2049. And while many of these documents have been withdrawn, there is no doubt that they were written. I have talked to people who have been in the libraries and read them in China. This desire for dominance has always been a latent force, but one that was convenient to ignore, except that now we can no longer ignore it.
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China’s strategy is built upon economic and industrial power. China’s leaders have exploited decades of engagement with the advanced industrial economies to harvest technology and make advancements on a grand scale.
The result has been the creation of an industrial base that now holds competitive advantages against the rest of the world economy. China has become the entire world’s manufacturing base. It has a $14 trillion GDP that some think will surpass the US economy in real terms within a decade. It has already surpassed the US in terms of total global trade volume.
China’s economic plan includes dominance of key regions and industries:
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If the economic and industrial foundation is laid, global Chinese military power and submission to Chinese interests will followChina’s leaders are also busy converting their civilian industrial base into military power.
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“Made in China 2025” harmonizes with the program of “Civil Military Fusion”: this instructs that innovation in the civilian industrial base must be brought to the Chinese military as it seeks to “close the gap” with the US military and US Allies. China now seeks dominance across fields as diverse as undersea warfare, outer space, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, next generation IT, and joint force warfighting.
In the meantime, Xi Jinping speaks regularly of “preparing to fight and win wars.” From Europe to the Middle East, from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, there is no region that is left out of China’s strategies for economic or military influence: China even has diplomatic engagement strategies for Africa, Latin America, and the polar regions.
If the economic foundations are laid, then the rest will follow.
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..Xi Jinping .. wants is to censor
all criticism of his government from anyone, anywhere.
..
This sets up a clash with Western values that I’m not sure anyone can possibly resolve. The US is not going to stop our citizens and visitors from exercising free speech. It is a core value to us and one that American companies must respect. But that makes it very difficult and maybe impossible for those same companies to sell their products in China.
But the problem may go even deeper.
Unlike the Cold War years, in this order there will be no “Third World.” Every country will have to adopt either US or Chinese technology standards, then align its entire economy around them. That’s going to put some governments in tough spots. Japan, the EU, UK, and others will want to have a foot in both camps. That’s not going to be possible.
This will force a serious re-engineering on the multinational companies who heretofore thought they could serve both worlds. They can’t. They will have to choose as well, and then adjust their marketing strategies, product plans, and supply chains. This will take years and be very expensive. Investors will likewise have to rethink valuations, particularly for those companies with Chinese growth plans.
..we should stop giving them the technology and tools to improve their military and the potential for their control of our economic livelihoods not to mention our liberties and free speech. It is actually that important..'
- John Mauldin,
China's Disturbing Vision, October 26, 2019
Context '..the West’s 25-year bet on China has failed.' - How the West got China wrong - '..China uses business to confront its enemies. It seeks to punish firms directly, as when Mercedes-Benz..''..closing China off from access to the things that pave its way to power.''Far too many American multinational corporations have kowtowed to the lure of China’s money and markets by muzzling not only criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, but even affirmative expressions of American values.' - Pence'An academic jailed for separatism in China has been awarded the European Parliament's top human rights prize.'The Broken Promises of China's WTO Accession: Reprioritizing Human RightsThe Human Rights Crisis in Xinjiang - '..As we heard today, China harasses citizens of other countries, including American citizens..''..it is incumbent upon cities to enact laws that protect communities from mass surveillance.'(Spanish, English, Chinese) - The Values: 'You only have to read one book, "The History of Spain" by Father Juan de Mariana.' - Thomas Jefferson