Back to the future, China's ideological warfare

[davidbfpo]

Adam,

Isn't there a big difference between these two 'Cold War' situations. In the first 'war' between the USA and USSR, the USA at times had considerable trade with the USSR, notably supplying wheat when crops failed in the late 70s & early '80s and the USSR had IIRC very little trade with the USA.

In the second 'war' China is a huge exporter to the USA, notably in consumer goods - as we found two years ago in several stores e.g. Walmart. Yes the USA does trade with China, but not on the same scale. is it not hard to be at war when this situation applies? Not to ignore Chinese investments and the purchase of US Treasury bonds.

[AdamG]

‘We Cannot Afford This’: Malaysia Pushes Back Against China’s Vision

A country that once courted Chinese investment now fears becoming overly indebted for big projects that are neither viable nor necessary — except to China.

KUANTAN, Malaysia — In the world’s most vital maritime chokepoint, through which much of Asian trade passes, a Chinese power company is investing in a deepwater port large enough to host an aircraft carrier. Another state-owned Chinese company is revamping a harbor along the fiercely contested South China Sea.

Nearby, a rail network mostly financed by a Chinese government bank is being built to speed Chinese goods along a new Silk Road. And a Chinese developer is creating four artificial islands that could become home to nearly three-quarters of a million people and are being heavily marketed to Chinese citizens.

Each of these projects is being built in Malaysia, a Southeast Asian democracy at the heart of China’s effort to gain global influence.

But where Malaysia once led the pack in courting Chinese investment, it is now on the front edge of a new phenomenon: a pushback against Beijing as nations fear becoming overly indebted for projects that are neither viable nor necessary — except in their strategic value to China or use in propping up friendly strongmen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/20/w...-malaysia.html

[Bill Moore]

China's internal ideological warfare to promote correct thinking and love the f'd up communist party.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/22...-end-in-sight/

China’s Mass Internment Camps Have No Clear End in Sight
Around 1 million Uighurs have disappeared without trial. Worse may come.

It is not surprising, then, that the most common officially cited purpose for the internment camps is to purify people’s thoughts, “eliminating extremism” and instilling a love for the party. A recorded announcement leaked this month from Xinjiang’s Communist Party Youth League, designed to calm rampant fears about the re-education camps, explained that camps “treat and cleanse the virus from their brains.” The names used for camps have varied widely, both for the same camp over time and from one camp to the next, but most have included the word “transformation”—for example, “concentrated education transformation center.”

This is the real Chinese Communist Party, as ugly as it have ever been. Mass internment, a youth league that reminds me of Mao's atrocities when he used youth leagues to conduct mass murder of teachers and others who didn't have the correct political views. Much of the world today turns a blind eye not only to pursue a superficial Chamberlain peace in our time with the Nazis outcome, but also in hope in of gaining economic benefit. There is a point when the illusion must end.

The content of the indoctrination reflects a new emphasis on nationalism throughout the PRC. State media outlets tout the party as China’s savior as they always have, but “China” is now more tightly linked to the culture of the ethnic majority, the Han Chinese. In this view, religions deemed foreign, for example Islam and Christianity, are seen as threats, as is the purportedly Chinese religion of Buddhism when it is practiced by non-Han people such as Tibetans. More than any leader since Mao Zedong, Xi Jinping has promoted the idea that he himself is the embodiment and protector of the Chinese nation. In some camps, inmates are required to replace the common Islamic blessing before meals, bismillah, with thanks to Xi Jinping

.

It isn't just Uighers, but CCP also suppresses other religions such as Tibetan Buddhists and Christians. The state has destroyed numerous churches, and put large pictures of Xi in the churches left, as though he is supposed to be viewed as a superior to Jesus Christ. Despite this the Pope recently reached out to China to reach some sort of accommodation.

There is no limit to the CCP's stupidity

The strangest of these were the coerced line-dancing competitions that spread across the region in 2014. These were supposed to move people away from “extremist” forms of Islam that forbid dance. In other places they pushed children to sign promises not to believe in God and arranged public ceremonies for pledging loyalty to the CCP.

This is not wild speculation, there is historical evidence that lends credibility to this argument:

Local officials have already expressed dehumanizing outlooks on the role of the re-education camps as “eradicating tumors” and “spraying chemicals on the crops to kill the weeds.” Should authorities decide that forced indoctrination has widely failed, much of Xinjiang’s minority population will be framed as irredeemable. And with the state-controlled Global Times claiming, in response to the recent U.N. condemnation of China’s racial policies in Xinjiang, that “all measures can be tried” in the pursuit of China’s “stability,” mass murder and genocide do not look like impossible outcomes.

Hyper-nationalism promoted by the CCP, rapid expansion of its military which it uses to coerce other nations, illegal expansion of its territory, and a return to mass internment camps and youth leagues to enforce "correct thinking." The trade war should be the least of our concerns.

[AdamG]

Entering the realm of Rotten Tomatoes, this looks to be a decent movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QlBzI5-kNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbrl7drJzxs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Red_Sea

... but more to the point Beijing is establishing parity with the US among it's own people first ( then the rest of the world ) with "Look, we can do Operator Tacticool Stuff too" movies like this.

BRCC boyz better stay on their toes.

[Bill Moore]

This post could easily fit into a number of threads on China, or strategy in the 21st Century, but I'm parking it here for now.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings...-toward-china/

T

oday, China has built an unparalleled surveillance state, and it’s growing more expansive and intrusive – often with the help of U.S. technology. What they call the “Great Firewall of China” likewise grows higher, drastically restricting the free flow of information to the Chinese people.

And by 2020, China’s rulers aim to implement an Orwellian system premised on controlling virtually every facet of human life — the so-called “Social Credit Score.” In the words of that program’s official blueprint, it will “allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven, while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.”

And when it comes to religious freedom, a new wave of persecution is crashing down on Chinese Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims.

Last month, Beijing shut down one of China’s largest underground churches. Across the country, authorities are tearing down crosses, burning bibles, and imprisoning believers. And Beijing has now reached a deal with the Vatican that gives the avowedly atheist Communist Party a direct role in appointing Catholic bishops. For China’s Christians, these are desperate times.

Beijing is also cracking down on Buddhism. Over the past decade, more than 150 Tibetan Buddhist monks have lit themselves on fire to protest China’s repression of their beliefs and their culture. And in Xinjiang, the Communist Party has imprisoned as many as one million Muslim Uyghurs in government camps where they endure around-the-clock brainwashing. Survivors of the camps have described their experiences as a deliberate attempt by Beijing to strangle Uyghur culture and stamp out the Muslim faith.

As history attests though, a country that oppresses its own people rarely stops there. And Beijing also aims to extend its reach across the wider world.

The world is waking up to the threat the Communist Party of China poses.

[davidbfpo]

I have just merged in a 2018 thread, x3 posts, entitled 'Beijing versus the Christians', with 4.8k views, into this thread as they share a common theme.