Cadence of Conflict: Asia, June 22, 2015

The MERS virus in South Korea is having a social-networking effect on the young generations of Taiwan and Hong Kong. With the virus in South Korea, flights are being cancelled and students in both countries who planned to visit South Korea are likely to reschedule to new flights from Hong Kong to Taiwan and vice versa. It is conventional student culture in Asia to make frequent visits between Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. When the Mandarin speakers of Taiwan and Hong Kong can’t go to Japan or South Korea, they tend to prefer each other as their “Plan B” travel plans. So, more HK and Taiwan students will be talking to each other this summer than normal. Interestingly, both HK and Taiwanese students had their own anti-Beijing expansion movements just last year. Their summer break travel has already begun.

Beijing is now fighting against the unanticipated consequences of chaos caused by a virus. It will be difficult to persuade the future generations of Mandarin-speaking youth of how “wonderful” Beijing is.

Imagine a young men and women with, each with a $200 USD haircut, nice clothes that don’t fit, picking their noses during a job interview, all the while thinking that their behavior is dignified. Such is Beijing’s diplomacy, international image, and desire for respect. There are some things you just don’t do.

Those who seek respect rarely find it. Those who give respect to others find it without looking. This applies to people, organizations, and nations. No one wants respect as much as Beijing. And no one refuses to give respect to neighbors as much as Beijing. And no one predicts that they will have respect from others in the future as much as Beijing.

We have seen a flood of news stories about how China thinks China will soon be respected, thereby “succeeding”. Beijing is so drunk on its own rhetoric and desire for respect that it has ignored how it come across to others. The problem is not about Beijing Communists marketing themselves, but about their evidential priorities. In politics as in business, never market yourself until your product is good. We learned that soap opera lesson from HTC. There are some things you just don’t do.

China will not gain international respect because of the large buildings they build or the countries that they conquer and embitter. As the Washington has done similar things—and the American people have allowed it by not starting a viable third party—so the world has lost respect for the US. There is no reason for Beijing to be an exception.

The only way for a country to gain international respect is to focus on justice and fair laws in the land that country controls, thus gaining respect of its own people. Then, it can be respectful toward other countries which it does not, and thus need not, control. This is a candid critique, the same for Beijing and Washington. The same reason why Washington is loosing respect is the same reason Beijing will never get it. Washington doesn’t seem to care, while Beijing seems to care too much.

As if PR gone bad wasn’t enough, China is now shifting to a “consumer economy”, which is basically a economic death sentence in the eyes of anyone who has watched American economics over the last decade. Even more, China hacked US Congress, which compares to a sniper throwing a rock at a tank. There are some things you just don’t do.

OPM Breach Includes Congressional Staffers (Video)

…Congress hacked by China, hearings.

Deep Panda hunt intensifies in US-China cyberwar

Taiwan

Tsai makes TIME

US bill paves way for military visits

China

Q. and A.: Zhang Weiwei on Why China Will Succeed Under the Communist Party

Why is China’s Economy Slowing?

This is an interesting contradiction…

China’s Stocks Head for Worst Week Since 2008 Financial Crisis

…viz…