Cadence of Conflict: Asia, August 2, 2021

British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is trudging through China’s backyard. Chinese government news “Global Times” describes Britain as trying to relive its old days. China was never happy about getting its ass whipped twice in the Opium Wars, which China provoked with its economic philosophy that “sliver-in, tealeaves-out” was sustainable trade. China, now with money from slave-cheap labor making tech designed and invented by the West and Taiwan, got enough money to build aircraft carriers from copied Russian designs at least 30 years inferior to Britain. That just goes to prove why China is the best.

China wouldn’t be angry if the Elizabeth wasn’t a threat. It’s possible that the military masterminds of the West sent the British group for China to look at, just to measure China’s level of objection. Military strategists would reverse-engineer China’s response to see how threatening the carrier group is to China, merely by China’s response. It’s a kind of soft-handed espionage, without having to cross any borders. China’s objection only helps with Western intel gathering. And, like a bull going for the bullfighter’s cape, China determines to attack that foreign flag as if on command.

Then, there’s the Olympics. Taiwan won the gold against China in badminton. A movement has been resurrected in Taiwan to insist its name be called “Team Taiwan” when competing in any world games, including the Olympics. In the past, a white-flag group of pansies convinced Taiwanese to let everyone push them around. But, like Trump the loser raises so much money for loser Republicans, Taiwan being called the nonsensical name “Chinese Taipei” when winning medals will only fuel global sympathy for the island hated by the perceived world-menace.

China’s media is partly right; the West is manipulative, but only because China always plays along.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, July 26, 2021

While a typhoon largely evaded Taiwan over the weekend, tragedy struck the mainland. Shanghai faced flooding and death while India suffered a landslide in the Himalayas. In a shocking video, one boulder took out a bridge. Several people died.

But, speaking of Taiwan’s tendency to fall out of manure smelling like roses, there’s nothing like persecution to fuel the competition. Taiwan is rolling out its own, homegrown vaccine. Being a world leader in chipmaking, especially D-RAM, and having both avoided and purged COVID outbreak on its own turf, the Taiwan vaccine could become a world leader, along with its cocktail vaccine approach to booster shots. Beijing blocking Taiwan from the Pfizer vaccine could backfire if Taiwan’s vaccine and methods become more credible than Pfizer or Moderna. That has been the history between China and Taiwan, after all. So, it wouldn’t be surprising.

No doubt why China remains a hater where Taiwan is concerned. Biden follows Trump’s popular-in-America strategy of sanctioning Chinese officials. China does the copy-cat game, but avoids those most close to Biden because that wouldn’t seem friendly.

When Olympic network NBC showed the map the rest of the world passively-aggressivly responds that NBC should fix the insulting error—without stating what the supposed error is, and without stating whether China’s presumed fix would insult Taiwanese. But, Taiwanese don’t matter in China’s view. And, that’s why China should be trusted with the Olympics in 2022.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, July 19, 2021

China faces a three-pronged attack in the realm of public opinion. The Olympics converge with COVID; the third is three levelings up in Chinese military aggression.

COVID is seen in the public eye as having mainly originated from China. Even with conspiracy theories surrounding Faucci and Gates, no explanation lets China off the hook. That actually works to argue against the conspiracy theories—if they were true, they would seem to give China an alibi, but they don’t. Every noteworthy theory on the COVID origin points to China.

Now, COVID is crashing the Olympics in Japan.

This makes an additional bad connotation against China and the Olympics. So, with China wanting to host the 2022 Olympics, boycotts against China can be expected even from the Japanese. Then, other countries will feel comfortable joining the anti-China Olympic boycott. Such boycotts from across the globe will achieve two things: fueling popular hatred against China and inflaming China’s emotional-shame reaction. The Chinese government will dig in its heels and the world will want the Chinese dead where they stand.

But, adding to both sentiments are China’s military saber rattling. Surprise military drills within 300 miles of Taiwan, a step up in Chinese vessels observing a US-Australia navy drill, threats to nuke Japan if Japan honors a treaty to defend Taiwan from invasion—these also enrage the non-Chinese public against China. China has the control to stop global anti-China sentiment: stop giving excuses. But, that is a course of action that emotionally-driven shame doesn’t understand. And, no one expects this response better than the masterminds of the West.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, July 12, 2021

The case against China keeps sprawling—trade, currency, COVID, now SAARS. Understanding China is such a key in global public opinion, it has become a case against Biden that political grandstanding and demagoguery can use without spinning facts. But being a world where all bad press is censored press instead of good press, China won’t understand the trouble it wove itself into.

As if the list of global grievances wasn’t enough, China joins with North Korea in appearances and rhetoric. A Pacific skirmish involving the Chinese would drag in the Norks. That means that NATO allies and India could deal with the world’s menace, help the UK regain Hong Kong, recognize democracy in Taiwan, and unify the Korean peninsula in one move. While China and North Korea see their agreement as a strength, the West sees an opportunity.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, July 5, 2021

Everyone gets more serious about Taiwan. The US wants a special free trade agreement. China wants reunification, again. While China stockpiles nukes, the US shakes the finger, then China shakes its fist.

But, Chinese on the inside are tired of it. CCP has burned-out much of its talent and it looks like the Chinese solution is to burn-out more. It’s a very common indication of a very bad leadership—that the solution to a problem is more of the cause.

Taiwan makes a swift recovery from its own COVID lockdown, though Taiwan still has a long way to go. Charging significantly higher fees for the vaccination to resident foreigners, including Americans, isn’t exactly the best way to court support from America. Then again, too often the proposed solution to a problem is more of the cause. Taiwan has developed a fear of foreign invasion—a fear reinforced by recent Chinese rhetoric—yet Taiwanese xenophobia fails to distinguish between foreign friend and foreign foe. That’s the greatest cause of Taiwan’s security threats.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, June 28, 2021

Spite for China is turning toward panic. Australian university campuses feel the pressure of CCP censorship, including death threats against students and pressure on family members back in China. If the CCP wanted to demonstrate its purported benevolence to the world, every week betrays a bigger fail.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth marches through Russian-concerned waters on its rout to Hong Kong. Moscow knows that the Brits have no interest in quibbling over Crimea. The bombs dropped in the aircraft carrier’s path were meant to deter the British from arriving at the Southeast Asian shipping lanes that Russia so conveniently controls through the world’s biggest puppet-in-denial: China.

Taiwan magnificently navigates its own mini COVID crisis, which doesn’t help build kind thoughts among Taiwanese toward the CCP. The American “not Embassy” director is on his way out and was honored by Taiwan’s president with a big, pretty, purple ribbon. Nothing makes the CCP angry like a purple ribbon.

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