Cadence – Page 8

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, March 15, 2021

SymphonyMarch 15, 2021

More pressure on China over the games and Hong Kong. According to the Chinese, treaties with China don’t obligate China. That’s how the West views it anyway. This is the war-causing confusion between the West and the Chinese…

China believes democracy and religion will destroy the Chinese. Their solution is to remove religion, free speech, and non-Chinese governments. China claims to respect these three, but thinks that they are exploited to China’s misfortune. So, China makes new laws, hoping to protect itself, then tells the West to back off.

But, the West is concerned about trusting promises. People won’t build skyscrapers on land they believe will collapse after ten years. Nor will countries and companies invest in another country if they believe the government might take over the company or arrest the officers. So, the West is concerned about “rule of law”, that laws are made, then don’t suddenly change in a way that breaks trust. As much as some old laws can be inconvenient for a government, losing trust from the world is proving much more inconvenient, as we are seeing with calls to boycott the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

This is where the contradiction comes into play. China believed that Huawei could ignore Western law while their CFO travels to Western countries. When the Huawei CFO was arrested in Canada, China was genuinely surprised. To the Chinese, “rule of law” is a mythical concept, like using English to tell a dolphin what it’s like to walk on land. So, the Chinese were surprised.

With everything happening, China is utterly and genuinely surprised. This is not what Beijing expected.

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, March 8, 2021

SymphonyMarch 7, 2021March 7, 2021

Military budgets—that’s the talk of the Taiwan Strait. China wants its budget to grow so it can play with the big kids by 2035. China’s apparently not ready to play with the big kids, at least since India just ate China’s lunch. So, with China trying to bulk up even more, people are asking what the heck is going on with Taiwan.

Israel spends 5% GDP on asymmetric defense; Taiwan only spends 3%. So-called “experts” want Taiwan to spend more. The US wants Taiwan to spend more. Apparently even the newspapers want Taiwan to spend more because military budget is the talk of the week.

It was a strange week, though. So many things have gone peaceful in the East Pacific. China and India are suddenly getting along. Taiwan and China talk more about the need to talk. Threats and vibrato from Beijing haven’t stopped, of course. But, things are getting a bit quiet, and it seems somewhat eerie.

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, March 1, 2021

SymphonyFebruary 28, 2021

China was fooled again. They thought Biden would be the same pushover he was as vice president. Oops.

Human Rights groups are amassing. Now the Beijing 2022 Olympics are a candidate for boycott. As if that’s not enough, the USS Nimitz can’t stop making headlines as it is supposed to return home in a month. It’s currently in China’s back yard pool, so to speak. The Chinese aren’t happy. But, when are they ever?

Even with Presiden Biden, Trump restrictions on China are still going into effect. China responds by banning imports on Taiwanese pineapple. But, the pineapple ban came too late. Just think how much better the world would be if China had banned those evil pineapple in a more timely fashion.

But, since the evil Taiwanese pineapple ban came too late, China had to take more drastic action. They arrested 47 people in Hong Kong who like democracy. It is rumored that they might like democracy almost as much as they like pineapple. While this can’t be confirmed, it could be that liking pineapple proved how dangerous those democracy-lovers really were. But, that is pure conjecture.

In case banning evil Taiwanese pineapple wasn’t enough to guarantee domestic safety, China also requires that clergy worship Chairman Mao. The Holy See isn’t sanguine, neither are those evil Taiwanese pineapple farmers.

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, February 22, 2021

SymphonyFebruary 21, 2021February 21, 2021

China is mixing its civilian population with military front lines. This new Sansha “City” probably should be called a province and not a “city”. Leave it to the Chinese and Taiwanese governments to garble province-level translation. It’s not anything the West considers a city. But, it was planted in the middle of international waters, is used as a basis for applying Chinese law in more places, is highly contested by neighbors like Vietnam, and has civilians.

At what point does a civilian population bear responsibility for the action of its government? Is it in supporting that government’s action? Is it in turning a blind eye to that government’s action, providing passive support? Is it in accepting one-sided gossip about other people they never met nor heard from? If so, all people across the world are guilty of every war.

China grew its power when Western consumers sent their jobs overseas to save pennies at the store. Western civilians built Sansha as much as Chinese civilians. When Sansha becomes a war zone, will there be such a thing as an “innocent civilian” anywhere in the world? All of us involve civilians in military matters; at least China is upfront about it.

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, January 25, 2021

The EditorJanuary 25, 2021January 25, 2021

China thinks they own the American president they helped install. Reportedly, a factory was set up in China to create fake ballots, likely as part of the election fraud network Biden boasted about on TV. But, politicians who steal elections stand against the will of the people by definition. Usually, the public doesn’t find out, which allows those politicians to govern to a limited degree. But, when the public knows a politician willfully stands against the people, that leader can only remain in power with an iron fist.

Iron fists don’t gel with America. That’s something China will eventually figure out the hard way. Biden will figure it out the hard way sooner. China believes chaos in America will work to China’s military advantage. It won’t. When the people turn on Biden, he will turn on China like the forked-tongue politician he is. That will be his attempt to gain unity in the American public against a common enemy. He will pound and shame China harder than Trump would have.

So, in a sense, when the Chinese were set up for disappointment, they not only took the bait; they made it even worse for themselves. They don’t like other countries meddling in their goals, yet they reportedly melded in America’s election. Good old-fashioned honesty and respect would have served them well. Instead, the Chinese gambled on trusting an experienced American politician.

In Cadence

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, January 18, 2021

SymphonyJanuary 18, 2021

This is a linchpin week. Britain’s new aircraft carrier stands by with courses ready for the South Sea. America has an inauguration scheduled amid more foreseeable chaos, likely greater than Hong Kong. Bad news on China only gets worse—while the Huawei CFO pleas for a life less difficult than her millions of dollars can buy her, she is contrasted to China’s treatment of two arrested Canadians. That doesn’t make China look charitable in the eyes of the five countries that declared the Hong Kong treaty broken late last year.

Diplomats from Taiwan and the US had a diplomat-to-diplomat talk in Switzerland. That’s new. China’s furious. That isn’t new.

A destabilizing United States coupled with swelling Western spite for China make the perfect bait and trap for China to think it should enter a war it couldn’t possibly know it couldn’t possibly win, but should have and would have if someone had only listened.