Cadence of Conflict: Asia, December 14, 2020

Hit pieces against China are coming out as if from an avalanche. More dangerous, they are coupled with Western plans of military expansion in China’s back yard. From Xinjiang teens to disappearing journalists to Australian wine to spies in America to colleges—to a global virus pandemic—Western readers have no rest from bad news of China.

The equation has been there and in play. America’s election appears stolen to 75% of Republican voters and 30% of Democrats. Elections require agreement on results in order to function. Lack of agreement on a trustworthy election is unusual as it is staggering. That’s a mandate for Trump to take drastic action, deny Biden’s inauguration, and take measures to remain in office that can’t avoid national inflammation.

As inevitable American conflict in January comes into closer view coupled with such bad press on China, the US strategy in the West Pacific is more and more difficult to deny. China was always the perfect distraction from the mess at home. The problem is that the American populous no longer responds as usual. A national attack may not have the uniting effect it once did—at least not uniting enough to keep any president in office in the face of an election so disputed.

Taiwan continues the role as the “China virus” poster boy. The Taiwanese handle things so well, don’t they. Strict rules on breaking quarantine—punishing a foreigner with thousands in fines for walking in the hallway outside his room for eight seconds—but Taiwanese officials forgot to lock the quarantine door because the world is supposed to believe Taiwan is so careful, right?

At some point, it should become obvious that we are playing a game of charades with who is good and bad—or at least on who is how good and how bad. As China’s role is to be the common enemy for divided Americans and a divided West to unite against, China’s big mistake—over decades and to this day—was to play that role all too gladly. A shoe was made and China chose to fit it.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, May 11, 2020

China must brace itself for war. Regardless of any plot from America being true or false, how Beijing handled Wuhan—or rather mishandled—will not be overlooked by the free world. Regardless of how different governments handled the outbreak, the West will see an outbreak that wouldn’t have happened if China had followed the same forthright standards that the West does. The West thought China was on its way to following standards. But, Confucian Communism knows no standard except its own authoritarianism.

How did China get this far? There is so much in China to be desired, including the Bible-based government Dr. Sun Yat-Sen started over a century ago. Chinese medicine addresses many matters of health that elude Western pharmacy. Politeness, indirection, family, and respect—these are virtues the West could have learned from China. Except, just look at what’s happening now.

The term kowtow came from Hong Kong Cantonese. Bowing and placating the bully emboldens the bully. For all their virtues, China was crushed by its Confucian insistence of monolithic thinking—that there is only one idea: the idea you are told to have—that hypotheticals do not exist because everyone only considers the idea we are all told to promote. When a people are beaten down and trained to beat each other down to train each other so, that people’s leaders will think they can get away with anything. China was even placated by Western trade and tech. Christian pastors in China who wouldn’t drop their Confucianism were placated by Western seminaries. The West emboldened the dragon. Lo, Beijing today!

War follows a schedule of logistics. The West doesn’t want China’s military to get any bigger. Taxpayers in the West are learning about the “plandemic” roots of the virus China neglected into going global. Public rage against China won’t build forever. The great Western provocation must happen before the people lose interest. That is China’s greatest threat: time.

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Cadence of Conflict: Asia, March 16, 2020

News around the world has blacked out. Everything is about this new virus that should be called the “pneumoniavirus”, also known as Wuhan’s 2019-nCoV, everything—the news, the politics, the economy, the maps, organ harvesting. But, that wasn’t the only Western bad news on China. Canada had a brilliant solution to the Huawei controversy: go public. So far that hasn’t happened. But, Indonesia is buying American F-35s.

As the world goes into panic mode over a glorified common cold, death by economy will be greater than death by disease. People are afraid because people are afraid. Once they freak-out to full-freak capacity, they will look for someone to blame for all their fear. That takes us to China.

China doesn’t like being the villain of the world. The Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like looking bad. Who does? Most of that bad image throughout the world—including among the Chinese people themselves—comes from unedited videos of what the Chinese Communist government is doing to its own citizens. Other than uncut videos, people are irritated by reports of signs of organ harvesting along with appointing Communist Party bosses to new leadership positions also hurts China’s image, both foreign and domestic.

Then, China blames the US Army—not the military, not the Marines, Navy, Air Force, nor Space Force, and not something more sensible like CIA. A Chinese official said that the US Army took the virus to China. A video is going viral in East Asia of Congressman Harley Rouda at a House Oversight Committee hearing questioning CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, “So, we could have people in the United States dying from what appears to be influenza, when in fact it could be the coronavirus or COVOID-19?” to which the director responds, “Some cases have been actually diagnosed that way in the United States to date.” And, this is being used in China, and even among the Taiwanese, to argue that the pneumoniavirus existed in the United States long ago, wasn’t noticed because it was misdiagnosed long ago, but the US Army then took the virus to China. Chinese speakers easily misunderstand because they don’t know how democracy works. They believe this proves the pneumoniavirus originated in the US, even though there haven’t been any epidemics of death-by-pneumonia in the US since the bacterial pneumonia epidemic of 1918.

As things progress, China is being pushed to the point of acting on an ancient psychotic belief that all of China’s problems exist because China doesn’t control Taiwan. If the Chinese PLA military attacks Taiwan, however, they won’t be strong enough to deal with their own dissent at home. If China doesn’t invade Taiwan, it is because the Communist Party has been rendered catatonic, not knowing what to do. Read More

Encore of Revival: America, March 16, 2020

There is more likely to be death in America from the shortages caused by hoarding than from what should be called the “pneumoniavirus”. Americans have too often harbored a love for drama. They don’t want to listen when told to wash their hands or wear a mask to the supermarket when they feel sick, but when they actually realize that they can’t ignore a thing, it’s time to turn every home into a survival bunker. There’s little sense for calm and order.

That was the deeper weakness in the societal immune system of America. Love for bad news will be the undoing of many Americans. Once this is over, the toilet paper hoarders will become known to their friends, scorned by their friends, then feel foolish. Theatrics and drama are far from over.

The economy is taking a hit—everyone is taking a hit. People will have to forgive those who overreacted, otherwise they will be the ones who overreact next.

The economic problem in America has roots deeper than the virus, but in society. And, society’s problem is rooted in the spiritual. Like Lincoln during the Civil War, Trump called a day for nation-wide prayer. Anyone who so chooses will come through this better off. Read More