The Hundred-Year Marathon
Let’s admit it. Many of us Chinese were secretly gleeful when we saw China’s domination of the world. And why not? We share the same skin colour don’t we? Tribalism is hardwired in our evolution. It is an age-old tendency that sees us siding with anyone we deem our tribe. It is why Muslims from Malaysia support Muslim rebels in Syria, even when there is no good reason save the similarity of a religion. It is why an astounding number of Chinese insist on believing that the corona virus was possibly from the US, when evidence from the world scientific community pointed straight to China.
But blind tribalism is not a smart way of operating in the world. Humanity is often progressed only when we fight out immediate instincts. Tribalism is one of them.
Yes, as Chinese, we cannot help but bask in pride that the country our ancestors sailed from has reached amazing proportions. China’s GDP growth is three times that of America, and will continue to outperform. Come 2049, China’s economy will be three times the size of America. That’s a bitter pill America will have to swallow.
But is this all Chinese ingenuity? It is true that the Chinese has a hardworking ethic that is revered around the world, but is that it? Hard work? Up till 1975, China had among the lowest per income capita in the world. How has it risen dramatically in a matter of a few decades? Its’ growth is five times the US today. How has a restrained communist country given birth to the Huawei and Xiaomi that are dethroning the iPhone?
China’s progress has been due to patience, wit and a Warring States strategy (Sun Tzu). But it is also due to deception, hypocrisy and an autocratic Chinese Communist Party. China is akin to an opportunistic friend, one who wants all the benefits (business, investment, education) of its buddy America, all while silently backstabbing with a smile.
China has a dream, a dream that runs the length of a 100-year marathon. To be the world superpower – economically, militarily and culturally, and to overtake the US by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. And indeed it was on track, so stealthy and silent in its silent uprising, deceiving gullible America who over many Presidents offered aid, cooperation and expertise. It was only in recent years that China’s Dream of becoming the world superpower was discovered by US government officials, one of them a high ranking US official and the author of this book Michael Pillsbury. For years, many in US dismissed evidence and displays of insolence by China, thinking it a pacifist and Confucian country, uninterested in dominance. But that has been China’s tactic, rising quietly, without alerting the old hegemon US.
America has been naïve for years, sharing its most sophisticated technology (finance, military, space, nuclear) with China, believing that this third world country would eventually move to a democracy and a free market. The truth couldn’t be further from that. In 1978, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping surprised President Jimmy Carter by proposing that the US accept 700 science students and thousands more thereafter. An oddity seeing that China in the past, restrained its scientists from going to the US for fear of defecting. Deng understood that “technology was the No 1 productive force for economic growth.”
In 1981, an unsuspecting President Reagan permitted the Pentagon to sell advanced air, ground, naval and missile technology to the Chinese to transform the People’s Liberation Army into a world-class fighting force. The list goes on. Some of China’s most prominent state-owned enterprises like China Mobile, were created by Western investment bankers. American and European business school leaders in their idealistic piety, fly over to help build China’s MBA programs. America has been handing over help, uplifting China and presuming it to have similar aspirations of democracy and freedom, unrealizing of the dagger behind China’s back.
American presidents like Nixon and Ford willingly satisfied many of China’s immediate political objectives, many which were kept secret from the American public for 30 years. And yet, if you pick up a history book in China, America is depicted as a demon, terrorizing China the victim. Since 1978, half of China’s growth rate has been due to the US’ endorsement of China as an investment hub. There has been countless lowered tariffs and guidance in banking, science and maritime development. Yet these have been gleefully left out by the wily Communist Party. The decades of aid and technology transfer are all but written out, educating a new generation of Chinese to think of America as a tyrant who is hell bent on destroying Chinese civilization.
Bill Clinton had the foresight to take a tough stance against China, but much of American government were unconvinced of China’s cunning. China set to work by dangling commercial deals, pouring donations to the Clinton campaign and singing economic cooperation. It worked. Sanctions were eased and meetings with the Dalai Lama ( China’s adversary) were ended.
From the oil-magnate Bush to the disarming Obama, China had been taking America for a ride. This came to a half in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president. Needless to say, China was displeased for Trump had been a strong opponent of the Chinese Administration from the beginning, seeing through the deceit of China. Trump has begun a rescue of sorts for America, working out ways to bring back manufacturing jobs from China and stemming the wild copying of the Chinese counterfeiters, a move which required muscle and brought on the displeasure of the Chinese. Hate him or love him, the loutish Trump has the brazen guts to save America and obstruct China’s ambition.
China cheats. A big part of China’s success is through cheating. 8% of its GDP comes from counterfeiting Western technology and products. Visit China and you’ll be shocked at the scores of “New Bailone” stores. Further, 40% of its’ economy come from state-owned businesses, proving that a capitalistic society is nothing but a hoax. This means roughly half of China’s economy is still in the government’s hands. In 2014, it was reported that 600 million Chinese farmers still do not own their own land.
China enjoys the status of a WTO country and gallivants freely in many countries yet besieges foreign competition with barriers and tariffs to protect its own industries, blatantly flouting WTO strictures. It expanded its global market share exponentially by offering tax breaks, cheap land and technology in four key industries – auto parts, glassmaking, steel and paper; anti-free market moves that a new world would frown at. So when China became one of the world’s largest producers of auto parts in 2001, it was unsurprisingly hushed. The milestone was not due to cheap labour but a deliberately undervalued currency.
China is the only country in the world that pours tremendous resources in monitoring its news, not only in China but in every other country. Journalists who write unfavourably have often been denied China visas while cyberattacks are the norm for critics of China. Anti-Chinese policy US government officials have found themselves barred from visiting the republic and denied information. To undermine their viewpoints, unflattering articles are written on these anti-Chinese hardliners. Trump is easily one of them. Perry Link, one of the most respected China scholars in the US, has been denied access to China for 18 years simply for his refusal to echo Beijing.
Perhaps what I find most profanely disturbing is China’s blight in assisting American enemies. China aids America’s adversaries as a way to weaken America and strengthen itself. Days after the Sept 11 attacks, China made a video depicting Saddam Hussein as a wise voice of reason while America was portrayed a wounded bully obsessed with irresponsible military retaliation.
Intelligence reports by the Pentagon revealed that China had supplied arms to al-Qaeda after the Sept 11 attacks. But really that’s nothing new. China harbours terrorists from Osama bin Laden’s network (Taliban), extends support to the regime of Saddam Hussein, happily building phone systems and supplying missiles. When asked, China feigned shock. “We know nothing of it,” they lied. China’s conscience seems non-existent. Africa has benefitted tremendously from China’s generosity with the condition of no interference. Zimbabwe dictator Mugabe has China to thank for maintaining an iron grip on his devastated country. China supplies arms and other internet surveillance hardware and technology to help the dictator control his people.
June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protest days is known as “Internet maintenance day” for China censors any reference to it on the China internet. Free speech doesn’t exist. Every other day, websites of foreign newspapers, human rights organizations and many political groups are monitored and blocked. Chinese citizens don’t have access to the same internet that we do. Chinese government calls this to be “harmonized.” Once China is militarily and economically superior to the US, it will no doubt use its cyberattacks to harass anyone into submission, anyone whose speech they disapprove off.
China is at the forefront of IP theft, allowing it to cheat itself up the technology ladder. It has blatantly hacked from US’s largest organizations – government and corporations to benefit its’ own Chinese companies. IP theft represents an estimated loss of $107 billion in annual sales in the US.
The marathon to world domination is in motion through Huawei Technologies, one of the world’s largest telco companies that may maintain close association with Chinese intelligence services. Government agencies and military services that employ Huawei network face obvious threats. Could Chinese spy services monitor or reroute certain lines of telecommunications? For these reasons, US and British governments, among others have blocked sales of Huawei equipment in their countries
Recently, we squawked angrily when a local Malaysian company polluted a water source and caused us 4 days of lost water. In China, at least 55% of its’ groundwater is unfit for drinking. The wastewater that Chinese factories dump into rivers causes about 60,000 premature deaths annually. And because the state controls information, most Chinese are unaware of the toxicity of their drinking water.
Cancer villages are aplenty in China. Cancer is the leading cause of death for Beijing. One woman who lives in a cancer village lost her husband and son to cancer. She stated, “All I want is to breathe clean air, drink safe water……… but I guess it’s too much to ask.” Unlike the west, where human rights groups fight your cause, there are too few in China to go against the government machinery.
After the release of this book, China made aggressive territorial claims by planting their ships in the South China Seas. The Southeast Asian countries would do well to gang up against China to avoid their resources pillaged and further political obligations made.
A world shaped in China’s image will be very different from the world we know today. Chinese state-owned monopolies will dominate the marketplace. Websites will be filled with rewritten history defaming the West and praising China. Will rogue states be empowered? Will the air we breathe be cleaner? Will a free market exist?
I wonder at people who condemn the West and US as nothing but evil. Has nothing good come out of their civilization. What is the alternative then? When someone condemns US or UK as racist, I ask then, “Compared to whom?” Homogenous countries?
These evil countries also happen to attract foreigners for the prosperity it begets. We don’t see people queuing to Yemen or Tanzania do we? There are perhaps some 30 countries in the world that has done better than others, and competence is the answer. If the word “competence,” riles you, then replace it with “them doing something right.” We would do best to learn something from them.
The US may not be perfect, but in the words of the late Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, is a “benign superpower.” I much prefer the US as a world superpower any day than to China.
