Tuesday
History brings up stories of Genghis Khan and other brutes from our dark past, but none come close to matching the evil of the present day Chinese Communist Party.
With socialism, there are no individuals, just people who exist in order to serve The State. They are called, and thought of, as ‘the masses’. The masses are disposable.
This is the philosophical gulf that separates China (and some other bastions of socialism) from the civilized world. The West, in theory at least, holds that the individual is supreme and that the State exists to ensure the rights of the individual. Socialists believe that the State is the paramount entity and all citizens exist only in order to flow money and power to the State.
Never forget for one moment that this is not a reflection on the Chinese people; it is a damning indictment of the Chinese government. All governments are, to one degree or another, at odds with their people, but never to such a vast degree as in today’s, surveillance-State China.
That philosophical difference has come into sharp focus over the last few weeks. Hong Kong is a product of the Western tradition, and is in turmoil. The hand-picked (by China) leader of Hong Kong is attempting to undermine Hong Kong’s freedom. The people are resisting – forcefully.
China has an image problem at the moment. They must appear strong to be able to hold the allegiance of ‘their’ people who, mostly, know that they would be far better off without them. Trump has made Emperor Xi look weak with his determined demands for ethical trade practices. Now they are looking weak again, because of Hong Kong protests. China does not do looking weak.
HK Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, needs to quickly quell the protests. She is obviously under orders from China to not back down.
The protestors are feeling the same way.
China has troops stationed in HK. They are becoming more and more likely to use them.
Riots are contagious and China must either stop them, or run the risk of them crossing the border. A little invasion will stop that nonsense. It will also serve to coalesce the Chinese people into patriotic song-singing, dutiful citizens again – for a while.
Xi would be confident that he will get away with it, because there can be no doubt that he will, but the opprobrium that will come China’s way will mean the already faltering economy will not be recovering anytime soon.
The days of China’s economic ‘miracle’ will be over. Xi is in between a rock and a hard place. Riots are coming to China – either sooner or later and there is nothing that he can do about it.