B&B - The Old and Not So Young Broken Record Team

What a title? No prize for getting the names right, though! Read on if you still have not figured out what B&B is or who B&B are. 

Clue: A pair of broken records, one old and the other, not too old but also not too young.  

I have not been blogging for some weeks already. I was too bogged down in trying to get the above book of mine out for publication early. The book is NOT for sale; it is intended for friends and acquaintances who share my unhappiness about Biden et al’s blatant demonization of China. The e-version was finalised on 31 May. Physical copies will be extended to those who have specifically requested for it. I am gratified to note that some friends have asked for multiple copies – to extend to their friends who have specifically asked for one. (One asked for 50 and another 30!) Some even suggest that I hold a book launching ceremony to autograph off my gift.) I am going to oblige as many as I can, as much as my pocket allows, for this is indeed a humbling and satisfying experience. (Rants from a 73-year-old-unknown, yet there are people who want to read them!) Readers who are interested to read it can email me at yblim.celebrating70@gmail.com. But you need to tell me a little about yourself: name, age, and address.

Writing about current affairs, especially pertaining to the present state of geopolitics, is fraught with obsolescence risk – new developments and unfolding events will make your observations and perspectives dated even before the ink is dried. Indeed, a few occurrences have persuaded me to write a sequel to what I have written in the book.

First, it is a response from a reader, who thought I might have made a wrong call in the China-India border dispute. Out of my superficial understanding of the physical geography of the border, and the fact the clueless Tibetan government of the time had signed off the line and the Qing court was powerless to intervene, I wrote that, for strategic reasons, it might be wise for China to accept the McMahon Line and move on.

I had actually done several revisions to my manuscript on this issue before I came to that suggestion. In my original piece, I was convinced that no matter how concessionary you are to the Indian political leaders, they will always hold the “have the cake and eat it too” stance. It may be cultural, or it may be the something else. The nation needs a truly transformational leader to change its status quo in terms of the rich-and-poor and class divide, and the hygiene awareness and practices. There are so many rich and smart Indians in the Western world, they should help to drive all these needs. I even lamented how a country of 1.3 billion could elect a religious zealot to be their prime minister. But who am I to say, it is their people’s choice!

The reader drew my attention to a video clip which records an interview with the author of Nehru, Tibet and China.

The author Bhasin is adamant in his contention that Nehru had misled his people on the border issue. If I have read him correctly, he is arguing that India’s case is founded on thin ice. I have placed an order with Amazon for the book and hope to read his argument in detail. Nonetheless, I am happy to live with what I have said in the book. But the fact is, will facts cut ice with the India’s political leaders?

However, while I agree that China should be more assertive on facts and truths, they have also to be mindful of the bigger geopolitical challenges that are confronting them today. It has to fight the hyenas, two of which are its close neighbours. I always feel that China is weak in international public relations. The Chinese tend to thump chest but are unable to build empathy with bystanders who are key to perceptions. And you do not want to have another sworn enemy right at your border.

I remember I attended a lecture given by Prof Wang Gungwu on South China Sea some years ago. His conclusion was that while China had all the historical facts to stake many of their claims, it was quite ill-prepared in terms of internal law knowledge and protocol to deal with issues.

But first let me also share with you the few things that have been lingering in my mind during the past few days.

I have many non-Chinese friends and I thought I should also let them know my true feelings about the current US-China tension. My book will obviously make me appear chauvinistic to some. Be that as it may, I owe them no apology, save for the need to reiterate my stance more pointedly.

I have no quarrel with the American people; in fact, I always admire their early entrepreneurs and intelligentsia for giving the world many pioneering breakthroughs and the many good days between 1940s and 1990s. Of course, I was against the way CIA went about toppling pro-left but legitimate leaderships all over the world, and some of the wars they started – like those in Vietnam, Iraq, and Syria. But I was all happy to see the wall in Berlin being taken down (even though it was not America’s effort), and the way they set about punishing Afghanistan for harbouring the Taliban after the 9/11 terror.

But beginning with Trump and now exacerbated by Biden and Blinken, I have totally lost my respect for America’s political leadership. Readers may wonder why I have put Blinken together with Biden, since the former is only the country’s Secretary of State. Through observations, however, I have come to conclude that Biden is a little demented and it is Blinken, supported by his hawkish think tank, is really calling the shots. He is just using the smiles of the old fox to oblige some of the very reluctant but “wanting to be neutral” smaller country leaders to attend their church.

But I am sure they know the objectives they seek to achieve have seen are far from satisfactory.

After the Alaska meet, where the US was represented by Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, and China by Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi, Blinken must have felt like an idiot after he was thrashed by Yang. The US met at that level several times again. In the subsequent meetings, however, the arrangements were conducted in twosome – he and Wang in some, and Yang and Sullivan in others, which is fairly un-diplomatic, diplomatically speaking, since on a rank-to-rank basis, his appropriate counterpart should be Yang. For fear of facing Yang, Blinken must have done everything possible to avoid Yang, since it is his ego that he could not bring himself to act as a decent diplomat. (Or is he afraid of wetting his pants, as we would say in similar situation in our region? Remember he refused to shake Wang Yi’s extended hand in Italy?)

There is a saying somewhere, which essentially frowns upon people who lies about things. When you tell a lie, you need to create another 100 lies to support the first lie! The West’s Xinjiang forced labour and genocide narratives are like a plate of stale fried rice. Everyone knows all these are a sack of rubbish if the context, especially about the latter, is understood. Yet, they are being regurgitated day in and day out by Blinken et al. Surely, they themselves know these are lies, unless they are intellectually deficient. (Perhaps I should not overestimate the brain size of these people.)  

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has finally made it to Xinjiang. All hell would have broken loose if she had seen any incriminating stuff the West has been screaming about. Of course, she could not give China a clean bill of health. Even then, this has not satisfied the West’s politicians and media. Before she went, they accused China for not allowing people like her to investigate; after she had done, they accuse her of not doing her job. Damn if you do, damn if you don’t! That is the West’s attitude. We cannot change that; we may as well let them continue to cry wolf.

On the Taiwan issue, Biden and Blinken keep repeating that their one-China policy remains intact. But Biden keeps warning that the US will go to Taiwan’s rescue if the island is attacked. This is an oxymoron talk. If they are sincere, they should encourage Taiwan to come to terms with China. Taiwan is simply too good a cash cow for their military-industrial complex and too risky – as an imagination, not a fact – for America as a source of advanced chips for China to control.

With the US, you should do only one thing, i.e., do what Kim Jong-Un and Putin do. Tell Biden and Blinken in the face that you are prepared to use your nuclear arsenal if your interest is threatened. Period. No point pussyfooting about your determination. These people will retreat only if you talk and act tough. Why be diplomatic when they tell you one thing and do another the next day, which is what Biden and Blinken have been doing all this while?

Their Statue of Liberty is a symbol of hope. Unfortunately, the spirit is gone; it is only a tourist destination now. We wish the American leaders can come to their senses. To lead, you have to be exemplary in things you say and do. You cannot practise double standards. I have elaborated many of these double standards before, there is no need for me to flog a dead horse again here.

Back to the matters I thought I should follow up on after my book has gone to the printer.

First is the war in Ukraine. All of us know the cause of it. Russia had repeatedly warned against Ukraine harbouring any intention to join NATO. Zelenskyy went ahead regardless. And Biden and the leaders of several member countries and the secretary-general of NATO egged him on. I had overestimated the wisdom or the maturity of the western leaders, thinking that they could see through Uncle Sam’s grand design. They need to co-exist with a neighbour and this neighbour is no Tom-Dick-and-Harry. It is Russia. Obviously, they have forgotten to read their history. Their Intelligence should also know that Putin means what he says. Unfortunately, they chose to ignore history.

The war has gone beyond the expectations or predictions of many in terms of duration and ferocity. Many thought it would be over within weeks, but it has dragged out and there is no early end in sight. Not only the Ukrainians are suffering, much of the world is also suffering or will be suffering soon.

Thanks to Biden and his allies in Europe, Zelenskyy is fighting on. Recently, Biden promised Zelenskyy some USD40 billion of additional aid. A fairly well-followed analyst in China calculates that the direct benefit to Ukraine is only 5% of it, the rest will go the “cronies”. This analyst even went to the extent that it is actually a form of money laundering – for the country’s military-industrial complex to continue to laugh all the way to the bank, and to pad up Biden’s reelection coffer, perhaps?

Judging from his actions since taking office, I am convinced that Biden is totally incapable of solving the US’s domestic problem. He spoke so much about the need to contain the COVID-19 pandemic; the reality is that he is totally clueless in this regard and is now allowing Mother Nature to take her own course. Second, we are reading several shooting incidents these few days. Biden is talking about the need to control guns. Doesn’t this sound hollow? I bet his call will be forgotten in a matter of months or even weeks, and the shooting spree will certainly happen again. The gun lobby is simply too powerful for him to rein in. His approval rating is so low to allow him to do anything anyway. The third thing that will not change during his presidency is his gun-boat diplomacy against China. Of course, he is just posturing, but he is obliging nations around the region to participate in all the alliances he is forming, the latest being the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework or IPEF. Several of the ASEAN leaders must be feeling quite awkward when they were paraded by Biden in front of the cameras. There is hardly any substance or tangibility in this framework. Is the US under him capable of organizing a new supply chain with America as the pivot? Fat hope! All he wants is to ensure is that there is sufficient tension between China and Taiwan so that America’s military-industrial complex will continue to laugh all the way to the bank, and China is unable to concentrate on economic developments. What an evil intention this is. Does he care about the world? You guess!

You now see the sufferings that are being inflicted in Ukraine. Blame it on Putin? Yes, but who has wanted it to happen in the first place?

It is a clear case of the US trying to weaken Russia before they take on China – by using a proxy to do it. A classic military strategy. Sun-zi’s? Maybe not, since he would not have heard of this sage. Machiavelli’s? Probably. But devoid of a noble cause, no amount of Sun-zi or Machiavelli can help.

But can it work?

Russia is certainly bearing the heavy cost of a protracted war, even though it has destroyed many parts of Ukraine. It will not be in the interest of Russia to occupy the entire Ukraine even if it can militarily subdue the Ukrainians. (Cousins can be worse than real enemies! I remember two cousins I know once fought over a durian tree which was planted right on the boundary between the two pieces of adjoining land. Each had inherited from their parents who were brothers who were more than happy to share the fruits with neighbours!) Russia can possibly hold about 20% of Ukraine they had gained control – in eastern and southern Ukraine – since these have Russia-friendly populations. To go beyond that will be suicidal. Biden is happily supplying more and more sophisticated weapons to Zelenskyy to prolong the war. And Zelenskyy is happy to do Biden’s bidding. Remember, he is ethnically not a Slav. Another Afghanistan is in the making.

Second is on inflation, which is about to devastate the lives of many all over the world. Many politicians are still playing ostrich. But the truth is that even people like many of us who are in the higher level of the food chain are feeling the pinch. (Airfares have more than tripled in many routes!)

Russia and Ukraine are two of the biggest exporters of essential grains, especially wheat, to the world. With the war, much of the supply will be disrupted and this will create shortages in many parts of the world, the impact of which will be most severely felt by the poor countries. India is also banning the export, don’t blame India really; they are very good in harvesting advantages out of conflicts. (But the real reason is that it has also suffered a bad harvest in the last season.) And on energy, Europe, which is so dependent on Russia for the supply of oil and gas, is “banning” the import of oil and gas from Russia, which to a great extent is a hypocritically exercise, since they are still buying. By going for other sources, they are also creating an imbalance in the supply and demand in the world, resulting in the huge spike in the price of oil and gas all over the world, including in the US itself. With the spike, the price of virtually everything goes up!

Inflation is now hitting the headlines everywhere. Trump’s money printing machine provided the first impetus, and his decision was intoxicatingly executed and followed through by the Fed. With the war in Ukraine, this has now developed into a perfect storm. Secretary of Treasury Yellen was in a state of denial in the beginning. But she has now conceded she was wrong about her reading earlier. You believe that? Anyone who has a rudimentary knowledge of Economics will tell you that when the US’s CPI climbed to 5% in May last year, it was a sign that something was going to go very wrong with the US economy and the collateral damage it could do to the world. With the huge supply of paper money circulating in the country and when its real productivity has hardly grown, the obvious outcome is high inflation! Raising interest rate will simply aggravate it. (Central banks all over the world, led by the Fed, have been screwing savers and generating pseudo-growth for years with their near-zero interest rates!) Since the US is still the centre of the economic universe, every sneeze of it will cause a cold pandemic in countries all over the world. Hence, everything is going up! Who to thank? Uncle Sam, of course!

Wise people always say this: a sword cuts both ways. Yes, the measures that have been adopted by Biden and Blinken to restrict chips technology and availability to China have affected China badly. But the US is also shooting itself in the foot. You may have the most advanced technology in the chip-making industry, but if there is no one to commercialise the chips in a big way, what good are they? China is perhaps the only country that has the critical mass to make things to fly, and for that matter, allow the world to enjoy its fruits at the most affordable manner! Remember what Obama once said about his Vice President? Don’t underestimate the ability of Biden to fxxk things up!

Their latest gimmick, aka IPEF, is likely to die a natural death. It has no feasible mission or objectives. Blinken keeps talking about rules-based world order. Whose rules? Has he ever defined it? If I can say it in a crude way, it is his form of masturbation! Fantasy fantasy, fantasy!

Indeed, I am very pessimistic about the future!

Coming back to the book I have released.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say a little in the China-Japan relationship. The atrocities committed by Japan during World War II do not mean much to the younger generations there. But they do remember the humiliation suffered by the country when their army signed the surrender paper. But instead of going after the Americans for ending the war with atom bombs, they, like many of the Blacks in America, choose to vent their anger with the China to regain their honour (雪耻). Their present political leaders are advocating that need. There is no point in China harping on the need by Japan to own up to those atrocities, which they will never do. Instead, China should just factually remember them - in both Chinese and GOOD English - in places that count, like what the Jews are doing about the Holocaust all over the world.

When China has fully regained its place, countries like Japan, Australia and Canada will have to live with a China that has been there for the last five millennia. Penny Wong is rushing to the Pacific islands to repair Australia’s “backyard.” Rome is not built in a day; good luck to her.

But China will remain a misunderstood or feared country to world’s ignorant lot for a long time. (Just read the questions posed in Quora!) A youth in the West when asked why he hates China, his reply: The Chinese are good in kung-fu!

Epilogue

 With Falung Gong around, China doesn’t need enemies!

The above picture was snapped by me in a shopping complex in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. Box Hill has a heavy concentration of Chinese and many would throng this shopping complex to buy their daily needs.

The people in neat blue shirt and white trousers are members of Falung Gong. I must have seen more than fifty of them that day. Several carried musical instruments. I suppose they were there to perform a “community” service.

Falun Gong or Falun Dafa was founded by China’s Li Hongzhi in the early 1990s. He is now playing the immortal at its “headquarters” in a 400-acre compound in Deerpark, New York.

If Li had stuck to the promotion of Gi-gong, his cause would have been greatly appreciated, instead, he has chosen to use it as a political tool to undermine China with prejudices, fear, and fake news. Everywhere you go, especially in the West and Australia, you see old men and women braving the rain to draw your attention to their hands-up exercise posture under a big manner that condemns China and the Communist Party of China. They have plenty of literature in Chinese to spread their beliefs. However, in other languages, they portray Falung Gong as a peace-loving movement. It is extremely well organised and funded (by you know who). They are smartly dressed in neat blue and cream uniform like angels. Its performance arts wing Shen Yun and colleges and academies and Epoch Times still fool many people, thinking that they are for noble causes.

But surely these followers of Falung Gong I saw in Box Hill Melbourne are no bad people. But I just wonder how they have been brainwashed.

Falung Gong also reminds me of an organisation called the Tzu Chi Foundation 佛教慈濟慈善事業基金會. But it is the opposite of Falung Gong in character.

It was established in Taiwan in 1966 by Reverend Cheng Yen 證嚴法師 (born Chin-Yun Wong; 14 May 1937). The foundation has been contributing to better social and community services, medical care, education, and humanism around the world. It now has volunteers in some 50 countries, with more than 500 centres worldwide.