Earlier: John Derbyshire On WHAT’S WRONG WITH CHINA—A Study Of Unchanged National Character
On Sunday I posted Wise WSJ Commenter Warns On China. So, What About McConnell?
This showcased an incisive statement on the WSJ comment thread by an experienced China Hand:
I worked with the Chinese and Chinese SOE for well over two decades, and I can tell you that my experience is that they are not to be trusted in any manner. Full stop!
…In my experience they will break the letter and spirit of agreements, and will suck every ounce out of Western firms that they can.
They are in my opinion, our existential enemy, and bent on our destruction by any and all means.
My essay then went on to consider the implications of this for China’s relationship with our political leaders as alarmingly discussed in Gatestone Says ”Hundreds” Of U.S. Politicians Purchased. How Can Mitch McConnell NOT Be One?
In one of her last columns, the much-missed Michelle Malkin discussed with characteristic lucidity the McConnell scandal: Lie Down With McChao And You’ll Get Bit:
Here’s the thing about Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao … For a half-century, this Swamp duo has done out in the great wide open what Swamp things do:
Grift. Rinse. Repeat.
McConnell and Chao have been scratching each other’s Swamp backs (and those of their ChiCom friends and family) for so long, there are scars on the scars.
That the Senate Republicans have tolerated this outrage for so long tends to support the Gatestone thesis.
My posting attracted a bad-tempered X/Twitter response, which raised an important issue and deserves discussion:
Kari R @KariRosage
What is China ”winning ”? I don’t give a f*** about our corrupt politicians. But why does it have to be a zero sum game? Why does it have to be a ”loss” for us if any other countries prosper? Why cant we just focus on being the best for our own people?
[Edited to comply with Peter Brimelow’s susceptibilities]
I replied
China has no experience of relationships with other nations except as hegemon. It IS a zero-sum game with them.
I discussed the Chinese foreign policy tradition towards the end of And So Farewell To Sheldon Adelson—Zionist Activist; Immigration Enthusiast (But Only For U.S.); Chinese Asset?
I have recently read Michael Pillsbury’s seminal The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower.
This points out that, while for 2,000 years China had no experience of conducting foreign relationships except with minor states which it completely dominated, there was a phase in the distant past when something analogous to the European state system existed.
This was the Warring States Period (475–221 BC) when China itself broke up into competing units. After much struggle, one state conquered all the others.
A detailed literature exists discussing the stratagems employed. One of the favorites: bribing an opponent’s advisors.
Adelson’s huge fortune mainly stems from gambling operations started in Macao in 2004. The notoriously avaricious Chinese Nomenklatura has never muscled in nor have predatory taxes been imposed.
Flooding America with low IQ unassimilable immigrants could certainly appeal to the notoriously race-conscious Chinese. So could seeing America locked in a permanent conflict with the Muslim world.
Is it conceivable that such a lever went unused?
Maybe even Sheldon Adelson had a boss.
And very likely so does much of the U.S. political elite.
