Except for the single stain that is currently besmirching the image of Planet Earth, there is no old-time kind of colony plaguing a society like the colonists in occupied Palestine who plague the indigenous people there, and stain the Planet of Humankind.
But
that was not the case during the decade of the 1950s when colonialism was the
norm. It is that a number of African countries as well as those in other
continents, were still colonized. Those of us who were neither the colonists
nor the colonized but lived in such a place during some of our childhood and
teenaged years, retain memories that help us decipher what we see in the world
today, that is too subtle for others to see.
What
we see and can talk about with some authority, is that the colonial powers of
yesteryears used the carrot and the stick approach to keep the colonized
population from rebelling. The well-paid civilian functionaries as well as most
of the civilian police force and a fraction of the military, were local
recruits that assisted in keeping the peace. By accepting to fill these jobs,
they helped themselves lead the comfortable lifestyle that the colonial powers
were rewarding them with.
Whereas
in the colonies, this approach was implemented openly, and we could see it
practiced every time that we interacted with a functionary at city hall, or
encountered an indigenous policeman in uniform or saw a local soldier drive a
military Land Rover, we see something similar in the so-called free countries,
but see it practiced in such subtle ways that others who never lived in a
colony cannot see.
What
might help shed light on this societal menagerie, is a recent article that came
under the title: “Beijing’s strategy for global dominance,” and the subtitle:
“Enlisting American governors and mayors is a clever component.” The article
was written by Clifford D. May, and published on November 30, 2021 in The
Washington Times.
What
Clifford May does here, is remind the readers that there once was a Cold War between
the United States and the Soviet Union, and that the United States won that War
some three decades ago. But he goes on to say that a new Cold War is shaping
between the United States and China, which is a rising giant that seems a lot
more formidable than the Soviet Union ever was.
But
if this does not scare people enough, Clifford May has a litany of things to
tell his readers that should scare the stuffing out of them. It is that China
is an authoritarian state, that it is bent on spreading its authoritarianism
around the world, and that America is doing precious little to stop it because
America no longer has the wherewithal to do so, and the American people lost
the will to get into a prolonged fight with anyone – authoritarian or otherwise.
This
is why Clifford May is pessimistic about the outcome of the confrontation that
he says is imposed on the world by China’s conduct. It is motivating him to
paint a dark picture of life under China’s authoritarian regime as a way to nudge
Washington to rise up to the challenge; also nudge the population as a whole to
be seized with nationalistic fervor, and prepare to do battle against China.
And so, what follows is
a condensed version of what Clifford May is telling his readers about China:
“Xi Jinping has made it clear that global
supremacy is his goal. Do Americans have the will and the energy to bear the
burden of fighting back, year in and year out. If it turns out we’re not up for
the fight, it is likely that we will leave our children a world dominated by
totalitarians. They have stripped Hong Kong of its freedoms. They’re
threatening Taiwan. They’re persecuting ethnic and religious minorities,
concealing vital information about a deadly virus, debt-trapping poor nations,
stealing fortunes in American intellectual property, subverting UN agencies.
They’re competing to win hearts and minds around the world – at America’s
expense. There’s more. A just published report details the effort being
undertaken by China to influence American state and local governments. Beijing
is taking advantage of governors and mayors who prioritize trade, investment,
and job creation with little concern for, and often little understanding of
national security”.
It
is logical for a country that has a population as large as that of China, and blessed
with an enormous capacity to produce goods, that it wants to trade with the
rest of the world. This is what China is doing, thus runs large surpluses of
cash. Because commerce cannot be sustained with cash constantly going in the
same direction, what happens is that the nations doing the buying, borrow money
from China to improve their own infrastructures so that they can produce goods
and continue to trade with China by exchanging goods against goods.
This
is the operation which people like Clifford May falsely call debt-trapping.
Well, debt-trapping used to happen during the colonial era when the leaders of
poor countries used to borrow money for the purpose of throwing lavish parties.
When the time came to pay the money back, they had none. And so, the colonial
powers grabbed whatever natural resources the poor countries had left to their
name. But this is not what China is doing. It is lending money for the purpose
of helping the poor nations invest in enterprises that create wealth on a
sustainable basis.
While
all of that is logical, what is puzzling is the Chinese newly acquired penchant
to go over the head of the Federal Government in America, and do business with
the State governments, the Municipalities and private business. The Chinese
trade with these entities and invest in their local businesses. The Chinese
also learned how to urge their business acquaintances to write to their
representatives in Congress, telling them what to do with legislation that can
affect the China-US trading pattern. Could it be that the Chinese learned this
method of getting their way in America from the Jews?
If
so, we cannot fail but note that whereas the Jews have adopted that method of
operation for the purpose of blackmailing and coercing the legislators, and
have them snatch wealth from America to give to Israel, China is giving the
American localities the chance to create more wealth for themselves by doing
more business and more trade with China.
In effect then, the net result of what the Jews are doing, is wield a colonial-type stick while offering no carrot, whereas China is offering a friendly basket filled with carrots, and wielding no coercive stick.