What’s Going Down in China is Very Dangerous – Part 2

One of the more concerning ramifications of China’s recent turn toward a more totalitarian stance at home is what it means for the geopolitical environment in the years ahead. Several people asked in the comment section of Part 1 why I care about what’s going on in China when we have so many serious problems in the U.S. The reason is because a major shift in the polices of the second largest economy in the world, populated with over a billion people and run by leadership intent on establishing a far more dominant position on the world scale militarily and politically, will affect everyone.

Government propaganda is one of the most insidious and dangerous things that regularly occurs within human society, and it’s been pervasive in essentially all civilizations to-date. The media’s always a key ally in the dissemination of propaganda, something much of the American public has finally come to understand. The election of Donald Trump despite the U.S media’s unanimous support of Hillary Clinton was the real wakeup call, and has led to incessant calls for platform monopolies like Google and Facebook to censor speech that questions the dominant intelligence agency narratives. There’s nothing more terrifying to an entrenched power structure than a loss of the narrative, and the election of Trump proved to them that they lost it. The American establishment isn’t really afraid of Trump, it’s far more concerned that his election signified a loss of narrative control.

Narrative is particularly important to lunatics who run a global empire, and the U.S. media’s almost always happy to oblige. For example, the media’s enthusiasm to swallow government propaganda is what led to the Iraq war disaster, in addition to so many other societal tragedies I write about here on a daily basis. While the marriage between U.S. government propaganda and a complicit corporate media has been a demonstrable danger to the world, we shouldn’t for a moment think American propaganda is the only threat. Other powerful governments use it as well, and China is no exception.

With Russia obsession dominating almost every domestic media headline these days, Americans are woefully ignorant regarding the explicit intentions the Chinese government has for the world. Fortunately, you can get into the mindset of China’s leadership via their state-sponsored media channels. Global Times is one example, and I want to call attention to two recent opinion pieces published there.

First, from the piece: Constitutional Amendment Responds to New Era:

It can be argued that the current ruling team of China is progressive and ambitious with clear goals and willingness to take on responsibilities. They want to make contributions to this nation which can stand the test of time.

Interestingly, in the era of globalization and the internet, although China has stunning economic might, it has not yet become a leading power in terms of ideology and information.

The most influential value system in the world now is the Western value system established by the US and Europe. It has shaped and affected quite a few Chinese people’s mind-sets. But some key parts of the Western value system are collapsing. Democracy, which has been explored and practiced by Western societies for hundreds of years, is ulcerating.

As is clear, Chinese officialdom see their anti-democratic, one-party, command and control paradigm with no political freedom as a rival model for the world to accept. They believe the vacuum that will be left by a decadent and declining U.S. empire will provide a perfect opportunity to promote this vision globally. Ignore this all you want, but it’s explicit.

As interesting as that is, the extremely defensive and insecure way in which the paper subsequently lashed out at Western criticism over its decision to scrap presidential term limits is equally illuminating.

A perfect example can be seen in the excerpts from the following piece Global Times piece, Solidarity Cornerstone of China in New Era:

No sooner had the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee made public its proposal to amend the country’s Constitution than the Western media began bad-mouthing China in their usual and various ways. It is worth noting that for some time the Western media have been growing strident in their abuse of Beijing, almost using curse words.

The biggest reason for all this is that the rise of China has reached a critical point where some Westerners cannot psychologically bear it any longer. They wish to see misfortune befall the country. Even if it might hurt their own interests, they are willing to see China crumble first.

Such hysteria by some people in the West will subtly influence the way their countries interact with China. It will increase the risks Beijing faces while emerging, and complicate communication between Chinese society and the outside world.

The author talks about hysteria, but where do you see hysteria? From Westerners criticizing this creepy move toward forever rule, or in the above three paragraphs?

Here’s some more.

It is believed that cooperation between China and the West will continue. The normal pattern of Sino-US and Sino-European relations will remain fundamentally unchanged.

But in the days to come, tough stances against China will find more support in Western nations. Friction between China and the West will become more likely.

The solidarity of Chinese society will face tests. Pressure from the outside world may activate negative factors at home, which in turn, increase the costs of China maintaining stability.

Facing external impacts and hostility, the Chinese nation is a community of common destiny. All Chinese people, whether they work for State-owned institutions or not, whether they support the nation’s path or not, even dissidents, are enjoying development opportunities as well as the might of China, which did not come easily. If China collapses the way the outside world wishes, all Chinese people will lose.

Solidarity is a necessary precondition for China to successfully complete the second half of its modernization. It is the cornerstone of China in the new era. The CPC has made us Chinese all closely connected to each other. Over the years, the authority of the CPC Central Committee and the prosperity of our Chinese society have both risen. The authority of the Central Committee is the most outstanding part of China’s competitiveness. It is the source of the country’s efficiency and ability to mobilize people and make adjustments. It is the thing the outside world most envies about China and the target of Western anti-China rhetoric.

Chinese society must strengthen its resolve. We must be aware that the world is full of competition. Solidarity is for Chinese the nation’s most crucial political resource and firm support for the CPC Central Committee is the lifeline of China’s long-term unity.

This is some serious propaganda, with two principle objectives. First, there’s this notion (stated as fact) that the Chinese people would be incapable of progress without the authority of the “outstanding” Communist Party leadership. Second, the author prepares readers for tough times ahead, while also offering assurances that any problems faced within Chinese society are the fault of foreigners, especially Westerners, who apparently want China to collapse. It’s fostering increased nationalism ahead of difficult times, and then lays out who the Chinese should blame. This is very dangerous.

I know how dangerous this is precisely because I’ve seen my own country’s intelligence agencies and oligarchs do it time and time again. I saw them do it in the run up to the Iraq war, and I see them doing it right now with Russia; blaming Putin for every inconvenient political movement that threatens the neocon/neoliberal establishment.

Here’s where it gets scary. The press in the U.S. was able to sell the Iraq war despite a relatively robust first amendment and in the face of massive street protests. The war hawk propagandists still got the war they wanted, so what do you think the Chinese government might be able to get away with in a society where zero real dissent is allowed?

Let me cut to the chase. I expect the global economy to crater once again within the next 12-24 months, and that means everyone. China’s economy is as much a debt fueled house of cards as the U.S., and money printing/bailouts won’t save either of them this time around. As such, I suspect “leaders” around the world, including in both the U.S. and China, will shift blame for internal problems to enemies abroad despite the fact that domestic sociopaths and oligarchs are the true culprits.

The incentive to shift blame to eternal forces will be too powerful for politicians to resist, and the press in these respective countries will likely fan such flames (to avoid their own blame and protect their owners). This will vastly increase the odds of unnecessary and dangerous global conflicts. As always, the masses will lose while the elites sit on top deflecting blame to anyone and everyone but them. I really hope we can avoid this situation, but I also can’t ignore the writing on the wall.

The problem of crooked leadership destroying countries and then starting wars to blame outsiders is as old as human civilization itself. We’ll never escape this trap until we grow up, face reality and refuse to be manipulated into murdering other humans across the world for no good reason.

As I tweeted earlier today:

Can humanity rise up and break the vicious cycle? We’ll know soon enough.

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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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25 thoughts on “What’s Going Down in China is Very Dangerous – Part 2”

  1. Good to see you identifying the problem. What is the solution? Because when something unpleasant is certainly going to happen my own motto is I cannot worry about it. It will happen anyway.

    Reply
    • Well certainly since I am a bitcoin fan and got into it precisely because it does not finance government, I can see atomic swaps on top of the lightning layer as a way to free us from the clutches and terror of central planners. Was hoping Michael would have a solution.

  2. Read his work. It’s all right here on LB.

    Michael and others like him have been outlining the solution(s) for quite some time. Go local, as opposed to go global, has been happening anyway, and it’s not going away like a fad. It’s becoming the new normal at a rapid rate.

    Or you can just wait around to see what happens.

    Reply
    • I hope by “going local,” you don’t literally mean it. You cannot find a car made today that is made with parts entirely manufactured in America, for instance. If you mean “as much as possible,” okay. Like buy produce at farmers markets. My company in California sells its products worldwide. Most of our customers are in other nations including China. Suppose they all go local. How sophisticated would technology be after that happens ?

  3. It will be interesting. I believe the ‘Washington Consensus’ calls the shots in EU, UK Commonwealth, non-China Asia and So American plutocracies. The central banks are largely coordinated. Maybe not so with Russia and China and their economic associations. I believe there are definite cultural differences between these two blocs…. might just end being which one most people prefer…. the typical cohesive communal Asian life or the atomized, individualistic get-mine-screw-you goal of US life.

    But Lord Acton was right… power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    Reply
  4. It is in the long term strategic interests of Chinese power for the US and Russia to compete and weaken each other.

    Reply
  5. Many here in the US have no idea what kinds of life the Chinese have in China. But they would like to comments from a “high” moral ground.(1)Stop by any big university in the US, and talk to 10+ Chinese students from China, individually, randomly and privately. You will find the true feelings they have about China and the US. It will surely surprise you. (2) You can chat any Chinese businessmen who frequently travel between two countries. (3) Visit any major cities in China, and live a life like a local. Walk on the streets after midnight. Feel it. I have been living in the Chicago area for 20+ years. You know the gun-killings and carjackings in Chicago. As an ordinary citizen, I just want a peaceful life. But….Do not judge China from your “universal values.”

    Reply
  6. Really, it’s only been in the last two years that I’ve become very conscious of the propaganda going on all around me. I’ll thank Trump, not because he himself has been particularly revealing of this. Rather, he has caused the mainstream “misleadia” to dial it up to eleven in order to get Hillary elected. Of course that failed, but seeing how hard the press worked (and now the FBI, Dept of State, and other gov’t agencies) made it pretty obvious what was going on. Also sites like yours, and other alternative news sites on the web have also cleared the clouds.

    Yet perhaps the most disturbing aspect of having woken up is finding out how small the club of the “awoke” really is. Most people still believe the mainstream narrative. And that’s what’s going to get us in deep, deep trouble. I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

    Oh, and the sheer scope of the propaganda is also alarming. From foreign policy, economics, stock prices, bond values, anything that’s important is lied about and endlessly puffed up as either strong, normal, or otherwise not worthy of considering that it may well be off the rails.

    Sadly, it seems that America itself is very much off the rails, and I fear that we’ll have a horrific economic collapse before the end of the current president’s term.

    Thanks for what you do. I’ve been reading your articles via ZeroHedge for some time, and I appreciate your efforts and clear thinking.

    Regards,

    Kim G
    Redding, CA
    Where every day we wonder when the wheels are going to come off.

    Reply
    • Edward Snowden was and is a far more effective wake up call to the crimes of statism than Trump, who IS the deep state, besides being a billionaire insider. And Trump himself early in his campaign said he would execute Snowden. I am tired of the BS excuses for Trump. He never was anti-establishment.

    • I agree completely. Trump is very much establishment, and you can always tell based on who people surround themselves with. He immediately surrounded himself with former Goldman Sachs partners and neocons lunatics like Nikki Haley.

      As I mentioned in the piece, I think what the establishment is freaking out about is loss of narrative (control of people’s minds via mass media) more than Trump himself.

    • you consider the establishment as some homogenous atom with absolute cohesion inside.

      it is hardly so

      but every revolution, but every civil war comes when establishment splits inside and can not reconcile

      the guy who wrote “pitchforks are coming” is establishment

      Michael himself was establishment not so far ago

      Basically, there is no reason “divide et conquer” could not be applied to the establishment, and the most recent examples of it go as “colour revolutions”

      While Trump is establishment and Hillary is establishment, it does not mean they are of the same establishment.

      Isn’t the very idea of representative democracy based upon establishment being divided and in internal factions war? If you deny division and rifts within establishment, then you deny democracy.

  7. The American news media has indeed lost the narrative. One example happened just yesterday when “Newsweek” filed for bankruptcy and I think that it’s doubtful that they will EVER be able to get it back. To get it back, the media has to start being neutral and objective and that is not something that as long as the people who are now in power have an option will ever do. Their politics far outweighs the journalistic integrity.

    Reply
  8. > toward a more totalitarian stance at home

    I can only say it yet again: preparations for the World War always included control over public behavior, which included control over public’s information sources

    Add recent USA refusal to cease illegal occupation of Syria.
    Add recent Putin speech, which reminds me August 1939 when USSR introduced new modern tanks (then hi-tech) line-up: T-40/T-34/KV-1

    Reply
  9. After 4+ yrs in Singapore, and 3+ yrs in Hong Kong- esp during umbrella ‘revolution’- saw and still see it coming… Move back to states- and the ignorance is baffling… and russia russia russia.

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    • This China news and the bizarre reaction to it from a lot of people has made me realize that the “Resistance” actually has a form of PTSD caused by 8 years of Obama not even remotely living up to the expectations he promised to deliver to his ardent followers. They’ve been in such deep denial for so long that it’s literally damaged their psyche.

      So now everything that’s wrong with this country is Trump’s fault. No matter what that wrong thing is, or how long it took to get that way, they’re projecting it onto him.

      It’s like they’ve woken up from being hypnotized and they have no memory of what happened from 2008 to 2016, other than everything was great because Obama was POTUS. But now everything that was bad during the 16 years of Bush and Obama is all the result of one year of Trump?!

      Insert the Russia canard. That gives them what they think is a tool to remove the problem (Trump) through impeachment, and all will be right with the world. Yet this pre-supposes that Mike Pence, a classic career politician and beltway insider “Conservative Republican” would do what? Their only answer to that; “Anything’s better than Trump!”.

      In the meantime, Jinping has just essentially declared cold, economic, and potentially hot war on the US, and not only are they Ok with that, they’re actually defending Jinping and China. While at the same time saying they’re Ok with limiting free speech and the right to vote! Because the US is just as guilty as China of doing bad things out in the world, so what’s the big deal.

      But keep in mind that all of these bad things that the US is guilty of doing out in the world supposedly just started a year ago.

      This is becoming a Rabbit hole that goes deeper and deeper with so many twists and turns that even the Cheshire Cat has decided to haul ass out of Wonderland.

      Which brings me back to “hypnotized” above. The first time I ever saw Obama give a speech I immediately realized that he was using NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) techniques like a seasoned professional who was very experienced at NLP.

      The reason I knew was because back in the mid 80’s my Boss at the time had made me attend a 3 day training seminar that taught NLP techniques as a sales tool. The guy who was teaching the class repeatedly told us that if we learned how to utilize NLP properly, we could “hypnotize people without them knowing it into buying anything we were selling whether they needed it or not”.

      Personally, I had a big problem with that because I was in the Securities business and so I was often times dealing with people’s life savings. So there was no way that I was going to covertly hypnotize my clients into investing in Securities that benefited me and my firm, but not necessarily the client.

      But I learned enough in the 3 days to be aware when someone was employing the techniques. Which was why I saw through Obama’s schtick right away.

      “Elements of Charisma in Barack Obama’s Political Speeches”

      https://www.nlpcoaching.com/elements-of-charisma-in-barrack-obamas-political-speeches/

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