ILLUSIONS, HALF TRUTHS AND MASKS: Keywords: Xi Jinping, Mamdani, Antifa, Mao Zedong, Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Yan Hongchang, Nixon, Friedman, Tiananmen massacre, CCP.
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| Vintage poster. The Fathers of Communism Marx, Engels, Lenin,Stalin and Mao |
XII
A meditation about the new rise of communism in America
By Xuan Quen Santos
THE LAST CHAPTER
Chinese
people have the longest, continuously documented history of struggle to find
the political and economic systems that will bring prosperity and liberty to
all. To their merit, this claim overshadows the disappearance of many original
civilizations whose cultural legacies are only remembered by bits and pieces of
archaeological finds.
One of many
examples comes from the Fertile Crescent of antiquity. Several caches of
cuneiform clay tablets found in the Mesopotamian desert not long ago tell part
of the story of King Urukagina, of Lagash. Dated around 2,350 B.C., he is
considered to be the first political reformer as ruler of one of the many City-Kingdoms
of Sumeria.
According to
Samuel Noah Kramer, a noted American Assyriologist, on the tablets is found the
first written reference to the concept of liberty. The word is amagi,
with a broad meaning of being set free of debts or to have your liberty restored
if you had been enslaved. Hayek, who used it as the title of a magazine he
edited while teaching at the London School of Economics, gave it the broader
and more modern concept of liberty.
Bits and pieces of
Urukagina’s reforms speak of tax relief, prohibitions of confiscation for
fiscal purposes, reducing the corruption of priestly abuses, and restoring
justice and fairness in disputes. He lost his kingdom after losing support from
the elites who sided with the king of a rival city-state.
His story is similar to Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten
(1350 B.C.) who attempted to introduce monotheism, meaning getting rid of the
polytheistic priestly elites that ruled, and thus of their abuses and taxes.
Monotheism leads to many cultural changes that result in increased living
standards and particularly of personal freedom. He did not last long. Much of
what he did and built, together with the memory of his famous wife Nefertiti,
were literally chipped away from murals and building stones. Erasing history is
nothing new.
Another example is Hammurabi, Sixth Emperor of Babylon
(1750 B.C.) A great military conqueror, he imposed a uniform “Code of Laws”, to
create some uniformity in governing many very diverse conquered peoples over a
vast territory. His code is famous, and bits of it are still in the laws of
many of today’s nations. A careful reading of all the topics legislated tells
the story largely of an effort to control the common prices of commodities in
the markets and to provide uniform rules for commerce. Disrupting the functioning
of the market always leads to disaster. His empire disintegrated not long
after.
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| Confucius, revered ancient philosopher His teachings on ethics are still present |
Long lasting achievements of this period are the
adoption of Confucianism as the state philosophy, the invention and production
of paper, establishing the Silk Road for export trading, normalization of the
Hanzi (Han characters) logographic system of writing that is still used today,
and requiring a civil service exam
system that professionalized the bureaucracy. There were many cultural and
scientific advancements that impacted the future of the Chinese mindset, but
the promotion of Confucianism explains much of the character of Chinese
political leaders, or at least, the mask they wear.
Confucianism is not a religion, but its ethical system
and moral code is parallel to those of other religions but without the
theological beliefs and rituals that characterize religions. It emphasizes personal
and governmental morality, harmonious social relationships, righteousness,
kindness, sincerity, and a ruler's responsibilities to lead by virtue. Confucius's
ideas received official sanction during the Han Dinasty, with affiliated works
becoming mandatory readings for career paths leading to officialdom. The
administrative ruling class was institutionalized by a code of ethics.
2,000 YEARS IN BRIEF
For the past two millennia, the political ruling class dominated many neighboring tribes with related ethnicities inside the territory we know today as China. The Han still dominate with the largest population. Ethnographers vary in the estimates of the number of peripheral groups that have been absorbed or dominated between 56 and 200. Even the famous Mongol conquerors were transformed into great “Chinese Emperors”. Many centuries ago, they invaded countries known today as Viet Nam, Korea, Japan, and Java. They expanded West into the central dessert. They resisted overseas invaders during the last six centuries that never got far inland, such as Portuguese, English, Japanese, and in 1900 the 8 nations involved in the Boxer War or Boxer Rebellion. This was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China that provoked the defense of the expatriate European, Japanese and American residents. It involved a coalition that included Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States.
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| An opium den, circa 1900 |
THEIR OPIUM OUR FENTANYL?
Then, there is also the dark chapter of the “Opium
Wars”. Everything you have been told about the Mexican, Colombian, and
Venezuelan drug cartels, their illicit drug trade and the irreparable damage
they cause to the people of the United States, has an antecedent. The Opium
Wars of the mid-19th century between China and primarily Britain, reshaped
China's relationship with the West and marked the beginning of a period of
unequal treaties and resentment. The consequences for China were enduring and
were a major factor in the collapse of the political establishment that had
lasted for two millennia.
Opiates have been in use for thousands of years for medicinal and religious purposes. Regions of central Asia supplied the opium, such as Turkmenistan. Afghanistan still does it today. Promoting its use for “personal recreational use” is the new name given to promoting drug addiction. Abundance of cheap drugs make it possible. The British caused massive endemic addiction to opium in China since the XVIII century but peaked mid XIX century. Earlier, Portuguese merchants had discovered they could buy opium in India to trade for Chinese goods Europeans liked, such as porcelain (in English is still called “china”), silk, tea and paper. Once British interests controlled India, they massively grew opium there to export to China. This was done as “trade policy” by the British Empire. It gradually weakened the Chinese economy and led to the collapse of the ruling dynasty and the end of the Celestial Empire.
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| An opium den in Shanghai circa 1960 |
How did it happen? Widespread opium addiction affected millions, mainly in the large coastal cities that were the hubs benefiting from the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and exporting to Europe. Trading zones to keep the filthy, drunk foreigners out were set up since the XVII century. Macao had been established first by the Portuguese centuries earlier, followed by Hong Kong set up by the British.
DRUGS DESTROYED THE CELESTIAL EMPIRE
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| Puyi, the last emperor of China. Ascended to the throne as a child. His mother and the ruling elite of the Forbidden City ruled. After abdicating and going through public shaming under the Cultural Revolution, he ended his days as a street sweeper |
Opium abuse became endemic. It reduced labor productivity, created syndicates of crime and led to social disruption. Massive opium imports drained the gold and silver reserves, destabilizing the currency and inflationary pressures increased. The forced opening of treaty ports allowed foreign powers to control significant segments of China’s commerce, bypassing the traditional customs and economic structures, and weakening the ruling Emperor.
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| Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in China He is considered the founder of modern China |
The first war with Japan broke in 1894 over control of Korea. The Chinese military loss exposed their ineptitude, which weakened the government further. The following humiliation of the Boxer War provoked by 1911 the conditions for a revolution that ended China’s last imperial dynasty. A republic was declared led by a modernizing Sun Yat-sen. It did not last long and an attempt to restore the Empire led to another period of civil war before failing. Sun Yat-sen and his supporters formed the nationalist party Kuomintang (KKP). Their platform was promoted as Nationalism, Democracy and Socialism, clearly opposing the Soviet international socialism and closer to what was happening in Germany and Italy, and even Japan. Socialism has many masks.
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| Chinese Hyperinflation destroyed the National Democratic Socialism regime of the KKP led by Chiang Kai-shek. Photo of a merchant cashier |
SOCIALIST HYPERINFLATION LED TO COMMUNISM
By 1923, the rearrangement of the European forces after WW I, and the emergence of the Soviet Union, led the republican forces to form alliances. Sun Yat-sen accepted the cooperation of the Soviets, which gain him the support of the Chinese communists. With Soviet help, he established a military academy to create new armed forces. To head the academy, he appointed Chiang Kai-shek, who had studied in Japan. Sun died of cancer in 1925 and was succeeded by Chiang who formed the Government of the Republic of China (ROC). Chiang was a national socialist, anti-Soviet and immediately began the conflict with the Chinese communists. Nevertheless, the nationalist and communist forces collaborated against the common enemy of Japan from 1927 to 1937, until their rupture led to the Chinese Civil War. The war became a three front conflict when Japan expanded the territories it controlled, mainly the regions of the large cities on the Pacific Ocean across from Japan.
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| Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong meeting while allied to combat Japan |
The Western allies aided the KMT as part of the WW II
operations against Japan which ended in 1945. Within the communist forces of
the CCP, a young officer Mao Zedong rose to power as their leader and mobilized
rural forces against Chiang’s regime once the Japanese front was closed.
MAO DID NOT WIN - INFLATION DID
Although victory was attained by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Mao, it may be more the case of total implosion by monetary mismanagement of Chiang’s Kuomintang (KKP) nationalist socialist party. The value of China’s paper money on the foreign-exchange market reflected this huge depreciation of the currency. In June 1937, 3.41 yuan traded for one U.S. dollar. By December 1941, on the black market 18.93 yuan exchanged for a dollar. At the end of 1945, the yuan had fallen to 1,222 to the dollar. And by May 1949, one dollar traded for 23,280,000 yuan. The Kuomintang was totalitarian in its structure, corrupt and often as ruthless as the communists in its use of terror, military or police. Any popular support the KKP may have enjoyed against the communists at the start was wiped out by the horrors of hyperinflation.
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| The elite of the administrative ruling class that opposed soviet communism escaped to the small island of Taiwan where the ROC, the Republic of China continues |
Chiang and the KKP survived in exile. A massive exodus from the mainland to the small island of Taiwan transferred 1.2 million of the Chinese ruling elite. Formosa had just been abandoned by Japan after the end of the war. Before, it had been a Portuguese possession for centuries. Since 1947, The Republic of China ceased to exist in China. Having learned the lessons of hyperinflation and totalitarian dictatorship, they rose from the ashes of defeat to become one of the freest and most prosperous liberal democracies in the world. The story of the Republic of Taiwan remains to be told. Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek were ethnic Han.
THE TIGERS OF ASIA AWAKEN
All of them
went through traumatic processes of absorbing refugees from communism. The last
wave of refugees came fleeing the Viet Nam war. In only two generations they
left poverty and underdevelopment behind. Today, 70 years later, these economic
Tigers are among the most prosperous and free countries in the world. The 2025
Heritage Foundation’s ranking in the Economic Freedom Index places Singapore as
#1, Taiwan as # 4, South Korea as # 17. Hong Kong is no longer ranked
independently, and as part of China is now # 151. North Korea is last at # 176.
During the last twenty years, the United States of America has dropped from an
initial position of # 6, to a much less free country in 2025 at # 26.
The sad exception is Hong Kong that was taken over by communist China in 1996 after being “loosely” (freely and with a minimum law and order government) under British control for 156 years as a colonial trading post. Hong Kong has been in decline for twenty five years and serves mostly as the laundry of all the dirty deals of the Chinese Communist Party, including dumping and as a gateway for foreign investment. Its decline has benefitted Singapore most, receiving massive amounts of capital flight.
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| Communist China under Soviet dominance. A parade in Beijing celebrating the birthday of Stalin. Everyone in uniform |
THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Nothing is more private and personal than decisions
related to the family. Economists dehumanize the community of families with the
label of population and the masks of statistics. The Chinese communist
population policies meddling with family
size are equivalent to genocide.
Even before final victory, Mao initially encouraged
population growth believing that a larger workforce would be beneficial for the
economy. In a market economy this is correct, as each free person will maximize
opportunities leading to growth. Free people are the source of wealth creation.
Under communism, this policy is equivalent to just raising more chickens or
pigs. In just a few years, the policy resulted in the highest birth rate in the
world at more than 6%! In a stagnant state controlled economy this is not
sustainable and the rapid increase in population led to disaster. The tragedy
of the famine was accelerated, and China became an example of the population bomb announced by
Malthus two centuries earlier. It is an evident error in central planning.
It did not take long for the policy to be reversed.
Massive birth control campaigns with the goal of reducing the birth rate to 2%
were supported with severe restrictions in accessing houses, jobs, food
allowances and even bicycles. In 1979, the disaster was increased with long
term consequences when the CCP introduced the “one child per family” policy.
This had the effect of reducing drastically the population, but particularly of
women. It is estimated that more than 60 million girl embryos and newborns were
“sacrificed”. This consequence, unforeseen by the planners, resulted from the
family units preference of male sons since the traditional Chinese care for the
elderly is a duty of the males. Two generations later, an equally serious
unforeseen consequence became a scandal. There are not enough women to marry an
excess of 50 million single men. The “one child” policy was recently relaxed,
but it may very well explain two situations that are still happening. For many
years now, girl babies have been abundantly available for foreign adoptions.
The other one is the flight of young males that seek a future anywhere else but
in China. This is the most evident failure of centralized planning in history.
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| The Mob rewarded, Mao's Red Guards, all uniformed young people. Everyone had to learn Mao's Little Book of Sayings. The young Red Guards were in charge of shaming during the failed Cultural Revolution. Vintage poster |
Following Marx’s idea that for the socialist plans to
work a “new kind of man” is required, in 1966 Mao launched “The Cultural
Revolution” that lasted ten years. It focused on destroying family values,
traditional beliefs, academics and intellectuals, artists and art, cultural
heritage, buildings and monuments. It was meant to purge “capitalist and
western ideas”. Millions were persecuted, imprisoned or displaced. Prominent
academics were sent to harvest rice or plow the fields. Brainwashing was
invented, forcing more than two million people to public shaming and
re-education. It ended when Mao died in 1976. The excesses committed by the mob,
called “The Red Guard”, and the threat to tradition that Mao’s extreme policy
posed, created animosity and a great loss of popularity of the CCP. This was
sensed by other members of the 25 member Politburo, the effective cabinet.
Zhou Enlai personifies the highest level of the
administrative ruling elite. A quiet devoted revolutionary that acted behind
the scenes to mitigate the damage caused by the Cultural Revolution; an
experienced diplomat that travelled the world representing China in many crises
that came up during the Cold War, particularly with the United States. In 1971,
China was concerned about the Soviet’s increasing aggression and political
interference. The United States was also interested in preventing any possible
annexation of China by the Soviets that would increase the power of
international communism. That created an opportunity to drive a permanent wedge
between the two most powerful communist states and the possibility to end the
Viet Nam war. The US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made two secret trips
to China to meet with Zhou to prepare a State visit by President Richard Nixon
to normalize the diplomatic relations that were suspended since 1949. Nixon
visited Beijing for a week in February of 1972.
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| Mao Zedong, Richard M. Nixon and Henry Kissinger Mao was already ill and incapacitated. The real power was held by Zhou Enlai |
THE WEEK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Throughout the visit President Nixon and his senior
advisers met with the PRC leadership, including a quick visit with frail CCP chairman Mao Zedong. He had
been in hospital just a few days before the visit. Nixon dubbed his visit "the
week that changed the world". The consequences were immediate. A significant
shift in the Cold War balance, driving an ideological wedge between the Soviet
Union and the People's Republic of China. The Soviets began to make concessions,
and their mask began to fall. Taiwan and Japan felt somewhat betrayed. The Viet
Nam war that was inherited from the French decolonization since 1955, involved
the United States increasingly since 1961, and lasted until 1975. Nixon
committed to ending it during his Presidency and pressure was put on China,
without immediate results. But transparent diplomatic channels were open. Sports
diplomacy and cultural exchanges began to happen.
As it turned out, Zhou Enlai died of cancer before Mao, both in 1976. Two years of power struggles followed between Mao’s family, his personal entourage and the CCP ruling elite. In 1978, a very short and quiet Deng Xiaoping, a new leader began a process of reform. By then, Japan had recovered from WW II and the progress made by the Asian Tigers was evident for the world to see, serving as a shameful contrast to China. Deng announced that the PRC would start “opening-up” to changes in the economic policies that had been followed. The Cultural Revolution and Mao’s era were over.
THE STORIES OF THREE SMALL GIANTS
During “The Great Leap Forward”, the CCP made a series of economic reforms, and the most disastrous of them was the collectivization of private and family farms. Famine followed. A quarter of the population in the rural areas perished from starvation. In Xiaogang village alone, 67 villagers died of starvation out of a population of 120 between 1958 and 1960. That is the where, when and who of the real Chinese Revolution. It is a secret that has slowly leaked because it has been masked with a new language to conceal the truth. This is the story of Yan Hongchang, a small 29 year old peasant, head of a small family, who had been designated by the CCP’s regional chief to be responsible for the production quota assigned to his village commune.
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| Yan Hongchang's humble hut, the place where the real Chinese Revolution began |
Deng Xiaoping’s “opening-up” led in January of 1979 to the normalization of diplomatic relations
with the United States. Sports and
academic exchanges had just resumed, and to his surprise, Milton Friedman
received an invitation later in the year to visit China to lecture at
university. At the age of 68, he was the most famous economist in the world. He
had appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1969. He was considered the father of the
“Monetarist School” after debunking Keynes ideas on inflation and unemployment
by predicting the first appearance of “stagflation” and simplifying the formula
that explains monetary inflation. Friedman triumphed. He won the Nobel Prize in
1976. With his wife Rose, they published “Free to Choose”, a popular review of
the free-market principles. It later became a PBS TV series. It made Friedman’s
name synonymous with the free market. When he served as a senior economic
policy adviser for Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, his influence
grew even greater. I had the honor of meeting him and his wife on several
occasions and heard parts of his anecdote from them. With his diminutive
stature and easy-going deliverance, he impacted audiences around the world.
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| Milton and Rose Friedman, economic scholars, Visited and lectured in China on three occasions. |
THE MASK OF THE DA BAOGAN
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| The humble farmers of Xiaogang village led by Yan Hongchang rediscover the foundations of the free market: self-preservation, private property and profit in the freedom of the underground and illegal economy. They stopped the famine caused by communism |
A couple of harvests later, the local CCP official learned of the clandestine agreement. He accused the group of destroying the cornerstone of socialism and threatened severe punishment. Privately, the communist official admitted to Yan that since the pact had been signed, the village’s winter harvest had increased sixfold, which made him look good. He agreed to protect Xiaogang village and the “treasonous” farmers so long as their experiment didn’t spread. But it did.
The secret was
not easy to keep. The system spread from village to village, quickly leading to
a 600% increase in regional production. China’s new leader, Deng Xiaoping,
looking to help China recover, investigated the unusual results. Rather than
being punished, Yan was recognized as the hero who inspired Deng Xiaoping.
Instead of honesty, the CCP chose another mask. Yan
Hongchang was declared a national hero, an innovator of Chinese Socialism! His
agreement with his neighboring peasants received a new glorious communist name DA
BAOGAN. This mask means Household Contract Responsibility System.
Yan rediscovered the benefits of private property,
the incentives for self-interest as a natural law that does not mean “greed”,
and the real meaning of profit. Like Adam Smith proposed, the market economy is
just an extension of our natural liberty and common sense. It is not a Western
Capitalist invention.
The small giant hero of the village of Xiaogang is recognized discreetly with his own modern museum, all the real explanations redacted, facts politically corrected and in the language of deceit that characterizes all Marxist programs. They can’t admit that what saved communist China from starving was the spontaneous re-discovery of the ancient roots of the free market system.
Why was Friedman invited to visit China?
Under Deng Xiaoping price controls began to loosen. Since
Mao’s regime, prices had been fixed for decades, repressing inflationary
pressures, but causing scarcities, hoarding, black markets and dislocation of
resources. They knew that liberating prices would inevitably lead to price
adjustments, meaning rising prices. CCP propaganda regularly claimed that
communism had eradicated inflation in China, which they describe as a scourge
of capitalism. Friedman was invited because he had become the economist that
knew about inflation. When the announcement was made, one bureaucrat explained
that “Keynesians advocate inflation, and Friedman is opposed to inflation.” They
did not seem aware of his passion as a defender of economic freedom after being
a young socialist who later admitted “we are all Keynesians now” and finally
discovered the truth and dangers of inflationary collectivism.
During his 1980 visit, Friedman lectured at universities about money and inflation explaining that the relationship between them has nothing to do with political ideologies, but with a non-political relationship with the amount of money in circulation and the sum total of goods and services being transacted in the market. Pre-capitalist , historic examples are abundant. Academic interest was sparked, but the official reaction was not enthusiastic. Inside the CCP criticism was ominous.
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| Milton Friedman discusses inflation with Premier Zhao Ziyang in 1980 |
Without flinching, Deng ordered Zhao
Ziyang, Premier of China, to expand DA BAOGAN to the industrial sector and
the cities. Rules with incentives were created for the SOEs -State Owned
Enterprises. China boomed between 1980 and 1988. But the threat of creeping
price inflation continued.
The expanded
liberalization policy created two markets: the free market with free prices fed
by the excesses of the quotas, and the official market with controlled prices.
One had abundance, variety, competition, and community life. The other one was
feeding the black markets, created incentives for corruption, and never had
enough supply or variety. The contradictions of the dual-system of prices
remained a problem. In the summer of 1988, Deng Xiaoping decided to order an
overnight liberalization of the price system.
A crisis immediately followed as prices had risen
nearly 25 percent in the month of
August. Soon, hardline Marxists opposed the market liberalization and began
planning to roll back the reforms as unrest in the streets began. Premier Zhao made a courageous decision. He
would meet with a leading foreign economist to seek advice. Friedman was in
China for a conference in Shanghai. Subsequent events would prove that Zhao
took great political risks in seeking advice from the 76 year old capitalist
professor.
Friedman and Zhao spoke for nearly two hours. Friedman
argued that China should decontrol prices in “one bold stroke.” In advance, he
had sent a memorandum outlining his suggestions. Zhao referenced the Party’s
1987 decision to establish an economy in which “the state manages the
market, and the market guides the enterprises.” Friedman’s response “Impossible:
The state is organized from the top down; the market, from the bottom up. The
two principles are incompatible.” He asserted that the dual-track system
was making goods more expensive, not less, because, although prices were still supressed,
the costs of waiting in lines, shortages, and other negative effects were high.
Thus, creeping inflation would persist as long as the dual-track system
remained in place.
Rumors began spreading about the close connection
forged between the two men. The press had positive reporting. Friedman left
China convinced that real market reforms were about to be adopted.
He was wrong. He and Zhao had miscalculated.
During the ten
previous years to the 1988 meeting, the common people in China had experienced substantial freedoms
and improvements in their limited quality of life choices. One method to
destroy the differentiated individual identity of each person is to make them
look alike, the uniform.
During Mao’s regime and until the reforms began, everyone in China had to wear the same uniform. Mao made a fashion statement that has been brought back by Xi on special occasions. The Zhongshan Suit, also known as the Mao suit, was the inspiration. the Men and women wore the same design of a jacket-style shirt, pants and a small cap. Genders and personalities were erased in public. You did not have a choice, but there were three colors assigned depending of who you were: green, blue and gray. With reforms, the uniforms were abandoned except for the military and CCP. People had the small freedom to wear what they chose. I travelled to China during the uniforms and returned just a few years later when they had been abandoned. Just that bit of freedom made a big difference in the spirit of the people on the streets. People smiled College students were inspired by those returning from visits out of China, as well as by professors from US colleges invited to teach. Remember! The examples of the awaken Asian Tigers next door were visible. Hong Kong was a thorn on the CCP’s policies.
ZHAO’S
DEMISE – REFORM PAUSED
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| Iconic photo of the student that tried to stop the tanks from entering Tiananmen Square to quash the student protests |
1989 marks the year of the student massacres in the
infamous Tiananmen Square, officially erased in the history of China.
Martial law was declared, the tanks rolled out on the streets, and Zhao was
erased from history too. It is little known that before the tanks rolled into
the square after the students had occupied it for several weeks, Zhao made a
bold move. Zhao walked out to speak to the students directly. He held a small
megaphone close to his mouth as his voice filled with emotion. “We came too
late,” he told the students. “Whatever you say and criticize about us is
deserved.”
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| Army tanks destroyed during the attempts to stop the student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square |
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| The Chinese army cleaning Tiananmen Square after the massacre of an estimated 10,000 college students whose bodies are still missing. The protests, the riots, the tanks, the blood spilled...It never happened in Chinese history |
The official narrative suggested a conspiracy between Zhao and foreign agents. Milton Friedman had just a few days before been honored with an Honorary Professorship at Fudan University with the applause of students. Milton Friedman never took credit for starting a counter-revolution in China in favor of freedom to choose.
THE THIRD SMALL GIANT
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| President Jimmy Carter and former President Richard Nixon talk with Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping of China during a reception in 1979. Carter did not want to invite Nixon who had resigned as a consequence of The Watergate Scandal. Deng indicated he would not attend unless Nixon was present. A recognition of the importance that Nixon's policy represented to the Big Small Giant Reformer of China and its future as a country. |
The discreet but popular support for the reforms was
awaken. Two and a half years after Tiananmen, a new generation of reformers launched
a new re-start. Many of Zhao’s policies resumed without acknowledging his
initiatives. He remains erased to this day.
Friedman was welcomed back to China in 1993 for
official meetings. No one mentioned he had been called an agent of capitalism
that wanted to destroy Chinese socialism.
By the way, Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang were also
ethnic Han, high members of the ancient ruling elite of Imperial
Administrators that is masking now as the CCP.
In 2012, Xi Jinping was appointed General Secretary of
the CCP, beginning his rule of China. He had been carefully groomed since his
childhood by the CCP. His father was one of Mao’s guerrilla commanders.
In 2013, Xi began establishing his centralized,
strongman style of rule. Party bosses from across China massed in Beijing to
hear him speak. Facing the assembled officials at the National Propaganda and
Ideology Work Conference, Xi took his mask off when he said, “Western anti-China forces are seeking to
overthrow the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and China’s Socialist
system”. In the face of these threats, Xi said, the party must “dare to
bare the sword.” Since then, the sword has been pointing to the United
States of America.
In 2017, Xi introduced his guiding doctrine to the 19th
National Congress of the CCP. It has since become part of the CCP’s
constitution. It is labeled as “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
for a New Era”. In his over three-hour long speech, he highlighted 14
key points. The first one states: “"It is necessary to adhere to the
leadership of the party over all work. Among the party, the government,
the military, the people, the academia and all circles, the party leads
all." It is not only a one
party rule, but also TOTALITARIAN.
The party is “the state” where all power resides. Since then, the
constitution was changed to allow Xi Jingpin to rule for life.
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| Communists are looking for other masks. Instead of the traditional massive May 1 parades against capitalism, they invented Victory Day. Moscow claimed to have defeated Fascism in Europe during WWII, and China claimed to have defeated Japan in WW II. The cult of personality has increased. Notice that the parade featured Xi Jinping, Chairman for Life in China. |
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| Vladimir Putin impersonating Vladimir Lenin, Xi impersonating Mao (Even using the Mao style suit) and Kim Jong Un impersonating his grandfather and father. Hereditary dictators have discovered a new method of inheritance. Totalitarian power is better that genetics. |
Has the USA been consistent in steering China towards
more economic freedom and political reform that would reinforce that freedom?
The answer is no. Changes in our governing party with swings in ideology and
policy have been the rule; having Presidents with weak convictions has allowed
China to be subsidized by the United States economy to the point it has become
a major threat to our economy and institutional survival.
Was Nixon wrong in reaching out to China? No, but his
initial success was muddled by his own policy mistakes regarding monetary high
inflation followed by price controls and abandoning the gold standard. These
policies can’t be called free market oriented policies.
His accidental successor barely transferred power to
Democrat Jimmy Carter who increased inflation and his contradictory Keynesian
policies turned into stagflation, scarcity and lines at stores that led to his
defeat by Ronald Reagan. Carter weaponized “human rights” around the world
against many US allies and was silent about the major culprits, favoring the communist
expansion in the Third World.
Reagan, advised by Milton Friedman, brought the
economy under control and his clear and frontal approach to communism around
the world led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and a weakening of its
influence. It is no accident that Deng Xiaoping made his bold moves for reform
during the Reagan’s years.
In 2000, Clinton paved the way for China to Join the
World Trade Organization, which was approved by George W. Bush the next year. Since
then, the US never really sought enforcement of the rules continuously violated
by China since joining. The Chinese CCP stole intellectual property, perhaps
the most valuable form of capital created in the USA, and immediately
replicated it against the USA economy,
Obama’s period reflected his ignorance of everything
related to China, except for the brief experiences in eating Chinese food
during his youth in Hawaii. His presidential period was guided first by socialist
Hillary Clinton who believed the US needed to apologize for being the only
super-power and invited China to become an equal partner, a policy initiated
during Carter by Zbigniew Brezinski. Obama’s second term was led by the Climate
Czar John Kerry, who ignored China’s encroachments and responsibility in
whatever he was pushing about the environment, only to accept culpability of
the United States because of its capitalist system. In 2014, Chinese companies
began to list their shares in the NYSE, tapping the free capital markets
without meeting the stringent transparency and governance requirements. The
shares funded with US investors funds are now more than 20% of the value of the
shares traded in all the exchanges in China. A handful of US financial
companies have steered the massive retirement funds of unions and employee
retirement plans to fund the totalitarian Chinese government controlled
“private sector” enterprises. Biden’s election just returned the open door
policy to Chinese and Russian abuse.
WHAT NOW?
Although the previous paragraph is hyperbolic and
abbreviated, it demonstrates that our lack of continuity of internal economic
and foreign policies allowed China to reach the point where it is now. Supported
and propped up by our own socialist politicians disguised as the middle of the
road Keynesian promoters of inflation, China has become a threat instead of a
fair trading partner that creates mutual benefits.
Where is China in the Marxist scheme of altering history, manipulating
language and creating masks to conceal the illusions and fraud of its failings?
Just like we see in the Soviet Union and in most of its former satellites,
there has not been a Marxist in China for many decades. They know it does not
work. They should realize that the rejection they make of anything capitalist
and Western really applies to Marxism. It does not belong to the West either.
It is a gross intellectual error that needs to be abandoned, but with clarity.
Just like Yan Hongchang discovered DA BAOGAN, and just
like Chinese emigrants for centuries
became the successful merchant classes all over the Pacific coastline of Asia,
and migrants and refugees have succeeded at all levels in the United States of
America, Chinese people can discover the harmony between the ethics of the
market economy and the ethics of Confucius. The ruling elite must trust the
freedom and common sense of The People. The Chinese center of government is
still in the Han area. Xi Jingpin is ethnic Han. So was Mao Zedong. Is the Chinese totalitarian system based on racist dominance over the other more than one hundred ethnicities that exist in their territory?
The paradox of the moment is that while the Chinese
youth gives their lives for freedom, ours becomes the “enemy within” promoting
the communist agenda. They claim, “our time has come”. Has it?
“In a well governed country,
poverty is something to be ashamed of.
In a badly governed country,
wealth is something to be ashamed of”
Confucius (551-479 BC)
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