THE WORLD HAS READ CHINA’S BOOK
4 December 2020
In the legendary Hollywood film, “Patton”, my favorite scene is
when U.S. General George S. Patton has just spent weeks studying
the copious writings of his vain German adversary Field Marshall
Erwin Rommel. As he pulverizes Rommel’s feared Panzers in an epic
tank battle in Tunisia, Patton gloats: “Rommel, you magnificent
bast****, I read your book”
If the delusional Chinese leadership thought that a change of
guard in the White House would be manna from heaven, Joe Bidens
first interview to the New York Times published on 2 December
should be a rude shock
And that was soon after CNN broke a story, based on leaks
from behind China’s Great Wall of Disinformation, on how China,
through misleading public data, obfuscated the origin and progress
of its virus that has devastated the world
“I want to make sure we’re going to fight like hell by investing
in America first”, the President-elect was quoted as saying.
“America first?” – isn’t that Donald Trump’s invention?
And Biden’s America First is huge government investments in
research in energy, biotech, advanced materials, and artificial
intelligence
Technology is never static. What China stole yesterday will be
obsolete tomorrow. And now that the world’s biggest technology
heist has been called, its mastermind is up the creek without a
paddle (as the Americans say)
The top US Intelligence official John Ratcliffe wrote in an op-ed
on 3 December 2020 in The Wall Street Journal that “the
intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the US and the rest
of the planet economically, militarily and technologically” labeling
China the biggest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since
the second world war and saying it was bent on global domination
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President-elect Joe Biden stressed that his “goal would be
to pursue trade policies that actually produce progress on
China’s abusive practices – that’s stealing intellectual property,
dumping products, illegal subsidies to corporations” and
forcing ‘tech transfers” from US companies to their Chinese
counterparts
It hasn’t helped China’s reputation that America’s richest state
California, with 40 million solidly democratic voters, faces such a
surge in Chinese virus cases (15,000 new cases daily) that its
overwhelmed hospitals might be forced to turn patients away by
Christmas, the Governor has warned
Biden’s nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, Janet
Yellen, has called the damage done to livelihoods, businesses,
households and local Governments “an American tragedy” that
could lead to long-term devastation
On 2 December, the US House of representatives approved
a bill (earlier passed unanimously by the Senate) that would
prevent foreign companies that refuse to open their books to
US accounting regulators from trading on US stock exchanges
All US-listed foreign companies would also be required to
disclose whether they are owned or controlled by a foreign
Government (including the Communist Party of China)
Senator John Kennedy said in a statement after the vote that
the US system had allowed China to “flout rules that American
companies play by and it is dangerous”
So far, Beijing ordered its overseas traded companies to
hold their audit papers in mainland China, where only the
Chinese Government could see them
The bipartisan cosponsors of the resolution said their aim
was to “kick deceitful Chinese companies off US exchanges”
Earlier this year, Nasdaq-listed Chinese coffee firm Luckin
Coffee was booted out of Nasdaq for massive accounting
regularities
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Instead of the usual bravado about how this resolution would
further damage the already crumbling US economy (remember
China’s abuse against Australia), a frightened Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesperson pleaded with the US Government to
“provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for
foreign companies to invest and operate in the US, instead of
trying to set up various barriers”
Of course, Chinese companies with foreign investment
operating in USA can co-list in Hong Kong, but in the event of a
dispute, the arbitrator/judge would be a Communist Party of China
official!
The impact of China’s stupidity in Hong Kong is only now
being felt
On 4 December 2020, the US Government banned cotton
imports from a powerful Chinese quasi-military organization,
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), one of China’s
largest producers, that it says uses the forced labour of detained
Uighur Muslims
Interestingly, US apparel makers including the American
Apparel and Footwear Association and the National Retail
Federation, said they were on the “front lines of efforts to ensure
forced labor does not taint our supply chains or enter the United
States”
The Australian parliament has just passed the Foreign
Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Bill 2020 that gives
the federal government power to veto any agreement made by state
Governments with foreign countries
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was vital that Australia
"speak with one voice," adding that "where any of these agreements
undermine how the federal government is protecting and promoting
our national interests they can [be] cancelled”
In 2018, the Victoria state government signed an agreement to
join the Bilk and Road Initiative (BRI). Chinese officials had
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understood the dynamics, perspectives, knowledge, and motivation
at state-level administration in Australia well
But when the new law was passed, China’s Foreign Ministry
spokesperson, known for bluster, pleaded that Australia should
“have an objective view of such cooperation…and not set up
impediments”
Of course, China will continue to block imports from Australia!
Is Xi PingPong choking on his chop suey?
If you thought China was a superpower (as it deludes itself)
watch it crumble without access to Western technology and finance
In the early seventies, angry Arabs sought to hit back at
perceived western connivance in their humiliation by Israel by using
oil as leverage
Following the Yom Kippur war of 1973, the OPEC cartel
(formed 1960) introduced an oil embargo against countries thought
to have supported Israel (USA, Canada, Japan, UK) and jacked up
oil prices (by three times) severely hurting the global economy,
including their friends like India
The 1979 Iranian Revolution that further disrupted oil
supplies and further damaged economic progress in nations that
relied on energy supplies from the region
The Gulf and the Middle East became the focus of global
geopolitics, as others looked at Arabs with a mixture of angst and
envy
China tried to play the same game in 2019 through its virus.
But the gambit failed
Inventiveness, the American version of jugaad, was on full
display in New York where I spent several weeks recently. The city
that never sleeps worked its way around the pandemic
Realizing that its roads could do much more than move cars
and buses, the City allowed restaurants to take over sidewalks and
parking lots and transform them into magical eating places with
fairy lights and plants
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And children went back to playing on the city’s side streets
Senior citizens like me enjoyed our walks in the city’s splendid
parks as the usual crowds were elsewhere
Like old proud New York, America is being born anew
9/11 did not break our spirit, says my nephew Aman Vohra,
made in New York. We were shocked but not shattered. We fought
back and we won
We will overcome the Chinese threat too
But what of China itself? Having painted itself into a corner, it
continues to lie and deceive
In an attempt to redeem China’s image, a Chinese travel
agency is offering an 8-day trip to Shanghai and Beijing from USA
(including flights, hotels and tours) for USD 299, fully refundable,
for travel in 2021-2022
There have been few takers so far! China suffers from severe
TDS, Trust Deficiency Syndrome
At a news conference in June, China's State Council had
released a White Paper saying the Chinese government had always
published information related to the epidemic in a "timely, open and
transparent fashion... with a keen sense of responsibility to
humanity, its people, posterity, and the international community
…providing information in a thoroughly professional and efficient
way. It has released authoritative and detailed information as early
as possible on a regular basis, thus effectively responding to public
concern and building public consensus”
Ha!
On 2 December 2020, Dr Robert Redfield, Chief of the Centres
for Disease Control in Atlanta warned that the next two months
would be the most difficult in US health history
He said that the nation is facing a devastating winter, predicting
that Covid-19 deaths could reach “close to 450,000” by February
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unless a large percentage of Americans follow precautions like mask-
wearing
You think that America will love China again?
Following India’s lead, many countries are banning Chinese
apps and businesses
Samsung has started pulling out from China into
neighbouring Vietnam. The Vietnamese, also communists, have
offered it China-plus facilities
Nepal was lukewarm in its reaction to the Chinese Defence
Minister’s visit. Bangladesh cancelled it altogether
At a financial seminar in Shanghai a few weeks ago, the poster
child of Chinese success Jack Ma (founder of e-commerce giant
Alibaba) said that China did not have a financial system. His
posters have been torn down
The world was in bed with China for 30 years. The divorce
(decoupling) has started, but will be long and messy
Like George Patton, the world has read and understood
China’s book
