Biden, Trump, the CP China and the Chinese opposition
Executive Summary: China demands that the Biden administration is canceling the last economic measures and the political actions taken by Trump and Pompeo as a precondition for the restoration of a new dialogue. As Fox News and parts of Corporate America are withdrawing their support for Trump and the Republicans, the mouthpiece of the CP China, the Global Times fears that Mike Pompeo could become the next US presidential candidate for 2024 and demands that the Biden administration is calling Pompeo a „lunatic“ and his policy „insane“. The so-called Asian and Chinese (“ democratic“) opposition supported Trump and is also believing that „Beijing-Biden“ was a communist, appeasement and engagement politician and would even let Trump and authoritarian parties and groups destroy Western democracy to get support for a regime change in China. What their actual political position after Trump´s storm on Capitol Hill is, is still unknown. Independent from the Biden administration, the CP China readjusts its 14th 5- year plan and prepares its economy, society and military for a „protracted war“ against the USA. It also wants to show that the 4th modernization of the PLA is successful and publishes a report about a 3rd aircraft carrier who at its presentation is covered by a red blanket and appears more than a David Copperfield show. However, beyond those power demonstrations and the CP China´s worries about Biden´s new China policy which might be more congagement except cooperation in climate protection, fight against pandemics and Iran the CP China has another source of anxiety. Biden´s economic and financial Corona resuce programs could trigger a financial crisis in China and worldwide.
China perceives the Trump administration´s last anti-China measures designed to leave Biden a legacy he hardly can ignore and roll back. On the one side the Global Times complains about Trump´s last economic measures against Chinese high-tech companies and delisting of Chinese companies from US capital markets:
”Trump is trying to bind Biden’s hands, will he succeed?
By Wen Sheng Published: Jan 17, 2021
The outgoing Trump administration is getting more reckless and unbridled in its waning days before a new government is inaugurated and takes over. The China hawks in the scandal-ridden administration are hardening attacks on major Chinese companies, determined to send already fraught relations with Beijing to new lows for its anti-China grandstanding, as well as binding the hands and feet of the next administration.
Despite facing an unprecedented second impeachment for inciting a mob attack on the US Congress, which sent hundreds of American lawmakers into hiding for personal safety, Trump last week ordered the addition of more Chinese high-tech companies on an investment blacklist, imposing higher barriers for Chinese companies to access the US capital market, just days after delisting China’s three largest telecom carriers from the New York Stock Exchange.
Under the terms of an executive order issued by Trump, Xiaomi, the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, will see American investors barred from buying its securities and they will have to dump their existing holdings within 12 months. The administration alleges the company has links to China’s military, which is actually a leading vendor of digital devices and smart home appliances. Chinese passenger jet maker Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (Comac), Shanghai-listed Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. and six other companies were also added to the list.
Prior to the order, the world saw the administration’s „flip-flop-flip“ or double reversals on a decision to oust China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom stocks from NYSE, a move that raised global eyebrows as the Trump administration ran afoul to ruthlessly assault normal trading of securities, even at the expense of many US investors, who were forced to sell off Chinese equities at sharply depressed prices.
Further to this, US press reports revealed that Trump’s administrative team only omitted Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu from the same list as Xiaomi and Comac, on the consideration that the move will cause a severe blow to market order in the US and beyond. Some analysts say putting the three tech giants on the list will cause a seismic tremor to shake stability of the US financial system.
The focus on Chinese technology companies in the last days before President-elect Joe Biden comes to power on January 20 is a clear testament to an administration that has made countering and impeding the rise of an economic juggernaut, now running in parallel with the US, a centerpiece of its „political legacy“.
The legacy also includes a trade war with China of a historical scale, which disrupted global supply chains, made many American enterprises and households‘ livelihoods more difficult, but in the end, failed to narrow the trade gap between them and the US was left with a deeper trade deficit in 2020. The administration also poisoned people-to-people exchanges, by restricting Chinese students and scholars and shutting down the Chinese consulate office in Texas.
Over the past four years, the Trump administration’s rage and fire have concentrated on Chinese high-tech companies – the eyesores of those China hawks who are seen increasingly bare-knuckled to pummel Chinese technology upstarts to curtail the country’s growth.
Washington’s crackdown on Huawei Technologies is among the most belligerent and unrelenting, so outrageous by ordering third-party semiconductor manufacturers that use only a trifling of US technology not to produce Huawei’s self-designed 5G microchips, or they will face severe US government punishment.
Other promising Chinese technology companies that were put on the US Commerce Department’s Entity List include AI, industrial robotic, semiconductor and laser technology upstarts such as IFLYTek, SMIC, Megvii, SenseTime, Yitu Technologies, Yixin Science and Technology, Beijing Cloudmind Technology, Skyeye Laser Technology, as well as DJI, the world’s top commercial drone maker, Hikvision, a leading surveillance camera maker and Qihoo 360 Technology, a major cyber-security software company.
State-run giants including China Electronic Technology Group, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), China Communications Construction Company and China Shipbuilding Group were also placed on the US crackdown list.
The targeted companies bear the hallmark that they constitute the backbone technologies and industries that will enable China to compete with the US in the 21st century. The Trump administration is purposeful to slow down China’s meteoric ascent since 1980 and prevent a major power from chipping away at Washington’s global predominance. If China is subdued, the US could perpetuate in controlling international affairs, threatening the weak and poor nations, and coercing them to cower to the US‘ morbid interests.
The escalation in oppressing high-tech Chinese companies and decoupling them from US investors is premeditated by the unruly Trump administration to bind Biden’s hands, forcing the new government to continue Trump’s notorious pedigree of confronting China.
This explains why China’s policymakers have instituted a major change to economic development strategy by investing heavily in domestic technology innovation and relying on home market circulation, to deflect the US‘ economic and technology attack. Meanwhile, China’s giant market will be further opened to all the friendly countries.”
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1213055.shtml
It is also interesting that after Trump’s lockdown on Twitter and social media, many US companies have stopped donating to Trump and the Republicans, but quite a few have not, but Trump has raised a war box beforehand as parts of Corporate America is now also distancing from Trump:
“Call for a freeze on donations US companies turn away from Trump’s party
Leading US corporations are punishing Republicans for Donald Trump’s agitation and undemocratic behavior by turning off the party’s donation tap. That could also lead to the Grand Old Party’s departure from Trump. The outgoing US President Donald Trump is said to have reacted really furiously because his golf club in New Jersey was not able to host an important tournament in 2022. So it says in reports from the White House. After the storm on the Capitol, the American Association of Professional Golfers (PGA) pulled the rip cord. But golfers are only a small selection, because large parts of America’s companies are now distancing themselves from the current president: They condemn the agitation and undemocratic behavior of Trump and his Republican supporters in Congress – and they have announced that donations will be stopped.(…)
Wave of donation stops Trump
A whole wave of companies is now stepping on the brakes when it comes to party funding. Many of them specifically disapprove of the 147 Republican representatives in the US Congress who opposed the approval of the Democratic election winner Joe Biden in parliament, while an angry mob of Trump fans prepared to storm the Capitol. Other corporate leaders called for a general „donation break“ for both parties. There are dozen of them and they cover almost every economic sector, from Wall Street to the oil industry to big tech in Silicon Valley. They all have one thing in common: concern for the reputation of their company, which they see threatened by being too close to dubious political events. The beginning of the unprecedented movement was the insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield, the hotel chain Marriott International and the chemical giant Dow Chemical, according to the newsletter Popular Information. Four of the largest banks, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as the credit card providers Visa, American Express and Mastercard followed quickly. The telecom providers AT&T, Verizon and Comcast joined as well as General Electric, Airbnb and Amazon or American Airlines and Coca-Cola.(…)
Hardly anyone had expected that the alarming events surrounding the storming of parliament would trigger such far-reaching reactions in the world of business. Even organizations such as the Center for Responsive Politics, which use „Open Secrets“ to campaign for transparency in donations across the board, were surprised. Above all, however, a threatened drying up of the generous party funding – parallel to a second impeachment procedure for the removal of Trump – should accelerate political processes. Because a major donation correction can drive a decisive wedge between Trump and the Republican Party. „It may be,“ Jacob Parakilas of the London School of Economics (LSE) told Bloomberg, „that some people make the cynical calculation that the wind is forever turning against Trump, and that it is time for a break in the drafts Party with the outgoing President. “ oppold-impeachment.jpg Politics 01/14/21 Oppold on impeachment procedure „Trump can rely on a loyal fan base“ Donations to individual representatives in the US Senate or House of Representatives from the PACs of „Corporate America“ recently totaled several hundred million dollars. The more they pass on to the party, the greater their chances of getting a seat on a committee or a leading position, explain transparency watchdogs. Typically, a candidate can expect at least $ 10,000 per election cycle. Some Republicans had at least 60 percent of their 2020 election campaign from company donations. Break or be silent? Their loyalty to Trump could cost these partisans such checks in the future if, as announced, the companies review their donation practices in view of the undemocratic attitude.
Conversely, the break with Trump apostates can also bring in the anger of displeased and violent fans of the current president, who have already made it clear that they will not give peace anytime soon. Companies that distance themselves from Republicans include traditional GOP financiers, including AT&T and Comcast, and the Blackstone financial group, which condemned the attack on the Capitol and the Constitution. Mega donor Charles Koch from Koch Industires had encouraged Republican officials to confirm the electoral vote in favor of Joe Biden.
Other top donors from the Trump camp, however, were completely silent, as noted by the US media. These include associations of real estate dealers and developers, defense companies and well-known billionaires such as Internet investor Peter Thiel, Thomas Peterffy from Interactive Brokers or Andrew Beal from Beal Financial.
War Box
Regardless of how the Republicans‘ relationship with the outgoing president is shaken, one thing seems certain: Trump will not only leave the White House with the shadow of violence in the Capitol, but also with a well-stocked war box for future political campaigns. Allegations that Trump is said to have diverted hundreds of millions from campaign funds through a mailbox company owned by son-in-law Jared Kushner remain to be clarified. The Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) is examining a corresponding complaint about said company AMMC.”
https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/US-Firmen-wenden-sich-von-Trumps-Partei-ab-article22294949.html
Beyond defunding by parts of Corporate America, Trump also lost the support of Fox News:
“Driver of the agenda Fox News has broken with Trump. But the station is still the central medium for extremely right-wing content
As one of the very first television networks, Fox News declared Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election on November 7th. The toxic symbiosis between Donald Trump, his loyal supporters and the powerful right-wing conservative news broadcaster seemed to be dissolving. In Arizona, the state that Fox News awarded Biden before any other broadcaster, pro-Trump protesters gathered in front of a polling station and chanted, “Fox News sucks!” (“Fox News sucks!”)(…)
The broadcasting station may have awarded Biden the election victory, but it was his longest-reaching prime-time presenters – the rumbling Sean Hannity and the pinstripe fascist Tucker Carlson – who pioneered the election conspiracy theory, both long before the election and after it. More importantly, the fact that Fox decided to correctly report an undeniable election result cannot undo the years and decades in which the broadcaster was the most important medium to support and shape the worldview of white supremacy, which ultimately led to the he mainspring behind all conspiracy theories pro Trump.
The powerful network of media mogul Rupert Murdoch was the „sine qua non“ of Trump’s rise. Though relationships with some die-hard Trump fans may have worsened, Fox News is well positioned to resonate and incite the far right even after Trump leaves the White House. This is all the more true after the long overdue blocking of Trump’s Twitter account as a result of his incitement to the riots on the Capitol.
Twitter was the stage on which Trump shared the content of OAN and Newsmax with his 88 million followers; on Twitter he hit Fox News for disloyalty. And Twitter was Trump’s direct line to his cowardly followers, which he used for his most inflammatory speeches, including calling for a „wild“ protest on January 6th. Without the presidency, without Twitter, and without the support of some once-simple-minded Republicans, Trump may no longer be the chosen one to epitomize America’s white resentment.
But we can rest assured that Murdoch and the hard core at Fox New are machiavellian enough to carry on Trump’s legacy without Trump. As Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times wrote last week, „With the violence in the Capitol and Mr. Trump’s growing marginalization within his own party, Fox News is discovering a way forward: addressing the concerns of a Trump-loving audience that ultimately had to realize that his tribune had fallen. “ The broadcaster may have just lost some viewers to OAN and Newsmax, but Fox ’celebrity presenters have already indicated how they intend to win those viewers back. “What will our lives be like on January 21st?” Tucker Carlson asked his audience last Thursday, looking at the day after Biden took office. “Tens of millions of Americans don’t have a chance; they will soon be crushed by the rise of the left. These people need someone to defend them. You need someone to defend you. „When Trump is no longer in office, he assured his target group,“ the rest of us – and this is crucial – will still be here. „
Meanwhile, Steve Doocy, the host of the popular Fox and Friends program, described the far-right demonstrators at the Capitol as „99 percent peaceful“ and merely „frustrated“; his justification echoed Trump’s hideous defense of the „very decent people“ who took part in the deadly neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. Fox News presenters remain committed to Trump’s grassroots. Anyone who works to overthrow the “White Supremacy” that Trump has encouraged should see this as a danger. Fox News has done more than any other media outfit in the US to incite right-wing political violence.
Founded in 1996 by a thoroughly depraved person, Roger Ailes, Fox News has broadcast its fascist tales to American living rooms – a world where immigrants invade the US and steal jobs, Obama was born in Kenya, black violence is dominating the streets, climate change does not exist and a communist takeover of power by the (undoubtedly capitalist) democrats is imminent. The station did not produce the “white supremacy” of this nation; this ideology underpins the entire former slave colony. But Fox News, especially through moderators like Hannity, Carlson and their regulars from the Republican Party, has given this racist resentment expression and legitimacy.”
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/treiber-der-agenda
Therefore Fox News will look for a new strongman, a Trumpism without Trump, maybe with Mike Pompeo or a new shooting star, but Trump could build his own television network, has not yet lost the support of the regional Sinclair network, has a broad supporter base in the Republicans and thousands of violent and armed militias at his disposal. The FBI warns of armed protests, also at state and regional level, political murder and assassinations and a mass movement that takes on the street.
So it remains to be seen, if Trump, his daughter Ivanka or another son, Mike Pence or another new Republican shooting star will enter the 2024 US presidential elections. Interesting that the Global Times now fires on Pompeo and calls on the coming Biden administration to classify him as insane and as a lunatic., especially since Beijing regards the withdrawal of his last foreign policy measures as a precondition for any further dialogue with the Biden administration. He had left some “ticking time bombs” which could easily lead to a war.. However the Global Times sees the possibility that instead of Trump, Pompeo might run as US presidental candidate for 2024.
New US administration should view Pompeo as a ‘lunatic’: Global Times editorial
By Global Times Published: Jan 17, 2021
On Saturday US time, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted more than 30 tweets, almost all of which were directed against China. It seems that he has gone „insane.“ There are only a few days to go before he finishes his tenure as US secretary of state. Obviously, he holds a morbid fascination with this post and is making use of the last few days to show off his presence and leave some diplomatic legacy to the incoming Biden administration.
The outgoing Trump administration has become paralyzed. Most in the Trump team have resigned, and those that remain are keeping a low profile. But Pompeo is an exception. His job performance did not match his position as secretary of state, but was rather individual. He made a series of abrupt decisions targeting China, Cuba and Iran, none of which has the assurance and coordination of other policies. A normal government would not issue these policies in such haste. It is obvious that Pompeo did so out of the interests of Republican Party and his own. Analysts believe he has ambitions to run for the presidency in 2024.
Pompeo’s crazy show is a manifestation of the extreme, irrational and irresponsible China policy of the US in the past few years. The Trump administration has been aggressive in its China relations, while China has been in a defensive and restrained position, which is clear to all. Whatever countermeasures China has taken against this US administration are never overdone.
It is beyond everyone’s expectation that the US system could have allowed such serious political destruction to take place during a power transition period. Without any obstruction, Pompeo’s personal emotions are masquerading as the diplomatic proclamations of the US, a superpower. This example of „democratic politics“ seems to be like a bad joke.
We hope after the Biden administration takes power, it will consider abolishing all the abrupt diplomatic decisions the current administration has made during its last days, instead of making use of the opportunity to legitimize them. The Biden team has said it will rejoin the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization and rectify the mistakes of the Trump government. But this is far from enough. The diplomatic offenses led by Pompeo should be abolished as well.
Beijing will not accept restarting China-US relations based on the series of anti-China decisions made by Pompeo. Neither will Chinese society. If policies such as sanctions on Chinese companies released in the last few days are implemented and US officials having no restrictions in engaging with Taiwan becomes the new starting point for the Biden administration to deal with the Taiwan question, the China-US relationship is bound to suffer a larger crisis than it experienced in the past four years.
The current US administration has refused to step down in a quiet manner. Trump incited his supporters to make a farce, which is superficial resistance. But Pompeo is piling up troubles for the next administration’s foreign policies, which is resistance in a disguised form and whose destructive impact is no less than the Capitol Hill riots. To put it more precisely, Pompeo is the savage destroyer of the transitional tradition and rules of US foreign policy. He is more evil than the rioters at Capitol Hill.
The Capitol riots only cost the US itself, while Pompeo is jeopardizing nothing less than world peace and stability. If the world descends headlong into a geopolitical disaster one day, Pompeo will be revealed as the most infamous among its initiators.
Pompeo’s performance in the waning days of his tenure shows that he does not deserve the title of US secretary of state. China’s focus has shifted to the Biden team which has a window to rectify the extreme policies of its previous administration. Even if both parties in the US advocate a tough China policy, this should not affect rational adjustments.
This last ditch effort of Pompeo is like playing with fire. If he announced scrapping all the restrictions on US officials to engage with Taiwan in the early or middle phases of the Trump administration, it might have led to war. He is maliciously leaving this fatal risk to the Biden team. We hope the Biden team is determined enough to cast out all the time bombs set by Pompeo and make way for a clear bottom line for China-US relations.“
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1213067.shtml
Trump´s election loss is however perceived by most of the so called Chinese and Asian democratic opposition also as their loss and they see Biden more a “Beijing-Biden”, appeasement and engagement politcian and alleged communist.
“Asia’s pro-democracy activists surprisingly favour Trump over Biden
US president praised for talking tough with China as conspiracies about Biden embraced
A dissident once branded Enemy No 1 by the Chinese Communist Party is spreading conspiracy theories about vote-rigging in the US presidential election.
Pro-democracy campaigners from Hongkong are championing President Donald Trump’s claims of an electoral victory. Human rights activists and religious leaders in Vietnam and Myanmar are expressing reservations about president-elect Joe Biden’s ability to keep authoritarians in check.
It might seem counterintuitive that Asian defenders of democracy are among the most ardent supporters of Trump, who has declared his friendship with Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong-un of North Korea. But it is precisely Trump’s willingness to flout diplomatic protocol, abandon international accords and keep his opponents off-balance that have earned him plaudits as a leader strong enough to stand up to dictators and defend democratic ideals overseas, even if he has been criticised as diminishing them at home.
As Biden now assembles his foreign-policy team, prominent human rights activists across Asia are worried about his desire for the United States to hew again to international norms.
They believe that Biden, like former president Barack Obama, will pursue accommodation rather than confrontation in the face of China’s assertive moves. And their pro-Trump views have been cemented by online misinformation, often delivered by dubious news sources, that Biden is working in tandem with communists or is a closet socialist sympathiser.
“Biden is president, and it’s like having Xi Jinping sitting in the White House” said Elmer Yuen, a Hong Kong entrepreneur who has posted YouTube videos criticizing the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. “He wants to coexist with China, and whoever coexists with the CCP loses.”
Final stand
With Trump’s presidential tenure in its twilight, these activists are calling for the administration to make a final stand against Asian autocrats, similar to a last-ditch effort to expand the border wall with Mexico.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo took a five-nation swing through Asia in October in which he abandoned politesse and described the Chinese government as a “predator”, “lawless and threatening”, and “the gravest threat to the future of religious freedom”. The tour was meant as a counterweight to China in a region where Beijing’s dollar diplomacy has bought significant influence.
In November, Lobsang Sangay became the first head of the Tibetan government-in-exile to visit the White House; the provocative invite infuriated Beijing, which considers Sangay to be a separatist.
In June, Pompeo attended a virtual gathering with Hong Kong democracy leader Joshua Wong and President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, both of whom are loathed by the Chinese government.
Trump’s popularity is particularly enduring among Christians, such as Chinese-born legal scholars chafing against communism’s atheist core and ethnic minority activists in Southeast Asia. Pompeo and other Trump administration officials, they believe, have been fulfilling a faith-based mission overseas.
Last year, Trump met in the White House with a group of religious leaders from across the world, including Hkalam Samson, president of the Kachin Baptist Convention, which represents the persecuted Christian Kachin minority in Myanmar.
“My experience in the White House, when I was given one minute to speak out about the Kachin, meant a lot, and it also meant that Trump cares about us,” Samson said. “Trump is better for the Kachin than Biden.”
Diplomatic custom
Scepticism for Biden extends to those fighting for secular political rights as well. The president-elect’s embrace of diplomatic custom will not work when only one side is playing fairly, they say.
“For Biden’s policies toward China, the part about making China play by the international rules, I think, is very hollow,” said Wang Dan, who helped lead the 1989 Tiananmen protests as a university student. “As we know, the Chinese Communist Party hardly abides by international rules.
“The United States must realise that there will be no improvements on human rights issues in China if there is no regime change,” Wang added. He has continued to question Trump’s electoral loss, baseless claims shared by other prominent Chinese-born dissidents.
But others within the community, particularly in Hong Kong and China, said that backing Trump is hypocritical at best and dangerous at worst. “Trump’s human rights record – what he does to migrant children, the Muslim ban, white supremacy, alternative truth – removes him from my support, but this is apparently not the popular attitude among many dissidents in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan,” said Badiucao, a China-born political artist who now lives in self-exile in Australia.
Badiucao, who is known by a pseudonym to protect his family in China, has skirmished online with Wang and other well-known dissidents and has made the scuffle a topic for his art.
“These guys are utilitarian, and they believe that if Trump is waging war against the CCP then he’s right for them,” Badiucao said. “That mentality fits the whole ‘America First’ ideology, where it’s okay for other people to suffer if your goal is met, and their goal is overthrowing the CCP.”
The German newspaper Freitag (Friday) in issue 51/2020 on December 17th, 2020 is reporting the same tendency for Chinese dissidents in Germany, most prominently Liao Yiwu:
“Inner developments Portrait Liao Yiwu is a Chinese dissident and winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. And he becomes a Trump fan
In May 2018, Liao Yiwu met Freitag for an interview. His book Three Worthless Visas and One Dead Passport, in which he described his escape from China, had just been published. “In China, things happen that are beyond the imagination of the best writer,” said Liao in the two-hour conversation, speaking of Ai Weiwei, who was still living in Berlin at the time: “A few weeks ago I suddenly saw a selfie on which two people heart each other. That was Ai Weiwei and Alice Weidel. Wasn’t that guy just campaigning for refugees? As a writer, I describe characters who have an inner development, but how can someone jump so suddenly from the far left to the far right?
One would like to ask Liao, 62, the question himself. He recently retweeted Donald Trump several times, claiming that his election victory had been covered up by the “suppressive fake news media”. In addition to articles by the right-wing Breitbart News and an interview with its ex-editor Stephen Bannon, Liao shared a graphic that suggests that the Jewish US entrepreneur George Soros was involved in an election fraud. How does the “folk writer in a comprehensive sense”, who stands for “human dignity, freedom and democracy” – according to the jury that awarded Liao Yiwu the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2012 – become a supporter of Donald Trump?
When asked, Liao wrote that his posture had nothing to do with “left and right”. He does not understand English and shared Trump’s tweets because Twitter provided them with warnings that would remind them of the CCP’s censorship. Under the Trump tweet „RIGGED ELECTION!“ – forwarded by Liao without comment – you can read: „This claim about election fraud is controversial.“ „You Westerners have never been in jail for fighting for free speech, (…) but I almost died in jail,“ Liao writes. „If Trump is censored, I’ll retweet Trump. If Biden gets censored, I’ll retweet Biden. When ‚conspiracy theories‘ are censored, I retweet the ‚conspiracy theories‘. ”The only thing that should be censored and deleted is the CP that is spreading the“ Wuhan virus ”(the Trump administration’s choice of words). But it is not blocked by Twitter and „all Western media“.
Apart from the fact that Trump is not subject to censorship, but rather the fact-checking of a media company, Liao also shares articles from the Trump camp that do not contain such references, such as a Christmas greeting from Kayleigh McEnany, the spokeswoman for the White House, or the picture that fraudulently shows George Soros‘ entanglements. In the e-mails that regularly come in from Liao’s mailing list, Trump has hardly been mentioned so far. If “The truth is dead” in the subject, it referred to the cover-up of the corona outbreak in Wuhan. The announcement “Your Mother-fucking Fatherland has Come” was followed by a poem about the struggle of the Hong Kong Democrats: “On your doorsteps you will testify / Slaughter and more slaughter / Just like thirty years ago.” Back in 1989, Deng Xiaoping left Beijing brutally suppress the democracy movement.
And Liao wrote his poem Massacre, for which he was jailed for four years. In Germany, Liao found supporters in Herta Müller, Wolf Biermann and Peter Sillem, the former managing director of S. Fischer Verlag, in which most of his books were published, most recently Mr. Wang, the man who stood in front of the tanks. Liao has lived in Berlin since 2011. His engagement against the Communist Party dictatorship sometimes influences the highest ranks of German-Chinese relations.
It was also thanks to him that the artist Liu Xia, widow of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, was allowed to travel to Berlin two years ago. Liao’s appeals had reached Angela Merkel, who then stood up for the artist. Liao later attributed the success to Trump, whose hard hand was decisive in the trade war with China. Tate liberal Chinese intellectual are toying with Trumpism is not an unknown phenomenon. The Chinese political scientist Yao Lin recently referred to the conspicuous reverence for Trump by some dissidents. This is by no means only to be explained as „pure tactics“ (my enemy’s enemy is my friend) or with „neoliberal affinity“ (contempt for the CP-controlled market, admiration for the deregulatory US Republicans), but also as a „lighthouse complex“, where the USA is seen as the infallible Western ideal.
Examples are the liberal legal philosopher Gao Quanxi, who gave a lecture at Harvard University Trump in 2017, and the sociologist and human rights activist Guo Yuhua, who defended the president on Twitter in 2018 against left “hooligans”. Despite his bipolar relationship with Xi Jinping, Trump is considered by several KP critics to be the most formidable opponent the West has to offer against China. Often the same concern for existence plays a role that has made Hong Kong’s democracy activists alliance with the US Republicans; the worry that gave many Taiwanese, citizens of the most liberal country in East Asia, a queasy feeling about Joe Biden’s victory. Trump’s talk of the “socialist” candidate Biden resonates differently in minds whose existence is in the constant fire of Chinese socialism.
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/innere-entwicklungen
Even the father of the democracy wall and inventor of the 5th modernization, US exiled dissident Wei Jingsheng supported Trump, his America First and trade war policy against the free traders who would have sold out their soul and human rights in favor of the alleged big Chinese market. In a Congressional Hearing in 2016 Wei already supported Trump´s China policy :
“When Donald Trump becomes President of the United States, he is planning to abolish the TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] and to begin a trade war with China in order to save the U.S.economy. Some people say that this is a disaster. I would say this is the right way that should have started even earlier.
The reality after 16 years well explains my position–
granting China permanent most-favored-nation status, that is a permanent normal trade relationship, was a huge mistake. It did not promote the development of the U.S. economy, but was a blood transfusion from the United States to the Chinese economy. It gave China the opportunity to engage in a trade war with the United States.
The reason is as follows. The so-called free trade, refers to a unified law based on the domestic market, thus allowing the free trade. Such a free trade can be carried out normally between countries with a similar legal system. There cannot be normal free trade between countries with completely different legal systems.
For example, after trade with China liberated, there were two main problems: one was cheap labor; one was its uncertain laws that always change. Since Chinese law does not guarantee human rights, it is able to keep labor prices at a very low level. This has led to the relocation of the U.S. companies to foreign countries, while it also allows Chinese goods to enter the U.S. market with low prices, resulting in unfair competition. It is an important cause of unemployment in the United States.
China’s precarious legal system creates serious non-tariff barriers. Any local government can develop their own laws and regulations, without the need to implement the signed treatiesand agreements between the Chinese central government and the foreign countries. So they can actually close their targeted import market.
Coupled with the manipulation of the currency by the Chinese central government, those actions increased the exports and created a huge trade surplus for China. This is an important reason causing the economic recession in the United States.
Some people say, for the United States, fighting a trade war with China will end in defeat, at least a lose-lose result.
I think such statements are to confuse the U.S. policymakers. I think the United States will win this trade war, while China can only succumb to the rules developed by the United States, otherwise it will accelerate the collapse of the Chinese Communist regime.
My reasons are as follows. First, for the majority of the goods are in the buyers‘ market. The United States holds the markets, thus it has the power to develop rules, instead of forcing itself to comply with that so-called global free trade rule that cannot be enforced. The United States can formulate its own fair trade rules, to replace the invalid so-called free trade rules.
Second, the Chinese domestic market is narrow and cannot afford the disaster of losing the U.S. market. So China can only compromise on the rules thus to protect part of the market share.
Third, in the past, due to over-expansion of export production of shoddy goods, the quality of Chinese enterprises is very poor. In order to adapt to a fair market in the competition, Chinese companies must quickly upgrade. Therefore, there will be great demand for technology and services from the United States to open up the import market in the United States. This will help expand the U.S. exports and reduce its trade deficit with China.
Fourth, after improving human rights in China, the income of the Chinese working class will increase, therefore the domestic consumer market will expand. This expansion would benefit the U.S. exporters after fair trade, therefore, reducing the U.S. trade deficit and even eliminating it.
So I think that the United States will win the trade war, and in the long run will also be beneficial to the economic normalization in China. China must accept and should accept it.”
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-114hhrg23081/html/CHRG-114hhrg23081.htm
Obama officially declared the Asian pivot, wanted TTP and TTIP as free trade areas against China, but de facto was still too much focused to clean up the mess oft he Bush jr. Years in the Greater Middle East and the financial crisis. During his presidency the Chinese opposition didn´t receive any invitation into the White House and the hope that the Arab spring could trigger a Yasmin revolution in China turned out to be a pipedream.In reality, Obama also cuddled with China and during his presidency, the Chinese opposition was very silent, passive, frustrated and one had the impression that the old veterans of 1989 were retreating and enjoying their exile life and be pacified.With Trump, everything changed. China and Iran became the main adversaries, especially China as a competitor for the role of a new superpower which could replace the USA. Now the Chinese opposition got more support and attention in the media, politics and even the public. But it were not mainly the 1989 veterans who more focused on their role of a victim or the Falungong, but the sudden appearance of Chinese exile oligarch and Trump Guo Wengui in the USA.
Guo promoted the idea that by exposing acts of corruption, he will bring radical changes to China’s political system. He started a twitter community, made YouTube videos, founded the Rule of Law Society and teamed up with Kyle Bass, the chief of Hayman Capital and Steve Bannon who were also founding members oft he Committee for the Present Danger: China, an organization of China hawks, former militaries, intelligence officers, old China hands, former CIA director and Freedom House chief James Woolsey. Guo Wengui declared that he would air insider information about the CCP which would force them to change the political system. Many Chinese opposition leaders were enthusiastic and tried to get contact to him, get money and support from the billionaire for a free China, wanted to make an alliance, but Guo Wengui portrayed them in his videos and media appearances as lazy, passive, greedy opportunists, made jokes about them, didn´t give them any financial support and ridiculed them, so that they were complaining.
Guo Wengui in return accused the critics to be spies oft e CCP and even threatened some opposition critics as his former ally James Pang or the honorable pastor Fu with murder.Therefore the Chinese opposition became a hot topic for the mainstream media from Washington Post to ABC News .Some opposition members also questioned his motives and asked if Guo Wengui himself was not a Chinese spy, send to discredit, paralyze and split the Chinese opposition and US politics. If China really had the interest to topple Trump as Trump rhetorically would fight against China, but in fact undermine alliances, international institutions, the West and create power vacuums China would fill. Even inside the Committee on the Present Danger: China Steve Bannon was criticized for his support for Guo Wengui and many members have doubts if he is not some of Sun Tze´s 8 agents..However, the next big media event by Guo Wengui was to air a Declaration of the New Federal State of China“ in front of the Statue of Liberty on his yacht at the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, together with Steve Bannon. Not very much is missing to declare an exile government as the Falungong already did, but with no effect. Guo Wengui like many Asian democratic activists and dissidents hopes that Trump is reelected.He and Steve Bannon intervened in the election campaign and supported Trump, aired videos about Beijing-Biden and his son hunter who was accused to be a sympathizer for the CPC and to have sex scandals. And after Biden was elected he and many other Asian democratic activists doubt the election results and hope for a return of Trump-now or in 2024. However, it remains to be seen if some of the Asian and Chinese dissidents have changed their mind or distanced from Trump after the storm on Capitol Hill.
Perhaps there were also two considerations and camps in the Politburo of the CCP what to think of Trump and Biden and maybe they see it more flexibly and pragmatically: Toppling Trump, because he focuses on China, instigates a trade war and turns the West against China or, conversely, that Trump is uncomfortable and annoying in the short term, but divides the West and the USA and even the Republicans, insults and alienates allies, makes US free trade agreements impossible, which creates a vacuum that China knows to fill with RCEP or EU investment protection agreements and make the USA an internally torn and unreliable world power in decline and paralyzed in terms of foreign policy and knows how to portray the social model of liberal democracy as an unstable and inferior system, which in total and general might be a huge plus for Beijing in the medium and long term.
Perhaps the CP China also sees the split in the Chinese opposition and the coalition of Guo Wenguis and the Falungong with Trump, Steve Bannon and the Committee on the Present Danger: China not only as a danger, but also as an opportunity for the CCP. Guo Wengui once described himself as an agent of Beijing, but he doesn’t have to be and the United Front of the CPC doesn’t use or even finance this kind of pseudo-opposition as a kind of the 8 agents of Sun Tze, sometimes it’s enough to let sectarian and radical „useful idiots“ (Lenin) simply dismantle themselves and sow discord in the enemy camp. With „useful idiots“ Lenin referred not only to socially romantic moralists and naive idealists who were inclined to the friendship between peoples and a large world family or to apolitical artists and educated citizens but also to sectarian and radical forms of anti-communism, who were not promoted , but even officially fought to raise their credibility as destructive agents to work in the enemy’s camp, as they brought paranoia and extremism and thus destabilization in the opposing camp. The United Front of the Communist International under Lenin in Berlin already knew this and“useful idiots“ should not be unknown to the United Front of the CPC.
However, the CCP knows that there will be no return to the old engagement policy of the pre- Trump administrations. Biden tries to copy Trump´s economic nationalism with his campaign Buy American and instead of engagement, congagement or even containment will be the new foreign policy of the Biden administration. Maybe more softly and differing in the tactics and based on multilateralism and alliances with the allies, but also perceiving China as the main strategic competitor for the world power USA.
The CP China is independently from Biden adjusting its 14th 5-year plan, its economy, society and military for a “protracted war”. Therefore the Global Times reports some alleged progresses in military technology, even as the new aircraft carrier remains a secret or propaganda hoax: :
China’s 3rd aircraft carrier expected to launch in 2021: reports
By Liu Xuanzun Published: Jan 17, 2021
What seems to be an aircraft carrier, covered by a red blanket, is seen in a report by China Central Television on Tuesday. Photo: Screenshot from China Central Television
China’s third aircraft carrier, expected to be very different from the previous two with much larger displacement and featuring electromagnetic catapults, could be launched in 2021 and enter naval service around 2025, media reports predicted based on recent photos of the ship’s construction site.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1213074.shtml
China’s WJ-700 drone completes maiden flight, ‘creates new drone combat pattern’
By Deng Xiaoci and Liu Xuanzun Published: Jan 13, 2021
China’s WJ-700, a high-altitude, long-endurance and high-speed armed reconnaissance drone said to be able to create a new pattern for drone combat, successfully conducted a maiden flight test recently, as military experts said the unmanned aircraft is characterized by its large payload and ability to launch large munitions from outside hostile anti-aircraft fire coverage zone.
The drone integrates high altitude, high speed, long endurance and large load capacities, and focuses on the domestic and international market needs in the next five to 10 years, according to a statement the Third Academy of the state-owned arms firm China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.”
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212699.shtml
However, beyond those power demonstrations and the CP China´s worries about Biden´s new China policy which might be more congagement except cooperation in climate protection, fight against pandemics and Iran the CP China has another source of anxiety. Biden´s economic and financial Corona rescue programs could trigger a financial crisis in China and worldwide:
“Will Joe Biden’s US$1.9 trillion ‘American Rescue Plan’ be a boon for China, or could excessive liquidity lead to financial trouble?
- Latest US coronavirus stimulus package would put even more liquidity into global economy, and much could end up in China, where investment returns are promising
- Analysts say US president-elect’s proposal could further boost Chinese exports, but they also warn of hot money inflows creating dangerous asset bubbles
Chen Yulu, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, says the central bank must stay vigilant as it aims to “strictly prevent and control external financial risks”.
US President-elect Joe Biden’s newly outlined US$1.9 trillion stimulus package looks to have global implications – prompting China’s central bank to call attention to growing external risks to its economy and that of the world at large.
If Biden’s plan is successful in spurring American growth, analysts say it could eventually increase already strong US demand for Chinese products. But the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is taking a more cautious outlook.
Responding to questions about the potential impact on China of Biden’s proposed aid package, Chen Yulu, deputy governor of the PBOC, said on Friday that the central bank must stay vigilant as it aims to “strictly prevent and control external financial risks”.
And he went on to outline what he said were three main risks facing the global economy
.
“One [external risk] is the departure from the fundamentals of the real economy in the international financial market, with increasing volatility. The second [risk] is that, with loose global liquidity, the direction of cross-border [capital] flows is increasingly volatile,” Chen said at a media briefing, referencing speculative “hot money“
” – short-term investments in financial products that can move out of the country rapidly.
“Third, the pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the economy, and the debt risk of low-income countries will rise further, which may further affect the progress of the global economic recovery.”
In light of these risks, Chen said, China’s policy focus “is still to adhere to the principle of domestic priority and continue to do our job”, adding that China will maintain continuity in its economic policies, improve the supervision of its financial system, and strengthen coordination with other countries through platforms such as the Group of 20.”