Archived
China has entered an ‘Age of Sarcasm’. Anywhere outside of state-sponsored parties, entertainment shows, or the comedies and skits on television, China’s rulers and official corruption have become the main material for the sarcastic humor that courses through society. Virtually anyone can tell a political joke laced with pornographic innuendo, and almost every town and village has its own rich stock of satirical political ditties. Private dinner gatherings become informal stage shows for venting grievances and telling political jokes; the better jokes and ditties, told and retold, spread far and wide. This material is the authentic public discourse of mainland China, and it forms a sharp contrast with what appears in the state-controlled media. To listen only to the public media, you could think you are living in paradise; if you listen only to the private exchanges, you will conclude that you are living in hell. One shows only sweetness and light, the other only a sunless darkness. — Liu Xiaobo, Chinese human rights activist, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
Since the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War, and the subsequent retreat of the Republic of China (ROC/ Taiwan) to the island of Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been the recognizable state of mainland China. During this time, China was certainly an independent actor forging their own destiny, but wasn’t really a player in the global arena at large, having been incorrectly viewed by Western intelligence agencies as a Soviet satellite or proxy. Reality was far different and much has changed the last 70+ years as China is now the second most powerful empire, the third largest in area (influence/hegemony), and the second strongest military power in the world.
[...]
In the early 2010’s, Xi Jinping came to power and with him has brought a far more assertive China, creating Chinese-led investment banks for international lending, as well as consolidating his own personal power. Political repression has increased greatly under Xi, with routine human rights violations against marginalized parts of Chinese society and regular purges of political opponents. Since 2017, the CCP has been engaged in a harsh crackdown (genocide?) in Xinjiang, with over a million people—mostly Uyghurs but including other ethnic and religious minorities—imprisoned in internment camps. The Chinese congress in 2018 also altered their constitution to remove the two-term limit on holding the Presidency of China, permitting Xi Jinping to remain president of the PRC (and general secretary of the CCP) for an unlimited time. Xi is a dictator, in effect.
[...]
China passed a national security law in Hong Kong that gave the government wide-ranging tools to crack down on dissent and Chinese citizens had to endure some of the most draconian measures in the entire world during the COVID pandemic.
[...]
What China is trying to do is expand its ever growing soft power [globally] into regions they hope to one day project hard power. This gives them diplomatic leverage over weaker countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, thus gaining greater control of their resources gradually, as well as their fidelity in global affairs.
[...]
While it’s great that these places [in less developed regions] will indeed develop, it will be in the interests of the corporate-owned economy (I.E. political and economic elites in these locales) and that of China’s domestic leadership class. Sure, these countries will have newly built infrastructure and will modernize but the benefit is really for empire, not the people. Nothing about the internal subjugation of the working class and poor will change whether it’s American or Chinese empire partaking in the looting. In fact, one could argue that repression of the mass populace will be more acute in areas controlled by China as their leaders don’t pay lip service to optics about democracy, human rights, etc.
[...]
China is simply updating the playbook of empire, evolving its own variant of neocolonialism, and there’s no reason to think China won’t eventually use its expanding military power to protect these Chinese investments across Africa, Asia, and Latin America once they come under threat of rebel forces, rival regimes, leaders who won’t adhere to their interests, etc. It’s how imperialism works and China is already expanding its military presence into the Solomon Islands, having signed a security agreement with their government, as well as their existing base in Djibouti. China also has investments across nearly the entire African coastline that will allow for possible future Chinese naval bases and military assets. They’ve also been building many artificial islands that they turn into military installations in the South China Sea. International waters claimed as their own. Prompting fierce condemnation from Vietnam, the Philippines, and other countries with their own claims.
[...]
Taking control of the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea would allow them to control globally important semiconductor and microchip industries in Taiwan, as well as to dominate vital commercial shipping lanes, which they could use as leverage to force the US out of the region, and would open doors for further power projection in the Indo-Pacific where China wants to dominate.
[...]
besides these possible future conflicts, there’s a very real present day war where China has vested, though highly understated, interests—the Russo-Ukrainian War. Sure, China has tried to portray itself as an independent party but essentially no one views it as such besides dogmatic China and Russia supporters. China has been crucial in propping up Moscow’s economy in the face of devastating Western sanctions, buying more oil and gas than ever before and with plans only to increase. The Chinese have also been providing non-lethal aid (armor, tech to field drones, etc.) pretty much since the invasion began. Their “peace plan” also functioned more as a line in the sand than a true peace proposal. It said nothing about the roughly 20% of Ukraine occupied by Russia, only called for a ceasefire and end to Western sanctions (a non-starter as Beijing knows), and had absolutely nothing to say about future security guarantees for Ukraine. Sounds more like “Russian peace.”
[...]
What’s evident is the Chinese empire has grown vastly more assertive the last decade. [...] What’s not evident is how all the escalating tensions with the US will ultimately unfold. From the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan strait to the South China Sea and Eastern Europe on down to the Middle East and Africa, geopolitical tensions are coming to a head in ways we’ve not seen in 80+ years.
[...]
