Article

2019-12-02 China-Japan-Koreas

h/t Instapundit
You see it in the maps. In 2015, 1.4 million Hong Kongers voted in elections in which pro-Beijing candidates swept the city's 18 district councils. Last week, 2.9 million Hong Kongers voted and pro-democracy candidates won every district but one. That is an increase in turnout of more than 100 percent and a stunning rebuke both of Beijing and of chief executive Carrie Lam, who has failed to respond adequately to the demands of the pro-democracy movement that has disrupted Hong Kong for the past six months. Maps of the city once shaded pro-mainland blue are now pro-liberty yellow.

...What is happening in Hong Kong is not isolated. The China model of authoritarian development is damaged and scarred. What seemed as sturdy and invulnerable as a Borg Cube looks more like a fragile and wobbly mobile by Alexander Calder. The regime of Xi Jinping is under economic and political and diplomatic pressure that it is not handling well. This beleaguered combatant in an era of great power competition is more dangerous to the United States than before.

What legitimacy the Communist Party possessed was based on the decades of economic growth inaugurated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. But growth has slowed to its lowest level in decades as the Chinese workforce ages, low-hanging investment opportunities disappear, and the trade war with the United States reduces manufacturing output and sends supply lines to Vietnam and Mexico. Capital is fleeing China at a record pace as the bourgeoisie hedge against stagnation and turmoil.

...The resistance to Beijing is both domestic and foreign. Lost in all the predictions of Chinese dominance were the voices of China's neighbors in the Pacific. Neither Japan, nor Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, nor Australia want to live in a Chinese lake. Most extraordinary has been the response of the United States. Within four years, the American elite has swapped its belief in China's "peaceful rise" for the recognition that it may be in the opening phase of a Second Cold War whose outcome will determine the ideological character of the 21st century. While Tariff Man wages his trade war, opposing Chinese theft of intellectual property and arguing for structural changes to China's state owned enterprises, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper speak of the political and security challenges presented by Chinese authoritarians who become more willing to lash out as they lose their grip.
Ever wondered how much of the "resistance" is funded with Chinese money?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2019-12-02 00:48|| || Front Page|| [11 views ] Top

#1 In engineering models break all the time. One of the reasons you always are working on the NEXT model.
I really don't get why lawyers and politicians get so attached to models.

Posted by 3dc 2019-12-02 09:07|| 2019-12-02 09:07|| Front Page Top

#2 Ever wondered how much of the "resistance" is funded with Chinese money?

That and Mexican cartel money. Might as well include the Soddy oil money. Explains a whole lot.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2019-12-02 10:52|| 2019-12-02 10:52|| Front Page Top

#3 There's a lot of Bull in China's shops.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2019-12-02 11:32|| 2019-12-02 11:32|| Front Page Top

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