China, to the West, is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. It is a dark, complicated place with a culture completely different and foreign to ours. America, for most of its history, was understandably Euro-centric in its study, focus, and approach to world affairs, and thus in school, we learned almost nothing about China. We had to study a foreign language—Spanish, French, Latin, something “Western,” never Oriental. Most Americans don’t even know how to say “hello” in Chinese. The Chinese word sounds something like “knee how,” so if a Chinese person said that to us, we’d probably wonder why they were asking about the condition of our leg. They would just be saying “hello.”
We know virtually nothing about China.
And that obfuscation becomes even worse when we consider that China has a very long history, and was largely isolated from the rest of mankind up until the 19th century. There was some trade with the West earlier, but it was strictly regulated by the various Chinese empires, as they did not want to be contaminated by “barbarians” (the English had to demand the Chinese quit using that term for Westerners in trade treaties). We are still “hairy, foreign devils” to them. They won’t call you that to your face, but they will behind your back. The Chinese are the most racist people on earth.
When I moved to China in 2011 and learned that the Chinese word for America, pronounced like “may guo,” means “beautiful country,” I was touched and pleased. Until I learned the Chinese word for China: “zhong guo,” which, in effect, means “center of the world.” America is beautiful, but China is the center of the earth, the axis around which the rest of the world should revolve. And believe me, thousands of years of indoctrination have burned that belief immovably into the very depths of their being.
I have spent decades studying China and lived there 10 years, but my understanding of the Chinese mind is still limited. There are a couple of things I have learned and am fairly confident of, however. Let me share them.
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1. The Chinese don’t like anybody, including each other. They will continue to find new ways to torture and kill one another; they always have. And anyone else who suits their fancy (study their history). Since the Communists took over in 1949, that government has killed—if we include unborn babies, sterilized women, Uyghurs, and forced organ harvesting and Covid victims—and we should—literally hundreds of millions of Chinese. It’s no big deal to them, they’ve been doing it their entire history. Xi Jinping appears desperate to kill as many as his idol, Mao Zedong, who is the greatest mass murderer in human history.
2. China is laughing at us now because they think we have no clue, no understanding of them at all. Biden yes, but otherwise not totally true. The Western stereotype, which goes back well over a century, of the smiling Chinaman, reaching out one hand for a handshake while getting ready to plunge a knife in the unsuspecting fool’s back, is wholly, 100 percent accurate. Trust me, I lived that until I had had enough. Then I left. It is absolutely true. Current American leadership is utterly clueless about this, or, more likely, doesn’t care. Given the Western Left’s hypocritical denunciation of capitalism, kissing Xi’s backside and following the “Chinese model” is one of their favorite pastimes. The American Democratic Party has lustful dreams about having the kind of control of Americans that the CCP has over the Chinese. It is the Democrats’ goal, make no mistake about that. And they continue to give, sell, and let the Chinese steal from us the very things with which they will destroy us. So yes, the Chinese are laughing at us, indeed.
But that doesn’t mean the Chinese don’t respect, and even fear, America somewhat. Well, a Biden-less America. Bullies fear legitimate opposition, and Chinese leadership still has a healthy regard for, and wariness of, (Biden-less) America. They may be wondering what in the world we are doing in Ukraine; I suspect Xi is asking, “If Ukraine wins or loses the war, either way, what vital national interest of the United States will be advanced?” (I wonder that, too.) National interest (the CCP’s) is all they care about. So Ukraine is an enigma to them, and the Chinese don’t like enigmas. Plus, stupidity can be virtually impossible to decipher. But regardless, the Chinese are certain of one thing: Joe Biden and the Democrats are weak, and that is who the CCP wants in power in America.
There are many good people in China. Some of my best friends live in that country. And some of them would love to see Donald Trump re-elected President of the United States, because believers in democracy and freedom do exist in China. But they have no power and no way, at present, to get it. Communists (everywhere) are scum. Nothing but 100 percent scum. Murderous human gangsters. And they HAVE brainwashed most Chinese into the “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist” mode of “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” But for all its economic advancements, China does have serious economic weaknesses (trillions of dollars of borrowed debt), and, by the CCP’s own figures, there are at least 600 million rural Chinese living on less than $140 per month—rampant poverty they never admit to their own people. Communism WILL destroy China eventually. It is only a matter of time.
But, currently, socialism is the accepted wisdom of the “elite” of mankind. Egalitarianism trumps freedom. And China is the model the WEF and Democrats idolize. Power is the name of the game to these people; and socialism means power. Freedom (capitalism) is the last thing they want for the masses.
The first step in defeating your enemy is to know you have one and understand him. We haven’t taken that step yet with China.
Check for a lot more articles, as well as audio and video podcasts, on my substack: mklewis929.substack.com. Free signup. Read my western novels, Whitewater , River Bend, Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon. You can follow me on Twitter: @thailandmkl. And rumble: lewandcou
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