The Chinese have an old proverb that reads: “千里之堤溃于蚁穴”(“qianli zhi di kui yu yixue”). Roughly translated, it means “a 500 kilometer dike can be collapsed by an ant colony.” Something very small can infiltrate and eventuallyexpand and destroy something huge and mighty. Until the communists came along, the Chinese were pretty good at history.
As I have mentioned several times before, I spent about ten years living and working in China. It was, until the last two years, a very enjoyable experience. At least, the time I spent with my students and the “common people” was most delightful. The government was the only bee in the bonnet.And I have no words in my vocabulary to describe howhideous, abominable, repulsive, and detestable I believe the Chinese government to be. They care not one iota about their people. They care only about tyranny. And that goesfrom Xi Jinping to the lowliest scumbag bureaucrat who seemingly gets erotic joy out of exercising his puny power over other people. Like the ants in the dike, they will ultimately destroy China.
My first five years in China were in the city of Dalian, in northeastern China. I taught history for a joint American-Chinese program, and, please forgive my boast, I was doing an outstanding work helping countless Chinese people. I was not only helping my students in the college where I taught, but I met innumerable people in other parts of Dalian (a city of about 7 million or so), in other schools, colleges, high schools, all around the city. I had numerousfriends who wanted to be with me, practice English, learn about America, just generally enjoyed my company. I was truly helping countless Chinese people.
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But after five years, the Chinese government booted me out of the country. There was no valid reason. I hadn’t broken the law, or publicly criticized their precious CCP, or done anything wrong. Everybody at the college where I worked and among the people I knew around town wanted me to stay—and I literally had written documents to that effect. But the bureaucrats who decide who stays and goes couldn’t have cared less about the work I was doing. For the simple reason that they couldn’t care less about their own people. It was utterly nauseating what they did to a person who had sacrificed home, family, country, etc. to go to their land to help their people. But helping their people isn’t what the CCP is about.
But I enjoyed my time in Dalian so much that, after a year in America searching for another job, I returned to China, working for an English program at a university in Zhengzhou, Henan province. Two and a half superior years followed, with the same results I had in Dalian—meeting people all over the city and helping innumerable individuals. But then, in December, 2019—right before Covid hit—I was told my contract would not be renewed for the 2020 spring semester. In effect, I was not going to be allowed—by the bureaucrats—to continue to help those Chinese students.
Now, theoretically, China does have a government-imposed retirement age of 60 for even their own (male) workers—China discriminates against age. People can continue working, but are no longer protected by(ineffectual) labor laws. By 2019, I was 65 years of age. There are plenty of foreigners in China over 60 who are working there, but there is the risk of not being protected by the labor laws. I got burned badly by that later, but that is irrelevant for this column. By July 2022, I had had enough and left China.
Yet, I still have many friends and contacts in China. The need for foreign teachers there is monstrous, and the past few months I have been contacted by numerous schools and “recruiting agents” who have asked me if I would be willing to return to China and teach. When I tell them my age, most usually drop the matter because they don’t want to fight the bureaucracy and try to hire somebody over 60. It’s just too much trouble. Every Chinese bureaucrat thinks he is Mao Zedong.
But a few days ago, I heard from a former student, a very good friend, who is teaching at a university in southern China. He informed me the university where he worked desperately needs a foreign English teacher. Would I be willing to move there and work? I told him my age, but that he could ask the school if that would be prohibitive. Theystill wanted me, badly. They took the matter to the appropriate bureaucracy in town—and (my friend told me)were, in effect, kicked out of the bureaucrat’s office. He wouldn’t even consider it. He had absolutely no concern for helping the students at that university, only that he could exercise his authority and say “No!” So, the students at that university, who could certainly have benefitted from a qualified English instructor, will not receive such because of one supercilious, uncaring bureaucrat.
Back to the ant colony. The ants don’t care about the dike. The CCP, relative to the entire population of China, is very small. Communist parties are always a small minority in countries they tyrannize. But, like the ant colony, they infiltrate, undermine, and ultimately destroy a huge structure, in their case, their own countries, in their lust for power. It is the greatest tragedy in human history. The CCP will soon destroy China.
America isn’t immune to this. We have a small cadre of elites—an ant colony (the “Deep State”)—that has penetrated our system and will devastate us, too. They are busy at it right now. The collapse will come, soon, if we don’t exterminate those pests as quickly as possible.
Just ask the Chinese about the ant colony in the dike.
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