We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
This isn’t a topical post. It’s just historical for those with short memories.
A secret high-level committee of Hong Kong senior activists worked with Western agents from the CIA to coordinate and amplify the leaderless protests against the fugitive law amendment last year, Nury Vittachi claims in his book The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong.
Vittachi, a veteran journalist and a columnist for The Standard, accused the CIA of funding anti-government activities in the SAR. He said Hong Kong protesters have received practical training in street-protest strategy and media control from members of the professional revolution industry since January 2013.
The book named three US-based groups - the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies - which were directly involved in last year's social unrest.
He added that public records had shown that the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA's regime-change arm, had sent HK$170 million to the mainland or Hong Kong since 2014 to "advance the cause of democracy."
https://lnkd.in/dwnSU-S
This is an article that I wrote at the tail end of 2019, as I was getting ready to leave to my in-laws for the 2020 Chinese New Year. At that time, the news was awash with articles that Donald Trump admitted to being involved in the protests, and that he intended a “color revolution” there. He also admitted to supporting the NED and other adversarial elements.
This was all as a result of getting China to agree to a very watered-down trade agreement at that time. Then after two days, all news went quiet about the United States involvement in trying to destabilize Hong Kong.
Hush…
(Be quiet)
Nothing to see here…
Then COVID-19 hit China hard, and Donald Trump unleashed a most aggressive and nasty anti-China propaganda campaign. Simultaneously. One that continued for at least six months, up until that too… ended. When he himself admitted to sponsoring the anti-Chinese propaganda onslaught as well.
Well, here it is. Around one year later.
All the dust has cleared and settled. We’ve had a near non-stop “hybrid-war” of America against China raging for a year now. We can see the hand of America in just about every “accident”, and “coincidence” that befell China during 2020.
And as America decided to engage in a Lose-lose strategy against China, their calculus was that China would suffer far worse than America would. Because China was fragile, did not have people’s support, made shoddy products, ate disgusting animals, and wore ill fitting clothing, etc…
Well, all 2020 was a “hybrid-war”. It was a lose-lose engagement. And who actually lost more China or the USA? Look at the 2020 Q2 growth rate;
USA is -9.1%
China is 3.2%
Now, if you are reading this, you all pretty much understand this. The United States is on fire. There are protests in all the cities. There’s an election going on, and it’s a bloody slug-fest between the two candidates and their followers. America is a real mess with defaults, bankruptcy and unemployment rampant on all levels.
And yet…
And yet still…
Americans believe that the Chinese hate their government, and that China is covering up and suppressing the “pro-democracy” movement in Hong Kong. that it’s all a big lie that the Chinese are happy with their government. All news out of China is considered a lie, and all data and figures out of China must be a lie, because there is “no way” that China could be doing better than American. It’s inconceivable!
Well, no it’s not.
The Chinese don’t need to lie. It’s not a “democracy” that depends on public opinion to stay in power. They don’t fuck around. They tell the truth and if you can’t handle it, well tough noodles! Which is pretty much one of the many reasons why the Chinese love their nation, and why they are all hyper-patriotic.
Yet, somehow the Americans that I have been talking to say that everything about China is a lie, and the polls in America are all a lie, and that President Donald Trump is doing the best job of any President in history. And as such they cannot believe that all that nonsense about Pepe the frog in HK, and the singing the American anthem in HK, and waving American flags were all just props of an American “color revolution effort”.
Chinese leaders unnerved by protests elsewhere this year have been steadily tightening controls over civic organizations on the mainland suspected of carrying out the work of foreign powers.
The campaign aims to insulate China from subversive Western ideas such as democracy and freedom of expression, and from the influence, specifically, of U.S. groups that may be trying to promote those values here, experts say.
“Experts” say…
Subversive ideas like “democracy“, and the “freedom of expression“.
How dare China!
That campaign is long-standing, but it has been prosecuted with renewed vigor under President Xi Jinping, especially after the overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych following months of street demonstrations in Kiev that were viewed here as explicitly backed by the West.
The Washington Post would also report:
One foreign policy expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, said Putin had called Xi to share his concern about the West’s role in Ukraine.
Those concerns appear to have filtered down into conversations held over cups of tea in China, according to civil society group members.
So both the Presidents of Russia and China are alarmed, or “concerned” about the Untied States government trying to destabilize their nations.
“They are very concerned about Color Revolutions, they are very concerned about what is going on in Ukraine,” said the international NGO manager.
(Whose organization is partly financed by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)).
... blamed here for supporting the protests in Kiev’s central Maidan square.
“They say, ‘Your money is coming from the same people. Clearly you want to overthrow China.’ ”
Oh, but you do know that the NED is the CIA.
Same funding.
Same leadership.
Same direction.
Same training manuals.
Same operational objectives.
Congressionally funded with the explicit goal of promoting democracy abroad...
... NED has long been viewed with suspicion or hostility by the authorities here.
But the net of suspicion has widened to encompass such U.S. groups as
... the Ford Foundation,
... the International Republican Institute,
... the Carter Center and,
... the Asia Foundation.
Of course, NED and its many subsidiaries including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute do no such thing as “promoting democracy.”
Instead they are in the business of constructing a global network of neo-imperial administration termed “civil society” that interlocks with the West’s many so-called “international institutions”…
… which in turn are completely controlled by interests in Washington, upon Wall Street, and in the cities of London and Brussels.
While the Washington Post would have readers believe NED is in the business of promoting “freedom of expression” and “democracy” the corporate-financier interests represented on NED’s board of directors are anything but champions of such principles, and are instead notorious for principles precisely the opposite.
The very concept of the United States “promoting democracy” is scandalous when considering it is embroiled in an invasive global surveillance scandal…
… guilty of persecuting one unpopular war after another around the planet against the will of its own people…
… and based on verified lies…
… and brutalizing and abusing its own citizens at home with militarized police cracking down on civilians in towns like Ferguson, Missouri.
All of which makes China’s police actions against “Occupy Central” protesters pale in comparison.
“Promoting democracy” is clearly cover for simply expanding its hegemonic agenda far beyond its borders and at the expense of national sovereignty for all subjected to it, including Americans themselves.
In 2011, similar revelations were made public of the US’ meddling in
the so-called “Arab Spring” when the New York Times would report in an
article titled, “U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings,” that:
The article would also add, regarding NED specifically, that:
The Republican and Democratic institutes are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic Parties.
They were created by the United States Congress and are financed through the National Endowment for Democracy NED.
The NED was set up in 1983 to channel grants for promoting democracy in developing nations.
The National Endowment receives about $100 million annually from Congress.
Freedom House also gets the bulk of its money from the American government, mainly from the State Department.
Pro-war and interventionist US Senator John McCain had famously taunted both Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping’s predecessor in 2011 that the US subversion sweeping the Middle East was soon headed toward Moscow and Beijing.
He [McCain] said,
“A year ago, Ben-Ali and Gaddafi were not in power. Assad won’t be in power this time next year. This Arab Spring is a virus that will attack Moscow and Beijing.”
McCain then walked off the stage.
Considering the overt foreign-funded nature of not only the “Arab Spring,” but now “Occupy Central,”…
… and considering the chaos, death, destabilization, and collapse suffered by victims of previous US subversion…
… “Occupy Central” can be painted in a new light…
…it’s a mob of dupes being used to destroy their own homes…
…all the while abusing the principles of “democracy”…
…. behind which is couched an insidious, diametrically opposed foreign imposed tyranny.
In particular, this global hegemon seeks to suppress the reemergence of Russia as a global power, and prevent the rise of China itself upon the world’s stage.
The regressive agenda of “Occupy Central’s” US-backed leadership, and their shameless exploitation of the good intentions of the many young people ensnared by their gimmicks…
…forever pose a threat in reality that is every bit as dangerous as the “threat” they claim Beijing poses to the island of Hong Kong and its people.
Conclusion
It’s the tail end of 2020. We can look back over the last four years of the Donald Trump administration and the unusual series of events surrounding China with the eyes of experience. No longer can all the events be attributed to “unlucky coincidences”. From day one, and point zero, President Trump and his cabal of neocons went on the “war path” against China and did everything in their power short of an all-out hot shooting war to suppress China’s rise.
They have been largely unsuccessful.
Though, and make no mistake, things are still in process and there are apt to be more terrible surprises in the future.
This post concerns the efforts to destabilize Hong Kong.
In short, and in conclusion, the United States went all-out to destabilize Hong Kong, create unrest and scare away European interests from that region. They supported, trained, and funded “fifth column” agents who trained, and authored, the many violent protests within Hong Kong.
A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation.
The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine.
Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack.
This term is also extended to organized actions by military personnel.
Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.
-Wikipedia
Make no mistake, all the American “color revolutions” around the globe are “Fifth column” events. It is the preferred option for America to conduct war when the opposing military is too strong, or better organized than American military forces are.
The rest of the world is finally catching up with Metallicman
Some related posts, written about a year after this post…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
Error! Missing PayPal API credentials. Please configure the PayPal API credentials by going to the settings menu of this plugin.
I tire of all this global politics and political manipulations. It’s really quite tiring and worrisome. The anti-China campaign is geared up to prep the American electorate towards a war with China, and it is really building up to that point. (It really is.) Trump collapsed global trade, unleashed a bio-weapon, and supported the proxy use of a micro-nuke to destroy the BRI facility in the Beirut Port in Lebanon. And I haven’t even started listing the thousands of other efforts. Ugh!
Forget those negotiations with China spearheaded by the man who boasted that he was the maestro of “the art of the deal.”
Recently, it’s been an all-hands-on-deck assault on that country: from deploying U.S. aircraft carriers in the South China Sea to the sudden and arbitrary closing of a Chinese consulate in Houston. Of all people, Health Secretary Alex Azar was even dispatched to Taiwan, that other China, to meet and greet the country’s president, the highest-ranking official American visitor to do so in four decades. Of course, as with so much in the age of Trump, there was a grimly comic aspect to his trip, since he made a particular point of praising the way a democratic country could handle the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic (a howler, given how Chinese President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have each handled that same virus).
And that’s just to start down a list that, from TikTok bans to criminal charges against four members of the Chinese military, only continues to grow as The Donald and crew become ever more belligerent about that rising power on a falling planet.
Hong Kong
Let’s focus on Hong Kong.
Now that China has pretty much captured, imprisoned, and evicted the NED agitators (who where behind the (so called) “pro democracy” protests), we now have a very detailed picture of the techniques and systems that they used.
A secret high-level committee of Hong Kong senior activists worked with Western agents from the CIA to coordinate and amplify the leaderless protests against the fugitive law amendment last year, Nury Vittachi claims in his book The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong.
Vittachi, a veteran journalist and a columnist for The Standard, accused the CIA of funding anti-government activities in the SAR. He said Hong Kong protesters have received practical training in street-protest strategy and media control from members of the professional revolution industry since January 2013.
The book named three US-based groups - the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies - which were directly involved in last year's social unrest.
He added that public records had shown that the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA's regime-change arm, had sent HK$170 million to the mainland or Hong Kong since 2014 to "advance the cause of democracy."
https://lnkd.in/dwnSU-S
We know for certain that the NED was a CIA front. We also know through videos, audio recordings, phone conversations, movies, and confessions how the protestors were trained and directed to cause disruption in Hong Kong. It’s amazing stuff for certain.
Not all protestors were so trained. Just the leadership were.
They leadership ran the mobs. Other individuals (also paid for by the NED) were “recruiters” and collected and organized the mobs. Most of which operated by recruitment in Hong Kong schools and Universities. There is where the millennial youth were collected and inspired to protest.
But, not all protestors were young.
The older protestors were also recruited. But they were recruited differently. We know because they were paid to be agitators. NED recruiters would go into retirement communities, and other venues to collect people and pay them to participate in the protests. Those so paid were issued with a monetary award of a few thousand HKD and were given a stamped tattoo. You can see this tattoo on many of the older protesters during the riots.
Ah…
But such short lived money had some consequences, don’t you know…
Money flowed easily, and some Chinese tried to capitalize in this by "double dipping" and other tactics to claim the money.
However, months later, many who collected the CIA cash, found that they suddenly lost all of their social security, and their social credit score went to zero and went black. The money was dirty and tracked by Beijing. If you cashed it at a Chinese bank, and the GPS showed that you were at a protest event, you suddenly lost all social standing. Which meant, no buses, no taxi's, no subways, no school, no credit cards, no flying. No parking. Nothing....
... for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.
All of this was conducted by the NED.
Which is the CIA, run by the CIA, and funded by the CIA. But, it is now renamed as a "private NGO" for "humanitarian purposes."
In short, the CIA under the control of Mike Pompeo, and by direction of Donald Trump lead a “Color Revolution” in Hong Kong, following very advanced techniques and supported technology.
Hong Kong billionaire Jimmy Lai under arrest.
A “color revolution” in HK
Using American technology and Langley information, protest venues were precisely mapped out. Cameras were identified and disabled, and targets were selected.
Each protest was like a piece in a very complex puzzle. All directed to force the Hong Kong government to take certain precalculated actions. (As it was compelled by HK democrat law to behave in certain ways and react to crime in certain specific ways.)
This was success for some time.
For a while it was like a “wack a mole”, and the police were running all over the place. Riots were popping up everywhere, stations and buildings were burning, Chinese citizens were getting hurt and killed, and the government appeared impotent. As soon as the protestors were arrested, HK Judges (UK, and Australian citizens within HK) would let them go home free with no punishments or consequences.
This is because the entire system was not set up to combat an invasion by a foreign power. Only to arrest and suppress individual disturbances to the civil order.
The “color revolution” counted on HK maintaining democracy, and they used systems and polices that would work in that environment. As such, the rioters were trained to do as much damage as possible and to provoke as much as possible, but cause no direct confrontation.
And they thrived.
Things were going exactly to plan.
That was, until China decided that it served no purpose to continue to play the game and play by the rules established by Mike Pompeo.
China recognized that America was behind everything. They had proof and confirmations. They realized that the way the situation was being handled would eventually result in the collapse of the government there. This was unacceptable. And action had to be taken.
China takes action in HK
So they changed the rules of the game. They changed the laws, and immediately went to work collecting, seizing and isolating the CIA elements.
The entire faculty at the problematic universities were fired. There were were no exceptions for tenure or other reasons.
All foreign journalists and news media were culled for their participation in the riots. many operations were shut down, and the people deported from HK.
HK billionaires who partially funded the operations, and produced pamphlets and propaganda were arrested with their entire families and senior staff. They were taken to mainland China and are now being held for treason which will result in serious consequences for them and their families.
The COVID-19 served as great cover to clear out the remaining “rats nest” and for the most art, HK is clean of the offenders.
Now, there is a lot of information behind all this. It’s all in China. I couldn’t find anything in the American or British press. Which was strange. You would think that they might at least have one singular article. At least.
Anyways…
In the articles you can see the great deal of depth and discoveries uncovered by the Chinese investigation teams. For they have found chemical weapons labs making both munitions, and chemical weapons. they have found instructive literature (that came from the United States), and secure communication systems that lead straight back to America.
From a technical point of view, I find all this information fascinating.
But that is not what I am going to post here. Instead, I am going to just post one or two videos that have been making their way inside China that well illustrate the great degree of avant-garde control that the CIA has established when trying to force the collapse of Hong Kong and establish billionaire Jimmy Lai as the new dictator.
John Bolton with Jimmy Lai.
All of it is terribly interesting.
Video 1 – Riot control by the NED
Like I said, I won’t spend too much time on this. I really don’t have much interest in the instigation of riots for manipulative gain. But I am interested in “fifth column” activities.
Check this video out…
How instructions were sent by the NED / CIA to the protestors.
This is all very interesting.
Now, China had to stop all of this. Beijing saw that the Hong Kong government was following the standard police riot control methods that usually work for “grass roots” organizations, but this was on another level completely. These protests and riots were well funded, highly organized, and methodical. There was a long term plan and strategy at play.
Video 2 – What was intended to happen to HK.
China bugged the conversation(s) between trumps’ diplomatic aides in Hong Kong and the protest leadership. So everything they said, did, promised and explored was recorded, and analyzed in both Hong Kong and Beijing.
China has videos and audio tracks of American leadership directing riots in HK.
China has videos of American Leadership making promises and giving money to anti-China (pro-Democracy) terrorists.
China has the complete “paper trail” of the money, how it changed hands, and where it originated from, as well as detailed itemized lists of how it was spent.
They knew what was promised, what the funding and supply channels were and what to expect. And they did not like it.
Because it was clearly stated DURING THE CONVERSATIONS with the radical leadership that the intention of President Trump was to turn Hong Kong upside down “and let it burn“. The Trump administration wanted to turn Hong Kong into another fiasco like all the other “color revolutions” were.
Hong Kong – Let it BURN!
This is what the objective was…
Images form a previous NED sponsored “color revolution”.
Today, Hong Kong is quiet.
Everything is back to normal.
There just isn’t any more protests. No one is waving American Flags. No one is singing the American National Anthem. No one is spraying pro-American graffiti on the walls. Pepe-the-frog is no where to be seen.
Imagine that!
Trump is furious!
You can see this. He is completely unhinged. What the heck? Why is he so upset if Hong Kong is calm and peaceful? Why is he so enraged?
Well, we all know the reasons.
But first, let’s be clear…
China was the ONLY nation that has been able to stop a CIA / NED sponsored “color revolution” dead in it’s tracks. It’s the only nation that was able to do so.
That is worth consideration.
Conclusion
This is all pretty obvious if you have been paying attention.
What I find interesting in all of this is the dearth and lack of information about this in the American and Western press. Further, and most importantly, there is ZERO information anywhere about how China stopped a NED sponsored “color revolution” in a city that is four times the size of New York City.
You can come to many conclusions regarding all this.
You can pretty much consider all “news” to be nonexistent.
The USA is out of control and failed in containing HK via the NED.
HK still remains an economic and financial center fro the Pacific basin.
Meanwhile, Overseas Chinese are flocking back to China…
“Hong Kong is and will always be an inseparable part of China. Hong Kong has its own identity, it will always be special, like Shanghai and Beijing are special too. Because of our history, we are fortunate to have choices.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with emigrating to US, Canada or UK. My generation has been there and done that. We have many friends and family happily settled in the US/Canada/UK, albeit they are frustrated because Trump makes their lives miserable too.
But those who choose to leave Hong Kong now because media and hallucinations lead them to believe that Hong Kong will decline and there will be no more freedom and rights blah blah blah, then I guarantee you, they will miss the best ride ever and regret it for the rest of their lives.
This is the best time in history to be Chinese, and to be in Hong Kong and China.”
As a HK’er myself, I totally agree with her points of view. To be totally open, I know Sandra and her husband. We went through very similar life experience and after a long time in the West, we settled back down in Hong Kong and China. Not only is Hong Kong our home, China is the place to be at. We feel proud because of our own achievement and the prospects going forward are even better.
Do you want more?
I have more posts along this in my Trump Trade War Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
Error! Missing PayPal API credentials. Please configure the PayPal API credentials by going to the settings menu of this plugin.
This article discusses neocons and their manipulation of American politics for Geo-political advantage.
The problem with this is that the stakes are dangerously high. We are not talking about a small country with a few cities. We are talking about technologically advanced first-world nations with state of the art weapons and nuclear, biological, and germ warfare technology.
Further, most Americans are so dumbed down that they have no idea just how advanced China and Russia are. That robots, facial recognition, 5 and 6G systems, and high speed trains are the norm. And have been so for half a decade. America has fallen terribly behind, and our military as well trained and experienced as it is, is not a match for the kinds of swarm drone germ warfare that China and Russia possess.
It'll be very difficult to shoot your rifle while your eyes are foaming with blood and puss.
I did take the liberty to make editing changes. I edited the run-on sentences to make it easier to read. I also added images, and commentary in dialog boxes, and provided supporting links. The conclusions, photo narratives, and associated editing are my own.
Donald Trump is in a painful bind.
The China-bashing traitors within his own party trying to pass themselves off as American patriots have done everything imaginable to destroy the one chance the President has to save America from the policies of economic and social decay which have mis-shaped the past 50 years of world history.
Before breaking under the pressure to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on November 27, Trump attempted desperately to push against the hard liners stating a day earlier:
“I stand with Hong Kong, but I also stand with President Xi. He’s a friend of mine, he’s an incredible guy. We have to stand, but I’d like to see them work it out, OK? We have to see them work it out. I stand for Hong Kong, I stand for freedom, I stand for all those things we want to do. But we are also in the process of making the largest trade deal in history.”
Of course, Trump’s desire to use protective tariffs, rebuild decayed infrastructure and industries while reversing the regime change wars abroad are good things.
They are very good things.
Risk of confrontation is high.
However, the ugly fact is that the Trans-Atlantic financial system is also set to crash, and a serious military confrontation between the US military and the Russia-China alliance is both very real and very dangerous.
This is also why the passage of the anti-Beijing Bill on November 27 is so tragic, since the desperately needed economic alliance which Trump has desired may have suffered a wound from which it cannot recover.
A serious military confrontation between the US military and the Russia-China alliance is both very real and very dangerous. It will NOT be America plinking away at a third world “shit hole”. It will instead, be nuclear, bio-weapons, germ weapons, and using the most modern technologies available to man ON AMERICAN soil.
Not only this, but those anti-China hawks pervasive across Washington are now emboldened to go even further starting with Sen. Ted Cruz’s new bill.
The use of pests and biological warfare is almost a given if World War 3 is to take place. With the advancement made by biotechnology in the 21st century, strains of viruses capable of eliminating the entire population of the rival country are a reality.
-Listsurge
America to interfere with Taiwan.
For it is a bill to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty, thus undoing the 1972 ‘One China’ agreement which established Beijing as the capital of China, and OPENLY threatening to drag mainland China into a nuclear confrontation.
I’ll say it again.
China has repeatedly stated that if you mess with Taiwan, you mess with China. It is one and the same.
If you mess with Texas, you mess with the USA. It's one and the same.
So any war, or provocation involving Taiwan, will involve China.
So, any war involving Texas, will involve the United States.
But this war or conflict or skirmish…
…will NOT be limited to China. But, will instead, include the American cities of Los Angles, Chicago, New York and many other enormous civilian population centers.
The basis of nuclear warfare in future was established when America dropped the two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the end of 2nd World War. The rush to develop nuclear weapons by France, USA, Soviet Union and China following the 2nd World War resulted in the extremely tension ridden period known as Cold War.
It is theorized that a nuclear war will cause ten times more casualties than a military war. Some analysts suggest that the nuclear fog after a war will result in the entire humanity starving to death.
The political standoff between USA and China over Taiwan is thought to be a situation that could easily spin out of control if these two nuclear super powers do not behave rationally.
-Listsurge
Here’s Chicago…
Neocons believe, incorrectly, that nuclear warfare will never occur on American soil. That any war that they promote will be limited to the geographical areas that they define. They are wrong. Any war with either China or Russia will result in nuclear destruction of most of urban America.
Any large scale conflict today (or in the near future) will seriously affect America’s status as a global superpower. Whether America “wins” or “loses”, it will change, and the likelihood is that it will not change for the good.
The rise of USA as a superpower during the end of the Second World War and the disintegration of Soviet Union after the Cold War is proof of the rearrangement of powers at the end of major wars. It can be theorized that the Third World War will see the emergence of a new super power. Many think that China can be the superpower which changes the dynamics of the next war to come.
-Listsurge
Perhaps this is what Washington, D.C. might look like after a cluster of MIRV SLBM hyper-glide swarm nuclear missiles are launched.
Dancing with danger…
Cruz’s Taiwan Symbols of Sovereignty Actaims in Cruz’s words to “peel back some of the extreme insults of the Taiwanese that are inflicted by the One-China policy protocol”
including the banning of Taiwan officials from visiting US government
agencies, and Taiwan students studying at West Point military academy
from wearing the Taiwan flag.
Hum. Are "extreme insults" reason enough for your entire family to be bleeding out of their anus, and your home a smoking black radioactive waste?
Already, the US-military have vastly amplified their presence on China’s border ever since Obama’s “Pivot-to-Asia” and “Air-Sea Battle” were put into practice in 2011-2012. This presence heavily relies on a militarized anti-China force in Taiwan ready to do the US’s bidding.
Any one who is delusional to think that American soil will not be affected by these decisions should have their head examined.
This is not 1913. Wars can get radioactive "hot" within seconds.
Here’s San Francisco…
Neocons think nothing of getting involved in the affairs of other nations. Today, America is fighting eight simultaneous wars. They argue that a ninth war would be easy. That China for all it’s technology, is no match for the United States military and is willing to bet YOUR life and YOUR family’s lives on that belief.
Everyone seems to want a fight…
Many leading figures in Taiwan are stuck in a Cold War traumatized mindset established 60 years earlier, and still see their life’s mission and Taiwan’s destiny through the outdated lens of their Kuomintang forebears- as the only rightful leaders of China, destined to reconquer the mainland lost to the Communist Party in 1949.
The G series of nerve gases is so named due to their origin, with all of them originally discovered in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. Their discovery was actually a complete accident; Gebhardt Schraeder, a German researcher, was investigating the potential use of organophosphates as pesticides in 1936 when he synthesised the first of the G series nerve gases, tabun. He also played a part in the discovery of sarin in 1938. The other member of the G series, soman and cyclosarin, were discovered during the course of research funded by the German army into the pharmacological action of tabun and sarin.
These groups would do anything to fulfill that quasi-religious sense of purpose. Thus making them the perfect puppets for the Deep State.
What the heck is America doing? Why is it so involved in far away places, blowing the shit out of buildings and leveling cities flat? Doesn’t anyone realize that sooner or later America will pick on the wrong nation.
Here’s Houston, Texas…
Nuclear weapons launched by Russia or China will be SLBM’s with MIRV multiple warheads many, many times larger than what was used in Japan during World War II. These SLBM MIRV’s are all hype-velocity weapons and the city would be obliterated within five minutes of launch. The doctrine calls for multiple warheads for city, thus guaranteeing complete and absolute devastation.
An ugly and overlooked example of this operation includes the renewed effort by China-basher Steve Bannon who Trump rightly booted from his team in August 2017.
Bannon has been a dangerous character attempting to coral Trump supporters in America and the European right into a new anti-Chinese united front. He is doing this while reviving the neo-con “clash of civilizations” doctrine with a vengeance.
Steve Bannon.
One of the main conduits Bannon chose to unleash this assault was the Committee on Present Danger-China. This is an organization which he founded alongside a group of raging neocons in March 2019.
Labeling China’s Belt and Road as a new empire threatening to undo America and enslave the world, Bannon’s think tank stated:
“As with the Soviet Union in the past, communist China represents an existential and ideological threat to the United States and to the idea of freedom – one that requires a new American consensus regarding the policies and priorities required to defeat this threat.”
He just doesn’t get it.
This could be Thanksgiving day, two years after the United States is struck with a nuclear salvo of AI robotic nuclear swarm missiles in hyper-velocity glide platforms.
China doesn’t give a rat’s ass about America. Anyone who attacks it will be glowing nuclear rainbows for the next two hundred years.
Here’s Boston…
The neocons, such as Bannon, do not believe that the nuclear on/off switch will ever be depressed. They believe that a conflict with China will be a conventional affair. With American Naval forces firing curse missiles at leisure, and launching drones at will to an unarmed, and America-leaning China.
Bannon has also found himself working ever more tightly with the anti-Beijing CIA-funded cult Falun Gong. This radical group has been banned from China since 1999. It is readily and consistently used by the CIA as a propaganda weapon against China.
In these propaganda attacks they routinely claim anecdotal evidence of Beijing-sponsored organ harvesting and killing of religious minorities. Though pushing itself as a meditation group, its leader Li Hongzhi is based in the USA. He promotes the idea that he has magical powers that keep the forces of evil from destroying the world.
Bannon most recently produced the Falun Gong-funded film “Claws of the Red Dragon”. This kind of action put him into the same boat as his left-handed mirror image George Soros who also supports the Falun Gong. He does so through Open Society Foundation’s Freedom House.
Of course, Soros wants World War III on American soil. He said so many, many times in public.
Here’s New York City…
The rest of the world “does not play”. Expect any toying around with the internal affairs of a major superpower will result in nuclear detonations up and down the American coastline.
The contradiction arising from this alliance of pro-Trump sociopaths working with anti-Trump sociopaths only makes sense when you look at the anti-human game from the top down rather than the bottom up.
It is here, that we start getting a fuller picture of the nature of the false ‘left vs right’ game being played. We look at a City of London-based think tank which Bannon leads. It is called the Dignitas Humanitae Institute. And it operates alongside 5 other highly connected figures which were recently exposed in a powerful expose . This expose by journalist Stan Ezrol described Bannon’s four other co-patrons of this Catholic group as…
“Archduke Otto Von Habsburg, successor to the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor when it was dissolved; His Royal Highness Charles of Bourbon Two Sicilies and Duke of Castro, a leading figure in the anti-Renaissance wing of European nobility; Field Marshal the Lord Guthrie GCB (Knight of the Grand Cross), LVO (Lieutenant of the Victorian Order), OBE (Order of the British Empire); and Father Matthew Festing.”
The forces managing this international battle are desperately afraid of the fact that western and eastern renaissance traditions may be awakened in the face of the existential crisis facing the human species today.
These groups are very much aware that the essential character of any society fit to survive is rooted on certain moral principles that are found in both Christian and Confucian cultures alike, making the USA and China potentially very strong and organic allies.
When one reads the writings of such founding fathers of either great nation as Dr. Benjamin Franklin or Dr. Sun Yatsen, the common moral worldview and sense of human nature as a species made in the image of the creator endowed with inalienable rights is electric.
Both Dr. Benjamin Franklin (USA) and Dr. Sun Yatsen (China) believed that governments are made by man to serve under Rights given by the divine creator.
This is a concept which Hong Kong rioters, Taiwan militarists, Open Society ideologues and right wing Bannonites know nothing about.
George Soros, through his Open Society network, is actively pushing for the United States to be involved in wars domestically and globally. He intends to destroy America completely and that is why he is funding and supporting Neocon efforts to entangle the United States into global warfare with nuclear armed nations.
Today, Xi Jinping and President Putin exemplify this common outlook wonderfully. As their alliance has transformed the international rules of the game on every level. If Trump wasn’t constrained by such bigoted agents as Cruz, Bannon or the rabid hive of leftist hacks frothing at the mouth for impeachment, then the USA would make an organic ally in this new multi-polar alliance.
If not, it will be China and Russia that will align, and the USA will be on it’s own.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is issuing a warning, one Americans need to pay attention to before US politicians take us past the point of no return, if they haven't done so already.
While the media in Russia is "state-run," meaning that one never knows how much is true or how much is propaganda, the flip side of that particular coin is that nothing goes out over it without the express permission, or instigation of Russian leadership, so it is clear that when their articles are written or news spoken, it is exactly what Putin wants the world to know.
With that said, the very first paragraph of Russia Today's editorial titled "America tuned out as Congress bangs war drum against Russia," which states that US House resolution 758 has "brought the nation one step closer to all-out-war with Russia," is a dire warning directly from Russia to the populace of the United States.
Future historians - that is, assuming there are humans still around to contemplate history - may one day point to House Resolution 758 as the single piece of legislation that sparked a global conflagration between two leading nuclear powers.
The article also goes on to take a look at House resolution 758, breaking it down, giving a birds-eye view of how Russian leadership views these actions on the part of the US Congress and it appears that things are about to get much uglier.
Read the whole article over at RT.
We need to take a fucking serious look at who we are picking fights with. Not everyone will stand by, bend over, and allow them to get fucked over.
Here’s Washington, D.C…
Nothing can quite ruin your day like global thermonuclear war can.
Conclusion
Both sides of the political spectrum (in the United States) are pushing President Trump towards war. It feeds the neocon agenda. It provides a great distraction of the public from domestic malfeasance, and allows the wealthy oligarchy to loot and profit from “American nation rebuilding efforts”.
Only this time, the stakes are higher and the nations selected will fight back.
They will fight back on American soil.
You know, it might be all Gung-Ho to say “Bring it on!”, the fact is no one wants to see America turned into a radioactive wasteland. But, that is exactly what will happen unless these neocons are corralled up and subdued.
I’m just a lone voice in the wilderness. But please listen to what I have to say. I am begging. I am pleading with you all.
400 kilometers northeast of Bombay there is a circular 2,154-metre-diameter crater, the Lonar crater. It has been dated at less than 50,000 years old, and could conceivably be related to a nuclear attack or mishap of antiquity.
No traces of any expected meteoric material has ever been found in the vicinity, and this is the world's only known "impact" crater in solid basalt. Indications of a tremendous shock exceeding 600,000 atmospheres combined with intense, sudden heat has been determined.
In Rajasthan, India ten miles west of Jodhpur -there is a heavy layer of radioactive ash ,it covers about three-square miles. Scientists investigated the site. It has been noted that has always been a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area. The levels of radiation there registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government cordoned off the region.
- Nuclear Warfare in Ancient India
Nuclear war would send America back to the stone age. It might never recover.
If you enjoyed this article, take heart that more articles of a similar nature can be found here:
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Here we look at the protests in Hong Kong and who is funding and training them. For they are using sophisticated urban combat techniques, as well as creating very sophisticated bombs, and handmade weapons. Obviously, some agent wants this group to cause damage and trouble in Hong Kong.
Who are they, and who funds them?
I pretty much sat down and wrote most of this after reading the onslaught of negative news reporting out of the USA after the Senate passed an anti-China resolution regarding HK and American businesses operating inside of China.
U.S. Senate Passes Hong Kong Democracy Bill, Drawing …
I don't like lies and characterizations in general, but this affects me personally, and it thus pisses me off.
To quote Q;
Control of narrative = control of public opinion
Control of public opinion = power
How do you control the narrative?
Information warfare.
Q
Well for starters, for the most part, the most radical instigators are not Hong Kong citizens. The instigators are NOT the “figureheads”, they are educated agitators, with knowledge in urban warfare, and close combat strategies.
Those “leaders”, “trainers” and “agitators” that have been captured by police are neither students, nor (in most cases) Hong Kong residents. While the vast bulk of the protestors are indeed, HK residents, their leadership is not.
What’s going on?
The demonstrations in Hong Kong, now an open confrontation with the People’s Republic of China, have a global impact. So, as such, what are the forces behind this movement? Who provides the funds and who stands to benefit?
Who?
Protests in Hong Kong routinely carry the US flag and photos of Donald Trump.
The increasingly violent demonstrations in Hong Kong are completely embraced and enthusiastically supported by the United States government, including Donald Trump, the US Congress and the Senate. The American news media is having a near feeding frenzy over all this news, and the U.S. corporate media is eating it all up.
This should be a danger sign to everyone fighting for change and for social progress. U.S. imperialism is never disinterested or neutral. It’s always for a objective.
The protesters now use the same violent methods that were used in the Maidan protests in the Ukraine. The U.S. seems to hope that China will intervene and create a second Tianamen scene.
That U.S. color revolution attempt failed but was an excellent instrument to demonize China.
A repeat in Hong Kong would allow the U.S. to declare a "clash of civilization" and increase 'western' hostility against China. But while China is prepared to intervene it is unlikely to do the U.S. that favor. Its government expressed confidence that the local authorities will be able to handle the issue.
-Moon Over Alabama
That objective is almost always to institute a “puppet government” taking the form of a dictatorship under the disguise of “fighting for democracy”. It’s a model that has worked for many decades, and should be so well known by now to everyone…
The Vietnam war was for democracy.
The Kuwait war was for democracy.
The Iraq war was for democracy.
The Grenada war was for democracy.
The Panama war was for democracy.
The Libyan war was for democracy.
The Yemen war was for democracy.
Now, the war drums are for what? Democracy?
A war in Hong Kong for democracy…
Only this time it isn’t against a long tiny third-world back-water nation. It will not be Libya, Yemen, Syria, or Grenada. This would be a war against China, on Chinese soil.
And China will fight back…
…in a nuclear fashion.
Why does China want Hong Kong?
Well, Hong Kong was always a part of China. The English seized the city during the Opium Wars, as part of a treaty that put an end to one of the steps of English aggression against China. Even then, the English only got a 99 year lease. That expired towards the end of the 20th century.
China was of course happy to see a part of their country that had been stolen by the English returned to them.
Can't really think of an example where the USA has had a portion of its nation stolen from them, but it isn't hard to imagine that they'd want it back. They were certainly willing to kill a lot of people just to get back a part of America that seceded and tried to tell the Yankees that they weren't all that into them anyways.
-Posted by: Who Dat | Aug 14 2019 15:51 utc | MOA
And make no mistake about it, parsing the details to confuse Americans will not work on the global audience. You would be dealing against a nuclear-armed global super-power. How do you seriously think it’s going to pan out? Are you willing to engage in nuclear war with Russia and China simultaneously? Because, that’s what’s going to happen…
And make no mistake about this either, China (even if alone) is no slouch in the ICBM, MIRV nuclear arena. They would “kick some ass” and have enough left over…
For decades, the United States has taken China’s ballistic missile capability for granted, assessing it as a low-capability force with limited regional impact and virtually no strategic value. But on October 1, during a massive military parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Beijing put the U.S., and the world, on notice that this assessment was no longer valid.
In one fell swoop, China may have nullified America’s strategic nuclear deterrent, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and U.S. missile defense capability. Through its impressive display of new weapons systems, China has underscored the reality that while the United States has spent the last two decades squandering trillions of dollars fighting insurgents in the Middle East, Beijing was singularly focused on overcoming American military superiority in the Pacific. If the capabilities of these new weapons are taken at face value, China will have succeeded on this front.
Nothing is what it appears. It’s all manipulations and lies to mask the true purposes.
Those that want confrontation with Beijing are delusional, and you are, in a few short years, going to pay the price of their idiocy.
The official statement of the Chinese Embassy in the Russian Federation regarding the events in Hong Kong (in Russian).
The words at the end of the statement are very revealing, given the recent intentional provocations and riots of a bunch of marginals (aka "Russian liberal opposition") in Moscow:
A comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction have been established between China and the Russian Federation in a new era. Both countries have been unjustly charged for their level of freedom, democracy, and human rights. We are confident that we will meet the same attitude among the general public of the Russian Federation on the issues of Xiangang. We are confident in the understanding by the Russians of the determination and perseverance of China in protecting state prestige and sovereignty.
- Posted by: alaff | Aug 14 2019 16:23 utc | MoA
Manipulation in Hong Kong
One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian. China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference). Here is a very telling comment about the Hong Kong protests found under the article Violent Protests In Hong Kong Reach Their Last Stage on the MoonOfAlabama.org website.“The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the Extradition Law is all about …”“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you think? What are they all there for?”
-The Freedom Articles
The disruptive actions involve helmeted and masked protesters using gasoline bombs, flaming bricks, arson and steel bars, random attacks on buses, and airport and mass transit shutdowns.
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
Among the most provocative acts was an organized break-in at the Hong Kong legislature where “activists” vandalized the building and hung the British Union Jack flag. As well as burning down a university campus.
U.S., British and Hong Kong’s colonial flags are prominent in these
confrontations, along with defaced flags and other symbols of People’s
China.
A man inspects a Bestmart store which was vandalised during Sunday’s anti-government protest in Hong Kong, China, October 21, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
The New York Times described the airport shutdown:
“The protests at the airport have been deeply tactical, as the largely leaderless movement strikes at a vital economic artery. Hong Kong International Airport, which opened in 1998, the year after China reclaimed the territory from Britain, serves as a gateway to the rest of Asia. Sleek and well run, the airport accommodates nearly 75 million passengers a year and handles more than 5.1 million metric tons of cargo.” (Aug. 14)
U.S. media have consistently labeled these violent actions “pro-democracy.”
But are they?
HK protestors are set on burning down the entire city.
Even if the leaders of these reactionary actions decide to pull back from the brink and re-calibrate their tactics, there is pause for concern. For based on the Chinese government’s unequivocally strong warnings, it is important to understand a movement that has such strong U.S. support.
The protestors want “freedom”
This is a rally cry that evokes strong emotions with Americans.
Though it shouldn’t. Most Americans haven’t tasted freedom for at least one hundred years, and have no concept of what it actually is.
The cognitive dissonance has been overwhelming these past months. "Pro-democracy protesters" who use black bloc tactics of arson and vandalism. "Students yearning for freedom" who organize Molotov cocktail factories. Complaints of excessive "police brutality" when by objective international standards the police were remarkably constrained.
"Hong Kong is a repressive police state" says Joshua Wong, and yet it is consistently near the top of the list in the Cato Institute world freedom index.
The protesters are "fighting for democracy" even though Hong Kong is democratic, and demand a "universal suffrage" that in practice very few jurisdictions, least of all their beloved US/UK, enjoy.
Add a dollop of uninformed virtue-signalling from the usual clueless western cheerleaders, and it has been a festival of delusion which somehow ends with the image of a petrol-bomb-wielding black bloc protester as the new face of "freedom" (as seen on twitter).
-Posted by: jayc | Nov 22 2019 21:14 utc | 19
People, freedom is being able to drink booze, and smoke, and plop your dog Fido next to you in a public restaurant. It means that you can ride in a car without a seat-belt, drink large size coke’s and have sunny-side up eggs whenever you want. It means that you can hunt and fish without a permit, and buy most medicines without a prescription.
America had freedoms, but when FDR and Wilson removed the SCOUS defense of the ninth amendment, American became a nice, safe, gulag.
Today, most Americans can only have small brief glimpses on what freedom used to be like…
The Fitzgeralds arrived in New York in the early autumn of 1922—after a rocky start working as an ad man in his bachelor days, Scott was finally making headway as a celebrated author. They checked into the Plaza and began partying, not even sobering up to go house hunting, but then what was the point, they weren’t going to be sober while they lived there. Zelda was an incorrigible flirt when drunk and she also had a habit of taking her clothes off and dancing naked in fountains or parading down railway tracks. Scott, although less of an exhibitionist, was equally out of control. In December of the same year the couple’s ‘house rules’ for weekend guests at their home in Great Neck, Long Island included a polite directive “not to break down doors in search of liquor, even when authorized to do so by their host and hostess,” and warned that “the invitation to stay over Monday, issued by the host and hostess during the small hours of Sunday morning, must not be taken seriously.”
They needed the occasional sober Monday, if only to write the letters of apology they constantly had to send excusing their drunken antics and bad behavior, but in many ways the Fitzgeralds could do no wrong. They were young, beautiful—Dorothy Parker described them as looking “as though they had stepped out of the sun”—and fast. In a complex case of life imitating art, and vice versa, they both typified and immortalized the Jazz Age—their extravagant lifestyle funded by the handsome payments Scott received from the magazines that published his flapper fictions and the publishers who bought his novels.
So, I find it very curious, and you the reader should as well, that a nation-state that is #1 in personal and economic freedom would want to be more like a nation that is #25 at best in the same category.
For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking.
Why do the HK protestors want less democracy and freedom? The answer is that this is not really their goal. It is instead the mechanism from which they can instigate disruptions.
Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”
That has not changed. No where has the mainland placed new laws, regulations or changes to that model of governance. When the HK local government wanted to open up extradition to other nations, the protests erupted, and the government backed down.
So what the heck is going on? The protestors are not asking for more. They are demanding less.
WTF?
China has a right to intervene
It must be strongly stated that China is not invading Hong Kong if it
moves against these violent disruptions. Hong Kong is part of China.
This is an internal matter, and the call for independence for Hong Kong
is an open attack on China’s national sovereignty.
Hong Kong is a part of China.
The idea that any American military force will come to “liberate” or “save” Hong Kong is an invasion of China.
Any attempted invasion of China will result in the nuclear destruction of most major United States cities.
As it stands today, and what is NOT being reported in the United States media, is that under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the constitution for the city, the government is legally allowed to request help from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
China is not Syria.
China is not Bolivia.
China is not Venezuela.
China will fight back. They will not permit this, and frankly, I am quite surprised that they have permitted this to go on so long. They have been very polite and have kept causalities to a minimum. Were this kind and level of damage to have taken place in the United States, people would have been killed.
Here is an article that explains one key way that Washington is meddling in the affairs of Hong Kong:
https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-washington-is-meddling-in-affairs.html
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington's version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
-Posted by: Sally Snyder | Aug 14 2019 16:10 utc | MoA
China has announced that it will take action if things escalate.
The Chinese government has announced that it will intervene militarily to defend China’s sovereignty.
Top government officials have labeled the most extreme acts as “terrorism” and denounced U.S. support.
Several times officials raised the analogy to the Western “color revolutions” that violently overturned governments in Serbia, Ukraine, Libya and Haiti and were attempted in Venezuela and Syria.
China is aware of what is going on and they will take appropriate and measured action. the problem is that the United States people, haven’t seen measured and appropriate responses since the 1940’s.
Americans are not expecting military push-back. For if they were, they would be terrified of all the war-drum beating by the American press.
“The ideologues in Western governments never cease in their efforts
to engineer unrest against governments that are not to their liking, even though their actions have caused misery and chaos in country after country in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Now they are trying the same trick in China,”
-China Daily explained on July 3rd, 2019
Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, told reporters that
their country was still acting as Hong Kong’s colonial master.
(nbcnews.com, July 4)
“A spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry claimed Tuesday that
recent comments from American lawmakers [Nancy] Pelosi (D-Ca.) and
[Mitch] McConnell (R-Ky.) demonstrate that Washington’s real goal is to incite chaos in the city,” according to CNBC.
“By neglecting and distorting the truth, they whitewashed violent crimes as a struggle for human rights and freedom.” (Aug. 14)
Where is U.S. support for other resistance?
Hong Kong police are denounced in the U.S. media for violence, but actually have shown great restraint. Despite months of violent confrontations, with flaming bottles constantly thrown, no one has been killed by the police.
That is NOT going to last for long.
There are rumors that some Hong Kong oligarchs were originally behind the protests to prevent their extradition for shady deals they made in China. There may be some truth to that.
China's president Xi Jingpin is waging a fierce campaign against corruption and Hong Kong is a target rich environment for fighting that crime.
The former British colony is ruled by a handful of oligarchs who have monopolies in the housing, electricity, trade and transport markets:
The book to read is Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong (2010) by Alice Poon, which explains how the lack of competition law created outrageous wealth for the tycoons. It’s a complex subject but the key point is that in Hong Kong all land is leasehold and ultimately owned by the government, which uses it as a means of raising revenue.
This goes back to the days of empire when British policy required colonies to be self-funding. The system kept taxes down and attracted business – but one side-effect was that it gave the government an interest in rationing land to keep it expensive. That didn’t matter much when the local economy comprised a few traders but, in the modern technological world of 2012, it puts the government at odds with every person and business wanting affordable space.
Indeed, it induces the government to distort and damage the economy, and indeed society. This system paved the way for a handful of Hong Kong families to become unimaginably wealthy by getting their hands on cheap land back in the days before the city started to boom.
Rents and apartment prices in Hong Kong are high. People from the mainland who buy up apartments with probably illegally gained money only increase the scarcity. This is one reason why the Cantonese speaking Hong Kong protesters spray slurs against the Mandarin speaking people from the mainland. The people in Hong Kong also grieve over their declining importance. Hong Kong lost its once important economical position. In 1993 Hong Kong's share of China's GDP was 27%. It is now less than a tenths of that and the city is now more or less irrelevant to mainland China.
-Moon over Alabama
Demonstrations in Honduras. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
There is no such favorable media coverage or support from U.S. politicians for demonstrations of desperate workers and peasants in Honduras, Haiti or the Philippines, or for the Yellow Vest movement in France.
There is never an official condemnation when demonstrators are killed in Yemen or Kashmir or in weekly demonstrations in Gaza against Israeli occupation.
Demonstrations in Haiti. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
These struggles receive barely a mention, although in every case scores of people have been killed by police, targeted for assassination or simply just disappeared.
Demonstrations in the Philippines. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
Hong Kong has always been part of China. It was seized by the British in order to facilitate the illegal drug traffic of the East India Company. The Chinese government, concerned at the social and economic mayhem caused by imported opium, paid for in silver, banned its import. The British government, which relied on the revenues it got from exporting cheap Indian opium, grown on stolen land, insisted that China allow the trade to continue. And enforced its demands militarily-the Opium Wars. Within fifty years of these wars and Hong Kong's occupation by the British on a 99 year lease, a significant proportion, close to 20% of China's men were addicted to opium.
That is why China wanted to regain sovereignty over Hong Kong. As to the assertion that the local people don't want Chinese rule but long for the British-now under US rule- to return, that is simply untrue.
As b has been pointing out the troubles in Hong Kong are almost certainly organised by the US government.
Laguerre suspects that the same is true of the gilets jaunes. Does anyone else believe that Macron is being attacked by the US government?
-Posted by: bevin | Aug 14 2019 16:18 utc | MoA
Demonstrations in Malawi. Americans haven’t a clue or idea that any of this is going on. They only care what they are told to care about, at that time. Nothing else.
While Hong Kong protests receive widespread attention, there is no similar coverage of or political support for Antifa, Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the U.S. or the masses protesting racist Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and roundups of migrants.
It seems to be a narrow focus on China, and only on China.
U.S. pressure continues
Months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong have US dirty hands all over them.Orchestrated by the CIA in cahoots with other anti-democratic US agencies and anti-government Chinese hooligans, there’s nothing spontaneous about what’s going on endlessly.
Days earlier, the Trump regime’s State Department (up to its ears in what’s happening) expressed phony grave concern about violence and chaos in the city — ignoring US responsibility for what’s ongoing.
Pompeo threatened China, saying all options are on the table, including direct US intervention, if Beijing’s military intervenes to quell what’s unacceptable and must be stopped.
Over the weekend, masked hooligans clashed with police at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University.
On Sunday, police surrounded the campus, warning elements involved in rioting and vandalism to leave or be dealt with harshly.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a “sedan without license plates tried to ram a group of police officers,” a live round and rubber bullet fired at the vehicle.
“(M)asked radicals” occupying the campus clashed violently with police, dozens arrested, hundreds more involved.
Highly inflammable “dangerous materials” that can be used for explosives were seized from elements arrested — “stolen” from the university’s labs, adding:
“(R)adicals shot arrows and hurled petrol bombs and bricks (at police) – sometimes from catapults mounted on the roof of campus buildings.”
“Police fired a large quantity of tear gas and deployed two water cannons and armored vehicles.”
Clashes raged for hours, a police statement saying: “Anyone who enters or stays on the campus and assists the rioters in any way will risk committing the offense of ‘taking part in a riot.’ ”
Hooligans arrested were not university students.Police called them outsiders. On Monday, classes at all Hong Kong universities were suspended — a Polytechnic Univ. statement saying in part:
“All classes have been forced to be suspended and all operations on the campus have been halted,” adding:
“The University is gravely concerned that the spiraling radical illicit activities will cause not only a tremendous safety threat on campus, but also class suspension over an indefinite period of time.”
“They are concerned about the safety on the campus, and they do not want to see the campus being destroyed further.”
A commentary published by Beijing’s official People’s Daily broadsheet on Monday said ending months of violence and chaos in Hong Kong “is a critical matter,” adding:
In multiple parts of the city, “rioters have been rampantly committing acts of vandalism and arson, paralyzing public transport, trashing rail tracks, hurling petrol bombs at running trains, indiscriminately causing bodily harm to civilians and even turning campuses into battlefields.”
If what’s going on isn’t stopped and the rule of law restored, “there would be no guarantee for the peaceful life of residents, to say nothing of Hong Kong’s future development.”
On Monday, SCMP’s deputy executive editor Zuraidah Ibrahim said the following:
“Hardcore mobs upped their violent game when they took over tertiary campuses last week, as bureaucrats came under fire for doing little and the police warned the city was on the brink of total breakdown,” adding:
“In the north, radicals occupying Chinese University took over the Tolo Highway. At Polytechnic University, they have shut down the Cross-Harbour Tunnel for five days, the longest forced closure ever.” “The mobs broke into the campuses’ chemical laboratories and set up petrol bomb mills overnight and practiced throwing fire bombs with catapults and arrows.” “Fiery battles between protesters and police spread across several universities, as mainland and international students evacuated.”
“The radicals finally withdrew, except at PolyU where a stand-off continues as I write this. Last week, the People’s Liberation Army soldiers took to the streets with brooms – not guns – to clean up, as did volunteers fed-up with the violence and their pockmarked streets. We still don’t see an end in sight.”
US dirty hands are all over months of violence, vandalism, chaos in the city, attacking China’s soft underbelly, trying to destabilize and weaken the country.
Beijing knows what it’s up against — US imperial rage challenging China’s sovereign independence.
- US Dirty Hands Escalate Hong Kong Violence
Despite China’s warnings of possible martial law, strict curfews and military intervention to restore order, protesters have shown no signs of retreat.
The U.S. and Britain are determined to propel forward those hostile political forces they have cultivated over the past two decades.
This is really, really dangerous.
What a fucking mess the Empire has made over the last century.
Trying to reconcile my belief in democracy with non-intervention makes this one tricky. I have no desire to support the fascist United States in attempting to subvert another country's government.
The cultural gap (and therefore lack of knowledge and understanding) between the west and China is so vast it makes attempting to separate genuine journalism from McCarthy-ist era style propaganda about the country very difficult, thus making a merits based comparison between the 2 spheres of power almost impossible.
Most of the stories I hear about Chinese repression are obvious pro-western propaganda, which makes it tempting to dismiss other pieces of information out of hand.
I can only wish the best for the people of Hong Kong and China, whatever they decide that may be.
Laguerre hints at an interesting point I'd not considered with regards to the yellow vests in France - are they US aided? I'm still inclined to lean towards it being a more genuine grass roots movement from the limited bits I've seen, though I'd be intrigued to see what connections could be verified there. US state department attempting to push Frexit would certainly be a new angle to think about for a lot of us.
-Posted by: Northern | Aug 14 2019 16:22 utc | MoA
Methodology
The escalating demonstrations are linked to [1] the U.S. trade war, [2] tariffs and [3] military encirclement of China.
Four hundred—half—of the 800 U.S. overseas military bases surround China. Aircraft carriers, destroyers, nuclear submarines, jet aircraft, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile batteries, and satellite surveillance infrastructures are positioned in the South China Sea, close to Hong Kong.
Media demonization is needed to justify and intensify this military presence. And it is ongoing and ruthless.
John Reed at Foreign Policy describes “how the U.S. is encircling China with military bases.”
The U.S. military is encircling China with a chain of air bases and military ports. The latest link: a small airstrip on the tiny Pacific island of Saipan. The U.S. Air Force is planning to lease 33 acres of land on the island for the next 50 years to build a “divert airfield” on an old World War II airbase there. But the residents don’t want it. And the Chinese are in no mood to be surrounded by Americans.
…In addition to the site on Saipan, the Air Force plans to send aircraft on regular deployments to bases ranging from Australia to India as part of its bulked up force in the Pacific. These plans include regular deployments to Royal Australian Air Force bases at Darwin and Tindal, Changi East air base in Singapore, Korat air base in Thailand, Trivandrum in India, and possibly bases at Cubi Point and Puerto Princesa in the Philippines and airfields in Indonesia and Malaysia, a top U.S. Air Force general revealed last month.
As I’ve written in the past, these Pentagon plans are part of the Air-Sea Battle strategy. The idea is to have enough US bases and Air Force capabilities peppered throughout the region so that China would be too surrounded to safely attack in the event of a conflict.
“Stealthy American bombers and submarines would knock out China’s long-range surveillance radar and precision missile systems located deep inside the country,” reports the WashingtonPost. ”The initial ‘blinding campaign’ would be followed by a larger air and naval assault.”
Not surprisingly, Beijing is none-too-pleased with the fact that Washington is planning contingencies to “battle” China, and militarily encircling China in the Pacific. Imagine the calls for war in Washington if China was backing various Latin American countries with money and weapons and building air and naval bases in the Caribbean with the explicit aim of bombing United States to smithereens.
I haven’t seen such demonization since World War II against the Nazi Germans.
Encouraging the demonstrations goes hand-in-hand with international efforts to bar Huawei 5G technology, the cancellation of a joint study of cancer and the arrest of Chinese corporate officers.
All these belligerent acts are designed to exert maximum pressure on China, divide the leadership, destabilize economic development and weaken China’s resolve to maintain any socialist planning.
The Trump Admin has come out with all guns blazing against Huawei, China’s telecommunications giant, which is now the 2nd biggest smartphone producer in the world, second only to Apple and within striking distance of them.
The USG has accused Huawei of assisting Chinese Intelligence by placing backdoors in its software and hardware that allow surveillance by Chinese authorities (but not the NSA).
Trump has even pressured allies like the UK to stop using Huawei altogether, despite the fact that Britain relies heavily of Huawei for its infrastructure.
The attacks against Huawei escalated on December 1st 2018, when the US orchestrated a totally illegal kidnapping and illegal detention of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s CFO (Chief Financial Officer). Wanzhou is still being held against her will in Canada on US orders.
-The Freedom Articles
Martial law in Hong Kong, a major financial center, especially for international investment funds coming into China, would impact China’s development.
And that, my friends, is the objective.
Capitalist economic “freedom”
British imperialism, in the 155 years it ruled Hong Kong, denied
rights to millions of workers. There was no elected government, no right
to a minimum wage, unions, decent housing or health care, and certainly
no freedom of the press or freedom of speech. These basic democratic
rights were not even on the books in colonial Hong Kong.
The British were ruthless when they owned Hong Kong, and treated the native Chinese there with scorn and dismay.
For the past 25 years, including this year, Hong Kong has been ranked No. 1 in the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s list of countries with the “greatest economic freedom”—meaning the least restraints on capitalist profit taking. Hong Kong’s ranking is based on low taxes and light regulations, the strongest property rights and business freedom, and “openness to global commerce and vibrant entrepreneurial climate … no restrictions on foreign banks.”
For this Hong Kong is well considered the “freest society in the world.”
This “freedom” means the world’s highest rents and the greatest gap
between the super-rich and the desperately poor and homeless. This is
what Hong Kong youth face today. But the youth are consciously being
misdirected to blame the city administration for the conditions Hong
Kong is locked into under the “One Country, Two Systems agreement.”
Ah, if only HK was independent, free of China, would everything become equal, fair and just. Only if...
An unequal colonial treaty
Hong Kong is stolen land.
This spectacular deep water port in the South China Sea at the mouth of the Pearl River, a major waterway in south China, was seized by Britain in the 1842 Opium Wars.
Hong Kong was seized by Britain, and used as a staging platform to get the Chinese addicted to Opium so that the wealthy in Britain could profit.
After negotiations with Britain had dragged on through the 1980s, the British imposed another unequal treaty on the People’s Republic of China.
Hong Kong under British rule in the 1970’s.
Under the 1997 “One Country, Two Systems” agreement that officially
returned Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories to the PRC, Britain
and China agreed to leave “the previous capitalist system” in place for
50 years.
China, determined to reassert its sovereignty over land stolen by the British, also needed funds for development.
Most money in Asia moved through the Hong Kong banking system. So in 1997 China was anxious to reach a smooth transition that would not destabilize the transfer of investment funds into the 99.5 percent of China that had previously been denied development funds.
To understand this situation, you must realize that ever since the Chinese Revolution in 1949, China had been sanctioned and blockaded from accessing Western investment and technology.
China had been denied development funds for many years. The plan was to keep them backwards and primitive. So that they could continue to be a low-cost resource for the Western nations.
U.S. and British imperialism took full advantage of the 1997
concession that maintained their economic control of the former colony.
Their hope was that Hong Kong could serve, as it had in the past, as an
economic battering ram into China.
Their hopes were not realized.
In 1997 Hong Kong’s gross domestic product was 27 percent of China’s gross domestic product. Today it’s a mere 3 percent and falling. Much to U.S. and British frustration, the world’s largest banks are now in China and they are state-owned banks.
What confounds the capitalist class, far more than China’s incredible growth, is that the top 12 Chinese companies on U.S. Fortune 500 list are all state-owned and state-subsidized. They include massive oil, solar energy, telecommunications, engineering and construction companies, banks and the auto industry.
-Fortune.com, July 22, 2015
U.S. corporate power is deeply threatened by China’s level of
development through the Belt and Road Initiative and its growing
position in international trade and investment.
U.S., Britain built a network of collaborators
When Britain and China signed the One Country, Two Systems agreement,
all foreign intervention and colonial claims on Hong Kong were supposed
to end. Full sovereignty was to return to China.
However, U.S. and British efforts to undercut Hong Kong’s return began in advance of the signing.
Just before the transfer of sovereignty, Britain hastily set up, after 150 years of appointed officials, a partially elected, although still mainly appointed, government. They quickly established and funded political parties, composed of their loyal collaborators.
Millions of dollars were openly and secretly funneled into a whole
network of protected social service organizations, political parties,
media and social media, student and youth organizations, and labor
unions established to undercut support for China and the Communist Party
of China.
Think about it. Of course this would happen. Neither the USA nor the UK were stupid.
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) receives U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding, along with British support. It promotes “pro-democracy, independent unions” throughout China. The HKCTU was established in 1990 to counter and undercut the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions founded in 1948, which is still the largest union organization with 410,000 members.
The HKFTU suffered years of brutal repression under British colonial rule as it fought for basic protection of workers’ rights. A strike organized by the HKFTU shook British colonial rule in 1967. The strike became a citywide rebellion sparked by mass layoffs of workers from the plastic flower factory.
"They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success."
The Tiananmen Square outcome was–media accounts to the contrary–that the kids all left the square safely by 7:20 am, just as all the HK demonstrators are unharmed.
There was a riot led by professional thugs elsewhere in Beijing, in Chang'An Avenue, but that was a different matter entirely and one with an interesting sequel. The leader of that riot was exfiltrated to the UK by MI6 and subsequently convicted of robbing and murdering an elderly Londoner. Sweet.
- Posted by: Godfree Roberts | Nov 22 2019 23:23 utc | 34
British colonial authorities harshly suppressed the uprising, resulting in 51 deaths and hundreds injured and disappeared. The HKFTU supports China and opposes the reactionary demonstrations.
NED funding = CIA support
Allen Weinstein, a founder of the NED, told the Washington Post in 1991;
“A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” (Sept. 21, 1991)
The NED funds, coordinates and weaponizes nongovernmental organizations and social organizations with the capacity to put tens of thousands of misdirected, idealistic and alienated youth on the streets.
Funding from the NED, the Ford, Rockefeller, Soros and numerous other corporate foundations, Christian churches of every denomination, and generous British funding, is behind this hostile, subversive network orchestrating the Hong Kong protests today.
While you would NEVER hear about this in the mainstream American media, it of course makes sense. All you need to do is follow the money trail.
In HK, for instance, when the protestors receive payments through the NED, or NID, they get a tattoo on their arm (to prevent multiple payouts),a nd you can see this clearly on the exposed skin of rioters.
The NED bankrolls the Hong Kong Human Rights Movement, the Hong Kong
Journalists Association, the Civic Party, Labor Party and Democratic
Party. They are members of the Civil Human Rights Front that coordinates
the demonstrations.
This role of the NED in China is increasingly harder to obscure.
Alexander Rubinstein reported in “American Gov’t, NGOs Fuel and Fund Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Protests” (mintpressnews.com, June 13):
“It is inconceivable that the organizers of the protests are unaware of the NED ties to some of its members.” (tinyurl.com/y6nhmapz)
The goal is to promote a hostile and suspicious attitude toward China and toward communism and to foster the false concept of a past democratic Hong Kong with a distinct identity.
China Daily warns:
“In recent years, there have been warnings that color revolutions are emerging as a new form of warfare employed by the West to destabilize certain countries.” (Aug. 12)
Which system works better?
The Aug. 13 New York Times refers to Hong Kong as a “bastion of civil
liberties” to counter “Beijing’s brand of authoritarianism.”
British colonial past is deeply mythologized. Twenty-two years of constant nostalgia for this past, supposedly glorious time has influenced increasingly impoverished youth.
The most violent rioters, amongst them those who hold the US flag, have obviously the order or to kill somebody, better a policeman ( as the clear intend on the GT journalist shows... ) or to provoke some killing of a protester, or by accident of a journalist ( who, btw, astonishingly, remain in the middle of the melee always...
I find this very suspicious, which is their insurance company? I want it for my travels...Most probably not journalists themselves but rioters in disguise ), as these intends of assassination happened very timely, almost simultaneously with or consecutive to Trump´s Twitter on that he expected nobody will result with any harm.... obviously from his terrorists side...
BTW, this behavior have time ago passed from ghastly to straight criminal, under any country´s law.
In the US, none of these terrorists would still remain alive, they would never had been able to get so close to any policeman so as to grab his batton leaving him unarmed. They would had been shot in place, the whole bunch of them...as we so usually watch happens with black people there....
Why The Donald ( and Bannon, the Pepe Frog exposes him all the way, they already do not even try to conceal anymore...) thinks any country in the world would have to allow this?
I posted some of these videos yesterday in the week review thread ( and I am glad "b" gave them some greater visibility..) and to my view, some of these rioters, especially those who talk with the travelers seem to be on drugs....
It´s an appreciation on how their tongue slide so much plus the slowness with which they talk, in such stressant situation, very contrasting with, for example, the elder summoning the rioter in the subway. See the very thin guy talking with the Australian businessman in the video i posted in the week and review thread....
I wonder whether these could be people taken from jail or correstionals, as they were part of the ISIS recruits who flew to Turkey to be tarinned and then to Syria, their behavior is clearly antisocial, no wonder any real complaint they could have ...
In the video on "strangers" supplying the rioters, there are two totally masked and covered women ( all the way the ISIS handlers style...) who, by their physical complexion and hair, seem to not be Chinese women at all, but Westerners...at 2:21 footage....Most probably NED/CIA operatives...
-Posted by: Sasha | Aug 14 2019 16:06 utc | MoA
Listen up. Much of what you read is a myth.
Despite decades of multimillion-dollar Western funding, Hong Kong has
a poverty rate of 20 percent (23.1 percent for children) compared to
less than 1 percent in mainland China. In the past 20 years, mainland
China has lifted countless millions of people out of poverty.
Poverty rate in HK = 20%
Poverty rate in mainland China <1%
Just across the river from Hong Kong sits the city of Shenzhen.
It is one of the Special Economic Zones established to lure Western technology. These zones, originally with thousands of labor-intensive factories and millions of workers earning low wages, were centers of capitalist exploitation and enormous profits for U.S. and other global capitalists.
Shenzhen grew from a city of 30,000 in 1979 to a megacity of 20 million, with the largest migrant population in China.
Shenzhen had a population three times the size of Hong Kong. With investments via Hong Kong, this new city became a massive polluted factory town with sweatshops spewing out clouds of dark toxic smoke.
In the past five years, through city and national urban planning, Shenzhen is today one of the most livable cities in China, with extensive parks, tree-lined streets and the largest fleet of electric buses in the world (16,000), along with all-electric cabs.
Shenzhen aims to have 80 percent of its new buildings green-certified by 2020. It is full of apartment blocks, office towers and modern factories with advanced equipment manufacturing, robotics, automation and giant tech startups.
For the last 10 years wages have been stagnant in Hong Kong while
rents have increased 300 percent; it is the most expensive city in the
world. In Shenzhen, wages have increased 8 percent every year, and more
than 1 million new, public, green housing units at low rates are nearing
completion.
United States Demands
The U.S. is demanding that China abandon state support of its
industries, the ownership of its banks and national planning. But
contrasting the decay, growing poverty and intense alienation in Hong
Kong with the green vibrant city of Shenzhen across the river shows that
there are two choices for China today, including the angry forces
mobilized in Hong Kong: modern socialist planning or a return to the
super-exploitation and imperialist domination of the colonial past.
For decades Britain and the U.S. used the people of Hong Kong for
cheap labor. Now they are using the same population for cheap political
propaganda. This cynical maneuver is just one more weapon in a desperate
effort to disrupt China’s further development.
U.S. corporate power is incapable of meeting any of the desperate needs for housing, health care, education and a healthy environment for people here. Instead, in a relentless drive for profits, enormous resources are squandered on militarism to threaten countries around the world.
Today…
The Hong Kong protests are escalating, just as the US-China trade war is also escalating. None of this is out of the blue.
For quite some time now, the US has been shifting the focus of its hegemonic and imperial ambitions towards China, recognizing it – even more than Russia – as its main rival superpower.
Author Graham Allen published his 2017 book entitled Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? addressing growing US-China tension and the potential for a future US-China war.
The term Thucydides trap is derived from ancient Greece to describe a situation when a rising power gains enough strength to challenge and disturb the existing ruling power. With this phenomenon in mind, let’s take a look at the background to the current US-China trade war (which is becoming more bitter and intense by the week) and the Hong Kong Protests.
Identifying the Enemy
Quotes from top US officials, military and non-military alike, show that China has gradually been replacing Russia as the #1 enemy, although this is not clear cut; there is still a lot of hatred towards and fear of Russia.
In 2018, the USA changed its official defense strategy.
Terrorism was no longer the #1 threat and was replaced by Russia and China.
The DoD report accused China of wielding predatory economics and building fake islands in the South China Sea to intimidate nearby countries.
“China remains our biggest long-term challenge. Without focused involvement and engagement by the United States, and our allies and partners, China will realize its dream of hegemony in Asia.”
- Admiral Harry Harris, former commander of the US Pacific Command, said this about China in 2018.
“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril. I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international rules-based order … China’s impressive military build-up could soon challenge the United States across almost every domain.”
Earlier this year, DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
“[The] rule of law, international norms, and fairness in trade and international engagements is not the Chinese model … Chinese leaders will increasingly seek to assert China’s model of authoritarian capitalism as an alternative—and implicitly superior—development path abroad, exacerbating great-power competition that could threaten international support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.”
- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
Previously in 2018 Coats had followed Trump’s lead by blaming China
for interfering in US elections (where have I heard that one before?).
He stated:
“[China is targeting] state and local governments and officials … It is trying to exploit any divisions between federal and local levels on policy, and uses investments and other incentives to expand its influence.”
- DNI (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats said:
All this rhetoric comes against a backdrop of intertwined economies, where many US companies have outsourced and offshored their labor to China.
Targeting Chinese Institutions, Initiatives and Projects
The US has taken a dim view of practically every Chinese effort to develop itself in the last decade.
The US has opposed China’s gigantic OBR (One Belt, One Road) Initiative which has been dubbed the New Silk Road.
The US has directed propaganda against BRICS, China’s SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization), its development bank and many other trade initiatives.
The US accuses China of trying to control the world, yet such accusations must be difficult to receive with a straight face given that the US routinely threatens both its allies and enemies with economic warfare, sanctions, trade wars, governmental overthrow, invasion or even nuclear annihilation if they don’t toe the American line.
Funding and Training Muslim Uyghurs – Sometimes as Part of ISIS
You may not have heard of them, but there is a Chinese minority group known as the Uyghurs or Uighurs. Many are Muslim and of Turkic ethnicity. They live in the semi-autonomous region of north-west China in a province called Xinjiang.
Well, guess what?
The United States government has been funding them to aggressively fight against the Chinese government.
The funny thing is that a little bit of effort and the whole thing becomes apparent even through the traditional media reports. Recall that early media reports said there were 1.7 million protesters "according to the organiser's estimates". Once you remember that, then every time you hear millions is a hint to look up the Police estimate (150k) and estimates of maximum numbers in space available - also 150k or thereabouts.
More stories hint of high protester numbers but don't mention numbers -so check the accompanying pictures and videos - we a few thousand (ie well down on ever factual early numbers) and more recently just a few hundred. Police violence - yet every picture or video show large numbers of police acting very very peaceably (compare Paris). HK democracy - yet all the pictures recently have been exclusively of masked blackshirts and if you dig deep most of the violence has been blackshirt on passers by.
There must be picture editors who are stunned by the reports they run.
And obviously the story they are all looking for is the China overreaction that was never going to happen.
The whole thing runs in parallel with the obvious Ujghur 1 million in prison lie (it would be equivalent to every male aged 16-29) where the only witnesses to speak to western journalists have been fed to the press in Istanbul. We all know that Chinese muslims in Istanbul are going to or already in ISIS. James Le Mesurier doing a little extra press feeding in his spare time.
- Posted by: Michael Droy | Nov 22 2019 22:17 utc | 29
So when ever you hear, or read about the Chinese concentration camps and the imprisonment of those “poor” Uyghur Muslims, keep in mind that it is the Untied States that has the largest prison population in the world. China doesn’t even come close.
The United States is THE prison nation, and locks up more citizens than any other nation on the surface of the earth, and has put more people in prison behind bars than Hitler did in Nazi Germany, Stalin did in the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot did in Cambodia. Compared to China, it’s not even on the “radar screen”.
So America is great because of “freedom” and “liberty” and protections afforded by the “Bill of Rights”, Eh?
The White House has asked the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals to place an emergency stay on a ruling made last week by a federal judge so that the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans without charge is reaffirmed immediately.
On Wednesday, September 12, US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest made permanent a temporary injunction she issued in May that bars the federal government from abiding by the indefinite detention provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, or NDAA.
Judge Forrest ruled that a clause that gives the government the power to arrest US citizens suspected of maintaining alliances with terrorists and hold them without due process violated the Constitution and that the White House would be stripped of that ability immediately.
- White House demands military prisons for Americans under NDAA
The bullshit is amazing to me!
In America, you can get incarcerated for the tiniest of reasons, or commit enormous crimes and be totally immune from prosecution.
We all need to look at things objectively and at the “big picture”. Just why is the United States government pushing the anti-China narrative? Why are they making a big deal of “concentration camps for Muslim terrorists” when the largest number of inmates are in the USA itself? What is going on?
Follow the money trail…
Neocon Marco Rubio, and warhawk, sponsored this 2018 bill pushing the US to get involved.
Rubio, for those who don’t recall, was the very same guy itching for war with Venezuela earlier this year in 2019. War is so great with these people. They think that America will forever be isolated and protected and war can never come to roost inside the United States.
Hong Kong’s opposition unites with Washington hardliners to ‘preserve the US’s own political and economic interests’
While claiming to fight for “self-determination,” Hong Kong opposition leaders are collaborating with regime-change neoconservatives in Washington to “preserve the US’s own political and economic interests.” A new DC lobbying front has become their base of operations.
The Grayzone piece linked above misses the real man behind the lobbying. Andrew Duncan who is a main sponsor of Senator Marco Rubio who is the main promoter on the hill for "activist" and U.S. darling Joshua Wong. Duncan is also one of the producers (financiers) of a film about Wong.
Watchdog group files complaint in shadowy gift to super PAC aiding Marco Rubio
An election watchdog organization filed a complaint Friday with the Federal Election Commission over a $500,000 donation to a super political action committee aiding Marco Rubio from a mystery firm headed by a New York investor.
...
The complaint from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, seeks an investigation into IGX LLC for masking the donation and to determine whether the Conservative Solutions PAC was aware of the origins of the contribution. The actual donor, Andrew Duncan, of Brooklyn, New York, acknowledged to the Associated Press earlier this month that he had routed his contribution through IGX, a business entity registered last year in Delaware.
- Posted by: b | Nov 22 2019 20:17 utc | 12
However, much of the funding is done under-the-table by the soft power network of NGOs, illustrious among them the National Endowment for Democracy of NWO (New World Order) insider George Soros.
The UHRP (Uyghur Human Rights Project) admits on its website that it was “founded by the Uyghur American Association (UAA) in 2004 with a supporting grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).”
Got the following email today from my "representative" U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (for whom I have never voted) on the reason for his vote: "The world is watching, and we must step up to hold the Chinese government accountable. Please know that I will continue to fight for an America that brings moral leadership to the international stage."
Merkley remains the darling of self-styled Oregon "progressives", who have no clue about the real meaning of moral leadership. He pulled a stunt a year ago trying to get into an immigration gulag and was refused entry. He conveniently forgot to mention that privatized corporate immigration gulags were established by Democrats under President Obama.
I used to call his office to express my opinion, but no longer bother, he's just another war party flack.
- Posted by: Trisha | Nov 22 2019 22:22 utc | 31
Since when does the USG deeply care about oppressed minorities in
other nations? It’s a rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it this time:
if – and only if – US interests are aligned with that minority, and for
the (usually short) time period the interests are aligned.
“The alleged “struggle” by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, referred to by the terrorists and their foreign sponsors as “East Turkistan,” consists of two essential components – a foreign harbored political front including the Washington D.C. and Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and a militant front clearly backed by the US and NATO through intermediary groups like Turkey’s Grey Wolves … Encouraging separatism in China’s western Xinjiang region, if successful, would carve off a substantial amount of territory. In conjunction with US-backed separatism in China’s Tibet region, an immense buffer region stands to be created that would virtually isolate China from Central Asia.”
So, just as the US funded and trained Operation Gladio warriors to fight communism in Europe, Mujahideen fighters to battle the USSR, ISIS to battle Syria, it is also preparing for war with China by funding and training the ‘separatists’, whoever they may be, in this case the Uyghurs.
“Chinese militants from the western region of Xinjiang have fled from the country to get “terrorist training” from Islamic State group fighters for attacks at home, state media reported on Monday.”
Initiating a Trade War
There is no doubt that it was the US under Trump who initiated the US-China trade war. As such, these series of HK protests are part of the negotiating strategy.
Even before he took office, Trump took to twitter bashing China for its supposed economic exploitation of the US. Trump says the objective is a better trade deal with China to benefit all Americans, but this trade war is producing a massive fallout and host of negative effects for American consumers, farmers and manufacturers.
“How about China’s economy? Are Trump’s tariffs crushing the Chinese economy? Not really. During Jan-May 2019, China’s exports to the US fell about 5%, but China’s exports to the EU rose more than 14%. And, guess what, EU is China’s #1 trading partner (and ASEAN is the #2 trade partner), while the US is #3. So, China keeps growing at a healthy pace — even the IMF predicts a healthy 6.2% real GDP growth for China this year!
But here’s the kicker. While China’s exports to the US fell 4.8%, the reverse — US exports to China — fell by a whopping 24% (for the first five months of 2019). So, US exporters and farmers are hurting real bad. And Trump cannot win re-election without the support of those “great soybean/corn/pork farmers.””
Instigating a Color Revolution by way of the Hong Kong Protests
One of the most significant examples of US aggression against China is the instigation of a color protest or color revolution in Hong Kong. The aim is to provoke China into reacting harshly and violently, which would reinforce the Western perception that China is heavy-handed, tyrannical and totalitarian.
China has already moved troops to its southern mainland border, just across the water from Hong Kong. It is possible that another US objective is to push the protestors into declaring Hong Kong independent of China. But, you know what, they are going to hold back. They will not give the USA what it so obviously wants.
The idea behind the protests and the rioters In Hong Kong was all along to provoke another Tian An Men incident. This was quite obvious since the start of the protest. It now gets publicly acknowledged:
BBC Newsnight @BBCNewsnight - 11:00 UTC · Nov 19, 2019 “Some of the protesters seem to have an objective to provoke a military confrontation with China. They seem to want a Tiananmen Square outcome as success.”
Fmr Foreign Sec @Jeremy_Hunt says he is “concerned with the tactics” with some of #HongKong’s protesters.
Had China moved troops to Hong Kong, or allowed more force to be used against the protesters, the U.S. would have used that to press its allies to put strong sanctions on China. The protesters' violence was designed to achieve that outcome. The plan was part of the larger U.S. strategy of decoupling from China.
The plan failed because China was too smart to give the U.S. what it wanted. Now it is Trump who is under pressure. He needs the trade deal with China because the current trade war is doing harm to the U.S. economy and endangers his reelection.
Which is probably the real reason why the protests have died down.
- Posted by b on November 22, 2019 at 19:02 UTC | Permalink
There are some who say the Hong Kong protests are a grassroots affair. There is usually a grassroots element to many of these protests, but almost always the bigger factor in the shadows is US interference (or US-UK, or US-UK-Israeli, interference).
“The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK’s economic realities. Most of the protesters don’t even know what the Extradition Law is all about …”
“The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence … they know the fifth column within the government and business … If large casualties result what do they care? … [T]hey know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese …”
“By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK’s is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anomaly, wouldn’t you think? What are they all there for?”
And yes, there is proof. The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh
was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong
Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
The senior US consulate member Julie Eadeh was photographed secretly meeting with the top 2 leaders of the Hong Kong protests, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law.
Remember – the NED now does overtly what the CIA did covertly decades ago. Allen Weinstein, one of the founders of NED, confessed that “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
NED has been equipping the HK protestors out of CIA enclaves inside of Hong Kong.
To an American, I sound like some kind of Chinese lover / Communist sympathizer. But the difference between myself and Joe and Suzy average is that I LIVE HERE. I see the changes and the differences FIRST HAND.
I can compare things directly, and I don’t need to be told what to believe by an actor playing a newscaster on television.
I'm a Hongkonger, so allow me to inject some perspectives here as a very concerned onlooker to what is happening. I'd admit my views are in the slim minority among fellow Hongkongers, and likely be laughed off as a conspiracy-theory monger or a Commie groupie.
The Extradition Law revision that started this was only a convenient proxy for those wanting chaos in HK to create chaos. The instigators behind the initial protest march are the same ones who started Occupy Central five years ago. They are the ones who huddle with operatives from US/UK Consulates, who travelled to the Washington/London/Brussel/Taipei, etc. to see politicians and plot strategies, to arrange for funding, and to recruit dare devils for the carnage. Lucky for them that HK was ripe for such shenanigans because HKers in general are sullen over their loss of superiority complex against mainland Chinese, brainwashed subconsciously through schools and churches about CCP wickedness, and desperately stressed under HK's economic realities. Most of the protesters don't even know what the Extradition Law is all about, but what the heck, it seemed like a good party to participate in, no?
The instigators, however, are well versed in all the intricacies. They know who they can easily recruit and order to do violence; they know the Basic Law and its fuzzy edges; they know the influences of clergy/university,high-school teachers; they know the fifth column within the government and business; they know HKers' irrational sensitivity towards so-called world opinions; they know that the foreign judges (which consist of 95% of the court) and foreign press are solidly behind them. Thus, they wanted to sock it to China; the more direly the better. If large casualties result what do they care? None of their own children were among the crowd and casualties would surely enlarge that blackeye they were to deliver. And they know their foreign backers are only too glad to see Chinese killing Chinese.
Like someone said in posts before mine, this incident is more similar to Maidan than any other color revolution prior. US/UK/Taiwan/Oz/Japan are enjoying their 5-minutes of glory and celebration at this point. The blowback, however, will come years and decades later.
By the way, the US Consulate in HK has over 1,000 on payroll (an estimated 200 CIA agents), UK's is over 500 (among them MI6 agents). That size of consulate in a city of less than 400 sq. miles of land (over half of which mountainous) is a laughable anormaly, wouldn't you think? What are they all there for?
-Posted by: Oriental Voice | Aug 14 2019 19:22 utc | MoA
The USA is collapsing, and like a snarling, rabid dog is snapping and thrashing about as it plummets further and further into the black, black abyss. The idea that somehow, the USA can wrestle back some of it’s old “greatness” by stalling the rise of China is a chimera.
America the nation that was founded as a republic no longer exists. it has been replaced with something different. First a “democracy”. Then after untold number of amendments, “mob rule”. Then with the consolidation of the mainstream press, an oligarchy.
It’s just an illusion. It’s not going to happen.
Evil Outlaw US Empire planners in their hubristic zeal to decouple from China's economy erred massively in thinking China would be the one harmed and come begging for a trade deal. Instead, China's geoeconomic strategy is clearly working and is more potent than what the Empire can bring to the table--Oops! China can now play Trump.
- Posted by: karlof1 | Nov 22 2019 21:16 utc | 20
But in the meantime, these are dangerous times we live in, and Nuclear warfare is nothing to trifle with.
What the American media is showing are distortions and lies. They are dangerous.
To understand what is going on you need to see the FULL picture. Not only what the “deep state” wants you to see to the exclusion of all else.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
We often talk (and complain) about the bad side of the new Orwellian police state that all nations are morphing into. Yet, with all of our moaning, groaning, and complaining we neglect to look at the more positive aspects. No, this is not an article in praise of the Orwellian Police State. Instead, we look at how intense monitoring of enormous populations, using high resolution cameras and 5G networks enable full “real time” tracking of agitators and hooligans. Especially those from another nation. Ones that are intended to destabilize, and cause strife, for global political ends.
In particular, we will look at the tracking (by China) of the United States agitation in the (so called) “Free Democracy” movement in Hong Kong during the Summer of 2019.
Quick Review
The United States under President Donald Trump has been involved in difficult negotiations with China over trade. These negotiations began in 2017, and “heated up” in early Summer of 2019. During the Summer of 2019 mass “Pro Democracy” protests broke out in Hong Kong. The idea, of course, has been to put every type and means of “pressure” on China so that the trade negotiations would fall in favor of the United States.
I covered the Chinese reaction to all this here. The link below opens up into a separate tab so as not to interrupt your viewing pleasure in this article.
These “pressures” included such things as…
Increasing Tariffs on Chinese made products.
Protests and disruptions in Hong Kong.
Asking European Nations to stop or break trade with China.
Financial incentives to other nations.
Pressure on American companies to move back to the USA.
Time will tell just how effective they will all be.
What I do know, as of the time of this writing, at the tail-end of September moving forward into the 70th anniversary of China, the following is true…
[1] International Trade
There is a GLOBAL slowing of all international trade.
International trade, across the board is reduced by 30%.
Companies located in strong pro-USA nations (Australia, NZ, and the UK) are looking for alternative off-shore supply chain operations outside of China. But there just aren’t any.
[2] American Trade With China
China has also surprised Americans with the most complete supply chains in the world. "You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That's the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours," one former high-ranking Apple executive was quoted as saying in a New York Times report.
- Smaller US companies depend on Chinese supply chain
The clear majority of American companies are staying inside of China. This is out of financial necessity. They do not have the financial means to take on the enormous financial risks to relocate back to the USA.
Those American companies are passing on the tariffs directly to the American consumer (25% direct) or (10% through a “pass through” arrangement).
But all accounts, the tariff situation is hurting American consumers much more than it is hurting China.
Read about the reasons here. Opens in a separate tab.
[3] Cut in American Food Items for Export
The cut in importation of American foodstuffs has resulted in the increase in the price of food. But not in the availability of food. China has food galore and a-plenty.
This goes absolutely against the American media narrative. Which on some websites are even suggesting famine! It’s insane. Ah, but, it’s easy enough to check.
China has spent the last thirty years building up their self-sufficiency in food, technology and vital products. They have not forgotten the mistakes made under Communism under Mr. Mao.
Now, of course, there are all kinds of different cuts of pork. It would be like comparing apples and watermelons if we use different cuts of pork. But, you know what, we work with what we have to work with.
Here is a flier showing one of the more expensive cuts of pork (it’s the Chinese national holiday, after all, ) Never the less, you can clearly see that a pork roast costs 17.8 RMB / half a Kg in October. Where in January (before the trade embargoes) a cheap cut of pork shoulder costs 12.8 RMB / half a Kg.
At which I would like to remind the reader that China is a bacon-loving nation. They love their pork and out-produces pork products that makes America look like teeny-boppers.
China, with it’s enormous population, does not need food imports to exist. China is an enormous breadbasket. Farms exist everywhere. For instance, did you know that China has more pigs than the next 43 pork producing countries combined.
Yeah. America is a light-weight in pork production.
The Chinese love pork. This is a nation that loves bacon. They love pork chops, and all sorts of pork products.
China does not need any imports of food to feed it’s people. It is self-sufficient.
China feeds 22 percent of the world population with only seven percent of the planet's arable land. Land is heavily utilized for agriculture. Vegetables are planted on road embankments, in traffic triangles and right up the walls of many buildings.
China is the world's top consumer of meat and grain. As it becomes more affluent people consume more meat and cooking oil and this has lead to increased demand for soybeans as an oil source and feed for livestock. China also uses more fertilizer that any other country.
According to United Nations statistics, China's cereal production is the largest in the world. In 2003 China produced 377 million tons, or 18.1 percent of total world production. Its plant oil crops---at 15 million tons in 2003---are a close second to those of the United States and amounted to 12.6 percent of total world production.
Lauren Keane wrote in the Washington Post, “China has a long-standing policy of food self-sufficiency, growing 95 percent of the grain required to feed its people. The country's sheer size means that a major crop failure or other food emergency here could have international ramifications, overwhelming world food markets with sudden demand. "Were China to need to import a large amount of grain, it would have a very dramatic impact on world food prices," said Anthea Webb, director of World Food Program China. [Source:Lauren Keane, Washington Post, May 31, 2010]
-Facts and Details
The idea that China cannot feed it’s people comes from the late
1960’s when the Communist central government failed in the
implementation of policy. Taking advantage of that situation was a SJW
moment known as the Cultural Revolution. It collapsed when the military had to be called into to restore order and control.
[4] Discarding of the United States Dollar
For a full half a century, the world used the USD to conduct international business and trade. This was advantageous for the United States. As the value of the dollar could be artificially propped up as the entire world was using this currency, and it was able to “float” upon the stability of the economies of multiple nations.
Not so any longer. Each time a nation stops using the USD as a currency for international trade, the stability of the USD decreases.
Numerous nations are starting to conduct trade in the Yuan instead of the US Dollar.
Numerous nations are buying up gold and increasing their gold reserves.
America has countered to this by printing more money, and taking on more debt.
Maybe these nations know something that many Americans aren’t.
In the forefront of all these various issues, we have the (so called) “Pro Democracy” movement in HK. This is an effort that is designed to destabilize the region as a way to put pressure on China.
Indeed, Donald Trump himself tweeted to Xi Peng in September that all the protests in HK would end abruptly if China agreed to the USA trade concessions.
How could Donald Trump say that if he wasn't able to make that happen?
The “Pro Democracy Movement”
I covered this subject in great deal elsewhere. If you want to find out who the players are, the stakes involved, the money that changes hands, and the interests of the American “deep state” swamp you can clink on this link below. It opens up in a separate tab so as not to interrupt your reading pleasure here.
In order to put pressure on China, Donald Trump utilized a branch of the CIA known as the National Endowment for Democracy or NED.
This is all well known as the “paper trail” for the funding is public knowledge. Indeed, groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI last year alone.
You know… for “democracy” around the world.
While
US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and
pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the
demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.
And the people used to [1] instigate the riots, [2] train the protestors, arrange and [3] organize the newsmen and cameras and [4] teach and instruct the rioters for “soft conflicts” used to [5] provoke violent actions by the HK Police all have LinkedIN profiles.
Don’t you know.
So, even a dweeb like myself can [1] track the funding, [2] see the names and addresses of the agitators, and [3] view where they are and what they are doing in Hong Kong.
Just imagine what the Chinese government can do.
But Hong Kong is not America. It is part of China.
As Americans, especially those who have never stepped foot outside of America, think of other nations, other people and other cities from our point of view. That is to say, we imagine the WORST outside the USA. And never give the other nations any credit for doing certain things well. We just assume that they are all blunder-head nincompoops.
When we think of Hong Kong, we think of New York city.
Night meal in Hong Kong. Yup. It’s pretty much like this. And, yes, I do love it. It’s glorious.
Which is sad.
We should be thinking of Tokyo. We should be thinking of High-Tech (though not nearly as high-tech as Shenzhen), and state of the art. China is advancing in so, so , SO many ways and NONE of it is being reported by the mainstream American media.
We think, maybe that there are a few cameras here and there. We think that maybe the video feeds are being monitored, or that the traffic police are checking things out.
We don’t realize that the entire city is under constant advanced surveillance. And that China knows exactly what is going on in great detail.
Here, we are going to talk about this.
5G networks in all the Chinese cities
In the USA, there is an active program to justify why America is still using obsolete technology. “We don’t want to be irradiated with that dangerous 5G radio waves”, we say to ourselves. “We don’t want our brains cooked”.
Yeah. We heard it all before.
We Americans don’t want or need High Speed Rail. We are just happy with boarding our cattle-car-airlines, and paying the enormous ticket prices. We like doing it. HST has no place in America. Besides we have Amtrak!
Who cares about fluoride in the water? It’s a great way to get rid of the by-products of aluminum production. Fluoride is good for us. It’s modern, don’t you know.
America is great!
And a wall on the border of the USA and Mexico. It’s been three years and America can’t even construct a simple, singular wall. You know you have a problem when illiterate goat-herders in Afghanistan can make a half-decent wall and the great United States can’t even start…
Well, while Americans are justifying living in a nation that is increasingly becoming a “time portal” back to the last century, the rest of the world is advancing at break-neck speed.
Most of Africa has a growing and vibrant middle class, with malls, toll booths, and high speed (5G) internet. The Middle East (outside of the American-sponsored war zones) are all prospering. Check out the photos, for goodness sakes!
America is still stuck in the 1970’s I guess.
You can tell.
People still write checks instead of scan QR codes.
AM radio has the largest listening audience.
Everything comes with a price tag. Nothing is free, including water.
Software still has the same functionality as it did in the 1990’s, only now it has a nicer interface, but you must pay for updates and it auto copies your work “to the cloud” for governmental purposes.
China is different.
They have implemented 5G everywhere. There are cameras everywhere. And instead of paying people to collect welfare, have free healthcare, and protest for more goodies, China puts them to work. They are employed. They build things, clean things, work on things and monitor things.
Yes, and Hong Kong is constantly being monitored.
China is aware of everything.
One of the mysteries that I had was why didn’t the Chinese just “take out” the agitators? I mean, it was public knowledge who they were.
The HK populace are getting increasingly pissed off with the Antifa-style interruptions, and they are actively unmasking (literally) the protester participants. And, of course, everyone knows that everything you do is tracked in China. HK is NOT an exception.
So why not “take out the agitators”?
And then they actually did…
On Wednesday 4SEP19, President Trump reached out to China’s President Xi in a tweet:
“I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting? ”
-Donald Trump
So what is Donald Trump saying?
That’s he’s ready to stop the HK protests if Xi Peng negotiates.
Or, perhaps that China can use their military to enter HK.
So.. the Chinese went forth and rounded up all the CIA related NED operatives in Hong Kong.
The video footage was pretty darn dramatic.
It’s all in 5G. You can even count the eyebrow hair on the American CIA agents. The Chinese had everything. From complete transcripts of the CIA instructing the rioters in “soft conflict” designed to provoke a military reaction, to a second by second, “walk through” where Trump advisors worked out planning with the protest leadership.
It’s all there.
Not televised in the USA, though.
Man! The Chinese knew everything!
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
Check out the photo below. Notice the angle of the photo. Taken by an object on a dining room table. (Below belt level.)
People,
it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK
protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with
American presidential aides in the HK Marriot hotel!
This is very very embarrassing. Julie Eadeh, a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq
— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019
Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US …
“to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
The Chinese knew everything.
Everything. And they expected the United States to realize (and expect it).
They didn’t.
From the moment that Julie Eadeh stepped foot in Hong Kong, to how many steps she took to the elevator. They knew her heart-beat as she rode in the elevator in the Marriott. They even knew the color of the bra and panties that she wore. (Well, at least that is the current joke on Chinese social media…)
They know everything she said with the young protestors.
Everything.
Everything. From, promises, various “guarantees”, words of support and hope for assistance. As well as implications and guarantees of a cushy future and financial support in all sorts of ways. Any outsider can clearly see the implied promises under the veneer of political jargon.
Promises of free high-end university schooling .
Promises that they will be backed politically and that they will become the future leaders of HK.
Promises of houses, cars, and lifestyle,
Promises of money, lots and lots of money.
As well as who they are, and what they told her. Then they used “Minority Report” style technology to back-track and see who all the connections and phone calls that the confederates made. They had full conversation records, don’t you know.
The Chinese knew everything.
Of Course the CIA instructed the protestors.
It’s all on video. It’s all recorded in audio, and transcribed in English, Cantonese and Chinese. And then, then… then, plastered all over social media for the Chinese to see. Woo woo. What ever the American media is saying, the videos that the rest of the world watch clearly show that the United States is LYING.
It makes the United States look like some kind of Keystone Kops.
The protestors were instructed by NED to take out cameras and video systems. They were told to use black cans of spray paint.
Yes, but every can of black spray paint purchased in Hong Kong is recorded with a video of the person buying the paint. The Chinese government knows the person who bought the paint, and can make reasonable assumptions on it’s use. (The Chinese do not need to prove intent in a court of law.)
They were instructed to post flyers on the walls, use glue to hold them in place, and make banners.
But, every printer shop is under surveillance. Every one has video cameras installed. They know who ordered the flyers. They even have the PDF artwork in digital file from which the flyers were made. They know who ordered the fliers, when they ordered, who they paid and from which bank account. They also know the moneys that went into that bank account and who deposited the money.
They were instructed to leave their phones at home. And, I am sure that this helped. Maybe.
However, every person in China has a profile of “normal” behavior. If you take your phone with you every day, and then suddenly on a day of protest, you phone is at you house of residence, when the video cameras show you leaving the house, the police pretty much assumes what you are up to.
They were instructed in what to do by the CIA under the assumption that the Chinese are a growing third-world nation. Maybe like Libya or Syria.
They are not treating China like a high-technology version of Japan. They are not treating China like a serious, serious, SERIOUS nation that does not play around.
Conclusion
All of China is wired as a high-technology surveillance center. The larger cities are all wired. The Western cities (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing) pretty much follow the “London model” of domestic surveillance.
While America has been busy throwing money away …
In “NASA educational programs for elementary schools in the Sudan”.
War after war. Now, eight simultaneous wars.
And 15 miles of rail for a High Speed Train that was never intended to be anything other than a political slush fund to pay off people.
… the Chinese have been spending their money on their nation. Improving the roads, public transport, lines and means of communication, public works, buildings, and public health. Not to mention, planting trees, making parks, and increasing the amount of farmland.
And they are dead serious about it. These Chinese are very, very serious people. Those that oppose or try to siphon away money are seized, arrested and imprisoned by the corruption police.
The Chinese do not mess around.
Thus when the United States tried to use the same “play book” to agitate protests in Hong Kong in the Summer of 2019, the Chinese observed and leveraged that information. Then when the time was ready, they pounced.
Round #1 – China win. USA media oblivious.
I anticipate another series of protests that the Chinese will observe, and then quietly (behind the scenes) squelch. Maybe in the first week of October 2019.
They will do so and the American television viewing public will be confused. They will wonder “what is going on”? Why doesn’t China relent and allow HK to be just like America?
Round #2 – TBD
It’s because the main-steam media (both conservative and progressive) provides a skewed nonsensical narrative. One that has no bearing on the true and actual state of affairs. And that ignorance… will be what ultimately hurts and harms America.
People! Listen up!
America NEEDS a well-informed electorate to function properly. To think that the vast bulk of Chinese citizens, both on the mainland, and in Hong Kong want America “to save them” is ludicrous. Absolutely bovine excrement!
Looking at the big picture, it looks silly…
The truth about the HK pro-democracy movement and the tariff wars.
Just silly. It make the United States look… well… awful.
Predictions
I cannot predict the future. It has been my experience that the future will always certainly surprise. Anything can happen.
Anything.
Anything.
Donald Trump could be impeached.
Joe Biden or some other Marxist could become President.
Anti-gun house-to-house collection efforts might begin in earnest.
The USA could start a war with Iran.
Bacon could be banned all over America so not to offend Muslims.
Taxes could be raised 50% to fight global-warming.
Gender-neutral operations could be mandated in all American elementary schools.
I do not know what is going to happen. I am always taken by surprise, and I haven’t a clue as to what is going to happen in the future. Maybe some more of the old same-old same-old, eh?
The future will surprise…
I never expected “Joe Camel” to be banned in the United States “for the children”. Heck, by law, you had to be at least 16 years old just to be able to buy the cigarettes.
It has certainly surprised me. Time and time again, what I expected to happen, never came true…
I expected the United States to have a full colony on the moon by the year 2000. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that the money would be funneled away for infrastructure investments in Russia! As well as some social re-engineering initiatives in Baltimore, Detroit and San Francisco.
Not just objectively, but socially as well, and on so many levels at that. Don’t you know.
I never expected that 007 James Bond would be replaced with a black woman. Never, in my wildest nightmares. It’s not yet released. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is some kind of transgender LGBT thingy.
The future cannot be predicted. Not by myself. Not by anyone.
I never, in my wildest dreams, expected companies to do away with free coffee and coffee services. That they would expect the employees to “chip in” and pay for the coffee that they would drink at work. Amazing, and completely unexpected!
The future will always surprise.
In the trade front, it’s all in flux. What I really hope for is a strengthening of relationships. I hope for balanced trade without influence by the greedy in Washington D.C. and a chance for American industry to recover from the devastation of the Marxist globalist agenda. I can see it being a win-win for both the USA and China.
Seriously! China is an enormous market. They would pay a premium (+50% more) for “Made in America” products. But that is never going to happen if China matches the Trump tariff scheme. It just will close American companies to the enormous Chinese consumer market.
Right now, and for the last three years, the tariff negotiations have been driven by the Neocon advisors to Trump. They have asked the impossible and set up road-blocks at every turn.
Jimmy
Lai (HK ultra-billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. His goal
is to disrupt the relationship between the United States and China so
that he can have financial and economic advantage in Hong Kong. His
primary and sole goal is to INTERRUPT the relationship between China and
America.
This is actionable disruption, and while it might make some political “hay” in the short term, it will result in some real serious problems in America in the long term.
Donald
Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not
“on the same page” in resolving the issues with China at this time.
As I have previously stated, John Bolton is a war-hawk and a neo-con from the “deep state”. He has opposed every effort that Trump has made to negotiate with China, North Korea, and Iran. In his world view these are all dictatorial nations and America must stand firm in opposing them in every way possible.
Understand that the rest of the world does not think like Americans. They do not watch American media and do not care what Americans think. They will follow nations that seemingly benefit THEM in the future.
They will be selfish. They will work with nations that provide them with benefit.
That being stated, do not make dated assumptions on the inflated capabilities of the United States, and upon the out-of-date ideas about China. I said it once, I said it twice. I will say it again. China is a serious, serious nation. They DO NOT PLAY. We had best start treating them as such.
Finally.
Do not think that China is not afraid to kill a few people for the greater public good. They will do so in a heart-beat.
Do not judge China under the same criteria that you might judge America. It is like comparing apples to an oak tree.
Chinese Social Media
You do not need to rely on CNN, Fox or Rush Limbaugh for your news. You can [1] watch the videos of the CIA agents getting arrested yourselves. You can [2] read what the “Joe on the streets” thinks about the protests. You can [3] see what is going on in the other side of the world with your own two eyes.
America needs an informed electorate to function properly.
Here’s some links to Chinese social media. Warning, most are banned in the United States. You might need to use a VPN to use them. You do know that the Software moguls in California does not like competition.
I posted this article under “bloggers” in the Free Republic website, and was subsequently banned. I guess they do not like my opinions.
Never the less, immediately afterwards, it turned out the the United States government admitted that everything in this post is true, and that was posted on the well-known Washington Post.
Then they totally blocked me. Erased my 20+ years of articles and comments, and I became a non-person. That’s what “freedom of speech” is on Free Republic. You will conform to the Alt-Right narrative out of Washington DC, or you get destroyed.
Well, I was “killed”, but…
..everything I wrote was accurate, and real. And thus…
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Here, in this article, we look at the United States involvement with HK. We [1] study how the United States uses Hong Kong to exert pressure on China for trade and geopolitical advantage. We also [2] take a look at the various people “behind the scenes” that are pushing for American involvement, for their own personal gain. Finally, [3] we study the role that the American media plays that the stereotypes that they cultivate in order to manipulate Americans. This is perhaps the most comprehensive overview of the USA / China involvement in Hong Kong that you will find on the internet.
For starters, you the reader should recognize that global politics are often complicated, and convoluted. People will say one thing and then do the other. That there are forces, all with their own agendas, manipulating, jockeying, and vying for positions of power and advantage. All of this takes place on a canvas that is painted by the media. Often, a picture that doesn’t at all resemble what is actually going on behind the scene.
Or has everyone forgotten the "Trump is going to prison for conspiring with Russia to steal the election" narrative from the mainstream media from 20016 though to 2019?
The HK / USA / China issue is typical in geo-political posturing. It is like an onion. It really is.
You look at the onion, and you see the outside as portrayed to you. Much like how you observe the news media reporting. Then, you peel away the first layer. There you see the actions, and turmoil behind the scene. Your eyes will often burn. Because the truth what is going on was unknown to you. You then peel away the second layer, and find out just how deep all this goes.
You continue deeper and deeper.
You peel each layer away, one by one. And then finally you reach the true truth of the matter and take a good hard look at what is involved. In this particular situation, there are nine (x9) levels or layers of this “onion”. Ah, yes, and in this article we will investigate each one.
The HK – China – USA “free democracy” protests during 2019, and their complexity relative to the comparison to that of the layers of skin in an onion.
Here, we will proceed forward and address this issue in all of it’s complexity. We will move forward from the outside inward, and study each layer in relative detail.
The layers in this issue are;
News media reporting and bias.
Constructed and cultivated stereotypes.
The actual physical events.
The people who caused the events.
The people who are driving the events forward and pushing.
The people who provide financial support, training, and logistics.
The rise of the risks involved.
Reactions and the casualties of war.
The root effects; the trade relationships between the USA, HK and China.
As such, we will begin here…
News media reporting and bias.
President Donald Trump tweeted on August 13 that he “can’t imagine why” the United States has been blamed for the chaotic protests that have gripped Hong Kong.
Donald Trump doesn’t understand how anyone could link the Summer of 2019 HK riots with the Summer of 2019 Trade Wars with China.
Trump’s befuddlement might be believable considering [1] the carefully managed narrative of the US government. As well as [2] the mainstream American media apparatus. Yeah, I get it. Even VP Mike Pence repeats this ludicrous narrative. But come on! Do you really think that the world believes this? After Syria? After Libya?
What? You think that the Chinese will believe that you are sincere?
This GIF pretty much sums up how it looks like to the rest of the world…
I am shocked! Shocked! That there is a connection between the Summer of 2019 HK riots and the Summer of 2019 trade wars.
I believe that the Hong Kong protest is influenced by the US.
The rioters are well-trained, organized and commanded, knowing what to do and when to do it, they have a united uniform, they know where the cameras are and they know how to disable them, they know how to fight against tear gas.
The violent protests are not simply targeting the extradition law amendment bill, but also aiming to throw Hong Kong into disarray, to drag down the SAR government.
- Ty Yang (Hong Kong , China)
You think that they do not have informants? You think that HK is independent and immune from Chinese mainland observation? You think China doesn’t have cameras, video surveillance, wiretaps on telephones, and are not monitoring their insurgents?
Of course they are. And of course, they know full well what is going on. They know.
Keep your hands off Hong Kong!
US has no authority to lecture China on our own sovereign territory. How can US warmongers like Mike Pence even have the legitimacy to talk about HK, when the US is still illegally militarily occupying Syria with their US bases. Syria gave no permission for the US to build bases in Syria. How can the US think they have any god-given right to smack to China?
- MrBudha888 (China)
And we shouldn’t take their (apparent) lack of action on these matters as a weakness. Instead, we should consider it with the upmost caution. They do not make decisions based on what they see on CNN. They make their decisions off other criteria.
So it would be the height of follow to assume that the Chinese are simpletons, backwards, inept, and foolish. They are not. They know the game, and how it is played. They have over 5000 years of political intrigue, and they most certainly will not base their decisions off of what they see on the news.
The suspicion of US manipulation behind the scenes is gaining traction in the online world.
The US has gained notoriety for using subterfuge to interfere with other sovereignty's affairs.
It's not like the world is oblivious to that.
- Joseph Kuan (US)
This reporting has been very “black and white”.
They report that the protests are some kind of organic “pro-democracy” expression of young idealistic grassroots youth. That they only want “freedom”, American style “democracy”, and a “slice of the American pie”. They just do not want to be considered Chinese, and they certainly don’t want anything to do with mainland China.
Oh. If only it were TRUE…
The protests have been staged and arranged for an American audience, because that is the insurgents’ primary funding source.
However, a look beneath the surface of this oversimplified, made-for-television script reveals the truth.
It’s all a stack of cards. It’s all an illusion. It’s all a manipulation. It’s all a line and nonsense. And the Chinese are all well-aware of this.
US is everywhere in other countries' affairs! What a joke!
Nothing will distract China from focusing on economic development and raising the standard of living for the 1.4 billion Chinese people.
The US should do the same, concentrating its resources and energy to improve American people's lives. There is so much more to be desired for the most advanced country of the world.
- Miyya Z (China)
The truth is that there is a small but extremely vocal and well-funded, ferociously anti-Chinese network behind the demonstrations. They hate China. They really, seriously do.
But, it’s more than just hating China.
They hate America as well. They also hate Britain. They are so filled with hate that you would think that they were members of the American terrorist groups Antifa, and BLM. I mean, after all, they look like them, they act like them, and they use the exact same strategies as their American counterparts, the Antifa.
What? You think the Antifa and BLM love America? That’s what you think?
When a masked radical is shouting and screaming at you and is telling you that they want you hurt, tortured, and killed, you should believe them. The mainland Chinese are listening to them, and as a result they are amassing military forces in the event that things spiral out of control.
But they will cover up and hide their hate. Most of the time they will put on masks and pretend to be something else. They will act nice and courteous, and seem and appear reasonable. Anything to obtain their goals.
Frangfang (Hong Kong, China)
The US is linking the current situation in Hong Kong to the US-China trade negotiations, using Hong Kong as leverage to pressure compromise from China. Such 'bargaining', in essence using Hong Kong as a 'trading chip', would be a gross insult to the Hong Kong people.
And their goals are simple ones. It’s what every dictator and tyrant wants. They want their own fiefdom; they want Hong Kong as their own, and then they want to join the rest of the world as global oligarchs.
And America plays along.
Jimmy Lai (HK ultra-billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. His goal is to disrupt the relationship between the United States and China so that he can have financial and economic advantage in Hong Kong. His primary and sole goal is to INTERRUPT the relationship between China and America.
This network has been cultivated, funded, and trained with the help of millions of dollars from the US government. (Read on to see the funding amounts, the agencies, the American officials involved, and other particulars.) Not to mention a particularly vocal progressive globalist Washington-linked local Hong Kong media tycoon. (Jimmy Lai with dreams of his own nation, and a near religious cult of followers.)
Constructed and cultivated stereotypes.
The way that the events are portrayed in Hong Kong is to fit the appetite for the American news-consuming audience. In particular, to appeal to the emotions of two especially and diametrically opposed groups;
The Progressive, Liberal Democrat Marxists.
The Traditional, Conservative Republicans.
The protests in HK are staged to pander to the American consumer. They are designed most especially to trigger emotional responses from Americans. This is most especially true when the protestors sang the Star Spangled Banner. I ask the reader this, how many of you can sing the Chinese national anthem?
Let’s start with the appeals to the liberal democrat progressive Marxists in America. Look at the progressive media show DemocracyNow! (DN!) as one example. It is a prominent media outlet on the “progressive” end of the spectrum. They have been quite busy “reporting” on all the protests in Hong Kong. They report on them as if they are part and parcel of the same kinds of Antifa and BLM protests in the United States. So, of course, they would report on everything. Right?
From April through August 28, there have been 25 brief accounts (“headlines” as DN! calls them, each amounting to a few paragraphs) of the events in Hong Kong and 4 features, longer supposedly analytic pieces, on the same topic. Transcripts of the four features are here, here, here and here.
Democracy Now! is an hour-long American TV, radio and internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman, who also acts as the show’s executive producer, and Juan González. The show, which airs live each weekday at 08:00 ET, is broadcast on the internet and by over 1,400 radio and television stations worldwide.
There is not a single mention of [1] possible US involvement or the meetings of the various leaders of the protest movement with [2] Pompeo, [3] Bolton, [4] Pence, or [5] the “Political Counselor” of the US Hong Kong consulate. It’s almost like they ignore the news that doesn’t fit their narrative. Imagine that!
And this silence on US meddling is true not only of most progressive commentators but also most conservatives.
On the Left when someone cries “Democracy,” many forget all their pro-peace sentiment. And similarly on the Right when someone cries “Communism,” anti-interventionism too often goes down the tubes.
In fact on its August 12 program, DN! managed a story taking a swipe at Russia right next to the one on Hong Kong – and DN! was in the forefront of advancing the now debunked and disgraced Russiagate Conspiracy Theory.
Amy Goodman is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Her investigative journalism career includes coverage of the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation’s role in Nigeria. Since 1996, she has been the main host of Democracy Now!, a progressive global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the Internet.
Yes, on the other side of the political spectrum, is an appeal to American conservatives.
Protesters in Hong Kong waving the American flag and singing the American National anthem as they advocate for democracy. Wow! pic.twitter.com/CKyFstud22
— Kaya Jones (@KayaJones) August 12, 2019
Displays of pro-American “jingoism” in the streets of Hong Kong have been like catnip for the international traditional conservative right. Conservatives LOVE to hear that people are throwing down the chains of Marxist socialism and embracing liberty and freedom. Even though they are actually calling for “democracy”, instead.)
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host and conservative political commentator. He resides in Palm Beach, Florida, where he broadcasts The Rush Limbaugh Show. According to December 2015 estimates by Talkers Magazine, Limbaugh has a cume of around 13.25 million unique listeners, making his show the most listened-to American radio station.
Conservative Joey Gibson
Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson recently appeared at an anti-extradition protest in Hong Kong, live-streaming the event to his tens of thousands of followers.
A month earlier, Gibson was seen roughing up antifa activists alongside ranks of club wielding fascists.
In Hong Kong, the alt-right organizer marveled at the crowds. “They love our flag here more than they do in America!” Gibson exclaimed as marchers passed by, flashing him a thumbs up sign while he waved the Stars and Stripes.
In Hong Kong, Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson marveled at the crowds. “They love our flag here more than they do in America!” .
Personally, I like to refer to these narratives a “two dimensional”, “black and white”, “cardboard cutouts”. It’s a simplified narrative useful for emotional manipulation of large groups of simple-minded people.
Boris and Natasha are card-board cut-outs (a two dimensional portrayal) of Russian Communists during the 1960’s and into the 1970’s.
The actual physical events.
Throughout the summer of 2019 the world has watched as protests shook Hong Kong.
A man in Taiwan murdered his girlfriend and then fled to Hong Kong. The Taiwan government wanted HK to extradite him to face justice. To facilitate this (and other similar cases), an extradition bill was proposed and about to be signed, when suddenly all Hell broke loose.
It turned out that (apparently, out of the blue), a large number of Hong Kong residents didn't like the idea of being forcibly extradited to another country to face legal charges.
As early as April they began as peaceful demonstrations which peaked in early June, with hundreds of thousands, in protest of an extradition bill.
That bill would have allowed Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of China, to return criminals to Taiwan, mainland China or Macau for crimes committed there – after approval by multiple layers of the Hong Kong judiciary.
In other words, if you commit a crime in Taiwan and flee to Hong Kong, the Hong Kong police would no longer provide you with a safe-haven. They would return you back to the Taiwan where you committed the crime.
Ai! This was considered an assault in "freedom" and "liberty".
Protestors in Hong Kong protesting the passage of the extradition bill.
In the wake of those enormous nonviolent demonstrations, Carrie Lam, CEO of Hong Kong, “suspended” consideration of the extradition bill, a face-saving ploy. To make sure she was understood, she declared it “dead.”
The large rallies, an undeniable expression of the peaceful will of a large segment of the Hong Kong population had won an impressive victory. The unpopular extradition bill was slain.
But that was not the end of the story.
The protests continued.
Carrie Lam, CEO of HK, meets with Xi Peng the President of Mainland China.
They… continued.
They continued, even after their goals were met.
They continued, even after the head of the HK government admitted to bowing down to the demands of the protestors. Yes, it’s true. A smaller segment continued the protests. (The Hong Kong police at one point estimated 4,000 hard core protesters.)
They pressed on with other demands, beginning with a demand that the bill be “withdrawn,” not simply “suspended.” Well, it's all a matter of terminology. By “suspension” is every bit as terminal as death by “withdrawal.” The most recent news confirms that Corrie Lam has now formally withdrawn the bill.
But even at that, the protests are continuing by this group of hard-core radicals.
They still continued to protest.
The people who initiated, inflamed or caused the events.
On the surface, it seems very simple. An extradition bill was up for ratification. Protests against the ratification were initiated, and the bill was withdrawn. Victory, right?
Nope.
Radical elements are pushing for more protests. These are violent protests, and they pull at the heartstrings of American democrats who can see their faces behind the black-hoods and face masks of the protestors, as well as American conservatives who get "goosebumps" when they see their American flags being waved along side for calls for freedom and democracy.
Who are the public people who are getting everyone all riled up and agitated on both sides of this issue (oh, yes, there are two sides to this issue. Even though the mainstream America only shows one side.)?
As the summer passed, two iconic photos presented us with two human faces that captured two crucial features of the ongoing protests; they were not shown widely in the West. They are, apparently, not considered to be “newsworthy” enough for the American viewing public.
Fu Guohao
First, Fu Guohao, a reporter for the Chinese mainland newspaper, Global Times, was attacked, bound and beaten by the radical protesters. This occurred during their takeover of the Hong Kong International Airport.
FuGuohao, a reporter for the Global Times, a nationalistic Communist Party-run newspaper, has become an overnight sensation. He is being hailed as a hero on Chinese social media after he was tied up and beaten by protesters as Tuesday’s demonstrations at Hong Kong’s airport descended into violence.
- Chinese Reporter Assaulted at Hong Kong Airport
Fu Guohao, reporter of Chinese media Global Times website, is tied by protesters during a mass demonstration at the Hong Kong international airport, in Hong Kong, China, August 13, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
When police and rescuers tried to free him, the protesters blocked them and also attempted to block the ambulance that eventually bore him off to the hospital.
Protestors fought the police.
Protestors blocked the ambulance.
Protestors bound, taunted and tortured Mr. Fu Guohao.
The photos and videos of this ugly sequence were seen by netizens across the globe even though given scant attention in Western media.
Where were the stalwart defenders of the press in the US as this happened? As one example, DemocracyNow! (DN!) was completely silent as was the rest of the US mainstream media.
Fu’s beating came after many weeks when the protesters threw up barriers to stop traffic; blocked closure of subway doors, in defiance of commuters and police, to shut down mass transit; sacked and vandalized the HK legislature building; assaulted bystanders who disagreed with them; attacked the police with Molotov cocktails; and stormed and defaced police stations.
The protestors seem to be trying to provoke mainland China to take action. However, HK is standing firm and allowing the protestors a great deal of leeway in their actions and damage.
Fu’s ordeal and all these actions shown in photos on Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, a paper leaning to the side of protesters, gave the lie to the image of these “democracy activists” as young Ghandis of East Asia.
The South China Morning Post is based in Hong Kong and its readership is concentrated there so it has to have some reasonable fidelity in reporting events; otherwise it loses credibility – and circulation.
Similarly, much as the New York Times abhorred Occupy Wall Street, it could not fail to report on it.
Joshua Wong
A younger generation of political HK activists emerged during the 2014 Occupy Central protests with a new brand of localized politics. It is a brand that appealed to the American conservative (anti-Chinese) Right.
Joshua Wong was just 17 years old when the Umbrella Movement took form in 2014. After emerging in the protest ranks as one of the more charismatic voices, he was steadily groomed as the pro-West camp’s teenage poster child.
Joshua Wong meets with Sen. Marco Rubio (R) in Washington on May 8, 2017
Wong received lavish praised in Time magazine, Fortune, and Foreign Policy as a “freedom campaigner,” and became the subject of an award-winning Netflix documentary called “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower.”
Unsurprisingly, these puff pieces have overlooked Wong’s ties to the United States government’s regime-change apparatus. For that is what he is. He is the face of the American conservative foreign branch.
For instance, National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) maintains a close relationship with Demosistō, the political party Wong founded in 2016 with fellow Umbrella movement alumnus Nathan Law.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a U.S. non-profit soft power organization that was founded in 1983 with the stated goal of promoting democracy abroad. It is funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress in the form of a grant awarded through the United States Information Agency (USIA). It is an American agency that obtains funds directly from the American federal government.
National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI)
To find out a little bit more about this “shadowy” and “well funded” machine for causing protests, turmoil, and discord in other nations, read this…
It’s a bit long. You can skim over it, or ignore it as you wish. It’s just some really interesting background information on how front organizations, funded by the United States government, can be used to create proxy protests, and turmoil for American geo-political advantage.
“They’re meddling in our politics!” That’s the war cry of outraged Clintonites and neocons, who seem to think election interference is something that Russians do to us and we never, ever do to them.
But meddling in other countries has been a favorite Washington pastime ever since William McKinley vowed to “Christianize” the Philippines in 1899, despite the fact that most Filipinos were already Catholic. Today, an alphabet soup of U.S. agencies engage in political interference virtually around the clock, everyone from USAID to the VOA, RFE/RL to the DHS—respectively the U.S. Agency for International Development, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Department of Homeland Security. The last maintains some 2,000 U.S. employees in 70 countries to ensure that no one even thinks of doing anything bad to anyone over here.
Then there is the National Endowment for Democracy, a $180-million-a-year government-funded outfit that is a byword for American intrusiveness. The NED is an example of what might be called “speckism,” the tendency to go on about the speck in your neighbor’s eye without ever considering the plank in your own (see Matthew 7 for further details). Prohibited by law from interfering in domestic politics, the endowment devotes endless energy to the democratic shortcomings of other countries, especially when they threaten American interests.
In 1984, the year after it was founded, it channeled secret funds to a military-backed presidential candidate in Panama, gave $575,000 to a right-wing French student group, and delivered nearly half a million dollars to right-wing opponents of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias—because Arias had refused to go along with our anti-communist policy in Central America.
A year later, it gave $400,000 to the anti-Sandinista opposition in Nicaragua and then another $2 million in 1988. It used its financial muscle in the mid-1990s to persuade a right-wing party to draw up a “Contract with Slovakia” modeled on Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America; persuaded free marketeers to do the same in Mongolia; gave nearly $1 million to Venezuelan rightists who went on to mount a short-lived putsch against populist leader Hugo Chavez in 2002; and then funded anti-Russian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine in 2005, and the later anti-Russian coup there in 2014.
What all this had to do with democracy is unclear, although the NED’s role in advancing U.S. imperial interests is beyond doubt. Rather than “my country right or wrong,” its operating assumption is “my country right, full stop.” If Washington says Leader X is out of line, then the endowment will snap to attention and fund his opponents.
If it says he’s cooperative and well-behaved, meaning he supports free markets and financial deregulation and doesn’t dally with any of America’s military rivals, it will do the opposite. It doesn’t matter if, like Putin, the alleged dictator swept the last election with 63.6 percent of the vote and was declared the “clear” winner by the European Union and the U.S. State Department. If he’s “expanding [Russia’s] influence in the Middle East,” as NED President Carl Gershman puts it, then he’s a “strongman” and an “autocrat” and must go.
America’s own shortcomings meanwhile go unnoticed. Meanwhile, the NED, as it nears the quarter-century mark, is a bundle of contradictions: a group that claims to be private even though it is almost entirely publicly funded, a group that says democracy “must be indigenous” even though it backs U.S.-imposed regime change, a group that claims to be “bipartisan” but whose board is packed with ideologically homogeneous hawks like Elliott Abrams, Anne Applebaum, and Victoria Nuland, the latter of whom served as assistant secretary of state during the coup in Ukraine.
Historically speaking, the NED feels straight out of the early 1980s, when Washington was struggling to overcome “Vietnam Syndrome” in order to rev up the Cold War. The recovery process began with Ronald Reagan declaring at his first inaugural, “The crisis that we are facing today [requires] our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with God’s help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. After all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.”
The U.S. was apparently not just a nation, but something like a religion as well. Additional input for the new NED in 1983 came from spymaster William Casey, CIA director from 1981 to 1987, who, after the intelligence scandals of the 70s, had swung around to the view that certain covert operations were better spun off into what the British call a “quango,” a quasi-non-government organization. “Obviously we here should not get out in front in the development of such an organization,” he cautioned, “nor do we wish to appear to be a sponsor or advocate.” It was a case of covert backing for an overt turn.
Others who helped lay the groundwork were:
Neoconservative ideologue Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, famous for her argument that “traditional authoritarian governments” should be supported against “revolutionary autocracies” because they are “less repressive” and whose UN aide Carl Gershman would become NED president and serves to this day.
Human rights Democrats who believe that America’s job is to enforce democratic standards throughout the world, however idiosyncratic and self-serving they may be Old-fashioned pluralists who maintained that the power to succeed existed in different groups’ working separately toward a common goal, in this case, spreading democracy abroad .
The result was an ideologically lethal package that assumed whatever Americans did was democratic because God is on our side, that old-fashioned CIA skullduggery was passé, and that the time had come to switch to more open means. “We should not have to do this kind of work covertly,” Gershman later explained. “We saw that in the 60s, and that’s why it has been discontinued. We have not had the capability of doing this, and that’s why the endowment was created.”
In the interests of pluralism, the NED adopted a quadripartite structure with separate wings for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, the GOP, and the Democrats, each working separately yet somehow together.
Pluralism helped tamp down debate and also shore up support on Capitol Hill. Liberal Democrats were initially skeptical due to the NED’s neocon tilt. Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. tried to kill it in 1985, and The Nation magazine complained a few years later that the group served as little more than “a pork barrel for a small circle of Republican and Democratic party activists, conservative trade unionists, and free marketeers who use endowment money to run their own mini State Department.”
But when the House voted unexpectedly to defund the agency in 1993, beneficiaries sprang to its defense. Major-league pundits like George Will, David Broder, and Abe Rosenthal “went into overdrive,” according to The Nation, as did the heavy hitters of the Washington Post editorial page. Vice President Walter Mondale, a member of the NED board of directors, worked the phones along with Lane Kirkland, George Meany’s successor as head of the AFL-CIO.
Ronald Reagan wrote a letter, while Senators Richard Lugar, Orrin Hatch, and John McCain pitched in as well. So did prominent liberals like Paul Wellstone, John Kerry, Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, and Carol Moseley-Braun. These people normally couldn’t bear to be in the same with one another, but they were of one mind when it came to America’s divine right to intervene in other nations’ affairs.
The anti-NED forces didn’t stand a chance. Twenty-five years later, the endowment is again under attack, although this time from the right.
Gershman started the ball rolling when, in October 2016, he interrupted his busy pro-democracy schedule to dash off a column in the Washington Post accusing Russia of using “email hackers, information trolls and open funding of political parties to sow discord” and of “even intervening in the U.S. presidential election.” Since there was no question whom Russia was intervening for, there was no doubt what the article amounted to: a thinly veiled swipe at a certain orange-haired candidate.
Never one to forget a slight, Trump got his revenge last month by proposing to slash the NED budget by 60 percent. The response was the same as in 1993, only more so. Uber-hawk Senator Lindsey Graham pronounced the cut “dead on arrival,” adding: “This budget destroys soft power, it puts our diplomats at risk, and it’s going nowhere.”
Gershman said it would mean “sending a signal far and wide that the United States is turning its back on supporting brave people who share our values,” while Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin moaned that the administration was guilty of an “assault on democracy promotion.” The ever-voluble Democratic Congresswoman Nita Lowey accused the administration of “dismantling an agency that advances critical goals.”
“The work our government does to promote democratic values abroad is at the heart of who we are as a country,” added Senator John McCain. America is democracy, democracy is America, and, as history’s first global empire, the U.S. has an unqualified right to do unto others what others may not do unto the U.S. Only a “Siberian candidate,” “a traitor,” or “a Russian stooge” could possibly disagree.
- The National Endowment for (Meddling in) Democracy by Daniel Lazare
Julie Eadeh
In August, a candid photo surfaced of Wong and Law meeting with Julie Eadeh, the political counselor at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong, raising questions about the content of the meeting and setting off a diplomatic showdown between Washington and Beijing.
Julie Eadeh
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides in the HK Marriot hotel!
This is very very embarrassing. Julie Eadeh, a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters. pic.twitter.com/JfiU2O2HZq
— Chen Weihua (@chenweihua) August 8, 2019
Of course, this kind of nonsense won’t be tolerated by China.
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US “to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
The Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong submitted a formal complaint with the US consulate general, calling on the US “to immediately make a clean break from anti-China forces who stir up trouble in Hong Kong, stop sending out wrong signals to violent offenders, refrain from meddling with Hong Kong affairs and avoid going further down the wrong path.”
So the United States wants to get involved in Chinese affairs.
Well, then be prepared for some “push back”. The pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao doxxed Eadeh. They published personal details about Eadeh, including the names of her children and her address.
But, Washington, D.C. is not used to “push back”.
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus lashed out, accusing the Chinese government of being behind the leak but offering no evidence. “I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children, I don’t think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,”she said at a State Department briefing.
Totally ignoring the already issued formal protest from China.
State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus lashed out, accusing the Chinese government of being behind the leak but offering no evidence. “I don’t think that leaking an American diplomat’s private information, pictures, names of their children, I don’t think that is a formal protest, that is what a thuggish regime would do,” she said at a State Department briefing.
Aside from the official American government protests bout the doxxing, the leaked Mariott photo underscored the close relationship between Hong Kong’s pro-West movement and the US government.
There is ample proof that the United States government has been coaching, and supporting the protests in Hong Kong.
Since the 2014 Occupy Central protests that vaulted Wong into prominence, he and his peers have been assiduously cultivated by the elite Washington institutions to act as the faces and voices of Hong Kong’s burgeoning anti-China movement.
This has continued a pace.
In September 2015, Wong, Martin Lee, and University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai Lee were honored by Freedom House, a right-wing soft-power organization that is heavily funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and other arms of the US government.
In September 2015, Wong, Martin Lee, and University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai Lee were honored
by Freedom House, a right-wing soft-power organization that is heavily
funded by the National Endowment for Democracy and other arms of the US
government.
Freedom House
Just days after Trump’s election as president in November 2016, Wong was back in Washington to appeal for more US support. “Being a businessman, I hope Donald Trump could know the dynamics in Hong Kong and know that to maintain the business sector benefits in Hong Kong, it’s necessary to fully support human rights in Hong Kong to maintain the judicial independence and the rule of law,” he said.
Wong’s visit to Washington DC provided occasion for the Senate’s two most aggressively neoconservative members, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, to introduce the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,”.
Wong’s visit provided occasion for the Senate’s two most aggressively neoconservative members, Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, to introduce the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” which would “identify those responsible for abduction, surveillance, detention and forced confessions, and the perpetrators will have their US assets, if any… frozen and their entry to the country denied.”
Marco Rubio
Tom Cotton
Wong was given the “royal carpet treatment”. He was then taken on a junket of elite US institutions including the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank and the newsrooms of the New York Times and Financial Times. He then held court with Rubio, Cotton, Pelosi, and Sen. Ben Sasse.
Heritage Foundation
Nancy Pelosi
Ben Sasse
Wong was given the “royal carpet treatment”. He was then taken on a junket of elite US institutions including the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank and the newsrooms of the New York Times and Financial Times. He then held court with Rubio, Cotton, Pelosi, and Sen. Ben Sasse.
In September 2017, Rubio, Ben Cardin, Tom Cotton, Sherrod Brown, and Cory Gardner signed off on a letter to Wong, Law and fellow anti-China activist Alex Chow, praising them for their “efforts to build a genuinely autonomous Hong Kong.” The bipartisan cast of senators proclaimed that “the United States cannot stand idly by.”
Ben Cardin
Sherrod Brown
Cory Gardner
Rubio and his colleagues nominated the trio of Wong, Law, and Chow for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.
A year later, Rubio and his colleagues nominated the trio of Wong, Law, and Chow for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize.
Honored to have met Joshua Wong, a student leader who led a big protest demanding universal suffrage in Hong Kong. pic.twitter.com/sSb46j7zIX
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) November 18, 2015
Washington’s support for the designated spokesmen of the “retake Hong Kong movement” was supplemented with untold sums of money from US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and subsidiaries like the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to civil society, media and political groups.
National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
National Democratic Institute (NDI)
Washington’s support for the designated spokesmen of the “retake Hong Kong movement” was supplemented with untold sums of money from US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and subsidiaries like the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to civil society, media and political groups.
As journalist Alex Rubinstein reported, the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, a key member of the coalition that organized against the now-defunct extradition law, has received more than $2 million in NED funds since 1995.
Other groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI last year alone.
While US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protest leaders for peace prizes and pump their organizations with money to “promote democracy,” the demonstrations have begun to spiral out of control.
The people who are driving the events.
25th August 2019 – (Hong Kong) The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has funded the 2014 Occupy Central in the past but many have begun to wonder if the Americans did indeed have a hand in the latest anti-extradition protests in Hong Kong. Numerous meetings between pro-democracy political activists, representatives from NED and top government officials have left us wondered if NED has funded the frontline protesters .
We have mentioned earlier in our previous article that, there are in principle two factions of protesters, the genuine protesters (90%) and the frontline protesters (10%). Only the 10% frontline protesters are potentially funded by the Americans as the mass of Hong Kong protesters fit naturally into their agenda.
What is NED? NED is a U.S. non-profit soft power organization that was founded in 1983 with the stated goal of promoting democracy abroad. In principle, NED is a grant-making foundation, distributing funds to private non-governmental organisations for promoting democracy abroad. NED does not directly fund any political party, as this is forbidden by law. According to NED, it funds election monitoring and also civic education about voting, such as student-led “get-out-the-vote” campaigns.
However, according to American Conservative, in 1984, the year after it was founded, it channeled secret funds to a military-backed presidential candidate in Panama, gave US$575,000 to a right-wing French student group, and delivered nearly half a million dollars to right-wing opponents of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias—because Arias had refused to go along with our anti-communist policy in Central America.
- Is United States involved in the current civil unrest in Hong Kong via its National Endowment for Democracy (NED)?
The protesters’ stated goals remain vague. No one now knows what exactly they are protesting for.
HK Riot police can only take so much violence before some serious accidents will occur.
Joshua Wong, one of the most well known figures in the movement, has since put forward a call for the Chinese government to [1] “retract the proclamation that the protests were riots,” and [2] restated the consensus demand for universal suffrage.
Wong is a bespectacled 22-year-old who has been trumpeted in Western media as a “freedom campaigner,” promoted to the English-speaking world through his own Netflix documentary, and rewarded with the backing of the US government.
Hey! This kid is doing really well for himself. He's getting millions of dollars from various political American movements. He was up for the Peace Prize, and has his own Netflix documentary. Pretty good for a a young unemployed Hong Kong millennial. It's nice to see where all our campaign donations and tax dollars goes to.
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong released from prison, vows to continue actions of violence.
But behind telegenic spokespeople like Wong are more extreme elements such as the Hong Kong National Party, whose members have appeared at protests waving the Stars and Stripes and belting out cacophonous renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner. The leadership of this officially banned party helped popularize the call for the full independence of Hong Kong, a radical goal that is music to the ears of hardliners in Washington.
Xenophobic resentment has defined the sensibility of the protesters, who vow to “retake Hong Kong” from Chinese mainlanders they depict as a horde of locusts.
The demonstrators have even adopted one of the most widely recognized symbols of the alt-right, emblazoning images of Pepe the Frog on their protest literature. While it’s unclear that Hong Kong residents see Pepe the same way American conservatives do, members of the US far-right have embraced the protest movement as their own, and even personally joined their ranks.
Protesters in Hong Kong have adopted the popular “Pepe the Frog” meme as one of their symbols of resistance amid ongoing demonstrations against a proposed extradition bill.
The frog’s familiar face has appeared on signs in various protests calling out violent police crackdowns against demonstrators.
One meme showing Pepe with an injured eye focused on a police assault which left a first responder blind after being shot with a bean bag round at close range.
Which brings us to the second key photo of importance. It is much more important to US citizens. It clearly shows a “Political Counselor” from the US Consulate General in Hong Kong with radical anti-government protestors at the HK Marriot hotel.
The official was formerly a State Dept functionary in the Middle East – in Jerusalem, Riyadh, Beirut, Baghdad and Doha, certainly not an area lacking in imperial intrigues and regime change ops.
People, it’s pretty obvious that Washington D.C. is involved in the HK protests, when you have photos of the protest leaders meeting with American presidential aides!
That photo graphically contradicted the contention that there is no US “black hand,” as China calls it, in the Hong Kong riots.
In fact, here the “black hand” was caught red-handed, leading Chen Weihua, a very perceptive China Daily columnist, to tweet the picture with the comment:
“This is very very embarrassing. … a US diplomat in Hong Kong, was caught meeting HK protest leaders. It would be hard to imagine the US reaction if a Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters.”
And that photo with the protest leaders is just a snap shot of the ample evidence of the hand of the US government and its subsidiaries in the Hong Kong events.
There is substantial and ample evidence that the United States government has been very active in funding, advising and supporting the anti-government protestors in Hong Kong.
Perhaps the best documentation of the US “black hand” is to be found in Dan Cohen’s superb article of August 17 in The Greyzone entitled, “Behind a made-for-TV Hong Kong protest narrative, Washington is backing nativism and mob violence.”
The article by Cohen deserves careful reading; it leaves little doubt that there is a very deep involvement of the US in the Hong Kong riots.
Of special interest is the detailed role and funding, amounting to over $1.3 million, in Hong Kong alone in recent years, of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), ever on the prowl for new regime change opportunities.
Perhaps most important, the leaders of the “leaderless” protests have met with major US political figures such as John Bolton, Vice President Pence, Secretary Pompeo, Senator Marco Rubio, Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, Nancy Pelosi and others, all of whom have heartily endorsed their efforts.
This is not to deny that the protests were home grown at the outset in response to what was widely perceived as a legitimate grievance. But it would be equally absurd to deny that the US is fishing in troubled Hong Kong waters to advance its anti-China crusade and regime change ambitions.
People! China is a serious, serious nation. They do not mess around. If you think that they will not take this meddling as some kind of physical attack, then you are living in a fantasy world. They WILL take action. You all just have no idea what it will be.Nor will you know when they will take action.
The people who are activating the events.
As has been demonstrated so far, there are various individuals who are playing the "global high-power" politics role in all this. This includes American Senators, Congressmen, and various American sponsored "freedom" organizations.
But there are also others. Other people who have their own personal interests for "stirring up the pot". Here we look at others, who have a bigger personal stake in all of these protests.
Jimmy Lai
Among the most central influencers of the demonstrations is a local tycoon named Jimmy Lai. The self-described “head of opposition media,” Lai is widely described as the Rupert Murdoch of Asia.
The United States is intimately involved in the HK protests.
For the masses of protesters, Lai is a transcendent figure. They clamor for photos with him and applaud the oligarch wildly when he walks by their encampments.
Lai established his credentials by pouring millions of dollars into the 2014 Occupy Central protest, which is known popularly as the Umbrella Movement. He has since used his massive fortune to fund local anti-China political movers and shakers while injecting the protests with a virulent brand of Sinophobia through his media empire.
Sinophobia - definition of Sinophobia by The Free Dictionary
Sinophobia synonyms, Sinophobia pronunciation, Sinophobia translation, English dictionary definition of Sinophobia. n. 1. Fear of or contempt for China, its people, or its culture. 2. Behavior based on such an attitude or feeling. Si′no·phobe′ n. Si′no·pho′bic adj.
Jimmy Lai (HK billionaire) meets with American VP Mike Pence. Politically he is a progressive leftist who became one of the most powerful men in HK. He desires to leverage his relationship and power to have the USA perform proxy interceptions within China and HK relationships for his own personal benefit.
Though Western media has depicted the
Hong Kong protesters as the voice of an entire people yearning for
freedom, the island is deeply divided. This August, a group of
protesters mobilized outside Jimmy Lai’s house, denouncing him as a
“running dog” of Washington and accusing him of national betrayal by
unleashing chaos on the island.
Days earlier, Lai was in Washington, coordinating with hardline members of Trump’s national security team, including John Bolton. His ties to Washington run deep — and so do those of the front-line protest leaders.
John Bolton
John Bolton – National Security Advisor to Donald Trump.
Jimmy Lai has been working with President Trump's national security advisor John Bolton in how to work with China.
In this relationship, it is obvious that both Jimmy Lai and John Bolton want to take a very hard-line with China. As such, we can well expect John Bolton to sabotage any tariff agreement between Xi Peng and Donald Trump.
Personally, I believe that for there to be any kind of mutually-beneficial trade relationship and agreement between the USA and China, John Bolton would have to step down from being an advisor to Donald Trump.
Millions of dollars have flowed from
US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
into civil society and political organizations that form the backbone
of the anti-China mobilization. And Lai has supplemented it with his own
fortune while instructing protesters on tactics through his various
media organs.
With Donald Trump in the White House,
Lai is convinced that his moment may be on the horizon. Trump
“understands the Chinese like no president understood,” the tycoon told the Wall Street Journal. “I think he’s very good at dealing with gangsters.”
Born in the mainland in 1948 to wealthy parents, whose fortune was expropriated by the Communist Party during the revolution the following year, Jimmy Lai began working at 9 years old, carrying bags for train travelers during the hard years of the Great Chinese Famine.
Inspired by the taste of a piece of chocolate gifted to him by a wealthy man, he decided to smuggle himself to Hong Kong to discover a future of wealth and luxury. There, Lai worked his way up the ranks of the garment industry, growing enamored with the libertarian theories of economists Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, the latter of whom became his close friend.
Friedman is famous for developing the neoliberal shock therapy doctrine that the US has imposed on numerous countries, resulting in the excess deaths of millions. For his part, Hayek is the godfather of the Austrian economic school that forms the foundation of libertarian political movements across the West.
Lai built his business empire on Giordano, a garment label that became one of Asia’s most recognizable brands. In 1989, he threw his weight behind the Tiananmen Square protests, hawking t-shirts on the streets of Beijing calling for Deng Xiaoping to “step down.”
It was a year after the Communist Party of China, led by Deng Xiaoping, put forward the policy of reform and opening-up. Under the policy, individuals nationwide were encouraged to run businesses and set up private companies. That meant that family enterprises like the Nian’s sunflower seed business became legal. Deng’s visionary move fueled the growth of private enterprise and set a milestone for China’s market-oriented economy.
In other words, Mr. Deng introduced China to Reganomics. And while President Bush stopped all of the Reaganomics that he started, Mr. Deng continued, creating the China that exists today.
Lai’s actions provoked the Chinese government to ban his company from operating on the mainland.
A year later, he founded Next Weekly magazine, initiating a process that would revolutionize the mediascape in Hong Kong with a blend of smutty tabloid-style journalism, celebrity gossip and a heavy dose of anti-China spin.
The vociferously anti-communist baron soon became Hong Kong’s media kingpin, worth a whopping $660 million in 2009.
Today, Lai is the founder and majority stakeholder of Next Digital, the largest listed media company in Hong Kong, which he uses to agitate for the end of what he calls the Chinese “dictatorship.” His flagship outlet is the popular tabloid Apple Daily, employing the trademark mix of raunchy material with a heavy dose of xenophobic, nativist propaganda.
In 2012, Apple Daily carried a full page advertisement depicting mainland Chinese citizens as invading locusts draining Hong Kong’s resources. The advertisement called for a stop to the “unlimited invasion of mainland pregnant women in Hong Kong.”
(This was a crude reference to the Chinese citizens who had flocked to the island while pregnant to ensure that their children could earn Hong Kong residency, and resembled the resentment among the US right-wing of immigrant “anchor babies.”)
Ad in Lai’s Apple Daily: “That’s enough! Stop unlimited invasion of mainland pregnant women!”
The transformation of Hong Kong’s economy has provided fertile soil for Lai’s brand of demagoguery. As the country’s manufacturing base moved to mainland China after the golden years of the 1980s and ‘90s, the economy was rapidly financialized, enriching oligarchs like Lai.
Left with rising debt and dimming career prospects, Hong Kong’s youth became easy prey to the demagogic politics of nativism.
Many protesters have been seen waving
British Union Jacks in recent weeks, expressing a yearning for an
imaginary past under colonial control which they never personally
experienced.
Many protesters have been seen waving British Union Jacks in recent weeks, expressing a yearning for an imaginary past under colonial control which they never personally experienced.
In July, protesters vandalized the Hong Kong Liaison Office, spray-painting the word, “Shina” on its facade. This term is a xenophobic slur some in Hong Kong and Taiwan use to refer to mainland China.
The anti-Chinese phenomenon was visible during the 2014 Umbrella movement protests as well, with signs plastered around the city reading, “Hong Kong for Hong Kongers.”
支那(Shina) is Japanese word for China that became derogatory during Sino-Japanese War. Post-War Japan gov ban its use in Kanji form (Chinese characters) in official document. Yet some people in Hong Kong and Taiwan use it to insult people from Chinese mainland. It=“Chink” in Eng https://t.co/Oe8LCXgak8
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) July 22, 2019
This month, protesters turned their fury on the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, spray-painting “rioters” on its office. The attack represented resentment of the left-wing group’s role in a violent 1967 uprising against the British colonial authorities, who are now seen as heroes among many of the anti-Chinese demonstrators.
Edward Leung
Besides Lai, a large part of the
credit for mobilizing latent xenophobia goes to the right-wing Hong Kong
Indigenous party leader Edward Leung. Under the direction of the
28-year-old Leung, his pro-independence party has brandished British
colonial flags and publicly harassed Chinese mainland tourists. In 2016,
Leung was exposed for meeting with US diplomatic officials at a local restaurant.
Edward Leung Tin-kei (Chinese : 梁天琦 ; born 2 June 1991) is a Hong Kong student and activist. He is the former spokesman of Hong Kong Indigenous, a localist group. He took a leading role and was arrested in the 2016 Mong Kok civil unrest.
Though he is currently in jail for leading a 2016 riot where police were bombarded with bricks and pavement – and where he admitted
to attacking an officer – Leung’s rightist politics and his slogan,
“Retake Hong Kong,” have helped define the ongoing protests.
A local legislator and protest leader described Leung to the New York Times as “the Che Guevara of Hong Kong’s revolution,” referring without a hint of irony to the Latin American communist revolutionary killed in a CIA-backed operation. According to the Times, Leung is “the closest thing Hong Kong’s tumultuous and leaderless protest movement has to a guiding light.”
Andy Chan
The xenophobic sensibility of the protesters has provided fertile soil for Hong Kong National Party to recruit. Founded by the pro-independence activist Andy Chan, the officially banned party combines anti-Chinese resentment with calls for the US to intervene.
"I ask President Trump to bring full-scale of sanction on to Hong Kong. The sanctions brought on China must [be] brought on Hong Kong because China can escape sanctions through Hong Kong. I would like to take the chance to reiterate my advocacy again: to revoke the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act passed by the United States Congress. It allows Hong Kong to enjoy a special status apart from China. However, it turns out to be a back door of the free world that could be accessed and manipulated by China. Moreover, over 70% of foreign direct investment goes in to China through Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the main window that China obtains U.S. dollars from. Therefore, shut it down."
-Andy Chan
Images and videos have surfaced of HKNP members waving the flags of the US and UK, singing the Star Spangled Banner, and carrying flags emblazoned with images of Pepe the Frog, the most recognizable symbol of the US alt-right.
It is a very small group. With only a handful of members. While the party lacks a wide base of popular support, it is perhaps the most outspoken within the protest ranks, and has attracted disproportionate international attention as a result.
“I ask President Trump to bring full-scale of sanction on to Hong Kong. The sanctions brought on China must [be] brought on Hong Kong because China can escape sanctions through Hong Kong. I would like to take the chance to reiterate my advocacy again: to revoke the 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act passed by the United States Congress.
It allows Hong Kong to enjoy a special status apart from China. However, it turns out to be a back door of the free world that could be accessed and manipulated by China. Moreover, over 70% of foreign direct investment goes in to China through Hong Kong. Hong Kong is the main window that China obtains U.S. dollars from. Therefore, shut it down.”
Chan has called for Trump to escalate the trade war and accused China of carrying out a “national cleansing” against Hong Kong. “We were once colonized by the Brits, and now we are by the Chinese,” he declared.
The risks if this manipulation cannot be constrained.
Such xenophobic propaganda is consistent with the clash of civilizations theory that Jimmy Lai has promulgated through his media empire. It is useful. It has a proven record of success, and is useful to obtain his objectives at this time.
“You have to understand the Hong Kong people – a very tiny 7 million or 0.5 percent of the Chinese population – are very different from the rest of Chinese in China, because we grow up in the Western values, which was the legacy of the British colonial past, which gave us the instinct to revolt once this extradition law was threatening our freedom,” Lai told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “Even America has to look at the world 20 years from now, whether you want the Chinese dictatorial values to dominate this world, or you want the values that you treasure [to] continue.”
During a panel discussion at the neoconservative Washington-based think tank, the Foundation For Defense of Democracies, Lai told the pro-Israel lobbyist Jonathan Schanzer,
“We need to know that America is behind us. By backing us, America is also sowing to the will of their moral authority because we are the only place in China, a tiny island in China, which is sharing your values, which is fighting the same war you have with China.”
While Lai makes no attempt to conceal
his political agenda, his bankrolling of central figures in the 2014
Occupy Central, or Umbrella movement protests, was not always public.
To find out what is going on here, all you need to do is “follow the money”.
Leaked emails revealed that Lai poured more than $1.2 million to anti-China political parties including $637,000 USD to the Democratic Party and $382,000 USD to the Civic Party. Lai also gave $115,000 USD to the Hong Kong Civic Education Foundation and Hong Kong Democratic Development Network, both of which were co-founded by Reverend Chu Yiu-ming. Lai also spent $446,000 USD on Occupy Central’s 2014 unofficial referendum.
Lai’s US consigliere is a former Navy intelligence analyst who interned with the CIA and leveraged his intelligence connections to build his boss’s business empire.
Named Mark Simon, the veteran spook arranged for former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin to meet with a group in the anti-China camp during a 2009 visit to Hong Kong.
Five years later, Lai paid $75,000 to neoconservative Iraq war author and US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to organize a meeting with top military figures in Myanmar.
US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz believes that supporting the HK protestors will not have any adverse actions and that America will continue to be the most powerful and “free nation” on the planet.
This July, as the Hong Kong protests gathered steam, Lai was junketed to Washington, DC for meetings with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Cory Gardner, and Rick Scott.
Bloomberg News correspondent Nicholas Wadhams remarked on Lai’s visit, “Very unusual for a [non-government] visitor to get that kind of access.”
Today: Hong Kong publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai met National Security Adviser John Bolton in DC. After meetings with @SecPompeo and @VP, this is meant to send a signal to Beijing. Very unusual for a nongovt visitor to get that kind of access. pic.twitter.com/6rvqsGJzru
— Nicholas Wadhams (@nwadhams) July 10, 2019
Hong Kong publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai met National Security Adviser John Bolton in DC. After meetings with @SecPompeo and @VP, this is meant to send a signal to Beijing. This continued as the proxy protests continued in HK. In this picture a protestor was arrested trying to sneak into the HK international airport.
One of Lai’s closest allies, Martin
Lee, was also granted an audience with Pompeo, and has held court with
US leaders including Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Joseph Biden.
Among the most prominent figures in Hong Kong’s pro-US political parties, Martin Lee began collaborating with Lai during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
A recipient of the US government-funded National Endowment for Democracy’s “Democracy Award” in 1997, Lee is the founding chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, now considered part of the pro-US camp’s old guard.
Policemen arrest a protester during a demonstration at the Airport in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019. Chaos has broken out at Hong Kong’s airport as riot police moved into the terminal to confront protesters who shut down operations at the busy transport hub for two straight days. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
These latest groups of protests are not about HK law. They are about armed militarized conflicts against the HK government. They choose not to work with the government, instead they want to embrace violence.
After the extradition law was scrapped, the protests moved into a more aggressive phase, launching “hit and run attacks” against government targets, erecting roadblocks, besieging police stations, and generally embracing the extreme modalities put on display during US-backed regime-change operations from Ukraine to Venezuela to Nicaragua.
After the extradition law was scrapped, the protests moved into a more aggressive phase, launching “hit and run attacks” against government targets, erecting roadblocks, besieging police stations, and generally embracing the extreme modalities put on display during US-backed regime-change operations from Ukraine to Venezuela to Nicaragua.
AJE in position to cover HK protesters' "hit and run strategy."
Here's William Engdahl on Otpor!, the CIA-backed Serbian group that trained thousands of youth activists in countries around the world in color revolution swarming tactics: https://t.co/jvCk2QBNhKhttps://t.co/I8oGScbpsSpic.twitter.com/a3JZzGwDb9
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 13, 2019
The techniques clearly reflected the
training many activists have received from Western soft-power outfits.
But they also bore the mark of Jimmy Lai’s media operation.
In addition to the vast sums Lai
spent on political parties directly involved in the protests, his media
group created an animated video “showing how to resist police in case
force was used to disperse people in a mass protest.”
In addition to the vast sums Lai spent on political parties directly involved in the protests, his media group created an animated video “showing how to resist police in case force was used to disperse people in a mass protest.”
While dumping money into the Hong Kong’s pro-US political camp in 2013, Lai traveled to Taiwan for a secret roundtable consultation
with Shih Ming-teh, a key figure in Taiwan’s social movement that
forced then-president Chen Shui-bian to resign in 2008. Shih reportedly
instructed Lai on non-violent tactics to bring the government to heel,
emphasizing the importance of a commitment to go to jail.
According to journalist Peter Lee,
“Shih supposedly gave Lai advice on putting students, young girls, and
mothers with children in the vanguard of the street protests, in order
to attract the support of the international community and press, and to
sustain the movement with continual activities to keep it dynamic and
fresh.” Lai reportedly turned off his recording device during multiple
sections of Shih’s tutorial.
“Shih supposedly gave Lai advice on putting students, young girls, and mothers with children in the vanguard of the street protests, in order to attract the support of the international community and press, and to sustain the movement with continual activities to keep it dynamic and fresh.”
One protester explained
to the New York Times how the movement attempted to embrace a strategy
called, “Marginal Violence Theory”: By using “mild force” to provoke
security services into attacking the protesters, the protesters aimed to
shift international sympathy away from the state.
As I have repeated stated in this article, it seems like the protestors want the police and military forces to engage them. Per this quote in the use of "mild force", it seems obvious that this is their strategy.
As the protest movement intensifies, its rank-and-file are doing away with tactical restraint and lashing out at their targets with full fury. They have thrown molotov cocktails into intersections to block traffic; attacked vehicles and their drivers for attempting to break through roadblocks; beaten opponents with truncheons; attacked a wounded man with a US flag; menaced a reporter into deleting her photos; kidnapped and beat a journalist senseless; beat a mainland traveler unconscious and prevented paramedics from reaching the victim; and hurled petrol bombs at police officers.
A Hong Kong protester continued to attack Chinese reporter for @globaltimesnews with American flag even as Paramedics finally freed him from the crowd and tried to rush him to hospital pic.twitter.com/AIULKRW76t
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) August 13, 2019
The charged atmosphere has provided a
shot in the arm to Lai’s media empire, which had been suffering heavy
losses since the last round of national protests in 2014. After the mass
marches against the extradition bill on June 9, which Lai’s Apple Daily
aggressively promoted, his Next Digital doubled in value, according to Eji Insight.
Meanwhile, the protest leaders show no sign of backing down.
Nathan Law, the youth activist celebrated in Washington and photographed meeting with US officials in Hong Kong, took to Twitter to urge his peers to soldier on: “We have to persist and keep the faith no matter how devastated the reality seems to be,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the protest leaders show no sign of backing down. Nathan Law, the youth activist celebrated in Washington and photographed meeting with US officials in Hong Kong, took to Twitter to urge his peers to soldier on: “We have to persist and keep the faith no matter how devastated the reality seems to be,” he wrote.
Nathan Law
Law was tweeting from New Haven, Connecticut, where he was enrolled with a full scholarship at Yale University. While the young activist basked in the adulation of his US patrons thousands of miles from the chaos he helped spark, a movement that defined itself as a “leaderless resistance” forged ahead back home.
While there has been growing coverage of the unrest in Hong Kong, there has been minimal coverage of what may lie behind the pro-democracy protests.
As you will see in this posting, it is entirely possible that a
Washington-based and Congressionally funded institution is responsible,
at least in part, for the lack of calmness in Hong Kong.
American involvement in the affairs of other nations is well established. It should come as no surprise to anyone that America would fund and instigate protests and violence in China’s backyard.
American involvement in the affairs of other nations is well established. It should come as no surprise to anyone that America would fund and instigate protests and violence in China’s backyard. For more information, go to this posting on the National Endowment for Democracy or NED, America’s instrument of democratic promotion around the world, that is, democracy American style. NED was founded in 1983 during the Reagan Administration with the following Statement of Principles and Objectives:
“Democracy involves the right of the people freely to determine their own destiny.The exercise of this right requires a system that guarantees freedom of expression, belief and association, free and competitive elections, respect for the inalienable rights of individuals and minorities, free communications media, and the rule of law.“
NED is a unique institution. The Endowment’s nongovernmental character gives it a flexibility that makes it possible to work in some of the world’s most difficult circumstances, and to respond quickly when there is an opportunity for political change.
While NED touts itself as a “private” foundation, in other words, it
is independent of government. That could not be further from the
truth. Here’s what NED has to say about itself that belies its true
character:
“NED is a unique institution. The Endowment’s nongovernmental character gives it a flexibility that makes it possible to work in some of the world’s most difficult circumstances, and to respond quickly when there is an opportunity for political change. NED is dedicated to fostering the growth of a wide range of democratic institutions abroad, including political parties, trade unions, free markets and business organizations, as well as the many elements of a vibrant civil society that ensure human rights, an independent media, and the rule of law.
This well-rounded approach responds to the diverse aspects of democracy and has proved both practical and effective throughout NED’s history. Funded largely by the U.S. Congress, the support NED gives to groups abroad sends an important message of solidarity to many democrats who are working for freedom and human rights, often in obscurity and isolation….
From its beginning, NED has remained steadfastly bipartisan. Created jointly by Republicans and Democrats, NED is governed by a board balanced between both parties and enjoys Congressional support across the political spectrum. NED operates with a high degree of transparency and accountability reflecting our founders’ belief that democracy promotion overseas should be conducted openly.”
NED receives its funding through an annual appropriation from Congress through the Department of State making it little more than another mouthpiece for Washington’s agenda. NED promotes Washington’s global agenda through direct grants to more than 1600 non-governmental groups that are working for “democracy” in more than 90 nations around the world.
Despite its proclamation that it has a “nongovernmental
character”, NED receives its funding through an annual appropriation from Congress through the Department of State making it little more than another mouthpiece for Washington’s agenda. NED promotes Washington’s global agenda through direct grants to more than 1600 non-governmental groups that are working for “democracy” in more than 90 nations around the world.
Let’s look at NED’s activities in Hong Kong for 2018 according to its website. Here are the projects that were funded over the period from 2015 to 2018.
Notice that the 2018 funding to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs was granted to “facilitate engagement on Hong Kong’s growing threats to guaranteed rights”.
Policemen clash with demonstrators on a street during a protest in Hong Kong, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. Hong Kong police have rolled out water cannon trucks for the first time in this summer’s pro-democracy protests. The two trucks moved forward with riot officers Sunday evening as they pushed protesters back along a street in the outlying Tsuen Wan district. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
That certainly sounds like promoting democracy to me. NED spent a total of $1,357,974 on grants to organizations that were promoting freedom, democracy and human rights in Hong Kong over the period from 2015 to 2018.
Unfortunately, we don’t know what NED spent on promoting democracy in Hong Kong in the time frame prior to 2015. While, in the grand scheme of what Washington spends this is not a great deal of money, it is the principle of what Washington is attempting to create in Hong Kong that is of concern.
This is a very clear example of meddling in the internal affairs of China and Hong Kong, actions that will only serve to anger China who is the also the recipient of a great deal of NED’s attention.
Protestors assault an international traveler near the subway in the HK airport.
It is also key to remember that there are likely other taxpayer-funded programs through which Washington is attempting to influence what happens in Hong Kong.
In my opinion, this tweet by the conservative-leaning Washington Examiner is a dead giveaway to the source of the unrest:
Video from Hong Kong shows pro-democracy protesters waving American flags and singing the American National Anthem. Demonstrations have shutdown the city's airport for a second consecutive day and put the entire Chinese city on edge. pic.twitter.com/ZrYE5DzZYU
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 13, 2019
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington’s version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
Meanwhile, the Chinese themselves are not falling for this (same old, same old) lie…
huaqiao (Expat in China)
The rioters are trying to force the police to act and then certain foreign media will report it as "police brutality" while ignoring the rioters' assault against the police. This is a planned, deliberate act to show the world China's system is not working.
But the fact is China's system is working and is the envy of many nations, but certain "free world" countries cannot accept that. The value of "democracy" is overstated and these rioters show the effect of being overdosed with "democracy" and act senselessly.
While the ideals of democracy are admirable and desirable, Washington’s version of democracy is tainted by big money and has developed into a system where politicians are for sale to the highest bidder.
This is not the democracy that most of the world wants.
Long-term Congressional meddling in other nations internal affairs through its funding of the National Endowment for Democracy is little better than the nation reengineering exercises undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency since the end of the Second World War.
Reactions and serious attempts to control the situation
This situation is in the process of being resolved. Much of what is going on is behind the scenes, but we can get some glimmerings of the various events.
Point One
As of 10 September 2019, the United States president Donald Trump tweets out that he no longer needs the services of John Bolton. John Bolton, the national security adviser.
So, obviously Bolton has been fired. (paraphrasing) “I told Bolton I no longer need his services. I disagreed with many of the suggestions that he has made.”
The president is saying he asked for Bolton’s resignation; it was not Bolton’s idea. So now people are trying to speculate, “What is this about?” He’s the national security adviser, and there are any number of things it could be and there’s no way of knowing. We just have to wait. It will come out at some point.
Oh, I’m sure it will. Though, I’d be really surprised if they would address the truth. Which is the fact that he has been working personally with the key super-billionaire oligarchy opposition forces in Hong Kong against China, and against any resolution to the China – USA trade disputes.
The Friggin' idiot. That's not his job. His job is to assist President Trump, not to oppose his efforts. No matter how impassioned he might feel about Neocon-ism.
Donald Trump fired John Bolton. He obviously felt that John Bolton was not “on the same page” in resolving the issues with China at this time.
As I have previously stated, John Bolton is a war-hawk and a neo-con from the “deep state”. He has opposed every effort that Trump has made to negotiate with China, North Korea, and Iran. In his world view these are all dictatorial nations and America must stand firm in opposing them in every way possible.
Trump loves meeting with these people because he’s got dreams of ending disagreements with these people, bringing peace and tranquility to the humanity of earth. Bolton doesn’t see eye-to-eye with any of that. It could also be about troop withdrawals in Afghanistan. You know, there are factions in the White House that want to get us out of there. It’s been announced that we’re getting out of there. We’ve been over there for I don’t know how many years, and some people say we don’t even know why we are still there.
Trump loves meeting with these people because he’s got dreams of ending disagreements with these people, bringing peace and tranquility to the humanity of earth. Bolton doesn’t see eye-to-eye with any of that.
Bolton would not want to pull out of Afghanistan. Bolton would not want to withdraw from any presence in places like Syria. So it could well be that this is just the culmination of systemic policy differences that have led to this.
Bolton has a reputation as a hardliner, doesn’t take any guff, is not one of these touchy-feely, politically correct guys. He’s a war hawk and fully supports all eight (x8) proxy wars that the United States is currently mired in.
“Let’s try to make ’em like us. Let’s find out why they don’t like us and change.” That’s not Bolton. He don’t care that they don’t like us. We just gotta beat ’em. We gotta pummel ’em.
That might not be appropriate at this time when dealing with China. China is a serious, serious nation that would absolutely take meddling in their own affairs very, very seriously.
Point Two
On Wednesday 4SEP19, President Trump reached out to China’s President Xi in a tweet:
“I know President Xi of China very well. He is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people. He is also a good man in a ‘tough business.’ I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting? ”
-Donald Trump
So what is Donald Trump saying?
That’s he’s ready to stop the HK protests if Xi Peng negotiates.
Or, perhaps that China can use their military to enter HK.
Point Three
China has begun arresting American advisors to the protestors and their aides to the protest movements in HK. You see, China does not mess around. They know who all these players are, they know the funding sources, and have surveillance cameras everywhere. If you want to stir up a hornets next, do not allow yourself to get stung.
China has identified all the leadership of these protest groups, and their subordinates. They have since followed them and watched them. They have all been under observation. They have filmed these advisors instructing the protestors in behavior, and strategy.
Then, independently they have targeted these individuals and collected them in public near the protests. It's all on film.
What?
You haven’t heard about this? You mean it’s not reported on the American mainstream media? Imagine that!
Here is a video of a “so called” reporter instructing the HK protestors on how to behave. It’s all on video, and how the HK riot police comes after him and carts him off for “processing”. The video praises the HK riot police for nabbing these “instigators”, and claims that 53 CIA-related advisory staff have been arrested.
They say he’s CIA, but he’s really probably a member of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) or the National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) . All American front organization that receives Federal Funding for the purposes of disrupting the stability in other nations.
Here’s some of the arrests. The video shows three Americans arrested and being detained. I am sure that there are many more.
The point is that China knows full well what is going on and THEY DO NOT PLAY AROUND. China is a serious nation that does not pretend that everyone is playing on the same playing-field.
The root effects – trade renegotiation with China.
Anonymous (Italy)
This sudden chaos without major motivation is indeed a sign of interference. As a foreigner, I am Italian and married to a local, I do fully support Chinese mainland on this matter. People in Hong Kong that are doing this are ignorant and do not even know their own history.
It began as a promise to the American people. Donald Trump, if elected would renegotiate trade with the Chinese in such a way that it would be a two-way street to mutual respect and fairness.
When things were looking favorable, suddenly everything went to sh@t. There were rumors that some of the negotiators were hard-line deep-state plants that informed the Chinese to wait Donald Trump out. That he would not be reelected.
So the negotiations stalled, and Trump put full pressure on China. Simultaneously when he raised tariffs on Chinese goods 30%, protests broke out in Hong Kong. It appeared that the pressure was enormous on China, and (according to the United States media) China was really suffering.
30% tariffs
HK protests
Banning Huawei
Diplomatic pressure on Europe
But, you know what? It’s all a big lie, or at the very most, an exaggeration. China wasn’t suffering like the American mainstream media reported.
Ah, it’s partially true. But, not as bad as most Americans believed. China’s exports are not 90% to the USA and 10% to the rest of the world. Nope. Its actually 11% to the Untied States. And 89% to the rest of the world. So China has dealt with it.
Meanwhile, the tariffs has pretty much put the global economy into a malaise and it has backfired and hit the American consumer. It will need to be resolved before the 2020 elections or else it is potentially feasible that it will effect the elections.
And China’s reaction?
Nothing. Ride it out. Don’t go on the offensive. Don’t go on the defensive. Let things sizzle for a while and ride it out. They realize that the present Trump strategy is to force China to agree to a range of demands.
Implement “democracy” in China.
Stop the reeducation of radical Muslim separatists.
Allow Tibet independence.
China said no, and won’t do anything. They want favorable trade but not at the risk of their national identity and global sovereignty.
The idea that liberal or Western-style democracy and the country’s long-term stability are incompatible is deeply entrenched in the Chinese mind. Most Chinese believe that the current level of maturity in Chinese society does not allow for a “one man one vote” system. It is broadly accepted that China will disintegrate if it recklessly adopts Western-style democracy.
- The construction of the Singapore Model in Mainland China
How would you feel, if China demanded that;
America implemented Communism?
Integrate Muslim extremists in key leadership roles in government?
Allow California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arazona and Texas to be an independent nation?
It’s all pretty silly. It’s obscene and an insult.
Well, that’s how the Chinese feels. They have plenty of trade relationships with other nations. Contrary to what the mainstream American news say, and they are healthy and chugging away just fine. You see, China realizes that they can under-price any American company on the global stage.
And so, they are just waiting everything out.
Thus the worst effects of the trade war backfired and are now squarely on the shoulders of America. John Bolton, of course is all happy about this. But there are far other considerations than the John Bolton Neocon narrative, and Donald Trump has a nation to take care of.
So, Donald Trump is regrouping and removing the Neocon planks from the trade demands and will continue to work with China on resolving this.
The end results…
The Trade war will end.
The HK protests will end.
Things will continue much as they had, only there would be more favorable trade terms for the United States.
Let’s see how correct my fortune telling ability is, shall we? Maybe I’m right or maybe I’m wrong. We will see. Eh?
Anyways about the video. He's going on in English about the "rule of law" and then switches in Cantonese. Anyways, his goose is cooked.
Once HK passed the insurrection law which permitted the arrest of agitators who forment revolution, regardless of nationality, and extration ot the mainland for lengthy prison sentences and organ harvesting… everything changed.
For months, if not years, the Chinese have documented everyting on video, and then seized the computers and technical data form the foreign newspapers operating inside of HK.
So it's over for this cat. He doesn't have a hope in Hell. In China, there isn't any court negotations between attorneys. Instead, they look over the documentation and evidence and assign punishment(s).
BTW. I don't know if I told you this. But a lot of retired men in HK and China participated in the protests because if they did so, they would get a $200 USD check. Well, of course, they all started to deposit it in their own individual bank accounts. Right? Guess what happened?
Every account that has a $200 USD deposit during a specific time period is assumed to be a paid-for-riot paycheck. So every person who got that money… young and old… suddenly has their social security balance set to zero and frozen for the rest of their life.
Finally, we conclude with a decent editorial
US fooling no one with claims of innocence in HK: Opinion
By Ian Goodrum
For no particular reason I’ve been thinking of Claude Rains in Casablanca
lately. You remember him; the Moroccan police captain who is “shocked,
shocked” to find gambling in Humphrey Bogart’s establishment during a
raid, only to be handed his winnings without missing a beat.
You might wonder at the relevance of that famous movie moment. I’ll explain.
Amid ongoing violence and turmoil in Hong Kong, Chinese media outlets
have brought up a few relevant facts: That “pro-democracy” opposition
heads had met with politicians in the United States, protest leaders had
been in contact with State Department officials and major figures like
Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi have issued statements supporting the
demonstrators. With all this in mind, it’s been suggested the US has
been inflaming tensions in the city and encouraging escalation in an
already heated environment.
To wit, the Claude Rains moment: Members of the diplomatic corps were
“shocked, shocked” by this news. Why, it’s unthinkable that the US,
that bastion of democracy and freedom, would ever attempt to interfere
in the affairs of another country! China was called a “thuggish regime”
for even bringing this up — naturally, the “free press” was all crickets
when it came time to do their purported jobs and speak a little truth
to power.
Safe to say none of these faux-outraged government functionaries or
their lapdogs in the media bothered to ask a Libyan what they thought of
the idea. The NATO intervention there in 2014 turned the African
country with the highest standard of living into a disaster zone,
complete with open-air slave markets.
They wouldn’t have asked an Iraqi, either. I’m sure the families of
the million-plus people killed by the US military since 2003 would have a
few things to say about their invaders’ good intentions.
Or a Haitian. Or a Syrian. Or a Venezuelan. Or a Honduran. Or an Iranian. The list goes on.
The truth is US “diplomacy” has never been that innocent, and
everyone knows it. State Department personnel — in league with military
and intelligence agencies — have spearheaded countless interventions
since the turn of the 20th century, destroying countries or political
formations they saw as counter to US interests. After the Russian
Revolution of 1917 and especially after the Cold War began, this meant
subverting communists or socialists and materially supporting
anti-communists and fascists.
Among the best-known examples of this skullduggery are the hundreds
of assassination attempts on Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro —
none successful; he died at 90, probably laughing at the US as he went —
and the overthrow of democratically elected Chilean Marxist Salvador
Allende. The US loved democracy so much in the latter case they replaced
Allende with a military dictator. These and many other interventions
were overseen by the same sort of “diplomats” who now act offended at
the notion they may be doing something untoward in Hong Kong.
But things are a little different now. These clandestine activities
used to be the sole purview of the Central Intelligence Agency, and when
word got out the US’ definition of “liberty” really meant “not being
communists”, quite a few people were furious. So in a long process which
began in the 1970s, the CIA delegated its regime change
responsibilities to a host of organizations, each given a degree of
separation with some legalese and clever accounting.
Though the Agency remains a potent force for subversion — and you
would have to be truly naïve to think their cloak-and-dagger era is over
— the interventional landscape has been somewhat diversified, with a
host of non-governmental organizations taking the place of traditional
spies. The National Endowment for Democracy, the largest among them, has
of course given a great deal of money to “pro-independence” forces in
Hong Kong. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure.
Allan Weinstein, an early leader of one such think tank, admitted it
outright when he said “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25
years ago by the CIA.” While this makes US influence operations easier
to track, it also gives them a veneer of respectability among the
general public. It’s a bigger deal when a government agency is funding
rebellious elements in another country; much less so if it’s some
“non-governmental” cutout with a bit of plausible deniability.
When news of CIA activity broke in the past, it was big news. That
was bad for optics. Somewhere along the way, powerful government figures
and capitalists realized by doing all their influencing in the open —
and with a media that had long since stopped pretending to question
motives — the scandal brought by secrecy would go away. This has worked
wonders on a browbeaten population fed a steady diet of propaganda. It
turns out if you’re told every other country on earth is inferior to
yours, you’ll start thinking intervention is great for everybody else.
Some people normally skeptical of official US narratives look back on
this sordid history and conclude it’s a thing of the past, the stuff of
ancients. But what’s changed between then and now? Why would any empire
stop consolidating its influence if it had the ability to continue? In
fact, the US’ capacity for interference has only grown more
sophisticated since the end of the Soviet Union. With that country’s
dissolution in 1991, the world lost a counterweight against imperialism —
and logic dictates things would get worse rather than better in an era
of unilateral hegemony.
So the question remains: Why would the US’ well-established,
well-funded campaigns of subversion suddenly cease? Well they wouldn’t,
of course. There’s an equally bizarre notion from otherwise
right-thinking people that intervention stops at certain countries’
borders. This is patently ridiculous. If it can happen in Venezuela,
Iran, Libya, Cuba or Syria, it can happen in Hong Kong — a
geographically small Chinese territory with longstanding ties to the
West. It is, in fact, perfectly positioned as a pressure point for the
rest of China.
And it’s not just a question of economic or political systems
anymore. The US doesn’t trust anyone, even its own imperial allies;
recall that the National Security Administration had German Chancellor
Angela Merkel’s phone tapped for years. There’s no telling how they’re
keeping tabs on other NATO members. Because the US has the largest
economy and military many times over, however, leaders who might
otherwise speak out against this treatment stay silent. Yet the idea of
US benevolence still has a hold on the world’s imagination. I encourage
anyone on the fence to think about it this way: If this is how the US
treats its friends, imagine what it tries to do to its enemies.
And make no mistake, the US considers China an enemy. It says so in
official statements and policy briefings, and academics and journalists
uncritically launder these claims for a mass audience on their enormous
platforms. No matter how many times China says it wants peace and to
handle its own affairs, the myth of the “China Threat” persists — stoked
by US “diplomats” and their lackeys in the press.
These inflammatory statements serve a twofold purpose. On a personal
level, they attract attention to the authors’ work and better position
them for career advancement. More broadly, they further US interests and
provide cover for narratives that wouldn’t get consideration by the
public if they came straight from the military-intelligence apparatus.
It’s a win-win for everyone — except the US’ victims.
None of this is to say that things in Hong Kong are perfect, or that
everyone in the city was happy as a clam before the State Department and
NED came along. Severe inequality plagues the city, and must be
addressed for the government to enjoy continued support from the people.
But bad actors take advantage of existing negative sentiments and
amplify them, turning issues that could be handled peacefully into
profound existential crises.
This playbook has worked for decades now, undermining countless
sovereign governments whose existence ran counter to the interests of
the United States; it’s the height of foolishness to think it can’t
happen here.
The author is a copy editor with chinadaily.com.cn.
28NOV20 Update
It is pretty well established that the CIA has been well involved attempting a “color revolution” inside of Hong Kong as part of the Trump Trade Wars of 2017 – 2020. There are all sorts of articles on this subject. Here’s a worthwhile read…
A secret high-level committee of Hong Kong senior activists worked with Western agents from the CIA to coordinate and amplify the leaderless protests against the fugitive law amendment last year, Nury Vittachi claims in his book The Other Side of the Story: A Secret War in Hong Kong.
Vittachi, a veteran journalist and a columnist for The Standard, accused the CIA of funding anti-government activities in the SAR. He said Hong Kong protesters have received practical training in street-protest strategy and media control from members of the professional revolution industry since January 2013.
The book named three US-based groups - the Oslo Freedom Foundation, the Albert Einstein Institute and the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies - which were directly involved in last year's social unrest.
He added that public records had shown that the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA's regime-change arm, had sent HK$170 million to the mainland or Hong Kong since 2014 to "advance the cause of democracy."
https://lnkd.in/dwnSU-S
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Some Fun Videos
Here’s a collection of some fun videos taken all over Asia. While
there are many videos taken in China, we also have some taken in
Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and Japan as well. It’s all in fun.
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Yes. Here we are going to explore Asia. This entire post is devoted to this. Except that we are going to take just a little bit of time to talk about something else.
As we continue in our video exploration of Asia, and my various rants of stuff, let’s first explore one of my all time movies. You know which one, don’t you? It’s from the photo splash screen above.
The movie is “Casablanca”, and it’s a classic.
I am so amazed at how many millennials have never heard of this move, nor watched it. It is stunning to me. Which is, perhaps, why I am going to spend a larger than usual amount of time writing about it.
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.
Lost in Love in Casablanca.
Casablanca is a film about the personal tragedy of occupation and war. It speaks to the oppression of the one side – and the heroism and self-deprecation of the other. From opportunists, to isolationists – from patriots to disenchanted lovers – the film has everything a man or woman would enjoy.
I cannot go with you or ever see you again.
Bravery, courage, intrigue, romance, beauty and love. Leading actors to please any appetite.
Watching this film is to step back to a world that doesn’t exist – yet to know it. It is to experience lives that have never been lived – but are “real to you.” It is to know pain and joy, pride and pity for characters that are a fiction – yet are so real that you can’t help but get lost in their story.
So what exactly is so special about it? Is it its great genre mix, never equaled by another film? When we think of 'Casablanca' first, we remember it as a romantic film (well, most of us do).
But then again, its also a drama involving terror, murder and flight.
One can call it a character study, centering on Rick. And there are quite a few moments of comedic delight, just think of the pickpocket ("This place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere!") or the elderly couple on the last evening before their emigration to the US ("What watch?").
But 'Casablanca' is not only great as a whole, it still stands on top if we break it apart and look at single lines of dialog, scenes or performances alone.
Amazing cast, memorable dialogue, unforgettable story.
Through this film, Casablanca will always live in my heart and I will
think of its characters as family.
Seeing it for the first time is truly the start of a romance with ideals that will live in you long after credits end.
Not only is the dialog great, it’s unforgettably delivered, especially by Humphrey Bogart (“I was misinformed.”) and Claude Rains (“I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here”). Many of scenes have become a part of film history; the duel of ‘Die Wacht am Rhein’ and ‘La Marseillaise’ is probably one of the greatest scenes ever shot, and the last scene is probably even familiar to the few people who’ve never seen ‘Casablanca’.
The Nazi envoy, Major Heinrich Strasser puts it: ‘Human life is cheap in Casablanca.” Of course because a man may be executed in its crowded market before Marshal Pétain’s portrait or where a charming girl may guarantee an exit visa by spending her night with the Prefect of Police…
Rick’s Café is the point of intersection, the espionage center, the background for Allied offensive, the focal point as refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe seek to gain exit visas to Lisboa…
The interesting club so well organized, leads to an open arena of conspiracy, counterspies, secret plans, black market transactions, in which the games and fights are between arrogant Nazis, patriotic French, idealists, murderers, pickpockets and gamblers around a roulette wheel, where a ball could rest on Rick’s command against the settled number 22…
The cast is one of its main strengths, not just Bogart and Bergman but also the fine supporting cast. Rains, Greenstreet, Lorre, and the others are indispensable to the atmosphere and the story, and each has some very good moments.
“Casablanca” is an adventure film which victory is not won
with cannons and guns… The action, the fight, the war takes place
inside Rick’s walls rather than outside…
But who is this Rick? What is his magical power? His secret weapon? Rick is the anti-fascist with hard feelings, the former soldier of fortune who has grown tired of smuggling and fighting, and is now content to sit out the war in his own neutral territory…
Hum... A little like myself, eh?
Even loyalty to a friend doesn’t move him as he refuses to help Ugarte, a desperately frightened little courier who is fleeing from the police…
This is a film that MUST belong in every video collection in the U.S. is not in the world. The stories about it’s making are legendary from the constant rewrites to the apocrypha of casting stories. What is amazing to me, and the reason I believe it holds audiences almost spellbound in successive viewings, is the connection with the horrors of World War II was almost every single cast member.
Emphatically, Rick says, “I stick my neck out for nobody.”
Play it again Sam.
Ah, but we know he will do just that in a very short time, for into his quiet life comes a haunting vision from his past, the beautiful woman he still loves and bitterly remembers…
But…
But…
But, she is married to an underground leader and she desperately needs those papers Rick conveniently now has in his possession…
OMG!
The cynical Rick’s facade of neutrality begins to weaken as he recalls the bittersweet memories of his past love affair, memories triggered repeatedly when the strains of “As Time Goes By” come from Sam, his piano-playing confidante…
But “Casablanca” basic message is a declaration of self-sacrifice… War. World II demanded all!
The words stated by Rick at the airport had their impact: ‘The problems of three people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.’ It goes without saying that Bogart is incomparable when he seems most like himself…
His way with a line makes “Casablanca” dialog part of the collective memory: ‘I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray. You were blue.’
Everyone in this film is fabulous, but it is the chemistry of Rick (Bogart) and Ilsa (Bergman) been truly holds the film together. When I saw this film almost frame by frame in the limited book series of classic films that were produced in the late 1960s, I was stunned by the subtlety of facial expressions that conveyed so much of Rick Blaine’s character by a marvelous actor Humphrey Bogart.
There is a reason why he was named the actor of the century. While every person in the film becomes a real flesh and blood presence, the story of Rick and Ilsa is the center of this cinema feast.
Intermixed in this intrigue are all the fascinating and beautifully acted supporting roles . With his customary skill, Claude Rains plays Major Renault, a prefect of police who is like Bogart in many ways…
He, too, claims neutrality, but is definitely against the Nazis…
He is Rick’s most devoted adversary, tauntingly calling the man a “sentimentalist” and delivering his share of cynically amusing lines…
But, what about us?
When he makes a small bet and is encouraged to make a bigger one, he remarks that he is only a “poor corrupt official.”
Ingrid Bergman is fascinating as the
lovely heroine, the mysterious impossible woman of an impossible love,
the tender mood of every man, the love-affair, the quality of being
romantic, the traditional woman enclosed by two rivals, symbol of a
besieged Europe…
CASABLANCA is the best treatment ever of the ancient theme of the love triangle. Set in World War II Casablanca, a Moroccan city under the control of the collaborationist Vichy French government, the movie starts with a news wire that two German couriers have been murdered and their letters of transit stolen. Each letter will permit one person to leave Casablanca to a neutral country.
Paul Henreid is Victor Laszlo, the anti-Nazi
resistance leader, seeking in Morocco the two letters of transit signed
by General De Gaulle…
Here’s looking at you kid.
Sidney Greenstreet is the black marketeer
on good terms with Rick, the rival owner of the ‘Blue Parrot,’ the
acceptable face of corruption…
Peter Lorre is Ugarte, the
racketeer, the dealer of anything illegal, the killer, driven into a
corner by the Vichy police, who has given Rick two letter of transit…
Enter Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, owner of the shady but cheerful Cafe Americaine. Rick is a cynical and hard-nosed man whose motto is, "I stick my neck out for nobody." Like many a cynic, Rick is an embittered ex-idealist, still nursing his wounds from being abandoned by his lover Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman). By chance he falls into possession of the missing letters of transit.
Enter Ilsa, who comes to Casablanca on the arm of Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), a few steps ahead of the Nazi police. We now have three people and two letters of transit. Who will reach America, and who will stay in Casablanca? I know no other movie that so perfectly balances humor, romance, and drama.
The soul of good drama lies in presenting characters with hard choices, and few choices are as hard, or as illuminating of the protagonists' makeup, as the choices in CASABLANCA. All of the characters must decide what they will give up for love, for honor, and for themselves. The scenes of Rick and Ilsa's love, years ago in Paris, are some of the finest romantic scenes in cinema.
And the humor, particularly in the person of Casablanca's Prefect of Police, Louis Renault, has contributed dozens of dry witticisms to our everyday language - "I am shocked! Shocked! - "The Germans wore gray, you wore blue." - "I was misinformed." - "It would take a miracle to get you out of Casablanca, and the Germans have outlawed miracles."
So perfectly blended are these three major elements that you cannot point to a single shot or scene that should have been eliminated from the movie. Never try to watch only one scene from CASABLANCA; you will inevitably be absorbed until the very end of the film. It is little short of miraculous that the chaotically mismanaged shooting of this movie resulted in such a magnificent final product; it speaks volumes for luck and for Owen Marks' and Michael Curtiz' post-production editing.
A scene still from the 1943 Academy Award®-winning film “Casablanca” features (l to r) Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Paul Henried and Ingrid Bergman. Bogart received an Academy Award nomination in the Lead Actor category while Claude Rains was honored with a nomination in the Supporting Actor category. “Casablanca” received eight Academy Award nominations in total and won three Oscars® including Best Picture. Restored by Nick & jane for Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans Website: http:www.doctormacro.com. Enjoy!
Conrad
Veidt is the very essence of German rigidity, unfeeling, unconcerned
about life, but firmly believing in the foolish ideology of his Nazi
compatriots…
“Casablanca” covers many highlights: The
Marseillaise against the Horst Wessel song inspiring sequence; the
blissful days in Paris; Ilsa’s emotional words to Rick in occupied
Paris; the champagne toast; Ilsa’s request to Sam; the poetry of the
magic words and the beautiful voice of Dooley Wilson; Captain Renault’s
words in the airport; and the farewell…
The magic that developed from the teaming of Bogart and Bergman is enough to make a new romantic figure out of the former tough guy…
To his cynicism, his own code of ethics, his hatred of the phoniness in all human behavior, he now added the softening traits of tenderness and compassion and a feeling of heroic commitment to a cause…
They helped him complete the portrayal of the ideal man who all men wished to rival…
In December 1941, American expatriate Rick Blaine owns an upscale nightclub and gambling den in Casablanca. “Rick’s Café Américain” attracts a varied clientele, including Vichy French and German officials, refugees desperate to reach the still-neutral United States, and those who prey on them.
Although Rick professes to be neutral in all matters, he ran guns to Ethiopia during its war with Italy and fought on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War. Petty crook Ugarte boasts to Rick of “letters of transit” obtained by murdering two German couriers. The papers allow the bearers to travel freely around German-controlled Europe and to neutral Portugal, and are priceless to the refugees stranded in Casablanca. Ugarte plans to sell them at the club, and asks Rick to hold them.
Before he can meet his contact, Ugarte is arrested by the local police under the command of Captain Louis Renault, the unabashedly corrupt Vichy prefect of police. Ugarte dies in custody without revealing that he entrusted the letters to Rick.
One can look at hundreds of films produced during this period without finding any whose composite pieces fall so perfectly into place…
Its photography is outstanding, the music score is inventive, the editing is concise and timed perfectly…
Bogart’s and Bergman’s love scenes create a genuinely romantic aura, capturing a sensitivity between the two stars one would not have believed possible…
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman starred in “Casablanca,” the Oscar®-winning film of 1943. Bogart was nominated for an Academy Award® in the Lead Actor category for his portrayal of Café Americain owner Rick Blaine. In total, “Casablanca” received eight Oscar nominations and won three, including Best Picture. Restored by Nick & jane for Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans Website: http:www.doctormacro.com. Enjoy!
“Casablanca” is
a masterpiece of entertainment, an outstanding motion picture which
brought Bogart his first Academy Award nomination (he lost to Paul Lukas
for “Watch On the Rhine”) and won Awards for Best Picture of the Year,
Best Director and Best Screenplay…
There is a scene about halfway through the movie Casablanca that has become commonly known as 'The Battle of the Anthems' throughout the film's long history. A group of German soldiers has come into Rick's Café American and are drunkenly singing the German National Anthem at the top of their voice. Victor Lazlo, the leader of the French Resistance, cannot stand this act and while the rest of the club stares appalled at the Germans, Lazlo orders the band to play 'Le Marseilles (sic?)' the French National Anthem. With a nod from Rick, the band begins playing, with Victor singing at the top of HIS voice. This in turn, inspires the whole club to begin singing and the Germans are forced to surrender and sit down at their table, humbled by the crowd's dedication. This scene is a turning point in the movie, for reasons that I leave to you to discover.
As I watched this movie again tonight for what must be the 100th time, I noticed there was a much smaller scene wrapped inside the bigger scene that, unless you look for it, you may never notice. Yvonne, a minor character who is hurt by Rick emotionally, falls into the company of a German soldier. In a land occupied by the Germans, but populated by the French, this is an unforgivable sin. She comes into the bar desperately seeking happiness in the club's wine, song, and gambling. Later, as the Germans begin singing we catch a glimpse of Yvonne sitting dejectedly at a table alone and in this brief glimpse, it is conveyed that she has discovered that this is not her path to fulfillment and she has no idea where to go from there. As the singing progresses, we see Yvonne slowly become inspired by Lazlo's act of defiance and by the end of the song, tears streaming down her face, she is singing at the top of her voice too. She has found her redemption. She has found something that will make her life never the same again from that point on.
Basically, this is Casablanca in a nutshell. On the surface, you may see it as a romance, or as a story of intrigue, but that is only partially correct.
The thing that makes Casablanca great is that it speaks to that place in each of us that seeks some kind of inspiration or redemption. On some level, every character in the story receives the same kind of catharsis and their lives are irrevocably changed. Rick's is the most obvious in that he learns to live again, instead of hiding from a lost love. He is reminded that there are things in the world more noble and important than he is and he wants to be a part of them. Louis, the scoundrel, gets his redemption by seeing the sacrifice Rick makes and is inspired to choose a side, where he had maintained careful neutrality. The stoic Lazlo gets his redemption by being shown that while thousands may need him to be a hero, there is someone he can rely upon when he needs inspiration in the form of his wife, who was ready to sacrifice her happiness for the chance that he would go on living. Even Ferrai, the local organized crime leader gets a measure of redemption by pointing Ilsa and Lazlo to Rick as a source of escape even though there is nothing in it for him.
This is the beauty of this movie. Every time I see it (and I have seen it a lot) it never fails that I see some subtle nuance that I have never seen before. Considering that the director would put that much meaning into what is basically a throw away moment (not the entire scene, but Yvonne's portion) speaks bundles about the quality of the film. My wife and I watched this movie on our first date, and since that first time over 12 years ago, it has grown to be, in my mind, the greatest movie ever made.
-A Masterwork for all Time
“Casablanca” is a great romance, not only for being so supremely entertaining with its humor and realistic-though-exotic wartime excitement, but because it’s not the least bit mushy. Take the way Rick’s face literally breaks when he first sees Ilsa in his bar, or how he recalls the last time he saw her in Paris: “The Germans wore gray, you wore blue.”
There’s a real human dimension to
these people that makes us care for them and relate to them in a way
that belies the passage of years. For me, and many, the most interesting
relationship in the movie is Rick and Capt. Renault, the police prefect
in Casablanca who is played by Claude Rains with a wonderful subtlety
that builds as the film progresses. Theirs is a relationship of almost
perfect cynicism, one-liners and professions of neutrality that provide
much humor, as well as give a necessary display of Rick’s darker side
before and after Ilsa’s arrival. But there’s so much to grab onto with a
film like this.
You
can talk about the music, or the way the setting becomes a living
character with its floodlights and Moorish traceries. Paul Henreid is
often looked at as a bit of a third wheel playing the role of Ilsa’s
husband, but he manages to create a moral center around which the rest
of the film operates, and his enigmatic relationship with Rick and
especially Ilsa, a woman who obviously admires her husband but can’t
somehow ever bring herself to say she loves him, is something to wonder
at.
…
My favorite bit is when Rick finds himself the target of an entreaty by a Bulgarian refugee who just wants Rick’s assurance that Capt. Renault is “trustworthy,” and that, if she does “a bad thing” to secure her husband’s happiness, it would be forgivable.
Rick flashes on Ilsa, suppresses a grimace, tries to buy the woman off with a one-liner (“Go back to Bulgaria”), then finally does a marvelous thing that sets the whole second half of the film in motion without much calling attention to itself.
Love and sacrifice during WWII underlie the story about a café owner named Rick (Humphrey Bogart), and his link to two intellectual refugees from Nazi occupied France. Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) seek asylum here in politically neutral Casablanca and, like other European refugees, gravitate to Rick’s upscale café, near the city’s airport, with its revolving searchlight.
Rick is a middle-aged cynic who also has a touch of sentimentalism, especially for people in need, like Ilsa and Victor. The film’s story is ideal for romantics everywhere.
I wish I didn’t love you so much.
Sorry, for that long narrative. Let’s get back to Asia, shall we.
Faded. Music in China.
First stop is a DJ version of the song “Faded”. Faded is a song made popular by Alan Walker. It is very popular in China. As such, there have been many people who have used the song and music to manufacture “DJ” versions of the song.
There are many of them. Some of the best mix a kind of pop-rock with guitar solos and a background of war and machine-gun fire. Others, just take the melody and mix in Chinese dialog.
When done this way, it becomes a track that would evoke period of deep reflection while remembering the words of others who may or may not have been close to you. In the example below, you can well guess the complexity of those thoughts even though most would not have a clue as to what anyone was saying.
DJ Ricardo – Faded (英雄联盟台词版)
El Rusbo’ notices the roar of silence…
You know, El’ Rusbo had a great dialog on his progam on 7Aug19. In it he discussed what is going on while the American news media are going full-bore anti-Trump, anti-middle class America. Here’s an excerpt…
Trump Support Grows Stronger — and More Quiet — by the Day
Aug 7, 2019
x----snip
Well, it’s not entirely true, but I’ll try to make the point. There aren’t any, per se, Republican voters right now. There are Trump voters. There are Trump supporters and everybody else. Most of them are Republican, and Trump’s approval rating within the Republican Party still stands at 90 to 92%, and it may be even higher now. Those people are totally behind Trump. They are fully, quietly supportive of Trump and his agenda. They grow stronger and more quiet by the day, and that’s the great dichotomy. They are growing stronger, but they are shutting up.
They don’t want to make themselves targets. But they are seething out there. This is what I think the breakdown is. I think there are more and more Trump voters. Trump’s approval rating is at 49%. You go to state by state, and some states show him the losing there, but this is 16 months before the election. So there’s way too much time for any polling data here to be accurate. It’s nothing more than an interesting point of conversation at this point. But I really think that tends to describe the political lay of the land.
And the one thing that I think that is happening (just to reinforce this) that nobody is reporting on at all — not even what you would consider friendly outlets like Fox — is I think that the base support for Trump is solidifying and I think it is growing because I think those people are seething. They are the ones being called white supremacists. They are the ones being called white nationalists. They are the ones being blamed for all this, and they know they are not responsible for it, and they know that Donald Trump isn’t responsible for it.
They know that most of the rhetoric in this country that is inciting extremism emanates from the left. Most of the activity that incites extremism and violence emanates from the left. Do I need to give you the organizations? Antifa. Black Lives Matter. I could go down the list. Planned Parenthood. These are people who do this as a way of life. The basic Trump supporter (you), you’re just out there. Some of you are probably not totally invisible, but the grand majority of Trump supporters is just out there seething.
Look, I think I’m a typical Trump supporter, as far as you can define “typical.” And I am. I’m seething over this stuff. Each and every day, I’m seething over it. Now, don’t misunderstand. This doesn’t mean I’m depressed. This stuff literally ticks me off! Every time I hear these clowns throw out the term “white supremacist,” “white supremacy,” it ticks me off, and it makes me want to defeat them even more. It makes me want them to go down in flames even more — and in this, I believe I am typical.
I like his phrase “seething”.
It is what is going on. Be advised.
Chinese Hospital
China, as an enormous nation, has a wide hospital network. These include smaller local clinics and hospital branches. Like in the United States, they also have training and teaching hospital as well. The quality varies from region to region, but it is very easy to find a hospital suitable for what ever problem ails you.
In general, I have found the hospitals to be competent, staffed with caring and trained workers, and while the appearance varies from one hospital to the next, most Chinese hospitals are up to date and equipped with the latest in technology.
Aside from the handful of village hospitals that I have attended, most hospitals (and I have attended them for various reasons, many and yes, many times) all tend to look like this…
All with costs and prices far, far, far, FARRRRRR below what you would find in the United States. I think that the reason for this is that if the hospital or doctor tries to scam you or work in some kind of “kick-back” scheme through insurance or other legalized-bribery method, the Corruption Police will be unleashed.
Many regulations, agencies that require registration to work, fees, and other hidden costs are legalized ways for collecting bribes. Over the last 100 years, people have gamed the United States to extract as much money as possible from the citizens living there.
People, you DO NOT WANT the corruption police crashing through your window at night.
Thailand Beauty
My other posts were so serious with all the protests in China, and all that. I know these people “just want” “freedom and democracy”, though they are trying to appeal to Americans who live in an Oligarchy disguised as a Democracy (as evolved from a Republic). It’s all messed up.
The world has been gamed by the wealthy over the last 100 years, and now most people are serfs working on a plantation where everything they do has some kind of cost associated with it. This is most especially true in the United States and the UK. No so much elsewhere.
Life is all about love.
Here is some “lighter fare”. This is a cute girl in Thailand. I like the local rural restaurant that looks like an airplane, the green lush trees, and the blue skies. If it wasn’t for the gold temples over the next hill you would think that it’s in China.
Chinese Beauty
For comparison purposes, here is a similar video of a girl in China. As you can well see, that while the fashions are different, and the behavior and demeanor is different, there is a similarity that cannot be ignored. Ah. I do so love Asia.
European Beauty
Sometimes I get emails from trolls and other confused people. They seem to be under the impression that I need to curb what I write, or present so as not to offend anyone.
Nonsense!
If you are offended you can leave. I am far too old and too grouchy to tone down my thoughts for someone who has the emotions of an infant.
That being said, I do not want people to think that I do not appreciate other forms of human beauty. I am an equal-opportunity girl-watcher. I find so many women beautiful, and you would be so absolutely stunned at how wide ranging my tastes are.
For starters… here’s an European beauty. Isn’t she awesome? Wouldn’t you just love to take her out on a date, eat some fine steak or fish with a nice wine, and then go to a club or jazz bar? I would. I’ll tell you what.
OMG! I am such a sucker for a big toothy smile, and big hair. (Hint, hint to all you heavier girls out there…)
How to Cook Chicken Legs – Chinese Style
Here’s a quick video on how to cook chicken legs on the stove in a pan. This is the traditional Chinese cooking method, as most Chinese do not have ovens. It is not only tasty and healthy, but it uses far less electricity than cooking in a stove.
And as I finish this particular bunch of micro-videos about Asia, take a deeper look into my life as an American expat why don’t ya.
The Cafe American.
I have many more videos, but I just cannot put them into a single
post. It will bog down your computer terribly. So to watch the rest of
the videos in this post, please continue…
If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Let’s continue on our exploration of videos and things about Asia. However, firstly, let’s comment on the splash screen above. It’s from the 1990’s situation comedy on television (anyone remember watching television?) called “Seinfield”.
Seinfeld is a situation comedy which ran from July 5, 1989 to May 14, 1998. One of the most popular and influential TV programs of the 1990s, it epitomizes the self-obsessed and ironic culture of the decade. In 2002, TV Guide ranked Seinfeld as the greatest TV show of all time. The show was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.
The show stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself, and mostly focuses on his personal life with a handful of friends and acquaintances, including best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), friend and former girlfriend Elaine Benes.
Seinfield cast on the set of Seinfield. I loved this show when it came out, and it was always a subject of light water-cooler banter during the coffee breaks at work.
I think that this funny comedy is a monument to itself. Yet, the trivia associated with it is quite noteworthy…
Larry David famously instituted a policy of "no hugging, no learning", meaning that the show must avoid sentimentality and moral lessons, and the characters must never learn or grow from their wrongdoings.
As Kramer (Michael Richards) became more popular, his entrance applause grew so prolonged that the cast complained it was ruining the pacing of their scenes. Directors subsequently asked the audience not to applaud so much when Kramer entered.
Seinfield in the puffy shirt. Did you know that you can buy this shirt on the internet? Yup, you can. I think that it would make a great thing to wear on casual Friday. Just make sure that your coworkers have seen Seinfield and knows what the shirt is all about.
Jerry Seinfeld turned down an offer from NBC that would have made him $110 million for a tenth season of the show.
Michael Costanza, Jerry Seinfeld's friend after whom George is named, filed a $100 million lawsuit against Seinfeld, Larry David, and NBC, claiming invasion of privacy and defamation of character. Costanza claimed damages due to the show's alleged use of his likeness. The case was dismissed with the judges adding that the statute of limitations on the case had run out, as Costanza did not sue within one year of the show's debut in 1989.
George and Kramer on Seinfield. In this episode, George poses for some sexy photographs.
The Soup Nazi (Larry Thomas) is based on the actual owner, Al Yeganeh, of a take-out soup business in Manhattan on West 55th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue. Just like in the sitcom, his soups were known for their excellent quality, but Yeganeh was also famous for the unusual way he treated his customers. Instead of calling him a Nazi, local patrons called him a terrorist, presumably because they knew Yeganeh was born in Iran, not Germany. Yeganeh was so angered by the episode (Seinfeld: The Soup Nazi (1995)), that he forbade the use of the "N word" in his restaurants. Even the slightest reference to this show would push his buttons (it can be seen in an interview he did with CNN). So when some cast members and writers from this show bravely visited the restaurant after the episode aired, Yeganeh claimed that the show had ruined his life.
The puffy shirt used in episode 5.2, Seinfeld: The Puffy Shirt (1993), is currently placed in the Smithsonian. A doll-sized replica was included with the fifth season DVD set.
George orders soup from the soup Nazi. Ah, the best soup in New York City, but the cook is something else entirely…
John O'Hurley (Peterman) recalls attending a friend's 40th birthday party and being recognized at the buffet line. A man came up to him to say "that would be grounds for dismissal.", one of his J. Peterman lines. During their conversation, O'Hurley learned that this guy was not only a fan of Seinfeld but a fan of the real J. Peterman catalogue, too. He would actually read the over-the-top item descriptions to his wife in bed. He thanked O'Hurley for finally giving him a voice to use for the catalogue readings. The fan was none other than Tom Hanks.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Thailand School
Here’s a cute music video of an elementary school in Thailand…
Videos about the Protests in HK
All these (so called) “pro-democracy” protests in Hong Kong get a lot of air-play in the United States. I can’t but help that they are instigated by Donald Trump and his CIA operatives to stir up and instigate some “backyard” conflict for China. You know, just like how the CIA agitated the protests the last time Obama visited HK.
The American news media, whether it is CNN, or (even) Rush Limbaugh all parrot the same line.
They parrot the same old narrative; [1] It’s organic and “grass roots”, [2] all they want is “freedom” and “democracy”, and [3] that they are fighting against Communism. The videos and movies on you-tube all support this narrative. It’s a nice narrative, and everyone in the USA is repeating this.
The only thing is…
The narrative is nonsense.
What do they actually want? Well, for one thing, they want universal suffrage. You know where everyone can vote, with no age limits, or limits on the number of times that you can vote, or whether you are a citizen or not. Pretty radical stuff.
Sounds like the American democrat platform, I’ll tell you what…
While Hong Kong is part of China, it operates autonomously. It has it’s own laws, and own systems, and own ways of doing things. Many of which are freakishly different from the mainland Chinese way.
So… very… predictable… How do we know? It’s all recorded in the history books. You all should read them some time.
And, this is what happens when no one puts their foot down and squashes the SJW movement…
Tear down the Chinese Flag
One of the often promoted videos is how the “Chinese people” joyfully tore down the Chinese flag in Hong Kong. Then they discarded it into the water, and danced around joyously.
What they don’t tell you is what happened afterwards…
Residents are sick of the SJW Kids
Almost all of the protesters are Social Justice Warriors in their early 20’s attending school or otherwise unemployed. Their desire for social upheaval is disruptive to the crowded Chinese community, and the residents are rather fed up with their protests and the interruptions in their lives.
Just like how the black-clad Antifa stopped traffic, and broke apart stores and ships, these SJW troops are doing the same thing. The only thing is, in America they did it in enclaves where the local leadership wanted them to protest and supported the protests. Say Berkley and Baltimore, for example. Not in places where they would get shot. Like in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. That is the big difference between China and the USA.
The Chinese do not accept this kind of nonsense. So they fight back as these two videos indicate.
First, we have a pissed off mother. (Though she is blaming Japan for initiating all the violence.)
Then we have some pissed off office workers…
You will note that this narrative is not promoted in the Western press. At best they might mention that “Pro-Chinese” people lash back at the protesters. But what is really happening is that shop owners, workers, people going to work, and street vendors are all really pissed off that their nice orderly life is being torn apart by these kids.
Hands are NOT tied…
The Chinese government is not ham-strung by an aggressive media propaganda machine, and public opinion. They have lived through numerous SJW uprisings and they know what can happen with they are not squelched rapidly and forcefully.
People die.
President Xi Peng saw this personally… up front and up close. He will NOT permit to happen on his watch. No way. No how.
If you don’t know what I am referring to, then read this article (opens up in a separate window.).
To this end, they have practiced, planned, and have worked on solutions. Here is one such video on what to expect if the local HK government fails to contain the radical Social Justice Warrior elements…
Make no mistake. The Chinese government will shoot to kill if order is not stabilized soon.
Make no mistake. The Chinese take these protests as a very serious threat, and they are prepared to fight against the protesters.
And while I can show you the reader, video after video of Chinese SWAT and paramilitary forces training inside Hong Kong in riot and capture duties, perhaps this recent video of HK police can convince you that the Chinese do NOT mess around…
I have many more videos, but I just cannot put them into a single
post. It will bog down your computer terribly. So to watch the rest of
the videos in this post, please continue…
If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
But first, let’s have something to say about the photo splash above. It’s a screen shot from the brilliant movie “Bedazzled”.
In the movie "Bedazzled", Hopeless dweeb Elliot Richards is granted seven wishes by the Devil to snare Allison, the girl of his dreams, in exchange for his soul. It goes something like this; Elliot Richards, a socially incompetent technical advisor working at a call-center, has had a crush on Alison Gardner for nearly four years. One evening, which already started particularly bad for Elliot, she ditches him. Elliot wishes for her to be in his life with all his heart - and is heard.
I like this movie a lot. It’s a cute story about our life and how we can control it and to ignore all those others that say otherwise.
The devil seduces Elliot. Scene from the movie Bedazzled. This movie is a fun fictional romp that enables us to look at our life, our choices and preferences in a new light and understanding.
What if you could have anything you wanted? You just wish for it and it materializes. What then? What would you wish for? This movie, “Bedazzled” explores that theme and others. In the process we get to look at our life and the choices that we make.
For no, what we want is not external to our desires. Nope, it comes from inside.
What would do become, if you could change your life? Maybe your would become rich and famous, attractive, powerful? Maybe you would become a star, a famous person that everyone would literally everyone would look up to…
In the movie “Bedazzled”, Elliot wishes to become a famous basketball star. And so he becomes one. He’s a giant that can do no wrong. Everything about him is bigger than life. Everything, ah… everything except one small, tiny, tinsey little thing…
So what would you do, if you had the means to achieve it? Maybe become a DJ and produce your own music.
Well, that is now indeed possible, and now easier than ever.
Insta-DJ
Today, with a bag of electronics and some basic training anyone can become a DJ and mix your very own mix-tapes. Nope, this is not your 1990’s type of mixing, this is all on an entirely new level. Absolutely. Check it out.
You know, I have severely curtailed my reading of what passes for news in America these days. Every time I read it, it just gets more and more off the wall. I really don’t like the articles, the tone and the nonsense that is being spewed forward.
Take this screen capture from 6AUG18 from Yahoo News…
A screen capture from 6AUG18 from Yahoo News.
Now, let’s summarize the six articles listed at the very top of the page, shall we…
Putin is threatening the USA with nuclear weapons. Really?
You (the reader) are the same kind of animal that killed someone.
The world still admires the Obamas. (Maybe on Mars…)
Some fellow apologizing to someone for something…
Bicycles are dangerous and can kill 22-year olds.
At times like this, I wish Obama was still the President.
Sigh. They are all bat-shit crazy.
Maybe it will be different on a different mainstream news platform. Let’s look at MSN via Bing News…
Here is the first page news from MSN on 6AUG19. They are heavily involved in the progressive disarming of the citizenry.
Enough of that nonsense. I tire about the big push to disarm the citizens to make them “safe”, and I most certainly tire of being told that “ugly” is “beauty”. Let’s go back to Asia. In Asia, the ideal female shape is one that looks something like a fish.
As this video portrays…
Beautiful Chinese model on a boat.
Meanwhile the ideal woman shape is considered to be along the lines of Michelle Obama in the United States. Are they fucking kidding me?
Michelle Obama is considered the most beautiful woman in America. I disagree with the “experts”. I think beauty is a combination of factors that include personality, kindness, physical appearance and behaviors. In my mind, while I am sure that Michelle is a nice woman, to consider her one of the most beautiful women in America is not really accurate. I argue that it is mere political posturing, and is completely functionally meaningless.
Going to School – The Philippines
Uh. Yes, of course, they have schools in the Philippines. Don’t be silly.
Schooling in the Philippines suffers from underfunding and a lack of resources. Education at local Filipino schools is not likely to be of the standard most expats are used to. Expats living in the Philippines opt to send their children to international schools.
Education system in the Philippines
The education system in the Philippines has largely been shaped by its colonial history, particularly by the Spanish and American cultures. Today, the system is largely modelled on the US education system.
Education in the Philippines fares poorly compared with other countries in the region. While primary education is compulsory until the 6th grade, drop-out rates are high after this level.
Filipino and English are the main languages of instruction at all public and private schools in the Philippines. From grades 1 to 3, students are taught in the dominant language of their particular region. Class are held in either English or Filipino from then on.
The school year for both public and private schools in the Philippines normally runs from June to March or April. A typical school week is Monday to Friday, from 7:30am to 4pm or 5pm. Students usually have an hour lunch break; as school cafeterias are rare, many students either go home for lunch or bring their own lunch to school.
-Expat Arrivals
I found this little video and found it very cute.
Philippine Elementary School
Cambodian MV
Bet you didn’t know that the Cambodians have their own music videos? Well, most nations do and they are all pretty cool. Check out this one…
Cambodian Music Video
HK Protests
The news media in July 2019 was all in awe of the “wonderful” HK protestors who wanted to bring “democracy” to Hong Kong. They breathlessly wrote and reported on all the “pro-democracy” protesters in Hong Kong.
HK operates as part of China, but has it’s own independence permitting it to have it’s own laws, and systems that are often quite different from what is found in the mainland.
They did not want “democracy“.
They were unhappy with the declining economy of Hong Kong, most especially after Donald Trump put the enormous tariffs on HK sourced products. (Yeah, bet ya didn’t realize that the vast bulk of Chinese sourced items dispatch from Hong Kong, now did you?)
Topic. Hong Kong. China. Hourly wage. HK 30. RMB Exchange rate. HK 7.8 = US 1. RMB (Renminbi) 5.7 = US 1. Working hours. 8 hours/day, 6 days/week. 9 hours/day, 6.5 days/week. Total = 48 hours/week. Total = 58.5 hours/week. Maximum overtime allowed = 200 hours/years. During peak production periods, workers work 13 hours/day, 6.5 days/week. Weekly (non-peak output/worker) 19 parkas. 12 parkas.
Being unhappy, they revolted.
They wanted Social Justice, with gay weddings, trans-gender bathrooms, free jobs, a “living wage” and other progressive demands. Not quite the things that you would hear about on the American mainstream media.
They wanted what all Social Justice Warriors want…
64 genders. Free sex on demand. Free healthcare. Free education. Free medicine. Unlimited Welfare.
You know, like America has.
CIA graphics on the various levels of autonomy within the Chinese sphere. China has allowed many regions to operate under their own laws and rules and regulations, that are often quite different and stand apart from the way things are done in Beijing. This differs substantially from the USA model where everything is under the Thumb of Washington D.C.
Much of what you see on CNN and other American news media has no bearing on what actually transpires in China.
Like, for instance, this video clip of the “brave” Social Justice Warriors demanding “democracy” in Hong Kong…
Ai! Picking on old people is inexcusable. But there you have it. This is the face of SJW all over the world. This is the face in Hong Kong…
HK SJW’s attacking an old man.
Of all the “pro-democracy” protest videos on CNN, and You-Tube. This one is banned. I wonder why?
And, this is the very same face in the United States…
American SJW Antifa meme. Attacking the old, the poor, the weak and children. It’s the socialist way.
It’s a true shame that the American mainstream media isn’t reporting on this situation properly and leading many people, especially conservatives that should know better, to think that the SJW protests in HK are all about “freedom”, “democracy”, and “breakaway from China”.
Ah, but don’t youse guys worry.
China does not take kindly to SJW types. Organ harvesting that you read about is one thing, but having both of your eyes removed is something else all together. China is far too populous, with far too many issues, not to take the SJW issue seriously. They do.
This is why…
Oh, BTW, here's a fun fact, did you know that the ADC (The Arkansas Department of Corrections) went to China in the late 1990's to teach them how to manage Hard Labor Camps. Yuppur.
They run them in China just like the ADC does.
But, then again, maybe you don’t want to hear what I have to say. Maybe you would feel more comfortable hearing it from someone who lives right there inside HK and has lived there all their life. Listen to them instead, why don’t ya.
Well then… let’s watch some videos that say things that you won’t ever hear in the American mainstream media…
I have many more videos, but I just cannot put them into a single
post. It will bog down your computer terribly. So to watch the rest of
the videos in this post, please continue…
If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.
Links about China
Here are
some links about my observations on China. I think that you, the reader,
might find them to be of interest. Please kindly enjoy.
China and America Comparisons
As an
American, I cannot help but compare what my life was in the United
States with what it is like living in China. Here we discuss that.
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is
the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find in the
British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American liberal
press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Who
doesn’t like to look at pretty girls? Ugly girls? Here we discuss what
China is like by looking at videos of pretty girls doing things in
China.
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a
series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music in China. It
is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at that, all that I
am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews. However, this series
of posts should serve as a great starting place for investigation and
enjoyment.
Parks in China
The parks
in China are very unique. They are enormous and tend to be very
mountainous. Here we take a look at this most interesting of subjects.
Really Strange China
Here are
some posts that discuss a number of things about China that might seem
odd, or strange to Westerners. Some of the things are everyday events,
while others are just representative of the differences in culture.
What is China like?
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate that the rest of the world,
outside of America, has moved on with their lives. That while they
might not be as great as America is, they are doing just fine thank
you.
And while
America has been squandering it’s money, decimating it’s resources,
and just being cavalier with it’s military, the rest of the world has
done the opposite. They have husbanded their day to day fortunes, and
you can see this in their day-to-day lives.
Summer in Asia
Let’s take a moment to explore Asia. That includes China, but also includes such places as Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and others…
Articles & Links
You’ll not
find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
I still would like to continue on the idea and concept of role-play dress and contemporaneous Chinese popular music. It’s a very interesting subject for me. I just don’t know why.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Maybe it’s because you can dress up any time, year round sort of like forever Halloween. Maybe it’s because I really like to look at pretty girls wearing dresses. Maybe it’s because I love to see people having fun and doing things that they like to do. Maybe it’s because I like to listen to music.
Here is a gal in what looks to be a museum, or other kind of public place.
And here is a local girl outside, what looks like, her home. Probably in some rural section of central China (judging from the costume). You will also notice the red signs on the doors. These are good-luck glyphs that are found everywhere in China. I have them on my doors at home and in my office as well.
The character behind her (on the door) is “fu”. It means good luck and fortune. It is sometimes turned upside down to mean that it “fills up” with money, luck and fortune.
Here we have another gal. This outfit does not look traditional in the least, but you know, this is China. You can just be yourself as long as you don’t try to push your beliefs on anyone else. She is either going to some event, or just having the time of herself going down the street. Please take note how the other passersby treat her.
And here is yet another just normal gal that is walking down the street in traditional garb. You got to love the look, and her smile. I think that it is awesome.
Oh and by the way, this idea of role-play and costume is not restricted and limited to Chinese cultural customs only. Other nations and citizens can participate as well. Here’s a bevy of folk from an Eastern Block nation (Romania, Bulgaria, Albania…I don’t know) hamming it up for China.
Now, of course, all of these videos are going to be impossible to load unless this post is broken up into smaller chew-sized portions. So to continue, please click here…
If you want to go back to the start of this series, please go HERE.
I would like to take a little side excursion on our exploration of the Chinese music scene today to look at what makes certain types of music so popular to the Chinese people. Why do they like slow, sappy love ballads, say… instead of twerking urban jungle-rap. You know the type, where the girl gets on all fours, puts her ass high into the air and shakes it so that everyone can watch her rolling blobs of fat jiggle. Why aren’t the Chinese like that?
Let’s explore this issue somewhat. OK?
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
What is the most popular venue for music in China?
That is a very good question. But, first before we answer it, consider what the most popular venue for music in the USA. The most popular venue is music played on the radio or player in the automobile. That is the most common venue that Americans use to listen to their music.
Americans will hop in their automobiles and immediate start to listen to their music. This is true whether it is via the radio, CD, USB or satellite radio. Of course, the will also listen on the internet and in other venues. But the most common… for Americans… is in the privacy of their car.
Thus, that is where they might sing. That, and the shower…heh. Heh.
For the Chinese it is quite different. Most will listen to the music on their cell phone while they are riding the bus, the subway or the train to work. They will put the headphones on and listen. They won’t have the chance to sing along to the songs… that is… not until they go to the KTV.
When the Chinese go to the KTV, the go with friends, and there in the privacy of the room, can sing to their hearts content. No one will make fun, and no one will question them. It will all be fun.
And at the Club…
Or, of course, when they are at the club, as shown in this here micro-video…
Ah, you know what these videos remind me of? Yes. They remind me of beer. yes, that most glorious refreshment (especially when icy cold). As an American who was raised during a time when America was traditional and conservative, beer was the staple libation for all races and sexes.
There’s few things finer than drinking some beer with good friends, and pretty girls, and singing songs. I’ll tell you what, how does that sound…singing your favorite song while drinking a nice frosty cold one? Eh?
Glorious, glorious beer!
The Chinese are just like Americans. They love to sing. Anyways, guys… don’t tell me that there isn’t a song that you don’t sing to when you are in the car!
Heck, when I was younger, I used to sing Classic Rock, which then included Aerosmith, and of course Deep Purple. Later, I would sing Southern Rock with Charlie Daniels, and Neil Young. And then when I discovered Country and Western Music, I would sing every chance that I would get.
Maybe you could have a loved one grab you a frosty beer and you two could share it in front of the television or computer. Now, wouldn’t that be nice. You know, beer is versatile. You don’t have to sing a song to enjoy it. You can eat some pork and beans, or a burnt-crisp hot dog with relish, or a fine hamburger and enjoy the fine taste of a frosty tall beer. I think that you deserve it. Don’t you?
If you are not drinking and singing, there is something serious missing from your life, I’ll tell you what.
Look guys. Look at the above video. That is my life. Being around pretty girls, drinking adult beverages, singing, dancing, and eating fine food. If you are not living life, then you are missing out. Life is far too short not to enjoy it. Life is short, live it well.
Life is short, Live it well.
Go out and be with friends, and what…? You don’t have any. Well, then make some. Life is about living. That is the purpose of life; to have experiences. Life is not sitting in front of a monitor all day, whether it is for work, or for your lonely personal enjoyments. Screw that!
You are missing out, dudes! What were you doing when this video (below) was taken? Was it important? Will you remember it on your death bed? Chances are no. You were doing something else. maybe reading the “news” on the computer. Maybe you were checking and clinking “likes” on Facebook. Maybe you were doing your taxes so that you won’t get audited. Maybe you were at work…
Life is too short. You need to enjoy it. Have a beer gosh darn it!
People, it’s time for a beer and some fine tunes. It’s always time for a beer and some fine tunes. Most especially when you are sharing that time with a pretty girl, I’ll tell you what.
People, life is meant to be enjoyed. If you are not singing. If you are not dancing. If you are not eating well… if you are not with friends, children, pets, and loved ones, then you are truly missing out. Go out. Make your life wonderful.
Be like this…
Life is far too short to get all caught up and bothered by the machinations of the rich oligarchs that control what we read on the news media though our computers. Really… does it matter (if) there are tri-gender bathrooms in Portland, Or? Does it matter if yet another Democrat is trying to ban guns? Does it matter that yet another Muslim molested a six year old?
Yes, those things do matter, but not to you. Your life should be run personally and viscerally. There will always be bad people, stupid people, and rich oligarchs trying to influence you. Turn them off and shut the door. Life is far too short to get upset by their inherent craziness. have some fun why don’t ya.
And how about this…
I am so sorry if I am ramming my preference for singing, dancing and drinking with pretty ladies down everyone’s throat, but you DO NEED TO UNDERSTAND that that is a fundamental part of Chinese culture.
And yes, it takes place in the work offices as well, as can be illustrated by this Chinese laoban (boss)…
In my mind, the computer has been used as a tool to take over the minds of Americans. Now, it is just a tool, and nothing more, yet many of our youth have used it as a replacement for the more important aspects of our lives. That is horrible and it must stop. Use it as a tool, and then move on…
Maybe music isn’t that important to you. Well, how about a ball game on a beautiful sunny day? How about it with a great hotdog and beer? How about it with your friends? You see, life should be fun and enjoyable. If it isn’t, then it is a miserable existence and one that needs to change.
Music is a pleasure that is an important and fundamental part of our lives. Let it be as it is, and enjoy it. Or, as can be shown by this group of employees during their daily morning exercise and sing-along (yeah, most Chinese companies do this).
Oh, and by the way…
Did you all notice anything about all the videos that you have seen so far? What about the ones that you will see..? See anything interesting? Yes, it’s mostly women.
But! But! But, how can this be? The Western news is all about how the Chinese have completely killed off most of the male off-spring during the implementation of the one-child policy. So if the Western narrative was correct, then almost all the videos that you would see in TicToc would be of guys about guys. But, that is not the case…what is going on? Eh?
Hey! Maybe I'm one of those Communist Propagandists trying to sway American Conservatives to the evil side, eh? Yuppur. Beer, pretty girls and singing is the sure fire way to convert virile American men to the ways of the beta-male trans-gender crowd. Yes. As we all know that is what Communists represent. Huh. Eh?
OK, sorry for the interlude. Ugh 7 videos. So to continue, please click here…
If you want to go back to the start of this series, please go HERE.
Here we provide a mixture of the popular music now currently trending in China. Strangely, most Americans are unaware of music outside of the USA shores. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it, but there you have it. The Chinese have their own pop groups, their own rap groups, and their own version of Country & Western music. Additionally, music from Russia is amazingly popular, as well as selected Australian, and American music.
We are gonna talk about all of this. In fact, if I might be so bold, we are going to look at the music from the point of view of culture. Or, in other words, how the Chinese cultures influences the Chinese music scene and why it is similar or different from the American music scene. (As the case may be.)
Due to SEO rules and server limitations, this post is divided into multiple posts. (At least ten, but I lost track of my count. It’s a “bunch” of posts. heh heh.) Of course, we’re gonna need to do this in order to keep the bandwidth hogs to a minimum. There’s a ton-load of videos and audio embeds involved here.
The music is identified by group and song title, and you can hear and check out the music and videos as attached. Where possible, I have also provided direct links so that you the reader could investigate the groups, the songs or their compilations on your own. Just cut and paste into the browser.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Romanian translated Bulgarian Rap is popular in China
Let’s start with “Dependent” also known as Пристрастен (зависим). This is a Eastern European song that I (and many of my friends) thought was Russian. But, nope. It’s Eastern European.
Yah. It crashed it’s way into the hearts and minds of the Chinese. Russian pop music is very popular in China. You can hear it on the radio and the various music APPs. Further, the music can be heard all over China. From coffee and tea houses to Majong parlors.
You know… I just have to laugh at how politically correct the United States has become. When trying to research the background on this song, I found this link at the very top of the Google Search results…
Anyways, you just simply won’t be able to find any of this information (provided herein) by using Google as a search engine. In fact, most American based search engines will be rather useless in trying to find this kind of information.
You need to understand that American search engines are dedicated to searching American-interest subjects in English. The determination of what would of interest to an American is determined by computer algorithm, which is in turn, determined by an American software engineer. More often than not, a 20-something millennial, located in California.
The future face of America. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents how modern American millennials view the world and what they plan to do with it.
To find similar search results, you will need to use search engines that are not tied to Google. You need to go “deep diving” using non-USA based search engines. Or, at least, American search engines that aren’t so aggressive in American-centrist information searching.
Try Search Encrypt for better search results. Google was great back in the late 1990’s then they got in bed with the rich and powerful. Now they have other objectives, and you, my dear reader are the product for their enjoyment and profit.
Our first song; “Dependent”
Back to the music. Here is the top Russian Romanian song translated into Bulgarian for the Chinese audience. This is the first song on my list.
Dependent…
And here is the lyrics of it, in the off-hand chance you would like to sing along. Credit to the fine folks who collected the lyrics HERE.
Пристрастен (зависим)
Събуждам се, нов ден е. Без теб съм в леглото. Без никаква мисъл. Живея, както си е. Без теб съм наобратно Не мога да се обърна. (пристрастен)
Липсва ми да изрека твоето име сега.
Пристрастен, към дългите нощи безмълвни. Пристрастен, към целувките ти огнени. Пристрастен, и не зная как да се излекувам Пристрастен, към теб...
Събуждам се, нов ден е. Будилникът звънна Нищо не се е променило. Но ти, ти не идваш Да ми кажеш че е свършило. Да ти кажа, че ти простих. Простих ти.
Пристрастен, към дългите нощи безмълвни. Пристрастен, към целувките ти огнени. Пристрастен, и не зная как да се излекувам Пристрастен, към теб...
Пристрастен, към дългите нощи безмълвни. Пристрастен, към целувките ти огнени. Пристрастен, и не зная как да се излекувам Пристрастен, към теб... (х2)
Ok. Yeah. I know you were expecting to listen and hear Chinese songs in Chinese. Well, just hold your horses, won’t ya. The Chinese love all kinds of music, and yes that includes American music. Which has a good and a bad side to it.
For instance, they never went through the two decades of Kenny G sax performances like us Americans have endured. Still, to this day, you can hear ol’ Kenny G belting it out in Chinese elevators, at Chinese Ice Cream parlors and along the many Chinese mall walkways. Ugh!
NEW YORK, NY – JANUARY 14: Saxophonist Kenny G performs at Hard Rock Cafe, Times Square on January 14, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/and credit to Getty Images)
Anyways, if you want to listen to the entire song, just cut and paste the title and paste into your Youku player. It will look a little like this. That is, of course, unless the procedure is not blocked by the software oligarchs in California…
Youku example when searching for the Bulgarian song that is popular in China; Dependent.
Once you do this simple task, all the versions of the song will pop up. Awesome!
Screen capture of the cut and paste action of Dependent into the Youku player.
Chinese Music in China
Now, here’s some of the most popular music in China in 2019. Ya all, had best buckle up…
Let’s start with a tune brought to us by 苏潭潭. this is a fine song to sing in the KTV. Slow songs are great. I’ll tell you why. Personally, I like to sing Country and Western songs because they are slow and have a pace that I can sing to.
You know, if you are not careful, your Chinese friends will ask you to sing Beat It”, by Michael Jackson. Ugh! That has happened to me on more than one occasions. Yikes!
This song is well paced, and easy to sing along to. Perfect for the Chinese audience.
Well, moving on…
Now, you would be hard pressed to ride in a taxi, or DiDi without hearing this song. Let along go to a bar, club or eat at a restaurant. In fact, I heard this song today while I was eating my Whopper in Burger King. LOL!
This was brought to us by NCF-艾力.
Music Rotations
This song is very popular. And, it always SEEMS to be in some kind of music rotation with this other song. I happen to like it a lot.
This other song is very Chinese(y). A cute girl sings in a cute way about difficult subjects and life. I guess that that has an appeal to many people through out Asia. Not only in China, but all over Asia.
Here, check out the song…
I do not know who makes up the song rotations. Perhaps a DJ can fill me in on this. I would imagine that there would be some kind of method and methodology involved. However, I have to assume that it would be profit based, and would be subject to the indicators of such measurables. Eh?
I remember one listening to El Rusbo (Rush Limbaugh for all your folks out there in Rio Linda) while he was talking about his early years in the radio business.
He had this story where his job was to listen to the radio rotations (the songs and how often they were played) at the various competitive radio stations. He said that he learned a lot about the business buy understanding why the songs were played at certain times and which ones were selected.
He left it at that. What I took from his story was that there is a science to the music rotation that is provided to the consuming public. Perhaps that too, is the reason why the songs are all in the same music rotation.
Here is another song that is easily on music rotation…
What you can find online…
I did a baidu search. There, I was able to find all sorts of fans singing popular Chinese songs. Ugh! So, so many. It’s a major hobby in China; singing and dancing. Like this chick (next). She is singing a selection of popular songs in China, and she’s not half bad. You go girrrl!
Do not freak out, this is a software player using flash. If you are having troubles or don’t want the hassle, just bypass this video…
Please take Note: If the embedded IQIY player is taking too long to load, one potential reason is that American USP’s have to go through the NSA. It’s for our “protection”, don’t ya know. Also, you have to accept the reality that IQIY directly competes with You-Tube and Netflix. As such, the player is a direct threat to the huge mega-monopolies in California. So Americans need to be “protected” both from the evils of the Internet, and dangerous non-American businesses out to make a buck.
In general, if you are dealing with American sites, in America, the process is rather quick. The USP’s send out the data in bursts that cycle in and out of the NSA approved servers faster than you can blink your eyelids. If however, you are using non-American websites, there will be a delay.
I used to be like most people. You might argue that is is due to transcontinental losses on the cables. However, but most cables have been replaced with fiber optics. And what that means today is that that particular excuse just doesn’t hold up “in court”…
Well, maybe it would in the 9th circus court.
Actually, and unfortunately, most of the lag is due to government “protections”. I like to think that is is the government’s way of keep my mail box free of spam. (BTW; if so, they are doing a pretty piss-poor job at it.) I like to think that the government is looking out for my best interests. You know, catching the “bad guys”, and saving the world for “democracy” (with a small “d”).
You all shouldn’t get too hot and bothered about this. The same is true with China. You do know that China is not connected to the internet, like the USA is? You do know this, right? China is one big…huge… enormous… intra-net. It’s an intranet. Thus, the Chinese government can control what access the citizens can have on internet content.
Just like America does. Only, um… they use other criteria than America does, for other reasons and other purposes.
The debate on what these other criteria are, and how they differ from the USA can (often) result in lively discussion. So for now, let’s just agree that both the USA and China polices the incoming internet traffic, and if anything is slow or difficult to load, you need to recognize that it is due to the nation (and their policies) where you live.
So just hold on. If it is still taking too long to load, you can skip the above mini-player and move to the next post. Lucky for youse guys, aside from the IQIY player, most of the embedded micro-videos are all on American servers. (Heh heh. I plan ahead.)
Now, I have one more micro-video that I want to include. There is a kitty-cat in it, and so I just cannot help myself. LOL. Who doesn’t like dogs, cats or pretty girls? Eh?
Now, of course, all of these videos are going to be impossible to load unless this post is broken up into smaller chew-sized portions. So to continue, please click here…
If you want to go back to the start of this series, please go HERE.
