Note (04AUG2025): A Chinese Sandwich
Chairman Xi finds himself like a piece of salami between two pieces of incompatible bread. One piece is his alliance with Russia, a former adversary of China. The other, his antagonism with these United States, a current adversary of China.
In foreign affairs, President Trump has positioned himself correctly regarding The What; namely, to pursue international respect not affection. Ah, but The How?
With his public bluster via Social Media bellowing about moving nuclear-armed submarines closer to Russia, he also moves Russo-American antagonism from a war of words towards a war of actions. He lubricates his war of actions with personally insulting, emotion-eliciting remarks about President Putin delivered in a tone of an authoritative father threatening a misbehaving child. All of this posturing comes in a context of Russia being more in the right than wrong in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
https://www.nationonfire.com/whose-war/ .
Where does the Russo-American antagonism over Ukraine place China? Domestically, Chairman Xi is fighting for his political if not biological life in an unfavorable economic context. In 2021, this commentator warned him of such a consequence of choosing Mao over Mussolini. He chose Mao.
https://www.nationonfire.com/xi__wrong/ .
A proposed visit to China by President Trump might alleviate Mr. Xi’s plight briefly, but Mr. Trump has given Mr. Putin only a few days to capitulate. No time for such a rescue. Apparently, Mr. Xi understands this dilemma and has tightened exporting controls over “rare-Earth minerals” as an economic slap in the face to Mr. Trump. Some warm relations! What about the disintegrating warm relations with Asian Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
A Chinese blockade or outright attack against Taiwan coördinated with a Russian attack against one or more Baltic states? Mr. Trump would face a three-front war. Of course, as fearsome deterrents we would have the pregnant girl-pilots in maternity-designed flight-suits flying the problematic, outrageously expensive F-35s against the Chinese J-20s. (Apologies to the truly brave, truly skilled, male pilots in the USAF, etc.) Truth be told, America hardly can fight a two-front war never mind a three-front one.
On the other hand, for his part were Mr. Xi to capitulate by severing the Chinese alliance with Russia, he would be rewarding Mr. Trump’s bombastic antics with a major, American victory. Likely, the end of Chairman Xi.
Such events can ignite a nuclear conflagration. Unthinkable? Think again! Remember the Japanese who ordered the ill-conceived, ill-executed attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Consequences? Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Arrgh! What’s a sandwiched, Chinese leader to do?
“The Pacific War was started by men who did not understand the sea and fought by men who did not understand the air.”-Japanese Commander Masatake Okumiya (1909-2007)
Are our leaders any better? Time will tell.
“What’s that flash? Why it’s a nuclear atta . . . .”
-End-
Is the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the brink of major change? Is the world on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe? Will war replace peace?
“Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. War is peace.” -paraphrasing George Orwell (1903-1950)
Such is the kind of seemingly backward logic embraced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a logic hidden in plain sight from the rest of the world for decades. All one needed to do, however, was to observe the actions of the CCP while ignoring its words. Begin by recalling the Korean Conflict, in which almost 40,000 American men died.
Freedom? There is little freedom under the repressive regime of the CCP even though it might claim to maintain a freedom that does not exist. Recall the massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Witness the plight of those in Hong Kong today with the CCP blatantly violating the Sino-British Treaty of 1984, thereby, crushing the freedom of the residents therein.
Knowledge leading towards understanding leading towards wisdom? Such is not the educational path offered by the CCP to most of its subjects. Indoctrination not education, indoctrination to promote subservience to a repressive regime. Ingrained in such indoctrination is the characterization of these United States as the Boogie Man.
Peace? What did the Godfather of Chinese Communism say about the means to political power?
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” – Mao Zedong (1893-1976)
Does such a statement reflect a peace-loving ideology? How has the CCP behaved with regard to peace?
Creating military bases on disputed shoals in the South China Sea while falsely claiming their development was for peaceful purposes. Threatening Taiwan/Formosa with geographical repatriation to the mainland when that island-nation never was part of China. Engaging in hostile acts against Filipino fishing boats in the South China Sea, to which Beijing claims sovereignty in its entirety. Deploying a so-called Belt & Road Initiative around the globe to control ports and other elements of physical infrastructure around the world including retaining some control over the Panama Canal despite the impending sale. Expanding the People’s Liberation Army, the military agent of the CCP, by leaps and bounds to challenge the hegemony enjoyed by these United States. Meanwhile, alternating talking peace and goodwill accompanied by a pleasant smile with, especially more recently, talking peace and accommodation accompanied by a fierce snarl.
Yes, it has been there for anyone to see, but the Free-World did not want to see. No, it preferred to be deceived. There would have been no financial profit in seeing; whereas, there was massive profit albeit temporary by choosing not to see. Such self-imposed blindness is nothing new.
“Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.” -Petronius (1st-century A.D.)
“It’s alive! It’s alive!” gasped a shocked Colin Clive in the 1931-movie, Frankenstein. As Dr. Frankenstein filled with hubris, he had resurrected a corpse to life and, thereby, created a monster. So, American capitalists filled with greed saved the life of a dying Communist China and, thereby, created a fierce enemy.
Until President Trump’s second term, this nation via the incompetent buffoons who controlled it did everything that it could to save a Communist China from itself. America took a moribund “Middle Kingdom” and gave it new life. Short-term gain for the American profiteers; long-term loss for the Free-World. Greed, one of the seven deadly sins. Ah, but behavior has its consequences sometimes disastrous.
“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” -Galatians VI:7
Structurally, however, the CCP must be given credit for its cunning and perseverance in conning its adversaries to assist it in raising China from a primitive backwater to a developed powerhouse in spectacularly short order. As China and the East were rising, these United States and the West were sinking. Such a spectacular rise requires decisive, competent leadership. The CCP provided that leadership in the person of one man, Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997).
Economically, Mr. Deng, revolutionary and political theorist, served as the paramount leader of the PRC from 1978 to 1989. He wore a pleasant mask of peace and good will to cover an unpleasant face underneath of war and ill will. Recall, it was he who ordered the massacre in Tiananmen Square. Previous to that infamy, coming to power, Deng realized that pure Communism was killing China and only a dose of American capitalism could save the CCP. Accordingly, he opened the Chinese economy around the margins to foreign investment provided the investors had Chinese partners to whom they forfeited critical, otherwise private, business-related information and technology. Eventually, the Chinese deployed that information and the profits gained thereby to displace the greedy but gullible foreign investors. Deng’s gambit was obvious, but only if the observer was willing to see it. Most American capitalists were not.
“Capitalists will sell us the rope on Friday with which we will hang them on Monday.” -attributed to Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)
Politically, credit must be given to the CCP itself for creating a limited term of five years for the presidency of its controlling group, the Politboro. Furthermore, an individual could serve only two terms. The limit blocked imposition of a “cult of personality” such as Josef Stalin (1878-1953) had imposed upon the now-erstwhile Soviet Union. A subsequent change in the Chinese constitution under pressure from its then-President, Xi Jinping (b. 1953) abolished that limit. The Princeling made himself President for Life. He resurrected the “cult of personality” and imposed it upon China. The CCP became the vehicle for him to control China and impose the “Chinese Model” onto the rest of the world.
One problem! The model was fatally flawed. Had he been able, Chairman Xi should have chosen Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) and Mussolini’s successful Fascism as his model not Mao Zedong and a failed Marxist socialism. Alas, times and context were against him. Today, Mr. Xi faces the inescapable consequences of his choice; consequences predicted years ago by this commentator.
On 27DEC2021, this commentator wrote a posting to Chinese President Xi on this website. The posting addressed Xi’s choice between Mao and Mussolini and his choosing Mao. Did Americans take notice? No. Did Chinese take notice? Yes.
Since that posting, Mr. Xi has used Mao as an excuse to consolidate his personal power, purging even high level members of the military. Meanwhile, of late China has begun deteriorating and fragmenting. Xi has enemies. This commentator warned him in 2021 that he likely would fail and that the powers-that-be would skewer him, politically if not biologically. That prediction may be coming true.
Even be Xi gone, do not expect ambitions among members of the CCP to change. Their route may change, but their destination will remain the same. Chinese global hegemony to replace that of these United States.
Will they win? Given current long-range trends, the answer may be yes. American mistakes towards China began with Truman and never stopped; accelerated by the buffoon, Clinton. Now, Trump or no Trump, we Americans shall pay a steep price unless we reform our system along scientific lines as described in the novel, Retribution Fever. Most Americans will resist. No guidelines from the Scientific Method. No specificity. No objectivity. No accountability. Persist in plodding the Path to Perdition.
“But man has still another powerful resource: natural science with its strictly objective methods.” -Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
A scientific remedy for our ills is available. Yes, like surgery it will be painful; however, it will propel America beyond slogans and actually make America great again. Most Americans, nevertheless, actively will resist undergoing the painful transformation until, as is the case with hemorrhoids, not undergoing the procedure will be more painful than undergoing it.
When will the transformation occur? Should it occur, the Chinese believe that it will be too late for Americans to save themselves from their self-imposed self-destruction. Years ago, members of the CCP decided that America was in a state of terminal decline. Thus, far, that assessment seems correct. So, can a President who labels himself the “King of Debt”, whose commercial ventures suffered six bankruptcies, and whose first term left his country substantially more in deeply in debt than he had found it despite his promise to the contrary redirect America onto the Route to Resurrection? The Chinese think not.
Another fact that most Americans refuse to see. The energy of the CCP is derived less from Karl Marx (1818-1883) and his misguided political theory and more from the Chinese belief in their racial superiority. Problem for us Americans! They largely are correct.
We Americans as a group often deny reality. We reject, for example, the biological in favor of the sociological despite biology accounting for 70% of the variance in behavior. Be advised, there are critical, biological differences among the races and sub-races way beyond the color of the skin. We play a highly risky game when we deny such reality. The fact is that any nation denying such fundamental realities dooms itself to a dismal destiny.
Ask yourself, What differentiates humans from all other forms of life? Two characteristics. Firstly, an opposing thumb and forefinger allowing expansive, prehensile manipulation, thereby, promoting expansion of our intellect. Secondly, a large, encephalized brain allowing recognition of our own existence and recognition of the cosmos that surrounds us.
As groups, different races have differing intellects. Other than Ashkenazi Jews, Northeastern Orientals are at the top, especially in visual-motor skills. Euro-Caucasians excel at auditory skills and may be more inclined to seek novelty, thereby, being more inventive. Americans strenuously deny these realities. The Chinese promote them.
Furthermore, to date the Chinese have promoted construction of the traditional, familial structure and, thereby, offering a strong, kinship-based, social system. Of late, Occidental societies have promoted destruction of the traditional, familial structure, offering moral decay with a weak, chaotic, social system in its place. Such is an inescapable consequence of the democracy into which those Occidental societies have devolved.
Contrary to the swill spewed by its Media, America did not begin as a democracy. It was founded as a democratic republic. There is a difference. In fact, to the Founding Fathers, the word, democracy, was an obscenity. One inescapable consequence of democracy is the moral decay of licentiousness, now widespread in the Occidental world. It is a consequence recognized long ago by our Founding Fathers.
“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness, which the ambitious call and the ignorant believe to be liberty.” -Fisher Ames (1758-1808)
As America has devolved into a licentious, maternalistic, matriarchal democracy, the accompanying moral decay has destroyed traditional, Occidental virtues — not ephemeral “values” but lasting virtues as described in Judeo-Christian dogma. Such decay has rotted the foundation upon which the nation originally came into being. Collectivism, for example, has replaced individualism. The welfare-state operated by an oppressive, administrative bureaucracy in the District of Corruption now punishes the productive via the income-tax and rewards the unproductive via “entitlements”.
One other fact. The CCP may not need to destroy us Americans militarily. We are destroying ourselves economically via the black hole of deep debt. Given our moral decay, changing the Constitution or passing legislation will not recover the nation from the spiral of death that we purposely and joyfully entered. We were warned long ago.
“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” -Samuel Adams (1722-1803); essay in The Public Advertiser, c. 1749
Curiously, the Chinese may have become infected by their own brand of moral decay as evidenced by the government legitimizing homosexual “partnerships” in Hong Kong. Homosexuality represents a clear and present threat to the traditional, familial structure that has provided immense strength and durability to Chinese society. If moral decay is its choice, China shall have entered a race to the bottom with the Occidental world.
There is a consequence attached to promoting a variety self-proclaimed, arbitrary standards of human conduct, standards that shift capriciously to reflect momentary whims. The consequence is anarchy, which carries a heavy social cost. Although initially derived from studying flow of traffic, Braess’s Paradox [named after its author, mathematician Dietrich Braess (b. 1938)] describes the heavy cost to a system of related events uncoördinated by a common standard such as a code of absolute moral standards applied to a social system — costs even to inanimate systems like electrical networks. -from the novel, Retribution Fever
The fabric that binds together a society need not be theological. It can be political or just racial as it has been in China. Communism with its punishment of dissent further binds together via negative control an already relatively racially homogeneous society. That binding, especially racial, affords China an advantage in its war with these United States, and a war it is.
Since the 1960’s, America has prized racial diversity. Mistake! Diversity is death with each societal faction at odds with every other. Witness Canada and the age-old tension between Francophile Quebec and the Anglophile rest of the provinces.
Aggravating an already problematic, American demographic is the aforementioned loss of that which sociologically bound together Euro-Caucasians; namely, morality based upon Judeo-Christian dogma. The loss is the consequence of America and other Occidental nations having devolved into maternalistic matriarchies. In the history of mankind, there never has been a successful matriarchal society of importance. We are demonstrating why.
So, to maintain power and to wage war in the guise of peace the CCP must cling to that which binds together its 1.4-billion subjects, race and Communism. At the moment, however, the CCP faces a dangerous challenge. What will Chairman Xi do and how far will he go to cling to the power that he has amassed for himself but may be on the brink of losing? Blockade Taiwan? Invade Taiwan? Bomb Guam? What would be the response of the self-hobbled United States? Strenuous complaint? Conventional warfare? Nuclear warfare?
President Trump likely has discussed the issue with his advisors; but, given his flighty nature, even he might not know the answer. Where does such uncertainty leave Mr. Xi? Where does it leave his enemies within the CCP?
Alarmingly, a power-hungry Mr. Xi retains the power to end all terrestrial, aerobic life on Earth. How will he use it? Wisely and well or unwisely and unwell? Ultimately, his enemies not his allies may determine his fate, the fate of China, and the fate of the rest of the world. May they choose wisely and choose well.
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” -Albert Einstein (1879-1955)