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Will Justice Be Served Eventually?Mainstream Media and Organic Views

5/27/2023

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Dr. Wordman
 
President Biden has nearly 50 years of political life, with his experience he is a master of American democracy and hegemony ideology to the point addictive to Cold War mentality. Although Biden was not born into an established political family, he has devoted himself to political services early on in life after graduating from college in Delaware, from local town to state to federal serving as a Senator for decades then as Obama’s Vice President expecting to become the president. Unfortunately, he had an ambitious competitor, Hillary Clinton, in the Democratic Party and a surprising dark horse, Donald Trump, in the Republican Party contending for the presidency in 2016. He yielded to Hillary and Hillary lost to Trump. Trump did not cooperate with any of the establishment and formed his somewhat mismatched team heavily influenced by ‘anti-communist’, ‘hawkish right’, and ‘America first’ personalities. Trump liked to act alone hence driving U.S. diplomacy into entirely unilateral decision affairs alienating U.S. Allies. Then a world corona virus pandemic erupted, and the U.S. suffered the highest death toll and its consequential economic impact. These events cost Trump’s second term; Trump lost to Biden narrowly with a few states (electoral votes). Trump was unwilling to accept defeat, thus challenging election irregularity, encouraging protests and planning his 2024 come back. Biden, on the other hand, was attacking Trump with all ammunition, including Trump’s scandals, tax return investigation, mishandling of top-secret documents and linking Trump with the Capitol protest, all for the purpose of putting Trump in jail.
 
It is interesting to review the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. The first one was a surprise win for Trump due to an internal struggle within the Democratic Party. Hillary was a strong character and electing a woman president seemed to be a hot objective in the Democratic Party. Hence, Hillary was able to edge Biden out of the game. Biden’s second son, Hunter’s improper behavior (drugs, discharge from military service, corruption, and relation with Ukraine energy corporations involving Biden as VP in the White House) might have contributed to Biden’s yield to Hillary. But Hillary’s loss to Trump could be traced to Hillary’s over-zealous actions trying to beat Trump (including planting evidence to show a Trump-Putin tie). Trump was able to unite the base population, including some of the independents to defeat the establishment carried by Obama-Hillary-Biden. Reviewing the 2020 presidential election, Biden won narrowly. Trump was unlucky (pandemic and economic impact) and practiced strong-handed diplomacy (trade tariffs and tough negotiations) which cost him media support. Trump had no control over domestic and international media, democrats could use media to challenge Trump, for example, Congress’ impeachment against him. Hunter Biden’s affairs were raised again in the 2020 presidential contest, but Biden managed to brush the matter away saying he is removed from Hunter’s affairs. Thus, Biden’s narrow win could be attributed to Trump’s bad luck and bad manners.
 
After Biden won the 2020 presidential election, he fully organized his team with the personnel left from the establishment crew from the Obama-Biden era. However, Biden’s team seems to have no new idea, basically continuing a selfish America-Interest-First diplomacy except leveraging up many American Allies to rival Russia and China. Contrasting the gradual weakening of the U.S. economy and the fast rise of China”s development, Biden’s China policy has been set more vicious and broad-ranged than Trump’s anti-China measures. Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State when Biden was Vice President, was promoted to the Secretary of State. Blinken is extremely loyal to Biden fully supporting his foreign policy. But Biden was schooled and deeply influenced by the Cold War mentality seemingly unable to assess and adopt the fast-changing economico-politico dynamics of the world. Hence, the Biden-Blinker foreign policy seemed to be more busy work than real accomplishments. They have created more alliances (such as AUKUS and QUAD+) but are unsure of their effectiveness. The U.S. using NATO provoked the Russian-Ukraine war, but its consequences were not beneficial to anyone. The U.S. may have profited a little from the sale of natural gas to the EU, but it has no idea of how to end the conflict never mind how to restore Ukraine. The U.S. launched the Indo-Pacific strategy against China, but it looks like its allies are more interested in getting weapon technology than serving as U.S. surrogate war agents fighting China. Recently so many world leaders rushed to visit China, Saudi and Iran established diplomatic relations due to China’s mediation and China proposed a sensible twelve-point peace plan for solving the Russia-Ukraine war. All these have made world leaders think twice about taking sides in the U.S.-China rivalry. EU, South American, and South-East Asian countries began to realize the pitfalls of severing economic ties with China. Blinken’s futile effort trying to open the door to visit China has aroused Americans' doubts about his ability. As a typical political phenomenon in American politics, once media started a breeze, the wind takes shape gaining momentum. Blinken’s days may be numbered if the Hunter-Blinken-Biden fiasco continues to flare in the media.
 
When Biden was the U.S. VP, Hunter Biden served as a board director for a Ukraine energy company, not only receiving generous compensation but also accepting large sums of payoffs from his business associates. Hunter has brought his foreign business associates to the West Wing of the White House to meet VP Biden. It is hard to say that VP Biden was not used or engaged in some lobbying or favor exchange affairs. Blinken had testified that Biden was unaware of Hunter’s foreign dealings but that turned out to be untrue. This new evidence would put Hunter, Blinken, and Biden all together concerning national security, corruption, lies, and misuse of authority. Since these questionable activities involved Biden and the White House, their impact on the 2024 presidential election is unavoidable. Now Biden has announced to seek a second term and Trump has been full speed forward in campaigning. Looking forward, we expect to hear besides the debate on each candidate’s presidential accomplishment, also the clearance of each’s improper behavior - to be examined on the balance for Justice. Will Hunter-Blinken-Biden escape the serious scrutiny by the American Justice system or not will be the drama for all Americans to watch! Will Justice be served eventually?
 



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Time Publishes Why China Won’t Invade Taiwan Any Time Soon

5/20/2023

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Dr. Wordman

The simple answer to the title question is that the U.S. wishes that China will never do so since the U.S. can’t afford to get really involved in a Taiwan Strait war. The U.S. also doesn’t know how to get out of the trap it has set for China but turning out to be a molasses malaise for itself. To keep Taiwan in an ambiguous state to provoke China diplomatically might have been a plausible Taiwan policy when Taiwan’s economy is faring better than mainland China and the Taiwan government is moving out of a military (Marshall law) rule to a ‘one person-one vote’ government system. As decades passed by, mainland China had become the world’s second-largest economy making Taiwan’s economy dependent on trade with the Mainland China. This situation is bucking against Taiwan’s pro-U.S. government’s focus on brainwashing its citizens with an Ill-based ideology - denying Taiwan as a part of China historically and ethnically. Several decades of democracy has also revealed many problems.

An anti-China Taiwan government is what the U.S. wanted but feared at the same time. The U.S. always felt that Taiwan could be used as a diplomatic pawn against China, but Taiwan could also trigger an unwanted war with China if its anti-China tactics got out of hand. This dilemma has become more difficult to handle as China continues to grow faster than the U.S. making the U.S. fearful of China as a competitor in many domains. The U.S. adopted hawkish strategy and launched economic and technological sanctions against China stretching from trade, communication, semiconductor, biotechnology, and space research to artificial intelligence and military weaponry to curtail China’s advances. But the prospect is grim, not only the U.S. can’t rival China alone, it may also not be able to stop China’s growth momentum even with all its Allies. Like Ukraine, Taiwan is not a formal ally of the U.S., and the Taiwan Strait confrontation, a Chinese internal conflict, gives no more legitimate reason for outsiders to intervene like (NATO to Ukraine). If Mainland China would invade Taiwan with any big or small justification, the U.S. and its Allies would have no legal cause to intervene. Any interference would be very costly.

Ian Bremmer's article, Why China Won’t Invade Taiwan Anytime Soon (Time 4-12-2023), appears to reflect his position as Foreign Affairs Columnist and an Editor-at-large at Time, both magazines have begun to moderate their anti-China tone recently as China fully relaxed its COVID test and quarantine requirement and opened its borders for visitors. It is quite apparent that despite U.S. economic and technology sanctions against her, China will be the economic engine of the world. Bremmer acknowledges the seriousness of the heavy-duty military exercises China launched in response to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last Summer and Tsai Ying Wen’s meeting with U.S. Speaker McCarthy in Los Angeles, in April 2023, but he offered several points to support his article.

First, he argues that China’s military response to the Tsai-McCarthy meeting is less serious than that responding to the Pelosi-Tsai meeting. PRC values those opportunities to hold exercises and to conduct war practice as Bremmer pointed out, he did not highlight that those exercises established the de-facto right for PRC navy and air force to enter beyond the middle line. Second, China would value its ability to influence Taiwan’s voters in the 2023 and 2024 elections. Third, Bremmer claims that Xi is more interested or preoccupied with his larger role on the international stages, such as his 12-point peace plan for stopping the Russian-Ukraine war, brokering a diplomatic relation between Saudi Arabia and Iran and welcoming international leaders such as French president Macron to visit and support China.

This author tends to agree with the above points but will disagree with Bremmer’s fourth point that Putin’s Ukraine war would give China an example of a humiliating war that will deter China’s desire to invade Taiwan. In this author’s opinion, the Russia-Ukraine war is a valuable lesson, but China would have learned enough from it to be able to launch a successful take-over of Taiwan in a few weeks if not in a few days. Judging by the capabilities of the PRC army, navy and air force, taking over Taiwan by force is not a problem but a cost vs benefit issue especially considering the feelings of the people in Taiwan. To expect a harmonious one country-two system governance, peaceful unification is always desired. This is the Chinese leader’s logic but it is not in the U.S. leader’s mind as exhibited by U.S. invasions into Afghanistan or Iraq or suggestion to arm all civilians in Taiwan. Therefore, the reason why China won't invade Taiwan anytime soon is that China or would rather be patient for peaceful reunification. China's warm reception of Ma Ying-Jiu's mainland visit gives a clear clue.

Bremmer also argues that Taiwan’s domination in the manufacturing of semiconductor chips would deter China to use force to take over Taiwan. This indeed is the U.S. Administration’s logic and strategy; hence Biden’s Administration is trying to lure foreign chip manufacturers to move to the U.S. However, this strategy would work better for China since it had both the chip market and industry supply chain to support semiconductor manufacturing. If the U.S. and China were to compete in semiconductor production with the same strategy, the chance of success will favor China not the U.S. simply based on a cost analysis from market size (demand point of view) as well as resource aspect (human and capital). Moving facilities and people from Taiwan to Mainland are much simpler and safer for corporations, employees and families with better future prospects. Political Ideology had little to do with economic globalization; that is why there are more than two million people from Taiwan now working and living in Mainland China.

Bremmer concludes that China will not invade Taiwan any time soon. He asserts that war will not be triggered by diplomatic provocation, if happens it will be determined by leaders. This conclusion is somewhat illogical as if diplomatic provocations were never made by leaders. If we examine just the Trump and Biden Administrations, this author believes that nearly all diplomatic provocations were made or ordered by leaders. When we, citizens, select our leaders, whether it is by one person one vote method, or any other method, we must understand the leaders. We must ask the logical questions, for instance, is it logical to use national security (military dependence on a few types of semiconductor chips) to destroy an efficient globalized giant semiconductor industry? Does our military industry depend on nano-meter technology the same way as our commerce products depend on it? Did our government do the necessary homework to understand the consequence of economic loss (to the entire world including the U.S.) when we use national security to ban Huawei or to limit TikTok? We cannot simply accept some hawkish voices. We must demand more analyses and data to support the right decisions.


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Nothing Wrong with America First But

5/13/2023

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Dr. Wordman
 
Kissinger once said: "The United States has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests." This sentence shows that the U.S. is an extremely selfish country. We can find ample evidence to prove it. The U.S. did not join in the two world wars for a long time, instead, it tried its best to do business to make war profits. The recent Russo-Ukrainian war can also show the U.S. benefiting from the war, such as using loans to aid arms and sanctioning anyone trading with Russia. The U.S. sold its natural gas to the EU at a high price than US domestic price. However, if you think about it calmly, there is nothing wrong with prioritizing one’s national interest above other’s. Every country should put its own interests first. The problem is that what a government or government officials define as the interests of the country may not be the real interest of the people. Citizens must use their heads to understand the national interests rather than accepting them blindly.
 
For example, is it correct for the U.S. to ban Huawei's 5G technology equipment on national security grounds? Even civilian use is completely banned, is it reasonable? The U.S. fabricated a story that Huawei servers have backdoors, allowing the enemy to obtain intelligence, hence not safe. However, several countries said that Huawei’s communication equipments were inspected and proven to have no backdoors, a slap on the U.S. face. Nevertheless, the U.S. still blanketly sanctioned Huawei and asked its allies to follow suit. But the truth is that the real consideration of the U.S. is based on its strategic assumption, not facts. From the American hegemonic mentality point of view, the rising China is an enemy, who must be suppressed. Huawei is a successful Chinese company, especially in communication domains. The U.S. is worried that once it goes to war with China, the supply of communication products and the various spare parts needed will make the U.S. vulnerable.  The U.S. military having this kind of consideration is nothing wrong and understandable. However, in front of the axiom of free and fair competition, the U.S. will lose face to say that it cannot compete with Huawei. So, it takes out the big hat of national security to ban and suppress all Huawei products, knowing Huawei is a successful civilian Chinese company.
 
Similarly, is treating the semiconductor supply chain as a political problem justified? Of course not! Semiconductor products have a wide range of applications, and they are basic building components in various domains, people's livelihood goods, commerce, industry, military, and even space. Under the principle of free trade, the global semiconductor industry has grown vigorously in decades, from upstream design, midstream raw material supply, and product manufacturing to downstream finished product delivery, processing, assembly, application and marketing, forming a mature structure. The semiconductor industry and its entire supply chain are major pilars of the global economy. In this environment, China mostly operates in downstream because of its market demand, and its upstream and midstream needs are dependent on the supply from other places. Like suppressing Huawei, the U.S. has launched comprehensive sanctions against China on semiconductors, totally disregarding the concept of a free global economy, prohibiting the supply of semiconductor to China, chips, raw materials, technologies, products, etc. In this semiconductor war, the hegemonic mentality of the U.S. is even more obvious and arrogant. Threats and lures are used to force the world's semiconductor industry not only to comply with the U.S. sanctions, but also to require its leading companies to move their factories to the U.S. Its purpose is to make the U.S. the leader of the semiconductor industry, monopolizing and controlling the entire industry supply chain, preventing China's industrial development, and returning China to a struggling developing country status. Again, there is nothing wrong with the U.S. wanting to be strong and leading, but its bullying and unacceptable use of dirty tricks to cripple competitors in a free trade and fair competition is a hegemonic behavior.
 
The United States is the most powerful country in the world. From its growth experience, we can understand the reasons why it has become a powerful nation. The two world wars contributed to the United States' ability to dominate the world. After World War II, the U.S. became the strongest nation in the world, having the conditions to lead the world. Since the founding of the United Nations, the U.S. has been committed to participating in international affairs and guiding international relations as a leader. It also has proposed some reasonable rules and values for promoting international cooperation. Under the banner of advocating people's democracy and freedom, the U.S. supports the operation of the U.N. and leads the formulation of rules, although the interests of the U.S. were always put on priority. This behavior is understandable and acceptable when it generously supports the U.N,and assists the small countries. When China was still a poor and developing country, it was learning from the most powerful U.S. China was developing its country under the rules of global cooperation, faithfully adhering to the UN charters. It is undeniable that China was once a beneficiary country in the UN, but it is also undeniable that China’s rise is due to its own effort, diligence and hard work of its entire people, and the effective governance of the country's leadership. In half a century, China has risen to be the number two economy in the world. China is then required to assume more responsibility as a major country with the obligation to help others, but at the same time, China was required to yield to the hegemonic behavior of the U.S. As the second largest economy, China’s GDP is approaching that of the U.S. The U.S. feels threatened and finds that it cannot unilaterally control the formulation of world economic rules and order. Unfortunately, the U.S, seems to have given up the U.N. and tried to justify taking the road of hegemony with its power. The examples mentioned above prove that the U.S. has changed. It can even be said that the U.S. has torn off its hypocritical mask, and put on a hegemonic face practicing placing the U.S. interests first by all means.
 
History has given us many valuable experiences and lessons. Hegemony will eventually fail. Hegemony depends on military power. Judging from the examples of the German Nazis and Japanese imperialists, control by military power is short-lived. It is impossible for the people to accept military rule for a long time. This is true in one country, and even more so in the  international community. What's more, in today's situation where many countries possess destructive nuclear weapons, hegemony can only lead to the destruction of all mankind. It is understandable for any country to put its own interests first, but it must be applied under the principle of 王道, a gentle acceptable governance.霸道 (forceful military way) may be represented by a single word, hegemony, in English, then 王道 is anti-hegemony. There are many examples of anti-hegemony dynasties in Chinese history, as well as many philosophies and theories of anti-hegemony. The reason why the Chinese nation has become the largest population in the world to survive and multiply in thousands of years is that it has developed the genes of inclusiveness, not exclusiveness ('You or I' mentality). In the West, influenced by religious thinking, there is only one God, my God, never your God. Thus, between people and between nations, the exclusiveness mentality prevails, and the inclusiveness philosophy was lost. Therefore, it is wrong thinking for the U.S. to regard China as an enemy. We should understand Chinese history, Chinese culture, and Chinese national characters, what is 王道? Anti-hegemony? Why do China and its people talk about 世界大同(harmonious world or world unity) and 人類命運共同體 (common destiny of mankind)? To have you without me or to have me without you will only lead to a divisive world eventually leading to the destruction of mankind. Does it matter who wins then? Only peaceful coexistence, fair competition, inclusiveness with mutual benefit, and common prosperity will bring humans a bright future.

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