My upbringing, world travels, and being married to a woman born and raised in a foreign country who holds to a worldview and culture radically rooted in Christendom ideals compared to my American liberal views, would make any accusation of this paper seeming xenophobic comical, especially coming from one who has an unlearned third eye. Why? These next two papers will be on the Chinese and Russian political worldviews against those of the west. I want all my pynk elephants and new readers to understand, from the bottom of my heart and the depths of my soul, I Petyr Guinea, am not xenophobic, nor is there in my mynd or heart to dislike, hate a people or culture which is different than what I’m accustomed. Therefore, I want to make this very clear, I do not hate or dislike Chinese or Russian people. What I deeply dislike or even hate is Socialism/ Communism and any modern-age ideals that have a hint of these two political thoughts.
The ideology rooted in the “noble” thought of helping the common man has been for the past century plus detached from reality. Under Joseph Stalin’s regime, more than 22 million of his people died,1 under Mao Tse Tung’s regime, 70 million people.2 Just in Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” idea to move his country ahead, 38 out of those 70 million deaths happened in the span of four years.3 (1958-62.) The practices of Communism throughout Latin America have also been horrific but, I will not get into that as this paper is on the Gathering threat from the east: China. For the most part, China has been rising since the lending help of the late dictator Joseph Stalin to then a young Mao Tse Tung4 who utilize the financial assistance to fight for the party of the common people of his nation of the time.5 What placed China on the world map was WWII, as the Japanese invaded China and with the adherence of Stalin and the United States, Mao Tse Tung had to join forces with his enemy of the land, General Chiang Kai-Shek.6 But as a cunning fox and ferocious as a lion (Mao was a student of the Machiavellian code), he renders lip service to fight the Japanese while subtly fighting the general behind the public scene. As WWII wrapped up, the Allies won the war, reorganized world affairs, and the iron curtain closed to the west as it began to reorganize its mission after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt: to conquer the world through the ideals of Communism.7
One can believe it was an ambitious desire, but what the western countries and the United States could not foresee was the gathering threat from the backward Nation of China. To them, China was a pawn in the grandioso geopolitical game of chess. With the usage of the atomic bomb upon the Japanese people,8 Stalin understood the United States would eventually police the world, and open all countries to the ideals of democracy, their trade resources, and aiding them through NATO to one day fight against the USSR.9 To subvert the United States, Stalin began to fund arms to North Korea as the northern Koreans desired to conquer the southern Koreans.10 Understanding the threat of Communism, the United States began to aid the South Koreans, which led to the war of Korea of 1950-53, in which was the United States fighting the USSR behind the scenes. North Korea was the white pieces of the chess board for Russia as the Americans, South Korea joined forces as the black pieces. It was during this war Stalin through Mao, provided weapons, soldiers, and financial aid to the late dictator, Kim II-Sung.11 It was through the CCP that North Korea was able to fight against the Americans, even threatening them to invade China, baiting the Americans to invoke Russia to join the war,12 which would lead to the fear all the world dreaded: The usage of atomic weapons. But the president of that age, President Eisenhower, understood the consequences, pulled the Americans off, and gave the win to the North Koreans via an armistice on July 27, 1953.13
In my opinion, understanding this small introduction for my fellow Pynk Elephants and new readers, the present rise of China as they work with Russia to carve the world to their liking will make sense as you watch world events unfold.
Understanding the Past
Under the Qing Dynasty, China was backward in the mid-19th century, having an unfair advantage as they warred against Russia and the Europeans. It was known as the Opioid War, which the Chinese lost. Tsar Alexander II used his military force alongside European powers to take land from China as the British ended up with Hong Kong and the Qing Dynasty signed treaties, giving up other portions of land to Russia known as the Amur Annexation.14 Then, in the mid-20th century after WWII, Mao Tse Tung signed a treaty with Joseph Stalin in 1945 -The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance & Mutual Assistance. This treaty took its course in 1950,15 and being a friendship/Alliance treaty, it was to last for 30 years. This treaty gave Mao the needed muscle after he took the sole power of China by defeating the General, to reconquer the pacific islands taken by the allies which were given to Japan.16 But one Island Mao desired above all was Taiwan. Why? Simply put, it was where all the enemies of Mao fled, including his mortal enemy, General Chiang Kai-Shek.17 His desire -as it was proven through his lifetime- was to kill all his enemies, no matter the cost.
(Although Mao has long gone passed, the obsession the CCP has with Taiwan now is because it has become a cash cow thanks to the markets being heavily open to western powers. The plethora of technology companies that the CCP desires to possess would be to utilize the trade secrets to advance not only their own markets technologies but, their military might.)
Most Favored Nation (Treaty)
Fortunately, Joseph Stalin disapproved of Mao’s desire to conquer the pacific Islands after the Korean War of 1953, which halted Mao’s conquest. But the most fortunate event was the death of Stalin on March 5, 1953, which left Mao in a quagmire. Without military funding from Stalin and financial aid from the west, Mao had to find a way to befriend the new USSR Secretary General Nikita Khrushchev, who took over with a new paradigm of ideals to perhaps work alongside the west. What was horrific for Mao Tse Tung was the infamous “secret” speech given by Khrushchev in the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party on Feb 24, 1956, titled, “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences.”18 This was horrific for Mao because the Iron Curtain pulled back on the works of Stalin, his barbarianism, and the lust after power, which killed away those who opposed him by titling them, enemies. For Mao, it was a wake-up call to believe his own Politburo would perhaps do that to him eventually while he was alive. Mao went into a campaign of revolutionizing China, birthing the evilest act of cancel culture known to man: The Culture Revolution. It was through the cultural revolution Mao killed off policymakers, his friends & associates19 who rose alongside him as he took power in 1950, citizens, professors who questioned his authority as he gave way to children to kill off their parents, and students’ leeway to conduct killing sprees, and destruction of Chinese culture that went against the progress of Mao Tse Tung’s new change.20.
As the Culture Revolution started in 1966 and ended until his death (1976), the act being unknown to the west, Mao -who revamped his image- opened the CCP to the west.21 President Nixon was the first American President to visit China, and after meeting with Mao Tse Tung, The Nixon Administration opened the door for trade with the famous sleeping dragon, birthing the famous treaty placing China as a global competitor in the 21st Century: The Treaty of The Most Favored Nation.22The treaty opened China to the U.S. for trades of goods & services but also led to loans pouring into China after the death of Mao until our present day from The World Bank Organization (WBO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and course, the United States.23 The treaty remains intact and remains permanent, thanks to the Clinton Administration as the Senate passed it on September 19, 2000, paving the way for China into the World Trade Organization.24
(It was President Trump who began to place Tariffs on China’s goods & services; a whole different topic, but an interesting one nonetheless.) With China being accepted into the World Trade Organization, China began to rise as a potential global power, and not only was its goods and services cheaper to be produced in China,25 but because the cost of production maintains being cheap, it had a major ripple effect through the Asian hemisphere. China’s devaluation of its currency to lower the cost of production made it way more affordable for the west to seek China’s goods & services over other countries in the east.26 Asian countries have been very vocal about this, as the living standard of their people suffers while China flourishes. Yet, China’s devaluing of their currency gave them access to accept hard currency (The world reserve currency being the U.S Dollar) to purchase goods not only from the United States but also from those western and eastern nations that sell military equipment.27
In the present day, the CCP military is one of the strongest in the east. Not by only purchasing military weapons from the west and eastern nations (Russia for example), but by also maintaining a flourishing economy as their currency devaluation keeps costs amply cheap, affordable compared to the average means of a poverty-stricken westerner, but able to maintain a standard of living higher than those in other eastern Asian countries in the eastern hemisphere.28
Part I. Conclusion.
The fear the world should have about the CCP’s rise is its desire to conquer the world with its ideology of communism. The CCP believes deeply they are the heirs to guide the modern world into a new age of peace,29 and with Russia at their side, it won’t be long when the bear and dragon join forces to fight not only European countries into submission monetary first but eventually physically.30(Ukraine is the first example we are witnessing.) I believe as a Pynk Elephant, a Thynker, and an avid seeker of truth, we must understand those who have been wronged, those who seek change but also understand the geopolitical climate of change in our current world affairs to understand what the future holds. In Part II, I will focus on how the bear and dragon uniting can lead to global domination as the west can only look on.
Thynk Pynk!
Endnotes
1) Volkogonov, Dmitri. The First Glasnost Biography Stalin: Triumph & Tragedy(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited, 1991) 524.
2) Chang, Jung, Halliday, Jon. The Unknown Story: Mao (New York: Anchor Books, 2006) 3.
3) Ibid, 430.
4) Ibid, 40, 61, 62.
5) Ibid, 177-8, 205.
6) Ibid, 180, 197-8, 199, 218.
7) Menges, C. Constantine, PH.D. China: The Gathering Threat (Nashville: Nelson Current, 2005) 23.
8) Volkogonov, Dmitri. The First Glasnost Biography Stalin: Triumph & Tragedy(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited, 1991) 498, 530-1.
9) Kissinger, Henry. Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) 405, 427, 453, 456, 466.
10) Chang, Jung, Halliday, Jon. The Unknown Story: Mao (New York: Anchor Books, 2006) 351-8.
11) Ibid, 354-6, 359.
12) Ibid, 361-5.
13) Ibid, 371.
14) Menges, C. Constantine, PH.D. China: The Gathering Threat (Nashville: Nelson Current, 2005) 21.
15) Ibid, 28-9.
16) Ibid, 294-9.
17) Ibid, 28, 38.
18) Chang, Jung, Halliday, Jon. The Unknown Story: Mao (New York: Anchor Books, 2006) 392.
19) Ibid, 469, 500, 504.
20) Ibid, 505-9.
21) Menges, C. Constantine, PH.D. China: The Gathering Threat (Nashville: Nelson Current, 2005) 77-81.
22) Ibid, 88.
23) Ibid, 88, 117-8.
24) Ibid, 124-5, 144, 150.
25) Ibid, 81, 84-5.
26) Ibid, 85-8, 154, 370-1.
27) Ibid, 319, 320-2, 370, 394.
28) Ibid, 104-5.
29) Ibid, 415-7.
30) Ibid, 434.