关系 Bo Xilai might just have the Guanxi

We had a three day lull there during which Bo Xilai disappeared from the public eye and, with both he and the Mayor of Chongqing, Huang Qifan, missing an important city work conference on Thursday, speculation as to their both  being arrested was rife.

However, the latest news to come out of China is that on Friday he turned up to meet a Vietnamese Communist Party official in Chonqging, and, in stressing the importance of party cadres staying clean even in a corrupt environment, made his first public attempt at distancing himself from Wang Lijun.

Moreover, the fact that Bo is continuing to make public appearances would appear to suggest that the Beijing leadership has already drawn a line between Bo and Wang, even if it is no secret that both Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao neither supported Bo's red culture and anti-vice campaign, nor viewed the flamboyant Bo as a suitable candidate for the Standing Committee with its emphasis on collective leadership.

Of course, with Bo sending the Chongqing Mayor, Huang Qifan , and over 70 police cars all the way from Chongqing to Chengdu to blockade the US consulate and with those police then challenging the Chinese national security for the custody of Wang, there is at least an indication that Bo has something to hide. Therefore, we might ask the question why, at least for the time being, does he appear to be safe?

The simple reason being suggested is that Bejing is not ready to make its move with it being argued that, should Bo be forced to retire before the 18th Party Congress the party will be embarrassed before the all-important transition of power. There might be some truth in that. However, more importantly, there is very real evidence that as long as Bo remains in his power base in South West, where he has both popular support and support within elements the military, he is safe. Indeed, what can Beijing actually do at the moment?

Furthermore, there is a third very important factor that is tied to the support that Bo has within the PLA. In a country where "guangxi", the Chinese equivalent of the "old school tie", is all important, he is one of China's so-called princelings, the offspring of the communist party elite. Moreover, while neither Hu Jintao, nor Wen Jiabao belong, strictly speaking, to this group, Hu JIntao's designated successor Xi Jinping does and it is believed that there is already an informal alliance between him and the other princelings who are candidates for promotion.

Finally, while alliances such as this haven't always counted for much in China, what we now see is a situation where Bo's son, Bo Guagua, is at Harvard where he has a relationship with Chen Xiaodan, the daughter of second-generation princeling Chen Yuan, the head of China Development Bank, .... and guess who else is there ....... Xi Jinping's daughter Xi Mingze. The evidence would appear to suggest that, in today's China, it is not what you know, or even what you have done, but rather who you know and if Bo Xilai can keep out of Hu Jintao's clutches ..... This story is beginning to get interesting.

Bo Xilai in trouble

It was interesting to read the 'New York Times' reporting Bo Xilai, the CCP Secretary in Chongqing. as a contender for the Standing Committee of the party’s Politburo and as "the closest China has to a Western-style politician." Well, with lawsuits for serious human rights abuses being filed against him in more than ten countries and with him beig accused of embezzlement, it might just be that he is indeed quite close to a number of Western politicians. However, it is neither corruption, nor the torturing of prisoners of conscience that is at the root of the political drama that is underway in China at the moment.

Moreover, with it being suggested that  Chongqing's erstwhile police chief, and Bo Xilai's right hand man  Wang Lijun,  knew that his plea for political asylum would be rejected when he went to the US consulate in Chengdu, and that he really went in order to land in the hands of he people who answer to Mr Bo's political rivals, we can be sure that a political drama is, indeed, being played out.
Bo's political adverseries might use the internationalisation of his human rights abuses, which have caused the party some embarrassment, and they might also gather evidence from those former associates in Chongqing who he might have alienated. However, as Cheng Yiaonong, the former Inegrated Research Office Directer at China's Economy Reform Institute said in reviewing the incident;
"Corruption is only an on-the-table excuse for CCP's handling of Bo and Wang. The real reason behind it is Bo's challenging of CCP's centralization. Bo broke the rules embodied by over-stepping the power line and other improper acts to the CCP."

Firstly, it is no secret that the party leadership in Beijing never supported Bo's red culture and anti-vice campaign. However, Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao and Li Keqiang might even have ignored not only to the hypocrisy of a "neo maoist" who was in fact himself embezzling millions, but also his his attempts to revive a Mao mini-cult. It is not essentially Bo's leftist tendencies that worries the political leadership in Beijing but rather the both the obvious inability of the flamboyant Chongqing party secretary to fit into a system that, since Deng Xiaoping's death, puts the emphasis on collective leadership, and his contacts with the military.

That last factor might be perceived as a challenge to the CCP's centralized military control and it is this that might just have put the final nail in Bo Xiai's coffin. As recently as the 10th of February the Chongqing Party Secretary visited the 14th Army Group, an army group that has its origins in the New Shanxi Army, which was founded by Bo's father Bo Yibo, in Yunnan. It is, of course, easy to imagine how this particular development might be perceived by the Beijing leadership, especially with Wang Lijun in their custody. Furthermore, with Bo apparently also planning a huge rally in Chongqing to display his support among the masses and with him seeking support from friends at the highest level, Beijing might feel that it is still being challenged. Of course, there can only be one winner and while the real China experts might see his not being electing to the Standing Committee as his best case scenario, there is reason to suggest that, unless he eats humble pie, his fate could be much worse.

Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point is to change it

Beijing's 'Bookworm' is a good place to come up for air; the coffee is illy, the wireless connection is decent enough and, most importantly, there is a selection of books that would, at first glance, surprise many people. For instance,  Richard McGregor's 'The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers' is available. Or at least it was available at the beginning of the year. Yes, they can be pretty fickle in Beijing and one day there is no problem just sticking up a satellite dish, turning on your vpn and even picking up a hard copy of a western newspaper at a selected spot (normally a five star hotel or at the airport in Shanghai) .... but we don't even have to wait until the next day?

That is because, even if we are just relaxing and living our "dolce vita" a la 'carpe diem', enjoy the latte by all means, enjoy the ambiance, but scratch the surface and did you notice that there is a whole page missing in that edition of Hong Kong's 'South China Daily' and where is that 'Guardian' article that you read on the internet and where is Frank Dikötter's book on the great famine? In 1981 the "capitalist roader", Deng Xiaopeng,  might have announced that Mao was 70 per cent right and 30 per cent wrong, but don't you think you are going to openly criticise him. You can have your 30%, but and the historical narrative is not going to be interfered with by Frank Dikötter or anyone else. As Richard McGregor quite rightly informs us, the party will determine the story and, as Wen Jinbao told Adam Boulton, it is a five thousand year narrative. The problem, however, is that the five thousand year civilisation has about as much substance as Greek democracy and the Qings and the Mings and the rest of them were at least as exclusive as the 1% who traipsed around in ancient Athens spouting out their gobbledegook while the majority of their subjects lived out existences that were even more solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. than that depicted in Hobbes's 'Leviathian'. Yes, the great civilisations, and I mean all of them, were more than a trifle uncivilised. Does nobody read Marx anymore?

Well, Slavoj Žižek does and he does come to some very sound conclusions. Therefore, it was rather distressing to watch him recently in a conversation with Julian Assange, which was moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman. It is not that he is wrong when he says that we in the West are being informed in a way that allows us to ignore what we know and that "they" tell us part of the truth to make it all the more plausible. Moreover, he succinctly hits the nail on the head when he informs us how the Chinese government clamped down on a story about time travel because they are afraid of people imagining alternative realities outside those encompassed by the official story. Nevertheless, with regard to the West, does he really believe that Wikileaks will make it more diffiicult for us to ignore what is happening. Most of the information that has been handed over to the mainstream media is already being ignored. Moreover, Julian Assange's assertion that in a day and age when you don't have to physically remove a "Trotsky" from the photographs but can delete everything by just pressing a button makes it necessary for us to have this "historical record" is absurd. We have digital cameras, we have computers, there are witnesses. In other words, Mr Žižek and Mr Assange, we have Mr Dikötter's book on the great famine and while the Chinese Communist Party will continue to stick to their version of the story, and while, at least in the short term, the Orwellian war on terror will continue here in the West, the story is still being told and history is still in the making.

However, these are dangerous times, and at the moment a nuclear or environmental catastrophe is more inevitable than the historical inevitability that Marx propogated. Nevertheless, there is some advice to Mr Žižek, "the most dangerous thinker in the West"; "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it."  In his conversation with Julian Assange, Slovoj Žižek, was not too different from the "Hollywood Left" that he critcises..... and Julian Assange, himself? What a joke! Nevertheless, once again, our "dangerous thinker" synthesises well and, if nothing else, his tete-a-tete at least left me agreeing with his contention that, in some ways, the level of debate and the chances of real change are more likely in a China, where, after all, there are few, if any, mind games and, away from the 70%/30%  formula, few part truths and only a big lie. Of course, if that change is to happen either in the West or in China, it will not be due to the "dangerous thinkers", but rather because of social realities which cannot be surpressed.

The coming conflict

Before leaving Zhengzhou at the beginning of the week there was a mad dash to my bank to transfer money back to Germany. Well, it wasn't exactly a "dash", more of a crawl, as the taxi struggled to negotiate some five kilometres. In the end it was decided to run what was probably about half the distance and there was me turning up, soaked, and in very much of a hurry to transfer the money quickly, so that I could get back home and then on to the airport on time for my flight to Beijing.

The traffic is a major problem in Zhengzhou and experiencing it makes us all too aware of why the laws of thermodynamics dictate that we are living on a planet with finite resources and that that planet cannot support itself indefinitely. The Chinese don't appear to get it but there can be no Chinese road to socialism. For as Marx himself said, "human economies are in the last analysis dependent for survival on the existence of material conditions of production."  In a world of finite resources any economy predicted on growth must ultimately fail. The choking, the starting and stuttering, the crawling and the coughing in the traffic in Zhengzhou demonstrate the nature of that failure. If it doesn't explode, it is going to implode.

Of course, people are not entirely stupid and with the Chinese locking up long term oil deliveries from countries such as Brazil, Russia and Venuzuela there is some evidence to suggest that Beijing is thinking about the problem. However, there can be no doubt that, China, is not going to be immune to the shortages and rocketing prices that will accompany world oil production peaking. Moreover, along with  those global shortages and rapidly increasing prices we are going to have ever increasing conflict and it is a conflict which will ultimately be global and open. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, might say that China's ever increasing demand for natural resources can be resolved peacefully, but not only does this contradict what is already happening, it also flies in the face of a very fundamental Marxist precept. Hello, Mr Liu, "resources are finite, resources are finite."

The recent post in this blog "The South China Sea and learning to play the "Great Game"highlights one area in particular where this conflict has already started. Of course, there are others; for instance, Central Asia, Latin America and Africa! Moreover, it is a conflict that has been produced by what Naomi Klein refers to as "disaster capitalism". However, the essential contradictions of capitalism. as understood by Marx himself,  demonstrate all too clearly that capitalism itself is a disaster. We might be left not only wondering what part of this the Chinese "Capitalist" Party either forgot or chose to ignore and as we prepare to enter another capitalist war.

"Five thousand years civilisation" and old wine in new bottles

 It might be convenient to use my having just spent six months in China as an excuse for neglecting the blog. However, until a couple of weeks ago, the vpn gave me access to blogger.com. Indeed, the few posts during the last six months show that for most of the time I could access everything and anything. At least that was until the run up to and during the 90th anniversary of the CCP, when the DNS posioning took effect  Nevertheless, perhaps the last couple of weeks were a blessing in disguise with my being forced out of my little bubble and forced to experience a world of censorship that had remained, more or less, not applicable to me during this particular stint in China. Now, was this what Adam Boulton was thinking as he asked the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, when China was going to make progress on human rights? 

That was not what Mr Boulton meant, but that should not seduce us into thinking that the man from Rupert Murdoch's Sky News is as interested in human rights per se, as he is in scoring points for an employer who could show the Chinese Communist Party a trick or two when it comes suffocating  a truely free, press. Now, if you don't get the point you might want to have a look at the film "Outfoxed". Of course, being already doped  by Murdoch's 'News Corporation', most people are hardly likely to engage cognitively with that or any other real news. Therefore, for them a skimming and scanning of the phone hacking affair that will now see Murdoch's 'News of the World' being most probably replaced by Murdoch's 'Sun', would suffice.

There are human rights violations in China. Nevertheless, the mainstream media, which actually stifles freedom of expression in a West that engages in illegal wars and the surpression of human rights all over the planet, is not in a position to lecture. Indeed, with China itself becoming increasingly chauvanistic as it becomes more and more powerful, this is in fact dangerous and, when Wen Jinbao indirectly refers to his nation's five thousand year civilisation, there is an indication of a new exclusivity. However, with people spitting, shoving, shouting and shiting in public and with factories and cars choking people to death, while employers bully employees, that exclusiveness has about as much moral substance as democracy made in the United States of America. Old wine in new bottles? To some extent, yes, and, unfortunately, Rupert Murdoch and the Chinese Communist Party are going to do everything they can to ensure that we do not become teetotalers.

The South China Sea and learning to play the "Great Game"

Any unbiased glance at the map above might at least indicate that should the PRC's claims in the South China Sea be realised then we would have PLA troops practically within breaststroke distance of the Philippines and Malaysia. However, it is not the purpose of this piece to discuss the validity of the various rival claims in the South China Sea in general and on the Spratly Islands in particular and, even if  the interested reader might want to take a look at those claims. it is another question we should ask ourselves. How often are claims to territory resolved by force instead of peacefully?

With the People's Liberation Army Daily  commenting that China "resolutely opposes any country unrelated to the South China Sea issue meddling in disputes," and with the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan "being encouraged by Washington to play a more assertive role in containing China", it is easy to discern what is happening. We might have a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, recently saying that China, "will not resort to the use of force or the threat of force," however, the United States is already upping the ante by using its military muscle to maintain its predominance in waters close to the Chinese mainland. Moreover, by allying itself to all the other parties in the dispute Washington not only has a ready-made coalition for any coming conflict in that particular region but with the John F Kennedy School of Government graduate, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, in power in Mongolia, and US military bases in every country on China's western borders, it will need some maverick diplomacy on China's part to move forward. That diplomacy might start with the Spratlys and some real compromise on Beijing's part would do a great deal to break Washington's stranglehold.

Of course, the oil and gas that are thought to be off the coast of the Spratly Islands, and which would help China fuel is growing economy, would be a high price to pay. Nevertheless, there is evidence to suggest that a bit of "Realpolitik" on Beijing's part could have very serious repercussions for American power. China might have entered the "Great Game" but it will be interesting to see how it plays its cards.

Civil Society, environmental pollution and sustainable development

The blog has been neglected and there are reasons. Firstly, there have been work commitments, which mean that the dolce vita and chewing the cud existence that was facilitated by my being Herr meiner Zeit has given way to a situation where a superficial surfing of the web and 9 ¥ (Renminbi) dvds now see me coming up for air rather than spouting hot air and, secondly, ........ Well, as the Renminbi ndicates; ego is in China again!

Yes, life in the hunky-dory land of blue skies and crystal clear lakes, of things that tick and things that click, of rechts stehen und links gehen, has given way to the dirty old town. Two months in Zhengzhou and two months exposed to a sky that would make you cry and factories that spew out toxics and the question that has to be asked is; "is this sustainable?" Moreover, while the  quality of the air that pollutes Henan's capital city might be deemed particularly bad, it is really much of a muchness in Zhonghua and the view across Nanjing today from my room on the nineteenth floor of the hotel is hardly going to have me scrapping my plans to return to Europe in favour of an extended stay anywhere in China.

Still, where there is life there is hope and in his speech to the 4th Session of the 11th National People's Congress, which he delivered exactly a week ago, Wen Jinbao and his mates appear to be at least aware of the problems. Now as we linguists know, awareness raising activities and noticing are fine, but at some stage of the proceedings you have to implement the necessary action and having looked at almost every nook and cranny of a country of 1.34 billion, I notice a civil society which is not too unlike that which reigned in Drumchapel, Glasgow in the early 70s and I am all too aware of an environmental pollution of the sort that the United Kingdom hasn't seen at least since the implementation of the Clean Air Act in 1961 and probably not since those bad old days when Marx and Engels were observing the unacceptable face of "Manchester capitalism". Furthermore, the scale of this is much, much bigger than Drumchapel or Manchester. He chokes, thinking, "..... it is five to midnight in China and there is no reason to be optimistic," and then reminds himself that "where there is life there is hope."

Zhonghua

Arrived in Beijing today after a comfortable flight from Munich and discovered on the taxi from the hotel to the 'Bookworm' , a sort of déjà vu from my Suzhou days, that to say my Chinese isn't good enough, would not be good enough. Worked on a small translation from Germany, "skypied" all over the planet and it is, I believe, minus nine outside. Still, no matter, time to go back and catch up with some sleep and boy, oh boy, am I looking forward to the taxi ride home and the "bu dong, bu dong, bu dong".

David Cameron lectures China on the value of democracy

David Cameron goes to Beijing and lectures China on the "value of democracy" and human rights and today back in the land of the "free" the orwellian state continues to role back the welfare state while ensuring that in Britain there will be no need for tanks in the streets. The tanks, of course, can be deployed in illegal wars elsewhere and when human rights abuses from those wars come to light, we have the manufacturers of consent making sure not only that democracy "functions", but also that the crimes are, more or less, conveniently ignored. In "Bighty" all opinions are equal but some are more equal than others.  Yes, David, when it comes to criticising China for human rights abuses, it might be better if you were to leave that criticising to someone else and preferably to someone who has distanced themselves from the hypocrites in London and Washington.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Liu Xiaobo receives the Nobel Peace Prize

The decision to award Liu Xiaobo the Nobel Peace Prize had me scurrying through a list of past winners and there we have Kofi Annan in 2001 although at the time of writing this I am not too sure why he received the award. No such problems with Obama though and we are told that his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" got him the prize. Well, wasn't it Clausewitz who said that  "war is an extension of politics carried out by other means"? Anyway, let's tell the people of Afghanistan and anywhere else where America is dropping its bombs that their dead men, women and children are just a reflection of Obama stengthening diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.


Horrifically absurd, of course, but when we read that Arafat, Peres and Rabin were honoured because of their "efforts to create peace in the Middle East", that Elie Wiesel got it because .... well, I am not really sure why he got it even if he is listed as the Chairman of 'The President's Commission on the Holocaust', an Author and a humanitarian, and that Sadat, Begin and Kissinger are among other past winners, we might seriously doubt the seriousness of this prize. Indeed, the evidence might even suggest that the only logical course for anyone wishing to maintain their credibility would be to decline it. As in fact, Vietnam's Le Duc Tho did in 1973 when he was jointly awared it with Kissinger. Well, two years later we had NVA troops in Saigon. At least we cannot accuse Mr Tho of hypocrisy.

The West is hypocritical and we might begin to question the motives behind the prize itself even if we shouldn't doubt Liu's sincerity, his own personal suffering and his willingness to go to prison for his beliefs. Regarding the West's motives I will leave this post's readers to make up their own minds. Nevertheless, we might look at some possible consequences of this award.

While in China I remember having a conversation with my students on a multi-party system only to be told half way through the conversation that they really couldn't discuss this and that most of them were, in fact, in the Party. These were good people, capable of critical thinking and not only are they in the CCP,  but indeed they are the CCP. More recently, I had to supervise a dissertation by a Chinese law student who compared the British and Chinese legal systems, while concentrating on and praising the role of the jury, an independent judiciary and the system of cross examination in Britain. His conclusion was that China needs a similar system.  Both this particular student and the many other Chinese students I have worked with have convinced me that this is the generation which will change China and which will see China evolve into a country in which people like Liu Xiaobo will, indeed, have freedom of expression. It is not, I believe, in his interests or in the interests of that young generation that really do have hope for the future, for the hypocritical West to point the finger at China and the Chinese government. Moreover, we can only speculate as to their motives when doing so. Nevertheless, if it is supposed to facilitate speeding up change, we might not only ask would there be resulting chaos and could such change be sustainable, but also who would benefit from the resulting chaos?  In my opinion China's development in all areas is already astonishing and it should be considered for one moment that, while it is to some extent relative, people in China are freer and more prosperous than they have been at any other time in their history. There is, of course, a long way to go but then China has come a very long way since Deng Xiaoping's "opening up" in 1979.


Finally, there can be, no doubt, that authoritarian governments are worried about people like Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition politician who won the prize in 1995 and Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, the Russian nuclear physicist and dissident who won the prize in 1975, and, no doubt, the Chinese government, which, despite what I have written, is still an authoritarian government, is worried about the extra attention and support that this award will bring Liu Xiaobo. Nevertheless, China today is not Burma or the Democratic Republic of Korea and it is not the Soviet Union in 1975. There is change taking place and while Liu Xiaobo's fate should concern us all and while we should want to do everything to see him being released, it is neither Liu nor even his Charter 08 organisation that will be the real force for change in China. Of course, we should insist on Liu's release. However, it is in all of our interests that we encourage change to take place peacefully and for the benefit of everyone and the last thing we should want to do is confront China with standards that are imposed by a self-serving and hypocritical West.

Rising labour costs in China

"The days of endless cheap labour in the "workshop of the world" could be numbered as a shortage of workers and government fears of social unrest drive up wages in China, experts say." Now, isn't that a surprise and did the Chinese, or anyone else for that matter, really think that the rules of capitalism don't apply to China. Exactly, the same rules, of course, apply as they did to that "workshop of the world" from "yesteryear", Great Britain. Could this actually be that road to "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" which Deng Xiaoping was talking about in 1979? Well, if it is let's just hope that we doesn't all end up in some Chinese Tony Blair, while more closer to now, just watch the capitalists make a rather hasty exit as they move their operations to regions where labour costs less and could we be seeing independent unions forming in the PRC in the not too distant future?

China, Google, the NSA and the CIA

There is more than enough evidence to suggest that Google's links with U.S. intelligence came into existence long before the reported tie-up with the NSA on the 5th of February this year, even if one  might expect the "enlightened readers" of the daily drivel to have been clapping their hands at this move to stop the Chinese hacking "their" precious search engine. One genuinely wonders if they would even be bothered by the fact that as early as October 2004 Google acquired Keyhole Inc., which had a database of 3-D spy-in-the sky images from all over the globe. Yes this does sound suspiciously like 'Google Earth', doesn't it? Therefore, what is the problem and don't we all like "street view"? Well no problem if it were not for the fact that Keyhole Inc. is, or was, supported by In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm  funded by the CIA.  

Now, the spooks in Langley might get it wrong from time to time but they knew that they were on to a winner here, so much so that in 2003, a year before the Google "takeover", the Keyhole CEO, John Hanke, was to say that "Keyhole's strategic relationship with In-Q-Tel means that the Intelligence Community can now benefit from the massive scalability and high performance of the Keyhole enterprise solution." Do you get the picture? "The Keyhole enterprise solution" is 'Google Earth'.

These links are not imaginary they are real and, while most of you know what the CIA does it might be worth mentioning that the less well known, but larger and probably more effective, NSA not only conducts surveillance and code breaking for the US government, but it also has its own rather comprehensive spying operation which would appear to include spying not only on American citizens but indeed on the whole planet. Yes, what we have here are the master hackers accusing the other side of hacking. Indeed, they might not even be wrong, but the hypocrisy? Yes, whatever the reasons behind this cyber war between the US and China, and here Webster Tarpley hits the nail on the head when he refers to it as "folly", it is most certainly not about the Chinese government hacking Google or cracking down on freedom of speech.

Either Full Spectrum Dominance or China inter pares

 
Well, my predicted compromise between 'Google' and the Chinese government is looking increasingly unlikely and not only since Hillary Clinton criticised Beijing because of internet censorship. Indeed, with Hillary also warning China that it risks isolation if it doesn't support sanctons against Iran and with her boss  accusing Beijing of undervaluing the yuan while he goes ahead and sells USD $ 6.5 billion worth of military equipment to Taiwan, we can assume that, even although he has cancelled his meeting today with the Dalai Lama, China has at least a number of good arguments to back up its claims that Washington is interfering with its sovereignty. Nevertheless, that should only want us all the more to look at America's accusations in some detail and when we do so we will at least discover a common thread that smacks of pure hypocrisy.

Firstly, Hillary's accusation of internet censorship might be put into another perspective when we read the news from 'Democracy Now' today which states that: "The internet giant Google is teaming up with the National Security Agency in an unspecified partnership in the name of cybersecurity. Google says the NSA will help it analyze an attack on its computer networks it says originated in China last month. Privacy advocates have raised skepticism about the agreement, whose details haven’t been revealed. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for communications between Google and the NSA on cybersecurity and email encryption." Of course, this is what we are hearing today and there are those who might argue that Google teaming up with the NSA is a perfectly logical development considering what has supposedly happened in China.

However, the internet giant working hand in hand with US intelligence is not something new and there is more than enough evidence to suggest that the Chinese would be perfectly right to worry about the company's activities in China. Indeed, as Robert Steele, an intelligence veteran said back in 2006 "In my view, Google is a public resource and must remain purer than Ceasar's wife. I am sympathetic to Google's rolling over for China and agreeing to curtail some content - that can be reversed later. However, I am very unsympathetic and critical of Google for violating its ‘do no harm’ rule. In my view, a secret financial and secret information sharing relationship with the US Intelligence Community - or any other intelligence community - violates everything about Google that should be sacred, and suggests that we can no longer trust them to live up to their original ethos." Ethics aside what this, of course, means is that, while Google might limit some content to satisfy Beijing it is, more importantly, in a position where it can gather information in China and on China and that it might pass this information onto the NSA and CIA. If this is something that doesn't worry the Chinese it certainly should and one can only speculate as to the nature of the cyberattacks on Google's computer systems.

Secondly, considering how US fiscal policy holds the rest of the world to ransom, it would be illogical to attack the Chinese for keeping the yuan, at least as far as Washington is concerned, "artificially low."  Indeed, considering America's use of its own currency along with its and global financial institutions to control the world economy for at least the last fiscal sixty years this is pure hypocrisy. China is getting ready to re-launch its export drive after a global recession that affected the demand for Chinese goods and a cheap currency is vital to that goal. The United States might not like it but the Chinese probably feel they have no need to be lectured on economic policy by their chief debtor and someone whose dollar imperialism is leading the planet into an unprecedented disaster.

Thirdly, the BBC reports that: "Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called for more direct talks with Iran instead of sanctions." Is there an alternative? Indeed, behind the scenes Beijing probably sees what is behind the West's rabble rousing and also sees that Iran is increasingly in a no win situation. Or that this will at least lead to a regime change in Teheran and a re-allignment with the West. Indeed, it is important that China does not waver in its position as it is increasingly only that position that is preventing sanctions as the first step towards destabilising the government in Teheran. Of course, with China getting some 15% of its oil from Iran this is the last thing Beijing wants.

Finally, China views Taiwan as an integral part of the People's Republic. However, Beijing has proven time and time again that it can be very pragmatic. Only a couple of weeks ago the PRC was officially declaring that "cross-strait relations are good." Taiwan is China's seventh largest trading partner and China is Taiwan's main trading partner. Beijing is not going to do anything in the short or medium term to upset this modus vivendi, however, ideologically and politically it is not going to compromise its position. The United States throwing $US 6.5 billion worth of military equipment at Taipeh does nothing to help either Taiwan or China or the region.

It would be wrong not to criticise China but to do it in order to gain political capital is pure hypocrisy. Moreover, at a time when it is becoming increasingly unlikely that Iran is going to be bullied into submission it would be more than a trifle dangerous to not only speculate that China might be, but to actually attempt it. The real point is we have passed the point where that China will accept such a role and it really is time to accept Beijing as an equal unconditionally. To do this might mean real progress on all of the issues mentioned above. Indeed, we might find that by doing so not only will the planet become a better, fairer and safer place but that China also might tackle those many issues that have the mainstream media in the West crying foul. The pre-requisite for all of this, however, is not only the need to retreat from a barbaric dollar imperialism, which has as its by-product a disgusting hypocrisy and which had to culminate in the pursuit of a full spectrum dominance, but also means that we achieve a situation where we have a real democraticisation of society and of our media.

Conmen

Still busy so I have decided to content myself with a rather amusing little story that has come out of China. The 'Guardian' reports that: 'Thirty Runners disqualified from Chinese marathon for cheating." The paper goes on: "Almost a third of the runners who finished in the top 100 have since been disqualified for cheating in the race in the southern port city of Xiamen." However, the funny bit comes when we are told how they cheated, and how did they cheat? Using vehicles and imposters we are told! Now, it has left me pondering, what should I do? Ask Haile Gebrselassie to run the marathon I will never run under my name or go for the Glasgow marathon and a couple of stations on the clockwork orang, followed by the number nine bus before jumping into my mate's car. Still, I will follow the advice implicit in Kurt Vonnegut's statement, "you are what you pretend to be, so be careful what you pretend to be" and, with my 80 plus kilos,  I would have a hard job convincing them even up in Glasgow that I had just run a 2 hour 6 minute marathon.

Of course, there are even bigger cons than the one mentioned above and that brings me to another little story in the 'Guardian' and Jack Staw is telling us all that he could have vetoed UK military action in Iraq. Now, I am not sure what Jack pretends to be, but, when I read Jack saying  "If I had refused (to support the war), the UK's participation in the military action would not, in practice, have been possible," I know what he is and he can pretend all he likes but it really is time to get Jack and his buddies behind bars.

Expect the Chinese and Google to compromise

We might wonder as to the motivation behind 'Google's' demand that: "It's time the Chinese people had unfettered access to information." Didn't seem to bother them before so let us look at the real reason behind the threat and there is a whiff of spophisticated brinkmanship from the internet giant on this one for while, the pretext for leaving China would be because of a sophisticated cyber attack which they say puts dissidents at risk, they have also said that they will hold talks with the Chinese government in the near future " to look at operating an unfiltered search engine within the law in the country."

Yes, we can read between the lines on this one; they haven't gone yet and they are talking and we might see a compromise something like this; no unfiltered search engine but with the filtering being done by the Chinese government rather than 'Google and, perhaps, the unblocking of 'Youttube' and 'facebook', both of which are owned by 'Google' or, at least, 'Google' being allowed to offer other products such as the 'Google Voice' Internet calling service or 'Google's' archive of digital books. Yes, a saving face formula that will allow 'Google' to remain in China as long as they don't insist too much on protecting dissidents and standing up for freedom of speech. Quite a little revelation that one!

The stakes are high and 'Google' is playing a high risk game. However, despite the company losing market share to its main rival 'Baidu', it still has 30% of a market of 350 million, a market which continues to grow. Moreover, only today we are also informed that: "Despite its threat to pull out of the Chinese market over an alleged cyber attack on its servers, Google has been closing the gap on the largest search engine in China, Baidu.com, in the last six months." The Chinese and 'Google' will talk, and even if the 'Times' is predicting that those talks will be short lived, a compromise will be reached. After all,  for both 'Google' , which needs to remain present in the biggest, fastest growing market in the world and a Chinese government that still wants to project the image of a country where the West can do business. There is just too much at stake. In the short and medium term this might mean 'Google' accepting that it is not the market leader for search engines in China and it might mean that 'Google' will have to reposition itself with a product diversification. One shouldn't be surprised if we were to discover that facilitating those "necessessities", is what is in fact behind the internet giant's supposed altruism.

On the road

Extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo, illegal wars and if you really threaten the system you might either be discredited, whipped away to some unknown place or even assassinated. It is difficult not to want to vomit when Washington and its sycophants point the finger; their hypocrisy at least offends good taste and invariably tries to screen crimes that make a mockery of everything that any freedom loving person holds dear. Still, we do get to spout off our tuppence worth in this part of the world and if enough of us spout our tuppence worth off we can put the breaks on our "masters" shennanigans to some extent. Indeed, sometimes we might even sense that real change can be affected and as we all know history does not stand still.

In China today the founder of the Charter 08 campaign for constitutional reform, Liu Xiaobo, was sentenced to eleven years in jail. His crime appears to have been agitating for universally accepted basic freedoms. Of course, the Chinese authorities are aware that if they were to allow those freedoms history indeed would not stand still and, sooner or later, they would be on their way out. Yes, freedom to criticise the political system, freedom of speech generally and freedom to have access to a credible legal system that protects individual rights are all a prerequisite for change. A prerequisite but not a guarantee as we know in the West. Nevertheless, at the risk of contradiction, prerequisite or not, might I remind the Chinese authorities, that history, indeed, does not stand still. With the conviction of Liu Xiaobo and the international coverage that his trial has been given, we are at least seeing an all too obvious struggle to have the mechanisms put into place that will ultimately change a corrupt and unjust system.

Finally, this is also an opportunity to remind ourselves that we have those fundamental freedoms, which are necessary to implement real change and in doing so we should be aware that Liu Xiaobo's struggle is only the beginning of a road that our forefathers set off on a long time ago. Nevertheless, the manufacturers of consent will make sure that progress along that road is not always smooth. However, just as the pigheaded, hardliners in the Communist Party of China will not prevent Liu Xiaobo and his fellow travellers embarking on their journey, so too will the hypocrites, the spin and grin men, the pseudo-democrats, fail in their efforts to prevent us progressing in ours.

The coming trade war

The columnist, Paul Krugman, wrote that there was probably no strategy behind China's accumulation of some two trillion US dollars and that those reserves were acquired in "the same way Britain acquired its empire: in a fit of absence of mind." Of course, Great Britian had no grand plan at the beginning of the 18th century. Nevertheless, I am not sure what Mr Krugman is trying to say here or say when he likewise contends that China had no strategy when it started to accumulate dollars. The British Empire, we know, was spawned by an ability to react pragmatically to a given situation and the Chinese leadership in Beijing has shown time and time again that it is invariably pragmatic. Indeed, this pragmatism is evidenced by its unwillingness to pull the plug on the United States so long as the yuan is pegged to the dollar. Indeed, my assertion is that it suits China to have a weak dollar.

Of course, in the longer term this reliance on the dollar will have to be broken if China is to replace the United States as the world's major power. Moreover, while there are a number of reasons why this won't happen in the shorter term, it is silly to insinuate that the Chinese have some sort of sentimental attachment to the dollar-based international financial system because it is they who have benefited most from that system.

Indeed, it would appear that China is already preparing a three pronged assault on its dollar reliance by building huge gold reserves, cutting its US bond holdings and starting limited cross border trading with yuan. Whatever else, while pragmatism dictates that the Chinese leadership in Beijing is not going to cut off its nose to spite its face, there is enough evidence to suggest that the financial crisis last year has not only revealed serious flaws in a monetary system that facilitates Anglo-Saxon global hegemony, but could, indeed, also usher in the death knell of that system.

Nevertheless, let us be wary when it comes to predictions. The Economist Oliver Accominotti's comparison between China's dependency on the dollar and France's dependency on sterling from 1926 until 1931, makes interesting reading and his conclusion that "foreign reserves can be both a source of instability for the international monetary system, and a burden for large holders", is sound. However, it is the Anglo-Saxons who have been there before and it is to the "satanic genuis" of Sir Montagu Norman, the Governor of the Bank of England who ensured that France was to give up all aspirations to monetary hegemony, that they will look for their inspiration.

Of course, it might be added, that when it comes to a trade war, the Anglo-Saxons do not need any role models to play their "game". Still, we might wonder if the "pragmatic" Chinese might not be a slightly different proposition from the French in 1926 and the "Asian Tigers" in 1997.  Only time will tell but we can rest assured that at the very least a trade war between China and the United States will be required to end any speculation.

China-Africa commitments applauded

The World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, has praised China for its investment in agriculture and infrastructure in Africa and with Wen Jinbao promising 10 billion US dollars in loans at the two day 'China-Africa Cooperation' in Sharm el-Sheikh over the next three years, every indication is that China will continue to increase its role on the continent.

People don't do anything for nothing, do they? Well, not normally and with the old adage, "charity begins at home", very pertinent in a China where you first and foremost look after your family, then your friends and then, perhaps, you extend civil behaviour towards those who you come into regular social contact with, we cannot imagine that the Chinese are in Africa for altruistic reasons. However, was anyone ever there for altruistic reasons?

No, China is not in Africa because of some socialist concern for the downtrodden of the planet and, with its growing economy desperate for raw materials, the give will most definitely be accompanied by the take. Nevertheless, for the West to condemn Chinese engagement in Africa as some sort of new colonialism is pure hypocrisy. China's "exploitation" of Africa is accompanied by many positives for Africa itself. First and foremost, it might give Africans the opporunity to free themselves from their old colonial relationships with the West; relationships that began not with loans without conditions such as those that the Chinese provide but with ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and blatant colonialism. Moreover, the West's blatant colonialism has given way to a more subtle form of exploitation through the IMF and the World Bank. Therefore, while many Africans remain wary of the Chinese presence for a number of reasons, it is Beijing that might offer Africa a new beginning and a new chance.

Democratic Socialism, China and the West

With the monopolitical cultures in the UK and elsewhere in the West being increasingly exposed as, at best, "democracies" that were perhaps suited to a bygone era, we would do well to get a little bit upset at the patronizing tone that accompanies western media reporting on China. For instance, the 'Guardian' on 20th May 2009, reported that the Chinese reformist, Zhao Ziyang, who was forced out of office in 1989, wrote in his memoirs that China needed a western-style democracy. Certainly, China needs more transparency, more empowerment of its citizens, more accountability, but, a "western style democracy"?

No, while the signatories of "Charter 08" (Língbā Xiànzhāng) are right in their assertion that China has to "recognize universal values, assimilate into the mainstream civilization, and build a democratic political system", it is not necessarily to the western model that the country should look for guidance. Certainly, not at a time in history when those "democracies", having destroyed their own manufacturing bases, rely on fictitious capital to stay afloat while they look to cheap products from China and other developing countries to keep their populations fetishes satisfied. It would now appear that the most important thing big business in the West manufactures is consent, while the monopolitical cultures which represent those business interests pretend to export their "values" to the Euphrates and Hindukush.

Of course, none of this is to ignore the fact that there are certain traditions, freedoms and experiences in the West which China can look to for guidance. However, it has to be pointed out that, those freedoms and experiences are failing us at the moment. Indeed, they are being increasingly curtailed, as a sophisticated "big brother" culls the masses in the so-called "western democracies" by hammering them with a "newspeak" that is not too dissimilar to the gobbledegook "harmonious society" jargon that Beijing spouts out. Furthermore, while big business pursues its eternal "orwellian wars" under the guise of exporting democracy, the Communist Party of China propagates the "Chinese way to Socialism" but in fact jumps on the capitalist bandwagon.

Nevertheless, history does not stand still and although China still subdues any sort of alternative power structure, dissent is becoming increasingly possible and with this dissent alternatives can ultimately flourish. For this to happen the Chinese will have to grasp those freedoms that we in the West are neglecting and if they do so, and if we in the West start to fight back against the monopolitical cultures that we find ourselves in, we might, indeed, reach that freedom that Rosa Luxembourg spoke of, namely, "die freiheit des anders denkenden" (the freedom of those who think differently).

Admitting Guilt

An interesting documentary film on the Sichaun earthquake has been aired by HBO and 'Democracy Now' availed itself of the opportunity to interview the two co-directors, John Alpert and Matt O'Niel. In principal they are both right in their believing that the Chinese authorities should face up to their responsibilities and allow a proper investigation into why some 9,000 of the 90,000 victims were school children who might not have died had their schools been built properly,(1) Nevertheless, John Alpert's contention that, while the US government's behaviour at Katrina was scandelous, a free press did at least allow this to become public knowledge doesn't really mean very much. Does it really matter if the great American public is officially informed of those things that are really common knowledge? Especially when George W Bush goes on to say, "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government. And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."(2) Forgetting all of the obvious crimes that he does not admit to, here he is effectively admitting that he is guilty of a serious crime and was he impeached?
Of course, the parents in Sichaun should have their platform and it is not only important that we are aware of their plight but also that those responsible are held to account. However, please let's not look to America for a model here, a model where liability and criminal actions are sometimes confessed when they are all too blatant but always denied when they are not and even when a confession is forthcoming, the perpetrators get off scot free.
1 http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/7/chinas_unnatural_disaster_new_hbo_documentary
2 http://dems.advomatic.com/node/6117