Links - 9th December 2019 (2) (China's 'Peaceful' Rise)

China Wants to Dominate World, but Will U.S. Values Survive? - "His answer to the question “What does China want?” is simple: The Chinese want supremacy... Despite presenting modest and peaceful ambitions to foreigners, the Chinese Communist Party leadership transparently communicates its desire for primacy to internal audiences. By guiding readers through a barrage of official documents, excerpted liberally throughout the book, Ward shows just how wide-ranging these ambitions are... Ward traces the Chinese desire to shape the future of all mankind (not just the East Asian part of it) to a national myth taught to schoolchildren across China. According to this narrative, China was once the center of the world; China was the mother of invention, the seat of global wealth, and the beacon of civilization. This is China’s natural role in the world order—a role disrupted by the “century of humiliation” between the Opium Wars and World War II, when China suffered at the hands of foreign powers. But now that age of suffering is over. China’s destiny, according to its leaders, is to reclaim its natural perch as the leading force of human civilization. This is a familiar narrative to China specialists and one well-suited to a Communist clique that wishes to leverage nationalism to maintain its hold on power. However, Ward repeatedly stresses the popularity of this “national rejuvenation” ideal outside of party circles. “[T]he Chinese public has come to embrace this sense of destiny,” he writes. “But this vision is not the Communist Party’s alone. It is the vision at the heart of China’s restoration—a cause to which numerous Chinese citizens and patriots have devoted their lives—and of which the Communist Party is only one expression.”... Communist Party leaders believe they are locked in what Chinese President Xi Jinping has called “fierce competition … in the ideological sphere” with the West. They assert that this ideological competition threatens the existence of their party and imperils the road to national rejuvenation. They describe historians, researchers, dissidents, and Chinese-language media outlets in countries like Australia, Germany, and the United States as dangers equal to anything U.S. Indo-Pacific Command can throw at them. This is the root motivation behind what are now being called “interference” and “influence” operations in Western countries... the enemies China’s leaders fear most: the ones who pose an ideological, not a geopolitical, threat to the Communist Party. These are the hostile forces that threaten the stability of the Communist regime, and many of them—from Christians and Uighurs fleeing religious persecution to Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, and others of Chinese descent who dare imagine different futures for their people—live in America. As long as these groups can safely assemble and freely speak within the United States, America will be seen as a threat to the Chinese party-state. Similar fears have already led Beijing to demand ideological fealty from its foreign debtors. China’s leaders do not ask clients to change their system of government but to squelch criticism of Chinese communism inside their borders... Accommodating the geopolitical ambitions of the Chinese people is comparatively easy. Easing the ideological insecurities of the Communist elite would demand far more drastic changes to U.S. politics and society."

Nice Democracy You’ve Got There. Be a Shame If Something Happened to It. – Foreign Policy - "Secret societies, criminal organizations, and triads have existed for centuries in China, but most were chased out after the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the 1949 civil war. Triads continued to flourish in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan — where many fled alongside Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated Nationalists. But while the CCP drove them out of the mainland, the party has found them a very useful tool to disrupt and frustrate opponents in societies such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, where resistance to the party runs high... By the second decade of the 21st century, the CCP’s strategy was, as sometime party mouthpiece Global Times wrote in 2016, to engineer the “Lebanonization” of Taiwan — in other words, to create division and chaos in the island."

China's latest tactic: Call America racist - "Of all the angry responses to President Trump’s decision to sign bills supporting the Hong Kong protest movement, the oddest one of all is an online campaign to label America as racist.It’s coming straight from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs... Zhao’s twitter comments very closely mirror the American left’s long-running complaints about racism in this country. He was even shrewd enough to add references to mass shootings and President Trump’s controversial comments against the so-called “squad” of four freshman female congresswomen who are each members of racial minority communities... Anyone who doubts the perception of racism in this country isn’t very strong just needs to look at the still-developing Jussie Smollett case in Chicago. Even after the evidence showed that Smollett staged a purported racial attack against himself, most politicians who supported him haven’t rescinded their public comments in support of Smollett that were filled with angry arguments about racism and President Trump. It’s not that those politicians still believe Smollett was really attacked. It’s just too hard for them to retreat from any position that decries racism in America... The tactic has a mixed and disputed record of success. When the U.S. started a massive military buildup under President Reagan in the 1980s, the USSR promoted videos of homeless people in America as a way to tap into the left’s opposition to defense spending at the perceived expense of spending to help the poor. But none of that stopped the Reagan policy and that U.S. military buildup that Moscow couldn’t keep up with was a key factor in ending the Cold War.  Going further back in history, imperial Japan adopted a campaign that mixed promoting Depression-era complaints about U.S. economic inequality along with a healthy dose of 1930s American isolationism in hopes of discouraging U.S. troops during World War II... A key wildcard now is that the U.S. is much more divided on partisan lines than it was in the Reagan era or World War II.  It’s also a presidential election year, where two of President Trump’s Democratic rivals have already sent multiple signals that they’d be more dovish with China... It’s also informative, if not a scientifically conducted analysis, to look at the responses to Zhao’s twitter statements. The litany of counterarguments that include references to Beijing’s rounding up of Chinese Muslims and dozens of other human rights abuses add up to what seems like a massive social media backfire.  Most importantly, the vote on the bill to support the Hong Kong protesters and punish China for cracking down on them was a whopping 417-1 in the House and unanimous in the Senate...  it could end up as a strong positive for the U.S. in another way if this incident helps us all realize that as real as our racism problems still are, not everyone talking about them has our best interests at heart."
"You hypocrite, first take the speck out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the log out of your brother's eye"

Han Chinese & Uighurs -- Government Assigning Han Men to Sleep with Uighur Women: Report - "The Chinese government assigns men as “relatives” to monitor the families of detained Muslim Uighur men in China’s Xinjiang province in order to “promote ethnic unity,” according to a report from Radio Free Asia.Titled the “Pair up and Become Family” program, the initiative involves Uighurs opening their homes for weeks at a time to Communist officials, who work, eat, and even sleep with the family.“They help [the families] with their ideology, bringing new ideas. They talk to them about life, during which time they develop feelings for one another”... “We also try to help them to make proper [sleeping] arrangements . . . it is now considered normal for females to sleep on the same platform with their paired male ‘relatives.’”"

‘Absolutely No Mercy’: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims - The New York Times - "[It was] one of the most significant leaks of government papers from inside China’s ruling Communist Party in decades... in Xinjiang... authorities have corralled as many as a million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs and others into internment camps and prisons over the past three years. The party has rejected international criticism of the camps and described them as job-training centers that use mild methods to fight Islamic extremism. But the documents confirm the coercive nature of the crackdown in the words and orders of the very officials who conceived and orchestrated it.  Even as the government presented its efforts in Xinjiang to the public as benevolent and unexceptional, it discussed and organized a ruthless and extraordinary campaign in these internal communications... officials were directed to tell people who complained to be grateful for the Communist Party’s help and stay quiet. The leaked papers offer a striking picture of how the hidden machinery of the Chinese state carried out the country’s most far-reaching internment campaign since the Mao era... Even as the document advises officials to inform students that their relatives are receiving “treatment” for exposure to radical Islam, its title refers to family members who are being “dealt with,” or chuzhi, a euphemism used in party documents to mean punishment... “Returning students from other parts of China have widespread social ties across the entire country,” the directive noted. “The moment they issue incorrect opinions on WeChat, Weibo and other social media platforms, the impact is widespread and difficult to eradicate.”... Students should be grateful that the authorities had taken their relatives away... “Treasure this chance for free education that the party and government has provided to thoroughly eradicate erroneous thinking, and also learn Chinese and job skills”... The authorities appear to be using a scoring system to determine who can be released from the camps: The document instructed officials to tell the students that their behavior could hurt their relatives’ scores, and to assess the daily behavior of the students and record their attendance at training sessions, meetings and other activities... Xi sees risks to China through the prism of the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he blamed on ideological laxity and spineless leadership.Across China, he set about eliminating challenges to party rule; dissidents and human rights lawyers disappeared in waves of arrests... there was more resistance to the crackdown inside the party than previously known — and highlight the key role that the new party boss in Xinjiang played in overcoming it.  Mr. Chen led a campaign akin to one of Mao’s turbulent political crusades, in which top-down pressure on local officials encouraged overreach and any expression of doubt was treated as a crime."
It is interesting how the CCP (or Xi, at least) recognises that the Mandate of Heaven from economic growth is not enough and repression is needed

Bilahari Kausikan - "That China would defend its policy is only to be expected. That the documents were not immediately denounced as fabrications is interesting. I think China will in time so denounce them, but the delay may indicate some internal dissension — a leak of this magnitude cannot happen unless some — not just one person — in the Party are unhappy."
Here is an interesting dilemma for Singaporean pro-government China Shills - if an establishment figure endorses the leaks, are they still fake news made up by the CIA?
Comment: "Love the shifting narrative by the CCP: - 2017 Camps don't exist
-2018 Yes they exist but they are used for professional training
-2019 They are effectively concentration camps but at least they are effective. What's next?"
I wonder how China shills rationalise the CCP's shifting pattern of lies

China Defends Crackdown on Muslims, and Criticizes Times Article - The New York Times - "The Communist government once flatly dismissed reports on the mass detentions of as many as one million Muslims as fabrications, but since evidence of the camps has become irrefutable, it has stepped up attempts to defend its actions as justifiable steps to stamp out a national security threat... The Times’s website is blocked in China, but there were signs that the disclosures had filtered through the country’s so-called Great Firewall, as they received unexpected expressions of support."

Secret documents reveal how China mass detention camps work - "The documents were given to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists by an anonymous source. The ICIJ verified them by examining state media reports and public notices from the time, consulting experts, cross-checking signatures and confirming the contents with former camp employees and detainees.They consist of a notice with guidelines for the camps, four bulletins on how to use technology to target people, and a court case sentencing a Uighur Communist Party member to 10 years in prison for telling colleagues not to say dirty words, watch porn or eat without praying... “There’s no other place in the world where a computer can send you to an internment camp,” said Rian Thum, a Xinjiang expert at the University of Nottingham. “This is absolutely unprecedented.”The IJOP spat out the names of people considered suspicious, such as thousands of “unauthorized” imams not registered with the Chinese government, along with their associates. Suspicious or extremist behavior was so broadly defined that it included going abroad, asking others to pray or using cell phone apps that cannot be monitored by the government... The system also targeted people who obtained foreign passports or visas, reflecting the government’s fear of Islamic extremist influences from abroad and deep discomfort with any connection between the Uighurs and the outside world. Officials were asked to verify the identities even of people outside the country, showing how China is casting its dragnet for Uighurs far beyond Xinjiang.In recent years, Beijing has put pressure on countries to which Uighurs have fled, such as Thailand and Afghanistan, to send them back to China. In other countries, state security has also contacted Uighurs and pushed them to spy on each other. For example, a restaurateur now in Turkey, Qurbanjan Nurmemet, said police contacted him with videos of his son strapped to a chair and asked him for information on other Uighurs in Turkey... Sauytbay called the detention center a “concentration camp ... much more horrifying than prison,” with rape, brainwashing and torture in a “black room” where people screamed. She and another former prisoner, Zumrat Dawut, also told the ICIJ detainees were given medication that made them listless and obedient, and every move was surveilled... Mandarin is mandated. Beijing has said “the customs of all ethnic groups and the right to use their spoken and written languages are fully protected at the centers.” But the documents show that in practice, lessons are taught in Mandarin, and it is the language to be used in daily communication."

Countries Blast China at UN Over Xinjiang Abuses - "Nearly two dozen countries confronted China at the United Nations this week, voicing outrage over its persecution of Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang and demanding the government comply with international obligations on the freedom of religion... The statement was backed by Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States.Predictably, a group of more than 50 countries supporting China sought to “commend China’s remarkable achievements in the field of human rights.” The rebuttal, delivered by Belarus, was joined by notablerights abusers that included Russia and Egypt."
Since Muslim countries support China and Albania was the only Muslim country to condemn it, does this mean that condemning China for putting Muslims in concentration camps is Islamophobic?

Imam Tawhidi - "US puts visa restrictions on Chinese officials over abuses of Muslims in Xinjiang"
"Here you have it. The Trump administration standing up for Muslims like no Muslim country or leader has ever done. Yet we hear the lying Islamist radicals Ilhan Qatar, TRashida Tlaib and future Congresswoman Linda Cockroach cry about “Islamophobia” and “racism.” #QatarInCongress #IlhanQatar"
Presumably it's Islamophobic to protest the detention of Muslims, since Muslim countries support it