On Aug. 8, Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao, which is a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), reported that an official of the US Consulate General had met with four members of Hong Kong’s pan-democratic forces in the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel.
The Ta Kung Pao report, headlined “Foreign forces intervene,” asked whether the US consul had “secretly” met with Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) and Nathan Law (羅冠聰) to “give them face-to-face instructions.”
The report also revealed some private information about the diplomat, including the names of her two children.
US Department of State spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus at a news briefing the same day that the report was published said China’s behavior was that of a “thuggish regime.”
If the US had woken up earlier to this aspect of China’s behavior, it would not be having such a hard time fighting its trade war with China.
In the State of the Union address that he delivered on Jan. 29, 2002, then-US president George W. Bush named Iran, Iraq and North Korea as “outlaw regimes.”
On May 6 that year, White House national security adviser John Bolton, who was at the time under-secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, added three more countries — Cuba, Libya and Syria — to the list, accusing them of sponsoring terrorism and being “rogue states” or “terrorist regimes.”
However, he did not say China was playing a behind-the-scenes role.
When the CCP celebrated the 80th anniversary of its foundation on July 1, 2001, I wrote a commemorative article titled: “You are a gangster.”
I wrote: “Gangsters typically bully the weak, but fear the strong. Look at how the CCP uses any means available, including armed force, to deal with its unarmed citizens and with Taiwan, which is small and weak and does not want to fight a war. The CCP sucks up to the US and Japan because they are rich, but if the other side takes a soft approach, the CCP always takes advantage of it. On the other hand, if the other side takes a hardline approach, the CCP cannot wait to flatter it.”
Nowadays the CCP thinks it has “risen” and looks down its nose at the US and Japan, but when the US really gets tough and prepares for war, the CCP goes back to acting like a “paper tiger,” because it knows it cannot beat the US.
On Dec. 6, 2004, when I was invited to Taiwan from the US, I wrote a report about “China’s gangster economy,” which I summed up as a combination of trickery, denial, intimidation, corruption and theft. In the course of its “rise,” China’s behavior has become even more despicable, with theft now playing the major part.
The “rogue states” identified by the US are all good friends of China’s and get help from it. Beijing stands up for them at the UN Security Council, most often by vetoing action against them. It is fair to say that these states could hardly have survived without China’s support, especially when Russian President Vladimir Putin’s power was not yet fully fledged.
Whenever China comes under criticism from the international community, China bites back by accusing others of whatever it is doing itself. For example, it falsely accuses US President Donald Trump of causing the US-China trade war, while completely denying its own untrustworthiness and theft.
Consider the protests in Hong Kong against a proposed legislative amendment that would have allowed the extradition of suspects from Hong Kong to China. Of course there would be no protests if the amendment had not been proposed, so China is denying its responsibility when it blames the US.
It is clearly the CCP that is waging state terror against its own people, but it accuses Hong Kongers of promoting terrorism.
Since when did Hong Kongers have access to guns and explosives? The CCP’s blatantly false accusations are just what would be expected from gangsters.
The CCP ascended through violence and it has used the same means to stay in power. It thinks that violence is the solution to every problem. No one should be surprised that reporters for pro-CCP newspapers in Hong Kong work part-time as spies. When dealing with rogues like China, logical arguments are only useful for winning over wavering members of the public.
As for the rogues themselves, normal diplomatic methods are no use. They have to be sanctioned by threats or using even stronger violence that will not give them the chance to turn around and bite.
The way the US has handled China since June 4, 1989, when the CCP crushed the democracy movement at Tiananmen Square, is to blame for the CCP being able to bite back now. The US must not forget this lesson, otherwise civilization will be replaced by thuggish values.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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