How are you doing? Surviving? In my conversations with you, you’re telling me you’re ok, or you email that you’re ready to get your life back. It is such a strange time with so much chatter in our heads. We need a break from ourselves.
You’re telling me about your life and I’m hearing the differences depending on where you are—you’re ok in the heartland, but the coasts are another story.
A valued reader writes from the tranquility of the Sierras explaining how different it feels from downtown San Fran. Another was just at Yellowstone and another, in New York, explains how this has been the hardest period of his life.
When forty percent of coronavirus deaths are in nursing homes isn’t it time to rethink this knee jerk reaction by blue state governors gone wild? You would think change is gonna come but look at the speculation in stocks—talk about crazy. The media decries the “second wave” while we’re still in the first one. Where’s the common sense?
Where’s the outcry against China, Inc. that exported this stuff? No, the media covers BLM, the movement to defund the police, and the second wave? Why would China have a problem with this? Talk about going under the radar.
Who wants to vote for Biden and “Defund the Police?” How about a vote for Biden and a trashing of your gun rights? How about jobs? What will Biden do? Look at what happens when blue state governors go wild. Then you have the Biden family business, China, Inc. President Trump was right from the beginning stopping flights from China. Trump stands up to China while Joe stays in his basement bunker.
In The 1 Hour China Book, the most disturbing trend is the urbanization of China. Imagine the viruses that will be cooked up with more and more Wuhan’s being created literally overnight. Trump has been right from the beginning: China is a problem.
At the Mercatus Institute, Michael Auslin goes into detail about China’s coronavirus deception, and the new era it heralds for global security. He writes:
The COVID-19 pandemic that began in Wuhan, China, has led to a sharp intensification in tensions between the United States and China. With clear evidence that Beijing covered up the extent and nature of the epidemic in its early months, using the World Health Organization (WHO) to mislead the world, the Chinese government has struck back through a global propaganda campaign designed to boost China’s image. Its “wolf warrior” diplomacy, employed by Chinese bureaucrats to intimidate and browbeat both the United States and other nations, has revealed a threatening picture of China that runs counter to its efforts to present a benign face to the world in the face of its seemingly inexorable rise.
The new cold war between Washington and Beijing, however, has not been limited to rhetorical salvoes. The Trump administration has expanded its rebalancing policy that began with levying tariffs on Chinese goods. In May, President Trump took steps to block sales of semiconductor chips to Chinese telecom company Huawei, and the administration is discussing other policies to “decouple” the US from the Chinese economy. In concert with Japan and Australia, the Trump administration also established the Blue Dot Network in late 2019, to promote transparent infrastructure funding throughout Eurasia, in direct competition with Beijing’s One Belt, One Road Initiative (OBOR).
Further, the Defense Department has maintained regular freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, conducting two in May alone in an attempt to counter the expansion of China’s military presence in those vital waters. In June, the US Indo-Pacific Command sent several aircraft carriers and their strike groups to patrol different areas in the Pacific Ocean simultaneously. The administration is also moving to redress American vulnerabilities exploited by the Chinese Communist Party, by announcing that it will cancel the US visas of Chinese graduate students and researchers with ties to the Chinese military. In the latest flare-up between the two nations, Washington is mulling ending Hong Kong’s special trading status in response to Beijing’s imposition of a new national security law on the territory, effectively ending its autonomous status.
All this geopolitical jockeying raises questions not merely about the future path of US-China relations, but about China’s global position once the pandemic passes. Under the leadership of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping, Beijing has dramatically expanded its global footprint through global military deployments and OBOR, drawing widespread scrutiny of its actions. Since coming to power in late 2012, Xi has eschewed former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s well-known “hide and bide” strategy and formally announced his goal of making China a leading, if not the dominant, global power.
Until the coronavirus hit, China seemed well on its way to solidifying its global influence. Magnifying claims that Washington was withdrawing from the international stage, Xi portrayed a more powerful China in areas such as artificial intelligence and 5G, a blue-water navy, and economic institutions such as the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the like. At the same time, however, China’s economic growth rate was slowing, diplomatic tensions with many of its neighbors were worsening, and criticism of Xi’s crackdown on civil society revealed a China facing numerous challenges. China appeared both stronger than ever before, while also facing serious problems that raised questions about its future.
Read more here.
