Category: CHINESE WAY OF LIFE - The Greanville Post

RAMIN MAZAHERI’S QUESTIONS AND HALFWAY THROUGH HIS 8-PART NEW CHINA SCHOLARSHIP SERIES. CHINA RISING RADIO SINOLAND 180722

Pictured above: the colorful and informative New China Scholarship.

Downloadable SoundCloud podcast (also at the bottom of this page), YouTube video, as well as being syndicated oniTunes, Stitcher Radio, RUvid and Ivoox (links below):

Mazaheri

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]amin Mazaheri is the author of the New China Scholarship series. It was originally published by The Saker(http://thesaker.is/), then picked up by The Greanville Post (https://www.greanvillepost.com/), so I decided to take them, add an introduction to each of the eight parts and podcast them in SoundCloud audio and YouTube video. It has been a blast and has opened up whole new vistas of ideas and perspectives for me, and I consider myself knowledgeable about China.

I’ll tell you how good Ramin’s New China Scholarship is. Badak Merah Press just picked up the rights to publish it as a book. Mazaheri’s analysis and ability to contextualize any subject are some of the best in the business. Contextualize is a 25-cent word for putting things into perspective across time, geography and cultures. There are very few as good as he is. I am proud of being able to do the same thing, but in Ramin Mazaheri, I have more than met my match. I tip my hat to someone who is better.

For me personally, I think it has to do with a number of factors, which I’m sure Ramin would agree with. First, getting out and seeing the world, traveling and being receptive to different ways of looking at things, learning new languages and as the Native Americans said, “Walk two moons in someone else’s moccasins”. Ramin is Iranian, Muslim, has traveled all over the place, studied and lives in the West and also speaks English and French, along with his native Farsi.

But, I think the most important barrier that has to be torn down, in order to really critically and contextually look at humanity is an ideological one, and that means questioning the Great Harlot, the Grand Wizard of Oz, capitalism. Ramin apparently caught on much earlier in his life than mine. But, until you can speak truth to power at what most of humanity wants you to believe is a towering machine of unquestioned perfection, then the prism through which you see the real world is hopelessly distorted and perverted.

Born and bred as an aristocrat, privileged from birth, Churchill’s ideology was defiantly anticommunist and imperialist. While the British public has managed to acquire a more nuanced (and sometimes unvarnished) view of the man, Americans continue to be marinated in Churchillian mythologies, with Hollywood and TV constantly bolstering the “Great Man” legend.

Pithy quotes by elites, such as Winston Churchill, who said, The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries, was easy for him to say, being a millionaire insider and getting his 99% of the wealth. Churchill also said, Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. This is pure Western-centric nihilism, when poll after poll shows that Eastern Europeans and Russians regret the loss of the USSR (https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Poll-Most-Russians-Prefer-Return-of-Soviet-Union-and-Socialism-20160420-0051.html and http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/homesick-for-a-dictatorship-majority-of-eastern-germans-feel-life-better-under-communism-a-634122.html). I don’t think Iranians, Cubans, Eritreans, North Koreans, Venezuelans and Chinese agree with that self-serving claim, in spite of the endless billions being spent by the West to destroy their individually unique socialist ways of life. The truth is, Churchill was psychologically deflecting from the realities of capitalism. Change his second aforementioned quote and the real non-fake news stares you in the face,

Capitalism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent criminality is the unequal sharing of misery.

So, I think this is the reason that Ramin Mazaheri is such a good analyst of humanity’s zeitgeist. For me, coming face-to-face with capitalism was like being an alcoholic all your life, finally sobering up and your whole perception of reality changes overnight. It’s hard to do, because as I joke, we Westerners start getting brainwashed in the womb about the moral superiority of capitalism and pluralistic democracy, and from birth the propaganda is relentless day in and day out.

After I started podcasting his series, Ramin sent me some questions that were nagging him. Here they are, all good ones,

So the NPC (National People’s Congress) meets once every 5 years, and that is when they pass new legislation. How much can the United Front dissent from this new legislation – at 30% is that enough to stop legislation they don’t like?

Answer #1: As I pointed out in Book #3 of The China Trilogy, China Is Communist Dammit – Dawn of the Red Dynasty the one Ramin uses in his series, China has a loyal opposition, called the United Front. It is composed of eight parties (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_China). I had the pleasure of meeting the leader of the China Democratic League. Here’s the deal. Just like the West will never allow socialism or communism to become a reality, China is not going to allow capitalism to take the reins either. However, for any proposed legislation, the United Front is a valuable sounding board and critique, to keep the CPC grounded in reality. If the criticisms of a law under debate are loud enough, the NPC is going to listen and likely consider amendments.

But this is true for all legislation proposed in the NPC. When the NGO Control Law was proposed (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2016/04/30/baba-beijing-lowers-the-communist-boom-on-foreign-ngos-china-rising-radio-sinoland-16-4-30/), there was such a hue and cry from foreign governments, that the NPC tabled it for several months to allow debate and discussion. How many Western countries let other governments criticize pending legislation? Anybody, including you, dear China Rising Radio Sinoland (CRRS) fans can go online and comment about any bill being proposed in the NPC. At the same time, the CPC is the biggest polling entity in the world, which I wrote about in Book #2 of The China Trilogy, China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations. I see these pollsters all the time, on the sidewalks and in shopping malls, asking about everything from local corruption to garbage collection service to women’s public health screening tests. Neighborhoods routinely post requests, asking citizens to drop by the local government office to tell them what they think of this issue or that problem.

Millions of Chinese critique pending legislation, from their neighborhood committee to the NPC and if there is serious opposition to any proposal, it is likely not going to pass in its current form. The NPC drops proposed bills all the time, while debating and amending them in the process. The same goes for local, city and provincial laws.

I ask you, can you find a more democratic, participatory system of governance on Earth? Maybe Switzerland’s. China’s reality is so distorted in the West, because if Euranglolanders started asking, Hey, how come we can’t do that, how come no one listens to us?, the elites would have to pull off even more false flags and invade and destroy more countries, to keep their miserable masses distracted and scared.

A few other modern China analysts – Godfree Roberts, who else? Are there other books similar to yours, or do you view your book as truly unique in 2018 being a modern, sympathetic history of modern China?

Answer #2: Godfree Roberts has not published his book yet, China 2020: Everything You Know Is Wrong, but having read a few chapters he has sent me to comment on, I know it’s going to be an excellent addition to New China Scholarship. Until then, go to my blog page (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/blog-2/), search “Godfree” and you can listen to our several interviews on my CRRS show. I have had him on more than anybody else, since he is very informed about China, is witty and does a great job of contextualizing and analysis.

It has been many years since I read it, but I recall Martin Jacque’s book, When China Rules the World, to be an objective read (rumor has it he is a closeted socialist!). To toot my own horn, all the books in The China Trilogy empathetically tell the Chinese people’s 5,000-year story, up to analyzing today’s headlines. Outside of books, there are many modern writers, such as Andre Vltchek and Pepe Escobar, who honestly report on China, not to mention Ramin Mazaheri.

How much ’50s and ’60s corruption can be attributed to the presence of “reformed” KMT supporters? Did the CCP dissolve the KMT, like the Baathists in Iraq, or were they forced to incorporate them?

Answer #3: After the United States helped save Chiang Kai-Shek and some of his gangster army, by giving them safe passage to Taiwan, there were still millions of KMT soldiers and sympathizers stranded on the mainland after communist liberation in 1949. The Communist Party of China went to great lengths to reform those who were willing to support the revolution, but if they were unrepentant or known bad guys, then they were likely imprisoned or executed. Not only the KMT, but it was the same story for anybody who was an enemy during the Chinese civil war before 1949. This included landlords, business owners, warlords with their armies and government officials. Those who repented and agreed to support New China were given an opportunity to do so. Those who raped, stole and abused the people were judged by their local peers and the vote may have been execution or prison.

But millions, KMT and others, slipped through the cracks or insincerely agreed to join the cause and then went about trying to undo China’s liberation. They had plenty of help. The West was sending in Tibetan and Taiwanese saboteurs to foment counterrevolution. China had been the West’s colonial whore for 110 years, until 1949. Imperial exploitation and extraction were the economic model during that time. Thus, millions of citizens had been plugged into this now defeated capitalist system: drug importers, drug dealers, casinos, houses of prostitution, racketeers, extortionists, loan sharks, smugglers, criminal gangs, human and child traffickers, slave and serf masters, corrupt government officials, as well as all their hangers-on. A good number of them were against New China’s lofty ambitions and secretly organized and worked to take the country back to its century of humiliation, for personal aggrandizement and enrichment.

As Ramin wrote in his New China Scholarship series so far, not only was the West sending in saboteurs, but it drove its armies up to the Yalu River and China’s border during the Korean War, while bombing the Chinese and Koreans with germ weapons, in hopes of killing millions via epidemics (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2018/06/25/bioweapon-truth-commission-and-global-online-library-bwtc-gol-www-bioweapontruth-com/). At the same time, the United States was already in Vietnam, massacring millions in the hopes of conquering North Vietnam, in order to plant divisions of NATO forces and nuclear weapons on China’s southern flank. Both of these crimes against humanity were not about “freedom and democracy”. They were all about weakening communist China, in order to overthrow it. Eurangloland is still working double time and spending billions to do just that.

Aside from Ramin’s three questions, I would like to give him kudos for the amazing portrait he painted of the world in the 1960s-1970s. Apart from the two aforementioned wars on China’s borders, I had not thought about the fact that Indonesia was suffering its own anti-communist holocaust, with the West working side-by-side with its new fascist stooge leader, General Suharto, exterminating up to 3,000,000 citizens – just about everybody who was branded a “liberal”. Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Australia were and still are occupied American satraps. Taiwan was militarily occupied until 1979, and still is geopolitically. No wonder Mao Zedong and his government justifiably felt besieged from the outside, along with economic, financial, technological and trade blockades that today’s Iranians, Cubans, North Koreans, Eritreans, Venezuelans, Palestinians and many more nations illegally suffer under.

Finally, double kudos for Ramin’s amazing synthesis of Mao’s celebrated 1966 swim across the mighty Yangtze River, with the ancient book, I Ching. I hadn’t read the I Ching since the 1990s, when we lived in China the first time, 1990-1997. But, he’s absolutely right. An educated Chinese friend confirmed that Mao was deeply knowledgeable about Daoism, Confucianism, the I Ching and all the classic texts. He was easily one of the most cultured, erudite world leaders of the 20^th century.

Ramin is right, most Westerners have not read the Bible, but are steeped in its stories, allegories, vernacular and iconography. The same is true for the Chinese. Most have not taken the time to read the many tens of thousands of pages of classics accrued over the last five millennia, but recognize their well-known stories, allegories, vernacular and iconography in popular culture.

Thus, Mao knew exactly what he was doing, vis-à-vis the I Ching, when he dared to swim the Yangtze, to challenge and inspire his 740 million citizens to join the noble goals of the Cultural Revolution.

Bravissimo and thank you, Mr. Mazaheri for discovering one of the greatest historical socio-political analyses of New China!

Now, I can start podcasting the last half of Ramin’s New China Scholarship, Parts 5-8.

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By Pavel Nastin / New Eastern Outlook

China is employing a foreign policy strategy in Africa that is both an inherent part of and intertwined with Beijing’s foreign policy doctrine. Its main aim is to turn the African continent into China’s strategic asset, whose purpose would be to grow PRC’s political and economic might and enable China to position itself as a superpower. In Beijing’s eyes, Africa is rich in valuable resources and is quite a capacious vast market, with a population of 1.2 billion people, for its goods, the continent is also one of the largest recipients of Chinese investments. Long-term plans include transforming Africa into a manufacturing zone, that China, having invested on a large scale in, could move its production facilities to, in order to be closer to sources of raw materials and labor. Ultimately, this will allow China to free itself of old technologies and clear the path for the fourth wave of innovation.

Part of this strategy includes PRC’s interest in transforming Africa into a stable peaceful zone because only such a scenario would justify large-scale investments in this continent, and ensure steadfast sales of Chinese goods there.

The Chinese are genuinely liked in many parts of Africa, as their approach is not brutally imperialistic.

This strategy was developed at the beginning of 2000s and it has been systematically updated since then. Starting in 2006, White Papers on China’s policies in Africa have been published, and they increasingly focus on the continent’s security and the fight against terrorism. From Beijing’s point of view, providing security is closely linked with eliminating poverty and underdevelopment, and these are the processes that China would like to take part in with its goods, technologies and investments.

For China, security and development are intertwined, and take priority over actively promoted Western doctrines that link human rights with democracy, as well as appropriate management with economic progress. Guided by its own experience, Beijing does not subscribe to this doctrine and spends its time actively promoting its own vision, based on the need to support economic development and ensure security, while for the most part ignoring progress made by various countries in the spheres of democracy and human rights.

In addition, China believes that it should not meddle in African internal affairs or participate in military interventions, as do Western nations in order to reach their own political and economic goals. China’s priority is to safeguard its interests by taking part in numerous peacemaking missions in the continent and thus guarantee security of its investments.

In practice, this means that China has become one of the most active participants, among the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, in the operation to maintain peace in Africa. As at 30 June 2017, 2515 Chinese military personnel have participated in peacemaking operations in Africa. And as far back as 2015, the President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping announced that he was planning on increasing the number of his peacemaking troops to 8000 people. The truth is that the Chinese do not take part in military operations and instead are part of supply units. Still, the Chinese military presence in Africa began in 2013, as that year Beijing sent a 197-strong unit on a mission to Mali, and in 2015, 700 soldiers were deployed to Sudan, where China has substantial oil interests.

Chinese advisors now exist in many countries, operating in industrial, commercial and military areas.

At the same time, Beijing has been helping the African Union with regional security issues. In 2017 China gave a grant of 100 million US dollars to the African Union for the purchase of military goods for its peacemaking troops in Africa. Additionally, China aided the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) in combatting Al-Shabaab’s terrorist activities by spending vast sums on the preparation of Uganda People’s Defence Force and the Kenya Defence Force, which are actively involved in AMISOM.

China also makes a significant contribution to the fight against piracy. From 2008 to 2015, approximately 16 thousand Chinese sailors, and 1,300 marines and special forces personnel were part of armed convoys.

In 2015 a contract on building the first Chinese military base in Africa, in Djibouti was signed. Chinese military personnel have already been stationed there since 2017. According to the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, establishing this base “reflected China’s desire to play a constructive role in solving international and regional problems, and to create a safer, more stable conditions for its activities abroad”.

The reasons behind these actions become clear, if one is aware of the fact that, at present, more than 2000 Chinese companies and over a million Chinese work in the African continent and need to ensure security.

Admittedly, this Chinese strategy has, by and large, borne its fruit. Trade turnover between Beijing and the African continent has reached $180-200 billion per year, while Chinese investments have increased to $100 billion since 2000. China’s main partners in Africa are Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, DR Congo, Zambia, Angola, Morocco, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and some others.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]o further its interests, Beijing also uses means such as aid in the form of grants, interest-free and low interest loans, debt write-off, charitable construction projects, tax exempt import of certain African goods, sending experts to African countries, establishment of health centres and educating African students. All of this leads to China’s rapidly growing influence, the Chinese language is even becoming the language of cross-national communication between students, as is the case in Kenya.

In order to bring these ambitious policies to life, China has created an arsenal of tools and mechanisms. Under the auspices of Chinese state bodies, the investment projects are being strategically implemented by China Development Bank, and China Investment Corporation, which is a sovereign wealth fund.

CARVING UP A PRESENCE IN AN UNSTABLE CONTINENT LONG DOMINATED BY THE WEST —AND EASILY SUBJECT TO ITS DIRTY TRICKS—IS RISKY BUSINESS FOR THE CHINESE

Chinese investors in Africa have suffered huge losses due to instability on the continent and the failure of some mainland companies to fully grasp local conditions, a major think tank has warned. China has greatly expanded its infrastructure, energy, mining and manufacturing businesses in Africa in recent years, but the investment environment there has many risks and many companies’ operations are flawed, according to the annual report on development in Africa by the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Official statistics showed China’s direct investment in Africa reached US$32.35 billion in 2014, with more than 3,000 companies operating in 52 countries across the continent.—Liu Zhen, South China Morning Post

Among specialized aid agencies, the China-Africa Development Fund (CAD Fund), the Development of Productive Capacities Fund, the Small and Medium-Size Enterprises Development Fund, the Silk Road Fund, the Confucius Institute and the Human Resource Development Foundation are worth mentioning.

The China-Africa Development Fund stands apart from the other instruments used by China to extend its influence in Africa. In 2007 the China Development Bank provided the capital required to establish this organization, which is an investment fund, registered according to PRC’s Private Law. In other words, it is not a sovereign wealth fund, but the share of its capital provided by the China Development Bank makes state control over this institution possible.

Unlike other similar Chinese organizations, the CAD Fund does not provide lines of credit but instead invests directly in Africa by financing business projects whose goal is to collaborate with African countries. The fund usually covers one third of the required capital, thus taking on the role of a passive investor. The remainder is financed by Chinese and foreign investors.

So far, the CAD Fund has invested $3.2 billion in 91 projects in 36 African countries over the course of 10 years. Overall, Chinese investments in Africa amount to $100 billion.

In practice, the Fund invests capital in the energy sector, infrastructure, mining and processing of natural resources, and agriculture. These types of Chinese projects in Africa include the construction of more than 100 industrial parks, over 40% of which are already operational. By the end of 2016, 5756 km of railway lines, 4335 km of roads, 9 ports, 14 airports, 34 power stations and also 10 large and thousands of small hydroelectric power stations had been built!

Thus, China has achieved impressive results in Africa over the past 10 to 12 years. Having developed the right long-term strategy supported by effective financial and political instruments as well as financial resources, China has developed the most fruitful policy, which at present is much more successful than those of other nations. And this is something that everyone will have to reckon with.

Pavel Nastin, political observer on Asia and Africa, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found

In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” — acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump — a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report

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By Andrew KORYBKO } OrientalReview.org

China is no longer a paper tiger in military capabilities. Which only raises the ante in the face of colossal idiotic provocations.

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]eaked Chinese military documents purport that the People’s Liberation Army will seek to expand its presence across the world in order to defend its Silk Road interests.

The Japan Times was the first outlet to report on the plans that putatively circulated in Chinese circles back in February and which implored the state to concentrate on expanding its force projection capabilities beyond coastal defense and into the maritime and land realms. Although not directly stated, this is in clear reference to the need that China has to protect its Silk Road infrastructure investments and Sea Lines Of Communication (SLOC), mirroring the path that all other globally relevant Great Powers before it followed in having their overseas military activity driven by economic interests.

It was only a matter of time before China naturally did so as well, despite publicly eschewing this approach and being extremely sensitive to how it’s portrayed, though with good reason because of the likelihood that this will be exploited through weaponized infowar means as supposed “proof” that the country is really just “another imperial power”, albeit one that cleverly disguises its military moves with win-win Silk Road slogans. That’s not entirely correct, though it feeds into India’s paranoia about China’s creeping military encirclement through the so-called “String of Pearls” infrastructure projects around its South Asian periphery.

About those, it would make the most sense for China to reach agreements with the host states there and beyond similar to the 2016 Logistics Exchange Memorandum Of Agreement (LEMOA) between the US and India in allowing both parties to use each other’s military facilities on a case-by-case “logistical” basis, essentially giving some category of Silk Road projects such as seaports and airports a dual function even though this is exactly what American think tanks warned would eventually happen. Even so, it’s the most logical and cost-effective security solution available.

The catch, though, is that China must avoid being drawn into “mission creep” all across the world in defending its Silk Road interests, to which end it’s likely to avoid having any significant military presence overseas, let alone in actual conflict zones apart from the Hybrid War experiences that its peacekeepers are presently learning from. Thus, China will probably step up its training, advisory, and assistance missions to its many partners as part of its own multipolar version of the US’ “Lead From Behind” strategy, which could for example see future aircraft carrier deployments off the African coast in order to help its in-country allies respond to anti-Silk Road militants.

The People’s Liberation Army is therefore predicted to become a hemispheric force active all across Afro-Eurasia, though concentrating mostly on the supercontinental Heartland of Central Asia and the East African coast of the Indian Ocean Region in managing its dual mainland-maritime military competencies in protecting the Silk Road. This is natural given China’s expanding security interests by virtue of the need to defend the trade routes and infrastructure that form the backbone of its export-oriented economy and consequently its national stability, though it will undoubtedly be misportrayed by the country’s enemies as an “aggressive move” driven by “neo-imperial” calculations.

The post presented is the partial transcript of the CONTEXT COUNTDOWN radio program on Sputnik News, aired on Friday July 13, 2018:

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DISCLAIMER: The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions of any other media outlet or institution.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Korybko is a political analyst, journalist and a regular contributor to several online journals, as well as a member of the expert council for the Institute of Strategic Studies and Predictions at the People’s Friendship University of Russia. He specializes in Russian affairs and geopolitics, specifically the US strategy in Eurasia. His other areas of focus include tactics of regime change, color revolutions and unconventional warfare used across the world. His book, “Hybrid Wars: The Indirect Adaptive Approach To Regime Change”, extensively analyzes the situations in Syria and Ukraine and claims to prove that they represent a new model of strategic warfare being waged by the US.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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OUR NEIGHBORS ROARED WHEN RUSSIA SCORED. DEAD SILENCE WHEN CROATIA HIT THE NET. CHINA RISING RADIO SINOLAND 180710

Pictured above: I know, you’re asking, “What does a statue of Charles de Gaulle have to do with Russia, Croatia and the World Cup”? There IS a connection. Read on…

Downloadable SoundCloud podcast (also at the bottom of this page), YouTube video, as well as being syndicated on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, RUvid and Ivoox (links below).

With the time zone difference, the World Cup matches in China have been starting at 18:00, 22:00 and then 02:00 the following morning. Three nights ago, it was Russia and Croatia in their quarterfinal match, which kicked off at 02:00.

At 02:30, I was suddenly awakened by a deafening, raucous cheer. Russia had just drawn first blood against Croatia. Mind you, our double-paned windows were closed, we had on an air conditioner and the bar-restaurant where the eruption took place is 12 floors below us! It was easy to realize that my middle- and working class neighbors were supporting Russia, because when Croatia scored nine minutes later, there was total silence below.

By then, I couldn’t go back to sleep and when Croatia went ahead, 2-1, again, dead silence from the Chinese football fans far below. Extra time and it was 04:30 in the morning when Russia made it 2-2 in the last minute of overtime. This time, it was silent. I guess the fans were too worn out, too drunk or could sense that, while Russia gave it hell, by all reports, Croatia was clearly the stronger side.

When it went to penalty kicks and Russia missed the first salvo, again, total silence. Like the bad omen of a devastating flood or earthquake, that for thousands of years could spell the loss of a Chinese emperor’s Heavenly Mandate, that blown first kick portended the obvious. Russia’s unimaginable World Cup run to the quarterfinals was coming to a proud, but defeated end.

This was all a great anecdotal experience about life on the streets of China and geopolitical preferences of the average citizen. Not to mention, local football fans who are willing to go out at two o’clock in the morning to root for Russia, when China never even qualified for the World Cup (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2018/06/22/100000-chinese-going-to-the-world-cup-in-russia-with-no-team-to-cheer-for-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180622/ and http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2018/07/02/football-was-chinas-national-sport-for-millennia-why-are-they-so-bad-now-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180702/).

My wife and I will be joining them tonight, at 02:00, to see France go against Belgium. It should be a great match. When we went to watch France dispatch Argentina in the first round of the knockout phase, 4-3, we were the only non-Chinese at our neighborhood restaurant-bar. The crowd was decidedly in favor of France. I’m not sure why, given its crucial colonial role in profiting from China’s opium enslavement during the West’s imperial century of humiliation, 1839-1949. However, that sordid fact is forgotten in the minds of most Chinese, although they will tell you right away about Great Britain’s and the United States’ dastardly role in China before 1949’s communist liberation.

“Three books that should be obligatory reading for most Western readers.”—P. Greanville, Editor, The Greanville Post.

Instead, they fondly recall President Charles de Gaulle, who was the first Western leader to recognize Red China, way back in 1964, in spite of intense imperial pressure from Uncle Sam not to do so. De Gaulle was staunchly anti-American, which Baba Beijing really appreciated. The Chinese also admire de Gaulle, since he saw the writing on the wall and willingly pulled out of Southeast Asia as a colonial ruler, in what the French called Indochina, back in 1954. This, after the US extorted him to militarily occupy Dien Bien Phu, using all American materiel, or else be deprived of postwar Marshall Plan funding, to help rebuild France. Your typical American “ally” relationship – nothing but a poodle to be kicked around. Trapped in a bowl surrounded by mountains, Dien Bien Phu led to the inevitable and humiliating loss of thousands of French soldiers, at the hands of Ho Chi Minh’s communist forces. It was time to leave. All of this fascinating and largely unknown background is richly detailed in Books #2 and #3 of The China Trilogy (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2017/05/19/the-china-trilogy/), China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (https://ganxy.com/i/113798/) and China Is Communist Dammit – Dawn of the Red Dynasty (https://www.amazon.com/China-Communist-Dammit-Dawn-Dynasty/dp/6027354380/).

For the 50^th anniversary of Sino-French relations, China accepted a towering three-meter bronze statue of de Gaulle, by artist Jean Cardot, a replica of the one on Paris’ Champs-Elysées. This one is prominently displayed on the first floor of the National Museum in Beijing. I have not seen any other foreigners so visibly lauded in China’s flagship museum, thus it’s quite an honor. Its photo is up top.

Then again, our neighbors’ lack of support for Argentina may have had a more mundane explanation. Possibly, everybody is a little sick and tired of Lionel Messi. At halftime, he was in every other ad, promoting the Chinese dairy company, Mengniu, along with potato chips, Pepsi, a Chinese herbal tea called Jialibao, and god knows what else. Portugal’s Cristiano Renaldo was also selling cars, sportswear and who knows what. I think it’s time for both of them to retire. De Gaulle had the good sense to quit Indochina. As went Dien Bien Phu, the writing is on the wall for these two gazillionaire footballers, who were clearly outclassed in this year’s World Cup.

FOOTBALL WAS CHINA’S NATIONAL SPORT FOR MILLENNIA. WHY ARE THEY SO BAD NOW? CHINA RISING RADIO SINOLAND 180702

Pictured above: on the left is Emperor Taizu of Song playing cuju (football) with Prime Minister Zhao Pu. He reigned in the 10^th century. This painting is by artist Qian Xuan (1235–1305). On the right, 1,000 years later, then Vice President Xi Jinping showed off his football skills, while inspecting a stadium in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Xi was picked to oversee China’s Olympic Committee, to make sure the games were a success. A lot of people are unaware of this fact. Was Xi channeling China’s millennial love for football, by having this photo blasted all over the country? He has been instrumental in turbocharging his citizens’ passion for the beautiful game.

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I first learned about the long history of Chinese football, when going to a whiskey bar in Beijing, named Cuju (蹴鞠 = cùjū). Funny enough, it was owned by a Moroccan, which only added to the cosmopolitan ambiance of the evening. I had never seen this word in Chinese in my life and when I looked it up and saw that it meant ancient football/soccer, I was intrigued. The owner confirmed to me that he christened his bar Cuju, because he was a passionate lover of the modern game, currently being played at the highest levels of the World Cup in Russia.

While it riles many English people, who are rightfully proud of their contributions to modern football, on July 15^th, 2004 FIFA officially declared that the game originated in China (http://ancient-chinese-life.blogspot.com/2011/01/chinese-ancient-football-cuju.html).

Cuju is not the name used in today’s Mandarin for the modern game of football. That would be zúqiú (足球), literally the first character meaning foot and the second meaning ball, making a compound word. Cuju goes back 2,300 years, long before the birth of Christ. While the Chinese were refining the rules of football, the West’s first foreign policy foray was in full force, with Greece’s Alexander raping, enslaving and exterminating entire populations, while plundering their resources in Africa and Asia. His Eurangloland successors are maintaining this proud Western tradition of genocide, exploitation and extraction across the same continents and beyond, in the Americas and Oceania.

Football was developed during the short-lived Qin Dynasty (3^rd century BC), where the word China likely comes from. It gained tremendous popularity in the Han Dynasty, which lasted two hundred years before and two centuries after Christ. It was especially popular among the upper class and military. It was also a big hit among the ladies, so take that, Mia Hamm. In the court records, one young woman was so good that she beat an entire men’s team by herself, like some female Sino-Pele. Go girl go!

Chinese ladies playing cuju, by the Ming Dynasty painter Du Jin, circa 15th century.

Meanwhile, the West was entertaining its masses with gladiators butchering each other to gory death and feeding prisoners to carnivorous animals as sporting amusement. [Rome, incidentally, depleted and caused the extermination of several species of big fauna in Northern and sub-Saharan Africa due to its insatiable lust for wild beasts used in the gladiatorial arenas of the empire.—Eds] Nothing like a rousing picnic at the colosseum, watching famished hyenas and lions scarf down the entrails and brains of what’s left of a human carcass. Yummy! Clockwork Orange, me droogs, time for a little bit of the ol’ ultra-violence, said Alex. Westerners haven’t changed much in the last 2,000 years, when it comes to their bloodlust, except that it went global centuries ago, much to the tragic loss of the rest of the world, and continue to do so.

The Han turned football into a professional sport, with stands full of spectators watching the matches. The rules were almost identical to today’s game. Two teams of twelve to sixteen players each battled on a pitch, with an opposing net on each end to shoot and score into; the only way to move and pass the ball was with the feet. By the Tang Dynasty (7^th-10^th centuries), football was so popular that the capital city had playing fields all over the place, with popularity of the sport spreading to all levels of society. I can imagine kids were kicking footballs up and down streets and in parks, just like they do today around the world, as depicted in the 12th century painting below.

One Hundred Children in the Long Spring (長春百子圖), a painting by Chinese artist Su Hanchen (蘇漢臣), active 1130–1160s AD. Nothing has changed for thousands of years.

The original footballs were made of leather, which were filled with animal hair and/or feathers. The Tang Chinese developed the pressurized air bladder, so like today’s ball, it had bounce, and could travel much further and faster. It revolutionized the game. Corner kick…goal!

In the 10^th century, the game was so popular that big cities developed professional leagues and they held a national championship (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuju), predecessors to UEFA (European League) and the World Cup. I wonder how well these medieval players would do this year in Russia?

By the Song Dynasty (10^th-13^th centuries), the game evolved less as a team sport and became more of a competition to see who could keep the ball off the ground the longest, using all of the body, except the arms, which is very similar to today’s rules of contact. Handball! This was called báidǎ (白打). It is still played by millions of Chinese in neighborhoods across the country, except that to accommodate small public spaces, they kick and keep in the air a big weighted feather shuttlecock, which doesn’t bounce and fly all over the place, called a jiànzi (毽子). I see locals playing it for hours on end, after work and on the weekends.

Woodcut illustration [—>] from the classic medieval Chinese novel, Outlaws of the Marsh, aka The Water Margin or All Men Are Brothers. The story has similarities to Robin Hood, bandits who help the common folk, with wealthy people’s money. Several passages in this celebrated Sino-fiction laud the Song Dynasty’s beautiful game, cuju.

While China’s Song Dynasty technology, culture and civilization were centuries ahead of the rest world, Europeans were massacring each other, Muslims, Slavs and Jews by the millions, as fanatical leaders and their people participated in the genocidal Crusades into Palestine. It was suitably called the Dark Ages.

Contrasting the West’s many bloodbaths, it was during this time that Marco Polo traveled around and lived in China, in total awe and amazement of the country and its people. Going back to what was a European hellhole must have been deeply shocking in comparison. It is speculated that football, like so many other things Westerners take for granted, was brought back to Europe along the Silk Roads. I hate to break it to you, Romans, but the Chinese invented spaghetti centuries before it was brought west to Italy (9c vs. 13-14c). This list of technical, commercial and cultural imports from China is a kilometer long, into the 20^th century and onto the present (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2018/03/20/china-tech-invention-innovation-technology-research-and-development-past-present-future-5000-years-of-progress-a-china-rising-radio-sinoland-living-document/).

Thereafter, women got really involved in football, with prostitutes organizing games to attract horny sport jocks to their brothels. Talk about marketing synergy. Shouting out, Game on!, joking about how you just had to reduce the pressure in your balls and asking your friend if they scored, took on whole new meanings in the Ming Dynasty (13^th-17^th centuries). Ming emperors even officially banned the game by imperial decree, with some threatening as punishment to cut off the culprits’ feet. By the Qing Dynasty (17^th-20^th centuries), cuju, or football became nothing more than historical nostalgia.

Ming Dynasty Emperor Yongle, early 15thcentury, taking in a game of football, being played by court eunuchs. I guess they didn’t need to wear jock straps.

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ould the Chinese be a global force in football, if the game hadn’t died a slow, ignominious death here, hundreds of years ago? Some people speculate that this is part of the explanation of why China has only been to one World Cup, 2002, when it crashed out with three straight losses and couldn’t even get a cuju ball into the net one time (http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2152717/why-chinas-world-cup-failings-might-be-explained). That was 16 long, frustrating years ago. Since 1980, Baba Beijing has been promoting and developing, with great success, winter and summer Olympic champions. China has gotten no less than fourth place in total summer medal rankings since 2000, although less spectacularly so in the winter games (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_at_the_Olympics). Football has simply not been a targeted sport to excel in.

There is a common refrain that, China has so many people, they should dominate in football, but it’s a false assumption. It has nothing to do with China’s huge population and everything to do with tradition and nationwide sports development, going back decades: this is what we do.

Two cases in point illustrate this very well. Norway, with a population of only about five million people, has won more Winter Olympics medals than any other country, way ahead of the rest of the world. Why? Because Norwegian children put on skis and skates as soon as they can walk, and the citizens make the commitment and invest the resources towards these sports: this is what we do.

New Zealand, also with a population of about five million people, strikes fear every time its All Blacks rugby team trots onto the pitch, with their celebrated pre-match Maori war dance, called the haka. This small country, with the population of a third-tier city in China, is so dominant in world rugby competition, that when they lose, everybody is shocked. Why? Because Kiwis are handed a rugby ball as soon as they can stand up and the entire nation focuses its investment and development in this sport: this is who we are.

This photo was a sensation in China when it hit the national media, with then Vice President Xi Jinping kicking a football in Dublin. What most people did not know is that it was a Gaelic football, used in a national sport of Ireland, somewhat of a cross between international football and rugby. The distinction was lost. What the Chinese people saw was that their future president is gaga about football.

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or 2,000 years, the Chinese were the face and spirit of “global football”, as it were, then they lost their mojo. But they can take heart and always get it back: this is who we are and what we do. Since Xi Jinping was elected president in 2013, this same kind of Olympic focus and ambition has turned to nationwide football. Xi loves the beautiful game and his passion and commitment have infected the entire population. It took the Chinese a generation to become world beaters at the Olympics and with the money and organization going into football development (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2018/06/22/100000-chinese-going-to-the-world-cup-in-russia-with-no-team-to-cheer-for-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180622/), winning the World Cup may not take as long as 25-30 years. While not officially declared, I suspect that privately, Baba Beijing wants to win at least one, if not both the men’s and women’s World Cups by 2049, the centennial anniversary for the founding of communist-socialist New China.

A heartbroken Chinese fan at the 2002 World Cup, the only time China has qualified for this competition. Hang in there, my friend, your day of glory will come. The characters on his right cheek say, “spirit” and his bandana shouts, “China on to victory”.

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FOOTBALL WAS CHINA’S NATIONAL SPORT FOR MILLENNIA. WHY ARE THEY SO BAD NOW?

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