This article was originally published by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. at Lew Rockwell.
President Trump faces trouble, and he is handling it in a dangerous way. Our economy is reeling, as the Fed pours out billions of dollars in a futile effort to avert disaster. We know to our cost that politicians, faced with crisis at home, provoke war “to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels.”
Unfortunately, this is just what Trump is doing. According to a CNN news report on Friday, May 28, “President Donald Trump launched a blistering attack on Beijing Friday, naming misdeeds that range from espionage to the violation of Hong Kong’s freedoms, and announced a slew of retaliatory measures that will plunge US-China relations deeper into crisis.
‘They’ve ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before,’ Trump said of China, as he decried the way Beijing has ‘raided our factories’ and ‘gutted’ American industry, casting Beijing as a central foil he will run against in the remaining months of his re-election campaign.
Trump called out China for ‘espionage to steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many,’ announced steps to protect American investors from Chinese financial practices, accused Beijing of ‘unlawfully claiming territory in the Pacific Ocean’ and threatening freedom of navigation.
The President also blasted Beijing for passing a national security law that fundamentally undermines Hong Kong’s autonomy, announcing that going forward the US will no longer grant Hong Kong special status on trade or in other areas and instead will apply the same restrictions to the territory it has in place with China. Trump outlined that the US will strip Hong Kong of the special policy measures on extradition, trade, travel, and customs Washington had previously granted it.”
Let’s look at Hong Kong first, as this is the issue most likely to get the American public roused up. “Isn’t it terrible,” some people will say, “that the Chinese government has rounded up and imprisoned rioters against its authority in Hong Kong?” In answer to this, you need to bear in mind a key fact. The American government instigated the Hong Kong protests and egged them on in a direct challenge to the Chinese government. As Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially known for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook,” pointed out last September, “even US policymakers have all but admitted that the US is funneling millions of dollars into Hong Kong specifically to support ‘programs’ there. The Hudson Institute in an article titled, ‘China Tries to Blame US for Hong Kong Protests’ would admit:
A Chinese state-run newspaper’s claim that the United States is helping pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong is only partially inaccurate, a top foreign policy expert said Monday.
Michael Pillsbury, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Fox News National Security Analyst KT McFarland the U.S. holds some influence over political matters in the region.
The article would then quote Pillsbury as saying:
We have a large consulate there that’s in charge of taking care of the Hong Kong Policy Act passed by Congress to ensure democracy in Hong Kong, and we have also funded millions of dollars of programs through the National Endowment for Democracy [NED] … so in that sense, the Chinese accusation is not totally false.
A visit to the NED’s website reveals an entire section of declared funding for Hong Kong specifically. The wording for program titles and their descriptions is intentionally ambiguous to give those like US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plausible deniability.
However, deeper research reveals NED recipients are literally leading the protests.”
Given this provocative US behavior, the Chinese government could not back down. As Pat Buchanan warned back in December: “There is another issue here — the matter of face.”
China has just celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Revolution where Mao proclaimed, ‘China has stood up!’ after a century of foreign humiliations and occupations.
Can Xi Jinping, already the object of a Maoist cult of personality, accept U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of his country or a city that belongs to China? Not likely. Nor is China likely to accede to demands for greater sovereignty, self-determination or independence for Hong Kong.
This would only raise hopes of the city’s eventual escape from its ordained destiny: direct rule by Beijing when the 50-year China-U.K. treaty regarding the transfer of Hong Kong expires in 2047. For Xi to capitulate to the demands of Hong Kong’s demonstrators could cause an outbreak of protests in other Chinese cities and bring on a crisis of the regime.”
In thinking about what to do, we need to be guided by the wisdom of Murray Rothbard. He long ago pointed out that we should oppose American intervention in foreign countries. It isn’t our job to act as a world rights enforcing agency. We should mind our own business. As he put it, “We must say rather that, given the unfortunate existence of the State, we must limit and reduce its power, anywhere and everywhere, and wherever possible. We must try constantly to abolish or at least lower taxes-whether for ‘defense’ or for anything else-and never, never advocate any tax increase. Given the existence of the State, we must try to abolish, and if not abolish to limit and reduce, its internal power-its internal exercise of taxation, counterfeiting, police state aggression, controls, regulations, or whatever. And similarly, we must try to abolish its external power-its power over the citizens of other States. The criminal State must be reduced as much as we can everywhere-whether it be in its internal or external power. In contrast to the usual right-wing partiality for – foreign over domestic intervention, we must recognize that foreign intervention tends to be far worse.”
What Murray said about intervention in Eastern Europe when it was under communist control applies perfectly to our situation: “Now don’t misunderstand me; I have not abandoned the moral principle for cynicism. My heart yearns for ethnic justice, for national self-determination for all peoples. . . . But, to paraphrase Sydney Smith’s famous letter to Lady Grey, please let them work this out for themselves! Let us abandon the criminal immorality and folly of continual coercive meddling by non-Eastern European powers (e.g. Britain, France, and now the U.S.) in the affairs of East Europe. Let us hope that one day Germany and Russia, at peace, will willingly grant justice to the peoples of East Europe, but let us not bring about perpetual wars to try to achieve this artificially.”
Trump’s complaints about China’s trade policies again ignore the role of American provocation. Eric Margolis identifies the core fallacy in Trump’s strategy: “Trump’s wars are economic. They deploy the huge economic and financial might of the United States to steamroll other nations that fail to comply with orders from Washington. Washington’s motto is ‘obey me or else!’ Economic wars are not bloodless. Imperial Germany and the Central Powers were starved into surrender in 1918 by a crushing British naval blockade.
Trade sanctions are not making America great, as Trump claims. They are making America detested around the globe as a crude bully. Trump’s efforts to undermine the European Union and intimidate Canada add to this ugly, brutal image.
Trump’s ultimate objective, as China clearly knows, is to whip up a world crisis over trade, then dramatically end it – of course, before next year’s elections. Trump has become a master dictator of US financial markets, rising or lowering them by surprise tweets. No president should ever have such power, but Trump has seized it.
Trade wars rarely produce any benefits for either side. They are the equivalent of sending tens of thousands of soldiers to be mowed down by machine guns on the blood-soaked Somme battlefield in WWI. Glory for the stupid generals; death and misery for the common soldiers.”
Trump also mentioned Chinese claims of territory in the Pacific Ocean. He ignored the fact that the South China Sea belongs to them, not to us, yet we send our ships there and insist we have a right to control what happens there. Also, a great deal of China’s industry and agriculture is privately owned, so an attack on China would be an attack on private property. Both the neocons and the nationalist “Right” want war with China. We should aim at peace instead, as Murray Rothbard and Ron Paul have taught us.
It is ironic that Trump accused China of industrial espionage. The US has for decades spied and monitored governments and industries all over the world, of course including China.
As the writer “Moon of Alabama” has said, “European countries do not fear China or even Chinese spying. They know that the U.S. is doing similar on a much larger scale. Europeans do not see China as a threat and they do not want to get involved in the escalating U.S.-China spat. . . Every nation spies. It is one of the oldest trades in this world. That the U.S. is making such a fuss about putative Chinese spying when it itself is the biggest sinner is unbecoming.”
The Chinese people are highly productive and intelligent, and their success doesn’t depend on industrial espionage against the United States. Rather than condemn the Chinese, Trump should commend them for their monumental steps toward a free market, with unprecedented economic growth, after suffering the carnage of Maoist communism.
Trump spoke about suing the Chinese for the damage caused by the Covid-19 epidemic. As I wrote in an article last month, “There is good reason to believe that the coronavirus epidemic is part of an American biological warfare campaign against China and Iran. The brilliant physicist Ron Unz, who has time and time again been proved right by events, makes this case in a scintillating analysis.”
Even if the US didn’t do this, it would be highly irregular to sue a nation just because a virus began there. Besides, if America wants to go that route, wouldn’t many countries have grounds to sue America for what the American government did to them? What about Iraq, which has suffered from US bombing and blockades in a war now widely admitted to be a mistake? What about people all over the world who have been killed with arms supplied to foreign governments by the US?
Rather than stir up trouble with China, President Trump should promote free trade. How can it help the people of Hong Kong to deny them its free port, with no tariffs on imports or exports? America needs to confront its domestic crisis, brought on by the terrible lockdown and financial irresponsibility. War with China will only make our present crisis immeasurably worse.
China did not steal national security secrets. American tech companies willingly handed national security secrets and technology blueprints over to the Chinese government in exchange for cheaper labor and less environmental regulations and less labor regulations.
I know Wall Street’s games. They are angry that Trump talks about the economy or trade because they believe that he is stepping on their turf, and Trump has vocally criticized the Fed which is not usually done. So, whenever Trump tweets anything, they go to the most extreme measure to placate him, let it spin out of control, back fire, and let him take the blame, to try to get him to stop talking about the economy, trade, Fed policy, stock market, etc.
This is not in defense of Trump, but just to let the psychopaths know that people are on to their con games.
As far as Trump starting a war with China, I certainly hope that he does not, but a few years ago at the Davos World Economic Forum, Xi Xin Ping loudly and boisterously proclaimed Trade Wars Lead To Real Wars, in a very threatenning tone and demeanor. Davos World applauded.
As far as Hong Kong protests, it is best if the U.S. stay out of it, particularly when there are so many horrendous human rights abuses in America.
Trump would put his money where his mouth is and lead by example if he was sincere about human rights abuses.
It is also political grand standing from Pompeo and it looks ridiculous. They are both just corporate puppets and nothing more.
It is pathetic.
China did not steal national security secrets. American tech companies willingly handed national security secrets and technology blueprints over to the Chinese government in exchange for cheaper labor and less environmental regulations and less labor regulations.
I know Wall Street’s games. They are angry that Trump talks about the economy or trade because they believe that he is stepping on their turf, and Trump has vocally criticized the Fed which is not usually done. So, whenever Trump tweets anything, they go to the most extreme measure to placate him, let it spin out of control, back fire, and let him take the blame, to try to get him to stop talking about the economy, trade, Fed policy, stock market, etc. It is a no win situation with them though, because if Trump says nothing, then he is blamed for that too. This is not to defend Trump, but just to let the psychopaths know that people are onto their con games. They hated him since day one, and they haven’t even tried to let him do his job, because they promised Hillary, and they paid Hillary at the State Department for pay to play, and now the Clintons have all of their money. She obviously planned it. It was not humanly possible to run a worse campaign until Biden came along. No point in voting in this election. All choices lead to failure.
Why I am being targeted by them when they were stupid enough to be out-conned by the Clintons is a mystery that I will never solve. I guess that it is easier for them to blame me, than to take responsibility for engaging in election rigging and financial fraud.
As far as Trump starting a war with China, I certainly hope that he does not, but a few years ago at the Davos World Economic Forum, Xi Xin Ping loudly and boisterously proclaimed Trade Wars Lead To Real Wars, in a very threatening tone and demeanor. Davos World applauded.
As far as Hong Kong protests, it is best if the U.S. stay out of it, particularly when there are so many horrendous human rights abuses in America.
Trump would put his money where his mouth is and lead by example if he was sincere about human rights abuses.
It is also political grand standing from Pompeo and it looks ridiculous. They are both just corporate puppets and nothing more.
It is pathetic.
When I suggested that Trump should lead by example on human rights abuses, I was not referring him to use the opportunity to bash Russia, China, Iran, and India for religious oppression, particularly how insane it sounds to not list Israel first, and also America. Israel is the most religiously discriminatory country on earth. It has not only been Muslims that Isral has religiously discriminated against to the point of genocide since its creation, but against Christians as well. America has religiously targeted Muslims overtly, and has also overtly and illegally chosen to make an establishment of religion, giving Jews rights that no other religion or race are afforded. Universities have been threatened with loss of funding for supporting the BDS movement on the Federal governments assertion, as lobbied by the Israel lobby, that criticizing the government policies of Israel, is anti-Semetic, leaving Israel and Israeli companies with protections against criticism that no other country or corporation on Earth are given, including our own. If it is anti-Semetic to criticize the theocratic state of Israel simply because it practices Judaism, then it would be equally discriminatory or, anti-Islamic to criticize Iran since it is a Caliphate with an Islamic theocracy. If on the other hand Zionism is to be interperated as a state for the Jewish “race”, then it is racially discriminatory, so, either way it is a double standard. It is also a standard that applies to Israel and Jews alone in America, and therefor makes an establishment of religion, in direct violation of the first amendment, therby also prohibiting the free exercise thereof any religion other than Zionist Judaism, but even anti-Zionist Jews have been allowed to criticize Israel, whereas others have had social media accounts shut down for doing the same thing, because the Israel lobby states that Jews must not be prohibited from the right to self-determination, but have prohibited others from their right to self determiniation by trying to dis-allow any criticism of Israel, the Israel lobby or their donors, or any Israeli company, in addition to financially punish those that do exercise their right to self determination and criticize Israel. If the same standards were applied to the Islamic Republic of Iran, it would be illegal to boycott any Iranian company. These fascist double standards are not working in the best interests of religious or racial tolerance and induce religious and racial discrimination rather than reduce religious and racial discrimination.
-Andrea Iravani
https://sputniknews.com/us/202006031079503673-trump-signs-order-to-advance-international-religious-freedom-through-the-use-of-economic-tools/
When I suggested that Trump should lead by example on human rights abuses, I was not referring for him to use the opportunity to bash Russia, China, Iran, and India for religious oppression, particularly since it sounds insane not list Israel first, and also America. Israel is the most religiously discriminatory country on earth. It has not only been Muslims that Israel has religiously discriminated against to the point of genocide since its creation, but against Christians as well. America has religiously targeted Muslims overtly, and has also overtly and illegally chosen to make an establishment of religion, giving Jews rights that no other religion or race are afforded. Universities have been threatened with loss of funding for supporting the BDS movement on the Federal governments assertion, as lobbied by the Israel lobby, that criticizing the government policies of Israel, is anti-Semetic, leaving Israel and Israeli companies with protections against criticism that no other country or corporation on Earth are given, including our own. If it is anti-Semetic to criticize the theocratic state of Israel simply because it practices Judaism, then it would be equally discriminatory or, anti-Islamic to criticize Iran since it is a Caliphate with an Islamic theocracy. If on the other hand Zionism is to be interperated as a state for the Jewish “race”, then it is racially discriminatory, so, either way it is a double standard. It is also a standard that applies to Israel and Jews alone in America, and therefore makes an establishment of religion, in direct violation of the first amendment, thereby also prohibiting the free exercise thereof any religion other than Zionist Judaism, but even anti-Zionist Jews have been allowed to criticize Israel, whereas others have had social media accounts shut down for doing the same thing, because the Israel lobby states that Jews must not be prohibited from the right to self-determination, but have prohibited others from their right to self determiniation by trying to dis-allow any criticism of Israel, the Israel lobby, or their donors, or any Israeli company, in addition to financially punishing those that do exercise their right to self determination and criticize Israel. If the same standards were applied to the Islamic Republic of Iran, it would be illegal to boycott any Iranian company, criticize any Iranian politician or religious leader, or any political Islamic donor. These fascist double standards are not working in the best interests of religious or racial tolerance and induce religious and racial discrimination rather than reduce religious and racial discrimination.
-Andrea Iravani
https://sputniknews.com/us/202006031079503673-trump-signs-order-to-advance-international-religious-freedom-through-the-use-of-economic-tools/
BLACK LIVES DON’T MATTER!
WHITE CHRISTIAN LIVES DON’T MATTER EITHER!
ONLY ISRAELI LIVES MATTTER! ISRAELI HAS DECLARED THE COUNTRY TO BE THE HOME OF ALL JEWS!
THE PROOF IS IN THE CONFESSIONS OF HIGH CRIMES AND TREASON ADOPTED BY THE BENEDICT ARNOLDS!
-Andrea Iravani
https://www.globalresearch.ca/government-mischief-coronavirus/5714815
Foreign interests decide Israel’s boundaries, demographics, and whether they can make cars.
A war to liberate Hong Kong would solve two problems: one, it would box China back up and let them know the red line is their current borders and no further. Second, the US, as we can see, has a vast angry, ill disciplined black and Muslim population that could be better used as frontline troops in this conflict for freedom with China. A war with China and North Korea would exact heavier casualties than the wars in the Middle East so we need the bodies to get it done. As a plus, blacks hate Asians and Asians hate blacks, so it is a war made in heaven.
Uh, have you really looked at the physical/psychological condition of Amerika’s yutes lately? As a retired Peace Officer/credentialed teacher, I can attest that most of them could not beat their way out of a wet paper bag. And, how are you going to sell your: “Crusade against the Yellow Peril?” When I was in college in the 1960’s, it was apparent to many that the whole “Vietnamese Police Action” was a fabrication by LBJ, Nixon, and the MIC. Even though I drank the Kool-Aid and enlisted, the vail was lifted from my young eyes, PDQ.
And, do not even think about bringing back the Military Draft . We are already witnessing the burning of cities by the rent-a-mobs over a single incident. This murder was the spark to set the pile of gas-soaked rags (sic)-the destroyed economy by the Wall Street oligarchy, ablaze. We are headed for Civil War Two. We do not need any outside conflicts with the Chinamen.
Hong Kong is a city in China, Frank. Why should you care what China does within it’s own borders? The protests are a color revolution fomented by and funded by the NED and the US State Dept with the puppet Trump as the front man.
The UK forced them to lease it for 99 years after they defeated China and forced them to allow opium to be sold to the addicts they created. That lease was up in 1997.
No one in the west has any say in how they rule their country. Unenforceable “treaties” are invalidated every day. Look at the West and their track record of breaking treaties. Anglozionists should mind their own business.
Are you a European or Canadian banker Frank Thoughts? Because I happen to know that your strategy suits them well, so that when China and Russia both retaliate which would without a doubt be the most humiliating and crushing defeat in world history of any large nation, that being USAUSAUSA, the Europeans and Canadians would rush in like wild fire, unless of course Mexico and Latin Americans beat them to it.
-Andrea Iravani
So, in your version of ‘A Modest Proposal’, blacks and Asians can fight this war in a foreign country, instead of the garment district, downtown.
The “Two Systems” was a Trap from the very start. No one having lived in wealthy successful democracy would want to return to communist central control. The real Purpose of Hong Kong is to give pretense to the removal of communism from the mainland, by internal rebellion or by external forces. The Wuhan Flu Bioweapon was just the start, and no country on Earth can ever forget what has been done to them by the Chinese disease.
We can only pray that when the war comes, it won’t go nuclear. Pray it stays conventional, for the good of planet Earth and for the health of all the sideline countries not directly involved in the conflict. Taking down Xi will be the biggest effort since WW-2. Even if the CCP destroys Hong Kong, they will suffer the political consequences for the brutal conflict. Free Hong Kong ! Free Tibet !
Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently hampered by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass’ favor.