Here is why the central government of the People’s Republic of China formed currently by the Communist Party of China, or the infamous People’s Liberation Army is the single biggest Global Threat:
1. Border Conflicts With Neighbours
Chinese PLA allegedly moved into the eastern border of Ladakh, India, followed by skirmishes between the two nuclear-powered states. With China forecasted to rise as the largest economy overtaking the US in the near future and tensions prevailing in Southeast Asia and the South China Sea, escalation of conflict around the region could give rise to catastrophic consequences. It is not easy to ignore the parallels between the recent tensions around the borders of China and how World War II started with Hitler orchestrating violence along borders in order to justify future invasions.
2. Origin of Corona Virus
China is being accused internationally for its reluctance to allow any investigation into the origin of the coronavirus. Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the matter was met with statements from Beijing that relationships with Australia could be “damaged beyond repair”. Next thing we know, China imposes an 80% tariff on Australian barley. Irresponsible wet market practices in China were accused to be the origin of the coronavirus, and there is every reason to believe another deadlier virus could emerge from the same source if no investigation is done on the matter.
3. The End of Hong Kong
While the world media are busy covering the corona crisis, China is using it as a cover to cripple the democracy in Hong Kong. China has imposed a new “National Security Law” in Hong Kong, and pledged to “guide and support” the Hong Kong police in “restoring order“. Hong Kong’s government warned the US that any sanction on this is a “double-edged sword“. The law extends the charges usually used in mainland China to clamp down on dissent and political opponents, to Hong Kong. Ai Weiwei warned about the new legislation saying: “This will be the end of Hong Kong.”
4. Millions Of People In Concentration And Labour Camps
China is among the worst in terms of Human Rights abuses in the world. Under Xi’s leadership, it has introduced assimilation policies aimed at Sinicization, Xinjiang re-education camps, and ethnic cleansing of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, not to mention systemized crackdown on dissent and freedom of speech.
5. Chinese Big Brother Is Watching You
China allegedly uses Huawei, TikTok, and strategic companies they have bought in the West to get into the communication networks of the world. The younger users of social media are already subject to massive censorship on TikTok. I think, Huawei representatives do not believe in democracy and have no moral compass in regards to their activities.
6. China Makes Countries Dependent: The Debt-Trap Diplomacy
China has also bought itself into economies all over the world and has taken over the role of the U.S. in most countries as the most important trade partner — and political partner. These developments have been termed as part of its ‘debt-trap diplomacy’.
7. China’s Leadership Is Corrupt
President Xi allegedly stole hundreds of millions of USD in offshore accounts managed by his brother-in-law, contradicting his policy against corruption.
8. China Is A Dictatorship Under The Guise Of Democracy
China is preparing a perpetual dictatorship. The rule of limiting the leader of China to a maximum of two periods of 5 years has been eliminated. Xi will not step down in 2023 — unless he is forced to.
9. 1.4 Billion People Under The Spell Of Propaganda
70% of Germans did not vote for Adolf Hitler before he became the Chancellor of Germany, but after his taking over media and communication, 99% of Germans voted for his annexation of neighboring countries. China can sell anything they want to its population—not much different from former Nazi Germany and North Korea, where people believed all state propaganda. Remember the famous “One Child Policy” implementation.
10. First Time In Modern Age, A Dictator Has Become The Most Powerful Man In The World
Xi has been called by Forbes ‘the most powerful man in the world’. Xi has censored Winnie the Pooh on the Chinese internet in order to not be compared with him. Xi can do whatever he wants — as long as the world complies.
Why Has This Been Tolerated For So Long?
Because there was hope that with economic development, democracy, pluralism and freedom of speech would also develop in China.
Why Is This Assumption Becoming A Threat?
It’s not working. Economic advancements have rather given China the confidence to assert that democracy is not an option just as frankly as Hitler did in Mein Kampf. Chinese representatives in the world are very precise and clear in the matter, they don’t hide their motivations.
The western democracies have indeed failed in the Corona crisis and have proven inefficient, crippling their economies. This marks a decline like never before — contrary to effective and decisive action in China, but also in democracies in Asia such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The West needs to draw lessons from this if it does not want to give up its leading role, otherwise, the 21st century will become an Asian century dominated by a totalitarian China.
What Is The Solution?
Create liability and make politics in the West liable for economic decisions:
In trade: Only buy and manufacture in and from democratic countries. Stop trade and business with non-democratic countries, shift production on a big scale to democratic countries. Introduce a human rights tax on products from non-democratic countries.
At home: Make western democracies much more efficient and democratic decision-makers liable for their decisions. The enormous damage to economy through wrong decisions in the Corona crisis has proven that we can’t afford such systems anymore with our countries being run by amateurs who are afraid of swinging public opinion and mass media headlines — instead of being afraid of economical bankruptcy and lack of funding for better health systems and prevention of epidemic disasters.
Political leaders must become accountable like leading managers of industry and private economy. If you know how to stop Corona like Taiwan did without ruining your economy, but do otherwise, you should be held accountable — if democracy is to survive and prevail as the world’s leading moral and economic force.
The democratic chaos of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s in Germany with mass unemployment set the stage for Adolf Hitler. The democratic forces, occupied with endless debates and fights with each other, failed on economic stability so badly that a paranoid “strong leader” with his army of SA thugs all over Germany was able to take over and increase his share of votes from only 30% before becoming a chancellor to 99% of votes on grabbing “land of Germans” in neighboring countries through mass propaganda.
The approval rate in China for seizing Tibet would probably be in the same ballpark. If China shall expand its borders in the north and northeast India and South China sea, the Chinese media will make sure that this would be seen as a legitimate necessity for national interest, justified as a homecoming of the Chinese people, as Hitler did with Austria and Russia did with Crimea where most of the inhabitants are ‘Russian’ and were ‘happy’ to join a greater Russia at gunpoint. Hitler started with German minorities in neighboring countries, went on to “bring home” German populated areas, and in the final step, ended up seizing all of the countries in order “to protect” the Germans.
In the Legislative Assemblies: Introduce legislation for a rule of law for the internet, social media, and modern communication in order to implement the same rule of law online which has been developed for hundreds of years offline. Legislation should end the “Wild Wild Web” with mass manipulation, hate posts, the dark net — where you can order child pornography and murder, and win democratic elections with big data hack.
The rise of totalitarian movements and the three biggest mass murderers of the 20th century Adolf Hitler (65 million victims), Stalin (60 million victims), and Mao (45 million victims) was only possible with the manipulation of the masses using news and mass communication. As Donald Trump suggested (in his twitter case, probably for the wrong reasons) it will be necessary to make the Internet and social media platforms liable for the content which their users publish and what they allow to circulate. The hope that an anonymous internet will make freedom of opinion and justice prevail has been proven wrong — up to 70% of online communication is false, misleading, and is produced artificially by bots.
While China’s troll factories have their way, intelligence services from many countries (not only the U.S. or Russia) interfere in elections and public opinion all over the world, from regularly damaging Wikipedia entries to individual slander and reputation attacks. The anonymity on the internet does not protect the victims; unfortunately, it creates victims.
In countries where freedom of opinion would be most desired through free internet and freedom of expression online, it is all censored. If you search in China on the internet for Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaobo, Corona, or even private matters of pornography — you will only find what the government wishes you to find, in many cases nothing. Big Brother decides what is suitable to read in dictatorships and what trolls spread in the rest of the world.
China has been a threat to dissidents and freedom of opinion for many years; now it is becoming a threat to world peace and freedom. Disinvestment and a change of trade partnerships might be the first step of protection and should be enforced by national laws.
Having said that, the doors with China should not be closed; there should not be a new Cold War, the West should welcome business and friendship with China predicated on the level of democracy, censorship, and freedom of expression, and the way it treats its dissidents. If the wellbeing of China is dependent on being a team player of global democracy, a new Gorbachev can follow the General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping in 2023. More than 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and “the end of history” for communism, it is time. As John F. Kennedy declared: “In the Chinese language, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters, one representing danger and the other opportunity.”
Reference: Cinema for Peace Foundation, Time Magazine.