Posted on 04/01/2022 3:08:44 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
Many of the misrepresentations of that 1972 trip linger till this day — of which the most important by far is the legend of China’s strategic statecraft, superior by virtue of its very long-range perspective, then personified by Zhou Enlai. Because Kissinger negotiated primarily with Zhou, he elevated that servile toady — who never once tried to save life-long colleagues from Mao’s murderous intrigues — into a statesman of transcendental wisdom, fully endowed in the long-view department.
This was exemplified by Zhou’s answer to Kissinger’s fawning request for his retrospective view of the French Revolution. Indeed, Kissinger never tired of relaying the Great Man’s answer: “Too early to tell”. You see, you see, Kissinger would add, China’s greatest minds look ahead 200 years. Today, authors and publishers still use “playing the long game” in the subtitles of books about China.
They should not. Chas W. Freeman, the interpreter, immediately told Kissinger that Zhou was referring to the 1968 student uprising that overthrew De Gaulle, whose final outcome was indeed still unclear in 1972. But Kissinger refused to give up his two centuries for a mere four years, and continued to repeat the story when gracing the dinner tables of the extremely rich in subsequent decades. It was one of the simpler Kissinger mystifications: by turning Zhou into a great statesman, he qualified himself as one — unnecessarily, it would later transpire, because he had so little competition until Reagan arrived to deflate the balloon of Soviet power.
Kissinger’s lie about Zhou was only the tail of a much bigger rat: the historical falsification that ignores China’s stupendous record of strategic incompetence down the ages, in order to attribute profound strategic wisdom to the Han — a wisdom also embodied in China’s classic strategic manuals, with Sun Tzu’s the most famous.
(Excerpt) Read more at unherd.com ...
And to think, that old fart is still alive. Only the good die young.
Ukraine ping
Somewhat peripheral to Ukraine, but perhaps relevant, given that Putin is leaning on Xi to be his sugar daddy, parts supplier and armorer or, at minimum, a bigger natural resource customer.
But then again Luttwak was the guy that said that Gulf War I was going to be a bloodbath for the Allied forces.
I'm going to stop using their laundry tips post haste!
Fact of the matter is China is a demographic nightmare with their 30+ years of “One Child Policy”.
Their warring ethnic groups (52 some-odd tribes, and being probably the most racist country on earth) has doomed them. I fully expect China to be at the end of civil wars and rebuilding into half a dozen nations in the next 25 years.
How is America's birth rate doing these days?
[But then again Luttwak was the guy that said that Gulf War I was going to be a bloodbath for the Allied forces.]
Clinton is only second in his stupidity - he allowed China into the WTO on extremely loose and favorable terms to China - for what exactly? Some headlines? His cheap legacy?
He accelerated the movement of US manufacturing to China and greatly increased the power of the CCP
You can read Clinton’s speech about China entering the WTO below. Everything he has said has turned out mostly wrong
https://www.iatp.org/sites/default/files/Full_Text_of_Clintons_Speech_on_China_Trade_Bi.htm
China ping
Clinton is only second in his stupidity - he allowed China into the WTO on extremely loose and favorable terms to China - for what exactly? Some headlines? His cheap legacy?
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The usual with him: admission for more campaign cash.
Clinton-think Loral.
Wandering around the city, I noticed that all of the several rivers were landscaped, with 20 foot vertical walls on both banks, the length of their paths through the city. Just like tank traps... Every bridge had sunken pill boxes at both ends.
Every downtown building had gum slits on all four corners of every intersection.
Talking to a ROC arty man, he confirmed that every block in the city was registered from pre-dug battery sites in the surrounding hills.
I'm reasonably sure this has had something to do with the CCP's delay in invading...
Urban warfare can be very costly for an assaulting force, especially if the assaulted force is ready and among civilians in a large population.
Add the disaster from Evergrande and other real estate companies and there will be a perfect storm that will contract the GDP with social unrest as a result. China has to ditch Putin in April. There will be no May 9 parade in Moscow.
Similar, but you're over-looking the devastating impact of 30+ years of one child, which we didn't have in the U.S.
China is just like every other country on the planet.
Hanging on for dear life as the world accelerates forward.
I was in Taipei in 1970 on liberty. But I wasn’t looking for gun slits. Lol.
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