Posted on 11/19/2017 10:48:01 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
all of the above plus respect for the mighty US dollar which purchases Chinese products and Chinese support of American debt. We have closer ties than people realize. I don’t remind of this as a negative, but as fact. Much closer than we have with Russia.
Imperial China, “modern” China, still much more importantly alike than different. Culture is stronger than political philosophy or religion; and China’s culture, including the culture of “appropriate” power structures, is ancient and very strong even today, no matter the different political names and titles.
Even the Global Times, an outspoken newspaper, sang Trump's praises. "Trump is one of the most popular heads of state on the Chinese Internet, and generally the Chinese public holds a positive attitude toward him," the paper's editorial said on Nov. 9.The Global Times, which is affiliated with the People's Daily, the party's mouthpiece, cited three reasons for Trump's popularity in China.
"[The] Chinese appreciate his directness, which is in sharp contrast to Hillary Clinton, who always puts on airs."
"Trump seems to be pragmatic on his Beijing policy, and has no interest in ideological diplomacy."
"He has also showed his respect for China's leader, publicly praising President Xi Jinping several times," the hawkish paper noted.
The Chinese have always had a strong subculture of business, trade and finance. I had close Chinese friends in college who — no offense intended here — used to say of their own people, "The Chinese are the Jews of the Orient."
What a number of people don’t realize is the party had met just a few weeks prior and added his “thoughts” to the constitution - only 3 others have had that privilege and only 2 others (Mao and Deng) have had the level of complete control that he now has.
I think it was a less than subtle message to any remaining non-Xi factions that he has total control.
Deng had some limitations besides be able to action on his opinions widely. Zhao Ziyang, one of his leading protégés, was dumped by the last of the old guard that followed, Hu Yaobang. Tiananmen was the excuse, but it that was just the culmination of fears on the speed of the Deng’s reforms and potential reprecussions to those in power.
Jiang Zemin, the last to have his ‘thoughts’ put in the constitution, did not have the consolidated power that Xi now has - he was dealing with trade offs all the time between the remaining old guard under Hu, the reform faction remnants from the Zhao Ziyang group, and the younger up and comers that were becoming more prevalent.
Hu Jintao was a place keeper and cleaner in my mind. He was put in place to clean up a lot of “corruption” - but this put him in a very risky situation. His years were a constant balancing act without the ability to consolidate or eliminate any factions.
Basically laying the groundwork for Xi. I believe Xi’s group was already basically in power by this point, and Hu was the figurehead of the consolidation process preventing splinter factions from gaining more power through promotions and eliminating key members through “corruption” investigations.
The dinner was a great reception for Trump - but it was a much more important show of Xi’s consolidated power to everyone inside China. The symbolism is massive.
Yeah. What you said.
Not only was there no reception for him after he climbed down the airplane’s back stairs (’cause they didn’t even bring out those stairs on a truck for him), but the person who met him was a low-level Chinese functionary from deep in the foreign ministry.
Same thing in Saudi when he went there. I think the Arabs figured he was siding with the Shia/Persians...
heh.
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