03-11-2019, 11:41 AM
** 11-Mar-2019 Steve Bannon in Japan: China's motives
Thanks for pointing this out.
I wrote to Steve Bannon about this. Here is the exchange:
I really dont care Wrote:> https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/0...IJ-PckzZdh
> The bulk of Bannon’s 40-minute speech was spent unleashing a
> bitter diatribe against China, which he argued is posing a threat
> to “Japan, the United States and the Pacific.”
> He branded it a “hegemonic” and “totalitarian” power that thrives
> on technologies it “stole” from Japan and the U.S., while alleging
> that Chinese people are “oppressed,” “tortured” and “abused” by
> high-echelon officials within the Chinese Communist Party.
> “The defenders of the CCP say, ‘China is not expansionist … It’s
> always their neighbors that are expansionist,’ ” Bannon
> said. “That is quite simply a lie.”
> “The radical cadre in the CCP is the most geopolitically
> ambitious, aggressive, expansionist power in world history,” he
> said, explaining how China’s trademark “One Belt, One Road”
> initiative preys on infrastructure-hungry developing countries by
> lending them money that “in no way can be paid back,” to put them
> under Beijing’s control.
> Bannon sought to rally support from LDP lawmakers by emphasizing
> that against such a backdrop, Japan must stand firm and fight
> China’s assertive rise in solidarity with a Trump-led America.
> If the “strong, robust” combination of Japan and the U.S. is
> realized, he said, “there is nobody in the Pacific that can stand
> up to that. China is a paper tiger.”
Thanks for pointing this out.
I wrote to Steve Bannon about this. Here is the exchange:
John Wrote:> Someone pointed me towards the Japan Times article describing your
> speech to the Liberal Democratic Party.
> https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/0...te-probes/
> What you're describing isn't really what's going on.
> I'm writing a book on China, Korea and Japan. It's almost
> finished, approaching 100,000 words, and based on hundreds of
> sources, including a couple of dozen books. So I've done
> extensive research, and the conclusion I've reached (with
> certainty) is that China does not really want war with America or
> the West (except possibly with the UK for the Opium Wars), but
> they're thirsting for a revenge war with Japan, even though they
> know that it means war with America as well.
> China may be "expansionist," but that's not what's driving them.
> What's driving them is the desire for revenge.
> My book was originally going to be about 40,000 words, and it was
> going to be about China's claims to the South China Sea. After I
> got into it, I realized that China has no claims whatsoever to the
> South China Sea. It's totally a hoax. So then I changed the
> objective of the book to figuring out China's "Century of
> Humiliation." After I got into that, a major question arose: Why
> didn't the same thing happen to Japan? So the third objective of
> the book was to compare China with Japan, and what I discovered is
> that Japan has repeatedly and consistently bested China in all
> areas -- economically, diplomatically, militarily, and in
> governance. That leads directly to the conclusion that China is
> justifying its barbaric actions by seeking revenge against Japan.
> In fact, they're mimicking the barbaric policies that Japan used
> leading to WW II, such as the concentration camps and crematoria
> in East Turkistan (Xinjiang province), and violent attacks on
> Christians, Buddhists and Muslims.
> If you describe the CCP as "the most geopolitically ambitious,
> aggressive, expansionist power in world history," then you're
> missing the point. Those are secondary objectives. China is not
> like Germany or WW II or even Japan in WW II, both of which were
> working on expansionist policies.
> It's hard to describe China's policies as anything but insanity.
> China's policies don't even make sense. BRI, as you point out, is
> economic suicide for China. The Uighur genocide is one of the
> stupidest policies of any nation in history. Trying to
> exterminate Buddism and Christianity is totally insane.
> The ordinary people of China do not feel “oppressed,” “tortured”
> and “abused," as long as they have jobs. A recession would change
> that.
> Maybe it's a distinction without a difference. Online we've been
> working out out some likely military scenarios that the Chinese
> will follow, but once the missiles start flying, it probably won't
> matter what the motives are. China's motives will be raw and
> visceral.
> On the other hand, you probably didn't have to tell the Japanese
> what the actual Chinese motives are. They already know what
> barbarians they were, with Unit 731, with the Rape of Nanking, and
> with comfort women. They're well aware that the Chinese are
> coming to do the same things to them, and they know that America
> may be too busy trying to save itself than trying to save
> them.
Steve Bannon Wrote:> They want that also but trust me they want hegemonic dominance
> over US and the West
> #1 goal
John Wrote:> Sure, but that's delusional, and they know it. In fact, they may
> even want people to believe that, as a smokescreen, just as
> everything else the Chinese say is a smokescreen to mislead
> people.
> Saying that the Chinese "want hegemonic dominance" is like saying
> that someone "wants" to sleep with Jennifer Lopez. We all want
> things in our dreams, but we know that they're just dreams.
> You can't look at the Chinese character in any obvious, rational
> manner. First of all, "hegemonic dominance" is not in the Chinese
> character, and not something they would even want. Any
> pretensions to "hegemonic dominance" would disappear quickly, as
> soon as the first shot was fired.
> There is only one motive driving the Chinese that will never
> disappear -- a vitriolic all-consuming uncontrollable hatred for
> the Japanese and an overwhelming and uncontrollable desire for
> revenge. That all-consuming hatred will not be quenched until
> they've gotten that revenge. Nothing else will matter, until the
> very last day of the war, and I suspect that the Japanese know it
> as well as the Chinese know it, even though they don't want to
> talk about it with anyone in the West.
