Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

** 28-Dec-2020 World View: International hostility to China rises sharply

For years, I've been describing how the level of xenophobia in many
countries toward other countries has been increasing. This is a
standard phenomenon during generational Crisis eras. It leads to the
setting and crossing of red lines, and from there to a small military
clash, and from there in a full-scale generational crisis war.

Historically, Americans have loved China, and we even saved China from
the Japanese in WW II. Americans continued to love and adore China
through the Mao Zedong years, even as his Great Leap Forward and
Cultural Revolution resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of
innocent Chinese, and the beating, torture and jailing of probably
millions more.

Things began to change in 1989 with the Tiananmen Square massacre and
collapse of the Soviet Union. These two events evoked total panic and
paranoia in the Chinese Communist Party, and put the Chinese
Communists on the road to open hostility toward the West, and also
toward hostility towards its own people, as it began to openly
criticize and punish the "five poisons": Tibetans, Uighur Muslims,
democracy activists, Taiwanese, and Falun Gong practitioners.

The CCP xenophobia has increased even more sharply since 2011, when Xi
Jinping came to power and became a dictator. He's repeatedly made it
clear how contemptuous he is of the west, whether in Hong Kong, the
South China Sea, threats against Taiwan, or the enslavement of
millions of Uighurs. In my opinion, the worst example of this was the
National Intelligence Law in 2017, which required all Chinese
businesses and individuals to spy on the West, even when such spying
is illegal.

The international reaction has been an increase of xenophobia toward
China. Pew Research recently showed how unfavorable views of China
have been increasing in many countries in the last 20 years:

• Increasingly negative views of China across countries (Pew
  Research)

The change has been extremely dramatic in the last year, because of
China's actions in intentionally infecting hundreds of countries with
the Wuhan Coronavirus.

At the same time, there have been increasingly negatie views of Xi
Jinping in the last year:

• Negative views of Xi Jinping -- 2019 vs 2020

The research shows that older people see China more negatively than
younger people:

• Older people see China more negatively

However, it isn't one-sided. A survey by the Diplomat found that
Chinese views of Americans have also become sharply more negative,
because of Trump's trade policies, Uighur bans, and criticisms of
China over Hong Kong and the Wuhan Coronavirus.

So the negative feelings are mutual. In particular, Chinese and
Americans dislike each other to the same extent. 73% Americans hold
either “very unfavorable” or “somewhat unfavorable” views of China. On
the Chinese side, the antipathy is even more widespread: 77% of the
Chinese hold such views of the United States.

These are historic trends, leading to a world war. Biden blames these
trends on Donald Trump, and he implies that he'll reverse them.
Biden's change of policy is a chaotic that could either delay the path
to war, or speed it up. There's no way to predict.

--- Sources:

-- Unfavorable Views of China Reach Historic Highs in Many Countries
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/...countries/
(PewResearch, 6-Oct-2020)

-- What Do Chinese People Think of Developed Countries?
https://thediplomat.com/2020/12/what-do-...countries/
(Diplomat, 18-Dec-2020)