My China Kanfa.....China on My Mind

We are but estranged lovers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Feb 2022 23:02:00 +0000

I'm flustered.

Simply flustered.

My job is destroying my mental health.

How do I know this?

I used to walk a bit less than 2 miles to feel physically good. Now it stretches over 3 miles before I begin to wear out. Am I in better shape?

Of course not. It's just the time it takes, the distance it takes to mentally repair myself is longer than it used to be.

Of course, this would all be much easier for me to handle if I could just visit my factories. Managing a sourcing regime is hard, harder if you are 8000 miles away and unable to have conversations with suppliers face to face.

Fortunately, I do have competent teams on the ground. Unfortunately, there are instances where experience tells me "truly understanding the situation" requires my presence.

Meanwhile, Thailand (open) and Vietnam (about to open), look pretty enticing.

When China continue to march to the beat of its own drum? It plays well. All of China believes "The West" has brought this plague upon us.

China is a tough place to work. No question about it. The energy that China brings to the table however, is hard to deny. WeChat can only go so far, however. To get the job done properly, I must be in China.

The pandemic has wiped out small brokers and middlemen. Trading companies. It has shown however the importance of having an infrastructure on the ground. Larger companies benefit from this. Smaller companies do not. Those quite frankly too cheap to "build out" an organization on the ground are at a large disadvantage. Those that did not invest in people, instead preaching the lazy mantra,

"I can do it myself", have suffered the consequences.

Our team in China is twenty strong. But I feel it is hard to move larger projects forward all the same from a distance. From thousands of miles away, it is hard to radiate a sense of urgency. Simple as that.

To be blunt, "the people must see their Emperor" once in awhile.

Suppliers production schedules may not suffer, but it sure feels good to see the factory manager face to face and walk the assembly lines anyway. The Chinese simply have a greater energy about them when the customer shows up to talk deals.

And I feel they want to talk with me, too. Wrong or Right, my suppliers tend to believe working directly with the foreigner moves things along. I think their right. They also respect the commitment of the Barbarian showing up to their castle.

Do I miss the subways? Nope. The overpriced hotel food? Can't say that I do.

But I greatly miss the feeling of accomplishment, the efficiency of driving one's own train so to speak. And yeah, I miss the culture as well. Don't get me wrong, I don't miss what China has become, ie this pervasive "birthright" of the Nation to bend others to its own will. But I am cognizant that others will say America for decades has been the same.

Of course that would be a rather unsophisticated comparison.

I think very highly of China's young people. Their energy, and their insatiable desire to make money and do business with us. I've found China's factories willing and helpful. And more competent than our own American factories, that will raise prices at the drop of a hat. My leverage over the American supply chain is nil.

Ocean carriers and steamship lines are gouging the planet. They should go to jail. But I don't have much faith in accountability anymore. You may say a good display of hubris is always a sure sign of an impending collapse. I say the abandonment of accountability is another.

Covid has upset my travel plans, simple as that. But this War has too. The West has no qualms isolating Russia, which is about to be cast into the Dark Ages for the foreseeable future. But how do we handle China? Methinks no flights from China will be banned over any Western Airspace anytime soon.

Bottom line, when will China let me back in? I admit it is a hurt to one's ego to not be missed. And China doesn't miss us. At least publicly. So China lumbers on, one closed city at a time. Line upon line of covid test takers stretching out from city block to city block. Oblivious to the rest of us, expecting this "export party" to last forever. And it probably will.

This isn't about "bending" China to our will.

We just have no where else to go. China knows they can keep us out indefinitely. And the purchase orders will keep coming. And their right, they will. But resentment, though it may boil slowly, will take much longer to cool down.

The West and China have become two estranged lovers forced to share the same bed. With no interest in reconciling. What a terrible existence.

Things me and China Wife argue about

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 01:45:00 +0000

Hi Everyone. It has been awhile.

Dropping a quick post, stealing a moment. I find myself wanting to write, but honestly, when I am free, writing a post never makes it to the top of my to do list. Two weeks ago I logged in 57 hours at my job. Enough said.

I've also felt many of the topics I've wanted to talk about I've already written about before, and I don't want to sound redundant.

Still....I want to talk about China Wife for a moment. As I write this, she is upstairs making lamb. She asked me when we were shopping earlier today if I'd be interested in having lamb for dinner. I said sure. But what I really need is meatloaf.

Still I was excited to be eating lamb....until I noticed she is making lamb with carrots and some type of Chinese radish. That is, she's making lamb "China style". All I can do is sigh.

"Another waste of meat", I think to myself. I simply told her I won't eat the carrots and I won't eat the radish, but I will eat the lamb and probably drink the broth.

The Chinese boil their meat. They destroy perfectly good Ameican ribs.

Who boils ribs, you ask? Well, the Chinese do.

These are short ribs, and they do taste tender, if not a tad dry. But, sorry, it is still a waste of perfectly good meat.

I lust for meatloaf. A heaping plate of garlic mash potatoes. But in middle age, one must avoid carbs, right? Last night we went out for dinner....and guess what? She ordered fish. I rolled my eyes. Still, it was good. It was. It was also $24.

Some things never change with China Wife.

China Wife's temper is one of them.

A few days ago she was angry with me. I was unhappy she had spent too much time with her Chinese Community on a Sunday night. I wanted to go out for dinner, alas it was too late for that, as our daughter had a tutoring session coming up. Well if China Wife had come home earlier, wouldn't this had been avoided?

China Wife throws a plastic lid at me. Yep, China Wife throw things. I throw it back. Then she takes the container and throws that at me, too. I simply leave it on the floor.

"You're cleaning that up", I said, and walked off.

China Wife spends the next two days not speaking to me.

Now I want to dwell on this for a moment. A grown woman, middle aged, gives her man the silent treatment. Upon reflection, I think this is more of an 80's generation thing.

Now I've always had a rule; Never go to bed angry. Once me and a former lover had a brief spat in a hotel lobby. She wanted to accompany me to a dinner and I told her unfortunately, she could not. She would have to eat alone. She obviously wasn't happy. What did I do? Did I just go off to my meal?

(Now this girlfriend was fond of telling me that if all the Chinese Men in her life knew she was taking a train 2 hours to come and see me, they'd be pissed. Actually two Chinese women have said that to me but I digress.)

Of course not. I went back upstairs to our room, told her I was sorry and kissed her passionately. Then I left. But I didn't leave upset, and I left that dinner as soon as I could.

Nowadays when China Wife is angry, I find it amusing. But just dumb as well. Currently my daughter is taking art lessons. But she is taking these lessons with a subpar student. Thus the teacher spends more time on the other student than with my talented daughter. My daughter complained to me about this. When I found out, I was most unhappy.

China Wife had gone out of her way to hide the fact my daughter was studying with an inferior student, and lost face. If my daughter is gonna have a serious study session, I want it to be either alone or with other students just as talented as herself.

"Iron Sharpens Iron". Remember that.

But the effect was I received the "silent treatment" for 48 hours. Then China Wife demanded I get on my knees and apologize. She actually frequently demands this. In this regard she is very much like her father, ie he was afraid he'd have to write a self criticism when he went to Thailand and visited a sex show with us. Notice he stayed until the end, however.

Now do you think this laowai, from what you've read of me during this blog over the past ten years, is gonna do that? If you answered "Yes", you'd be right!

However, I always get on my knees in a mocking fashion, my hands on her breast, just to end the damn silent treatment, because when there is silence there is no sex. Remember that, too.

Unfortunately, while we've become alot better at communicating and argue less, the Silent Treatment still rises to the surface a few times a year. I think its silly and immature, and I know for a fact China Girl have her age doesn't act that way.

Which brings us to the next natural topic. As I've mentioned earlier, China Wife has long since admitted she no longer needs a man. I believe this a common thread amongst not just Chinese Women, but other nationalities as well. Still, I think it is more prevalent among Chinese women because their sex life is far less existent anyway.

China Wife is an Alpha Male in female skin. God probably meant for her to be a man. But he probably had too many men in China, and as such, with a shrug and frown, he made her a strong female instead. I'm not great at fixing things, and I don't have a gun. China Wife, by nature is fantastic at the former and wants to eventually do the latter.

She frequently says "I should've been a man".

Is anyone surprised we're down to sex once a week. I shudder for all the Poor Chinese Men out there, stuck with a wife such as mine. Then if you go back deep into the archives, you'll know that's where young, beautiful peasant girls come into the picture. China, in its own way, makes perfect sense. Everyone has a role, and social equilibrium is constant.

Don't get me wrong, China Wife and I get along rather well. I'd say an 8 out of 10. Sometimes worse, but never better. She is a splendid enough Mom. She is in a way "cute". Last night we watched Despicable Me. Again. Her choice not mine. She likes to snuggle up to my pj's at night. She makes a fantastic Western Breakfast every weekend. Which my lazy ass mom nearly never did. She has a stable, yet woefully underpaid job. She is a stalwart of the Chinese Community, cooks every meal, and usu washes up(disclaimer, she doesn't like my cooking). Her meatloaf and porkchops are now better than mine, and she is a great promoter of Chinese Culture. She also goes on these cleaning binges.

Problem is China Wife won't suck a dick.

China wife hasn't held my dick in her hand since before Xi Jinping came to power, and is completely unimaginative in bed. And she doesn't care.

She not only doesn't need a man in her life, but quite frankly doesn't need to get laid anymore either.

China Wife also has OCD. When I tell her to relax and let me do the dishes, after I change out of my work clothes and have a coffee, not ten seconds later she is in the kitchen. I only briefly feel guilty.

Why is that? Because(knock on wood), I make alot of $. More than twice her salary. But as China Wife likes to tell me, it's basically minimum wage when all the damn hours are counted up. I basically work 6 days a week. I long for the lazy China days when I had time to sit in a Starbucks and write a post.

I never thought I'd legally make this much money. But I remember the day I told my wife it won't change anything towards us. She'll still be the person she is. And I was right. China Wife unlike other women, doesn't calibrate things the way other China Women do; more money DOES NOT mean more sex. And I never get a massage.

Which is why I will never marry China Girl again. It's simply so much more fine to just date them.

As for me, well I'm stuck here in good ol' USA, waiting for the doors to the Heavenly Kingdom to open. Maybe just like you.

It is just not in our DNA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 25 Dec 2021 04:34:00 +0000

So here we are Christmas Eve, 2021. The same situation as I was in last year.

Let me explain.

This time last year my former dumbass boss got Covid. He went to a church gathering or something and just like that came down with it. My ofc was next to his, and though I felt horrific, I tested negative. Meanwhile, the guy on the other side of me caught it. With a newborn in the house to boot.

So now it turns out this year my youngest apparently has it, too. Probably. She took a rapid test and it came out positive. We have no clue as to how she got it. From me? Her social animal China Mom? Her social animal sister?

No idea. But I do know we spent three hours in a covid line yesterday. So now China Wife and oldest are watching Home Alone again, and as I'd rather watch a Korean Zombie movie, I'm here writing this.

I'm writing this because I'm pissed off.

I'm upset that nearly two years into this I'm still having to wear a mask. Meanwhile I'm amazed nightclubs in China are packed with hardly a mask in sight. I'm also angry at myself. I'm upset I thought this whole damn calamity would be over by now, if not because a Democrat is in charge and nothing else. This turned out to be a most naive belief on my part.

When Trump finally left power there were 400,000 American Dead. The sad part is Covid didn't really take off until Summer. But I'm not hear to compare Trump vs Biden. It's morbidly unpatriotic to compare such things.

Nor am I wont to compare to India or Brazil's numbers. Everyone knows India's numbers are probably triple or quadruple the actual.

I'm angry because China only has 4000 dead, and well.....we have more. That came out wrong. It's not what I mean. I don't wish China had more. Rather, for all our bitching and focus on "freedom", (what does that word even mean anymore?), one cannot argue with results.

But now the differences in our governments is greater than ever, and for all to see;

China has a scorched earth policy, and well, America has decided to just "carry on and live with it".

As I mentioned in my last post, how many Chinese have lost their livlihood to Covid? We'll never know because the Chinese will never tell us. In a way it's Karma.

Now what do I mean by that? I once called up a popular hotel in Guangzhou just to see how much it would cost to send me a car? They quoted something like $200. I took the subway for $4.

Later, I wanted room service from this same hotel. I believe a plate of noodles was $32. I went outside and walked 100 yards and got the same plate for $3.

How empty is that hotel in China now?

In short, China is getting crushed in so many ways. Travel is just one. But aren't statistics for losers?

The only stat that matters is how many lives have you saved? Or......how many people have you killed?

China, 4000. America 800,000. The lower number wins folks.

China just shut Xian down. 9 million? 13? And true to form, China just blamed it on foreigners again. As if Pakistan didn't test anyone for Covid before allowing them on the plane, right? And you know nearly all of those on the plane were Chinese. Because what foreigner is gonna come to China and isolate for 3 weeks? So how can anyone stay in Quarantine for 3 weeks, and not be detected?

How does China answer such a well deserved challenge?

"4000" folks.

China has dented its GNP, and even stunted its innovation, and soon enough, China is gonna be insulting nearly every athlete that visits in a months time.

So the fuck what.

4000, baby.

As for The Good Ole USA, we're gonna blow past 900,000 lives easy in 2022. When we hit a million dead will they someday build a memorial? You know in 'Nam we lost less than 60,000 dead. But they put up a statue you know? A nice memorial with all the dead. What shall we do?

Let me stop here and say something I've said previously. We're gonna eventually have a million dead, and no one is gonna go to jail. There will be no fines, no accountability. Sooner or later, someone is gonna have a Eureka moment, and ask the simple ass question:

Who's going to jail for this?

America(and the West) has learned to live with this, while hoping no one close dies. It's business as usual folks. What choice do we have?

You still need to shop. You still need to take the subway to work. You need to actually speak with people at work. The Chinese don't really go to Church right?

Well....guess what? The Chinese subways aren't shut down. And folks still go to work. And they still party in nightclubs(to be a laowai in China at this moment.....)

In a nutshell the secret sauce to China's success is simple; They don't care about your feelings.

They don't care if you have a doctor's appointment or a flat tire to fix. They don't care about that appointment with a real estate agent. Just shut up and sit in your concrete block until we say you can come out. Jump on your wife and make babies. Tutor your kid math. Learn Swahili. But stay inside.

Not us. America's response can be described also in a very simple way; "We want our Freedom!"

Here's hoping all the dumb unvaccinated mother fuckers get buried with it, too.

Can't take it with you? Oh, we'll be sure you can. Use it as sun block when you roast in Hell.

Our Freedom is literally killing us. But our innovation continues. Our air flights continue. And if you are vaccinated, you can even come here to "God's Country" and visit us! You don't even have to quarantine.

Why? Because it's the American Way Baby. America is the Country too busy to think about Death. You wanna live? That's on you Dear Sir. Vaccinations are on every corner. And you know we're not gonna shut a city down to force you to "get in line".

But doesn't 800,000 lives mean anything? Anything at all? Well....let me add some perspective.

The American Civil War had 600,000 dead. That was 2% of our population.....you read that right!

The Spanish Influenza killed 600,000 as well(rounded down). Our population in 1918 was 100 million. So the Spanish Flu had nearly three times the mortality rate.

But 2021 is our highest death rate since WW2. And we ain't slowin' down. Like a black cloud we always see on the horizon, that never goes away. American's have decided that death is worth the risk of getting on with life.

So what price "business as usual"? When are we as a society going to really, really, change the way we do things, to achieve a better result? If you have a job, and you don't do it right, and earn your boss' chagrin, don't you think your fear of losing your job would change how you yourself do your job? Of course it would

So wouldn't fear of losing your life change how you live your life? uh......no, I guess not.

WTF?

America must continue. China falsely believes it can stop the virus, and China my friends, the country with no booster availability, is playing against time. China is tilting against windmills.

In China's view, it has fought the good fight. And it has, because everything else aside, you can't argue with the number 4000 folks. You can't.

And I think in America, we have decided to just put our head in the sand, or rather that growing pile of used surgical masks, and just pretend we are fine.

But we have decided here in America that we must continue forward, head down against the virus storm, while China just hunkers down to weather it out. Why? Because we don't want to piss anyone off. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, or crush anyone's soul, in the name of saving people.

America is incapable of doing what China does so well. But don't blame the Government folks. Uncle Sam, after all, has given us a vaccine. Rather, as a People it is simply not in our individual DNA. And that is why hundreds thousands more will die.

How will China look at us with any glint of respect or admiration when they have less than 10,000 dead and we have 1 million? What moral authority will we have on human rights?

"You want to talk about the Gulags in Xinjiang? I want to talk about how you killed a million of your own people." Someone tell me how America answers that question.

China doesn't miss me

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 21:12:00 +0000

Hi Folks. It's been two months. The sad thing is I haven't thought much about this blog, in the least. Last week I logged in probably 55 hours in the office. Not counting the fun commute on three interstates.

And now I'm finally on vacation. Even so, it has taken me a few days to take care of errands and rest up a bit. I don't miss getting up at 630 in the morning. At all. Today I only woke up when my alarm clock did. 930 in the morning. So now I have some random thoughts before I start posting again.

I miss China. I do. I miss China very much so for the wrong reasons. I wonder if I will "age" myself away from all the "Vice" that China represents the Western Man in China? I believe I will.

China on the other hand seems to be "just fine" without us. Very much so. I think someday those few laowai in China during these strange days will write books of their experience. Today I know of only one laowai, a Russian of course. A handsome fellow stuck in the bar industry. In love with a girl from Chongqing, and alas he has now left Dalian for Sichuan. Good luck with that.

I can't help but wonder what has happened to the Foreign Studies Programs, the 5 star hotels in China, etc. We may never quite frankly ever know. Not until China wants to tell that story.

And will we ever go back? Oh I think we will. Those of us with booster shots, perhaps. But as we move on from Alpha to Delta to Omicron, when will it ever end? Will it end?

In America the covid death rate is about triple the flu death rate, in absolute terms. About ten million Americans get hospitalized per year for the flu. That's alot. The worst year had about 50,000 deaths.

As I write this my teenager is getting a rapid covid test.

I read somewhere that if China let's the virus escape its clutches, it will have 600,000 cases per day. We currently have around 100,000 cases per day.

The Virus is tiring, it's tedious. But its interesting how China copes. It simply refuses "to live" with the virus. Yet the virus lives on. While not clear on your country I'm clearly exacerbated with mine. We still have 30 million people that I consider truly responsible adults, that don't give a damn.

They just refuse to get vaccinated. They make a political statement out of "Outsmarting Science".

Yep, outsmarting science one death at at time. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here wondering when my daughter will qualify for a booster shot. You think anyone in China is gonna get a booster shot anytime soon? Too many people folks. This Virus is faster than Science. Still, Western Science is able to keep pace with the change. Will Chinese Science be able to do the same?

I was hoping to go to China sometime in the Spring. Visit my staff, and also some suppliers.

How much longer will we(I?) be able to manage our suppliers if we cannot visit them? Thank God for WeChat.

Last night I had a conference call with several folks, and it was torture. Why? None of the American side had WeChat. We had to wait twenty minutes for the Chinese side to download "Teams".

This Virus worries me. I think in the end, there is a good chance it will outwit our current defenses. Just a matter of time. Then what? I tell you what, pray our scientists don't die from the damn thing.

Again, I will say this; this event is in the Chinese Wheelhouse. A society that is used to dictating and a populace that is used to being dictated, too. Meanwhile my own sister is not vaccinated, and her company doesn't mandate it.

We can say this is Darwin. I know. Let's the dumbasses die first. I get it. But do you think America(or your country) is ever going to run out of dumbasses? Do you? At first I thought all these old folks dying would be good for Social Security.

Hold of on that. Younger folks are dying too. That is, those that pay into the system.

The Chinese System is overkill. We know that. But that is all they know. This is "subtlety with Chinese Characteristics." If the Chinese don't like things they can come here. Their welcome. And they do not have to isolate.

If I were to go to China, I would need to isolate for almost a month. Port of entry and final destination.

Have a booster? China Man don't care. Have a vaccination card? China Man don't care.

I have to think China's strict control regime is a myth. Afterall, I see lots of pix from this Russian friend of mine, he's a bartender, of massive crowds in those Chinese nightclubs. No masks. Amazing.

I went to listen to a symphony the other day and needed a vaccination card to gain entry. And I didn't complain.

So let's see how this plays out. In the interim, China doesn't miss me folks. Or you. And that kinda sucks.

My Country Right or Wrong

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 01:03:00 +0000

Soon after I wrote my previous post, right on cue, I read an article stating China is now not allowing smaller cities to build skyscrapers.

What bothers me about this is not the admission that market forces in China have not been behind the rise in skyscrapers, but rather what bothers me about this is that a government entity can make such an order, and it make sense.

Thomas Paine in 1776 said "these are the times that try Men's Souls".

He was talking about America. It was the first time I'd seen the phrase "sunshine patriot".

But it can be anyone in any other country, too.

I increasingly am finding myself admiring what China is doing, and I find it most alarming. Not allowing the market to decide who makes winners and losers is in a way, comforting to me. In some areas, it is a fraud.

I remember I was sitting in a Dunkin Donuts in Beijing. Next to me was an American teacher with a translator at a table and several prospective Chinese students. They wanted to learn English. He gave a rate and the students collectively gasped. He stared them down and nodded.

I almost wanted to lean over and undercut him just to piss him off. At the time I was in grad school and about to go to Shanghai for an internship. I'm glad China is shutting down all these profit taking schools and tutors. Fuck 'em. Absolutely fuck em.

I see lots of areas where suddenly I admire what China is doing. Maybe it is the side effect. But I don't care. China for instance is suddenly wanting to bring the uber rich to heel. Ok. I have no problem with that. Of course we all know the real truth is that the uber rich may someday rise up and be the proverbial tail that wags the dog. Just as it somewhat is in Russia.

But you know what? I don't give a shit. I just don't care what the real agenda is. Remember, I live in a country where Jeff Bezos pays no tax, or very little. And I live in a country where quite possibly half the country has no problem with that.

Not paying taxes in America is seen by many as "stickin' it to the Man." Or as Trump once said "because I'm smart".

No, dumbass, it wasn't because you were smart. You were a loser. But your lawyers....they were smart. And I'll never be able to afford them. As long as America is a country that is full of people that perversely celebrates unequal wealth, the problem will only get worse.

Afghanistan. Another espisode where for some reason Biden just thought it "ok" to just get up and go. Afghanistan was called America's longest war. Well, aren't people supposed to die in these wars? An American soldier hadn't been killed in nearly two years. Now with a rush and a pull, we're out. And everyone else is now freaking out about terrorists being harbored there.

Not China. They've basically closed off the whole Northwest. Millions in concentration camps? Could be. But the Chinese don't care. They don't. "It's the Party keeping the masses safe", People.

The PLA could go onto Nathan Road and shoot everyone in sight. Do you think Mainland China would care? They disdain Hong Kong, and what it stands for in their eyes; an entitled area that is untolerably Pro Western. Arrogant and in need of a comeuppance big time.

But I digress.

I am searching for something positive to say about America. It is hard to do. Everytime I go onto WeChat I see the daily videos all showing the seedy, underside of America. It's not propaganda folks. It's not "one sided". These are all videos meant to show our warts. I get it, but those problems are real. And we as a society suck at solving them. It is discouraging to see America today, trying to solve it's problems, our politicians more interested in "winning" and slowing each other down than in honestly trying to reach a consensus.

Sometimes I think the American People don't deserve Democracy. We are too dumb for it. We don't read. Two-Thirds of us probably can't find China on a map. Remember the post I wrote several years ago about my boss, when we were travelling in Shenzhen? There was a massive billboard on the street corner of an older person and he asked who that was? I had to introduce him to Deng Xiaoping.

Yep, the guy that didn't know who DXP was ran China. That in one sentence is what is wrong with America.

Maybe in my middle age I'm running out of patience. Beginning to lose an interest in the subtlety of life. Yearning more for results. In my life experience I have seen the problem, and in my life experience I think I know how to solve it. That is, perhaps now I'm simply more willing to say something I wouldn't have said before.

We as a Society, or perhaps even Civilization have failed to solve our most basic problems. Drugs run rampant. Guns are everywhere. How can it be a problem so well known two generations ago is still not solved?

I think in my middle age as I gaze over across the waters at China I have just a glint of admiration. We need to be not just a nation that respects others, but maybe more a nation of results. Maybe we respect too much, and say "no" too rarely to better avoid alienating or offending others.

But it starts at home. I used to see "My country, right or wrong", all over the place.

Well fuck that. If my country is wrong, I want to fix, not give it a pass.

I fear we are a nation that no longer focuses on results. Rather we are more intent to please everyone, than to get things done.

It is frustrating to live in America right now. Our Best and Brightest are nowhere to be found.

This is not the Land of Milk and Honey

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 01:15:00 +0000

Happy to finally be able to post. It's been awhile for me. Quite a while actually, the longest break from a post I've ever taken. Not on purpose. When working upwards of 60 hours a week, it's just hard. I manage Chinese operations for my company. Thus I am literally working night and day. Later tonight I have another call to make, this one with Guangzhou.

Tomorrow I have a call with Ningbo.

It just doesn't stop. Yeah, I make good money. I don't complain. But work has the effect of simply draining one's passion from you to do other things. I've found a gradual lack of interest in my main hobbies, ie exercise, photography, and my blog. I've not given my blog more than ten seconds thought over the past several weeks. The energy isn't there.

But I'm still allowed to observe. I still read at night, and I struggle to pay attention to the day's events.

I wanted recently to write a post about what learning Mandarin has done for me. But as of today, I don't feel very positive. Learning Mandarin has changed my life. I'll leave it at that.

Today I want to talk about China and the rest of us. In 1990 when I first set foot in China, while not desolate, it was indeed different. China was untrusting of the West. I'm hear to say today that is still true. The narrative is as strong as ever.

Our ability to get along has lessened. It hasn't improved. In effect over the past thirty years there has been practically no progress in our relations with China. Make no mistake, cosmetically speaking how can one in China complain?

Starbucks are everywhere. So is KFC and McDonald's. The Iphone. But China isn't interested in Western cultural dominance. At the end of the day, it is still a distant country. And suspicious.

If I were to speak Chinese in China, without a doubt some people would think I'm a spy. Ridiculous.

China doesn't make it easy. Simply taking a train is an exercise. If one is a foreigner and doesn't bring his passport with him, he's out of luck. The convenience of China is for the masses. Not for you or me. China is built for Chinese.

I've come to the conclusion China is just fine without us. They don't miss us, and they don't need us there. China is happy to live its own dream, within its own cocoon, in a parallel universe if you will, fondly disconnected from anyone it cannot use to make it stronger.

China doesn't strike me anymore as curious. Not curious about me, or you. Not your country, or mine. The Chinese have no interest in how America was founded, nor any passion for learning about the spread of the Roman Empire. That disappoints me.

No one in China studies Latin. Or understands the importance of Greek architecture upon our society. Indeed, the first reaction when a Western achievement is announced is distrust.

China simply takes a look at us and ponders with a shaken head,

"How were we ever losing to these guys"?

If you were Chinese, you would think and say the same.

In effect, China has no incentive to gaze upon our shores.

America is my favorite punching bag:

Profound homeless tent cities.

No gleaming subways.

No high speed rail.

You get the point.

What is there for China to look up to, here?

America is the story of an athlete that threw it all away.

I can only speak to America, because I do not live in Europe. But I think for Europeans, Chinese would find it much more comfortable and easier a place to live. Europe has two things America in my view doesn't have. A society that is easy to move around in, ie Eurorail. And a lack of insane competitiveness that exists here.

In America, beyond the most menial labor roles, we are all competing. And as such, I think it no longer attracts the youth of China, that come here. China's youth within America is predominantly littered with the nouveau rich. They are not hungry. But our universities thank them for the tuition anyway.

They come here, they study, then they leave. Maybe buy a house or two. Then simply go back to China to work. This Country is not for people hesitant of mind and spirit. This is not a country for people with no ambition.

If you have ambition and patience, you will do well in America. You will not suck. Yes, you will still need an education, but you will not want for a future.

In short, not as many Chinese desire to come here as before. This is not 1990, and America to them is not the land of milk and honey.

I might continue to this later......

More Like China

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 01:55:00 +0000

I don't know where to start with this. Everyday seems to have a new, "didn't see this coming", take from the Heavenly Kingdom. It is a marvel to observe. Before our very eyes we are seeing social engineering in action, and on a national scale.

First tutoring schools are banned from making profits.

Now kids cannot play video games.

Ok.....but then the "niangpao" are not allowed to be on TV anymore. These are effeminate looking and acting men. Feminine Boys, if you will.

Famous actresses have been banned from TV, and actresses guilty of tax evasion have been hauled in.

I have a few thoughts here.....

What the hell is going on? And....

I like it.

Ignore the chaff, folks. Admire the method. If China was an American company, the CEO would be fired for political incorrectness. For "shaming".

China's "get shit done", mantra is refreshing. To hell with the feelings of others. It really is all about the result folks. Don't let anyone tell you different.

All this "it's all about the journey", nonsense only matters if you were the one that didn't get that promotion, or didn't pick that girl up at the bar last weekend. In a word, it's a phrase for people with no vision, no hope for immediate payoff in life. Even worse, it's about all of us that have worked so hard in life, only to leave the bosses office at the end of the year with that 1% raise.

China is doing what America only wishes it could. Mired eyeball deep in the messy politics of decision making, America only shakes its head as China get's shit done. China is once again really making "US" look decrepit and obsolete in our decision making process. We suck.

China is nothing more than looking out for it's citizenry. It is getting geared up for competition with America.

The problem with the West is we have too much damn freedom. We're like Paris Hilton, bored with a full stomach and a pretty face, nothing to do for the rest of our lives. Satisfied. Everyday we can have chocolate cake for breakfast. There is only so much good we can say about China, and a hell of alot to scorn, but look at us for a moment.

Is there a drug problem in your Western country? Maybe an inequality problem too?

Everyone with a head not buried in the sand, I give you America:

Drugs everywhere, guns everywhere. How has America changed? Simply watch a movie not made perhaps twenty years ago. Where instead of automatic weapons to solve a feud, "mere" handguns are used.

Listen to Hank Williams "Country boy can survive"...where Hank laments the death of his friend at the hands of a switchblade knife. A fucking knife!

Today Biden announced every company in America with more than 100 employees will need to get the shot. Nevermind the announcement, admire the "in your face" courage to make the obvious decision. What is the irony here?

We asked China thirty years ago to become more like us. A President with a good heart spent less than two years in China and came away thinking he could change a 5000 year culture, even bend it to our will. That folks, is called "hubris". All the while China realized the only way the CCP could stay in power was by focusing the people on an outward enemy.

Turns out maybe China is changing us. Want to unite America? Or even the West? Focus on China. Sound familiar? When Biden acted unilaterally today, it was a shock. So Un American. No debate, no press conference, no angst. In a word, maybe, just maybe he's influenced by China?

Again, I can't fault a country that wants to break out of the grip of the rich and wealthy. 31% of American wealth is owned by 1% of our people. That's not just inequality, that's a cancer. And if you think "that's just Capitalism Man", you're not just ignorant but very poorly educated.

China has the same problem, and their doing something about it. Yeah, I know, it's not that simple. I get it. China's elite see the rich and powerful as a challenge to their rule. Nothing more nothing less. Ma Yun is a very patriotic Chinese. But that doesn't make him a cowering Yes Man either. Immovable Force vs Irresistable Object? Who's gonna win that contest? Whomever the CCP wants to, that's who.

I'm suddenly more interested in China then I was a few weeks ago. There's something to be said about a country trying to change things for the better. If China had America's "freedoms" it simply wouldn't exist as the China we know today. Indeed, China wouldn't even be recognizable. The best and worst thing that ever happened to China was the Communist Party.

But don't sneer at China today. At least they are making an effort to fix their problems. Over here from where I sit in America, moments away from another conference call with the Middle Kingdom, I'm a very jealous laowai.

"Don't we all......"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 02:29:00 +0000

I am the Senior Director of small company. Maybe this year a bit less than $200 million in revenue. Yet I have a China Team of around twenty staff. I have a few American Staff as well. And I am finding myself increasingly frustrated when I want stuff done.

In America.

Why is that? I know my American staff may not get to it right away. Or even my coworkers for that matter. And if they do, it won't necessarily be as thorough as I prefer.

Right now we are having a hell of a time getting containers in China. It is literally just one crisis after another. First Covid slammed us, now the inability to ship product ontime is nearly the final damn nail in the coffin.

But my logistics manager works on weekends to get the job done. She is dedicated, and task oriented. She has even worked on holidays. Do I care? Yeah, I do. Does she ask for permission? Nope. She just gets it done. And our products ship.

Last week I had samples that had to go out. It wasn't necessarily urgent. I knew they would go out eventually. So around 7pm I left the office, another eleven hour day. I placed the samples on a nearby desk and sent an email telling my co-worker to send these out. I also included in the body of the email the name of the company. Enough information for the system to pull up the rest.

Now I should stop here and tell the team I get at most 200 emails a day, and at least 130-150. It is my professional philosophy to review or respond to most of them before going home. The next day I rolled in and for the entire morning wasn't even in the office. I noticed the samples I had placed on the admin's desk were still there. To be fair, this lady is a smart person, and quite competent and capable.

Neither does she report to me. She would be equivalent of a buyer within an ordinary company. Finally, late in the day I casually walked over, asking when the samples were going out. Her response was simple;

"I emailed you earlier in the day for the company address". My retort was as casual as I could manage,

"I've only got 200 emails to go through today."

She simply turned her back and in as airy a voice she could muster, replied,

"Don't we all......"

The samples wound up going out the following day.

This simply wouldn't happen in China. Granted, it is a simple illustration.

I once wrote a post many years ago(on this blog!), about a phone call I received around 10pm on a Sunday in Shenzhen. It was from the chief product engineer regarding a tooling issue we were having. He was calling simply to announce his team had solved the issue that had been vexing us for the past few days. He was pretty happy about it.

Not that I'd forgotten about it, but I can honestly say it wasn't on my mind on a 10pm Sunday evening.

Americans are NOT lazy. And maybe I'm the problem here. People don't act quickly enough to get things I want done, and just maybe I pout as a result.

And, just maybe I'm sick of 7 minute lunch breaks and eleven hour work days. And maybe I'm thus most annoyed by people that get to go home at 4pm, albeit they make significantly less than I do. But at the end of the day I often find people simply not as task oriented as I like. Yes, China has lazy people. I know.

But why is it I feel I can get more done with a China team than I can with an American team?

Rock on Man

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 02:13:00 +0000

Chinese need approval.

They seek acceptance. They crave validity.

Watching WeChat "channels" has shown me this trend is alive and strong. WC as such has now become not just a venue for talking with friends, banking etc, but now is the premier avenue for the masses ability to showcase China while also skewering the decline of the West. This is popularity driven. It's just a cool thing to do. And I must admit, I like watching the videos on WC that do just that.

But before you begin thinking I'm just gonna call out WC as a tool for belittling everything Western, you need to know WC is far more open minded than one might think.

Only a few days ago I saw a video of Fauci and Rand Paul having a near brawl on WC. The topic of their conversation is very sensitive to China. Frankly, I was surprised it was posted. Surely I wasn't the only one wondering why China doesn't have such blunt political debate as well?

I often surf WC before going to bed. It takes my mind off work. It is relaxing and gets me ready for bed. I also find it an efficient way to learn more about China, and it's great for my Chinese. It has greatly expanded my vocabulary. My Iphone photos are now two thirds screenshots of Chines vocab from WC or pleico.

BTW, the rise of pleico has made studying Mandarin that much easier. Have dictionaries become obsolete?

But the trend I keep coming back to is the consistent need of approval from the West, so prevalent amongst many Chinese. Seeing these videos on WC has only reinforced this belief. Or does WC simply pamper to its base? Are these videos only "hot" because only people with nothing to do are watching them?

Is it a reflection of the fact that 99% of Chinese have never had a sustained conversation with a foreigner in Mandarin or English? Still, I can't help but feel that we are in the 1980's again. The exoticness of the laowai is increasing. Why? Because we've all left! Only those married to a Chinese are still there, or are English teachers.

It's human nature, the more we are demonized, the more intrigued others become of us.

In the beginning, with more than an ounce of superiority in the voice, laowai stuck in China(let's be honest, they had no prospects in their own country. Why else would they stay in China when the country was in lockdown?) were beginning to say China was actually safer than America(it was) during the height of the pandemic.

Ummm.....how's that China vaccine working out now? Speak up laowai!

So now I come to the subject of this post; Laowai making the best of it in China, via WC videos.

Recently, a couple of Brits and an American were on a train, and were interviewed speaking in English about how great China was and quite frankly, how the basis of all criticism of China in the West is rooted in its jealousy of China, pure and simple.

I think there is some truth there. As such, many Westerners just cannot wait to see China fall on its ass.

Regarding these laowai, as they are still in China, I could only surmise they are single, and are English teachers. I could be wrong. But I doubt it. Looking outside my window while writing yet another overdue post I look out at my pool. A nice, beautiful pool. I have three cars in my garage and a house that hasn't quite doubled in value, that I'll be paying off before Thanksgiving. I have a good job that albeit border line works me to death, still allows me to renovate said house as well.

I even grilled steak last night on my grill, in my backyard.

What am I jealous of? What is my point? My life is infinitely better than any of those "stuck in China" laowai.

But that post on WC got zillions of views, and once again, confirmed to the Chinese how great their nation is, compared to the West.

Let us stop here for a moment to add context. American Democracy in particular isn't doing very well at the moment. We as a nation are in a crisis. Politically speaking, we are hijacked by a minority, led by old white men, in a country that may very well not see another white, protestant, non gay, male President in my lifetime.

This current crisis we are in, all of us, is best solved by a strong central government. Don't just look at China folks. Look at France, too. One cannot go to a theater, restaurant, club, anywhere, without a vaccination card. Why can't we do that in America?

America has given so much power to the States that we are incapable of action towards solving a national emergency. This crisis makes us look bad. You don't think China notices? Or the West in general?

To those in China paying attention, albeit with a very filtered news filter, this crisis showed two things: How great and superior American Science is to China's, and how utterly incapable we are of solving big problems in a decisive way.

If one were to say China's "management team" is superior to the American "management team", I would probably agree. China plays better as a team. Our talent as a nation is thus squandered by our inability to do as much.

Now go back and read the zillion posts I've written about the shock on Chinese faces when they come here and don't see all those shiny buildings and subways as they have in The Heavenly Kingdom. How can they not believe our criticisms of them is only so much jealousy?

As for those laowai....if I was to invite any of those laowai to my house, feed them a grilled steak, let them and any of their Chinese harem hang out in the pool, maybe even drive my car around to the local diner and get a milkshake, and than asked them how things are going in China, they wouldn't miss a beat:

"I prefer it here, I just can't find anything....."

When Laowai say China is better than the West, they have an excellent point. But their looking at it from a "macro" level. Not a micro level.

I would love nothing more than to go back to China, if they'd let me in. Do my job, visit my suppliers. Maybe even hit the club. But then what? Brag about the subway system, or another shiny skyscraper? Talk about how convenient it is to hail a ride in China? Dude, did I tell you I have 3 cars in my garage? Why would I care about that? How does any of the above effect my life on a personal level?

I live in the suburbs. On purpose. I DO NOT want to live in the city. I've lived in six Asian cities, all many times bigger than the city I live in now, which is not small. Why would I want to brag about China's subway? Or rail? I don't need those things here. You say I would if I lived in China, but you miss my point, I DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN CHINA. No offense, but I've checked that box. I've lived that life. And they quite frankly don't want another laowai there either. They want us gone, dude. Just keep the purchase orders to the factories coming.....

Any laowai saying he prefers China on the micro level, unless he speaks excellent Chinese, is very wealthy, single or with no kids to raise, and can leave China and come back in as he pleases is kidding himself. Trust me, your VPN isn't gonna be as good as you think it will be. Netflix, Instagram, Youtube, Wikepedia....living in China is a cultural desert for those with any hint of intellectual curiosity. You better bring alot of books.

I just wish the laowai demonizing of the West had context. Those laowai that live in China have low expectations of themselves. They compensate by telling themselves how much better life in China is, and I believe them because they have nothing in the West.

Ride your shiny subway. Rock on man.

You will always be able to read the menu.....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 19:06:00 +0000

Yeah, I've been away awhile. Sorry about that. My job is crushing me, and when I'm dead tired keeping up with a blog just isn't easy to do. Onward....

Only a few days ago I was listening to "The Pacific Century Podcast". It is a decent podcast hosted by scholars, primarily about China. While driving to work one of the hosts lamented America's lack of people that can speak and read Chinese. In particular the newspaper. While he is an up and coming China Expert, if you will, he is quick to note he himself cannot speak Mandarin.

I've had readers ask me about how they can utilize their Mandarin to get a good job, or how to leverage it into a bright future. And my answer has always been through one's own initiative, or through the private sector. The American Government will not come and find you. There is no organized method to find, filter, let alone mentor and groom young American Mandarin speakers for a future in US Government. None.

Should there be? Of course there should. Should it guarantee anyone a job in American Government? Of course not. We only want the best. Need the best. We need the best and brightest of our overseas students to seriously consider a job in Government, vis a vis our Chinese counterparts. This goes for your Government, too.

Sweden, Nigeria, Spain, Saudia Arabia, wherever you are. As a nation, your Society, your Government must have an organized plan to seek out and find young, idealistic students of China. Train them and then hope to God they will want to work in the Government.

My first year in China was in Guangzhou. It had a population of roughly 2-3 million Chinese. My university was surrounded by rice fields. I had to take a bus to get into town, because I was located out of town. Today Guangzhou has 15 million people, and my old school is very much well "into" town.

But nobody from the local consulate thought once about coming to visit me, and my classmate. In short, there was zero outreach. I did meet a consular official in Hangzhou, but he was there by accident and took a few of us out for lunch. And I never heard from him again.

Thanksgiving in Guangzhou was a drag. I had heard the consulate was having a Thanksgiving Dinner. I wanted to go. Most regrettably I learned the tickets were sold out. I was of course having a tough time in Guangzhou. It was 1990. Living in China was a bit of a mentally trying experience for me. Not being able to go to that dinner nearly took me over the edge. I can imagine now, only expats "in the know" knew about that dinner, and of course gobbled up the tickets.

What is my point? Those expats stayed a year and left, albeit with interesting stories to tell. But the investment in our Consulate was made in the "wrong people". Don't invest your time in people there only for the bump in hardship pay. Invest your time and effort in those whom are young and whose minds can still be melded. They may not shave, and they may have long hair, and no they will probably not wear ties, but they may possibly develop a skillset the Nation may need a generation from now.

My Government refused to do that. I may sound bitter. But with what I know now, without question I made the right choice to go into the private sector. From an individual point of view, working in the private sector allowed me to learn more about China than any government job ever would have allowed.

Which finally brings me to the point of this post:

A comment made by my daughter recently made me think. First a things about my oldest daughter; She is strikingly beautiful, in college and a major pain in my ass. And her Chinese is better than mine, albeit rarely, but she fortunately lacks the stutter gene. Try and learn a foreign language with a stutter.

She is extremely proud of her Mandarin. Her writing skills are superb. But to prove it she has taken a test that actually shows how good her mandarin is. The HSK. Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi. Now, I tried to take it once upon a time, many, many moons ago, but while living in Japan never had easy access to it. Alas, neither of my daughters have had this problem, and as such they have both taken it and done quite well.

My oldest has passed it at level 5, and my youngest at level 4. They crushed it, and could've taken the next level actually, if they had so chosen.

Only very recently, my oldest was filling out a required financial aid college application for the upcoming year, and on the form was the simple question, and I paraphrase, "Tell us about what certificates you've obtained?". In short, she had to choose from a drag down box. Lo and Behold, the HSK was not on the list.

My daughter seemed quite astonished by this. She was a bit unhappy. Afterall, taking the exam that amounts to the global standard for defining one's Mandarin capability, and passing at a high level is a major accomplishment within the "Mandarin as a 2nd language" world.

Alas, her accomplishment seemed not to be appreciated beyond that bubble. A few decades ago I took the FBI Chinese Language Exam. It was a written exam. At the time, spoken Chinese was my strong point and written Chinese the bane of my existence. Well, I passed the written exam with flying colors. I studied, true, but the exam wasn't that hard. It was quite easy. Today my written Chinese is eons better than it was twenty years ago. But to my utter shock I failed the oral exam.

I was quite angered by this and still am today. Part of me wants to believe Chinese just don't want a White Man to speak Mandarin. I've since wondered if I failed, then who in the hell passed? The exam was given over the phone by a few mainland Chinese. They asked me about Sarin on envelopes. The exam wasn't overly difficult, but I was quite surprised to have failed it. Since then I've lost count of how many Mandarin negotiations I've had with Chinese factory CEO's.

Back to my daughter, I hope she now understands... America talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk, when it comes to the constant haranguing and great dismay it utters when crying about our supposed "dearth" of Mandarin speakers.

I learned awhile back that it really is about your skillset, and less about your language skills, that sells you to others. And that skillset is important. Mandarin is a "nice to have", but unfortunately, you won't get paid extra for it. And we must be honest with ourselves, and this took me a while to learn, we can only use our language skills to get so far. That is, one must know what their doing. One must have a skill.

This isn't 1979, folks.

So I hope my eldest doesn't get discouraged by the more than perceived notion she has now formed about our government institutions non chalance regarding her Mandarin skills. But I know they won't got to waste. Afterall, she's a big city girl. And every big city has a Chinatown. She will always be able to read the menu.

The Yongle Emperor writes a book

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 12 May 2021 02:42:00 +0000

I want to talk about Yongle. He was the Third Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He reigned from 1402-1424. In my feeble mind he is one of the greatest of China's Emperors. However, by taking a look at any "Top Ten" list, he is not mentioned.

However, if that list was to simply include "modern day" emperors, of say the Ming onward, or of the past millenia, surely he would be one of the greatest emperors during that period.

Yongle did many things, so let's simply start off with what he is most famous for; the building of the Forbidden Palace. He also expanded upon the Grand Canal, as well as obviously moving the capital to Beijing.

He kept good relations with Tibet, as well as building the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing. He also codified the Imperial Exam System, making it more selective by the actual passing of a test than by appointment.

Oh, and he also funded the voyages of Zheng He as well.

Yongle was not perfect, and of course he did unpopular things as well, such as banning Mongol culture, and at one point executing over 2000 of his concubines and eunuchs over a sex scandal.

Yongle reflects the complexity of human nature. Known not just for cruelty but great contributions to Chinese Culture. In many regards, he is responsible for the foundation of many tenets of Chinese Culture as we know them today. His cultural achievements surpassed by few. In my view, however, the most intriguing contribution made by Yongle was his creation of the Yongle Encyclopedia.

If Yongle represents one's ideal of a Chinese Soldier Scholar, then the Yongle Encyclopedia in my view represents China. Its Rise and Fall. Its Charm and Allure, its Vast Cultural Superiority to other Civilizations. And its terrible inability to maintain its Promise, its Destiny, its Desire to lead the first rank of nations.

It is here I must acknowledge the Greeks. And we must acknowledge Homer. His Iliad and Odyssey both predate Yongle's Tome by 2000 years. That's twenty centuries folks.

Alas, these great poems were 24 books each. Let's call them volumes. 48 total volumes. Yongle's project however was a tad longer.

The purpose of Yongle's cultural "odyssey" was to be the compilation of all known knowledge up to that time, within the realm of The Chinese Experience. This "Encyclopedia" was to be it's repository of all Chinese Knowledge.

In short while we contemplate in awe the massive undertaking of such a project, we are equally impressed that it only took a few years for its completion. It eventually reached over 11,000 volumes(Remember Homer?). Even though it was compiled of various topics, it very much dwarfs anything the West put together. Even a copy was eventually made!

There are two aspects of China I want to briefly address here:

The first is China always goes big. The Great Wall, the Grand Canal, The Forbidden City, even its Famine and its Civil War and Rebellion are all enormous and unimaginable on a scale unknown to others. That's just how China rolls folks.

But why?

Because of the other aspect of China that allows this: It's Imperial System. Similar to today, China's structure of governance like any other nation allowed for China over many a millenia, to "go big". It is how China thought, and how China managed its affairs. Big, Centralized Power has been the way to go. It is not "new" to the CCP. Rather the CCP is just an incarnation of what China has always been.

Go big, belly first and without thought. Collateral Damage be damned. We just won't write about that in the History Books. How many people were conscripted to build the Great Wall? The Forbidden City? Were they paid? How were they fed? Could they "quit" or take a holiday?

George Washington's biggest fear at Trenton(look it up in the archives) was the expiration of his troops enlistments. Shall we say.....China didn't have this concern?

So while we are to be rightfully in awe of Yongle's massive compilation of knowledge, we shouldn't be overly surprised either. Still, this shepherding of Chinese Resources into such a fantastic creation of literature is simply mind boggling. It is a simple reflection of China's intellectual and cultural superiority to the West. And as I stated before, a copy was made!

And then true to Chinese Form, it was all lost.

The original was lost, sometime in the 16th Century, approximately 140 years after it's original creation. We know not how or where. Most likely via fire. However, some claim it was simply buried with the Jiajing Emperor.

For the next 300 years, no attempt was made to expand upon the contents of the encyclopedia. No poetry, or expansion of new knowledge was added. So of course, over time, it began to slowly vanish. By 1860, with over 90% of the Yongle Dadian still intact, rapid decline set in. This was of course the beginning of China's Century of Chaos. War, Revolution and Looting slowly led to the inexorable extinction of perhaps Planet Earth's greatest literary creation.

Finally, the greatest Chinese cultural relic perhaps of all time came to a fiery end. Of course The Barbarian was involved. Otherwise, how could this be a good story?

In June 1900, the Western Legations were under siege. Next to them was the famous Hanlin Academy, an institution created by the Tang, and transformed by Yongle himself, into an institution where China's Best and Brightest worked. It was this sacred ground that housed what was left of the Encyclopedia, less than perhaps 10% of the original number.

The Boxers, in the end, nothing more than a gang of peasants that could not read, blinded by it's surreal hate of anything foreign, simply used the Hanlin Academy, the academic center of Chinese Culture, to "burn out" the beseiged foreigners. Inevitably that meant burning the contents of what was inside the Hanlin Academy, in order to smoke out the Barbarian. George Morrison, the famous British reporter and later foreign adviser to China, was there. He writes,

"what can we think of a nation that sacrifices its most sacred edifice, the pride and glory of its country and learned men for hundreds of years, in order to be revenged upon foreigners? It was a glorious blaze. The desecration was appalling". (The Boxer Rebellion, Diana Preston)

One wonders why over the preceding centuries no further copies had been made? China had time to build many things. A Summer Palace. A Jade boat. Why did it not take the investment and print more copies? Was the Qing the twilight of China's intellectual curiosity?

Keep in mind the Qing were NOT Chinese. Perhaps they lacked a true appreciation of China's History.

They'll quite possibly delay the Beijing Olympics

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 19:14:00 +0000

There is now talk that the Tokyo Olympics will be cancelled.

This is bad news. All the effort put into the preparation. The money, the time, and of course the prestige. Bottom line is less than 1% of Japan's population(as of this writing), had been vaccinated.

There are 100 days to go folks. Meanwhile, 75% of Japanese want the Games postponed. I do not believe they will be cancelled. Simply pushed back a year perhaps? Afterall, why even hold them in an odd numbered year?

And who can travel to the Games?

The irony of ironies is that America, with its rather competent roll out in full swing, will have no where for its people to go.

But in my view things are going to actually get worse. Nevermind the meltdown in Brazil(which could have been America perhaps if Trump were still in charge?), or India, the news has just come out that the American Moderna vaccine will need a booster shot in the Summer/Fall timeline.

Which means with the possible exception of Pfizer, all current vaccines out there will also need a booster shot down the road.

Seriously?

Methinks Americans will by then definitely have "shot fatigue". Which is why it is important to get vaccinated now by any means necessary. 'Cause by the Fall, the variants will definitely be taking over.

So now we come to China. That fleeting mistress, skirting in and out of my heart. China just isn't very popular now, folks. No friends, with the exception of Mother Russia(we don't count Cambodia and Laos, well, because no one cares what these two pebbles in the sand think).

Robert Louis Stevenson had a sailor in his book Treasure Island. The sailor was washed overboard. No one tried to save him. That sailor could be China today.

We'd love to blame the Heavenly Kingdom for the virus, we'd just love to give it a nice, nasty comeuppance, except.....we ourselves were so abhorrently incompetent(especially America), that we really have nothing to say.

Democracies suck at solving urgent problems when the alternative is keeping your population under literal house arrest. China excels at this type of game. But if the Human Race really goes on with the Tokyo Games that will be not only be bad form, but caustic at best. The Japanese themselves won't want us there. The ignorant constantly speak of American racism. For the upteenth time I will snarkily say let us give you 20 million black men and 15 million hispanics, sprinkled upon your population, and let's see how utopian your society remains. Nothing against black men or hispanics, but the odds are your country doesn't have them. Then throw in 40 million of our most ignorant white men that themselves don't know how to read, but somehow can quote the 2nd amendment from heart(without comprehending its meaning), and let us see how harmonious your society becomes.

I read somewhere within the past week the American Media news reports are 90% negative. No surprise there. America is not a "Good News Society". We excel at telling ourselves how much we suck. And after awhile it is hard not to believe it. We broadcast from fear. Fear sells. When we say we want to be "informed", what we really mean is want to be "informed" of what lies outside the city gates, ready to devour us in our sleep.

As such we refuse to understand America is a much better place than we are led to believe. It's just our neverending chase for the perfect society that keeps us paranoid of "backsliding".

My point is the Japanese seeing a non Japanese amongst their midsts during the Games will think we all have COVID, nevermind we couldn't even get inside the country unless we are properly vaccinated. If that's not racism what is? Homogenous Asian Societies have two things in common: extreme overt racism and a ticking population timebomb with soon too many elderly people to look after.

So I think the Summer Games will just not go down.

And should that happen, just around the corner are the Winter Games. And nations will go out of their way NOT to go to Beijing. Indeed, they'd love nothing more to even pretend China doesn't exist. Delaying the Tokyo Games would give everyone the cover they need.

China should welcome this respite. China needs time to make friends. Except wait, China has one good trait I really admire, which I am constantly teaching my own children; don't try and be everyone's best friend. China excels at this. It's as if they want to rub your disdain for the Heavenly Kingdom into your own face. Splendid!

But despite the effective job China has done managing the virus, it has been effective with the regular Wuhan variant only. What of the other variants? Will they somehow find a way into China? How will that look if these variants are raging throughout the countryside while the Olympics are on display?

Something tells me the Chinese are in danger of letting their guard down here. Just apparently as Europe and America both have done.

And of India?

With each cataclysmic day India endures, the Chinese look on smugly at their own management skills. And I must say, when the result is saving lives, it's more about the result then the process. Regarding China, this is a country where people hit cops all the time, argue with cops all the time. Cops even fight each other. I read a book last year detailing the history of US-Sino relations. I was astounded to read what the first American visitors to China said in the 1700's and early 1800's; China is not a country ready for Democracy. Folks, that was when they had one third the population they have today.

Still, China simply isn't ready for any of these new variants. The speed and ease of transmission. China will be dealing with this virus for years, as long as they don't have a provable vaccine. Ask yourself this:

If China holds the Winter Games, will there be anyone from the West attending? What if they have to get self-isolated for two weeks before entering Beijing? And what if you've already gotten the proper WHO certified vaccination?

You will notice none of the Chinese vaccines are WHO certified. The WHO's reputation has been so badly tainted as overtly Pro-China that it will be a long, long day before it certifies anything from China.

Nevermind the Olympics. How many Westerners will be willing to self isolate in China after having received a WHO certified vaccination? As such, nations can't wait to "take China down". There will be a great push to thus delay the Beijing Olympics.

"Isn't it cool"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 02:25:00 +0000

Well, I knew what I wanted to immediately put to paper as soon as China Wife uttered this phrase last night, in the throes of passion.

I've been meaning for the past few months, and I'm damn intent on doing so, to put a good post to paper about Russia, and how it will inevitably fuck over China, but alas that will have to wait.

(you heard it here first, The Winter Olympics may also be cancelled)

So, back to what I feel the need to write about NOW, I've been "deepening" my carnal knowledge of China Wife for literally decades. Last night was a breakthrough. I've long muttered how mechanical in bed she is. I put it down to her simply being a child of the 80's. I've admittedly had sex with other China babes much better in bed than China Wife.

As of last night she is catching up. Her only viable position is on top. That is fine with me. She has large breasts and I don't mind. Though I do mention to her it would be nice to have sex during the day, so I could simply see what I'm fondling. I think this is a fair request. While on top she suddenly began stroking my testicles.

I mention this because it is so.....China Girl 20 something. Alas, I was somewhat surprised by the move and started giggling. It took her longer to climax than usual. When I asked her where she learned that move, she simply responded, "Isn't it cool"?

Well, Yes China Wife, it is.

She still cannot get over the mental block of orgasming more than once. I've told her it is possible for her to do so, but she simply doesn't give herself a chance.

It's not just a mental block but perhaps also a physical block. China Wife definitely needs to watch porn. Can I say Porn, if used properly, like marijuana, is good for the soul? My dad is in his eighties. He won't last much longer. But he has taken "medical marijuana". And he is better for it.

Within my uber religious family it is something we utter in whispers, vaguely wishing for approval. Sad. The effects of religion during the impressionable part of one's life lasts forever. Some would say scarred. I'm fortunate enough merely to be bemused.

By the way, my Pentecostal church predicted in 1981 the Second Coming of Christ would be 1987. And our Pastor was a good man. A fine man.

Back to China Woman's glacier progress in bed. I like it. I'm happy about it. She's still eons behind all the other China Women I've slept with. Not even close. There are things, basic things, I'll never be able to do with China Wife that I've done on a regular basis with China Girl. And there are things China Girl has done to me, China Wife will never evolve quickly enough to do with me.

All I can do is adapt.

And hopefully giggle some more.

"I love you more"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 20 Mar 2021 23:15:00 +0000

We Americans.

We have too much emotion. Too many of us wear our hearts on our sleeve.

We are too public in my view, way too public with our expressions. Subtlety doesn't exist in America.

In China, as I've said countless times, China Wife never saw her parents kiss or hug or hold hands. She never once saw PDA growing up. I for one, saw my mom nude countless times growing up. Like probably most of us, I've even walked in on my mom and dad while they were having too much fun. I angered my dad while my mom simply came out and told us to never come in. My parents I guess didn't have locks on their door.

And it even happened to China Wife and myself once, when I had thought I had locked the door. All my young daughter saw of course was the back of her mother on top of me. She stared for a moment, and closed the door behind her. My wife was angry at me but I could care less. Kids gotta grow up. It's a ritual.

Well I must admit the older I am the more I like "a few" of the subtleties of Asian Romance. I especially disdain the phrase, "I love you". It is the most abused phrase on the planet. Overspoken, and mechanic. Better fit for a meme than anything else.

The phrase I'm hearing more frequently now is "I love you more", in response to the first person saying "I love you".

Quite frankly the phrase is disgusting and nauseous, if overused. "I love you" should be spoken strategically. Rarely, and in a private moment beyond a stranger's iphone gaze. It should not be spoken to draw attention. It is just better to be silent. Silence is more powerful. One can express love more powerfully through silence than through a verbal expression.

But while Chinese are not big on verbal expression they are still big on communicating their "love". Unfortunately in China one needs symbolism to express meaning. A line of ferrari's on a wedding day. Bad form China Dude. Whereas Western Man might consider that disgustingly overblown, China Man feels it the bane of his self identity if expressions of wealth are not displayed for all to see.

And so it goes. However, many a China Girl consider "I love you" a Western "thing". They yearn to hear it. They yearn to tell their friends about it. They even giggle. But in a serious relationship China Girl will say to you as mine said to me, "stop".

I found myself way too frequently falling into the trap of feeling I had to express myself in order to be taken seriously. Afterall, if laowai didn't say such a thing to his laowai wife, would she take him seriously herself? Of course not! Verbal expression is everything. Indeed, many a laowai wife would take the ferrari. Even drive the ferrari. But always wonder why he never says "he loves me"?

China Wife would never burden herself with such sentimentalities. "He loves me", because he "gave me" this nice car. I've already gone down the rabbit hole regarding this topic in other posts. But hearing this "I love you more", phrase is just overkill. Stop it already. We Westerners need to bring back the subtlety of romance.

Because hearing this phrase spoken in the office all damn day is just making me sick.

That alone is a reason to get a China Wife.

When China Wife wants a self criticism

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 21 Feb 2021 20:04:00 +0000

A very long time ago China Wife and I, along with her parents, went to Thailand on a group tour. It was terrible. Just terrible. I remember a few things distinctly. One being trips for the laowai versus trips for the Chinese are different. I recall driving in my air conditioned bus along the beach in Phuket, enviously looking at the bars as we motored past, at all the laowai so freely lounging about, in the open air, not a care in the world, with a drink in their hand.

Now I'm older of course. I can do that in America as well. I do not rightly recall the beach, as I've been to so many, but one day towards sunset as I was walking along I saw a a tilted lawn chair, deep in the sand, as if it was listing. It was listing, looking like at any moment it would collapse. A very old man sat in that chair. The water coming up to his ankles. He was snoring. That's who I want to be.

I've since seen other old men. One just recently was in a chair, giving out candy canes at a stop sign a few days before Xmas. Yet another just sat in the front yard all day, also in a lawn chair, waving back at those that waved first, as they drove by.

But as for me, I want to be that old man on the beach, or that old man on the mountain. I don't wanna be that old man sitting on a bench in a park, and I don't wanna be that old man walking from my daughters house to the strip mall and back, every damn day.

The other recollection I have from Thailand was when we were buying soft drinks in paper cups in a dark shopping mall, I noticed the ice was artificially filling up our drinks. I simply asked for a another drink, this time with no ice.

The Thai lady poured the drink, and gave it to me two thirds full.

Everything was business. The silliness of it all. The silliness of capitalism on a Chinese tour guided vacation.

But we did another thing in Bangkok, the rite of passage all tourists "endure" in Thailand; the sex show. Yes, we all went to a sex show. Including China Wife's parents. We made sure to sit very far away from them. I even broached to China Wife the judgment as to whether it was a good idea to have her parents tag along. But they came(whoops) and sat in the middle right in front of the stage.

What I saw was quite sad in a way. People do tricks with their vagina, shooting darts out of them to pop balloons. I even saw a very well endowed 17 year old( so they claimed) perfomer.

But afterwards the China Father in Law was furious. He complained bitterly to China Wife about how he was going to have to return to China and write a self criticism. The gall of having to watch a show he attended voluntarily and hadn't left until the very end. Terrible!

Another time, as I've mentioned deep, deep into the archives before was the time I called him while I was living in Hong Kong, and pretended to ask for "Lin Biao", the disgraced former successor to Mao that apparently attempted or was going to attempt a coup, and tried to flee to Russia as a result, only to crash and die during the escape.

He didn't think my joke was funny, and in the end mentioned the State was possibly bugging his phone and that he would have to write a self criticism then too. And he would have. Without hesitation on both accounts, had written a thorough, totally self effacing "confession" on how his poor judgment had led him astray.

So is anyone really going to be surprised when China Wife in turn demands I write a self criticism? Seriously, when things go wrong in the Fontenot Clan, China Wife, in order for there to be peace in the valley, demands I deliver to her a written confession of my "bad deeds".

If she only knew....

Now I admit I've lost my temper a few times, and not been the model human being I should be. And we've had times when China Wife will choose to sleep alone rather than with me, in our big, warm bed. And quite frankly, I don't miss her. I keep my days quite full, thank you very much. I read, I exercise, I write this blog, I am active on WeChat, etc.

But sooner or later one of us must act the adult. That is what I find so amusing with China couples. The concept of Face precludes apology. I find both husband and wife frequently act like children. Temper tantrums left and right. Thus the high divorce rate. Again I will say China and America are quite alike. Divorce at the drop of a hat being one of them.

Recently I was tasked to pick up our daughter from a friends house. That friend lives very near us, but it is a house I hadn't visited in over a year. It was very dark, and all the houses on their street the same. No tell tale signs were visible. All cars were in the garage. In vain I knocked on the neighbors house, and as they had a door camera and didn't know who the hell I was, didn't answer. I wasn't even sure I was on the right street. So like an idiot I went over to the next street and knocked on a door again, this time a family answered and said "no Chinese on these street".

Problem was my daughter was to be in the doorway waiting for me. She wasn't. I dialed my daughter's cell phone nine times. Nine times! It was off. I dialed my wife twice, but she was dying her hair. I felt guilty disturbing my wife. Finally, my daughter came out of the house and answered her cell and I lost my temper. I was very ugly.

Bottom line my wife decided for the umpteenth time what a jerk I am, and went into silent mode again. No communication, no shared bed, and of course no sex. For a week she wouldn't talk to me. I really didn't mind that so much, but I felt bad for how I had reacted to my daughter, and of course apologized to her right away. Turns out the house I was looking for was next to the house that didn't answer the door.

Technology has really made America less civil. It has made us colder towards one another. There is a famous serial killer in America from the 80's. He was called the Night Stalker. He always killed his victims inside their house, and his mode of entry was nearly ALWAYS through a unlocked door or open window. That's right. And this was in California of all places.

Believe it or not, people used to sleep with unlocked doors.....or open windows. Including myself growing up. A few weeks ago during dinner my daughter heard the sound of the howling wind, and mentioned she liked it. I told her I listened to the sound of this wind every night as a kid, as I always slept with the window open.

Technology has made our homes a fortress. In our subdivision the first thing many new Chinese do is buy a door camera. It is a mentality many bring with them from China. ie the danger of being robbed. Of course, many a non Chinese family also has these things. China Wife has now stated to me she wants to buy one, and we probably will.

But in America if the door rings and no one answers we answer it to see who it is. A salesmen? Sure. Canvassing for a political election? Ok.

But unfortunately many a folk, like the ring on the phone; if we don't know the person we won't answer. Period. So I knocked on a door with a camera, the person didn't know who I was, and didn't answer and I therefore thus didn't find out the person I was looking for was next door.

Am I blaming technology? A little. China Wife was beyond belief that I couldn't remember the house I'd been too over twenty times previously, had dinner at before, even though it was over a year since I'd last been there, was pitch black and all the damn houses looked the same. Shame on me.

Several times China Wife would hand me a paper and pen,

"Write down you are sorry for losing your temper and the next time you do so, you will agree to a divorce". Or something like that.

Many years ago I thought she was making a good joke and I laughed. Then I realized she was serious, and alas my mood darkened. Are all China Wives' from the 80's like this? Is this how Chinese couples act today? Or did China wife simply learn this habit from her high ranking father?

My reaction was quite simply, "fuck off". "You write ME a self criticism."

Then I began to play around with it. I would write things like,

"I apologize for not sexually satisfying my husband". Silly things like that.

She would grab the paper with a big look of self satisfaction on her face, like someone having climbed a mountain, or having bested a superior foe in combat, etc. Oh spare me.

Then after several seconds elapsed and it sunk in to her what I had actually written she would ball it up and thrown it down on the floor in semi disgust. Finally bringing out her ultimate weapon. The weapon I had no defense for, that I had long anticipated her using:

"No sex until I get what I want".

She may have just as well had said,

"No boring, once a week, mechanical sex, until......."

Many a man sees a lady with big breasts and just loses his mind. Not me. I've lived with a woman with large tits for many a decade. Ain't no thing. I'll see a Chinese woman use her breasts as a weapon, or any woman for that matter. Sorry. But I'm like the Playboy photographer. I just don't get phased anymore folks. "You may have a beautiful gun, but I know it's empty....". You may have a fantastic house, but I know inside you sleep on the floor.

It's like a guy with a girlfriend that has a great ass. Looks fantastic in jeans. Others gawk and stare. Not the boyfriend. Why? Simple?

"She takes her jeans off and the ass just sags". He has insider knowledge folks.

I'm sorry. I probably come across to millennials as a poor example of what a person should be. Just thank the Gods I'm not your boss(just joking).

So back to the self criticism. Finally, I scribbled something down I knew she wouldn't be able to read. She took it. By this time a few weeks had gone by. She was ready for peace. She climbed into bed that night. Then just as I thought we were past this, she demanded I add another line to the note. I muttered something insulting. Then we had probably the best sex we'd had in awhile. Made me feel good to see her "want" to make love. She had missed me too. Even China Wife needs a man once in awhile.

I know I may come across as intolerant. But in the end, how many men can put up with a self criticism culture? Chinese or Western? Probably not too many? And what does that say about the state of the marriage? Too, too many things. None of them good.

Looking for Nixon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 02:40:00 +0000

Upon request, how will Biden be different from Trump? I offer no specifics. Specifics are boring. Will you allow me to merely offer observations?

It is difficult to agree with 100% of what a person does, just as it is equally difficult to disagree with 100% of what a person may also do.

Life is complex, and full of drama. As such, it is good to learn from it. We call it History. Choose your topic. Any topic, and I will tell you there is something to be learned from it, and something to disavow.

Men are complicated.

Only Nixon could have gone to China. If Nixon had not gone to China, Mao would never have met a US President, because he would have been dead before an American President had showed up. My guess is Reagan would have been the man to open up China.

Yet Nixon was a scheming, paranoid SOB that treated his own people like shit. He never would have won any "Boss of the Year" awards.

JFK for all his glamour "talked the talk" about recognizing China. He saw the idiocy of not doing so. "After the 64 elections", he would say. LBJ for all his incompetence with Vietnam, didn't either. Of course China was ruining his day in Vietnam, everyday.

So let's talk about Trump. I probably agreed with about 20% of what he espoused. Foreigners' children shouldn't just be allowed citizenship because their children were born here. Why not? So many American laws were created long, long before other nations figured out they could easily violate the spirit of these laws. Few of America's laws were created with China in mind.

We had one friend, an extremely skinny lady that just happened to be pregnant, come to America in the Spring, wearing a heavy coat. She was nervous they would ask her to remove the coat, thus revealing her child. The baby was born here. BTW, her husband worked for Xinhua.

China Wife and I were good friends with them in Hong Kong. When I met up with her husband later in Beijing I asked for a tour of the Xinhua head office. It was denied. An American in Bejing that speaks Chinese? Must be a spy.

Trump will go down as the worst President ever. Eventually we will probably get to examine his brain during an autopsy and discover it was badly compromised. The portions of the brain that control empathy, narcissism, etc will most certainly be badly compromised.

This was a man that lied without remorse. Like Mao was ready to dispose of Zhou, he was ready to dump Pence. Yet had the uncanny ability to speak to the same people he wouldn't be caught dead making small talk to, or having dinner with; poor white voters that loved him. He probably referred to them secretly as ignorant white trash.

Trump had inferior intelligence, knew nothing about China aside from the fact Mao once lived there, and yet without reservation me and probably every other American paying attention agreed totally and without hesitation on his China policy.

His policy on China would have been much better if he'd only coordinated with Europe. But that would infer Trump was a strategic thinker. Alas Trump was no chess player. And he probably was poor at playing checkers, too.

China has been lucky for the longest time.

It started in 1968 when Nixon wrote a famous article, before he became President, stating that it was time for America to consider recognizing China. His urge to leverage China against Russia was brilliant, but oh so obvious in hindsight. One must remember, Vietnam was all the rage in 1968. And China was its biggest supplier of war material. Yet China simply wasn't on anyone's mind at the time. There was no pandering from within America to be friends with China.

America fell prey to its own penchant for "wanting to be liked". I always tell my daughters don't try and be everyone's friend. And if someone is pissed at you in the workplace odds are you are doing something right. Well America with all the leverage in the world(Afterall if America didn't want China in the UN, it wouldn't be in the UN.), bent over backwards to help out China.

Starting with deserting Taiwan. And the longer time goes by, the more glaring a suckup that looks.

China got lucky with Nixon. And China owes a great, great debt of gratitude to Brezhnev. The more aggressive Russia became in the 70's and 80's, the more stubborn and obstinate he was, the more popular China became in the eyes of America. Like Biden in 2020, China just "sat in the basement", and let Russia do all the talking.

Then Reagan left the US Presidency and George Bush came along. George Bush becoming President was like China winning the damn lottery. Everyday he was President was a good day for China. Nevermind the guy couldn't speak a damn word of Chinese, and knew fuck all about the place.

My children know more about China than he ever did. But he was the President, and had "fallen for China", like a guy falls for a beautiful girl without once seeing her without makeup.

China played upon George Bush's "Love of China". It wasn't hard. Bush was a willing suitor, dying to be seduced. It didn't take much. Remember, he had once served as envoy to China in 1974. He had zero qualifications for the job but was a Republican and Nixon loved him. Besides, appointing either John Davies or John Service would have made too much sense.

And now this guy was President baby!

(Manchurian Candidate?)

If George Bush hadn't been President in 1989, it is quite possible China wouldn't have had further diplomatic relations with America. Of course I'm speaking of Tiananmen. Many a China enthusiast, or China blogger like myself avoid this topic. Many a famous podcaster simply choose to focus on other topics. It is called self censorship folks. That is because we all want to go back to China someday.

So China really owes it's great fortune to two men. Nixon and Bush. If for instance, Clinton or Obama had been President in 1989, things may have turned out differently. Bush, still enamored by China, punishes China by sending two of his closest advisors to Beijing, to drink champagne. Remember folks, it's only poor optics if people find out about it.

Remember what George Bush believed until the end? Give them time, and they'll within a generation be "just like us"..... Wasn't it only so few decades ago America's "wise leaders" fretted about "losing China"? That was George Bush's mentality. +

Unfortunately, as time has passed, that gorgeous lady you've been eyeing for so long has indeed taken off her makeup. She snores. And she farts in bed. She even has pimples on her back. (But I still love her so.)

Now what? Fast forward thirty years. American capitalism has subsidized China's navy(you are most welcome). We've given you more than a few of our manufacturing jobs, and only now we wonder what we got in return? If you're waiting for the payback fella....well, bring your own chair.

But give us credit ok? Only Trump could've been uncouth enough to say "Hey You!".

And only Trump had the balls to say the obvious: that China not only is NOT like us, but WILL NEVER be like us. So my advice is simple:

Get over it.

Which is what Trump did. He's reached out to Taiwan, put tariffs on China, that appear to be the new normal, and to China's credit, it has absorbed the pain. In effect, the world's premier bullier has bullied the bully. And most folks like it. Liberals love it, too. Even Tom Friedman, the ultimate liberal, with a zillion Pulitzer Prizes to his name, has lauded Trump on China.

So China's shine is gone, baby, long gone.

And believe it or not, what is everyone's trepidation now that America's worst President is gone?

(Ok I must stop saying this. We must all remember James Buchanon and Andrew Johnson!)

Simple: Biden, like Clinton and Obama before him, will simply have China's leaders wipe the floor with him. And I tend to agree.....somewhat. Yes, Biden is an old man. And old men want peace with the world. They want to gently mentor the rest of us. "Don't waste your time with hate...." blah blah blah. I get it.

Problem now is, it is even worse than it seems. That girl you fell for? Well, not only does she have pimples on her back, but she doesn't shave her legs either. And now she has moved in! And won't leave!!

Fortunately, Biden is surrounded by people half his age. They don't remember a China from the 1970's or even 80's. The only China they remember is China post 1989. That's the only China they grew up with. It is the only China they know. And they will keep Biden on "the path". Why? Nothing sophisticated. They just disdain what China has become. And they hate Republicans. To them, there is no difference between a fat cat in a pinstripe suit and China.

Biden will still try and make a deal. A big deal. A huge deal.

But I tell you this. He will be nothing but the Neville Chamberlain of our time. China knows what it wants. It will not be stopped. China is focused. And the Chinese People have bought in.

But because Biden is old and wise, he still believes China can "be turned". And he will make a deal. But make no mistake, everyone he is surrounded with all want to be President someday. Today no one cares about "losing China". Can care less actually. Today no one wants to be known as "soft" on China. Biden's biggest challenge won't be convincing China to "be our friend". It will be his own people, all ready to throw him off the train the first time China does something to make Biden and America look bad.

America and China won't be sharing a pillow anytime soon. Why? We have no Nixon, that's why.

All viruses are Socialist

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 03:11:00 +0000

I've been gone a month.....which is typically what happens when I'm in China working. No China this time. Rather, I'm just busy, and the blog has taken a back seat. I do work for a medical supply company, which should be enough said regarding my schedule.

I do have multiple things to talk about. In the past, I would simply put them in one of my "fluff" posts....but I'd rather write them out....it's more fun!

So let's get to it. A friend of mine from Ningbo with a family in Canada actually left China during the Mid Autumn Festival to see his wife and kids, whom he had properly deposited in a nice neighborhood only just recently. Upon leaving China and arriving in Canada he soon realized he was "stuck" there. You see, China wouldn't even let him board a plane unless he'd had a negative test within a 72 hr period of his departure date. Thus buying a ticket was difficult. But now the vaccination is here, couldn't he just wait a little longer before flying home? Apparently not. He is now stuck in Shanghai for two weeks, in a "very bad hotel". He's not happy. I think it's funny.

Quite frankly, this damn virus is out of control. We've turned a corner, but in my view, it could be for the worse. Yes, here in the States' and Europe we have "vaccines". And yes we will get vaccinated. And yes the supply will very soon outstrip any remaining demand remaining within America, and perhaps even Europe(?)

My response is so what? I'm not trying to sound callous. Or negative. Rather what I now realize is that the vaccine we all have now is the vaccine for the virus that existed 6 months ago. Not the new variant. And as such our vaccines will only be able to protect against Virus 1.0. Should you get the vaccination BEFORE you get that new variant hits your population, you will be ok. Or rather not as exposed as much if you did eventually did get the virus.

For those of us who may not get the vaccine, than most likely we may get the new South African variant, for which the current vaccinations suck. So it is a race.

Well isn't this a China Blog? Well, yes it is.

I'm planning on getting the vaccination sometime in the Spring. Two doses of course, because 95% is better than 65%. However, one must remember these two vaccinations, Moderna vs Johnson & Johnson were tested in different environments. Thus are really not apples to apples. If Moderna was tested in South Africa, perhaps it too would have fared poorly.

But back to my China Point. My Great Hope was that I would get back to China sometime in late Summer. I know for sure I will be able to go to Europe. I'm actually quite confident I will be able to go to Europe before China. Probably this Summer actually.

But you see the Chinese are in a predicament. Not for the last time our Heavenly Kingdom Colleagues have painted themselves into a corner. After months of saying how efficient their virus is, to suddenly have hordes of barbarians, complete with backpacks and laptops at the gate, all vaccinated....well that won't message very well, now will it?

Meanwhile, very, very few Chinese will have themselves been properly vaccinated. And the efficacy is rumored to only be around 50%. Due to China's large population, there won't really be herd immunity until 2022. Still....the question wasn't really will China let them in? No. The black box was simple; Will it really make an officially vaccinated individual with a superior vaccination actually quarantine for two weeks in a shoddy hotel?

Will China just let us in? Why not, right? Afterall, China's hotels are suffering. The Ritz Carlton in Guangzhou for instance can be had for only $200 a night, instead of double that price. China's tourist industry has simply been walloped. Crushed. The only foreigners truly remaining in China are English teachers stuck on contract. If an expat is there, it's probably because he or she is single, because no self respecting laowai is either keeping his family there or leaving them here, to go back. The damn mistress can wait.

China has no good choices. The global community would howl if we had to really undergo a two week quarantine. But it would "play well" to the home crowd. But won't the Chinese themselves simply wonder, "where is my vaccination?", if they just let us simply back in? After all aren't the vaccinations of the laowai inferior?

Well.....now that decision has been made for them. This South African variant is already in America, as are the others. And just like that until the new vaccination comes along to stop THAT variant, methinks the Chinese will be happy to keep us out just a tad longer. Indeed. When is the last time China has been this "cleansed" of us?

But if the Chinese can't master this current virus, do you really think they will be able to master this new one? In sum, all viruses are socialist.

Everyone has an equal opportunity to become infected. Simple as that. And if the Chinese can't control this new one, or if they continue to have continuous sporadic outbreaks, long after we ourselves have all become vaccinated, do you really think they will just let us all in?

When one controls the narrative, the optics are everything.

And what of the Western World? Will they allow anyone inside their borders with merely a Chinese vaccination? How will those optics work? And what if India let's us in before China? Or Vietnam? Will China still sit back as the laowai with his contracts and USD makes deals somewhere else? No one will be even thinking of these things for another six months. Except you and I.

Stay safe.

Trump's Red Guards

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 20:30:00 +0000

Surely I wasn't the only one to see the similarity?

What did Mao say in 1966? 炮打司令部?

Also known as "bombard the headquarters". It is a famous phrase in Chinese. Albeit very awkward sounding in English. As such, as this translation came out before any other, we are stuck with it. In effect, Mao was inciting the masses to overthrow his enemies using the brainwashed youth to do his bidding. Many a brilliant Chinese leader did nothing. Liu Shao Qi, Zhou En Lai, and even Deng Xiaoping. Considered without question the most capable Chinese Communist Leaders of all time. Today, by some they would be considered enablers. Paralyzed by their fear of Mao. And just as much as by his unpredictability.

The time to rein Mao in had long come and gone. Afterall, hadn't China attacked American forces in Korea not long after America had tried to negotiate a cease fire between Mao and Chiang Kai Shek? Hadn't Mao been on friendly terms with the Americans towards the end of WW2?

I've written posts about these subjects. They are there. Go find them!

Despite horrific Chinese losses in Korea, Mao was as firmly entrenched in power as always. Despite an even more horrific three year famine, nothing in China changed. So why would we expect anything to change now?

Trump without question incited a group of ignorant ass, overly emotional people. As did Mao. People easy to manipulate. People so intellectually unable to form a thought outside their own narrow world view, they would be an insult to putty.

There is a reason in every revolution the intellectuals and college professors get killed first. And the willing village idiots become propaganda writers.

As such, the similarities between Mao and Trump are closer than we wish to admit.

Like Mao, Trump wanted to rule for life, Like Mao, Trump did not hold loyalty in high esteem. At the time of Mao's death he was plotting to have Zhou removed from power. Forty years of loyalty and subservience didn't mean a thing. Zhou's own step daughter had been arrested and killed by Madame Mao. As I've written earlier, Zhou not only was well within his rights at the end of the Long March to disavow Mao, but quite possibly had the votes to do it(you see, every society is democratic in the end) to seize power for himself. If he had even half the killer instinct Mao had, Mao would have been but a footnote in Chinese Party history. Perhaps a national poet laureate. Or Chief Party Propagandist.

Mao's loyalty to Zhou was like water running over rocks. Fleeting, brief and uncertain.

Trump's era now closes. Finally. Are we better off for it? As China tottered in 1966, so does America today. People beat their chest for Mao in 1966. They clawed and scratched. And yes, many a Chinese make fun of North Korea today for doing.....not the same thing? And they shake their heads in the sad knowledge that they were the same once. Like a parent to a child.

Buy I must admit I never thought I'd see such a scene in America. Of course it only became news because the police let them in.

Let me stop here and quote Jefferson:

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”

This is the link. However, you must read it in full to understand the context of the quote.

Regarding Trump, we will never see another person with so little feeling of personal loyalty, such disdain for empathy as Trump. His brother died while he was in office. There was no outpouring of grief from Trump.

At least America has SOME safeguards. Twitter has banned that son of a bitch. And that's about it. Of course that is nothing to be proud of. Where was Twitter three years ago? Six months ago? It's easy to leave a sinking ship when it is on fire. No courage involved there.

And what of Trump's enablers? Mao's were sent to prison. The Gang of Four. We know not what will happen to Trump's sycophants. The worst that will probably happen is they will simply not be able to find a job. In China, they went to prison. In America, they simply go unemployed. It is bad enough to think that within the space of 12 months more Americans will have died of COVID than in WW2. To repeat a war which was fought on two fronts and had as many dead of COVID in one year than of war in 57 months.

Context is a stubborn thing.

But Trump suck ups can't count so the above statistic means nothing. And we all know they rarely read books. An American policeman has died. Unless Trump doesn't flee to Russia before January 20, he may very well be arrested on January 21.

And what of Trump's supporters? Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. He was crushed. He lost by nearly 3 million votes. This time he lost by 7 million votes. And instead of saying "oh well", his voters still cry like babies. Have they no shame? Trump doesn't, why should we expect them to have any?

However, if Mao ran for public office in 1966, he would have won in a landslide. I dare say he would have received 90% of the vote. However, what if Zhou En Lai had run against him? Mao still would have won 60% of the vote.

Without question nearly all of Mao's Red Guards have apologized for their "irrational exuberance". But there was a difference however. Nearly all of Mao's followers were China's Youth. Today in America they are middle aged folks, afraid of their future, and unwilling to learn how to cope with what will lie ahead. Kids grow up. They begin to think. By mid age they are introspective of their past behavior. That is why China has moved past the horrors of 1966. And the Red Guards still alive are chagrined. Still it is a fact many a Red Guard was a killer of an innocent victim, and went free.

But for America's Red Guards there will be no repentance. They should simply know better. Still, I'm betting Biden, as Ford did with America's Vietnam draft dodgers, will simply pardon them en masse.

Finally, we must remember this is a China Blog. I'm too ugly to be on Youtube. Once again, the Chinese will look upon this chaos and view America as weak. It will embolden the Heavenly Kingdom further still. Never let a good disturbance go to waste right?

When you know your country is really in decline....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 22:53:00 +0000

In the 1800's, an English reporter came to the United States. Most of Europe of course looked upon America as a vast land of opportunity. They were also fascinated with the Native American. While not brushing over the brusque treatment all of them received at the hands of the American Government, said reporter simply made a simple but to the point observation;

The Indian could not just keep America as a pleasure ground.

Well.....the Native Indian still lives on, many a tribe now rich off their ability to own and operate casino's throughout the land. But the pleasure ground concept is alive and well. And if one looks closely it is alive and well in your country as well. Especially if you are French, or Italian, etc.

Often I've complained of America as nothing more than a nation of Amazon warehouse workers. Want a steady job? Isn't there an Amazon warehouse near you? America in my view has become clearly stratified, and not necessarily for the bad.

All our dentists and doctors will someday be children of Chinese and Indian immigrants. Their assistants simple middle class folk with a technical degree. Delivery drivers all working class folk with a minimal high school degree. More and more I'm seeing Americans with strange names I cannot pronounce, all second generation, on television explaining how COVID works, etc. And they are proof of the power of immigration.

You see, Bubba Joe's boy in Alabama could've been a doctor too, but quite frankly, he just wasn't as talented as the son of the Indian or Chinese neighbor. So Bubba Joe's boy will simply have to do something else. Like go work in an Amazon warehouse. How many Indian and Chinese American's know how to even operate a forklift? Seeing one operate a forklift in America is as rare as an American brain surgeon with blue eyes and blond hair.

But I digress.

But for the wealthy abroad with money to spare, America will become their destination.

Alas, we are now a "Resort Nation". Actually we always have been such. One ethnic group has simply replaced another. We have Clean Air because we no longer have factories. The Chinese and others will flood here, with their surplus cash, sending their kids to failing private schools. Actually this has already been taking place for quite sometime. Still, is this what a nation in decline looks like?

I remarked some time ago(look it up!), that our National Parks are all heavily populated with foreign(Chinese) tourists. Wanna save the parks? Yosemite and Yellowstone.....charge the "foreigners" double what you charge me.

We are the defacto pleasure ground for all those foreign "guests".

When I was at Yellowstone, every restaurant had a Chinese sign. A Chinese menu. Every tourist shop needed a Chinese speaker. However, you better let that smirk from your face fade. Rather, it's perhaps more appropriate to ask yourself why these folks have so much money? And you don't.

Is this the first stage of decline? You know what the first stage is called right? Denial.

A vast nation with nothing in the middle to see. It was big news when Elon Must went to Oklahoma(probably the first and last time he has been there), to scout a factory site. The next day he came to his senses and announced it would be built in Texas.

BTW, I still consider Musk dumb, real dumb, to have built a Tesla factory in China. Within five years his competition will have all his blueprints as well as have mastered all his manufacturing prowess. But back at home, as I ponder what all the ambition and desire to get rich will do to China, I wonder in turn what our lack of energy will do to us?

Western Civilization simply doesn't think that way.

We don't raise our kids "to get rich". The Chinese do.

I raise my daughters to "find their passion". That takes time by the way. And rarely creates jobs. Or builds companies. The Chinese don't think in terms of "spiritual development". They think in terms of making money. Yes many fail. A few succeed. Then they have kids, bring them here, and buy a house or twenty.

I can't help but think of the parents of these children simply enjoying their lives here as they manage their real estate holdings. My point is none of the Chinese I know here look upon America as a land of hard work. No, not at all. Yes they have jobs, but the money they have here is not necessarily from them. One always wonders where it comes from.....their parents?

A dead give away of stolen money is when Chinese come from Canada. That is, when they backdoor their way here.

But back to my point, many Chinese look upon our shores as the land of milk and honey. A pleasure ground to enjoy six months of the year, before heading back home. I know of one Chinese mom that simply left her kids here, went back to China and got stuck there, because of COVID, still unable to come out. I have no earthly idea who is raising her kids.

Alot of folks have Chinese parents all wrong. Many, many parents here don't think too much about their children's educational achievement, let alone future. Yes, many do. Many have "college consultants" for their kids.( I don't)

A few paid local Chinese graduates of Harvard to write their children's college essays. But many just don't give a damn. I get the sense they are here for THEMSELVES, and not for THEIR children. Their money is here. Kids are in paradise. Local schools? No problem.

Want to follow your dream and be a philosophy major in College? Go for it. But when I see a Chinese studying Philosophy, that's a dead giveaway. Case in point: we have great friends of ours with a single child. Their daughter came here for private school, then went to the East Coast to study at a private college. A decent school at that. What does she study? Psychology. And now she is about to graduate what is next? A Masters Degree of course.....in Psychology.

Her parents have property. Their own apartment has quintupled in value since they bought it. They have another in Huizhou just sitting there. An empty shell. Going on a decade now. As for them, they are on the verge of retirement. Soon to make not just America but the world their pleasure ground.

Next time you see a middle aged Chinese couple with a slight smile strolling down the street in your European city, don't necessarily pity them. Rather, its ok to feel jealous. And then ask yourself if this is what a country in decline looks like?

When will China let us back in?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:33:00 +0000

Now is a good time to be a laowai in China I mean, nowadays one really sticks out like a sore thumb. All "legitimate" laowai have long since left the Heavenly Kingdom. All expats, and professionals are long, long gone. And if you are still there, it is because you perhaps have no way out. Or you have no prospects back home. The only one's left are teachers really. I mean, they have the place to themselves, so to speak. What joy!

This worm has turned time and time again. First we fled, then the virus overwhelmed the West, and a few tried to "flee" back to China. China of course wouldn't let any of us "contaminated" folk back in.

Good politics, you see. Good politics to keep us out.

So China got the last laugh, until it didn't. Now the West has a slew of pretty good vaccines coming out, and China is soon to be in a tough spot.

How much longer will the Heavenly Kingdom keep vilifying the West? Because within six months most of Europe and North America along with maybe even Latin America will have taken the vaccine.

Then what?

With the West having been vaccinated with a probably better vaccine, will China continue to keep us out? And what reason will be given? Will the Chinese be wondering when they themselves can get the vaccine?

And what of The West towards China? Will they in turn demand that all Chinese visiting their country first show proof of a vaccination？ How difficult will we want to be? Will we want to "show up" the Chinese?

The answer will rely upon China itself. If the Chinese insist all Western businessmen and tourists show proof of a vaccination, I say fair enough. Makes sense to me. Now guess what? All Chinese coming to the West must do the same.

Currently, the Chinese vaccines have not released their third phase results yet, despite having had a headstart of a few months. Will the West demand all Chinese visitors to their country first show proof of having been vaccinated by a Western vaccine? Ok.....the Chinese will demand the same of us, with their vaccine.

I don't think it's a problem for most of us here, to get vaccinated before going there. But will the Chinese be able to get hold of enough supply to vaccinate their own people? And if China tries to first use that vaccine to vaccinate Turkey, or Brazil, rather than China, how will the Chinese react?

I can see many a thought coursing through the minds of many a Chinese in the club;

"How can I say I'm safe when the laowai has been vaccinated but I haven't?"

Once the Chinese start allowing us unruly barbarians back inside the gate, many a Chinese will start wondering how truly safe they are if they themselves have yet to be vaccinated. China is truly a big place. And it has solved this virus problem "China Style". But don't think the virus has just gone away. For one thing blaming foreigners everytime a new outbreak is discovered will continue to be tough to do.

But I do know this. Those of with staff to meet, factories to review, can't stay away for forever, right?

And what of the other places I have to visit? Vietnam and Thailand and Taiwan? Will they open before China? I think they will. And will that put pressure on China to open up?

And what of India? A dangerous place to be right now. Methinks they will open up before China. Actually, I think everyone will try and steal a march on China.

We shall see.

We are not built for China

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 02:30:00 +0000

Park Chung Hee was not a very nice man. The ruler of Korea from 1963 until 1979, by the end of his reign his popularity was greatly waning. Still, it is without question that during his reign he built Korea into an industrial powerhouse. Korea's GNP increased by 2400%.(please check my work!) Yet Korea is an American ally and today only has 50 million people.

Now let's take a look at China. Itself an industrial powerhouse, with an equally goal oriented leadership. But with a population of 1.5 billion. Yes, I deliberately overestimate the population. And China today has a GDP roughly ten times larger than Korea's.

We are not built for China. We are not prepared for this. Sure if China was say the size of......Peru it would be a different story, right?

China is a threat to our way of life. To our existence. This may not be a big deal to the great people of Holland or Poland or Ecuador. But the fact is, China is a big deal to America. To its ego. The Chinese government is led by party hacks. People that espouse the Party Line. However, no one knows what in the hell that is anymore right?

Except I think we do; The Party Line is not Marx or Lenin or whatever Ho Chi Minh or Trotsky believed. The Party Line is unleashing Capitalism within China while at the same time keeping its people in line. It has not a damn thing to do with Socialism. The good thing is Deng and Liu won. The sad thing is the time is not 1961 but the waning days of Trump and 2020.

The Chinese People, perhaps due to the large population, is quite frankly good at doing business. And say what you will about the Chinese Leadership, in particular about XJP, but the top echelon of Chinese leaders are smart and talented. They ooze with ability. Yes they have weaknesses. No, they haven't read Catcher in the Rye or To Kill a Mockingbird. And they sure as hell haven't read 1984 or Animal Farm.

But how many of us have read Lu Xun? In effect we are "reading past each other".

But they respect America, and the tenets of Western Civilization. They'd just rather admire us from afar, to be left alone while they manage the Chinese People the best they can, within their own philosophical constraints. To America and the West I say this: If the Chinese Leadership did not like our System, they would not send their children to our universities....simple as that.

But we are not ready for this "moment". We as a free wheeling civilization are not built for this train. This is a train running at full speed that never stops. It never slows down. And it knows where it is going. There are no Sunday picnics or frolicking on green grass. No ice cream trucks nearby.

As ignorant as we are about Marx, they are even more so about John Locke. Why do I bring this up? Because it means they are coming at us full speed, still rough around the edges.

But my society, my country in particular, the laughingstock of the planet, is not built to deal with China. A country being dragged along by an elite, sure on where it is going. I'm not saying all is lost. I'm not writing this from despair.

But the pandemic has not done us right. We have ourselves to blame. When a house on your street is on fire, you put the damn thing out. Because if you don't it will spread to your house. But if it is a slow burning fire does your sense of urgency decrease? Does it?

Of course not. So when our own house somehow someway still manages to not only catch on fire but then rage out of control do you still have the gall to blame the owner of the first house for our inability to put out our own? Trump does nothing. It is clear to all that his "strategy" is to "let it burn". That is, by herd immunity we will all get it and thus be saved. Meanwhile he's busy reading the stock page in the paper.

But the worst thing is no one will ever be held accountable or punished for our house burning down. No one will go to jail. No one will be humiliated or fined. By January 20, 2021, there will be 450,000 American dead. The first death was in February of 2020. In less than one year, all Coronavirus deaths will have exceeded all American WW2 deaths. A war which lasted nearly four years.

America made damn sure our enemies were held accountable. Right or wrong many people were executed and hanged.

There will be no charges for "crimes against humanity" for the American Coronavirus however. No one will be fined. No one will go to jail.

Meanwhile a few cases in Beijing of Coronavirus are found. Not many. Just a few. And all the schools are shut down! The city goes into damn near lockdown. Because the leadership knows the consequences. The entire European continent flattened the Coronavirus curve. But that wasn't enough, was it? And now they are in lockdown again.

These are all democracies! Not one of them is a Communist country and none of them have secret police.

What the fuck is America doing? We need to "ask" people to stay home from Thanksgiving. We need to "ask" people to not visit their families. Folks, this is not a "democracy" problem, this is an "American" problem. We are not built for this! Why can't we "tell" people to stay home? Close the airports?

Because we are not "built" for this. Our society is used to facing off against either like minded societies or quite frankly, smaller countries we can intimidate or others we can simply outspend.

As I've said before we will not be outspending China. Nor will we be intimidating China. But judging their response with ours, can we not simply extrapolate a bit? Their nation is rowing in cadence, towards the finish line. We are simply rowing, with none of us in cadence, because however you may wish to row....well your speed and stroke speed is up to you. You have the "freedom" to row as you wish. Or you may not row at all. It is up to you. And when the other guy reaches the finish line before you, some of us in the boat will still have the nerve to call them a cheater.

This is about saving lives. A virus is a far more efficient killer than any ideology.

China's focus and discipline is scary. We are not built to compete against a nation such as China. Nor is your country, wherever you may live. Alas, the Chinese will not "gloat" over your nation's response. They will over America's. Yes, our system is superior. But the bottom line is which system killed more people?

I tried really really hard to find something good to say about Chiang Kai Shek

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 22:14:00 +0000

So I want to focus on one thing: CKS may in the lens of history be looked upon as an incompetent fool, but truth be told, he was more competent and capable than anyone else within China willing to step up at that time. If the Chinese thought he was that “bad” there is really no record of anyone within the Kuomintang trying to assassinate him after he’d taken over power and his true trajectory as such was already known.

At least the Germans tried to kill Hitler.

The Russians were so in awe of Stalin and his ability to defeat Hitler, and so brainwashed by his Cult of Personality, Stalin could have ruled for generations as long as he was healthy.

CKS was a true patriot. This must be truly said of him. It is ironic that despite his xenophobia, that he actually lived abroad. CKS hated the Russians. But honestly there is no knowledge of his hating the Japanese. It is in Japan, where he lived for about two years, that he learned what it was truly like to be a soldier. Without question he gained perspective of Japan, just as Yamamoto did living in Washington D.C. during the twenties, about America. Yamamoto therefore understood Japan could not possibly defeat America.

I believe CKS believed the same thing about China and Japan. That over time China was simply too big. In retrospect he was smarter than the Japanese; he didn’t try to bite off more than he could chew. As the Japanese took America head on, he simply danced and dawdled on a bed of shifting sand.

I found a clear vein running through his Being; in the darkest reaches of CKS’s soul, he had a clear disdain for the Chinese People. I do not know why. But I do know Sun Yat Sen did not share this view. Again, there is no question that SYS’s inability to see through CKS denotes perhaps either he was a poor judge of character, and of Men in general, or they just didn’t speak much. And we know the latter was not true. They were in close contact.

CKS’s patriotism however meant killing a lot of people. Every Patriot must have a foil. For CKS, it was the Communists. Zhou En Lai, if you remember, was within a hair’s breadth of being killed in Shanghai. Indeed some of his comrades were actually hunted down.

We need context though to understand China during the Time of CKS. China was not united. It was a highly fractured Country. One could actually argue China was not even a country. It was rather broken up into several areas, each with its own leader. Those leaders were called Warlords and were independent of one another. There was no unified Chinese government, truly representative of The People. None of these warlords were beholden to anyone in Beijing. Some of these warlords though had intimate relations with Japan.

CKS originally had his base in South China. One could argue rather convincingly he himself was a warlord. When Sun Yat Sen died, while CKS was his notable and recognized second in command, there was still a brief struggle for power, which CKS won.

It is here I want to focus on “the one good thing”, Chiang Kai Shek accomplished in China; He initiated what was then called the Northern Expedition. The stated aim of this was to unify China. That is, to defeat the warlords. This was perhaps China at its most chaotic. The Japanese, the warlords, the Russians, and of course all the others players had their fingers in the Chinese Pot, stirring it randomly and as they saw fit, to their own needs.

Within a few years however, CKS succeeded in actually “unifying” China. I put “unifying” in quotations because during this entire period Japan was basically occupying northeast China. One must remember the city of Dalian, for instance, was not Chinese controlled at one period for over 55 years.

As such, CKS did not really “unify” China at all, but by eliminating the warlords finally did bring about a proper and unified Chinese government which quickly gained universal recognition. His defeat of the warlords, thought it took awhile, was impressive in itself. However in retrospect it led in my view to the much easier domination of China by the Communists later on.

It would have been nearly impossible for Mao to conquer China if he had to fight one warlord at a time. All of them were brutal, and in my view more competent than CKS. So why did they lose to CKS? Actually, many of them joined him. At the time the Communists were not a known threat. No one had heard of Mao, or Zhou En Lai. But everyone had heard of the Japanese, and the Japanese controlled more territory than the Communists. Actually, the Communists never controlled more of China than the Japanese did. Not until the Americans defeated Japan did the Communists actually began to take and hold territory.

The warlords were simply out for themselves, and felt by working with CKS they themselves could avoid being taken over by the Japanese. Ironically if CKS had not existed, the warlords would have still been in place, the Communists would never had become strong, and it is quite possible China indeed would had been broken up into several smaller independent territories. CKS avoided all of this.

CKS uniting China did two things: it eliminated all his rivals, but also left the countryside wide open for the Communists. CKS was weak in the countryside. While he correctly understood the CCP as the real threat to his control in China he did nothing to reform the landlord system, aside from simply trying to kill the Communists themselves.

I had said earlier I tried really, really hard to find something positive to say about CKS. And there you are.

Unfortunately, the negatives really outweigh the positives. I’m sure the warlords along with the Communists were simply appalled at what they saw in CKS later on. In 1938 he may have singlehandedly given Mao China.

In my view, CKS really allowed his insensitivity towards the Chinese People to show through. I know I’ve already spoken above about his belief that Japan could never swallow China, and this his belief Mao was the real threat. I stand by that. However, when convenient he did try and slow the Japanese Army down.

In 1938 he deliberately flooded the Yellow River Plain, in hopes of slowing down the Japanese. This act was cruel to the extreme and not only destroyed harvests, villages and towns, but killed roughly one million of his own people. CKS simply did not care. In a time when we rightfully speak of Trump’s enablers, we should also speak of CKS’s. First among them his wife.

Make no mistake she was just as bad as him. Their marriage rivalled Bill and Hillary Clinton’s in that it soon became a political partnership more than a lovefest. CKS and Song Meiling both had as many lovers as they could get away with. In my view, she is just as guilty for the misery of the Chinese People as he is.

The 1938 Changsha Fire was another episode of pure indifference to the Chinese People. It was an example of yet another Scorched Earth tactic used by so many dictators through history. The city of Changsha was literally burnt to the ground, in again to halt the Japanese Army. CKS in his infinite cruelty, when unable to defeat Japan on the battleground, simply employed inhumane tactics Stalin would have been proud of to defeat an incoming foe.

CKS probably killed more Chinese than Japan ever did.

The great irony is that for all their incompetence, dictators live for a long time, often outliving their enablers. However, they never outlive historians.

Who will be America's Krushchev?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 03:13:00 +0000

Stalin was a monster.

If you all go back, deep, deep into the archives you will, oh never mind, I'm sure none of you have the time to really go back into my nearly 400 posts so here it is, my dear lazy readers!

https://mychinakanfa.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-first-monster.html

In sum there was a time, when the "bad guys" were denounced for far less than anything Stalin was ever denounced for.

But this moment matters. Stalin was so feared, that even when something was obviously wrong with him on the night of his death, no one helped him. Believe it or not, he died before his time. And 99% of all ethnic Russians thought him a Hero brought down from heaven by Lenin himself to save Mother Russia. Remember, Stalin was not "Russian". As my Soviet History teacher taught us, Stalin spoke Russian with an accent. Most non ethnic Russians probably hated him.

All the same, Stalin got away with his excesses. He killed in cold blood without remorse. He was never put on trial. He was never accused of anything. His tomb was even placed next to Lenin's. We all know what a naughty person Stalin was.

And yet he was not corrupt, in the sense we know it today. He did not "steal" billions and squirrel them away in secret bank accounts. He did not get his family jobs. He did not have affairs. He did not keep a harem. He was not a drug addict. Indeed, it would have been hard to find a harder working dictator than Stalin. He once kept Mao waiting for weeks in Moscow before meeting with him.

But because of him we had the Korean War. And because of him, the Korean War stopped. If only due to his death. Still, in the sum of things there are very few truly evil people in the History of the World, but Stalin would probably be in the first rank.

And because of this one of his top lieutenants, a fellow named Khrushchev, whom after becoming first among equals if you will, in one secret speech not meant for global consumption, fell Stalin in the course of a few hours. Obliterating within Russia the Cult of Personality that was the Man himself.

If not for this seminal moment, Stalin's light would have flickered on for generations. Only someone from Stalin's inner circle you see, could have picked up the knife to stab the man in the back. One can argue not even future Soviet leaders would have dared utter such things, for fear of giving motivation to a rival to claim power.

Trump was no monster. Don't get me wrong. I do not wish to compare Trump to Stalin. But somehow amongst the ignorants that populate our Great Nation, this imbecile fooled seventy million people into voting for him. If you speak a lie long enough, it will be listened too, then eventually taken as gospel.

The sad thing is, as their parents and aunts and uncles die of Covid, as their taxes are cut by mere hundreds while the rich man has his taxes cut by millions, the sad truth is they just hate Democrats. Period. And are afraid of Change. 235,000 Americans have died of a disease. If Trump was reelected, it is quite possible the total number of deaths would have surpassed all American WW2 deaths. Incredible. And yet 70 million of my fellow Americans voted for this son of a bitch.

Meanwhile the Russians were led to believe that Stalin couldn't possibly have been the one to send their husband to the Gulag, or their wife to a labor camp in Siberia. Mao hated the speech by the way, and considered it a threat to his power. He too wanted a Cult of Personality. This was the beginning of his dislike for Khrushchev. Mao of course banned the speech in China.

And to this day there is no Khrushchev within China, for if there were, would it not threaten the CCP?

Alas, the only way to destroy the legacy of Trump within America is by having an American Khrushchev. Only a former Trump insider can give such a speech, totally refuting American xenophobia and denouncing division. We need an American Khrushchev, make no mistake about it. Because that is the only, only way, China and America will make it right.

Biden is the new President but just barely folks. 145 million votes cast. He'll probably win by only 5 million. It will be a hundred years before we see such an election again. You think Biden is gonna give China love anytime soon? Hell no he's not. This is the new normal. I haven't been to China for a year, and am not going back until at least Summer 2021.

China needs me. It needs all of us that live outside the Red Wall to come back and spend some money. Visit some factories. Othewise we'll simply go to India, or whomever gives us love first. It's like having the prettiest China Girl there is. But when she goes on that business trip and doesn't come back, you forget about her. You forget your new China Girlfriend isn't half as pretty as your old one. By this time you just want someone to pay attention to you.

The faster our Krushchev denounces the excesses of Trump, the easier for Biden to make good with China, the better off we will all be. That's my take on the 2020 election.

My thinking has begun to change

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 21:34:00 +0000

I've been preparing a new post for awhile now, but this will be one of those times where inspiration pushes it back to the periphery.

I've constantly been hearing....reading, about America owning 5% of the global population but 20% of the COVID cases. And people of course look at other nations such as South Korea and various places in Europe. And Taiwan(not a nation, I know)....and of course China. I think it is pretty simple to understand Taiwan, surrounded by water as it is.

But can we really understand why China has so few cases? This post is not about China's lack of cases, but in short I will give a small reply. China is "built" for a disaster such as this. The people are internalized for something such as this. It is in their wheelhouse. Control is the "Fabric" in Chinese society.

The Chinese bureaucracy has done a fascinating job organizing society. The impetus is control over its citizens. The by product is a safer place. A more convenient way to board a train, etc. Of course don't forget everything is ID Card oriented.

A Chinese would without question call America backward by comparison. It would take a Chinese intent on living in America and not going back(or your country in Europe or Latin America, etc) probably a few years to really appreciate life here. The pace of life. By comparison I'm not surprised by the numbers of Chinese wanting to come here and study, and then return to China. It is that group that comes here and never assimilates. They have no motivation to do so, because they already know they are returning.

They have a better lifestyle waiting for them back home. Where life is a bit less strained, shall we say.

But let's talk about America.

A kitchen full of delicious ingredients means nothing if the cook is bad.

A company of excellent and capable workers is useless if the CEO is incompetent.

And America is suddenly a radical and divisive place, with a cratering economy, if led by an incompetent person. But by saying this we give Trump too much credit. He has facilitators. Yet, I've said it before. If America was a stock, I'd buy it. Warren Buffet once said the time to buy is when blood is in the streets.

If this ain't that time in America, then you'll never see it.

But China's leaders are better than ours. And they showed it by dealing with COVID in a competent and proper fashion. America has been blessed with good leaders, experienced and capable. From 1932 to 1974, one could argue the American Presidents were one way or another all above average. Yes, I include Nixon. Even Jimmy Carter agreed to return the Panama Canal.

From 1980 to 2000, America was blessed with more above average leaders. Yes, Reagan gave us a massive debt and was ridiculed about his "Star Wars" defense system. Who's laughing now? The old man was ahead of his time.

Trump has brought a fantastic silver lining, a gift to us all. His Presidency has shown us the dangers of a President with no empathy or compassion for others. Should he win re-election, he will take us out of NATO and also start a war with China. China's economy will disappear into oblivion because tariffs will never drop.

But because of him, we know where all our weaknesses lie. Boy are we gonna fix those problems. You won't even recognize America from today come June 2021.

China as such has decided to wait Trump out. The rumor is China wants Trump to win re-election. But be careful what you ask for. You will get a drunken man with a chainsaw in his hand, high on drugs. You want to do business with this guy? This guy can wake up at 3am and order 5 carrier battle groups to your front door and no one will know why?

Give me a beautiful girlfriend or give me an average babe I can sit down and reason with? I'm not 21 anymore buddy. Give me the calm, reasonable China Girl everytime.

My thinking has begun to change. As I've grown older, I've begun to understand the finer side of "control". Not from a "1984" perspective, mind you. Uh-oh. No way, no how. But while we nod approvingly from a very safe distance at China's ability to successfully control it's own population, have you forgotten America has 330 million people?

White America has stopped having children. Hispanic America (I'm so tempted to utter Catholic and anti abortion Hispanic America) meanwhile is having kids like their on sale. But I digress.

In short, America has too much damn freedom. We lack discipline. Something the Chinese have in spades. Utter spades. We need focus. China is very good at focus. Just a few days ago China came back with the good old trustworthy "The Chinese people are organized and cannot be humiliated 辱不得" mantra, because like, you haven't heard that before right? (He was talking about the 70th anniversary of the failed North Korean invasion of the South. Because if they had succeeded, we'd never have the opportunity to watch sexy South Korean girls dance on YouTube, right?)

Our focus on "freedom" at the expense of "safety" and every damn thing else is draining away our sense of the American Ideal. The American Ideal wasn't based on a "I can do whatever I want" mentality. While not a wild fan of Chinese policies, something I've said before is that China has succeeded in giving its people "purpose". Laughable or not, there are no AR-15's on every street corner in China. No drug dealers killing one another over territory. Do you want a China awash in guns? Is that better for the planet or worse?

We are 300 million people and we need to get our shit together. We need to be put in line. Leadership is like herding cats. The goal of the leader is to drive them in one direction towards one goal. China's goal come hell or high water is "we have to act tough towards you to avoid further Chinese humiliation". No clue which "humiliation" he is talking about. None. Do the Chinese spending 10,000 RMB at a nightclub fuel themselves off this "humiliation"? Do Chinese feel so angry about being "humiliated" they go and buy a Tesla simply because it's made in China? How many of these "humiliated" Chinese own an Iphone?

Trust me, they don't feel humiliated, they feel superior. After all, they have new shiny, subways and we don't. If your city doesn't have an 80 story skyscraper, well then your city sucks! I see lots of pix of clubs in China where NO ONE is wearing a face mask. As I write this 8 months after the pandemic hit America, we have an alltime high in infections. What's my point?

At some time in the very near future, we need to go "China Style" on our own ignorant ass people, and quite frankly, tell everyone you can't "eat" freedom, you can't "fuck" freedom, and you can't "shit" freedom. It's becoming an increasingly hollow slogan on a cheap tshirt.

Discipline leads to focus, and focus leads to progress. America needs all three of these.

Wrapping up my Top Ten

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 01:52:00 +0000

I'm gonna knock out the last two reasons why I may never return to live in China again. Granted, none of this may come true. Still.....

If I were to be shipped back once again to manage Chinese operations these are the final two reasons I'd definitely hesitate. This reason to me is really ranked number one in my book; I wouldn't be able to see my kids. Simple as that.

When I was last sent back to Shenzhen for what would eventually become a six year stint my youngest daughter wasn't even born yet. And my oldest didn't really even miss me. She was happy to watch Sponge Bob with her grandparents.

My life then was much more crowded than it is now. I lived in an 1800 sq foot house in a culdesac, with what eventually was 6 people. Now I have nearly 5000 sq feet and there are only three of us. It would be difficult for me to give this all up, my books, the weather, and of course the pork! But the biggest problem of all without question would be the time lost with my kids. Simply because now our conversations are more meaningful.

They may not be as frequent, but the walks mean something. The hikes have significance. The homework sessions more important. The advice more meaningful. I see them repeating my works nearly everyday. As such I know I have an effect. Not being part of their lives means not being able to influence their lives for the good. As such, wouldn't someone else fill that void?

A young expat in China is nothing but booze and sex. An older expat understands that is a shallow life. Not a fulfilling life. Things are simply more important. And seeing one's kids grow up is the most important. Will I continue to go there for work? Indeed. But if I may company were to send me there now....I would balk. I want to go back. Maybe live there. But I have more important work to be done here first.

The final reason is easily overlooked. I simply can't shop there. I'm just too tall. Too damn tall. I'm only a six footer, don't get me wrong. But I've tried to buy things there, all to no avail. I'm not talking of the prices. Just the sizes. Even when living in Hong Kong I couldn't buy anything. It's hard enough to get one's hair cut. Slightly less than impossible to find good bourbon. But to go shopping for clothes is just too annoying. Twice I've had China Girl try and gift me clothing. I once had a girlfriend that owned a clothing kiosk give me what she considered to be nice clothing. Too small. I gave it away.

But the pricing in China for clothing is just stupid. I find the best place to go is Wal-mart. Pricing is good....but the sizes impossible to find. It's the small things back home that matter....Netflix. Amazon Prime. Egg whites. Porn. Blue skies. Youtube. Good jeans at Costco. Maybe I'm being over critical. But would I have these issues in Europe? I don't think so.