Think back to your childhood. If it was anything like mine, you surely recall an abundance of Made in China labels on various items.
Growing up in the 1980s, I often wondered why so many things I used daily were manufactured elsewhere. Like any child, I was curious and full of wonder.
It’s only now, in my fifth decade on this big ball, that I connect the dots to those happenings some forty years ago.
Once a country stops making things, it loses its strength and autonomy.
For years, we stood by idly while China manufactured and exported goods to our shores. Human beings are heuristic creatures. Most fail to see things longitudinally. We seek instant gratification and covet immediate gain. It is wired in our brains and an evolutionary byproduct.
Consequently, with life experience, our perspective on the past improves with a little bit of reflective consciousness. Though not entirely evident to my childhood eyes, we are in the Chinese century.
Historically, it was the Soviet Union that posed an ideological threat to the American way of life. Today, it is the People’s Republic of China. China has been amassing strength for the better part of fifty years.
Their military is elite, boasting a whopping 2 million active military personnel. They reportedly spend north of 200 billion annually on their military, the emphasis on reportedly.
With undeniable strength comes a sphere of influence. China’s tentacles spread throughout the globe. Yet, seldom we hear anything negative to do with China when it comes to the mainstream media. China brought the world to a screeching halt when an unprecedented pandemic originated in one of its cities, Wuhan.
However, only months after the novel Coronavirus enveloped the world, China disappeared off the airwaves.
Why? How come former President Donald Trump was one of only a handful of public figures to cast blame on the Eastern superpower?
Put simply, money.
Wealth buys influence and empowers those with bountiful amounts. Well-documented crimes against humanity riddle China’s narrative. Concentration camps stretch from border to border. Censorship is a way of life. In addition, the powerful drug fentanyl leaves its ports daily and infects our populace.
Yet, because the country boasts a surplus of wealth and influence, few speak up.
Recently, at the G20 Summit in Indonesia, a video surfaced of Chinese President Xi Jinping scolding Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Allegedly, Xi was upset about Trudeau leaking their private conversations to the press. One can even hear Trudeau say “In Canada, we believe in free and open and frank dialogue, and that is what we will continue to have”.
To the average layman, score a point for the free world. But to skeptics, a staged encounter to mislead. Did you know that in the winter of 2020, Chinese troops trained in Canada to simulate winter warfare? You read that correctly; China’s Communist-led military trained in the Great White North.
Now, imagine if the roles were reversed. Picture a certain western power’s military training in the land of the Dragon. Is this something one can actually expect or mere hypothetical?
Consequently, two superpowers remain in the world; China and the United States. The two couldn’t be more different and have been jockeying for supremacy for decades.
It is East versus West, Communism against Capitalism, with countries throughout the world taking sides.
In retrospect, the twentieth century was largely American. The Industrial Revolution catapulted the U.S. to the head of the world. America flourished after the Second World War, as did its global influence.
Unfortunate byproducts of their dominance were wars like Korea, Vietnam, and both Iraqi invasions [face it, that’s what they were]. Our sons and daughters paid the ultimate price so the American way of life could sustain itself.
For Baby Boomers, the great threat was communism by way of the Soviets. For our children, five gold stars have replaced the hammer and sickle.
Read the tea leaves and you’ll soon prognosticate a battle between ideological counterparts.
Historically, before the first missile is launched, prior to the first bullet ever being fired, wars exist between nations. However, it takes time and hindsight to realize as much.
Years from now, when the US and China square off militarily for global control, we will look back at the present and realize the inevitability of the showdown.
Happy Thanksgiving and may God Bless you and your loved ones.
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