President Xi posters blanket Shanghai building
What are the prospects for the vision of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” that President Xi Jinping laid down in his 3 1/2 hour speech to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s quinquennial congress in October? Isn’t that vision National Socialism (Nazism)?
Xi’s speech was dedicated to communicating three notions:
- that China is a one-party, single-leader state and that he will be the One for a long time to come;
- that his and the party’s goal is to become the world’s sole superpower in the next thirty years, replacing the US; and
- that his and the nation’s doctrine to be adhered to by all, without deviation, is “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
The CCP has subsequently been promoting Xi and his doctrine with a fervor not seen since Mao, despite the fact that the new party constitution forbids a personality cult.
Dr. Steven Mosher, the China expert who first exposed the horrors of China’s one-child policy of state-enforced abortions even in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy, states that Xi’s socialism with Chinese characteristics
“is a reference to this hypernationalism, this super-patriotism that is being force-fed the Chinese. What we really have is socialism and nationalism. Reversing that, that becomes national socialism…China is not so much a communist country. It is a national socialist [Nazi] country…We had a real problem with a national socialist country a few decades ago, didn’t we?”
A previous issue of Founders Broadcast reported on the extraordinary Orwellian spying and censoring presently being implemented by the state to ensure conformity and obedience.
Today we describe the three thrusts of Chinese foreign policy to spread its national socialism southward and westward.
1. South China Sea
China in 1909 made unprecedented claims (the “Nine Dash Line”) to much of the South China Sea and forcibly asserted these claims by militarizing a chain of atolls, despite a subsequent adverse ruling by the international court at The Hague.
Many have concluded that China is winning control of the Sea, forcing the countries in the region with competing claims to back off in the face of raw Chinese power. The Obama administration did nothing to block the Chinese from the seizure.
China dominates several countries in the area: Cambodia and Myanmar. The Philippines under President Duterte has been stepping back from its previous US alliance.
China’s First Island Chain
But an Asia Times correspondent is skeptical that China has attained much military value in its occupation of the atolls of the “First Island Chain” (see map). He is also skeptical of the value to China of intimidating the other nations of the region. Rather, countries that previously were slumbering in the face of China’s earlier “charm offensive” are now resentful and beginning to mobilize.
Australia is opposing China’s growing presence in their island continent, reconsidering its previous more China-friendly foreign policy, and now moving closer to the US.
2. Indian Ocean region
China is also seeking to dominate the Indian Ocean through its navy, trade agreements with strategic islands such as the Maldives, and Chinese-financed infrastructural projects in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Africa. It seeks to surround rival India with China-friendly nations like Pakistan and even Afghanistan with its US presence. And it is threatening India and its allies with loss of vital irrigation and drinking water by diverting water from the Brahmaputra to Xinjiang.
One Belt One Road
Chinese trucks at Gwadar port (AFP – Aamir)
China’s grandiose “One Belt One Road” plan to update the ancient Silk Road connecting China to the Mideast — this time with rail, road, and sea connections — has the aim of expanding the Chinese empire westward to dominate both Asia and Africa. Investments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran are already underway. But countries offered Chinese investment funds are beginning to have second thoughts on examining the onerous terms of the loans, including terms that provide for seizure of national infrastructure if the loans go into default. (See “Bad terms: Pakistan’s raw deal with China over Gwadar port” and “Could China’s AIIB loans deepen Pakistan’s economic woes?“)
(to be continued)
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