THE NEW BEST FRIENDS OF THE TALIBAN
China is now feted by the Taliban as their closest ally. China’s embassy is open for business in Kabul, and they have a cheque book. Already embedded in the Afghan’s copper mining industry, the Chinese Communist Party is anticipated to invest to extract huge deposits of copper and perhaps other minerals, such as lithium, so tightening its grip on critical global supplies of important and valuable materials under Afghan soil. The CCP can be a significant part of the solution to the Taliban’s financially bankrupt Afghanistan. But there will be a price for them to pay. Is it too much to hope that Chinese influence will extend to preventing the country becoming the host nation for anti-democratic terrorist groups? Or will the CCP have found a useful proxy to create further mayhem in Western and other democracies, while being able to deny any responsibility for it? That the Taliban are so welcoming to China, while the CCP are persecuting the Uighur Muslims in China, itself highlights the conundrum of understanding the complexities of relationships between different sects of Islam.
THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY DICTATING PRIVATE LIVES
In the UK, parents and other worriers about the influence of “screens” on children’s lives and their mental well being struggle to control the “game time” spent by children to the detriment of other, possibly more beneficial, activities. This is not a topic which UK Government can resolve for parents, but it is one where parents themselves must take responsibility. The CCP however is highly concerned with video games obsessions and perhaps addiction among Chinese children and so it has acted. The CCP has by law imposed on children a maximum 3-hour time limit per week for video game time on screen, regulating when that time can be spent being between 8pm and 9pm on each of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Some may see this as a positive and responsible and reasonable exercise of power. It is certainly an illustration of the all-pervading supremacy of the CCP over the daily lives of individuals and families, and its absolute confidence in its right to control the choices of the Chinese people and determine what is in their best interests, which is in their eyes what the CCP determines is best for the State as a whole.Does such an intervention make the average Briton grateful for freedom, or does it stir, at least for some, a longing for more state intervention and less personal responsibility for their own and their children’s lives?
IS MAOIST SOCIALISM ON THE WAY BACK?
The Times of 1 September included a story headed “China ready to cut out “tumours” of celebrity and capitalism”. It referred to an article by a little-known blogger, a Maoist, named Li Guangman. He is quoted as writing “a profound transformation, or a profound revolution is taking place…returning to the original mission of the Communist Party of China, returning to the people centralism and returning to the essence of socialism”. While of itself this could be regarded as another rant by a loud extremist, the article was apparently widely adopted, by eight official Party-State media websites and a large number of commercial ones in China. And they reportedly featured the same headline “Everyone can sense that a profound change is on the way”. That perhaps points to a centrally driven orchestration and messaging; is the all-powerful ruler of the CCP, Xi, planning to seriously tighten the grip of the CCP over all things capitalist and the wealth of the Chinese people, taking all to the coffers of the State?
This comes following high profile crackdowns by the CCP on the wealthiest Chinese billionaires, with regulatory action and new rules, particularly reining in highly successful technology companies and their founding entrepreneurs, and enforcement of tough rules in other areas. See also CHINA AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE FREE WORLD – AN ECONOMIC AND MORAL MINEFIELD and CHINA’S RULERS ENDANGER WORLD FREEDOMS – THE FREE WORLD’S REACTION IS THE BIG GENERATIONAL ISSUE
Apparently Xi has also been using more regularly a Chinese phrase translated as “common prosperity”, and it is appearing in State-sponsored material in the media. According to David Bandurski, Director of the China Media Project, the phrase is of great revolutionary significance, being adopted by the CCP in a Resolution, and is associated strongly with collectivisation, which itself is hostile to personal wealth.
In addition, a new series of textbooks is currently being issued to all educational establishments, the purpose of which, as recorded in an Economist article, is to explain “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era”. The primary school version refers to Grandpa Xi as paramount leader of the party and state. Apparently, the textbooks are to introduce Xi’s views on almost everything from politics and economics to religion and culture: and he is to be regarded as correct on every topic he covers, that is just about everything. The Economist comments “It is not for ordinary citizens to second-guess or debate what Mr. Xi believes. Like children heeding a teacher or an elder, it is their role to obey”. Couple CCP’s control over education with its ability to access all data on the Chinese people held by every business operating in China, and CCP’s grip on the lives of individuals nears totality.
Is the world going to witness a serious swing towards old-fashioned Chinese socialism which was espoused by Mao Tse Tung, or a variation on the theme which bears Xi’s mark? And is Xi Jinping set on creating his historic legacy with a new Cultural Revolution? The West, still so dependent on China and so the CCP for many important products, needs to clear the mist from its eyes over the CCP’s long-term intentions, sharpen its collective act to understand what is unfolding and to proactively prepare for the consequences.
