A War fought on Pride & Prejudices Part 2
Part 2 of a series of 3 articles.
Thank you and welcome to Part 2. Just like Part 1, I gave an account of The United State of America’s rise to become the world’ s superpower of the 20th Century. We spoke of its brand of Capitalism which itself is a form of Industrialised Materialism, spreading American culture and ideologies to further its own interests in protecting Corporate America, whatever it takes, including waging war, trade embargoes and instigating change of governments, and coordinated Intelligence to justify an invasion. Now, welcome to Part 2.
Part 2 : The People’s Republic of China : Pride, Prosperity and Policies.
“ Negaraku. Tanah tumpahnya darahku” is the first line of the Malaysian national anthem meaning, My Malaysia. The land where my blood shall flow.
Once more, it is prudent for me to state that my nationality is Malaysian but if you ask of my ethnicity, in the past, I would have just answered “Chinese”. But in the last few years through reading and wanting to know more of my family tree, I have come to realised how wrong this tag has been. It is a very lazy association to a place my forefathers came from, but it does not rightly represent my race and its culture which I am born into. I hope you can tell the difference. In short, I am Malaysian of Han decent. My loyalty is to Malaysia as my country. My tanah tumpahnya darahku. Just as China is made up of 100% Chinese Nationals, 96% of them are Han people. Geddit?
Right. About China.
As a kid, I have always been fascinated with Han culture and history and it is not hard to grasp bits and pieces of it when you are constantly following drama series from Hong Kong or Taiwan that ironically portray lives and characters of various Imperial Dynasties and sprinkled with some Wu Xia action. It was every boys dream to be a Wu Xia action hero one day, judging from the makeshift sword and costumes we use to make with firewood while we chase one another in the evenings outside the streets of our homes.. But alongside the palace dramas or warring Moghuls lies an underlying theme. The Mandate of Heaven 天命. I will touch on this topic a little bit more later as it is connected to the next section of my article.
Just as the Theory of Evolution is still a theory and not yet a fact that is proven, but is it so widely discussed that it is a accepted fact, a theory emerged in the early 2015 by a retired Lt. Cmdr. British submariner by the name of Gavin Menzies. He theorized that in 1421, 70 years before Columbus, the Ming Treasure Fleet led by Admiral Zheng He and his Generals discovered American and Australia and probably were the first oceanic super power that circumnavigated the globe. It is also worthy to mention that Zheng He’s fleet is nothing but extraordinary given it was made 600 years ago, it surpass any European ship by design, size and might.
Zheng He’s first voyage departed 11 July 1405, from Suzhou and consisted of a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen. — Wikipedia
It was a great fleet but it was never meant for conquest. It was a fleet of cultural exchange and exploration. Extending the Pride of the Great Ming (1368–1644) and its then Great YongLe (Zhu Di) Emperor (1402–1424) and enhancing His empire with knowledge of other worlds, embracing cultural diversity and in return enhancing its neighbor's livelihood and civilization with gifts, protection, and exchanging knowledge, culture and technology. To a point, it even gave sovereignty to the then spice port of Malacca and recognised it as a Kingdom with a Stones Tablet with Inscription by the Emperor presented to Parameswara by Admiral Zheng He, whom later converted to Islam and took the name Sultan Iskandar Shah. The relationship It was a diplomacy of Prosperity.
Prove that cultural exchange did took place between China and Malacca was further strengthened with this recent article published in The Atlantic 2019 entitled Where does the word Mandarin comes from by Sarah Zhang. Now back in the olden days, the European Courts were a congregation of Nobles, Knights and some Merchants, all bestowed with land and slaves whom in turn work on those lands for produce and reward the Royalties. Those in favor or have an idea to further prosper the Royal Families were granted an audience and perhaps even gold and blessings for an expedition. One such expedition was led by the Portuguese to engage with trade intention but events thereafter unfolded leading to a fleet led by Alphonse de Albuqueque in 1511, which led to the fall of Malacca and took direct control of the then richly traded spices from South East Asia to Europe. The Spice Route as it was called, where Pepper was its main trade, giving much flavor to blend European cooking.
This article did not just point to the fact that an immense cultural change happened between Malacca and the Ming Empire, even in manner of imperial Court system. The Han Courts are long famed for their bureaucratic system, but one that is systematic and task oriented with officials appointed to various tasks and must give an account of to the Emperor of his tasks yearly, unlike the European Courts of then. This article said that the world Mandarin originated from the Malay word Menteri, which means Minister. Yes you heard me right. From history lessons in school, we were thought of titles like Hulubalang (Infantry Captain), Laksamana (Admiral) and Bendahara (Chief Minister). were the Menteri that the Portuguese would have encounter in their capture of Malacca in 1511 and when they set sail to China, they attribute the same bureaucratic system of Court management to that of Malacca and called the officials Menteri and in time became as what we know today as Mandarins of the Imperial Courts.
Has it not been a lightning bolt that struck the tip of The Temple of Heaven on the grounds of the Forbidden City in 1421, the Chinese fleet would have continued its expedition, but politics and superstitious beliefs made the Emperor ordered the fleet back to the Mainland, disbanded, destroyed and all its records burnt so as to not anger the Heavens. That year, the Great Ming Empire closed its door to the world until foreigners came knocking 100 years later.
On the 21st of September 1949, a new country was formed and it is called The People’s Republic of China. By then it adopted the English/French tag that were used by merchants of old as its romanised name. It entered into an era of Cultural Revolution in 1966, purging ideologies of old and create a perfect Socialist state, and with the help of the Soviet Union, it also went through a period of Industrial Revolution, building railways and manufacturing machinery in preparation for world trade. In 1978, under the leadership of President Deng Xiao Ping, China Economic reforms took place and it opened it doors to foreign investment and trade. By then to the outside world, it was not a market worth exploring as its GDP was low and people were mostly pheasants, hence Capitalism was not interested in it as a market, but instead, it saw the nearly 1Billion people as workers. Cheap labor to drive Economic of Scale, make American products cheaper to produce and increase its profit margins. It started with textiles and toys, and to accessories and sports equipment and gradually moving to electronics and telecommunications as the world demanded for affordable technology. China was know as the factory of the world.
In 2001, with the help of America, China was accepted as a member of the WTO and began its trade of Chinese goods around the world. Chinese made toys, cookwares, home utensils and produce began to find itself on shelves around the world. And while America in the early 2000 to 2010 were busy with matters in the middle East, China began a series of modernization starting with building mega-cities. From Shang-hai to Shen-zen, Guang-zhou to Beijing and Chengdu, these cities were built with much ore coming from Australia. The Australian economy was on a all time high as China was on a massive city and mega project expansion and both coal and ore from Australia were harvested en mass to meet the Chinese demands. The chart below from Australian Treasury Department will tell you clearly that the trade deficit that Australia has with China is devastating. Its economy may just collapsed overnight should China decide to look for a different trade partner. America’s largest ally in the Pacific is now under the trade mercy of China.
Under the leadership of President Xi JingPing, China then went on yet another move that would tip the balance of power to its side. In 2013, China proposed the formation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, AIIB, with a start up capital of USD 100Bil, half of The World’s Bank’s with 10 founding members owning 50% of its equities. It was formalized and opened its HQ in Beijing in 2016. Today the AIIB has a member of 76 countries with 24 more prospective ones awaiting approvals. It is a move to dismantle the Capitalist Institutions and provide a more viable alternative that drives infrastructure growth, especially for countries neighboring China. While America was busy and distracted with its own internal affairs like its Presidential elections and Gun controls, China solidify its leadership first by stopping Obama’s TPPP agreement that was meant to align Asia Pacific countries on a new multi lateral trade deal with America. It was too complex and too late and by that time, the Obama’s had to leave the White House.
Corporate China was on the move as well. Lenovo was probably the first known Chinese IT firm to have bought over a US entity that was up for sale. The IBM Thinkpad division. And thereafter it was almost like lighting speed we see Chinese base companies began to produce, innovate and secured by a strong local demand, it started exporting its goods to the rest of the world. Companies like Geely bought Volvo from Ford, XiaoMi angered Apple so much because of its copycat approach right down to the retail concept of an iStore. Brand like Li-Ning, Oppo, Vivo and HuaWei began large scale Branding and Advertising exercises in developing markets promoting their brands with huge A&P budgets. And start ups like Alibaba, TaoBao and my favourtite of them all, Tencent, the owner of Wechat ,began its global expansion by disrupting traditional go to market models, making Chinese goods far more accessible at a cheaper cost.
Wechat is a super-app because it is first a chat app with 1 Bil user base, mostly in China and it can house multiple mini programs and even conduct transactions as a single platform. Imagine Even if Google would combine with Facebook as one has a chat base and the other has a merchant base, it still cannot synergise as quickly given its own Policies which aim to protection on its its intellectual properties, its programming languages and so on so forth. Non of these Policies exist in China and it is that fact WeChat is able to focus its development into a Super App, one that is fast gaining usage across neighboring South East Asia. To China, if your innovation is as good, it will not need protection, companies should welcome competition and strive for the best in class innovation and stay as long as it could in the market place. One fine example is Wechat.
With an key ally subjugated and both capitalistic institution disrupted from its traditional ways that once grappled the world top adhere to American ways of doing business, China simultaneously embarked on a huge mission to secure its trade routes and began its military show of might. One one hand, it announces a mega project that aims to bring its Prosperity Diplomacy to neighboring countries and expanding its influence into the Middle East and Northern African countries under the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. And on the other hand it laid claims on the Spratly Islands south of Taiwan and neighboring The Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia. The Chinese were fast to secure the islands and amidst protest from other claimants, naval bases and civilian outposts were built at overnight speed on these islands and despite an International Maritime Court ruling in 2016 which dismisses China’s claim, it was too late. the might of the modern Chinese Navy was already on display and it has sailed Southward to protect its new territory, The South China Sea. The odds it seems were at China’s favor.
15th of April 2020. A plausible event may occur and it is of Low Probability, but has High Impact. Scenario Planners calls such an event a Black Swan. Beijing, having received The Mandate of Heaven 天命 by granting President Xi the power to be “President for Life”, probably has realised that it has to put a stop to this riot and quell the protesters in ways that will see the least casualties and violence, before the opportunistic date of 15th April 2020.
Part 3 and the end of my 3 part Series called A War fought on Pride and Prejudices. Part 3 : The Rest of the World “ Now Consider This…will only be published on 1159pm on the 14th of April 2020 +8GMT. Stay tuned.
