Some years ago, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said “if we could just be China for a day” we would be able to “authorize the right solutions … on everything from the economy to environment.” It’s a fantasy often dreamed of, usually in secret, by Western elites. For the rest of us, it’s a nightmare.
While our country, and much of the world, has finally walked away from most of the liberty-robbing and soul-crushing pandemic restrictions, China is convulsing over the government’s zero-tolerance rules. Protests – mostly peaceful, or course – have spread across major cities. The oppressed citizens are revolting, reports the Associated Press, “against restrictions that have confined millions to their homes.” CNN called the demonstrations “an unprecedented challenge to Xi Jinping’s zero-COVID policy.”
In some instances, says the AP, the Chinese have been under literal house arrest “for up to four months.” Many “say they lack reliable access to food and medical supplies.” The Brownstone Institute tells us that the unfortunate who test positive for COVID “are taken to sparse, overcrowded quarantine camps resembling prisons,” while babies have been separated from their parents, and in some cases “pets are killed.” Other reports say a crackdown on the unrest, which is always the preferred Beijing response, is on its way.
It’s terrifying to think that the events, which are sure to grow ugly, could have happened here. China’s policy of detainment is what the Western ruling class wanted.
“It’s worth remembering who it was exactly who advocated these insane zero-COVID lockdown policies and urged us to emulate them: Our own media elites and health officials,” writes Michael Senger for the Brownstone Institute.
Yes, we know this country’s “leaders” are rushing to cameras and microphones to criticize China’s strategy in light of the protests. But their efforts are a bit late and the sincerity is as superficial as ever. Senger has the evidence to back up his claim that had this country taken its “officials and media elites seriously, the entire free world would look very much like China does today.” Those words pouring from the mouths of those “officials and media elites” should be filed under “politics” and “propaganda.”
What the elites of the West don’t want, though, is increased fossil fuel combustion. But that is exactly what China is doing. It plans to double the capacity of its coal-fired plants. Bloomberg reports that the buildout is merely to back up renewable sources, that the “plants will likely never operate at full capacity.” That, however, is not even remotely believable.
Our ruling class doesn’t care what China is doing since it’s happening in another hemisphere. It has always been happy to let dirty energy be developed elsewhere as long as the opportunity to protest, and whenever possible kill, nearby energy projects remains.
Don’t think so? This administration recently approved new oil and gas drilling by the California-based Chevron – not in this country’s oil-rich regions, but in Venezuela. Clearly the White House and the eco-activists that it’s so cozy with aren’t concerned with what can’t be seen from their well-heated, dazzlingly lighted, and perfectly air-conditioned homes.
China’s government is a model for no other nation. It’s abusive, oppressive, duplicitous, tribal, disposed to censorship, and runs counter to the American experiment in freedom and individualism. No wonder the grandees and mandarins of the left are in awe of it.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
In a rational world where people were not being feed falsehoods by the media, and had widespread reliable reporting no one would be listening to a fool like Friedman. Unfortunately with our hyper partisan press and education system there is a contest among our elite to achieve biggest fool award.
Here is something good, however. I have children in middle school. One of their teachers, one I consider an amateur in the biggest fool contest, tried to convince his class that we should be more like China using arguments along the lines that Friedman follows. The class were having none of it. The zoomers may have voted heavily for the Donks recently but they aren’t totally lost. Not yet.
The guy who is the poster child for The New World Order and the Great Reset, Klaus Schwalb, a truly evil dude right out of S.P.E.C.T.R.E from Dr. NO, just made the same claim about China. NO, thanks.
“This administration recently approved new oil and gas drilling by the California-based Chevron – not in this country’s oil-rich regions, but in Venezuela. ”
It’s well known that oil from elsewhere has no CLIMATE CHANGE! impact – only the domestic stuff does that.
It certainly helps that China is in another hemisphere, but I think what helps them even more is the money they spread around to politicians, colleges and activists. China is attacking us from the inside by buying up politicians and installing their spies everywhere. Buying up businesses and farmland. And we help fund not only those dirty deeds but the building of their military by buying their products. That is why I supported Trump’s anti-China tariffs. Sure, it would drive prices up here, but it is worth the cost. Which may not last long if it drove companies & jobs back here. The obsession with free-trade – even with evil – will be our doom if China does not implode.
Not only should we not be like China, but we should also not fund the evil beast.
It certainly helps that China is in another hemisphere, but I think what helps them even more is the money they spread around to politicians, colleges, and activists. China is attacking us from the inside by buying up politicians and installing their spies everywhere. Buying up businesses and farmland. And we help fund not only those dirty deeds but the building of their military by buying their products. That is why I supported Trump’s anti-China tariffs. Sure, it would drive prices up here, but it is worth the cost. Which may not last long if it drove companies & jobs back here. The obsession with free-trade – even with evil – will be our doom if China does not implode.
Not only should we not be like China, but we should also not fund the evil beast.