Xi Jinping declared, “The world is undergoing a great change that has not been seen in a century, and the Time and situation are on our side.” This statement is true, and it reflects the reality of the world.
The term “time and momentum” refers to timing and the general situation of the world. In international politics, regardless of the origins of the Epidemic sweeping the world, the fact that the past year has shown is that countries that maximize state power far outstrip those that maximize individual rights in controlling the epidemic; the free world is far less controlled than authoritarian systems. The dark matter of the U.S. election, not pursued by the mainstream media, freedom of speech restricted by convention, inadmissible in the courts on procedural grounds, the outcome of the vote decided by the voter or the vote-counter? Ultimately, freedom is no match for control.
Authoritarian regimes also have economic advantages. When the world is in a state of shutdown, demand for products around the world is more dependent on countries that can start and force production. Most countries are experiencing negative economic growth, and China is the only country that is doing well. The RCEP, which has been in the making for eight years, is signed; after seven years of negotiations, the EU and China reach an investment agreement. Biden came to power and, as Zhai Dongsheng put it, “old friends are back.” With Washington and Wall Street elites dominating the U.S. political and economic landscape, the Communist Party of China is probably pretty confident that the Trump-era economic decoupling between China and the U.S. will be pinned down from here on out.
So a commenter on my humble article said, “I’m already behind the world today. And that’s not wrong. When the “time and the situation” are not on the side of the free world, it is ill-advised to talk about the traditional American conservative value of preserving freedom; when the Democratic Party in the United States has already confirmed the power of the executive and legislative (two chambers), “what good is it for Hong Kong to scold the Democratic Party? “?
I am of the old school, always unaware of the times, indifferent to utilitarianism, and fixated on ancient and distant values. For example, Confucius’ simple principle of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” still haunts my mind even though few people follow it anymore. Last week’s article on “veterans don’t die, but only slowly wither away” also means sticking to the old civilization and not giving up because of the change of time.
What is an American veteran? General MacArthur, a five-star general who fought in two world wars and the Korean War, was the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces that occupied Japan from 1945 to 1951 after World War II, and gave birth to Japan’s post-war constitution with the American concept of democratic politics, which embodied the core values of respect for human rights, sovereignty over the people, and renunciation of war. At that time, many people believed that Japan had a theocratic tradition of secularism and could not accept a system that maximized people’s rights, but after Japan was forced to accept it through the constitution, Japan was finally transformed into a truly modern and civilized country.
When the Kuomintang was defeated in Taiwan in 1949, President Truman of the Democratic Party issued a statement in January 1950 declaring that the United States would never intervene in the situation in China, and that Taiwan, Penghuang, and Jinma were not part of the U.S. military. Taiwan was in danger. Chiang Kai-shek then sent General He Shili to Tokyo to facilitate Marshal Mak’s secret visit to Taiwan to stabilize the situation in the Taiwan Strait. After the Korean War, MacArthur proposed to President Truman to open a second front in the Far East, including the bombing of Chinese military industries and facilities, “to fight to the death against the Red Communists”, but this proposal was vetoed by Truman, and MacArthur was removed from his post. The veterans withered.
After his return to the United States, MacArthur, who had fought in three major wars in defense of freedom and against totalitarianism, gave his famous speech in Congress in 1951, “Veterans Don’t Die”. He later said, “Appeasement of the red scourge is going to cost us dearly for generations to come, perhaps as long as a hundred years.” In 1961, he told President Kennedy, “The real crisis facing America is not overseas, but at Home, not in the green jungles of Southeast Asia, but in the concrete jungles of urban America.”
“Veterans never die” means that the traditional spirit of the American military, which defends freedom and human rights, does not die, and “it will only slowly wither” means that this spirit continues to erode and wither in the face of money, power, and sex without fail, hence President Reagan’s statement. “Freedom is only a generation away from extinction. There is no way we can pass freedom through the bloodline to our children and grandchildren. We must fight for it, protect it, and hand it over to future generations, and our descendants must do the same. Otherwise one day we will be telling our children, our children’s children, in our twilight years what the once free America was like.”
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