Spanish – The year 2020 has undoubtedly been the worst year for humanity so far this century. Thousands of people are dying from a pandemic; economies are devastated; there is hunger, suffering, and uncertainty. Anguish has reigned in practically all the countries of the world, in all but one which has done quite well: China.
To be clear, based on verifiable facts, it is too soon to determine if the coronavirus plaguing the world today was a creation of China or if it was an accident that got out of control. What we do know is that the Communist Party knew about this threat before it spread across the planet and did absolutely nothing to stop it, quite the contrary: they pressured the WHO not to declare a pandemic at the beginning of the year and allowed their citizens to leave the country and visit the rest of the world, while closing down their own cities. In any case, China’s guilt is undeniable, and consequently, millions of people are starving today, thousands are mourning the loss of their families, and the economies around the globe are suffering from disasters. Meanwhile, China is taking advantage of the situation.
While the world is in a deep economic recession, China has been the only country to present positive numbers in the second quarter of the year. Its GDP grew 3.2% year-on-year in this period, contradicting the forecasts of economic specialists who expected a negative performance, as is the case almost everywhere else in the world. So in nominal terms, China’s total wealth in the first half of the year was 6.53 trillion dollars.
In this context, the influence of China has also multiplied. The Asian country has lent more money to developing countries—mostly located in Africa—than the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and any other government in the world.
In 2018 alone, China offered 60 billion USD in funding to Africa and debt relief to the poorest countries in the form of interest-free loans, all in exchange, of course, for becoming its puppets, following Beijing’s orders and, needless to say, always voting in its favor in every multilateral body. They have managed, for example, to install the Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom as director-general at the WHO with the vote of the African Union. Tedros, in turn, repaid them by hushing up the severity of the coronavirus so that China could achieve its geopolitical goals.
The most dangerous part of this whole situation is the so-called “hidden debt.” Experts believe that 60% of Chinese loans are granted with fewer guarantees, but have higher interest rates and shorter maturities so that countries that cannot meet their commitments are forced to hand over their ports, mines, infrastructure, concessions, and other assets to China, which further increases the Asian giant’s influence over them and the rest of the world.
"China le presta más dinero a los países en desarrollo que el Banco Mundial, el FMI y todos los demás gobiernos"https://t.co/0UUdGPA7Xe
— BBC News Mundo (@bbcmundo) July 20, 2020
Studies have estimated that the world’s debt to China is already over five trillion USD, a figure equivalent to 6% of the world’s GDP. Countries like Djibouti, for example, have a debt of over 100% of their GDP; while another bulk of developing nations in Africa—but also in Asia and Latin America—have debts ranging from 10 to 40% of their GDP, with Venezuela, for example, being the country with the largest oil reserves in the world, and having one of the largest reserves of gas, gold and other minerals, one of the most compromised to China.
Today, in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, you can already see signs written in Chinese announcing the construction of various real estate and infrastructure projects. In fact, the Kampala-Nairobi-Mombasa railway line is being built by Chinese constructors. Hardly anything moves in this part of the world without first getting the approval of the Communist Party of China.
Diplomatic soft power allows China to violate international treaties and human rights
With half the world at its feet, China has escaped prosecution in courts and broken international treaties without any problems or fears. They are not yet “officially” masters of the world, but they already act as if they are. In fact, they have taken advantage of the coronavirus crisis and all that it has produced to completely dig their claws into Hong Kong and break the historic agreement signed with the United Kingdom. The security law passed last month breaks the autonomy that this special area had from China, and the latter did not encounter any obstacles. Furthermore, after Hong Kong, China has now announced that it will also go after Macao, the other semi-autonomous region of the country that once belonged to Portugal.
Additionally, in recent months, there have also been complaints about China at the International Criminal Court for the forced deportation of Uighurs people from Tajikistan and Cambodia to Sinkiang, in north-western China, where they have been killed, forcibly imprisoned, tortured and forced to marry, among other crimes against humanity. The United States has firmly condemned this situation, but it has not had much impact on the multilateral international organizations that are clearly dominated by China today, as has been shown by its scandalous interference in the WHO. Now, China is even running for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, despite its extensive record of abuses and violations.
No joke: Xi Xinping's China is running for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council.
First they joined the UNHRC panel that selects world human rights monitors; then China picked regime admirer Irene Khan as the UN free speech expert; now they're about to become a Council member. pic.twitter.com/4fyatYr0G3
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 21, 2020
The construction of artificial islands “to extend its territory”
Not only has China expanded its influence in Africa and Latin America, but it has also sought to take over the shipping routes around it. In the South China Sea, Beijing has been building artificial islands intending to establish an extension of its “territory” that would give it greater control over the sea. Along with this, it has been taking ships out to sea in the area to strengthen its territorial claims, despite objections by Vietnam and the Philippines.
The countries involved in the conflict have the exclusive support of the United States, a country plunged into an acute political crisis. Within its own borders, more and more Americans are identifying with totalitarian communism in China instead of liberal capitalism in the United States, led by a radical wing of the Democratic Party and an influential media.
The area which the authoritarian Chinese regime wants to annex today by installing artificial islands accounts for 30% of global trade and is home to 12% of the world’s fishing grounds as well as oil and gas deposits.
Every time some country or agency makes a lukewarm pronouncement against China’s blatant expansionism, they respond that it is “interference in their internal affairs,” and thus shake off anyone who tries to get in their way, except for the United States, which is the only country that has consistently condemned the regime and imposed sanctions on members of the Communist Party of China. But this enormous hurdle presented by the American government could be replaced in a couple of months. In November, there are presidential elections, and the Democrats led by Joe Biden have taken advantage of the economic disaster caused by the coronavirus and the incidents of racial tension to blame Donald Trump and beat him -at least in the polls.
America gets out of the ring without a fight
For evil to triumph, the work of the bad guys is not enough, the good guys must also give in, and in this case, the United States seems determined to give up the battle for world supremacy and give way to submission to China.
It is not only that China’s economy is growing while that of the United States is suffering the crisis of the pandemic generated by the former, but also that, while the Communist Party of China is advancing its international interests, internally the most powerful nation in the West is collapsing, impregnated with ideological manipulations and a mediocre generation that is convinced, that they are the bad guys in the film, and that they must now surrender their weapons and resign themselves to being second-class citizens sustained by a welfare state.
Today, with perhaps one of the most important presidential elections in U.S. history just months away, the prospects are not at all positive.
On the one hand, there is Donald Trump, surrounded by thousands of internal enemies, in addition to external ones, and a whole generation convinced that the United States as we know it must be finished, that its history, its patriotic heroes, and its economic system must be condemned. That is why they have been destroying statues, demonizing George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and generating a narrative in which it is implied that it is a shame to be an American and that the country must change.
In the other corner is Joe Biden, Obama’s former vice president, formerly a moderate, who today has decided to represent the most leftist and socialist interests of the Democratic Party in its history, arguing that the tax rate on corporations and the rich should be increased and the system of capitalism by shares dismantled. Moreover, the second most powerful force within the party has called for free health care and education for all, which would completely disrupt U.S. finances and force the country to move into a fully socialist economy that would destroy its purchasing power and the maintenance of its military.
The Democratic and Republican parties today represent two completely antagonistic models. In the past, the differences between the two parties were more of a specific form and pattern, they used to agree on a model of nationhood, they argued over tax discrepancies, management of international relations, and how to combat social problems. But today they are two completely separate planes. The Republicans represent the traditional model that has made the United States the world power it is today. And the Democrats seek to experiment with what they call “democratic socialism,” the very ideology that has failed in numerous countries in the past.
If Donald Trump loses the presidency in November, China will have the road paved to achieve its goals and become the world’s leading power. The Democrats have already said it, Biden has promised it, and Sanders is still interjecting, they are going after the police, they are going after the Pentagon and the defense systems of the United States. In their own words: “we must take away funding” from law enforcement and invest in “welfare.” Already in Detroit, they did this experiment in the past, and it went wrong. The city went from being the 4th largest economy in the United States to going bankrupt and becoming one of the poorest in the country, losing 1.4 million inhabitants in the last decades because the local government increased taxes and public spending to “fight” the inequalities. The result was that companies and private investment were scared off, jobs were destroyed, the local council was in debt, and Detroit became one of the most dangerous places in the United States.
Today, the Democrats want to carry out the Detroit experiment in the rest of the country, and a large number of Americans seem enthusiastic about putting it into practice. In doing so, the United States loses, Americans who are aware of their own disaster lose, America loses, the West loses, and Xi Jinping wins, who, together with the authorities of the Communist Party of China, smiles as they expand their domination over the world.