THE SCAM OF CHINA
[This Monday’s Archive was originally in TTP on October 22, 2009 – and could not be more timely with President Trump’s summit meeting with Red Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing two days from now (5/13). It focuses on the Chinese inversion of reality known as “losing face” – and the necessity of American diplomacy to not care about it. Let’s see what happens this week!]
TTP, October 22, 2009
The headline on Bloomberg today (10/22) is dramatic: China’s Economy Grows 8.9%.
So the Scam of China continues, one the greatest feats of cook-the-books fraudulent accounting in history, but at least it’s a teachable moment in Chinese – and Communist – metaphysics.
Shanghai-based M.I.T-educated economist Andy Xie calls all of this panda-nomics. Xie’s panda is not like the real ones in the bamboo forests of Sichuan Province but the cartoon one of Kung Fu Panda. It’s all make-believe.
Which brings us to the nub. For Chinese, and for Marxist Communists, there is no difference between make-believe and reality. There is no such thing as reality. There is only what people believe. If people believe something is true, it is. If they don’t, it isn’t, it doesn’t exist.
This is best exemplified by the Chinese concept of “face” or lien.
The concept of face - as in "losing face" or "saving face" - plays a critical role in Chinese culture and the way most Chinese deal with reality - a way that is fundamentally opposed to that of Americans.
If your "face" is the primary concern of your life, controlling your conduct and morality, then you believe that reality is what other people say it is, not what it is in fact.
Telling a lie, for example, is not morally wrong, no matter what the lie. It is only wrong if people find out you have lied, for their finding out causes you to lose face.
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