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a so faintly emerging spectre of American dangerous inferiority complex.....

The United States, having learnt nothing from the 20th Century, is, quite characteristically, spoiling for a fight with one of the great success stories of our time, China, on the basis of nothing more than a doltishly unfounded fear of this success and an ever so faintly emerging spectre of American fragility. A Fragility across not only its military and political power, but, as well, across its bellicose and tottering brand of democracy.

 

The emerging spectre of American fragility: A reckoning    By Howard Debenham

 

Should life on Earth survive the ravages of its dominant form – humankind – and its mindlessly populist Pied Pipers, any kind of worthy recovery could only emerge from some very sober, and thus unlikely, reckoning.

For humankind, such a reckoning would have to thoroughly expose how it all came to pass; how all of the assorted Pied Pipers cast their wilfully swarming rabbles over their assorted cliffs of delusion onto the ragged rocks of reality.

Up front, this exposure would have to finger which of the most ambitious entities of humankind, over the millennia of its hapless evolution, should cop most of the blame for what had come to pass.

The facts about these entities have long been and are ever more amply available, but of course only to those (damned few) who really care to know. Facts which place the British and the Americans on top of the dark piles of those who have done the worst: the British for creating the model for dominance and the Americans, once such victims of it, for embracing it and taking it to such dizzyingly new heights with such careless, if in their minds sanctified, alacrity.

Both cloaked their ambition in notions of the greater good for their nationals and for their national superiority. The wealth, the power and the glory – the material benefits of which would, while going to their teeny weeny dominant classes, having been sublimated for the rest through prayerful regard for the munificence of The One who truly brought about their mightily just dominance of the heathen.

Their crimes against humankind are legion, remain largely un-conceded, and are by no means over.

In the making of the dominance model, Britain laid a solid foundation at home through skilful innovation in governance, manufacturing, engineering and science; coming, in time, to overcome their European rivals – especially to the extent that these advances projected into adventure, warfare and acquisition. Over the time of its ensuing imperial successes, Britain invaded, slaughtered, enslaved and plundered its way through India, Africa, the North American East, the Middle East, China and much of the Pacific islands. Other powerful European nations of the time made the best of what became the leftovers, bathing, along with the British, in the blessings of enrichment and empowerment bestowed upon them by the spiritual grace and favour of their common god.

The history of and the statistics for all of this are more accessible than ever and are truly shocking.

Emboldened by their success in throwing off the British imperial yoke in the 1770’s, and later persuading themselves that they had won WW2 for the West (which in fact, without the immense fortitude and the staggering losses of the Russians would most likely have been lost), and coming to see real prospects for themselves in the dominance stakes, Imperial America came into clearer being in the 1950’s.

For them at the beginning of that time Korea was a just cause, but one in which it learned that the dominantly powerful could hide mistakes and needless suffering, however gross. From then on, wealth and power and self-belief stirred them on to levels of assertive power and dominance and crime that the British in their time could only have envied and admired.

In 1956, having uncharacteristically sided with a hero of anti-imperialism, Egypt’s Gamel Abdul Nasser, against the British and the French, the Americans, in a great succession of concocted interventions visited great destruction and disruption – materially, politically, socially and of humanity – upon sovereign nations including, in no particular order, Iran, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, nations across Central and South America, and others across North Africa and the Middle East. And now, having learned nothing from these excesses, or perhaps no longer being able to back off from them, it is, quite characteristically, spoiling for a fight with one of the great success stories of our time, China, on the basis of nothing more than a doltishly unfounded fear of this success and an ever so faintly emerging spectre of American fragility. A Fragility across not only its military and political power, but, as well, across its bellicose and tottering brand of democracy.

We have yet to see the extent to which American insistence on retaining its exceptionalist place at the top of its view of the World Order can survive. Survive, that is, in the face of its growing discordance, its lies and disinformation and its adoring, ever growing, body of urges and lemmings. This especially, and immediately, in the context of current precipices such as China (uniquely of American concoction), Ukraine and Israel. Precipices that are unlikely to recede as long as Americans remain is such thrall of the spectrum of their Pied Pipers – their presidents and their generals (and their slavish followers elsewhere, such as in Australia) and, of course, their priests.

Robert Browning and the Brothers Grimm would have had a field day with this material.

https://johnmenadue.com/the-emerging-spectre-of-american-fragility-a-reckoning/

 

it's time for being earnest.....

half understanding....

 

Knowledge and understanding deficit: The dire state of China Studies    By Jocelyn Chey

 

Disgraceful gaps have emerged in our knowledge and understanding of Asian countries. This capability is essential to successful navigation of the future, as Peter Varghese and Joseph Lo Bianco have noted.

Whether it is seen as a threat or an opportunity, in recent years China has dominated the rhetoric of politicians and commentators. The shouting match has happily abated. Now is the time to focus on the way forward, to maximise benefits for both sides from a smoother relationship, and to avoid potentially disastrous confrontation. Never has there been more need for in-depth research and understanding of contemporary China, of Chinese culture, and of Chinese perspectives on the world. Its absence is striking.

A 2023 report on the state of teaching and research has revealed a steady decline in expertise in Chinese Studies at all Australian universities. The Australian Academy of the Humanities (AAH) Australia’s China Knowledge Capability revealed that Asian language departments across Australia have declining student enrolments. Language, history, culture, and identity studies have given way to a focus on security. The report deplores the ability of universities to provide input to stakeholders in government and business and calls for a national approach to build up capability.

We should be benefiting from decades of experience in this area. Exchange of teachers and students between Australia and China began fifty years ago. When the Australia China Council was founded in 1978, Australia led the world in efforts to develop and manage bilateral relations. In the 1980s, professional connections proliferated between the two countries. Dozens of Australian technical advisors moved to China under a Technical Cooperation Agreement, education cooperation was strengthened, and more Australian students gained work experience in China.

Recognising the importance of the relationship, Australia adopted a National Language Policy in 1987, funding the teaching of Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian languages in secondary schools. Asian Studies flourished in all universities. Australia’s China capability reached its peak around 2000, across the board, in schools, universities, business and government.

The Howard government stopped funding for Asian Studies in 2005. A Senate Inquiry into Relations with China found then that capacity to improve China literacy was declining at all levels. Contrarily, this period coincided with a dramatic growth in exports to China. While Chinese Studies flourished in the US, Germany, and France, they did not in Australia. Possibly this was because those countries had substantial manufacturing investments in China, whereas Australia simply dug stuff up and shipped it out.

Over the last two decades, the Chinese Australian community has grown and become more complex. With lived experience and cultural sensitivity, its skills and knowledge could contribute to national capabilities. Regrettably, as Yun Jiang noted in a policy paper for the Lowy Institute, few enter the public service where they could play an important role so this resource has been ignored.

Outside the universities, there are hardly any independent sources of research and advice. For ten years, from 2014 to 2024, the think tank China Matters presented valuable insights into the management of relations with China. It voiced alternative views to those found in the mainstream media. Now it is being wound up and its remaining funding diverted to a research fellowship at ACRI.

This is not irrelevant to the AAH report. Elena Collinson has commented,

“Australia cannot continue to shape future policy towards China reliant on only the advice of its national security agencies. It would be foolhardy to suggest that nations never change – China too will change, perhaps in unpredictably ways. The question is whether Australia mortgages its image of China to the present or starts learning to be more adaptable and agile in the event that circumstances change.”

The demise of China Matters demonstrates how security concerns outweigh the importance of independent and informed research in the minds of our political leaders. It was stripped of government funding and of its tax-exempt status in 2020, on suspicion of having supported China’s national interests. At the time China Matters Chair Kevin McCann, a former Chairman of Macquarie Group, told Nine News,

“Advocacy of ongoing engagement with the PRC does not make one a stooge of the Communist Party of China or an agent of influence. One can call out the government in Beijing and at the same time strongly support – in the national interest – engagement with the PRC. What is detrimental to Australia’s national interest is the labelling of such people as pro-Beijing.”

China Matters founding Director Linda Jakobson has returned to her native Finland. Her objective and insightful advice and commentary will be greatly missed in Australia. The importance of this think tank can be gauged from its last event in November 2023 when, in conjunction with the Australia China Relations Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology Sydney, it presented a panel discussion on PRC foreign policy in the post-Covid era. Its many insights and commissioned research findings are still available on its website.

In a final message to supporters, Jakobson acknowledged the work of China Matters board members including the late Allan Gyngell. Gyngell’s sophisticated view of the Australia China relationship characterised the whole work of the think tank. What he has said and written is still relevant. In a 2022 podcast he urged the government to make a clear statement of its China policy that set out the parameters and the depth of Australia’s interests and objectives and avoided the possibility of misreading or misapprehension. This is particularly apposite to policy on Taiwan.

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” The saying is generally attributed to Albert Einstein, although it actually comes from a 1973 television drama about the physicist. It is nevertheless an insight into the importance of deep research and engagement with people, cultures and learning, and relates powerfully to the Australia-China relationship. A national policy and program for China Studies teaching and research is urgently required.

Professor Anne McLaren will present the main findings of the AAH report to the Australian Institute of International Affairs NSW on 23 April.

Registration to attend can be made here...

 

https://johnmenadue.com/knowledge-and-understanding-deficit-the-dire-state-of-china-studies-x2-links-b-pic-china-matters-linda-jakobson/

 

 

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