China and the United States have entered an era of fierce competition, but most people are busy dealing with the annoying things around them, and it is difficult for them to take care of the noise in the sky.
The dispute between Russia and the United States over whether Ukraine can join NATO will not be considered by many people as related to the crisis in the Taiwan Strait, and will not be understood by the Sino-Russian defensive alliance against political pressure from Europe and the United States.
When the Japanese media accused China of over-hoarding food and stimulating world food prices, they did not understand why the central government was worried about whether there was enough food; the Japanese media would not question the underlying causes of the food crisis in Afghanistan.
CNN reported that the city of Xi’an, China, was closed, and it described China's new crown epidemic as a "new high", but it did not compare this with the number of confirmed cases in the United States. It even criticized China's closure of the city as authoritarian, and its control measures were rigid and harmed the people. Life.
When the United States introduces various sanctions against Hong Kong officials, everyone may be a little concerned, but it still fails to connect the matter with its own interests.
Perhaps the society has to ask whether these things really have nothing to do with them, or whether we are too indifferent.
Epidemic data debunks U.S. hypocrisy
In fact, by comparing the number of confirmed cases in China and the United States, we can know the absurdity of the American media: The number of confirmed cases in the United States exceeded 380,000 on December 28, and the number of deaths was 2,494, while the number of confirmed cases in China on the same day was 151, and the number of deaths was 0. .
If this comparison fails to explain the actual situation of the epidemic situation in the two places, what is the significance of science?
At the same time, what is the mentality behind the CNN report?
If it comes to human rights, isn’t life the greatest human right?
Without life, you are not even a human being, and human rights are even more impossible to talk about.
When China’s lockdown measures are criticized as an infringement of freedom, and even deprived of the right of individual people to go to the beach and go shopping in the mall, what are they losing to those who have been infected or even died of the new crown?
Obviously, this conflict of consciousness has nothing to do with science, but with ideology. More precisely, it is related to the conflict between individualism and collective interests.
Since the outbreak, the cumulative death toll from the new coronavirus in the United States has exceeded 800,000.
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Whenever someone uses culture to compare the cognitive differences between the individual and the collective relationship between China and the United States, I have the urge to refute it.
Culture is a spiritual system cultivated on the basis of a long-term gathering of a group and living together. It must be a kind of collective gene that takes responsibility for the group and fights against external intrusions or the wrong actions of individuals. It can be represented by selfishness and personal behavior that hurts the group.
Think about it carefully. The proliferation of guns in the United States has caused countless people to be killed innocently. Drugs and alcoholism have become widespread, racial discrimination is serious, and more than 800,000 people have died. They are still indifferent, still refusing vaccines, refusing to wear masks, refusing social distancing, and ignoring the epidemic. Proliferation, can all these be explained by American culture?
It is estimated that Americans will not agree that this is their culture.
If the differences between China and the United States are cultural, the possible harm caused by the conflict between China and the United States will be unimaginable.
Fortunately, the conflict between the two countries is not cultural, but an ideological conflict.
However, this has not completely resolved the possibility of extremely serious harm caused by the Sino-US conflict.
In this global geopolitical conflict, China replaced the Soviet Union during the Cold War as the United States' biggest opponent, but the two geopolitical games are fundamentally different.
The United States and the Soviet Union is a game in the expansion process of geopolitical power, but there is no expansion of the sphere of influence between China and the United States. At least China does not have such ambitions and interests, even if the United States has such assumptions and fears.
As a conservative power, the United States will habitually regard rising powers as challengers. Once the traditional challenge theory cannot be applied, other crisis imaginations will emerge at the historic moment. It is not trade, technology, or even the so-called soft power. The areas that are surpassed can be interpreted as challenges.
Ideological cloak hides hegemonic mentality
However, just like the US-Soviet Cold War, the game of geopolitical power will not be put on the table. Everyone will use ideology as a cloak of conflict and accuse the other party of extremely expansive value pursuits, including political dictatorship and capital dictatorship. It depends on you. Which side is it on?
There is a similar situation between China and the United States. American politicians cannot explain the Sino-US conflict in the field of economic strength and geopolitical influence, let alone admit that their superpower status is threatened. The only way is to accuse China of threatening the world. Freedom and democracy.
Since China did not intervene in the politics of other countries, the US accusations turned into pale and weak clamors. As a result, China’s elimination of the terrorist threat in Xinjiang was distorted into the “extinction” of the Uyghurs. Xinjiang’s economic progress was due to “forced labor”, and China’s new crown epidemic The control is due to the CCP’s contempt for human rights and its autocratic rule.
On the other hand, the United States failed only because it respected human rights and freedom.
Once China's economy officially surpasses the United States, the latter's response is estimated to be particularly huge.
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In the past few years, the economies of Britain, France, Germany, and Japan were surpassed by China, and few people would pay attention to it. However, the countries that were surpassed felt uncomfortable. The situation in Japan was the most prominent because it was used to despising China.
Once this happens in the United States, its response is estimated to be particularly huge. At least in recent years, the expectation of China's economic scale to surpass that of the United States is harsh in public opinion.
The United States has been the world’s most powerful economy for more than 100 years. It carries the imperial blood of the European colonial era. It has always believed in its greatness and even Europeans look down on it. How can it respect the Asia that once gave and taken? Poor country?
This provides a rich historical background for the game between China and the United States today.
The comparison of economic scale is actually a false proposition. It is like trade, technology, soft power, etc., which provide a stage for the competition between two ideologies and the national power they support.
Even if the overall scale of China surpasses that of the United States, the economic momentum generated by each Chinese is still a quarter of that of the Americans. It does not make much sense to compare the total economic output between two economies with such a large population difference.
However, comparison has always been a psychological game, let alone a comparison between two different civilizations and between different values. Any comparison can touch people's hearts.
The United States implements a capitalist system. It is called a liberal democracy, and it has never been stingy in creating beautiful words for its own system.
Once this kind of praise is no longer regarded as true, or even surpassed by the system that was once regarded as backward and failed, whether the defenders of American interests can accept and understand it is the biggest doubt.
This kind of "transcendence" is now alive and exposed to Americans. Any disdain for it will only magnify its hypocrisy. In that case, how can it remain calm?
When the United States is surpassed by China in terms of economy, technology, national and social governance, American politicians and public opinion can only use the voice they still have to create agendas, even if these agendas are hypocritical.
China and the United States have entered an era of fierce competition.
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Belief alienation has spawned a torn populist politics
Culture and ideology have always been indistinguishable academic names.
As far as the latter is concerned, religious belief has always been considered its ancestor.
Faith is the spiritual kinetic energy that human beings highly rely on. The existence of faith allows everyone to accept the unknown world more calmly.
But faith is not the same as ignorance. Otherwise, faith will not be a helper to actively promote the advancement of mankind, or even let people find peace in the dark.
However, beliefs have also undergone various alienation in the changing times.
Conflicts and killings between religious beliefs are the result of alienation of beliefs. It is a process of borrowing beliefs to gain personal gain. It is also a dark period when beliefs are obscured by ignorance.
In the United States, the War of Independence that took place because of the uneven distribution of interests, the genocide of Indians because of land grabbing, and the Civil War that took place to control black slaves, under the guise of fighting terrorism, are in fact retaliating Afghanistan. Both the war in Iraq can only be said to be another kind of alienation of faith.
When we hear Americans constantly clamoring about forced labor and genocide in Xinjiang, and China’s lack of freedom of speech and press, is this American culture or alienated beliefs at work? Perhaps it is the main proposition facing the Sino-US conflict.
Ideology is a false belief. Its foundation is ignorance and arrogance. It is a contempt for strange things and an abstract arrogant perception. It is like when Americans insist on the freedom of holding guns but fail to see the lives of many people. Deprived by innocents; when they insist on the right to choose not to vaccinate, but refuse to bear the responsibility of society for not being able to get rid of the epidemic; when American public opinion sticks to its moral high ground, but intentionally or unconsciously loses sight of various violations of freedom and democracy in the United States.
With regard to the rise of China and the emergence of countless people from poverty, the Americans turned a blind eye to the world economy, and even used all kinds of absurd accusations to demonize the existence of China.
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The United States has been China’s important economic and trade partner for more than 40 years, and American companies are an important force in China’s foreign investment. The United States is completely dependent on China’s industrial chain. Was there no “forced labor” or human rights abuses in China at that time, or the existence of inconsistent with the United States Standard social situation?
Is it because this situation has only recently occurred in China, so the United States is now writing a book about it?
According to anyone’s standards, China’s national conditions are constantly improving, not backwards as the United States said. If it weren’t for the needs of the United States’ internal affairs, society would have such ideological soil for arrogance and prejudice, and there would be no false accusations. .
Ideology is the best explanation for this bizarre phenomenon, and it is also the manifestation of conflicts caused by the alienation of beliefs in history.
Populist politics is a modern environment in which ideology or beliefs are alienated and used. There is no causal relationship between the two, and they are twin brothers, each instilling nutrition for the other.
Once the political structure of the United States is under the control of populist politics, it is easy to lose its imaginary defense mechanism. It was supposed to be a scientific mechanism, but it was robbed invisibly, activating the populist genes and ideology hidden in it. It has always been The self-confident ability to correct has disappeared invisible.
Trump is the "heritor" for exposing this inner quality. He has no ability to create all of this. Instead, American society provides "dry firewood" for his populist politics, which becomes a "fire" at one point.
When people realized the harm of Trump or populist politics, more than half of them rejected him, but the United States still cannot completely get rid of the predicament. It is still dominated by torn politics.
When we realize the difficulties in the United States, we may be able to better understand the path Hong Kong has to take.
(Photo by Ou Jiale)
U.S. predicament can help Hong Kong find a way out
When we observe the situation in Hong Kong today, it is easy to feel the chaos in the United States.
The situation in Hong Kong is very similar to that in the United States, but there is also a significant difference between the two. Hong Kong has a strong central government. Although it insists on "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong", it does not treat Hong Kong as much as possible. Ignore the historical blind spots of ideology or the alienation of beliefs in the system, and will not allow Hong Kong to live in populist politics for too long. The question is how we can find a way out faster.
The road has to come out on our own, and the central government has helped us solve the difficulties. It does not mean that the road ahead is bound to be open.
Just like the United States, its guns, race, and epidemic dilemma cannot be solved by others.
Even if we Hong Kong people who are far away in the sky, as long as we spend a little bit of energy to study, we will understand that the United States cannot easily walk through the quagmire that appears.
When we realize the difficulties in the United States, we may be able to better understand the path Hong Kong has to take.