1(a) US Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday ( October 4, 201 ) accused China of aggression in areas from security to trade as he portrayed China as a villain interfering in US elections. Expanding on a theme first aired by President Donald Trump at the United Nations last week, Pence accused China of waging an "unprecedented effort to influence American public opinion" ahead of critical congressional elections on November 6. In his speech at the Hudson Institute, he also slammed Beijing for placing a multi-page advertisement extolling the virtues of US-China trade in the Des Moines Register, the highest-circulation newspaper in Iowa, a swing state whose longtime governor Terry Branstad is Trump's ambassador to Beijing. 1(b) How true is the accusation that "China is meddling in America's democracy"? There can be no doubt that Pence and Trump are taking Americans and the rest of mankind for a ride, as shown in the following arguments. (i) If there was any member of the audience who cared to use his brain, he might ask Mr Pence jokingly: "Despite 162 years of existence, the Republican Party failed to influence American public opinion in its desperate mission to stop Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Mr Pence, with hindsight, do you think history would be entirely different if the GOP had tried to seek China’s assistance at that time to sway American voters into supporting genuine Republican candidates instead of Trump?” As the saying goes, "If you can't beat them, join them." Instead of standing up to Trump till the last breath like the late heroic Senator John McCain, Pence unabashedly opted to join Trump. (ii) Three anti-Trump bestsellers, each authored by Michael Wolff, former FBI director James Comey and Omarosa Manigault Newman (former political aide to President Donald Trump), are sold openly in the US, yet they don’t seem to have much impact on American public opinion, not to mention die-hard Trump supporters who worship him like a cult leader. (iii) Similarly, newspapers and magazines are available all over the US with countless anti-Trump articles and anti-Trump news reports, yet they don't seem to wield much influence on American public opinion, not to mention hard-core Trump supporters who worship him like a cult leader with such words on their banners: "Thank you, Lord Jesus, President Trump". (iv) Like all other people, Americans are strongly against any foreigners who try to interfere in their domestic affairs. Are they so idiotic and easy to be influenced by a foreign government instead of their own government whose party had been wielding influence and power in the country for more than 160 years? Even the British Empire, which ruled Colonial America for a long time, failed to wield any significant influence on the Thirteen States which finally declared independence as the United States of America in 1776. There can be no doubt that Trump and Pence are insulting the intelligence of Americans and the rest of mankind by telling them "fairy tales" of China’s interference in US elections and other hostile actions. Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pence-paints-china-as-enemy-in-us-election/ar-BBNVGVr https://newrepublic.com/minutes/133447/donald-trumps-supporters-idiots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_Republican_Party https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-party.html
2(a) At the recent UN General Assembly, Trump boasted that his administration had accomplished more over two years than "almost any administration" in American history, eliciting audible guffaws in the cavernous chamber hall. However, he forgot to brag that his administration had hurled more accusations against China over two years than "almost any administration" in American history, despite constantly referring the Chinese leader as his “great friend”. Trump seemed to be taking a break in adding more tariffs to the US-Sino trade war. As shown below, in its place there comes an avalanche of accusations against China. (i) Without evidence, Donald Trump accused China of hacking Hillary Clinton's emails. It is interesting to note that FBI contradicted Trump's claim about Hillary Clinton's emails being hacked by China. (ii) If Trump's accusation was true, China seemed to prefer his party than the Democrats in winning the election. As always, Trump contradicts himself. Once again, without evidence, he and his "attack dog" Pence suddenly accused China of meddling in the midterm elections. “They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade and we are winning on trade, we are winning at every level. We don’t want them to meddle or interfere in our upcoming election,” said Trump at the UN’s annual gathering of world leaders. Trump, however, did not mention that he was also waging trade wars against other countries including US allies such as the EU, Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, etc. Does he have any good reason to believe those countries want his party to win the upcoming elections? Even if China really does not wish the Republicans to win the elections, it has no other alternative. In fact, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were bitter critics of the Chinese leadership when they were in power. If Sunzi is alive today, he would advise China, Russia and other military rivals to support Trump instead, because it is just a matter of time the fourth grader in his second childhood will destroy America. Taking an analogy, if your enemy's son plays with fire in his house, you would be too happy to give him more matches to burn up his house. However, the problem is that you are living next to his house, and the fire will eventually spread to your house. Similarly, other countries will not care whether Trump will eventually bankrupt his own country just as he had bankrupted four of his own companies before he became president. The problem is that Trump's "broken brain" trade policy will eventually mess up the entire world economy. The following are some other examples of US allegations against China. (iii) The Trump administration accused China of hacking 614 gigabytes of data from the US Navy. (iv) A top US spy catcher accused Chinese espionage agencies of using fake LinkedIn accounts to try to recruit Americans with access to government and commercial secrets. (v) Sometime in May this year, the US State Department urged its staff in China to alert it to any abnormal hearing or vision issues after one employee claimed to experience "subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure". Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the incident was "medically similar" to suspected sonic attacks on diplomatic staff in Cuba. A US diplomatic statement warned: "While in China, if you experience any unusual acute auditory or sensory phenomena accompanied by unusual sounds or piercing noises, do not attempt to locate their source. Instead, move to a location where the sounds are not present." The US State Department said it was taking the incident "very seriously", but the US had not accused China of being behind it. Using an analogy, if your so-called “good friend” always complains of something “stank like a sewer” whenever he stands beside you, you can tell he is up to no good from his vicious insinuations. (vi) China was accused of using a tiny chip to infiltrate US companies. According to extensive interviews with government and corporate sources, the attack by Chinese spies reached almost 30 US companies, including Amazon and Apple, by compromising America’s technology supply chain. (vii) Recently Trump threatened to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. Even as Trump blamed Russian violations of the treaty for his decision, he also pointed a finger at China which was not party to the INF treaty. (viii) When Trump calls old friends on one of his iPhones to gossip, gripe or solicit their latest take on how he is doing, American intelligence reports claim that Chinese spies are often listening — and putting to use invaluable insights into how to best work the president and affect administration policy. 2(b) In addition to the above allegations, Trump made provocative moves against China in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. (i) There is an increase in the so-called US freedom of navigation operations (FONOP) in the South China Sea close to Chinese-controlled islets. US bombers even flew over the islets. (ii) The US had rescinded its invitation to China to participate in this year’s Rim of the Pacific naval exercise, which brought together the military forces of more than 20 countries. Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Logan said China had been "disinvited" because its "continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serves to raise tensions and destabilize the region". (iii) The following looks like Trump’s trump card but it may not be his final “broken brain” measure. He is playing the Taiwan card by increasing arms sale to Taiwan and continuing sending US warships through the Taiwan Strait. The US State Department has announce $330 million arms sale to Taiwan. Such tactics had been used by the early European settlers in their so-called New World to instigate the natives to kill each other. It was also used by their descendants in the Vietnam War to get the Vietnamese kill each other, or in the Syrian civil war to get the Syrians kill each other, or in Afghanistan to get the Afghans kill each other. Now Trump is trying to instigate the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to kill each other. 2(c) All the above-mentioned measures show Trump's “broken brain” trade war has “gone broke”, and he is now trying desperately to exert pressure on China by whatever evil means he can think of. Hence don't be shocked to the extent of nearly falling off your chair if Trump leads everybody deeper into the realm of the “Arabian Nights” by hurling more ridiculous accusations against China in the future such as: (i) He may accuse China of sending a “ninja” peeping Tom to hide under his bed every night for the purpose of observing and photographing his nocturnal activities. (ii) He may accuse China of sending a “ninja” peeping Tom to photograph his restroom activities. (iii) He may accuse China of launching sonic attacks on him. (iv) He may accuse China of “hacking” his brain. (v) He may accuse China of attacking him with black magic. P.S. In my opinion, US-Sino squabbles can last for decades, even centuries, if planet Earth is still around then. http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201809250003.aspx https://splinternews.com/white-house-officials-are-now-telling-reporters-that-tr-1827639197 https://www.grahamcluley.com/hillary-clinton-accuses-china-hacking-america/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...il-server-china-hack-contradict-a8513581.html https://www.theglobeandmail.com/wor...hina-of-trying-to-meddle-in-us-congressional/ https://www.dw.com/en/report-china-hacked-sensitive-us-navy-data/a-44137608 https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-l...essive-spy-campaign-on-linkedin-idUKKCN1LG16J https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-u...hina-for-hacking-clinton-emails-idUKKCN1LE0CO https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ny-chip-to-infiltrate-america-s-top-companies https://www.thehindubusinessline.co...calate-tension-with-china/article25294169.ece https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44223523
