Amir Taheri: The West and Its Old Illusion

 

In this mailing: Peter Schweizer: China's US Enablers Amir Taheri: The West and Its Old Illusion China's US Enablers by Peter Schweizer  •  December 19, 2021 at 5:00 am       For Ray Dalio, moral relativism is great for business. Bridgewater's business is investment funds. Having more of those in China means more money for Bridgewater. It is really that simple. But in China business deals are not done with fellow capitalists who are dedicated to economic liberty and the free flow of capital to its most rational uses. Dalio is willfully ignorant defense of Chinese communism... it is the calculated hypocrisy of the rope-selling capitalist. Major American businesses are more worried about the prospect for growing or even losing their Chinese business revenues than about standing up against tyranny abroad, the silencing of Americans at home, and the outspoken intention of the Chinese Communist Party to supplant the United States -- and the freedom that comes with it -- as the world's preeminent nation. Apple also bowed to the Chinese government's demand to give it full access to the data of its customers in China, even banning apps that would allow ordinary Chinese citizens to bypass their government's sophisticated surveillance. This is in contrast to Apple's refusal in 2016 of an FBI request to break into the encryption of its iPhone after a domestic terrorist mass shooting incident in San Bernardino, California. Tim Cook told Apple employees at the time that his refusal was based on civil liberties concerns, which apparently did not stop him from agreeing to the Chinese Communist Party's demands. "Of course, Apple and Nike publicly claim to decry slave labor. But to be clear, the behavior we are seeing from US corporations is not about a company surviving: It's about discontent with just hundreds of millions of dollars, desiring instead billions of dollars." — Jake Tapper, CNN, December 5, 2021. One of the sadder realities of modern business is seeing how China has managed to co-opt and make hostages of American capitalists dazzled by the riches of the Chinese market. Ray Dalio (pictured) of Bridgewater Associates is just the latest financial titan to play the "Who am I to judge how another country runs itself?" card. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch) One of the sadder realities of modern business is seeing how China has managed to co-opt and make hostages of American capitalists dazzled by the riches of the Chinese market. Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates is just the latest financial titan to play the "Who am I to judge how another country runs itself?" card. For Dalio, moral relativism is great for business. Bridgewater's business is investment funds. Having more of those in China means more money for Bridgewater. It is really that simple. In China, however, business deals are not done with fellow capitalists who are dedicated to economic liberty and the free flow of capital to its most rational uses. They are conducted with western-educated, government-tied, military-tied, intelligence-tied Chinese kingpins and princelings who understand their ultimate loyalty is to the Chinese Communist Party. Continue Reading Article The West and Its Old Illusion by Amir Taheri  •  December 19, 2021 at 4:00 am       Are economic relations and trade effective tools with which Western democracies could persuade totalitarian states to introduce reforms that could lead to democratization? [T]he question is back... to encourage the Biden administration to give Iranian mullahs what they want in the hope that they might mend their ways. These days one reads op-eds and pseudo-research papers presenting Iran as "a potential market of $3 trillion" and the last missing piece in the great global market. The thesis has been tested numerous times and proven wrong. Lenin and Stalin weren't the only 20th century despots to seduce some in Western democracies. Decades later, that illusion found its bureaucratic echo in a report to President George W Bush by his Assistant Secretary of State Robert Zoellick urging aid and trade to help Communist China reform and come out of poverty. Bush fell for that narrative, also marketed by Kissinger as a paid lobbyist for Beijing. Zoellick's predictions proved wrong. Under President Xi Jinping, China is moving further away from democratization and casting itself as a rival if not adversary of the United States. Western beautification of ugly regimes has never led to a change of trajectory to join what Americans tout as "the democratic world." Regimes that oppress their people can never become trusted friends for anyone, let alone countries where power is based on at least some respect for human rights and government with some consent by the governed. Next time anyone plays the tune "let's help mullahs reform", listen but remember Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao and others. The thesis that giving Iranian mullahs what they want in the hope that they might mend their ways has been tested numerous times and proven wrong. Pictured: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department on August 2, 2021, in Washington, DC, after he spoke of a "collective response" to Iran. (Photo by Brendan /Pool/AFP via Getty Images) Are economic relations and trade effective tools with which Western democracies could persuade totalitarian states to introduce reforms that could lead to democratization? Hotly debated for decades, the question is back with a campaign by the usual suspects to encourage the Biden administration to give Iranian mullahs what they want in the hope that they might mend their ways. These days one reads op-eds and pseudo-research papers presenting Iran as "a potential market of $3 trillion" and the last missing piece in the great global market. The thesis has been tested numerous times and proven wrong. In the 1920s, as the Bolshevik regime in Russia was tightening its hold on the country with mass killings, several Americans and academics campaigned for the recognition of "the new reality" and the offering of a package of economic aid. Continue Reading Article