Tough to listen quietly to 16 hours of a relatively one-sided, pro-China spin on geopolitics. Nevertheless, I respect the author’s contribution here, and I did what I could to learn from the author’s experience and insight into the Chinese worldview.
I wish the USA had moral high ground to reproach the criminal ambitions of the CCP. I can’t point to the United States of today and say that she is without some of the very same tendencies towards totalitarian rule and self-serving deception.
However, the CCP is given a pass at about every turn in these pages. The Uyghurs and Xinjiang, nothing really much to talk about there. As long as China prevails, they will never have to answer for it. Intellectual theft over decades in the West, ehh, there are some allegations. The Belt and Road Initiative, meet the CCP’s new superior method of investing in the third world and providing humanitarian aid. Some of the most oppressive policies anywhere in regulating speech and the internet. Why not let Huawai and the CCP be the gatekeepers of 5G and the future of the digital communication? The social credit system, just an ambitious project on the cutting edge of merging man and machine. China’s relatively new seat at all the big tables in global affairs, we should all trust that Xi and China are looking out for the betterment of humanity. Etc…
The USA is flat-footed, confused, myopic, delinquent, etc. on about every point in contrast to China’s superiority.
Again, I wish the USA was in a better place and had better leadership. But this narrative reads like a big excuse for why we should feel sorry for China’s past, why the world should sit idly by and let China continue steamrolling ahead into a brave new world. For all the work this author put into outlining China’s methodical approach to moving the needle in her favor, he says, We don’t know for sure what the end game is should China assume supremacy. China will probably figure that out when that happens. Another pass for the CCP. Please find me a passage in this work that the CCP would take great offense to. It seems Rudd was deliberate in being careful not to say anything that would upset the party.