Professor Ling-Chi Wang of UC Berkeley: Hi, Kiji and friends of the Bay Area China Group in San Francisco:
A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you and your families! I also want to use this opportunity to thank all of you for leading and enlightening me daily with your sharp political and intellectual commentaries on the US, China, and US-China relations. I may not be taking part in your discussions, I do read and follow them closely and silently wishing the state of my health and mind are capable of getting involved. Be assured that my spirit is with you all.
Since I returned from my 3-week farewell tour of three important places in my life in November 2019 – Jinmen (金门), Fujian, my ancestral village, Xiamen (厦门), Fujian, my birth place and one of the two fountainheads of the Chinese diaspora, and Guangzhou (广州), Guangdong, the other Cantonese-speaking fountain head, to both of which I have devoted my entire scholarly endeavor – I at 81 have been trying to live my sunset years by what General Douglas MacArthur said at the conclusion of his address to the joint session of the U.S. Congress in 1951: “Old soldiers never die, they just fade way.” When I returned from visits with my relatives, friends, and colleagues in that farewell tour, in one of my emails, I used the opening line of Charlie Daniels Band’s famous lyrics, to explain why regrettably I can no longer take an active part in this discussion group and other social and political activities: “I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.” In case you wonder where I have been, this is where I have been. This is hardly a place for me to be in.
But, upon reading Kiji’s short, but insightful comment and warning on U.S. preparing for war, I could not resist writing this short note to express my agreement with and support of his analysis. Since 2008, the war cries against China of both Republican and Democratic war-hawks have become louder and more intense. To justify the cries, they and the mainstream media have been fabricating lies and fake news about China’s alleged threat to the U.S. at home and abroad in an effort justify defense buildup and mobilization worldwide. Overnight, stories about the Uighur concentration camps and genocide in Xinjiang, imminent Taiwan invasion, threat of the sealant in the South China Sea, suppression of Hong Kong democracy and freedom, bans of Islam and Tibetan Buddhism, etc. were invented and propagated worldwide to instill fear, hatred, and hostility Chinese throughout the world, including Chinese Americans in the U.S. The Biden administration has already declared China as Enemy No. 1 of the U.S. and prepared to go to war with China. The only thing that is deterring President Biden from imposing total embargo on China, an action we took in the early 1950s, is the fact that China is no longer “the Sickman of East Asia” and American people now depend on China for just about everything we need and use. Given our dependency on China, an undeniable reality, and the way our leaders endlessly fantasize and demonize China, I wonder if the U.S. has become the Sickman or more appropriately, the Madman of North America. The world cannot afford to have a madman starting a world war.
Is that what you are warning us, Kiji?
This, in fact, is what alarmed me to respond to your timely warning about what we have been doing in preparation to declare an unthinkable war against China or to instigate one or more surrogate wars in the periphery of China. Only a sckman or better a madman would do that.
Johnson Choi Biz 