Cheung Ka-long wins 1st Olympic fencing gold medal for China’s Hong Kong at Tokyo Games by Xinhua Jul 26 2021
CHEUNG Ka Long Wins Gold in Tokyo 2020! It was the fourth Olympic medal for Hong Kong and only the fencing Olympic medal in the history of local sport – following Lee Lai-shan’s historic windsurfing gold medal at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, the silver medal by Li Ching and Ko Lai-chak in the men’s doubles in table tennis at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and the bronze medal by Sarah Lee Wai-sze in the Women’s Keirin race at the London 2012 Olympic Games .
Chinese mainland athletes snatch seven medals on Day 3 by Cui Fandi in Beijing and Zhou Yang in Tokyo Jul 26 2021
Xu Xin (left) receives his silver medal from teammate Liu Shiwen during the mixed doubles table tennis medal ceremony at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo on Monday.
On the third day of the Tokyo Olympics , despite missing gold in a number of traditionally strong events, Chinese mainland athletes have bagged seven medals, raising the total to 18, and defending the delegation’s lead position in the medal ranking by total with gold medal tally ranking the third after Japan, the US.
Meanwhile, foil fencer Cheung Ka-long from China’s Hong Kong made history when he defeated Italy’s Daniele Garozzo 15-11 to win the men’s foil individual gold at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.
Cheung Ka Long (right) of China’s Hong Kong and Daniele Garozzo of Italy react during the ceremony for the men’s foil individual gold medal match at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday.
The competition has become fiercer with traditional powerhouse US and home court advantage-holding Japan catching up in the standings.
On Monday night, two straight direct matches between Team China and Team Japan in the gymnastics and table tennis pushed the tension to the extreme. After two close matches, the Chinese gymnastics men’s team took the bronze medal, while the pair of Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen were upset in the first table tennis mixed doubles final in Olympic history, claiming the silver medal.
Team Japan now leads the gold medal list with eight in three days.
Although the delegation did not win a gold medal on Day 3, the outstanding performance of many athletes further ignited the Olympic atmosphere in the country. On Monday night, Chinese netizens congratulates Edgar Cheung, foil fencer for Team Hong Kong, China, as he bagged a historic gold medal for the region.
The 24-year-old snatched the city’s first Olympic gold medal since 1996, after beating 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Daniele Garozzo of Italy, 15-11.
Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, also sent out congratulations to Cheung, calling him “pride of the city.”
Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen missed out on the chance to win China’s fifth successive Olympic gold medal in the men’s synchronized 10m platform.
China’s Chen Aisen and Cao Yuan won silver in the men’s 10 metres synchronised platform diving at Tokyo 2020 Olympics
Despite the absence of crowds, excitement about the games was no less.
Global Times reporters noticed that Canadian, British, Mexican, South Korean, Japanese and other flags were visible in the stands, while the Ukrainian delegation used a loudspeaker.
Wearing red and holding the five-star red flag, the Chinese “cheerleaders” also formed a spectacular landscape.
Britain’s Thomas Daley was popular with the crowd, gaining the loudest cheers in the room with his teammate Matty Lee. The duo was also the strongest challenge to China’s Cao and Chen, both former Olympic winners.
Cao and Chen secured a lead with strong performances in the first three rounds, but lost in Round 4. However, they did not panic, and delivered convincing performances in the next two rounds.
Cao and Chen bagged a silver, losing by 1.23 points. Chinese fans cheered them for their calmness, resolve and professionalism.
There have been moments of regret for Team China in other events on Monday. One of the top gold medal hopefuls, Zhang Yufei, narrowly missed a gold by 0.05 seconds in the women’s 100m butterfly event, and China’s Sun Yang-less swimming team has not yet bagged a gold medal as of Monday.
Li Bingjie claimed a bronze in the women’s 400 freestyle, while Yan Zibei placed 6th in men’s 100m breaststroke.
Despite setting a new qualification Olympic record with 124 of 125, Chinese shooter Wei Meng only bagged a bronze medal in the women’s skeet on Monday afternoon. Wei Meng is the younger sister of China’s famous shooter Wei Ning, who had won two Olympic silver medals and expected Meng to claim a gold.
Later on Monday, China’s Liao Qiuyun placed 2nd in the women’s 55kg weightlifting, losing by a total of 1 kg.
In fencing, China’s only entry, Huang Mengkai, narrowly lost to Mexico’s Diego Cervantes, 14-15.
However, behind these moments of regret, the Chinese public also see a ray of hope.
After Zhang Yufei missed the gold, she shouted “add oil” to cheer herself up. “I had a lot of mental pressure before the final, and now I can say ‘I did it!'” Zhang said after the match. Another swimmer, Yan Zibei, was the only Asian athlete in the finals. The Chinese women’s swimming relay team also broke the Asian record again.
In skateboarding, which is new to the Olympics , 16-year-old Zeng Wenhui successfully made the final and ranked 6th. The Chinese women’s 3×3 basketball team won three straight as the girls won the hearts of many fans. The previously unsatisfying men’s 3×3 basketball team also bounced back and collected two straight wins on Monday to keep their hopes of qualifying alive.
“No matter what the results are, I will be proud of them because they have shown sportsmanship,” wrote many netizens on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
The Chinese were also impressed with many foreign athletes and their outstanding performances. Many congratulated 13-year-old Momiji Nishiya of Japan, who won the women’s street skateboarding event, making the Japanese teenager one of the youngest gold medal winners in Olympic history.
As the US men’s basketball team led by NBA stars swallowed their first Olympic loss since 2004 on Sunday against France, many fans said online that “maybe the US could still claim the NBA represents the highest level of basketball, but they should now be aware that the world is catching up fast and the gap is closing sooner than they would have imagined.” “It is time to wake up from their undefeatable dream.”
On Tuesday, the Tokyo Olympics will enter its fourth day. However, many outdoor events may be overshadowed by the impending tropical storm that will hit Tokyo.
According to reports, a tropical storm named Nepartak could threaten the Games. The Japan Meteorological Agency said there is a possibility of heavy rainfall of “more than 50 millimeters per hour” in some areas, which could be bad news for many other outdoor sports, including softball and beach volleyball. Nonetheless, a number of surfers said they are excited over the storm for it would “allow the surfers to get more opportunities.”
Rowing competitions originally scheduled to take place Monday were moved to Sunday, and Tuesday’s rowing final was also postponed.
The Committee said on Monday that the tropical storm is expected to have a “limited impact” on the Games, without ruling out the possibility of further changes to the schedule.
Previously, the Committee has repeatedly reminded media to pay attention to heat and typhoons.
K.J. Noh: The 5 most common “arguments” that conspiracy theorists make are:
Unusual or anomalous features show engineering:
unusual Furin cleavage site and codon sequence (double CGG) that signal engineering/lab work (Nick Wade; BAS: “The Wade Wank”; “Deigin Deceit”)–but it’s not at all unusual, so not a sign of engineering. Another proponent of this is Francis Boyle ( The Francis F*ckup)
Gain of Function/serial passage: engineered, but engineered to hide traces of engineering (Sam Husseini, Salon “The Husseini Hustle”):
It was naturally engineered (passage through animals) to hide signs of engineering.
studies show a) it couldn’t be GOF because i) there is no backbone from which to do the GOF (argument made in Nature Medicine article (Kristian Andersen)) ii) standard GOF techniques do not preserve the Furin cleavage site iii) from the closest known progenitor, it would take a Manhattan-project level effort–and decades of passaging
Virus looks like a “pre-adapted” virus (Alina Chan; MIT/Broad; “The Chan Chicanery”), hence engineered to attack humans:
Actually covid is not pre-adapted to (i.e. engineered to attack) humans: a) it is pantropic–it infects a wide variety of animals, as might be expected if it evolved naturally through many species b) it continues to evolve and improve its infectivity, so it’s clearly not engineered for maximal human infection c) there are further adaptations that could happen and seem to be happening
3 sick lab workers in November (Michael Gordon: WSJ; “The Gordon Grift”):
a) it’s not usual to be sick in winter b) all workers at the lab tested seropositive c) it’s impossible for three lab workers to get inadvertently sick without having a larger (hundreds of) asymptomatic population (remember, Covid transmits asymptomatically for up to 14 days).
Live Leak (NYT: “The Ebright Error”) Ebright argues that they had a live sample that was already SARS-Cov-2–that they didn’t record, classify, publish, but simply leaked.
a) This is unlikely, first because, if it’s already in nature, you can’t leak it out to nature. It’s already out there. b) Second, there are millions of people who have frequent interactions with Coronavirus carrying bats–it’s much more likely that they would have been a vector rather than highly trained lab scientists taking precautions. Note also that Bats constitute 25% of all mammalian species. Coronavirus carrying bats are found all over the world, including Europe (northern Italy). c) Third, it also doesn’t explain why the early outbreaks were at the market 17 miles away across a river, and why there were no outbreaks at the lab, unless you assume that the researcher got infected and then took a beeline to the market. d) Fourth, Ebright knows as well as they do, that WIV, as a well-regarded scientific institution, any relevant studies would have been previously published.
The argument for a Chinese lab leak theory boils down to this: begged assumption + no evidence + tautological reasoning:
The Chinese did it [begged assumption]
[although there is no evidence that withstands scientific scrutiny–only innuendo]
if we can’t find definitive proof that they did it, it’s because they are covering up [tautology].
Proponents often argue that it’s on the Chinese to disprove this by opening up their labs–as if a negative can be proved. It can’t.
Some people seem to think, it’s fine to attack science–and logic–if it helps us to attack China, that’s a cost worth it. (This is what corporations did on tobacco, on global warming). A very dangerous road to go down.
Weren’t there Covid cases at WIV? (Michael Gordon allegation, WSJ) Despite extensive contact tracing of early cases during the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been no reported cases related to any laboratory staff at the WIV and all staff in the laboratory of Dr. Shi Zhengli were reported to be seronegative for SARS-CoV-2when tested in March 2020. During a period of high influenza transmission and other respiratory virus circulation reports of illnesses would need to be confirmed as caused by SARS-CoV-2 to be relevant. Epidemiological modeling suggests that the number of hypothetical cases needed to result in multiple hospitalized COVID-19 patients prior to December 2019 is incompatible with observed clinical, genomic, and epidemiological data
Did the WIV have SARS-Cov-2 or culture it through GOF? (Sam Husseini Allegation) The WIV possesses an extensive catalogue of samples derived from bats and has reportedly successfully cultured three SARSr-CoVs from bats, all of which are genetically distinct from SARS-CoV-230–32. These viruses were isolated from fecal samples through serial amplification in VeroE6 cells, a process that consistently results in the loss of the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site. It is therefore highly unlikely that these techniques would result in the isolation of a SARS-CoV-2 progenitor with an intact furin cleavage site.
Gain-of-function research would be expected to utilize an established SARSr-CoV genomic backbone, or at a minimum a virus previously identified via sequencing. However, past experimental research using recombinant coronaviruses at the WIV has used a genetic backbone (WIV1) unrelated to SARS-CoV-2and SARS-CoV-2 carries no evidence of genetic markers one might expect from laboratory experiments. There is no rational experimental reason why a new genetic system would be developed using an unknown and unpublished virus, with no evidence nor mention of a SARS-CoV-2-like virus in any prior publication or study from the WIV, no evidence that the WIV sequenced a virus that is closer to SARS-CoV-2 than RaTG13, and no reason to hide research on a SARS-CoV-2-like virus prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under any laboratory escape scenario SARS-CoV-2 would have to have been present in a laboratory prior to the pandemic, yet no evidence exists to support such a notion and no sequence has been identified that could have served as a precursor
However, early SARS-CoV-2 isolates were unable to infect wild-type mice While murine models are useful for studying infectionin vivo and testing vaccines, they often result in mild or atypical disease. These findings are inconsistent with a virus selected for increased pathogenicity and transmissibility through serial passage through rodents.
If SARS-CoV-2 resulted from attempts to adapt a SARSr-CoV for study in animal models, it would likely have acquired mutations like N501Y for efficient replication in that model, yet there is no evidence to suggest such mutations existed early in the pandemic. Both the low pathogenicity in commonly used laboratory animals and the absence of genomic markers associated with rodent adaptation indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is highly unlikely to have been acquired by laboratory workers in the course of viral pathogenesis or gain-of-function experiments
SARS-CoV-2 was pre-adapted for optimal human (ACE-2) transmission, thus implicating engineering (Alina Chan allegation)
Evidence from genomic structure and ongoing evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Considerable attention has been devoted to claims that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered or adapted in cell culture or “humanized” animal models to promote human transmission. Yet, since its emergence, SARS-CoV-2 has experienced repeated sweeps of mutations that have increased viral fitness. The first clear adaptive mutation, the D614G substitution in the spike protein, occurred early in the pandemic. Recurring mutations in the receptor binding domain of the spike protein, including N501Y, K417N/T, L452R, and E484K/Q—constituent mutations of the variants of concern—similarly enhance viral infectivity, and ACE2 binding, refuting claims that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was optimized for binding to human ACE2 upon its emergence.
Further, some pangolin-derived coronaviruses have receptor binding domains that are near-identical to SARS-CoV-2 at the amino acid level40,64and bind to human ACE2 even more strongly than SARS-CoV-2, showing that there is capacity for further human adaptation65. SARS-CoV-2 is also notable for being a host generalist virus, capable of efficient transmission in multiple mammalian species, including mink, tigers, cats, gorillas, dogs, raccoon dogs, ferrets, and large outbreaks have been documented in mink with spill-back to humans67and to other animals68. Combined, these findings show that no specific human “pre” adaptation was required for the emergence or early spread of SARS-CoV-2, and the claim that the virus was already highly adapted to the human host57, or somehow optimized for binding to human ACE2, is without validity.
What about the suspicious Furin Cleavage Site and unusual Codon sequence that shows engineering? (Nicholas Wade allegation)
The genesis of the polybasic (furin) cleavage site in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 has been subject to recurrent speculation. Although the furin cleavage site is absent from the closest known relatives of SARS-CoV-240, this is unsurprising as the lineage leading to this virus is poorly sampled and the closest bat viruses have divergent spike proteins due to recombination15,16,18. Furin cleavage sites are commonplace in other coronavirus spike proteins, including some feline alphacoronaviruses, MERS-CoV, most but not all strains of mouse hepatitis virus, as well as in endemic human betacoronaviruses such as HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-HKU169–71.
There is no logical reason why an engineered virus would utilize such a poor furin cleavage site, which would entail such an unusual and needlessly complex feat of genetic engineering. The only previous studies of artificial insertion of a furin cleavage site at the S1/S2 boundary in the SARS-CoV spike protein utilized an optimal ‘RRSRR’ sequence in pseudotype systems. Further, there is no evidence of prior research at the WIV involving the artificial insertion of complete furin cleavage sites into coronaviruses; recurring P681H/R substitution in the proline (P) residue preceding the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site improves cleavage of the spike protein and is another signature of ongoing human adaptation of the virus. The SARS-CoV-2 furin site is also lost under standard cell culture conditions, as is true of HCoV-OC4373. The presence of two CGG codons for arginines in the SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site is similarly not indicative of genetic engineering. Although theCGG codon is rare in coronaviruses, it is observed in SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronaviruses at comparable frequencies. Further, if low-fitness codons had been artificially inserted intothe virus genome they would have been quickly selected against during SARS-CoV-2 evolution, yet both CGG codons are more than 99.8% conserved among the >1,800,000 near-complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes sequenced to date,
What about Occam’s Razor (the principle of parsimony) of Lab leak theorists? For the vast majority of human viruses, the most parsimonious explanation for the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is a zoonotic event. The documented epidemiological history of the virus is comparable to previous animal market-associated outbreaks of coronaviruses with a simple route for human exposure. The contact tracing of SARS-CoV-2 to markets in Wuhan exhibits striking similarities to the early spread of SARS-CoV to markets in Guangdong, where humans infected early in the epidemic lived near or worked in animal markets. Zoonotic spillover by definition selects for viruses able to infect humans.
There is currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has a laboratory origin. There is no evidence that any early cases had any connection to the WIV, in contrast to the clear epidemiological links to animal markets in Wuhan, nor evidence that the WIV possessed or worked on a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 prior to the pandemic. The suspicion that SARS-CoV-2 might have a laboratory origin stems from the coincidence that it was first detected in a city that houses a major virological laboratory that studies coronaviruses. Wuhan is the largest city in central China with multiple animal markets and is a major hub for travel and commerce, well connected to other areas both within China and internationally. The link to Wuhan therefore more likely reflects the fact that pathogens often require heavily populated areas to become established
K.J. Noh is a journalist, political analyst, educator, and peace activist. A veteran of the Republic of Korea (the South Korean Army or ROK) Army and a member of Veterans For Peace in the U.S., he is special correspondent on Asia for KPFA’s Flashpoints, and does political analysis for Loud & Clear, Critical Hour, and other progressive news shows. He also writes for Dissident Voice, Counterpunch, Black Agenda Report, Popular Resistance, MROnline, and the Asia Times. FFI: peacepivot.org
Rising Up Times: China, Total Information Warfare: Sinophobia. Our work is cut out for us: “In war, the first causality is truth.” We must think critically and defensively and not take anything attacking China at face value. Our task is to challenge the lies as we organize and work for peace. 中國，全面信息戰：恐華症。 我們的工作為我們量身定做：“在戰爭中，第一個因果關係是真理。” 我們必須批判性地和防禦性地思考，不要把任何攻擊中國的事情看在表面上。 我們的任務是在我們為和平而組織和工作時挑戰謊言By K.J. Noh WAMM Newsletter Vol 38 No 6 2020
Part 1 of a 2-part series, Part 2: The U.S. War on China: Panda Huggers and Panda Sluggers“ Vol. 39 No.1, Winter 2021.
The U.S. is already at war against China. It is currently using the many tactics of a multi-domain hybrid war, and, despite the non-interventionist wishes of the American people who want peace, the U.S. is showing signals of escalating rapidly toward direct military confrontation.
While China demonstrates the possibility of multi-polarity, or the sharing of power, the U.S. is committed to unipolarity: its domination of world power at any cost. The current “conflict” is a conflict between unipolarity and multi-polarity, not freedom versus authoritarianism, or capitalism versus market socialism (“communism”).
Despite China’s assurances that it does not want war, hot or cold, that it seeks win-win cooperation and co-existence with all countries, and that it disdains hegemony, the U.S. is continually escalating, provoking, and threatening China, even as it dismantles off-ramps, channels of communication, and global institutions for cooperation and de-escalation.
Biden’s doctrine toward China will likely be a continuation of this noxious arc of history and planning. The think tank advising Biden on foreign policy, the Center for New American Security (CNAS), is a near-rhyming clone to the neocon Project for a New American Century (PNAC). CNAS has grandfathered in most of existing anti-China doctrine, and has mapped out, in obsessive detail, the next steps of a highly destructive and dangerous strategy of confrontation with China. The key way it differs from PNAC is that it will “unite” other countries more skillfully against China, pivot away from Trump’s neo-mercantilism towards a more “globalist” approach, and likely implement some revised version of the Trans Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation economic bloc against China.
Total Information Warfare is a tactic that always precedes, justifies, and enables war. To instigate a shooting war, it is necessary to curtail any rational discussion and build consensus in a population. At this time, we are all being drenched with lies through media manipulation and propaganda to incite people to fear China (Sinophobia) and to hate China irrationally and unconditionally for the purpose of manufacturing consent for war. This is what military strategists call “the firehose of falsehoods.” The stories about so-called “Chinese human rights abuses,” “Chinese concentration camps,” “Chinese-made-and-released Covid,” assertions that “China has harmed us economically,” “China has stolen its way to the top,” “China is oppressing Hong Kong” [sources not in the print version of the WAMM newsletter were added online].[1] It has its roots in, and draws on pre-existing racism against Chinese going back to the 1700s. That’s why it’s important to look at the root of anti-Chinese sentiment in history.
Culture Shock: The challenge to supremacy
The earliest European travelers were astonished to discover in China a country, in many ways, far more advanced than the West: a rich, diverse, multicultural civilization with sophisticated systems of governance and vibrant cities built with complex systems of planning and management. Above all, they marveled at a harmonious multi-religious, multi-ethnic society, free of sectarian strife, and an inclusive merit-based[2] system of political power that selected the most competent people to govern and rule, regardless of creed, color, background, or religion.[3] This contrasted with the Western system of hereditary aristocratic rule within a society torn apart regularly with religious strife. These ideas of diversity, tolerance, inclusion, and earned—not inherited–privilege, would strongly influence the leaders of the Enlightenment, the European intellectuals of the late 17th and the 18th centuries who believed that humanity could be improved through the use of reason, science, and liberalism. Western philosophers such as Voltaire and Leibniz believed that the Chinese had “perfected moral science” and that Chinese statecraft was the model for the West to emulate, if it wanted to develop into an enlightened civilization.
These discoveries struck a hard blow at Christian and Western supremacy. Western colonization was built on a foundational belief that the West was more advanced, more evolved—closer to God—than the “barbarous” countries it was invading, subjugating, exploiting, and destroying. It needed at least the pretense of being more “advanced” to justify its colonial “civilizing mission.”
German illustration. Part of the Forbidden City, seat of imperial Chinese families and officials from 1420 to 1912. European travelers were astonished to discover the sophistication of China’s civilization.German illustration. Part of the Forbidden City, seat of imperial Chinese families and officials from 1420 to 1912. European travelers were astonished to discover the sophistication of China’s civilization. Reactionary thinkers like the German philosopher Herder, who had never visited China—lashed back rapidly by propagating a theory of the depravity of Chinese: that China was an “immoral land with no honor,” an “embalmed mummy” characterized by stagnation, in contrast with Western “dynamism.”
In addition, the Chinese system of meritocratic government was deeply troubling to a West built on stratified class privilege. A civilization without hereditary aristocrats was unfathomable and terrifying to the Western ruling class. The French political philosopher Montesquieu thus concocted the trope that China’s more egalitarian system had to be “despotic”¾ despotic for him because it threatened the “liberties” (aristocratic privileges) of his class. The German philosopher Hegel chiseled this canard into the Western consciousness with an armchair theory of “Oriental Despotism,” whereby the Chinese had failed to evolve due to inherent characterological flaws in its people and its political culture. Other influential intellectuals postulated similar ideas. These allegations of “despotism”—despite being total distortions of Chinese governance ¾ have infused all Western discourses about China since.
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At the same time, “embalmed” Chinese “inferiority” notwithstanding, the West craved the exquisite consumer goods of China — tea, silk, porcelain — and this created huge trade imbalances. The Western response to balance the books was narco-trafficking: smuggling in industrial amounts of opium—at its peak, up to nine million pounds a year. When China objected and opposed this on sovereign and moral grounds and confiscated the drugs, war was declared. Reparations for drug seizures were forced, concessions extracted, and the country plundered, looted, and destroyed. In one show of force to the Chinese, in 1860, the Summer Palace of the Emperor was sacked and burned by Lord Elgin, the British high commissioner to China.
Earliest known photo of the ruins of one of the buildings on the grounds of Emperor’s Old Summer Palace, which was looted and burned by the English and the French in 1860. Worldhistory/photo.blogspotEarliest known photo of the ruins of one of the buildings on the grounds of Emperor’s Old Summer Palace, which was looted and burned by the English and the French in 1860. Worldhistory/photo.blogspot This violence, banditry, and racism, justified by the belief in the subhuman nature of the Chinese, became normalized practice against the Chinese over two centuries, and great American fortunes—Perkins, Astor, Forbes, Cabot, Delano (Roosevelt) ¾ and Ivy league institutions at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia were built on this extraction and narco-trafficking. Hewing to the belief that the Chinese were less than human, drug barons pushed opium that addicted ten percent of the population, which had the effect of essentially incapacitating an entire nation while stealing its wealth. Just as U.S. Southern wealth had been built on the decimation of black bodies through the slave trade, U.S. East Coast wealth was built on the destruction of Chinese bodies through the drug trade, in what historian John K. Fairbank described as “the most long-continued and systematic international crime of modern times.”
Opium ships off the coast of China, painting by 1824 by William John Huggins
Dehumanization, humiliation, assault, theft, rape, colonization, appropriation—these became the standard Western approach towards China and the Chinese; the Chinese people were “filthy yellow hordes,” an inferior, subhuman race, lacking agency, fit only to be colonized, exploited, enslaved, lynched, erased, and wherever possible, extinguished through race war.
It would continue.
The Yellow Peril and a Chinaman’s Chance. Inside U.S. territory itself, the mythology of the “yellow peril”—originally a German colonial war trope—became pervasive. Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, argued that the Chinese were “uncivilized, unclean, and filthy beyond all conception, without any of the higher domestic or social relations; lustful and sensual in their dispositions; every female is a prostitute of the basest order.” Greeley, a progressive, was simply mouthing the platitudes of his day.
Much worse than rhetoric was the routine violence. Chinese immigrant labor was employed during the California gold rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad across the U.S. (1848 to 1869). What followed, prefiguring similar present-day fears, was the idea that the Chinese were stealing jobs, wealth, or threatening America. Thousands of Chinese were massacred, lynched, set on fire, expelled from their communities in the late 19th century.
Starting in 1871, violent mobs attacked Chinese immigrants. A mass lynching in the Los Angeles’s Chinatown that year was followed in 1880 by the Denver Yellow Peril pogrom. On September 3rd, 1885, during the Wyoming Rock Springs massacre, Chinese workers were scalped, mutilated, castrated, dismembered; 50 were murdered, and 78 Chinese homes burned to the ground. This was followed days later by incidents in Washington Territory: the Issaquah Valley attack, the Coal Creek mines attack, and the Black Diamond expulsions. In November of that year, in Tacoma, 200 Chinese were rounded up at gunpoint and forced into boxcars, expelled on trains whose tracks they had built. After their expulsion, the entire Chinatown of Tacoma was razed and burned to the ground.
This string of expulsions and atrocities would continue in 1886: the Seattle Riot expelled 350 Chinese; in 1887, Oregon Hell’s Canyon massacre robbed, mutilated, and murdered 34 Chinese.
At least 150 such attacks against Chinese in U.S. states and territories were recorded.[4] “A Chinaman’s chance” became a common term: To be Chinese was to be subject to sudden death at any time at the whim of white people.
In response, the Chinese hid themselves inside ghettoes where they could. They fled pogroms, arson, and mass lynchings, and kept their heads down, “eating bitter” and trying to stay alive. Where they managed to settle down without being killed, they were subjected to cultural erasure, economic blockade, social isolation, a ban on owning property and businesses, and a proscription on marrying and having children ¾ in short, planned elimination.
U.S.-Chinese Foreign Relations and the Red Scare
In 1885, Chinese laborers were massacred in brutal and sadistic ways at Rock Springs, Wyoming. Harpers Weekly illustration.In 1885, Chinese laborers were massacred in brutal and sadistic ways at Rock Springs, Wyoming. Harpers Weekly illustration. A minor respite in U.S.-China foreign relations occurred during WWII, when the U.S. allied itself with the Christian-led right-wing Chinese nationalist political party, the Kuomintang (KMT), against the Japanese; it gave a small glimmer of reprieve, as Chinese leaders tried to establish breathing space, and the Japanese took on the role of the “bad Asians.”
The alliance between the U.S. and China lasted until the Chinese communists liberated themselves in 1949 and wrested back their own country. “China has stood up”, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong declared, igniting jubilation throughout the Third World and sending shockwaves of horror through the colonial West. This arrant act of self-liberation and self-determination—along with the U.S.’s astonishment that the monstrous KMT fascists it had courted and funded had been trounced ¾ unleased a hysterical new wave of Sinophobia within the U.S. during the McCarthy era. High-ranking Congressional committees demanded “Who lost China?”— as if it had been theirs to lose. They purged the State Department of the moderate “China Hands,” who had been sympathetic or were knowledgeable about China and its political institutions. A paroxysm of anti-China and anti-Asian hatred would shiver and fester throughout the Cold War, burning, stoking, and consuming itself through two hot wars —the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
However, during the ’70s, the U.S., battered from the Vietnam War, decided, for pragmatic reasons, to use China to counterbalance against the Soviet Union. Thus began a brief realist honeymoon.
This was not to last. After the fall of the Soviet Union, two decades later, two things became readily apparent: 1) there was no further political need to engage with China, since the primary reason (the threat of the Soviet Union) had gone away, and 2) it was clear, both from history and geography, that, due to its size, capacity, and dynamism, the U.S. would consider China a challenger to the United States itself. Thus the long, unabated, and persistent thread of anti-China hatred, reinvigorated with red-scare-yellow-peril-thinking, came back with a vengeance. Despite continued engagement with China for business during the Clinton years, Sinophobia persisted as an underground current, marshalling tremendous force.
Our work is cut out for us: “In war, the first causality is truth.” We must think critically and defensively and not take anything attacking China at face value. Our task is to challenge the lies as we organize and work for peace.
Comic book from the 1950’s incites readers to “See Captain America (“Commie smasher”) defy the Communist hordes.”Comic book from the 1950’s incites readers to “See Captain America (“Commie smasher”) defy the Communist hordes.” K.J. Noh is a journalist, political analyst, educator, and peace activist. A veteran of the Republic of Korea (the South Korean Army or ROK) Army and a member of Veterans For Peace in the U.S., he is special correspondent on Asia for KPFA’s Flashpoints, and does political analysis for Loud & Clear, Critical Hour, and other progressive news shows. He also writes for Dissident Voice, Counterpunch, Black Agenda Report, Popular Resistance, MROnline, and the Asia Times. FFI: peacepivot.org
Next installment in the China series by K.J. Noh: Who controls the levers of U.S. policy and power toward China: the business class (“Panda Huggers”) who want continued engagement with China, the ideologues (“Panda Sluggers”) who see China as a mortal and irreconcilable threat, and the comingling of the two?
ENDNOTES: 1] [ https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/information-operations-june-2020.html; according to The Guardian, “the major themes of the tweets were that Hong Kong protesters were violent, and the U.S. was interfering with the protests; accusations about Guo; the Taiwan election, and praise of China’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic – which turned out to be true. Twitter coordinates with ASPI, a key source of anti-China propaganda. [2] For example, the German Jesuit missionary Adam Schall was appointed to high bureaucratic office in the court of the Ching Dynasty. [3] Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1741), Brookes, Richard (ed.), The General History of China, 3rd ed., vols. I, II, III, & IV, London: J. Watts. And Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1735), Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise [A Geographical, Historical, Chronological, Political, and Physical Description of the Empire of China and of Chinese Tartary], vols. I, II, III, & IV, Paris: P.-G. le Mercier. [4] Pfaelzer, Jean (2007), Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans, Random House.
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Chinese foreign vice-minister Xie Feng tells his US counterpart that the two countries are in ‘stalemate’. Stop demonising China and engaged in fake news propaganda in high-level talks.
China’s Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng said relations had reached a “stalemate” because the US saw China as an “imagined enemy”.
He is in talks with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the most senior US official to visit China in months.
Mr Biden has taken a hard-line approach towards China, especially on issues like accusing China on fake human rights accusations.
Mr Xie had said that the US wanted to “blame China for its own structural problems”, according to a statement by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“It is as if when China’s development is contained… America would become great again.”
The US Department of State had earlier said it was hoping to hold “candid exchanges” to “advance US interests and… responsibly manage the relationship”.
Last week, China imposed sanctions on several US individuals and organisations, including former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
They came after the Biden administration warned its business community against operating in Hong Kong. It has since debunk by American Chamber of Commerce in HK representing 1,400 US companies that US move strictly political as US companies operating in HK knows better.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Submit a list to the United States to correct its wrong China policy and stop promoting fake news and hate Chinese propaganda information.
Civil Beats: Hawaii has been a welfare states for decades, smart kids don’t stay. It is the playground only for the riches and the politically connected. Why Are More People Than Ever Receiving Food Stamps In Hawaii? 夏威夷州幾十年來一直是要美國聯邦政府救濟的州, 聰明和有能力的孩子不會留下來. 它只是富人和政治黑金核心家族的遊樂場. 為什麼在夏威夷收到救援食物券的人比以往任何時候都多？ By Anita Hofschneider 7-25-21
Hawaii’s falling unemployment rate from pandemic highs has done little to stem the demand for food stamps.
More than 200,000 people are receiving food stamps in Hawaii. The high enrollment in the food stamp program is part of a broader swelling of public services to help support those who have struggled during the pandemic.
However, food stamp participation could drop now that the federal rules requiring states and counties to ensure that people who are enrolled are actually eligible went back into place on July 1.
Johnson Choi Biz 