There is this thing called payback. Chinese has a history of ultimate payback. The infamous very first one written down was eunuch Zhao Gao wiped clean entire Qin clan of Qin dynasty. WIPE CLEAN. When Deng met up with Thatcher, he gave her ultimatum to cede or army will march in that afternoon. That was just right after She won the Falkland war. USA will get Chinese payback. The only way to stop this is to invoke friend and savior role. Unfortunately, USA is playing the ultimate sore loser card with a generous dose of bullying. Be worry. Be very worry.
Were we going to get payback for this latest economic war? Or for the last one? Or for supporting Taiwan in the 80s? Or for the Korean War? That’s the thing with this payback notion. It’s always justifiable. You just rewind to an appropriate time. No leader of the present can do anything about the fact that we killed two hundred thousand Chinese soldiers under Mao’s command in the Korean War.
There was never going to be a friend and savior role. Given that we had the Korean War there was always going to be this convenient thing to rewind to and blame.
Zhao Gao was always going to be conveniently rewritten to be a payback story. Even if he wasn’t described as a eunuch until later. That’s the thing with civilizations. They have these motifs that are post-hoc justified. If China wishes to threaten us in the future, and no doubt they will have the ability to fight us on even terms and perhaps even on uneven terms, they will simply seek an appropriate past.
After all, note that Zhao Gao’s story is one of supposed alignment with revealed misalignment afterwards. It’s not like he came out an enemy. He worked through subterfuge. Should we have decided to ally with China in the 2000s, doubtless when they turned on us they would easily tell the tale of revenge for the Korean War for which they pretended to be allies until at the last moment they revealed themselves as plotting revenge! Just like Zhao Gao ended the Qin dynasty you will say, proudly.
President Xi Jinping has referenced the Thucydides trap many times. To start with, dismissive of this idea, and now warnings that it is still avoidable. It won’t be revenge for the Korean War or for this latest economic escapade that will be the cause of any conflict with China. But when it comes, whatever story the Chinese public needs, the Chinese leadership can deliver. If revenge is what you want, you’ll get that story.
> USA will get Chinese payback. The only way to stop this is to invoke friend and savior role. Unfortunately, USA is playing the ultimate sore loser card with a generous dose of bullying. Be worry. Be very worry.
Watching Trump try to use tariffs while China holds the cards has been actually hilarious.
