An Epistolary View of Xi Jinping, Donald J. Trump, the Chinese Communist Party, and Our Own GOP

I was mentioning to my pal Tim Kozlowski that I was unnerved by how fast Xi - and by extension - the Chinese Communist Party - is moving on broadening his and its influence in various areas of development. The most disturbing is how quickly the CCP is moving to eradicate the Uyghurs and increasingly wipe out Tibetan culture. Likewise, China’s incursions into Bhutan, Ladakh, and its on-going dick swinging in Arunachal Pradesh should prove of greater concern, not just to players in the region, but to the rest of the world. The use of economic clout to influence pro-China favoritism is also something of a growing concern, not because “China = Bad” but because the “CCP = totalitarian/authoritarian/untrustworthy and frankly, Bad”.

This is mostly an introduction to the next post will take the form of an open letter to Xi Jinping in a few days. I’ll be on a retreat through Sunday, so it’s unlikely that will be up before then.

Tim asked me in reply to an earlier email, if Xi was my biggest fear. This elicited further reflection on similarities/differences between demagogues like Xi and Trump, and monoliths like the CCP and the GOP. There are salient differences and these are substantial. But the similarities are equally striking and disconcerting. 

I traffic a bit in hyperbole here, but it’s most assuredly for emphasis, not for its own sake.

An Epistolary View of Xi Jinping, Donald J. Trump, the Chinese Communist Party, and Our Own GOP

Xi is not my “biggest fear”, my friend. But I find the alacrity with which he’s consolidated power and has ramped up what has been the sinicization of non-Han regions (folded in with cultural, if not actual, genocide) to be disconcerting. Trump is irrelevant here, except insofar as he’s provided the Republicans and perhaps later, more methodical (intelligent) authoritarians a template of what not to do (i.e., don’t go full bore into bull in china shop mode) and what to do (play the long game). 

Xi and Trump don’t map exactly for obvious reasons. The CCP is a totalitarian regime that has been managed by authoritarians and oligarchs since 1949. Mao knew how to play them well and they were useful to him. When they weren’t, well, the lucky ones got exile. The most Trump could do was fire people and despite the rack and ruin he brought to U.S. governance, his immediate damage has shown to be capable of mitigation. But the long term effects are another matter. Trump isn’t smart enough to know that by casting doubt on election outcomes and opponents how much damage could be done to a democracy. But he learned well enough that those tactics do work and what is worrisome is that already enough Republicans are starting to use lies and misinformation to intentionally sway their voters. 

I’m convinced that it wouldn’t take more than another five years before we see a more sophisticated Trump 2.0. It is unlikely it would be the man himself, but someone not so unlike Tucker Carlson fits the bill. Carlson’s a prize asshole but he’s the type of asshole who is smart enough to know how to use media for his own ends. He’s been called out on his bullshit so many times, but he’s the most watched “pundit” on Fox News and walks back his claims just so much because he’s smart about voicing his claims that he can say “that’s not what I was saying”…No, Tucker, you’re a wretched racist, homophobe, wypeepo status quo kind of guy. And he does know what he’s saying.

Like Trump, I don’t think Carlson necessarily believes in the shit he spews. He’s very direct in what he wants. Does he have political ambitions? Apparently, he does. And that’s bothersome. The MAGA crowd likes him because he’s “sophisticated” and they feel he can get their message across to the “elites”. Do they trust him? Would they vote for him? Only time will tell.

I would argue that Carlson and his ilk wouldn’t mind if the GOP was more like the CCP with the ability to jimmy markets by deregulation, wanton investment in any given industry, strong-arm tactics trading soft power for threats of economic or literal destruction, and of course, rewriting history so we have generations that won’t be bothered by the horrible contradictions of what formed this country. 

Of course, I found it amusing - and still do - that as much Trump admired Xi, he initiated the trade war with China and wasn’t above race-baiting (who? DJT?) And of course, there was a great cry of support for  HR 4331 that empowered the President to support pro-Tibet non-NGOs (for economic development primarily), argue for ensuring that the Chinese don’t interfere with the next appointment of a Dalai Lama, and not authorize a new Chinese embassy in the U.S. until a U.S. embassy is opened in Lhasa, Tibet. This was a couple of years back and the Tibetans in the U.S. gave way too much credit to the administration for this (it was actually a modification to a bill that had been authored in 2002, and while both had bi-partisanship, the co-sponsor who got the most press was Rick Perry..and it was a democrat who sponsored and introduced the bill!) In any case, all this did piss the Chinese off and it’s the one time when I almost felt like “well, okay, a broken clock is right twice a day…Trump could do something right without even knowing it.”

It’s that last that also provides a sharp divide between a chump like Trump and a skilled player like Xi. The results - good and bad (and to be honest, it’s mostly bad) - of Trump’s administration were the result of poorly cobbled together legislation (so much of what various players in his cabinet and have failed to pass the House because no one knew how to word the very legislative rules they wanted passed); basically, they muddled through in terms of trying to legislate what policies they wanted enforced. And again, much of the damage done can be mitigated. But maybe the most substantial damage doesn’t even stem from the Trump era. Much predates him in terms of stacking the courts and ensuring that civil liberties - from equal rights to abortion - remain hot points for dividing the electorate and serve as distractions from even more pressing legislation that might check environmental damage done by corporations and developers and halt any meaningful healthcare reform (i.e., Medicare for All, the ACA, etc.)

That a lot of this was ratcheted up under Trump is obvious but it couldn’t have happened with a willing power structure to go along with him (or use him…or attempt to use him). Again, Xi has the advantage of a more unified already-in-place structure that can move much more quickly and decisively. Sadly, so much of what Xi and the CCP want to do has dire consequences, not just for the Tibetans and Uyghurs, but frankly, for much of Asia and quite frankly, the rest of the world. As the CCP expands its soft power - both in the form of investment and propaganda arms like the Confucius Institutes on college campuses and even in U.S. school districts (we actually have one here in Houston, embedded in the Houston Independent School District) - the threat of invasion or economic ruin looms large in the background. Each of those are possibilities for Nepal, Myanmar, and even Vietnam; but outside of Asia, the PRC has leveraged its hooks in various African countries and to a lesser degree throughout Latin America, ginning up loans to set up debt burdens on poorer less-developed nations. 

The hard power aspects we’re seeing on a routine basis: saber-rattling over Taiwan and territorial skirmishes in the South China Sea, the rapid development of artificial islands to extend China’s offshore presence in and around the various straits, its invasive strategies in Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, and even Bhutan are testing the diplomatic limits of both the Bhutanese and Indian governments. But China’s go-to is, as ever, that they’re simply reclaiming what was originally theirs (utter bullshit, of course). Nevertheless, Xi knows that most of the world focuses on other issues and often the PRC doesn’t even have to use its own canard of “this is an internal affair, butt out”; they know that most people are too distracted by other crises. 

Sorry about all this! This is a huge part of what I’m writing about and there are parallels between the GOP and the CCP that are disturbing. I doubt that we’d see an ascendant GOP that would overnight change everything in the country, but it’s no surprise that the GOP is equally skilled at buying positions and candidates and gerrymandering voting districts to get the pieces on the board where they want them.

Trump is and will remain a dangerous clown. I don’t think he’s of much use to many people right now; his time as a “useful idiot” is drawing to a close as indictments pile up around him and on his cronies. But he was useful. Despite Biden’s win, we’re seeing how much damage has been done to the electorate (almost half of whom have no idea that they’ve been taken for a ride) and the republic at large.

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At this point, I turned to other matters, and excised this from the body of the email, because who would want to read this palaver in an email when you probably want to chat about film and more personal reflection?

As mentioned above, I’m working on an “open letter to President Xi” and it will be more involved and dive deeper into the issues hit upon here. It’s interesting how the first thing authoritarians of all stripes will do to answer the critics. First, it’s a “shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about/this doesn’t concern you/it’s an internal affair”. Then, it’s justification for their actions, regardless of how heinous they are. Then, it’s counterattacking, usually lacking in substance, but if they’re the government or have any kind of access to executing threats, then that counterattack is often a bigger problem. The endgame remains the same: total power. That’s all.

It can be clothed in Marxist ideals/rhetoric (and really, just how “Marxist” is the CCP? I don’t see much in the way of a dictatorship of the proletariat and a lot in terms of how bourgeoise values run the power structure of the party and the country) or in words like “protecting our democratic values” (where “our” means white, male, heteronormative supremacy to everyone’s expense). Ultimately, it’s driven by a desire to make the world bend to the will of tiny men. 

Sadly, these tiny men don’t realize that by attempting to do that, they destroy the very world they would rule and make into their image. When left with dust, what will they do?