Elite Opening: China's American Defenders

 

To sum up this article from Lee Smith, the historic opening to China created a class of elites that prioritize their wealth and privilege over everything else.

 I saw a clip from Tucker Carlson where he interviewed Smith about the saturation of Chinese influence among  the elite. I’m getting tired of using the word elite. It’s assumed everyone has the same understanding about who this special group is but is that true? I’m not sure. The “elite” members of society run the gamut from business to government and entertainment to sports. Being rich is part of the deal but it’s more than just money. It’s access for yourself and your kids to the best life has to offer. Naturally it isn’t just here in America. Elites come from all over the world and really have more in common with each other than with their fellow countrymen. 

I'm not one for envy. I love the freedom we have to make a lot of money in this country and spend it how we like. It's always set America apart from the rest of the world. I don't begrudge people riches but I do have a problem with ingratitude. 

Lee Smith sounds almost jealous of elite success, but he makes a solid case that certain members of elite castes, in America, have thrown in their lot with the CCP at the expense of their countrymen. Did you notice Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks stopped playing the national anthem for home games? That’s a good picture of elite arrogance, making money in this free country but disrespecting its traditions and culture. This kind of anti-Americanism used to be more hidden. No longer.

Trump was hated by the establishment and China. There is solid evidence that Beijing has a hand in stealing the election for Joe Biden as well. Did you see the Mike Lindell’s video? Ok so he’s not a polished operator. He lined up some expert analysis on the elections. CCP penetration of America is much farther along than I imagined but the self-censorship of the press is common in China, not so here.

For the new Top Gun movie with Tom Cruise, China sensors managed to blur a patch of Taiwan on Cruise’s jacket. But of course they did it. The Chinese market is a key mover of big budget films. What’s scary is to think how many similar moves have happened like this that we don’t even know about? Some producer notices a reference to the Tiananmen Square Massacre in a dialogue scene and decides to cut it before anyone sees it. That’s self-censorship and it’s how news runs in Xi Jinping’s country. Reporters just stay away from certain topics after a while, the party need not bother with a crack down.

Smith’s seminal moment for the US’s abandonment of principle was the famous détente arrangement by Henry Kissinger in the early seventies. The purpose was to have an ally opposite the Soviet Union. The access to China, which hadn’t existed before, made it possible for diplomats and business leaders to get rich. No one got rich in the seventies of course, China was still a very poor country. The promise of cheap labor and a vast market became too much to resist. One would have to ignore the treatment of communist leaders toward their people however. Maybe this was never a big deal. In the nineties the view from the State Department was that with economic growth comes liberty and prosperity and voting rights.

I remember buying pretty hard into this view as well. It worked in South Korea and Taiwan, why not China? Wasn't it worth a try?

 Lee Smith doesn’t believe this was ever the elite’s view. There was money to be made so they told themselves whatever they needed to. Senators like Diane Feinstein pushed for Most Favored Nation status at the WTO leading to full trade. Mitch McConnell’s connections to Chinese industry also run deep through his wife’s father. I’m not fully on board with the idea that elite’s sent our industry to China (purely) to enrich themselves. From a practical standpoint the costs to build and manufacture are significantly cheaper in countries with low wages. It might be cruel to send work to a place with slave worker conditions, but do the high taxes and regulations in the United States get any of the blame? 

If making t-shirts and socks in the United States becomes too expensive, it makes sense to find alternative sourcing. It’s too simplistic to say those SOB's took our jobs and gave them to the Chinese. There were very real wage and material cost concerns to keep producing them here. But greed was undoubtedly a motivator.

I think the article is a perfect summary of what’s wrong now. It doesn’t offer solutions and even suggests the reign of elite hegemony won’t last long. But with a pro-China White House it might be a while before the US de-couples like it should. The elites have thrown in with the Chinese leadership at the expense of American citizens. This won’t end well for them in the end.