‘We Have More Leverage in the Free World Than We Think’ Against Chinese Regime

[ronwagn + 6,290]

https://www.theepochtimes.com/we-have-more-leverage-in-the-free-world-than-we-think-against-chinese-regime-duncan-smith_3720749.html

UK

 

We must eliminate any important dependencies on Chinese dominated industries, whether through American sources or dependable allies and neutral countries. RCW

‘We Have More Leverage in the Free World Than We Think’ Against Chinese Regime: Duncan Smith

BY LILY ZHOU

 

March 5, 2021 Updated: March 6, 2021

Countries in the free world have more leverage than people may think against the Chinese regime’s abusive behaviour, the UK’s Sir Iain Duncan Smith said on Thursday.

Speaking with The Epoch Times about an amendment he supports which aims to stop bilateral trade with genocidal countries, the former Conservative Party leader said the Chinese regime has an “appalling” human rights record.

“The present Chinese government has been pretty brutal, both to its neighbours and to its own people, whether it’s Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghurs, inner Mongolians, the Falun Gong, the Christians,” he said.

“They have a very bad record now, both on appalling human rights, and also—as we think likely—genocide.”

The Chinese regime’s relationship towards other countries has been a “thoroughly bullying one,” he added, citing its sanctions against Australia, aggressions at the border with India and in the South China Sea, and support for the military in Burma.

An aerial view of the uninhabited island of Spratlys in the disputed South China Sea, on April 21, 2017. (Erik De Castro/Reuters)

‘Dependency On China Has Got To End’

Duncan Smith said that the Chinese regime has been able to get away with “an awful lot of” its behaviour” because of the free world’s dependency on it.

“Because so many people are dependent on China. They turn a blind eye, they turn away. They say … I think you oughtn’t to do this, but they don’t do anything about it,” he added.

Duncan Smith said the Chinese regime over the last 10 years has “rather cleverly opened their markets to the rest of the free world who have done a huge amount of business with China.”

The Western investments in turn gave the regime ability to invest in and influence developing countries via the Belt and Road Initiative and other routes, he said.

This aerial photo shows shipping containers stacked at a port in Lianyungang, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, on Jan. 14, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

He added that the “carbon neutral” aim has also given the Chinese regime a huge advantage.

“The biggest producer of batteries in the world is China; the owner … [and] the producer of the most rare earth materials, the biggest producer by a long, long way, is China,” he said.

“These are the sort of materials that go into the making of this machine that we’re on at the moment. Batteries, telephones … all those sophisticated electronic equipments. Again, China dominates that market.”

Duncan Smith said the Chinese regime has been “quite clever in making sure that everybody is very dependent on them,” and that “the dependency on China has got to end, because this government, Chinese government is an intolerant, and I think dictatorial and abusive government.”

‘More Leverage in the Free World Than We Think’

The UK Parliament’s National Security Strategy Committee on Monday heard that the UK needs more “longer term strategic thinking” in order to prepare for a potential crisis, Duncan Smith said he “couldn’t agree with it more.”

“We had to fight the government over Huawei, because the government was going to allow Huawei into the 5G system,” he said.

The logo of Chinese company Huawei at their main UK offices in Reading, London, on Jan. 28, 2020. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)

Besides that, “we need to put aside this idea that somehow China is too big to deal with, the Chinese government, and actually ask ourselves the question: Surely, we would want things to change?” Duncan Smith said.

“So we should always be standing up to saying no” to Chinese Regime’s “very dangerous” behaviour, he said.

“There was one lesson we learned from the 1930s. If you don’t call this out early, it gets worse.”

Duncan Smith said he doesn’t think the Chinese aggression towards its neighbours will necessarily escalate into a hot war because “we have more leverage in the free world than we think” to prevent the escalation.

“I think the truth is that China, the Chinese government knows one thing very important, they know that they need the free world to continue to trade with them,” he said.

“China knows that it has to grow at over five and a half percent a year to standstill,” he said, adding that it has largely been trade and investment from the West that enabled the growth of the Chinese middle-class, and that an economic slowdown will exacerbate the regime’s “internal problems.”

“We have more leverage in the free world than we think, and those who don’t think so, I think they’ve got it wrong,” he said.

“We should use that leverage and explain to China: You can’t take advantage of the free markets and everything else, and at the same time abuse the free markets, abuse the rules-based order and behave in a bullying manner regardless of public view.”

Family Roots in China

“Some of these characters who don’t like what I’m saying always says you don’t know anything about China, you’ve nothing to do with China,” Duncan Smith said.

But in reality, his interest in China partly came from his family’s deep rooted ties with the country.

Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith leaves 10 Downing Street in central London, England, on October 22, 2019. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)

“My great grandfather set up a business in China, a trading business in China,” he told The Epoch Times. “My grandfather helped set the postal system up under Sun Yat-sen, and my grandmother was born and lived in China.

“And my mother and my uncle were born and lived in China. My uncle spoke both Mandarin and Cantonese and worked with the allies in Chongqing during the war to defeat the Japanese and drive them out of China. So my family links go back a long way in China,” he said.

Duncan Smith said he has “huge respect” and “an enormous fondness” for China.

“My argument is with the behaviour of the present, rather arrogant, dictatorial Chinese government, certainly not with the Chinese people,” he said.

‘Gone Are The Days’ Of Turning A Blind Eye

Duncan Smith said that the UK and the rest of the free world are awakening, and the days of turning a blind eye are gone.

“I can’t predict what the future holds, but I do know that there is a growing body of parliamentarians both in the [House of] Lords and in the House of Commons, who are very worried,” he said, adding “and we’re not alone.”

Duncan Smith founded the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) in June 2020.

After its newest members from Ireland joined on Feb. 27, IPAC now represents 20 legislatures “from Japan right the way across to America,” he said.

All these parliamentarians are worried about China at the moment.

“Gone are the days of” turning a blind eye, he said.

 

 

 

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[Meredith Poor + 883]

Keyword search 'Chinese Babies Born 2020'. Supposedly the 'Registered' births is about 10 million, down about 15% from 2019. If this is true for 'all' births in China, it would represent a reduction from 14,500,000 to 12,400,000 births between these two years. India, by comparison, has 24,100,000 births in 2020.

This implies that the workforce in China will continue shrinking for decades, and other countries are going to have to shoulder more manufacturing work simply because China will 'drop out' of much of the global economy.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 3/8/2021 at 9:53 AM, Meredith Poor said:

Keyword search 'Chinese Babies Born 2020'. Supposedly the 'Registered' births is about 10 million, down about 15% from 2019. If this is true for 'all' births in China, it would represent a reduction from 14,500,000 to 12,400,000 births between these two years. India, by comparison, has 24,100,000 births in 2020.

This implies that the workforce in China will continue shrinking for decades, and other countries are going to have to shoulder more manufacturing work simply because China will 'drop out' of much of the global economy.

But is China capable of turning agricultural workers into American style farmers with state of the art equipment? That would allow for plenty of workers to train in various manufacturing fields. Decreasing the workforce is not necessarily a bad thing if production can actually increase regardless. It would have to use technology and robotics to a much greater extent rather than cheap labor though. It seems to me that is the future for all areas as they develop. 

What we need to do is help other countries do the same as competition for China. Look at what South Korea and Japan have done since WW2. Meanwhile America is importing unskilled labor as fast as we can. Those illegal immigrants are not the cream of the crop and will be a disaster to less motivated minorities that demand higher wages for relatively unskilled labor. 

Edited March 10, 2021 by ronwagn
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[Meredith Poor + 883]

4 hours ago, ronwagn said:

Meanwhile America is importing unskilled labor as fast as we can. Those illegal immigrants are not the cream of the crop and will be a disaster to less motivated minorities that demand higher wages for relatively unskilled labor. 

I'm a bit curious what you mean by this.

I used to live in San Antonio, and the 'illegal' immigrants tended to show up with skills in carpentry, sheetrock, welding, masonry, and all kinds of other manual skills that American kids have discarded in favor of university educated desk jobs. Do you live in an area of the country that has large numbers of so-called 'illegals'? What is your direct experience with them?

Would you consider the people living in West Virginia coal country to be in the group of 'less motivated minorities'? Their economic situation is certainly desperate. What should they do?

I'm sorry, but this whole posting appears to be grossly ignorant.

[Boat + 1,315]

China is still adding people. 800,000+ are urban while 500,000+/per 2019, are still rural. In theory their economy will be similar to the US with 85% urban. It will be many decades for this to happen. If China doesn’t piss the world off to much they have many factories to build and goods to sell, along with people to train.

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

5 hours ago, Meredith Poor said:

I'm a bit curious what you mean by this.

I used to live in San Antonio, and the 'illegal' immigrants tended to show up with skills in carpentry, sheetrock, welding, masonry, and all kinds of other manual skills that American kids have discarded in favor of university educated desk jobs. Do you live in an area of the country that has large numbers of so-called 'illegals'? What is your direct experience with them?

Would you consider the people living in West Virginia coal country to be in the group of 'less motivated minorities'? Their economic situation is certainly desperate. What should they do?

I'm sorry, but this whole posting appears to be grossly ignorant.

Dude, have you heard of agriculture? Doesn't require "skillz" to pick fruits and vegetables. The carpenter jobs are second generation "illegals". Landscaping? Not so much.

My brother in law is Basque. He gets jobs managing workers who ostensibly are citizens but can't speak a word of English. Considering they're operating heavy equipment language skills seem necessary, no? Unfortunately he speaks real Spanish, not the pidgin that passes for Spanish coming from south of the border. 

[Meredith Poor + 883]

8 hours ago, Ward Smith said:

The carpenter jobs are second generation "illegals". Landscaping? Not so much.

... Unfortunately he speaks real Spanish, not the pidgin that passes for Spanish coming from south of the border. 

More ignorance. I lived in an area of San Antonio that had 'illegals' marbled in with everyone else. Keyword search 'South Alamo and Probant'. This was (in the late 1990's) a gentrifying neighborhood right on the boundaries of the Hispanic areas of the city. Some of 'these people' were my neighbors. They didn't necessarily have very good command of English. One crew would go in on 'overnight' jobs to dismantle and rebuilt restaurant kitchens, which included vast amounts of stainless steel sheet metal, gas plumbing, ventilator hoods, and electrical work.

"Doesn't require "skillz" to pick fruits and vegetables." But it does require 'skillz' to maintain one's own truck and home. One of the common stories about immigrants (including legal immigrants) to the US is that they were doctors or accountants in their home country, but since they aren't licensed in the US they end up as food servers or some other relatively 'off the shelf' job. The problem isn't simply language - they would have to understand US medical care methods and regulations, or US accounting processes. These people didn't 'dumb down' just because they crossed the border.

[specinho + 440]

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 3/8/2021 at 5:11 PM, Meredith Poor said:

I'm a bit curious what you mean by this.

I used to live in San Antonio, and the 'illegal' immigrants tended to show up with skills in carpentry, sheetrock, welding, masonry, and all kinds of other manual skills that American kids have discarded in favor of university educated desk jobs. Do you live in an area of the country that has large numbers of so-called 'illegals'? What is your direct experience with them?

Would you consider the people living in West Virginia coal country to be in the group of 'less motivated minorities'? Their economic situation is certainly desperate. What should they do?

I'm sorry, but this whole posting appears to be grossly ignorant.

 

On 3/8/2021 at 5:11 PM, Meredith Poor said:

I'm a bit curious what you mean by this.

I used to live in San Antonio, and the 'illegal' immigrants tended to show up with skills in carpentry, sheetrock, welding, masonry, and all kinds of other manual skills that American kids have discarded in favor of university educated desk jobs. Do you live in an area of the country that has large numbers of so-called 'illegals'? What is your direct experience with them?

Would you consider the people living in West Virginia coal country to be in the group of 'less motivated minorities'? Their economic situation is certainly desperate. What should they do?

I'm sorry, but this whole posting appears to be grossly ignorant.

If you think that illegal aliens are the cream of the crop then you are sadly mistaken. Sure some may be, but legal immigrants are a lot better IMHO. There is nothing wrong with West Virginians, the problem is in our big cities that have large numbers of illegal aliens and people who can't read. Our public school systems in the big cities are horrendous overall. Now their curriculum is teaching perverted sexual norms on top of anti-white propaganda. 

I lived half of my life in California from Greater Los Angeles to Auburn near Sacramento and Bakersfield. I have seen California go from heaven to hell during my lifetime. We visit at least once per year. 

Read the book Mexifornia to get the real history of the change and other writings by Victor Davis Hanson. 

My grandmother was from New Mexico, she possibly came up from Juarez or El Paso. Spanish was her primary language. Three of my uncles served in WW2. I am a veteran. When I grew up we had plenty of Mexicans in Los Angeles, but most of them spoke English, and a little Spanish. All of my uncles and aunts spoke English as did my mother. They ended up moving from White Oaks, New Mexico to New Orleans, and then Detroit. 

In Bakersfield I taught a lot of Illegal aliens whose main language was Spanish. Bakersfield has gone downhill since I left there in 1986 as has the whole state. 

Please see my Educaton topic: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PjW6KJmKDEqqrTVZyGwWK36YTvr46Axo9WDkY90WtU4/edit

Edited March 10, 2021 by ronwagn
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[Meredith Poor + 883]

49 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

If you think that illegal aliens are the cream of the crop then you are sadly mistaken.

Where did I say that? All I'm saying is that they bring skills and perspective that is different from native born Americans. They complement the skills Americans bring to the table, and for the most part they work hard and contribute. I'm not crediting any group with being 'exceptional'.

[Meredith Poor + 883]

52 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

but legal immigrants are a lot better

What do you mean by 'better'?

[Meredith Poor + 883]

53 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

the problem is in our big cities that have large numbers of illegal aliens and people who can't read

Are we talking about illegals that can't read or are we talking about a group of illegal immigrants and a distinct group (of others) that can't read?

[ronwagn + 6,290]

More skilled, better educated, more likely to speak English, more likely to have values similar to other Americans. 

[Meredith Poor + 883]

55 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

Now their curriculum is teaching perverted sexual norms on top of anti-white propaganda.

Who is 'their'? Someone, somewhere, defines the curriculum. Who is this specifically? Is this the same person(s) in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, etc? All all the perverted sexual norms identical, or are they different depending on which city you're in? Same goes for the 'anti-white propaganda'.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

2 minutes ago, Meredith Poor said:

Are we talking about illegals that can't read or are we talking about a group of illegal immigrants and a distinct group (of others) that can't read?

English as a second language or anyone who is not motivated to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic etc. Anyone who does not have the equivalent of a high school diploma at age 18. 

[Meredith Poor + 883]

58 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

Read the book Mexifornia to get the real history of the change and other writings by Victor Davis Hanson. 

Of course, at one point California (as well as Texas) was part of Mexico. Some of the 'Mexicans' living in various parts of the US are descended from people that have lived in the same cities and states for 500 years.

[Meredith Poor + 883]

5 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

more likely to have values similar to other Americans

What 'other Americans'? This is obscenely vague.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

Just now, Meredith Poor said:

Of course, at one point California (as well as Texas) was part of Mexico. Some of the 'Mexicans' living in various parts of the US are descended from people that have lived in the same cities and states for 500 years.

Very true, just as part of my ancestors did. Florida has the oldest city in the United States, Saint Augustine. El Paso Texas is (the pass which leads into Texas https://www.etymonline.com/word/El Paso.) Many cities in from Texas to California were discovered and developed by Spaniards, Indians, and Mestizos. The Spanish do not receive enough credit for developing the land from Florida to San Francisco. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

6 minutes ago, Meredith Poor said:

What 'other Americans'? This is obscenely vague.

Meredith you are sounding like a Woke nutcase. Let me know if you want a real conversation but try to avoid one liners and write some paragraphs. 

[Meredith Poor + 883]

48 minutes ago, ronwagn said:

Meredith you are sounding like a Woke nutcase. Let me know if you want a real conversation but try to avoid one liners and write some paragraphs. 

I have 'Fox News' friends and I have 'PBS' friends, all of whom spout stuff without thinking much about what it means, or whether it means anything at all. The conversation I had over dinner was driven by the assertion that 'now that Biden is President we're going to get inflation'.

'more likely to have values similar to other Americans' seems to imply that your values are 'values similar to other Americans'. So this raises the question about whether American values include racism, given the Jim Crow legacy of the last 100 years. There are people that assert that American values include tolerance, at least up to a point. Then there is the question of misogyny. These aren't matters of whether 'someone' is prejudiced, they are questions of laws and policies - institutional procedures that overtly separate and discriminate against certain groups. Such laws and policies presumably represent 'American values', or at least the values of those that make those laws and policies.

Are you familiar with a book named 'The Color of Law', and the specific reason it was written?

Generally the name calling (Woke nutcase) follows attempts to get clarity. I'm not attacking you (or anyone else), I'm trying to identify specific meanings. Sometimes I lose conversational partners when I drill into this stuff too much. So it goes.

 

[Eyes Wide Open + 3,539]

Some perspective on this issue, today the estimates are reach 40 million in the US, in the UK they say 80,000. 40 million is number, quite easy to say...is it not. Now how about listening to 40 million opinions on one subject...it is all relative.

[ronwagn + 6,290]

Meredith, you are entitled to your opinions just as much as I am to mine. That goes for everyone. When people start getting WOKE and censoring others on any forum or group that is when the niceties are over for me. No censorship of points of view sit well with me. That does not mean that leftist or rightist views cannot be discussed and all shades in between etc. 

That does not mean that I care about watching pornography, or other dispicable things, but I am able to change what I am watching or subscribing to. I do feel that children need to be protected from deviant sexuality in school however. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

9 hours ago, specinho said:

There is truth to that. Especially some of the education we have today. Logic is a good course to take.

[Symmetry + 109]

"The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one."

[Meredith Poor + 883]

1 hour ago, ronwagn said:

deviant sexuality

Can you explain what you mean by 'deviant sexuality'?