That reminds me. I have to go get a serology test…

(But, it’s been fun—well, depending on what the definition of “fun” might be—for which, thanks!)

File under: “Definitions, definitions, definitions…”

I guess the “Crack Down” bit is well… Crack to me.

(My perennial favorite. Luckily the System still has antibodies against me.)

The time for runaway corruption has passed.

Non-China version: LKY tacitly encouraged software piracy in Singapore during 80s and into early 90s despite supposed squeaky clean image. Pure pragmatism: adopt and grow first, clean up when Gates big enough to buy enough senators.

But that’s precisely the fascinating point.

Xi HAS TO play the game.

(Of course he always has the prerogative to declare “TILT” and “cause” certain individuals to “retire” from the scene.)

I would imagine that the great bugbear for Xi is corruption (and always has been).

Of course, corruption exists most everywhere (perhaps the word “most” is extraneous). The only question is how to minimize it (or at least how to control it.)

Quite possibly, the victory of the West (or should that be the “north”?) is due to the fact that it succeeded in controlling (minimizing?) corruption…even if currently the “post-Christian” West appears to be pushing it hard.

When China opened up economically (the Chinese “miracle”) they did so without controlling corruption. It may not even have been possible without cracking down on their brand of “Capitalism” or “economic openness”.

Looks like the corruption, now out of control, may well threaten the country and so, time to crack down; to revert to more familiar forms….

What is that French expression?…

…since those vacuums have a tendency to fill up mighty fast….

But then historical reasons may likely have forced them to be…let’s call it, “vigilant” and “prepared”. And “ruthless in their own self-defense. OTOH, the Japanese mowed through them…of course the Japanese mowed through most of their opponents…until the tide turned.

I.e., might the reason for this (Vietnamese “exceptionalism”) be their millennial proximity to—and extreme distrust/hatred(?)—of China?…And here, Pierre-Eliott Trudeau thought, heh, that Canada’s MAJOR challenge was ITS southern neighbour—that “elephant south of the border”… Well, I guess problems are all relative…)

(Not sure, however, how convincing that might be to the principled doubters or non-believers….)

Crossing the T at Tsushima.

Dien Bien Phu.

1975.

Asians Can.

It’s arguable that the Vietnamese got inside the Chinese OODA loop in 1979. Chinese seem a bit sore about it still.

Jury is out on Chinese capabilities in 2021. They can probably afford to learn by making some mistakes. Questions surround desirability of being the sucker provides them with Teaching Moments.

It *is* possible to communicate disagreement in East Asian cultures. But there are ways in which to do it which seem inscrutable to us. Face is Real. Very real. What’s not encouraged is argument for the sake of argument. They don’t idolize the Agora. We do in theory. In practice, just you try going down to the Public Square and trying out any heterodox thoughts on the general public.

Chinese history is full of Emperors not getting the full story from officials and Bad Things happening as a result. They’re not blind to this kind of thing. XJP knows full well that he sees Potemkin Villages when he goes on inspection tours. He knows… they know he knows… He knows that if he issued strong instructions not to be shown Potemkin Villages all that would happen is that more artful Potemkin Villages with the most high-tech wabi sabi around the edges would be constructed for his delectation. Is this a Chinese problem? Pretty much universal, I think.

Is it any more ridiculous than the class of Western phenomena exemplified by No Child Left Behind? Any more or less deleterious? Different Cultures, different inefficiencies and failure modes. Do they cancel out when integrated over the n-dimensional geostrategic manifold? (Just made up that bit of pseudo Georgetown Wankery)

Things get a bit more weird the further you go into SE Asia: Javanese, Malays, Thais, Laos, Khmers. Especially the Thais/Laos/Khmers… there’s something about the old Hindu-Buddhist Deva Raja cultures: higher ups really do not like being contradicted by uppity underlings. Having seen how things go wrong down there, and up here, and in the West… I’m kind of inclined to see the East Asians as being roughly in the middle of a spectrum instead of polar opposites to Whitey.