In this detailed interview with independent journalist Richard Medhurst, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Danny Haiphong explores the intense anti-China propaganda surrounding the Beijing Winter Olympics. Danny connects this propaganda to the broader context of the US-led New Cold War, being waged in large part to contain China and to prevent the emergence of a multipolar, democratic system of international relations in which the US can no longer maintain its political and economic hegemony. Danny and Richard specifically address the accusations around cultural genocide in Xinjiang; Eileen Gu’s decision to represent China at the Olympics; the so-called disappearance of Peng Shuai; and China’s Zero Covid strategy.
Hello, Can Friends of Socialist China make pieces available in an audio format like Matt Taibbi and Glen Greenwald do via substack? I’m more of listener than reader. Thank you.
Dear editors,
There is a typo in the title:
“Danny Haiphong and Richard Medhurst explo*d*e anti-China myths” – should be explo*r*e.
It’s a shame the left doesn’t reach out to the few Chinese diaspora women in the UK who’ve been exploding anti-China myths for the past 20 years, including keeping a sharp eye on Trump’s trade war phase as he polished up Obama’s pivot to Asia.
What’s going on? Is this a turf war? Who’s club is this? Are we supposed to be working together or what?
Asian women are at the bottom of the pile, under constant pressure to be submissive to the Masters of the Universe and, along with the elderly, the first to come under physical attack. However, nothing is true unless a white person says it is true, taking us back to 1870s California when it took ten “Chinamen” to equal the say of one white man. So when chivalrous males leap heroically to the rescue of famous cases while burying Asian women who don’t have the privilege of nations, politicians and organisations behind them, it raises a lot of questions about the motivations of anyone perpetuating this antedeluvian dynamic.
I’ve tried to engage with the left on Twitter, and RTd Danny when he asked but it’s not been reciprocal. Sectarian behaviour crushes the solidarity needed to put up a challenge. Unconscious sexism, racism and self-interest aren’t being challenged. It takes a rising tide to float all boats and gatekeepers do a lot of damage.
Good luck in defending China and its 1.4 billion human beings who deserve all the good things that should have been headed their way if it wasn’t for white supremacist ideology and the world hegemon desperate to hang on to power and privilege, but this is all too little, far too late. No peace movement was built or arguments nipped in the bud. The narratives have set like concrete.
I’ve been writing accurately and presciently about China UK relations for over 20 years. Here are a few examples:
A Permanent Reservoir of Scapegoats (Nov 2021): https://madammiaow.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-permanent-reservoir-of-scapegoats.html
Open letter to Channel 4 Dispatches Sept 2021 – this one took a week and a half to research and got no support at all:
https://madammiaow.blogspot.com/2021/09/c4-dispatches-politicising-covid.html
‘Let’s Blame China”: an infantile disorder when Covid-19 comes knocking. How the White House turned “China bought us time” into “China lied, people died” and put the world at risk (June 2020):
https://madammiaow.blogspot.com/2020/06/lets-blame-china-for-covid19-infantile-disorder.html
Warning & discussion from 2018 – What’s Donald Trump’s trade war with China REALLY about?: https://madammiaow.blogspot.com/2018/11/whats-donald-trumps-trade-war-with-china-really-about.html
Early warning – Trump’s protectionism could be midwife to prosperous Asian region — if he doesn’t nuke it first (2016): https://madammiaow.blogspot.com/2016/11/trump-protectionism-could-be-midwife-to-asia-prosperity.html
When Britain suffered a severe outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2001, the countryside was full of burning pyres of animals as the New Labour government got it desperately wrong. The Chinese community suddenly found itself scapegoated for the outbreak in a lunatic briefing by a northern outpost of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) to The Times. (2001)
https://madammiaow.blogspot.com/p/foot-and-mouth-campaign.html
As a youth, I remember one of the waiters at the Canton restaurant in Newport Place, Soho, a Chinese Londoner, telling me ,”Anna, we Chinese are like grains of sand that fall through our fingers but westerners and even Japanese are like a cake of mud that sticks together the more pressure you put on it. The day we stick together is the day Chinese will be strong.”
Amen, o wise one.