Sleeping giant may prove the stuff of Orwell’s nighmares

From: William Snowden, Dobrudden Park, Baildon Moor, Baildon, Shipley.

IN Chris Bond’s article about the merits of learning Mandarin Chinese (Yorkshire Post, December 2) one advocate suggested that “it’s not just about the language; there’s so much else to learn about the culture, geography and history of the country”.

Indeed, there is; but who, I wonder, will do the telling?

Whenever I contemplate the naive way in which the West indulges communist China, I recall to mind two apposite, if apocryphal quotations: “China is a sleeping giant, and let him sleep for when he wakes the world will tremble” (attributed, unverifiably, to both Napoleon and Churchill).

“We will hang them (the capitalists) from the lampposts!”

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“Yes!” rejoined the assembled Bolsheviks “but where will we get the rope from?”

“They will sell it to us!” (attributed, unverifiably, to Lenin).

Like all good jokes, the latter quote has an element of truth regarding greedy capitalists.

Certainly, the communists perceive the inherent weaknesses of our system far better than we perceive the pernicious nature of theirs. And lest we forget: China is not a liberal democracy, but a communist dictatorship in which political dissidents are ruthlessly and brutally suppressed.

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Two momentous events in the last century gave hope that liberal Western democracy would prevail: the defeat of National Socialism (1945) and the collapse of Soviet Socialism (1990).

But there was a third potentially momentous event which, had it occurred, would assuredly have crystallised that hope to become a reality: the democratisation of communist China.

The “pro-democracy” movement in Beijing almost succeeded in peacefully overthrowing the communist regime. It was a tragedy for them, for China and the wider world that ultimately they were crushed. Most of those who died were young and idealistic students.

The purges that subsequently followed the massive at Tiananmen Square, ensured that there would be no further challenge to the Chinese Politburo.

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Students, by their nature, tend to be liberal-minded, and exude the innate idealism of youth.

But a few years ago, on the BBC World Service, I heard a most chilling broadcast from Beijing University. The students airily dismissed, or rejoined with light, mocking laughter, even the faintest suggestion, that the communist authorities might in any way be at fault.

It seemed to me that “the sleeping giant” had indeed awoken, and that Orwell’s “Big Brother” was rising in the East.

And how one reads that China seeks to mine and exploit the “mineral wealth of the moon”.

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One wonders what other, strategic advantages a “moon base” might bestow on China – not least in the field of “defence”.

The portents seem dark indeed.

But perhaps the future will serve to confound my fears; perhaps further technological advances like the internet will serve to thwart the dictators, and mass communication systems enable people to draw together in the spirit of peace and harmony of a truly “global citizenship”.

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