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China’s
Successful Great Leap Forward
With world attention focused this week on the UN meeting in New York and the G20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, China’s upcoming birthday bash has so far been largely ignored. We should pay attention. October 1st marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Beijing’s mammoth birthday fete will include China’s largest-ever military parade showcasing new weapons, and an Olympic-size gala. Efforts are even being made to improve Beijing’s weather. US Defence Secretary Robert Gates just warned China’s growing military power ’threatens our freedom of movement and narrows our strategic options.’ Translation: the US Seventh Fleet can no longer operate with impunity off China’s coast or be certain of defending Taiwan from a Chinese invasion. China is reasserting its historic sovereignty and will relentlessly push US power back into the Pacific. But this was inevitably with the return of China to the major power status it enjoyed ?until 1800. I first came to China in 1975 during the madness of the Cultural Revolution. Over the ensuing three decades, I have seen China transformed from a giant, dimly-lit prison camp into today’s booming nation, which just surpassed Japan to become the world’s second largest economy. This is the most remarkable event I have seen in my life. Much of the credit goes to China’s late leader, Deng Xiaoping, one of the 20th century’s greatest men. He ended Marxist dogma, releasing the energy of his long-suffering people whose nation had been raped by western imperialism, then ravaged by brutal civil wars and primitive Marxism. But a ghost will haunt this celebration: the Great Helmsman, Mao Zedong. What to make of him? I have long struggled to understand Mao. Was he modern history’s greatest revolutionary and an earth-shaker, or a demented mass murderer who nearly destroyed China, as his critics claim? Great times produce great men. Mao rose from the chaos of 1920’s China to lead the newfound Communist Party. He fought Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists, an assortment of powerful regional warlords, and, later, Japanese invaders. China suffered some 15-20 million dead from 1928-1949. Mao was an accomplished poet, writer and historian, a profound thinker, and a superb military strategist. His works on guerilla war sit on my desk. Mao crushed the US-backed Nationalist’s 4.3-million strong armies in a series of titanic battles. Mao gave the Communists political and strategic direction. Aiding him were a group of outstanding generals the ’Ten Marshals’ among them Zhu De, Lin Piao, Peng Dehui, Chen Yi and Nie Rongzhen who crushed Chiang Kai-shek’s armies. The Great Helmsman united fractured, war-torn China for the first time in centuries, restoring its pride and self-confidence after a century of humiliation. Mao thwarted both Soviet and US efforts to turn China into a client state, and built up China’s military power. But Mao’s crackpot economic notions, notably the infamous 1958 Great Leap Forward, created famines that killed 20-36 million Chinese peasants. ’Red Emperor’ Mao was prodigal with his people’s lives, cared little for them, and was shockingly indifferent to their suffering. Mao horrified even brutal Soviet leaders by saying he was prepared to lose half his people to emerge victorious from a nuclear war. When the Communist Party resisted Mao, he tried to destroy it by unleashing the Great Cultural Revolution that plunged China into chaos and civil war. China’s brilliant, much underrated premier, Zhou Enlai, curbed some of Mao’s worst excesses and rescued China by engineering Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power. Deng crushed far-left Maoists known as the Gang of Four, and restored order. His sweeping economic reforms revitalised China, unleashing its latent economic power. But Deng’s great achievements and this week’s huge birthday party in Beijing would not have been possible without Mao’s unification of China and imposition of an all-powerful one-party state. So, as with many Chinese, I’m uncertain how to qualify Chairman Mao. Like Stalin once called ’half man, half beast’ Mao appealed as much as he repelled. Most Chinese now regard Mao as their nation’s beloved, respected father, who went dangerously senile before his death in 1976. Old ruler’s egos can be very dangerous. I suspect as time goes by, Mao’s misdeeds, like Stalin’s, will fade away. The glowing image of the Great Helmsman will continue to hang over the gate of the Beijing’s Forbidden City. China will continue its real Great Leap Forward. (Eric S Margolis is a veteran US journalist who has reported from the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan for several years)
Iran’s
Nuclear Theatre
World events have taken an interesting turn recently, with the Goldstone report, which wreaked havoc in the beginning of the week being nearly completely overshadowed by Iran’s revelation of another nuclear facility, according to diplomats in Vienna on September 25. The Iran nuclear threat although theatre is a more suitable term was highlighted repeatedly, first by US President Barack Obama during a UN speech on September 23, then again by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the next day. The latter came armed with maps and relentlessly provoked Holocaust memories, following the ever so predictable, albeit insensitive and deceptive pattern. This charade was meant to distract from the nearly 600-page UN report, prepared by South Africa judge Richard Goldstone and others, dedicated mostly to Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Confirming that Israel wantonly used weapons, including illegal weapons, against a defenseless civilian population in Gaza and going so far to say that Israel did not only commit war crimes, but indeed may have also committed crimes against humanity, the findings of the report were all set by the wayside. The report was utterly rebuked by Netanyahu and his ilk, arrogantly disregarded and shelved. Concurrently, Israel’s official statement regarding the IAEA’s pressure on Israel to sign on to the Non-Proliferation Treaty was that Israel “deplored” such a notion. The Israeli conceit may be redundant, but is as ever infuriating. Many of Israel’s devoted supporters accused the Goldstone mission of fabricating conclusions before the investigations even came to a close. And so yet again, Israel unhesitatingly established that they it’s above the law, promptly and successfully turning the world’s attention to the greater menace: Iran. It seems that President Obama is also learning some painful lessons regarding the balance of power between the US and Israel, going into negotiations in Washington this past week along with Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas with a strong stance for the complete freeze of all settlement activity, and ending with clear and potent calls for the Palestinians to continue down the road of diplomacy inspite of Israel’s refusal to consider the option of adhering to international law. In the words of Israeli writer, Uri Avnery, “No point denying it: in the first round of the match between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu, Obama was beaten.” Learning from past history, one can hardly be optimistic to expect a US victory in the second round, or anytime soon for that matter. And thereafter, the Israeli cue was emulated, and Obama followed it to the letter. Israel’s recent use of illegal weapons on civilians, its arsenal of hundreds of nuclear weapons and its refusal to consider disarmament paled in comparison to the potential threat that could arise should Iran seek a nuclear weapon some time in the future. Obama’s words to Ahmadinejad and the people of Iran at the UN were decisive: “They are going to have to make a choice: Are they willing to go down the path to greater prosperity and security for Iran, giving up the acquisition of nuclear weapons ... or will they continue down a path that is going to lead to confrontation.” This is sure to ignite a war of words, to the pleasure of Netanyahu and his extremist government. But the outcome of this duel will certainly exceed the realm of words. It seems that Obama’s rebuke and Netanyahu’s declarations could actually lead to the detriment of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and indeed to us all, by encouraging nations who until this point do not possess nuclear weapons to expedite the creation of their own arsenal. After all, what we have learned from this episode is that nations who do not yet possess weapons of mass destruction had better get on the band-wagon and make some, for it seems that without them, they are nothing more than sitting ducks. How ironic it is, and what a sweet-talker Netanyahu is, to successfully divert the world’s eye, ears and conscience away from what he has indeed done, to the dangerous notion of what another man with up until this point can only be branded for fiery speeches, could do some time in the future. As for Ahmadinejad’s crusade for Iran, it could be very possible that in the end, the ones who will pay for his bold declarations will be as usual, the Palestinians, who after the scourge of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead nearly one year ago, still await the bare necessities to rebuild, still thirst for clean water and basic sustenance. Netanyahu has been tireless at drawing parallels between Iran and Gaza, presenting them both to the world as dire threats to the existence of the Jewish State. When addressing the UN in New York on September 24, he branded Iran once again, exhorting that. “The struggle against Iran pits civilisation against barbarism. This Iranian regime is fueled by extreme fundamentalism. What starts as attacks on Jews always ends up engulfing others. This regime embodies the extremes of Islamic fundamentalism.” Interesting words from a man whose former administration and current administration could very well face the International Criminal Court for the endorsing the carrying out of crimes against humanity. Such utterances make one wonder, just who in the world are we to trust, and who in the world are we to fear? For the time being however, one can only hope that the international community reject all attempts to be blinded by Netanyahu’s fear mongering, and insist on a stern and decisive investigation into the alleged war crimes in Gaza, as presented in the Goldstone report so that the real culprits, not the imagined ones in Tehran, pay for their heinous crimes against the defenseless people of the Strip.
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