Snapshots from China

It’s been an eventful week, culminating in an extraordinary rally in Washington whose impact (despite the mainstream media’s efforts to play it down) is being deeply felt by our leaders. I’m going to have more to say about that and other news next week. This week, I want to do something a little different.

Chinese girl in the Forbidden City
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

Callista and I recently spent 16 days visiting Tokyo, Seoul, and China. I previously reported to you about Japan and South Korea. Today I want to tell you about our trip to four Chinese cities: Beijing, Shenyang, Changchun and Jilin City.

I thought the best way to capture the extraordinary diversity of what is going on would be to give you a series of snapshots.

Chinese lotus at the Summer Palace in Beijing
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

There were thousands of people in the Forbidden City in Beijing on Sunday, August 23rd, with an extraordinary range of clothing, different haircuts, happy, noisy, and energy—a far cry from the Mao pajamas of 40 years ago. As freedom increasingly edges into Chinese life, the challenge to the central dictatorship grows greater and greater.

The Forbidden City
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

Herding Cats in Beijing

Statue in the Forbidden City
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

In Beijing, it occurred to me that Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s famous saying, “I do not care if it is a black cat or a white cat as long as it catches mice” (meaning he did not care if policies were traditional Chinese Communist or market capitalism as long as they produced jobs and prosperity) had a long-term implication no one in the dictatorship understood.

If the thousands of people in the Forbidden City were now productive cats who were creating wealth and competing in a market economy, they were going to be harder and harder to govern.

Callista and Newt with Jia Quinglin (the #4 CCP official in China)
and Wang Jiarui from the International Liaison Department
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

Newt and Zhang Zhijun from the Foreign Ministry
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

As I said to one leading Minister “You now have 1,300,000,000 cats learning to be more and more independent decision makers in their jobs and their personal lives. The likelihood that you can discipline them like trained dogs is as unthinkable as trying to train over a billion cats. You will eventually have to decentralize decisions and get them away from the government.”

Feeling the Pressure to Create 24 million New Jobs Next Year

A bride and groom celebrate in Shenyang
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

Our trip was the first in my experience in which no Chinese official raised a question about Taiwan. Their overriding concern was jobs and the economy. They were very worried about what was happening in the United States.

The economic pressure the Chinese dictatorship feels to continue creating jobs can be captured by the fact that they need 24 million new jobs this next year just to break even.

Their fear is that without jobs unrest will grow and that historically in China unrest can rapidly become very destabilizing. This focuses their energy on jobs and the economy in a way no American politician can fully appreciate.

The Huntsman Family, U.S. Ambassadors to China

We met with the new American Ambassador, former Utah Governor John Huntsman, and his lovely family. Mary Kaye Huntsman is a passionate advocate for youth and has created several programs to help kids cope emotionally with various challenges. The Huntsman’s have seven children. One of their daughters is a concert pianist and is going to be a great cultural ambassador for America. Ambassador Huntsman speaks fluent Mandarin and will be a great advocate for our values.

Six Pandas, Six Decades of Communist Party Rule

Panda at the Beijing Zoo
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

There are six young Pandas at the Beijing Zoo, one for each of the six decades of the Communist Party’s rule.

In October China will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. The celebration will be immense, but it is no longer the China of Communist Party revolutionary Mao Zedong. Increasingly it is reformer Deng Xiaoping’s China and becoming its own China.

Just off Tiananmen Square is a Kentucky Fried Chicken. It seems to rival McDonald’s and Starbucks as favorite fast food places.

A Changed China Since 1997

Terra Cotta Warrior from Xian
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

Things have changed a great deal in China since my first trip there in 1997.

The traffic in Beijing and Shenyang, for instance, was intense and could be very slow. There were many more people in cars and fewer people on bicycles compared to 12 years ago.

On the brighter side, connectivity in China was amazing. On a bus between Shenyang and Changchun in northeastern China, Callista called her mother in Whitehall, Wisconsin, and got a perfect connection. They had a 20-minute conversation (the bill hasn’t come in yet).

Sculpture in Shenyang
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

Even more surreal was finding a Mulligan’s Irish Bar in the Holiday Inn in Shenyang complete with a Thai band with two singers in yellow jumpsuits singing songs by Abba.

The September 18 Museum in Shenyang is a vivid reminder of the atrocities the Japanese committed in their attacks on China. September 18, 1931 was the date of the first Japanese attack into China. This museum is as vivid as the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. The picture of a row of Chinese heads lying on the ground is a vivid reminder of the bitterness, which still exists among Chinese toward the Japanese.

The September 18 Memorial in Shenyang
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

China also has Wal-Mart. In fact, the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Changchun had a great sale on suitcases (we had acquired too many gifts and souvenirs and needed more space) and we went there for a $13 suitcase. About ten blocks from the Wal-Mart was a classic Buddhist Temple where people were praying and worshipping.

Wal-Mart Supercenter in Changchun
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

Hearing “Amazing Grace” Sung In Chinese

While we were in China, we went to Mass, both at Beijing’s South Cathedral and in Jilin City in Northeastern China.

Statue of Father Ricci at the Beijing South Cathedral
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

Both Masses were very moving experiences. Hearing “Amazing Grace” sung in Chinese was both unusual and inspiring. The emotional commitment of the people was profound. And the Priests were very welcoming.

The Jilin City Cathedral
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

In Jilin City. the Cathedral was built in the late 1920s by the French. Now it is used as the symbol of the City in their publications. In Beijing an older Nun introduced us to a young Priest who had taught at St. John’s University in Minnesota and was now back home in China.

In the Palace of “The Last Emperor”

In Changchun we visited the palace of Henry Puyi’s, China’s famous “last emperor.” Being there was a reminder of how fast and decisively life can change.

Henry Puyi was the boy emperor at the end of the Manchu (Qing) dynasty. He ascended the throne when he was just two years old but was deposed just a few years later, ending over 2,000 years of imperial rule.

Puyi’s Garden
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

After losing his throne, Puyi lived in the Forbidden City in Beijing while all around him was a new revolutionary and chaotic China. He sought safety with the Japanese and they brought him to Changchun and established him as a puppet emperor while they governed Northeastern China. When Japan collapsed, Puyi became the ward of the Chinese Communists. Instead of executing him as a Japanese collaborator they “reeducated” him and “rehabilitated” him. He ended his life as a Chinese citizen working modestly in Beijing in the new world that had replaced the empire. All of that in one life (you can see it in the fascinating movie “The Last Emperor”).

Some Final Words of Thanks

First, my thanks to Callista, who took these amazing photos of our trip. (Visit GingrichProductions.com to view more of her photography.)

Provincial Chinese officials in NE China and the American Foreign Policy Council delegation
© Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

And second, thanks once again to Herman Pirchner and the American Foreign Policy Council.

Herman and his team do a great job of organizing trips like this. We saw an amazing amount in just a few days and met with a wide range of people.

Your friend,

Newt Gingrich

Newt’s Quick Links

• Next Monday, September 21, is the deadline to submit comments to the Department of Interior on whether or not we begin drilling for more American energy. We’ve already collected 65,000 comments in favor of drilling, but we to make one last push to make sure we beat the anti-energy groups. Please submit your comments right now at YourEnergyOpinion.com and ask your friends to do the same.
• Days of Infamy, the sequel to Bill Forstchen and my NY Times bestseller Pearl Harbor is out in paperback. You can pick it up wherever books are sold.

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Comments

By SunTzu @ Friday, September 18, 2009 2:57 AM

Newt,
Your post about China is very interesting but you seem to fail to understand the danger that China presents to America. You do not make any mention of the military buildup in China – one of the largest throughout history. Aircraft carriers, missiles, planes, advanced ships and much more is being developed with money gained by trade with the US. China has just completed their aircraft killer bomb that prevents us from coming close to China and Taiwan in the event that China attacks Taiwan. The main focus of China is to take control of Taiwan, which is seen in its requirement to support China’s view of the “One China Policy” and deny Taiwan legitimacy in the UN and other world bodies. One only needs to look at the vast missiles pointed at Taiwan to know that something is up. Even the exact mock ups of Taiwan’s key military bases can be seen from our spy satellites.

But China has greater aspirations than just Taiwan for it seeks to supersede the US as the World Power. This can be seen in the duplicity observed in their relations with us. Out of one side of their mouth they talk about a multipolar world where no one power is in control. At the same time they are undermining the US while they seek world control. For example, our generals were upset when they found terrorists in Iraq with Chinese weapons and ammunitions which were used to kill our troops. It is believed that China sent those arms directly to Iraq to aid the terrorists. Over a year ago, China shot down an old satellite with a missile to show us their capability of destroying our satellites. These satellites enable us to project our power throughout the world. China has also helped rogue states develop new technology. For example, Iran owes much of its missile technology to China for they have helped train and advance Iran’s capabilities by joint missile projects. Syria, Libya, and North Korea are other countries that China has helped.

But if China is so friendly to the United States, why are they working against our interests? The book, “Unrestricted Warfare China’s Master Plan to Destroy America” is written by Col. Qiao Liang and Col. Wang Xiangsui both from the People’s Liberation Army of China. They write about the secret war with America and how China will fight it.

One way of fighting is Network Warfare where China will use the unconventional means of hacking and other methods of attacks our informational systems. Everyday, US government computers are attacked by government hackers from China. China also sends over smart students to America with the goal of becoming US citizens in information critical positions controlling our networks, financial institution computers, government computers, and more.

Most parts in computers are manufactured in China, so it is highly likely that they have maliciously altered hardware and software enabling them to circumvent our most secure systems. Many Chinese leaders have degrees in engineering so it would be reasonable to assume they understand the potential of controlling computers both by software and hardware coupled with hacking. Can you imagine the power of being able to shutdown our financial institutions. Potentially, China may have this capability today and could unleash havoc on America if they decide such action would be useful. How about shutting down our power grids, and factories? Any network system connected to the Internet would be vulnerable. If the appropriate hardware was concealed and hidden within the hardware, even systems not connected to networks could be in harms way.

The book talks about unrestricted warfare in its many forms. There is financial warfare, smuggling warfare, cultural warfare, drug warfare, media and fabrication warfare (what they are waging against you), technology warfare, resources warfare, environmental warfare and much more. Some of the more dangerous examples are the arming of terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.

But some say that China would never attack America because they want our trade. China has positioned itself to be the world’s manufacturer so although trade with America is lucrative, their quest for world power could easily trump any short-term financial goals. Besides, if they control the world, they would find out new ways for financial gain – we should not be so naïve!

By cymoo1 @ Wednesday, September 16, 2009 3:02 PM

It is highly important that our immediate energy needs are met now in the short term as well as in the future. The presents of increasing production cost through governmental restriction, regulation, and taxation will do nothing more than defer our economic recovery.

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