BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY DEC. 21, 2020) — As the last day of fall becomes the first day of winter, THE PLANET muses about a story that will have as much impact on Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and America as the calamities of the city council, the doings of the DA, or the perils of the pandemic.

We speak of China, that rising dragon whose exercise of “soft power” has brought about the most rapid resurgence from the cellar to the penthouse in world history.

The latest example: China’s mission to the moon, not the Helen kind but the green-cheese kind. Here’s how the wire services reported it:

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China has landed a robotic spacecraft on the moon, Xinhua, the official statenews agency reported on Tuesday. The probe will spend two days gathering rocks and dirt from the lunar surface, with the goal of returning the first cache of moon samples to Earth since 1976.

© Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Long March 5 rocket carrying the Chang’e-5 lunar probe launching from the Wenchang Space Center in Hainan Province on Nov. 24.

The spacecraft, Chang’e-5, was the third successful uncrewed moon landing by China since 2013, when Chang’e-3 and its Yutu rover became China’s first visitor to make a lunar soft landing. In 2019, Chang’e-4 landed on the moon’s far side, the first spacecraft from Earth to ever do that. At least three more Chang’e moon landers are planned for the coming decade, ahead of China’s aspiration of building a moon base for astronauts in the 2030s.

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In and of itself, China’s moon mission doesn’t mean much for your life, but as the exemplification of the larger ascendancy, it indicates the most profound changes in the years ahead.

Bloomberg Businessweek this week published a lengthy analysis of China’s rise. Some key points:

• In 3rdQ of 2020, China’s GDP rose 4.9%, “an astounding rebound in a world still mostly mired in a pandemic-induced paralysis.”
• China represents the No. 1 foreign policy issue facing America. THE PLANET agrees. Unfortunately, President Donald Trump accelerated America’s hostility to its only rival for World Superpower status, a troubling trend begun under Barack Obama to be continued with Joe Biden. The U.S. chose confrontation over diplomacy. We are now paying the price. Like the mounting interest in a loanshark’s generosity, that price will sharply rise.

• The West’s big mistake has historical roots. We view China in terms of U.S. history. This xenophobic view ignores China’s history with respect to itself. In fact, the case can be made and won that for the past 2,000 years, China has been the world’s largest economy. In America we only look at the 18th, 19th and 20th century, but in the centuries prior, China ruled. Read the accounts of Marco Polo (13th center) and Vasco Da Gama (15th-16th), who were dazzled by the wealth of China versus Europe’s  standard of living.
• China’s “Four Pillars” philosophy has not changed under communism: economic, political, military, and culture (society). These frameworks, not ideological communism, support China’s activities both domestic and foreign.

America got on the right track with China under Richard Nixon, whose visit in 1972 ranks as the 20th century’s boldest and most brilliant political move. President Nixon realized the epic changes that were under way, and he pounced upon an aging Mao, a figurehead by then, and with Henry Kissinger got down to business with Chou En Lai, China’s secretary of state. Sadly, the 21st century brought a series of weak presidents for us and adept premiers for them, a case for “politics matter” if ever there was one. One example: China’s status as the world’s major manufacturing center, “capable of producing valuable goods at a mind-boggling rate” (Bloomberg).

How will this affect you?

• The yuan will supplant the U.S. dollar as the world’s favored business currency.
• Once that happens, the U.S. will slip to No. 2 and a profound economic slump.

• As the world’s unchallenged superpower, China will discontinue America’s addiction for world policing. An example of China’s “soft power” can be seen in Africa, where it has a “hands-off” policy. America wants to covert the world to democracy. China will allow the world its regional preferences.
• If America doesn’t change its China policy, it will pick yet another war it cannot win (Korea, Vietnam, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism). THE PLANET predicts a Cold War and not world war because China is too smart for that, although if the U.S. tries to prevent China’s inevitable takeover of Taiwan, all bets are off the table.

THE PLANET doesn’t see much good coming out of the Biden-Harris foreign desk. Our advice to the country: Prepare for the worst.

That said, we are more than willing to be pleasantly surprised.

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“There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare” — Writer Mary Renault.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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