After Ukraine: Will Taiwan Be Next?

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

The war in Ukraine has drawn attention away from the collapse of Joe Biden’s presidency at home, but Great Leader Xi Jinping of China’s Communist Party doesn’t mind that at all.
We wonder, if China does move on the Republic of China on Taiwan, how far will the world’s elites go to sanction Chinese interests around the world?
The London Telegraph reports that in England, the sanctioning of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has “thrown the future of Chelsea into turmoil. A sale of Chelsea Football Club is now on hold, with the club unable to sell tickets for future matches.”
That’s pretty big news in the U.K. To put the matter in American perspective, imagine Joe Biden closing down all the operations of a winning Major League baseball team, or a Super Bowl winner in the NFL, because of the nationality of its owner?
China’s holdings in the United States are far greater than Russia’s, of course, but the reverse is also true: China is home to a far larger share of the operations of American businesses than Russia is. If China invades Taiwan and the United States treats the evil Xi with the same zeal as it has employed with the evil Putin, where does “China Joe” Biden begin to punish domestic beneficiaries of the Chinese Communist Party?
With his son Hunter?
Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, has traced the long and fascinating history of China in his Bully of Asia and the new Politically Incorrect Guide to Pandemics. While others are still struggling to find Ukraine on a map, he has been keeping an eye on China’s role in the distant conflict.
“The leaders of the CCP have far more money, yachts, luxury apartments, and family members in the West than the Russian oligarchs do,” he says.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Joe Biden has banned Russian oil. Will he ban vital imports from China, and shut down America’s Big Tech and Big Biz oligarchs?
Well, that might shut down China, but wouldn’t it shut down much of the United States as well?
Meanwhile, “Xi Jinping is acting out an ancient Chinese stratagem,” Mosher says. “It’s called ‘Sitting on the mountaintop watching the tigers fight.’ Or, as we say in the U.S., albeit much less poetically: ‘Let’s you and him fight’.”
“Xi is closely following the fighting in Ukraine and the world’s reaction,” Mosher continues. “There is no doubt Xi hopes that Russian President Vladimir Putin succeeds in taking the former Soviet country. After all, Xi hopes one day soon to launch his own ‘special military action’ against the island of Taiwan.”
“China’s strategic alliance with Russia has already begun to pay dividends for Xi,” Mosher observes, because “Putin’s Ukrainian adventure has diverted America’s attention from Asia to Europe. President Biden’s State of the Union address hammered Russia on Ukraine for minutes on end. China, where a deadly virus originated that killed millions across the world, was scarcely mentioned.”
Marvelous how the scenery changes so easily in Plato’s Cave, isn’t it?
Joe Biden is silent on Communist China because Joe Biden is powerless on China. He is Xi’s fully-owned-subsidiary and America is paying the price.

Will The Oligarchs
Play For Keeps?

“While China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi publicly ‘laments’ the ‘outbreak of the conflict’ in Ukraine, let’s not forget that Putin flew to Beijing, as the Winter Olympics were starting, to meet with Xi and sign no fewer than 15 different agreements on trade, including oil and natural gas,” Mosher says.
“Then, just as Putin’s Panzers began rolling into Ukraine, China opened its doors to Russian wheat. The two countries even coordinated the timing of the attack, with Putin agreeing to delay his invasion until the Beijing games were over.”
“In other words, Putin set about expanding his empire knowing that the Chinese Communist Party had his back and would help to ease the pain of the economic sanctions that were sure to follow the invasion,” he says.
And what about a quick peace agreement between Zelenskyy and Putin? “China’s subsequent calls for a negotiated settlement are nothing more than window dressing,” Mosher says. “That’s why Beijing refuses to call Putin’s ‘special military action’ against Ukraine an invasion.”
Does Great Leader Xi have something “special” on his own “do list”?
Mosher sees cause for pause.
“If there is anything that will stop the butchery in Ukraine — and permanently deter CCP aggression against Taiwan — it is this threat to the Russian and Chinese oligarchs, that the money they’ve stolen from their own peoples and stashed overseas will be confiscated,” he writes.
Imagine Joe Biden freezing the financial assets of Big Tech’s China darlings in Silicon Valley the way Trudeau froze those of Canada’s truckers and their supporters.
How long would Joe last if the Oligarchs of Big Tech turned against him?
Both Xi and Putin might fear their own oligarchs more than they fear Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Xi watches from the mountaintop.

Leftovers

After Ron DeSantis’ impressive speech at CPAC last week, the Usual Suspects have started treating the Florida governor with the same scornful vitriol that they used to reserve for Donald Trump.
It’s a good sign for DeSantis. They’re afraid of him.
The Scions of Sodom have been especially violent in their attacks due to DeSantis’ passage of a bill that protects young children in Florida’s public schools from LGBT grooming. Parental rights are stressed in the bill, to the outrage of, well, folks like Florida State Rep. Carlos G. Smith, who proudly wears his gender on his Twitter sleeve. Smith condemns “Florida’s homophobia,” employing the epithet of choice for those lacking any logical arguments in their efforts to destroy Florida’s families one child at a time.
And Nancy Pelosi’s show trials drag on, armed with vast FBI intel, pursuing anyone who “liked” Donald Trump on January 6. Unfortunately, however, the Secret Service has informed Republican lawmakers that it just can’t manage to find any communications related to Hunter Biden’s official travels for three years when Joe Biden was vice president, the Washington Examiner reports (such official records are required to be preserved and archived. Apparently, the Secret Service hasn’t bothered to ask the FBI to use its extensive snooping skills on Biden’s son).
Millions of high-school seniors have submitted their college applications, and solid schools like Christendom College and the Franciscan University of Steubenville are experiencing historical levels of applicants.
Meanwhile, however, the situation is far different for millions of current and former students who paid sky-high tuitions at bottom-rung schools. They’re distraught, and so immersed in debt that they’re begging Joe Biden to let them off the hook and send their trillion-dollar-plus invoice to the taxpayer.
This desperate group of supplicants represents a sizable number of Americans. Their desire to be rescued from reality does not inspire a strong level of confidence in the ability of our younger generation of Americans to accept responsibility and accountability for their own actions.
Prospective students often ask, “Is college really worth it?” Well, fifty years ago new hires right out of college received starting salaries around $8,000 a year.
If those salaries had risen at the same rate as tuition at colleges and universities nationwide, members of the class of 2022 would be receiving $240,000 a year. Right out of school.