Fourth Short Quiz – Chapters 9 - 16

[johnkarls]

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It is respectfully suggested that you make a list of your own questions that are provoked by “On Xi Jinping” – since all of us are unique and your questions are worth discussing also!!!


1. In Chapter 9 (“Nationalism in Xi Jinping’s Worldviews), does Kevin Rudd have two tables (p. 208) “making a big deal” out of how many times Xi, in contrast to his two predecessors, used two “key nationalist terms” (“Chinese Nation” and “Great Rejuvenation”) in their respective Party Congress Reports (1992-1997-2002 for Jiang Zemin, 2007-2012 for Hu Jintao and 2017-2022 for Xi)?

2. Do we have any way of knowing whether Jiang or Hu had their own “key nationalist terms” without studying their reports??? Does it really matter??? After all, don’t American Presidents love to “coin” a new phrase to emphasize an idea, even if the concept evoked by the phrase is “old hat”? And, wasn’t Chapter 9 one of the 10 chapters that Rudd didn’t think in his Preface that “cheaters” need to bother to read???

3. On p. 209, Rudd claims that Xi’s “nationalist narrative” is not only an affirmation of Chinese virtues, but “simultaneously a critique of Western political, economic and cultural vices” – but how does this square with Western democracy and the lack of democracy in China???

4. And what about all those minorities in Tibet and Chinese Turkestan (aka Sinkiang Province) whose cultures are being exterminated???

5. Is Chapter 10 about Xi’s “wolf warrior” diplomacy, which contrasts with the previous policy of “Hide and Bide” established 4 decades earlier by Chairman Deng Xiaoping?

6. Isn’t the “wolf warrior” moniker bestowed by the world on Xi’s diplomacy a bit condescending???

7. In other words, doesn’t the world know that the best way to train a dog (since dogs still have all of their old wolf instincts – such as a wolf NEVER “dirties” its own cave) is to confine a dog to a cage for 24 hours and only let her/him out when it is time to “take a whiz” or whatever, at which time you briskly lead the dog to the backyard or wherever you want that to happen, and then put her/him right back in the cage??? BTW, does Your Truly guarantee this 24-hour training technique???

8. Is the condescension warranted because Xi’s “baring his fangs” has alerted the world to the danger and produced an appropriate reaction???

9. Do pp. 259-262 contain 7 graphs depicting Xi’s growing assertiveness contrasted with his predecessor, Hu Jintao?

10. Has Xi been just as assertive at the United Nations where, inter alia, he “hijacked” the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) to mask the role of the Wuhan China Institute of Virology in the development of COVID-19???

11. Does the 2021 Resolution of the CCP Central Committee “codifying” the Marxist and Nationalist Dimensions of “XI JINPING THOUGHT” to legitimize it in the eyes of both the party and the public SMACK OF GEORGE ORWELL’S “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU”???

12. Does “Xi Jinping Thought” put China, per Kevin Rudd, on a collision course with the U.S. and the West???

13. Is “Xi Jinping Thought” likely to outlast Xi himself, whenever his departure might be???

14. In this regard, doesn’t Rudd argue (p. 329-331) that personnel changes to the Standing Committee of the Politburo have been audacious, unprecedented, and a guarantee of permanent change???

15. And further in this regard, isn’t it true that Xi’s predecessor for the decade prior to Xi – Hu Jintao – was “arrested” and dragged from the stage just before the 2022 vote of the 20th Party Congress that re-elected Xi for another decade (ref. Q&A 30 through 32 of the Third Short Quiz) just as Hu realized that --

(A) Xi was going to cow with Hu’s public “arrest and dragging,” the delegates into re-electing Xi, rather than Hu’s protégé who was widely expected to be elected to succeed Xi for the next decade;

(B) Xi was going to depart from tradition and NOT EVEN INCLUDE ANYONE from Hu’s faction in the governing bodies; and

(C) “Xi Jinping Thought” was about to become a fait accompli???

16. Does Kevin Rudd cite any evidence whatsoever for his assertion (p. 334) that Xi’s arrest of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, and the dragging of Hu out of the 20th Party Congress just before it was scheduled in 2022 to elect (as widely expected) one of Hu’s protégés to succeed Xi for the next 10 years -- was “UNPLANNED”???

17. Does Rudd really believe that the effect of that arrest and dragging out, was NOT to cow the delegates to re-elect Xi for another decade???

18. So how does Rudd think WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE he can convince us that this was “UNPLANNED”???

19. Does Rudd suddenly say (p. 337) – “The thrust of this book is that, in the absence of fundamental ideological change, there is unlikely to be long-term strategic change…..”?

20. Does Xi adhere to the age-old distinction between strategy and tactics? For Xi, should strategy be based on the “dialectical materialism” of Karl Marx? Should the U.S. and the West care??? Is Xi’s Marxism-Leninism now international?

21. Is this a real threat to capitalism since communism has always foundered on its inability to motivate people unless they PROFIT from their effort???

22. After all, wasn’t the Communist Party of the Soviet Union honest enough to call its country the USSR which stood for Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics???

23. Isn’t the difference between socialism and communism that socialism ONLY MEANS the government owns the means of production, whereas communism ALSO MEANS that the fruits of production are distributed among everyone according to her/his need???

24. In other words, under socialism as practiced in the USSR, “oligarchs” (a pejorative term common in the Western media) took whatever they wanted after each ensured that each of her/his sub-oligarchs had enough to motivate her/him-self and her/his underlings???

25. BTW, Yours Truly always liked to “drive up the wall” his parents with the claim that Christ was the first communist? After all is there any difference between “from each according to his/her ability and to each according to his/her need” – and the second of Christ’s TWO commandments for “inheriting eternal life” to love your neighbors as yourself (which, in logical theory, should mean that you share with your neighbors until there is no economic difference)???

26. And haven’t the only truly-communist communities been so-called communes which are typically religious-based and quite small when contrasted with even the world’s smallest countries??? Would the Israeli Kibbutzim be good examples???

27. Though did Yours Truly relish pointing out to his parents that THE FAMILY is an example of the smallest truly-communist unit – at least in the ideal family where each member contributes toward the common good and draws only what s/he needs???

28. Does Rudd (pp. 380-384) describe 8 foreign-policy issues which, whether geographic or theoretical, should concern the world???

29. Does Rudd conclude (p. 406-407) that Xi’s problem for perpetuating “Xi Jinping Thought” is that he may not live long enough to implant sufficient “Xi Jinping Thought” acolytes in positions of power?

30. Does Rudd assert that Xi would have to live well into his nineties to accomplish this?

31. Did Rudd mention back on p. 142 that Xi turned 71 in 2024, his father lived to 88, and his mother the time of publication was still alive at age 97?

32. In this regard, doesn’t the primitive search capability in the upper-right-hand corner every frame on our website which permits only one-word searches, nonetheless provide the website with virtually-infinite value???

33. And doesn’t a simple one-word search for “expectancy” disclose with its third “hit” that Niall Ferguson investigated his own life-expectancy and ascertained that (as of the 5/4/2021 publication of his “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe) --

(A) At age 56, the Social Security Administration stated that his remaining life expectancy is 26.2 years for a total of 82.2.

(B) The U.K. Office for National Statistics stated that a 56-year-old man has a 25% chance of making it to 92 (NB: without explaining whether this is valid ONLY for Scots who emigrated to the U.S. 20 years ago).

(C) The “100 Year Life Expectancy Calculator” (https://www.livingto100.com/calculator) reported based on detailed questions & answers that he had a “better-than-even chance” of living 36 more years for a total of 92.

34. ACCORDINGLY, did Yours Truly go on https://www.livingto100.com/calculator which reported that I would live to 101 (with no percentage chances)? HOWEVER, did it opine on how many of my additional 21 years (as of 2 years ago, now only 19) would be spent as a vegetable???

35. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY VIS-À-VIS XI JINPING, did genetics seem to be the overwhelming predictor of longevity??? In my case, parents and grandparents living into their mid-90’s without exercising???

36. SO IN XI’S CASE (ref. Q-27), don’t Xi turning 71 in 2024, his father living to 88 and his mother still be alive at age 97 -- indicate Xi will indeed live long enough to ensure the eternal perpetuation of “Xi Jinping Thought”???

37. Do you think that whenever Xi does pass away, it would be appropriate for his acolytes to compile all of the important “Xi Jinping ThoughtS” in a “Little Book”? Would the most appropriate color for the Little Book be Red? Would this enable “Xi Jinping Thought” to replace Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book”? And erase the "thought" of all the intervening Chinese leaders?