There is a distinct value to integrity. Just ask disgraced former FBI Director Big Jim Comey. His book is all about how much integrity he has, and how much he had when he and the FBI had when they were working dilligently to organize a coup.

Disgraced former FBI Director Jim Comey

I wanted to start this blog post by pointing out the obvious. Governments lie. The Obama regime is infamous for making up FISA warrant affidavits out of thin air and corrupting the US system of justice. I wouldn’t have expected a junta in Washington DC, but that’s what they were after. So as I begin to point out how systematically the Communist Chinese Party and their cadre lie, you’ll know that I’m not just taking shots at them.

Truth is a Christian value that is generally respected in the West.

John 8:32 King James Version (KJV) And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Satan is characterized as the “Father of Lies,” and those who lie or who break their oath can be fairly said to be following the Prince of Darkness.

When we testify in court, we raise our right arm to the square and promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (so help us God). Breaking that oath counts as perjury, a crime.

Those values do not extend to the Middle East or to Asia as a matter of cultural practice. (yes, they didn’t matter to Obama either but I think that he’s a closet Muslim, so maybe he felt that exempted him and his minions?) It’s perfectly acceptable under Sharia to lie. The art of the lie defines the central tenant of the bazar.

The East

There is a pattern of behavior among many Asian people that I have experienced. In government, lying to a superior is a firing offense. I’ve had many Asian people who worked for me: Cambodians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Iranian (Asiatic) and over the years, I found that there was a behavior wherein they wanted to please the boss. We all want to please the boss, but in this case, it wasn’t uncommon to lie to do so. There are two ways to react to this. First, to terminate the liar. Second, to understand that the lie is designed to please the boss. So I’d talk to the person involved at some length, explaining that a failure to do (whatever) wasn’t a matter for concern, but I needed to know what happened. The lie is walked back, everyone is happy and we all move forward.

A key weakness within the Chinese Communist Party in specific and in Red China more in general is the tendency for all levels of people in the organization to lie. In the West, we try to arrive at a set of facts that we can determine to be true. In the East, a face saving lie is preferable. This applies to crop reports, how much sand was added to the concrete in a building, or how many raisins are in the Raisin Bran (not necessarily “two scoops”). It underpins the reason that it’s the “land of the not quite right”.

How ready is the People’s Liberation Army (the Army’s Navy, etc) to take on the United States and Taiwan? Nobody knows, because the systematic cascading lies that form the culture to avoid embarrassment are extensive. In the US Navy, it’s called gun-decking, in the US Army, it’s creative writing, but in the PLA, it’s business as usual with no cultural or system backlash. It is said to be, “good enough”.

Our fellow blogger, Steve, asked how one could tell if the Communist Chinese were lying. The answer is that they can be expected to “always be lying”. And if you believe the lie, you’re stupid. They’re smarter than you because they told a lie and you believed it. When the Chinese are caught in a lie (as with the Chinese Plague) they react hysterically, the way a child throws a tantrum. It’s a cultural pattern.

A friend of mine established a business in China. I advised him to allow his partners to steal 10%. If they stole 10% they would reason that they’re smarter than him and they’d be content in the relationship. If he didn’t allow them to steal from him, they’d figure that he was stealing from them and they’d be uncomfortable and would act aggressively toward him. He later thanked me. When they weren’t stealing, they were unpleasant to be around.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. So, do we fight the PRC now or wait until they are more built up and ready for us ( U.S. )?

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

    • Truth be told, I think that their momentum will be broken or at least halted by the plague. Maybe regime change will take place? War with China is not a foregone conclusion. However if China keeps going down the path that President Xi has set, I think it’s unavoidable. Xi’s predecessor charted a course of openness to the West and a cooperative environment. Xi doesn’t roll like that, irrespective of what President Trump says. I think that President Trump understands that now.

        • That happens almost every summer when the snow melts and they can campaign. It’s India, or Bhutan or Nepal. They have already invaded and occupied Tibet. Ask the Tibetans how they feel about being a Chinese Satrap.

          India has the capacity to resist the Chinese with force. It might be interesting to base a US Division or two or three in India to bolster the punch…I don’t know if the Indians would want the help and I’m not sure that we should base troops in India, unless the Indians paid for it. However, it would give the Chinese more to think about

    • You’re a man of experience in dealing with our enemies. I wish that Congress could see the threat that they pose.

  4. Then there’s the sabre-rattling over Taiwan and Hong Kong, perhaps as a distraction from CV19 reparations. Hopefully Trump is well advised about how to deal with these threats, as he’s looking the wrong way right now, as the Iran/Venezuela oil transfer.

    • I don’t think that it’s a distraction. I think that they now believe that the world has turned against them (it has) and that they can be who they are, for all to see. Ultimately it’s a good thing. It will allow people to pick sides. Or nations such as New Zealand will rely on the protection of other, better nations to defend them against the Communist Chinese. It didn’t used to be like that with the Kiwis, but it is today. They’d prefer that others spend blood and treasure while they stand on the sidelines and bad mouth those who would keep them free.

  6. Closet Muslim – I have an in-law that is a big, behind the scenes, move-and-shaker in the Dem party. We got a Christmas card one year during Obama’s first term, where in-law was saying how proud he was of the U.S.A. for electing a Muslim.

    • I know how proud I was that America elected a metrosexual, African, Muslim. Proud. Yeah, that’s it.

      I thought that it would shut down the whole affirmative action racist thing but it only amplified it. He was elected by middle class white people that make up 80% of America.

  7. In a China thread today this appeared, “Chinese Ethics:
    https://files.catbox.moe/edpqhr.png
    (Sorry it’s an eye chart, but imho worth the read in at least entertainment value.)
    Too harsh? Offensive? Truthful? Maybe anon got burned in a business deal and has sour grapes.
    Perhaps forewarned is fore-armed.
    Is it generally okay to link images here? Apologies if that crosses a line.

    • It is clearly an eye chart.

      I don’t think that it’s off base, and people shouldn’t be offended. Look the only way to become a millionaire in China is to start off a billionaire. I’ve told many people that. All too often, they don’t listen, but hey, not my problem. Caveat emptor.

      • It all comes down to they (China-Coms) only consider themselves the real humans. The rest of us? Sub humans to be lied to, stolen from, cheated, to serve the real humans.

        But try telling ‘normal’ Americans this, and they look at you like you’re the Supreme Leader of the KKK and a Field Marshal in the SS in service to Adolf, oh, and a republican.

        Yeah…

        No.

        • Normal Americans are dupes. It’s sad but true. They listen to the evening news or their college professors and feel that they haven’t been buggered (hard).

  8. What kind of war with China should we fight? Getting involved in another ground war in Asia, no matter where, to me is the worst kind of foolishness. Can it be limited to air/sea?

    I’m bothered by our stationing troops abroad (and I’ve been there). They may be willing, but they are hostages to politicians.

    • I don’t think that we should fight a land war in Asia. I don’t think that we should fight any war that could evolve into a nuclear exchange. The question with China is what sort of war they will start and how should we respond? Or, “is there a way that we could deter a war with China?”

      The Cold War that you fought was successful. US Troops in Germany (and elsewhere) eventually led to the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The fact that Russia has evolved as it has, without a war, was remarkable, given where it was that we were.

      • If we have to ‘fight,’ we need to fight smart. We can repeat what we did to Japan in late 1944 and 1945. Cut off, isolate, sink their ships, cut their rails. Shut them off away from the rest of the world. India would help us. Looks like Australia would, too. Dunno about anyone else. Heck, I’d bet Vietnam would join in.

        • Japan would join in and so would the ROK. Taiwan would help, the Aussies, the Brits and the Vietnamese.

  9. Thanks, Larry, that was informative. I’ve worked for few (non-Chinese) managers that told lies in the same pattern you described. As to a war with China, it seems the realistic best we can hope for is a cold/proxy war like we had with the Soviets. I hope I’m wrong.

    • I hope that it doesn’t go nuclear. If it does, we need to turn the place into a sea of radioactive glass.

  10. So anyway, an outfit I know pretty well went into a joint venture with a Chinese company. They were to provide the intellectual property and the Chinese were to provide the manufacturing plant. All seemed reasonably well until one of the guys noticed the building appeared to be a lot longer on the outside than it was on the inside. So he wandered around to the other end and walked into an open door.

    Lo and behold, there’s a mirror image manufacturing plant, same-same machines and layout and everything, building the same machinery (albeit a different color) and he goes and finds his counterpart and says, WTF is all this, and the Chinese guys says, “That our side. Over here, your side. You stay over here. YOU STAY!”

    I actually have a much better story than that one, how the outfit I work for dodged getting into a similar situation, but maybe some other time.

    • Nothing new there. It’s a familiar pattern. If we need to have a blog entry on manufacturing in China and commentary, we can do that too. There are a lot of war stories and they are all similar. Time for a divorce from the Communist Chinese. Leave them isolated behind the Bamboo Curtain.

      • Yes, let’s have a discussion of Chinese manufacturing. Perhaps a history of how more and more manufacturers went over there. Certainly the allure of low cost goods seduced them. Did other countries’ companies do the same? How did technology transfer get approved by government? Chinese Pres. Winnie the Flu made it rain money all around for bribes with the usual results, but what/who failed to prevent this? What can we do(and how) in the future?

  11. Japan had a similar problem in WW2, especially in the lead-up to the Philippine Sea. The area commander had been falsifying his reports for at least a year to glorify himself, and so the Big Bosses went in thinking they had 3-4 times as many aircraft and as much materiel, and a vastly greater standard of training on site.

    -Kle.

    • I had not heard that, but I’m not the least surprised. Gun decking the stats is always a bad thing, but it’s culturally required in Asia.

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