George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 104

The Great America of George W. Bush – Episode 103

The giant dragon of the East had become a sleeping dragon. It wasn’t just crouching; it was lying flat on its back, belly exposed. The meaning behind this action was, ‘Debts from the Qing Dynasty? The People’s Republic of China knows nothing of such debts.’ To put it more succinctly, ‘Oh well, sue me!’

In personal terms, this would be a declaration of bankruptcy. But on a national scale, they were reluctant to use the straightforward term ‘grace period,’ opting instead for the somewhat refined Latin term ‘moratorium’ [a temporary prohibition of an activity].

Of course, this refinement only applies to the one declaring the moratorium. For a normal country, it’s a humiliating term that should never be uttered.

And beyond that is default. It’s the stage where you offer up your belly and tell them to take what they want. If it’s a small country, it might not matter, but if it’s a large country like the United States, they’ll really mess you up, clouding the future and leaving you with no solution.

Former President Hu Jintao declared this, then, metaphorically, paid the ferryman of the Yellow River one lead bullet with a domestically produced pistol, successfully escaping to the realm of King Yama [the god of death in Chinese mythology] with the fare for 1.3 billion Chinese. The current President, Li Keqiang, could only seethe with frustration.

‘President, my foot! What kind of president does this?’ Li Keqiang didn’t want this position. He struggled and fought to avoid it, but in the end, he was forced into it.

When Hu Jintao lost power through death, the Communist Youth League, which had spread throughout China, collapsed in an instant. This event taught the leadership a painful lesson: no organization other than the government should exist within the state. The close aides who had clung to Hu Jintao, the so-called ‘pure stream faction,’ mostly lost their positions or resigned.

‘Well, what good is it to hold power in a country that can no longer be called a country?’

In any case, Li Keqiang, who was forced to take on the presidency—a position like a ticking time bomb about to explode—was a man who couldn’t avoid becoming involved in politics, despite his wishes, with a law degree and the title of the youngest governor. In the merit-based political circles of the People’s Republic of China, he struggled and earned degrees in law, a master’s degree, and even a doctorate in economics!

Now, at the relatively young age of 47, he had risen to the presidency. His achievements so far truly deserved the title of a political genius.

And he was the one who knew best what would happen to the Five-Starred Red Flag hanging behind his office.

‘Whether it’s a sword or a bullet, it’ll soon be torn into a thousand pieces.’

Perhaps not. Maybe instead of guns and swords, a large and powerful bomb would fall on the office due to a small mistake. It’s a common occurrence in wartime, when chaos reigns instead of reason. A minor error by an observer can change the coordinates.

‘If I want to get out of this position in one piece, I have no choice but to secure as many vested interests as possible.’

He didn’t like being unilaterally victimized with his eyes wide open, but it was happening because all the people in the Communist Party were looking for a scapegoat. Humans are designed to lick the sweet and spit out the bitter, so it’s only natural for all the politicians in the Communist Party to avoid the heavy responsibility that comes with great power. No, it was nature itself.

It’s like when you drop an object, it falls to the ground due to gravity, or like a water strider floats on water due to surface tension. It’s a law of the universe, a truth.

The point is that Li Keqiang’s misfortune stemmed from the most basic element of self-preservation that makes up the microcosm of humanity. Since Li Keqiang, Hu Jintao’s successor, was specifically chosen as the scapegoat, it was as natural and inevitable as a natural phenomenon occurring in the macrocosm.

‘But I can’t let that happen. Damn it!’

This was, of course, only natural. Even if it’s a natural phenomenon, understanding it and accepting it are two different things. Usually, when an unexpected shower comes on the way to work, you curse the inconvenient rain, not say, ‘Ah, I see. It’s raining,’ and laugh it off. If there is someone like that, it’s madness beyond positivity.

Of course, he felt like he was about to go mad, but at least for now, the will to live was burning brightly within Li Keqiang. Although the odds were astronomical, even if there was no way to rebuild the fallen Communist China, there were endless ways to maintain and enhance Li Keqiang’s personal success.

However, even if there were endless ways, it was the number of ways, not the probability of success. Just thinking about it made his brain boil. But what did he care? If the time came to die, he didn’t intend to die alone.

‘We’re all going together. Do you think I’ll just sit here and take it?’

Originally, it was a thought that the head of state should never have, but was he really the head of state? He was just a scarecrow dressed in an Mao suit, with the title of President attached to a borrowed sack of barley. Still, he didn’t really intend to just preserve his power and step down. Li Keqiang wasn’t so heartless as to abandon his country and run away in pursuit of personal gain.

‘Still, it’s a relief that I have everything I need.’

If Li Keqiang didn’t have even the military power, which was the first and last resort for the President, he would have had to follow in Hu Jintao’s footsteps before things got even worse. The China that Hu Jintao had left behind was such a country. In fact, the division was not something Hu Jintao could have controlled.

Even if Hu Jintao had succeeded in silver speculation, the division would have come someday due to the repayments flowing out to the United States. Even if the division didn’t happen, each province would have had more autonomy than necessary.

‘Xinjiang Uyghur and Tibet are already moving. Especially the Uyghurs; they are already armed. Tibet is passive, but they are openly shouting “Long live Tibetan independence!” while waving the snow lion flag [the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile].’

Li Keqiang wrung his hands. He couldn’t just send troops to suppress them. Of course, he could suppress the Uyghurs, but it had to end at the level of public security. If he sent in the military, the weakened China couldn’t handle the scrutiny of the international community. Especially the United States, which prides itself on being the world’s police and stands with its hands behind its back.

Above all, it was necessary to prevent the United States from getting more involved at all costs. Although the former president had defaulted, the Communist Party was still preventing it from being announced through a majority of legal procedures, claiming that China was not dead yet.

So what was Li Keqiang thinking?

‘This is not good. What should I do? What should I do?’

If you were to define what kind of person Li Keqiang was, he was a ‘coward.’

No, if you call him a coward, how would you know? What kind of coward is he? He is a coward because he is excessively ‘cautious’ and ‘lacks presence’ in everything he does.

Being cautious means that he fully recognizes and understands the repercussions of his words, and lacking presence means that he is quiet. Combining these two means that he is afraid of politics. So he is a coward.

That’s not to say he’s incompetent. How could he have risen to this position if he were incompetent? Rather, his work ability far exceeded the average. However, he knows too well how his politics will work, so he can’t help but be terrified, so he becomes more cautious and quiet in order to avoid making mistakes.

However, even though he can be close to politics, he is not very suited as a politician, so his personality is innocent and relatively easygoing compared to other politicians. To get an idea of how much, let’s tell a story. It’s a story of the distant future, and it has become a future that will never come.

When Li Keqiang was the Premier, he wanted to see the market in Chengdu with his own eyes because he couldn’t get a sense of it from the reports alone. When someone like Li Keqiang goes anywhere, he is a leading figure in China, so he needs special security, not just general security.

If the second-in-command were to get hurt in Chengdu, the entire city would be turned upside down. Heads would roll. Anyway, when the Chengdu police controlled all population movement in the market, the merchants in the market were out of business that day. How could they sell goods when there was no one to buy them?

When Li Keqiang found out about this, he asked a butcher shop to sell him meat. The butcher, who didn’t know the value of his life, said:

‘I can’t sell it.’

When Li Keqiang asked why, the butcher said:

‘Because you’re out for a stroll, I don’t have a knife to cut the meat.’

If it were someone else, the butcher might have been found dead the next day, but Li Keqiang, who had been scolded, said it was worth it and let it go. Hu Jintao liked this personality and appointed him as the next president. Hu Jintao had a similar personality, so he felt a sense of kinship.

However, in Hu Jintao’s case, he tried to awaken the gambler’s spirit sleeping inside him, which he didn’t have in his destiny, due to the Qing Dynasty debt, but he collapsed. Both Hu Jintao and Li Keqiang were similar.

Anyway, in other words, Li Keqiang, ironically, was ‘a person with more allies than enemies’ thanks to his likable personality as a politician.

How did such a person become a scapegoat? To go back to the beginning, no matter what, he didn’t want to die. Politicians are basically people with strong self-love.

There may be people who are not, but even if they want to volunteer to be a scapegoat and sit in the president’s seat, the president is a position delegated by a small number of Communist Party members who have been recognized for their abilities, so they ‘lack qualifications!’

‘This is a damn mess.’

Li Keqiang could only mutter a curse under his breath. Considering what the desks of the previous owners of the office looked like when their stress levels exceeded the limit, this desk could be said to be very lucky.

‘If I can properly control the Beijing Military Region and the Shenyang Military Region, I can somehow manage.’

If you can’t save everyone, shouldn’t you save at least what you can save? If you hold on to the two most powerful military regions, you can somehow manage. Even if it becomes the worst-case scenario, like a rebellion.

‘And the Central Military Commission.’

The reason why the Central Military Commission is important is that they are the organization that oversees the Rocket Force. Of course, the President has the right to make decisions for all military regions, but there is no guarantee that they will really listen when things go wrong.

The reason why the Rocket Force is important is that the rockets are ICBMs [Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles]. Unless Li Keqiang is really crazy, he wouldn’t launch nuclear missiles within his own country, but the mere fact that he has nuclear weapons gives him tremendous leverage.

‘We can still delay the division. Even if it does divide, there is a way for China to survive!’

There was a time when Li Keqiang thought so.