George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 59

The Great America of George W. Bush – Episode 58 (59/377)

There was a saying that something cost ‘billions.’ It was a phrase commonly used when reporting negative economic news, especially when the amounts involved exceeded billions of units of currency.

From Jiang Zemin’s mouth came a frustrated exclamation of ‘billions!’ This was because the initial promise of ‘100 billion dollars’ had been whittled down to ’80 billion dollars’ annually. It felt like some kind of credit card installment plan, or a lottery with annual payouts.

Because of this reduction, China had to significantly reduce spending on national projects and defense, at least for the time being.

If 80 billion dollars doesn’t seem like much, consider that Russia, once considered a military powerhouse, was spending only 9 billion dollars on its defense budget.

Due to the Qing Dynasty bond incident [referring to historical debts China was forced to assume], this year’s emergency GDP calculation was about 9.58 trillion yuan, with a growth rate of 7%, which seemed ideal. The problem was that this ideal growth trajectory was about to plummet.

Converted to American terms, it was about 1.3 trillion dollars, and China had to spend 6% of its GDP every year to repay the Qing Dynasty bonds. Growth? They were squeezing and squeezing just to repay a debt; what else could they possibly do?

Even with just this one burden, Jiang Zemin was furious when he learned that Diaoyu Island [also known as the Senkaku Islands, a disputed territory] had been effectively handed over to Japan under the direction of the United States. He protested to the United States and Japan and hurriedly dispatched the navy to try to protect Diaoyu Island, but the US Navy’s carrier fleet was vigilantly guarding the area, leaving him powerless.

Realizing that everything was collapsing, Jiang Zemin turned pale and slumped onto the floor of his office.

“Heu, heu heu.”

There was no answer. Jiang Zemin would soon have to take responsibility for all of this and resign.

“George! George Walker Bush!!!”

It was all because of George W. Bush, who became the President of the United States during Jiang Zemin’s term. Jiang Zemin blamed himself for not actively intervening in the US presidential election. He believed he should have pushed for John McCain at all costs.

However, no matter how powerful a person is, time cannot be turned back. Although scientific advancements have made it possible to recover even spilled water, science has not yet developed enough to reverse time itself.

Before Deng Xiaoping died, he designated Hu Jintao as Jiang Zemin’s successor. Because of this, Jiang Zemin began to focus on consolidating his power and influence in order to stay in the position of Chairman for as long as possible, managing to maintain the position for almost 10 years. Furthermore, he was still struggling, both internally and externally, to postpone the succession ceremony as much as possible.

Hu Jintao had many complaints about Jiang Zemin’s dictatorial style of leadership. But with such a significant opportunity presenting itself, Hu Jintao wore an expression that made it hard to tell whether he should cry or laugh.

China is a dictatorship. Although China works hard to deny it, no one can deny the fact that it is a one-party dictatorship of the Communist Party, which always secures an overwhelming majority with hundreds of times more seats than the opposition parties. The number of seats secured by the Communist Party was consistently around 2,000, while the opposition parties combined barely held 300 seats.

However, the tendencies and opinions within the Communist Party were not unified, and there were clearly defined factions.

The power structure of the Communist Party is roughly divided into three groups: the Communist Youth League, the Princelings [descendants of high-ranking officials], and the Shanghai Gang. The reason I describe it as vaguely divided is that, although the factions were divided by ideological common ground, they were also factions created by ‘Guanxi’ [关系]. Even among the Princelings, there were many people who had connections with the Communist Youth League and the Shanghai Gang.

Guanxi was a unique Chinese relationship culture, a complex web of connections based on blood ties, regional ties, and school ties, similar to what is commonly found in capitalist societies. To put it nicely, it meant Liu Bei forming a brotherhood under a peach tree [referencing a famous story from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, symbolizing loyalty and camaraderie], and to put it badly, it was simply a decadent culture that encouraged collusion between politicians and businessmen.

Jiang Zemin’s Guanxi belonged to the Shanghai Gang. Of course, since it was Guanxi rather than a rigid faction, Jiang Zemin’s connections didn’t stop at the Communist Youth League, but it was certain that Jiang Zemin was at the top of the Shanghai Gang.

On the other hand, Hu Jintao’s Guanxi belonged to the Communist Youth League. Therefore, Hu Jintao had been working for a long time to dismantle or seize control of the Shanghai Gang.

However, what was more painful than Jiang Zemin’s own downfall was the fact that China would lose its economic growth engine and regress for several years. Just as the sleeping dragon was waking up and raising its head, the reality that it had to return to hibernation was thousands, tens of thousands of times more painful than his personal failure.

‘Let’s wait and see. Although we are sinking again like this now, no empire lasts a thousand years. The United States will also decline eventually. When that time comes, our Chinese era will come again.’

This was not just Jiang Zemin’s thought.

“The United States, get out!”

The anti-American sentiment that had been building up over time exploded, turning into anti-American demonstrations and movements, and the already fragile public order was on the verge of collapse. Although they couldn’t dare to mobilize the military, the crowds that usually dispersed at the mere sight of the public security’s shadow were stubbornly united and refused to disperse.

The fact that they moved collectively like this, even though China is a country that prohibits unauthorized gatherings, was nothing short of a nightmare for the Chinese government. It was no coincidence that the Chinese Communist Party in 2019 was referred to as Big Brother by foreign media, controlling personal information and human rights and blocking mutual exchanges with the Golden Shield and Tianwang (天網) [Sky Net, a massive surveillance system].

Of course, it was just a group that stopped at anti-American movements for now, but who knew if this would lead to the overthrow of the Communist Party government in the future? Naturally, the public security forces were deployed, but since the protests were happening all over the country and patriotism was the main focus, it was difficult to suppress them as strongly as the Party desired.

People were assaulted and even killed simply for entering McDonald’s and KFC. The reason why hamburger restaurants were targeted was that McDonald’s and KFC were considered symbols of American capitalism to the Chinese working class. The justification for the assaults was the twisted logic that ‘the hamburger you buy there will later become a bomb and come back to hurt us!’

It wasn’t entirely accurate, but it wasn’t entirely wrong either.

It is true that Chinese yuan flows into the United States, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it goes directly into defense spending. Regardless, in China at that moment, simply using American-made consumer goods such as Nike and Coca-Cola was considered an act of treason.

The problem is that they were smashing all American-made products, from Hollywood movie CDs to cars, creating a scene that resembled a riot.

However, if the Chinese government took the lead in stopping this, the Communist Party would appear to be a pro-American regime. It was an absurd situation for both the Communist Party and the people, but what could they do? There was no other option. Jiang Zemin, unable to take decisive action immediately, agreed to have the public security infiltrate the groups that seemed to be evolving into riots and closely monitor them.

However, this only caused the protesters to rebel, shouting, “Are the public security really Chinese!? Are they fake Chinese!?” and causing some friction with the authorities. Because of this, the public security, who were supposed to be the people’s protectors, had to physically wield their batons to forcibly suppress the protests, creating a truly ironic situation.

Anyway, at this point, a normal country would be busy shifting responsibility between the ruling and opposition parties, but the Communist Party, which rules China, is not a normal political group, so its response was truly creative. Can anyone in the East or West more accurately put into practice the saying ‘Crisis is an opportunity’ than the Communist Party?

The authority of the public security was greatly strengthened, and citizens who defied the public security were temporarily treated as second-class citizens.

However, although the administrative structure was unusual, the administration itself still needed to function, so someone needed to take responsibility. And of course, everyone knew who that person was without being told.

However, Jiang Zemin also had a lot to say. Frankly, who knew that Qing Dynasty bonds would suddenly resurface? It could have just as easily happened during the Hu Jintao regime, right? However, what everyone wanted was not Jiang Zemin’s flimsy excuses, but a scapegoat who would take responsibility for the situation and become a stepping stone for moving forward.

Therefore, Jiang Zemin eventually entrusted everything to Hu Jintao in the form of a voluntary resignation and retired from politics relatively peacefully. Originally, he should have joined the ranks of the elders [influential retired officials], but the circumstances were not favorable.

‘How on earth did this happen?’

It is said that when emotions are extremely intensified, they turn into ashes that have been completely burned out.

The current Jiang Zemin was almost a completely different person from the day before. Confined to his home, he rarely reacted to external stimuli. He was a shadow of his former self.

Of course, this was also part of Jiang Zemin’s strategy. Since he was out of the government’s sight, he needed to appear as harmless and inactive as possible. Besides, even if it wasn’t a political life but simply his personal life, he was old enough to be considered elderly.

The wealth he had accumulated over the years was so vast that he couldn’t spend it all even if he squandered it until his death, but it was clear that it would soon be confiscated as wealth accumulated through illicit means. Of course, there was also wealth that the Party’s reach couldn’t touch, but considering the lavish lifestyle Jiang Zemin usually enjoyed, he wouldn’t be able to live a very satisfactory life.

Of course, even if Jiang Zemin was conscious, it didn’t mean that his senses were fully intact. He was clearly at least half-broken. Jiang Zemin just stared blankly at the teacup and out the window, alternately, and then tried to estimate the future of his country. He attempted to view it positively several times, but even with wishful thinking, the outlook wasn’t good for at least the next 30 years.

At least, as chairman, the amount of information he received was significantly greater. Of course, the word ‘former’ was now attached to his title, but until just a few hours ago, it was Jiang Zemin who was in control of China. Therefore, he could predict China’s bleak future more clearly than anyone else in the world.

There is an old saying that if the body is unwell, the mind suffers, and China is exactly in that situation now. If it were as rich and powerful as the United States, it wouldn’t have to strain its resources so much, but it was a truly terrible situation.

‘In the Qing Dynasty, it was invaded by Western powers, and in the Republic of China, it was invaded by Japan. Now the United States is putting pressure on China! But it won’t be easy. Unlike in the past, the foundation and ideology needed for growth have been faithfully accumulated.’

‘But now, all I can do is lament!’

The next day, Jiang Zemin donated all the assets that the Chinese government had identified and disappeared from China on his own accord. Since then, there have been rumors that a person resembling Jiang Zemin has been sighted in resorts around the world.