Few took me seriously in 2014 when I gave a talk at a major conference of Chinese and American business entrepreneurs held at New York University in 2014 — http://markbruzonsky.com/china. Just seven years ago relations between the U.S. and China were further expanding and improving yearly — more and more trade, more and more students, more and more tourists, more and more exchanges. But under the surface the tensions and the likely future were already quite visible to me — an international affairs not a business expert, and in fact the only speaker with this background and theme at the conference. I knew then that the pressures from the political-military-corporate-imperial-CIA conglomerate that dominates in Washington were growing, already preparing to villify and castigate about the rise of China. I knew then that major economic tensions were growing which would be exploited by this Washington complex. I knew then as well that the American mind-set of domination, entitlement, racism, and militarism were churning “American exceptionalism” which itself comes in so many permutations and varieties.
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I also knew that the situations with Hong Kong and Taiwan were becoming more and more troubling for Beijing; and that the Americans were determined to exploit and exaccerbate these tensions. On top of all of this lurked then, and lurks now, Korea and the escalating nuclear threats (albeit for them deterrence) coming from North Korea.
Note: Each of the pictures is linked to an important video about impending war with China.
This is the opening paragraph from my speech in 2014: I’d like to begin with my conclusion: The greatest challenge of our times is to get our two great countries with such different histories and cultures, the US and China, to work together as allies rather than to be protagonists and adversaries. For even if we avoid war — which these days can be political, economic, covert, and cyber, as well as military — we have to start using our combined talents and energies for positive purposes, not for conflict preparations. We can no longer afford to squander our resources preparing for conflict with each other. Rather we have to use everything we have to jointly and collaboratively fight the grave problems that truly threaten all of us human beings on this small endangered planet.
Mark Bruzonsky 