Why a deal with the Umbrella movement is unlikely - Jasper Becker

Jasper Becker

Talks might be going on between Hong Kong protesters and the government, but a deal is very unlikely, explains journalist and China veteran Jasper Becker in the Eurasia Review. From a debate on the results of the Hong Kong protest movement.

The Eurasia Review.

Jasper Becker, journalist and writer, author of books on China, Mongolia and the DPRK, hypothesized that the PRC and the rest of the world also had no clear vision of the reasons and the mission behind the demonstrations, which made the talks even more complicated. 

In his opinion, a full-fledged compromise on the terms the “Umbrella Movement” had brought up during its first days was unreachable from the very beginning. According to the analyst, a democratic system in Hong Kong would become a one-of-a-kind political precedent that Beijing is anxious to avoid. 

“They have been trying to gain control over the media in Hong Kong, and harassing opponents of the Communist party, but Hong Kong is a very open city,” the expert said. From his point of view, the October 2014 events disprove the common notion that the Chinese population will continue to support the current policies as long as the economic growth persists. 

“I think it’s clear that many people in China, in Hong Kong and in Taiwan are anxious to have a democratic system to have free elections irrespective of whether there is economic prosperity or not,” Jasper Becker said. Musing on the possible future developments, he suggested that the events in the former British colony will affect the political climate of the whole region. 

“The way the Party has responded to Hong Kong will have a big knock-on effect on Taiwan, where people are more likely to vote for the opposition party in the coming elections,” he explained.

  More in the Eurasia Review.

Jasper Becker is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you looking for more media experts at the China Speakers Bureau. Check out our recent overview.  

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What did the US gain from Kissinger's China move? - Jasper Becker

Henry Kissinger via Wikipedia

Former state secretary of state Henry Kissinger rightly claims to be the architect of US-China relations, tells Jasper Becker in The Australian. But was supporting Mao Zedong and the Communist Party in the interest of America, he wonders.

In the Australian:

The most stimulating view so far has come from British writer Jasper Becker, who lives in Beijing, and whose Hungry Ghosts dramatically revealed the extent of the horrors of Mao's Great Leap Forward, which killed more than 30 million people.

Becker says Kissinger rightly claims to be the chief architect of the China-US relationship, "one of the pillars of the international order as crucial to understanding world history as Britain and America's decision to make an ally of Stalin in order to defeat Hitler, the result of which was the establishment of a Soviet empire in Europe rather than a German one".

At the time, Kissinger says, the Soviet Union seemed more dangerous and expansionist than China - though Becker thinks "there wasn't much to choose between them", with China having sent almost half a million troops to Korea and Vietnam as well as to Burma and Cambodia, and having financed and trained insurgencies in a dozen countries.

Becker asks: "What exactly did America ever gain from it? It certainly enabled China's rulers to stay in power despite Mao's catastrophic rule. If Beijing and Moscow had gone to war, surely it would have been to America's great advantage" with Cambodia saved from the Khmer Rouge horrors, the US possibly victorious in Vietnam, and the threats to Taiwan and South Korea quashed.

But "even when he meets Mao - senile and dribbling - Kissinger can't help being blown away by his supposed brilliance. Yet Mao was by then recognised even by his followers as a mad monster.

"Whoever followed Mao would have had to rescue China from its total isolation and restore the economy. They would have had to go cap in hand to America for help, and Washington could dictate its own terms. Instead, Nixon turned

Jasper Becker by Fantake via Flickr

up in Beijing as a supplicant."

In return for Mao's blessing, "the Chinese persuaded the Americans to withdraw from Taiwan, and then to support China's murderous proteges, the Khmer Rouge, in Cambodia, forced them to lose the war in Vietnam, and to sacrifice Tibet.

"In truth, the Chinese couldn't believe their luck in finding such a naive and biddable partner as Kissinger. He gratefully accepts whatever the Chinese leaders tell him at face value."

More in The Australian.

Jasper Becker is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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'Fat China' scores in most-sought speakers for September 2010

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

Some remarkable changes in our monthly top-10 of most-sought speakers. While most of the listed speakers hold on to their position in the list, Paul French has entered the triumvirate of top-3 speakers at number 2, clearly a success related to his latest book Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation, where he identifies obesity as a new key problem China has to face in the decades to come. For China's health care yet another Gargantuan dilemma, caused by the advertisement industry, claims French.
Many other thought-leaders on China seem to prefer to stick other - undeniable giant - challenges has to face, but setting the agenda by re-framing China's challenges in such a way certainly seems to appeal to clients.
Shaun Rein, as usual, has been extremely active in the mainstream media in debating China-related issues, so he still remains very much at the top.
Good news is also the appearance of a new speaker, Helen Wang, who entered the first ranking right away at the 8th position. Her book, The Chinese Dream, on China's middle class is not yet available, so we have good expectations she might hang on to a top position in the months to come. All too often, when new speakers do not trigger off enough response among mainstream media., clients or otherwise, they often leave this top-10 as fast as they came in.
Wendell Minnick, with his special focus on China's military might, did not face that fate. As the military tensions increase in Asia, the Bureau Chief of Defense News in Taiwan solidly hangs on to the 9th position.
Without further delay, let's turn to the full top-10 of most-sought speakers of September 2010. (August 2010 in brackets).

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

1. Shaun Rein (1)
2. Paul French  (7)
3. Kaiser Kuo (2)
4. William Bao Bean (-)
5. Tom Doctoroff (4)
6. William Overholt (6)
7. Arthur Kroeber (3)
8. Helen Wang (-)
9. Wendell Minnick (8)
10. Jasper Becker (9)

Are you looking for these or other speakers on China-related issues? Do get in touch.

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