As I See It by Professor Dennis Etler*
American political analyst who holds a doctorate in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley
“Why is it that the West is so preoccupied with China? The usual answer is that China's economic growth is challenging Western global hegemony which has held sway for at least 250 years. The Chinese military has also reached parity with that of the West, so it is no longer subject to Western intimidation and bullying. All that is true and reason for the West to want to savage China and portray it as the root of all evil.*
But there is one other consideration that must be taken into account. It's not only China's economic prowess and military might that frightens the West, it is also China's success as a nation versus the West's failure.
Moreover, China has forged a society in which there is harmony between its different ethnicities in contrast to the systemic racism that characterizes Western society.
Western ruling elites and their media mouthpieces do not want to acknowledge the fact that China has eliminated extreme poverty while more and more of their own people descend into poverty. They do not want to admit that China has constructed a 21st century infrastructure while they lag far behind. They do not want to confront the fact that the Chinese people ⁹overwhelmingly support their government while people in the West have lost confidence in their own, they do not want to accept that China beat COVIDC-19 while they haven't, and finally they are loathe to accept the fact that a non-white nation has out performed them and will continue to do so into the foreseeable future.
In order to deflect attention away from these truths the West has concocted a series of lies and slanders that allow them to deny reality. Instead of poverty alleviation the West imagines "genocide." Instead of the advances in HSR, EVs, alt-energy and e-commerce they focus on "IP theft," instead of a socioeconomic system that serves the people, they accuse China of forced labor and forced sterilizations. Instead of seeing China as defending its national sovereignty in the South China Sea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, it's called an aggressor.
*All the China-bashing serves multiple purposes but ONE of the main reasons is to make sure that people in the West do not get to hear nor see what the real China is all about because if they did they may get ideas that the Western elites don't want then to have, such as socialism works for the betterment of the 99% while capitalism works primarily to enrich the 1%.”
This is the best one, do send this to your overseas friends because it is from the eyes of an American.
Scammers keep getting bolder and bolder with their extortion methods. From impersonating landlords to illegal debt collection tactics, there is no shortage of ways scammers will try to separate you from your money. Be aware of these five red flags when getting on the phone, checking your email, or using social media. This can help you avoid getting trapped in a conversation with a scammer in the first place.
Whether it’s through email, text, phone calls or direct messages, scams seem to be everywhere on the internet. Not all scams are obvious and
many specifically target small business owners. Learn how to recognize a scam, protect your business and know what to do if you become a victim
of a scam.
Being forearmed with knowledge is key to not falling prey to well-trained scammers
Arm yourself with knowledge to identify a swindler
RIGHT before my eyes, I witnessed my friend falling for a classic Macau scam over the phone.
The call from a “government official” had him hooked. Frantically, I gestured to my friend to end the call but he was like a man possessed.
Someone on the other end of the line, claiming to be a government official, informed my worried friend that he had been implicated in a crime of sorts and the only way to escape the consequences was to transfer his money into a “safe account”.
After 45 minutes on the phone, he sent RM5,000 to one such bank account, and this happened on his pay day!
Recalling the incident, my friend said the caller was so convincing and believable that it was hard to cut the line.
This incident came to mind when the long arm of the law finally caught up with Tedy Teow, the founder of MBI (Mobility Beyond Imagination) well-known for its superlative money-making scheme.
He was detained in Thailand about a week ago and is believed to be wanted for questioning over several money-laundering cases in a few countries.
From what I could tell, the news failed to generate much interest on the ground, especially in Penang where the scheme used to have a large number of followers.
It could be that many of his victims were resigned to the fact that their money was as good as gone, even though Teow got arrested.
I have many acquaintances who put money into MBI. A few earned some returns. Most did not.
Now, it is “successful” Macau scams that are dominating the chatter in coffeeshops, offices, watering holes and messaging groups.
Indeed, teachers, engineers, doctors and even a politician were among the prized scalps of these so-called officers from banks or government and law enforcement agencies.
In May, a businessman from Port Dickson with a net worth of over Rm100mil lost a record Rm21mil in one such scam after he allegedly revealed his bank Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) numbers to a “bank official”.
A sizeable number of scam victims were retirees who lost their hard-earned savings.
As pointed out in one news report, these scammers actually go through a month-long boot camp conducted by professional trainers before they are sent out for con jobs.
Psychology, negotiation skills, the art of persuasion, they learn it all.
They go through gauntlets of role-playing, with one being the “victim” and the other the scam caller, all under the watchful eyes of the trainers.
It has become challenging these days for lawmen to outfox the syndicates which have members even sitting for exams before being certified competent enough to man scam call centres.
And now we hear of increasing cases of dubious bank transfers: money being unknowingly transferred out of savings and fixed deposit accounts after victims were said to have downloaded phone apps.
Protect yourself by not downloading apps from dubious sites!
Then there are the online lovers to whom the lonely give their money even though they have never met face to face.
For those not in the know, this actually happens gradually.
First, the amounts asked for are small. These are quickly returned with a small but appreciable profit. Only after trust is established will the scammer ask for the big amounts.
The situation has never been more urgent as there are still victims who fall prey to such tactics almost on a daily basis.
If you get a call from a scammer, stay calm and rightfully hesitate when asked to reveal your personal banking and user login details.
In the course of a true fraud investigation, government and law enforcement agencies will not transfer calls among themselves. Bank Negara will not transfer your calls to Bukit Aman and vice versa, and never call back the number that was given.
Remember, the police will never threaten to arrest you over the phone; they prefer to do it face to face.
And if it’s a pre-recorded message, just hang up.
Most importantly, if you are a law-abiding citizen who has done nothing wrong, there is indeed nothing to fear.
Washington will not send troops if there is a military conflict in the Taiwan Straits, because it knows that the US military cannot beat the PLA there, and participating in the war will only mean suicide for the US troops.
Trump’s defense chief visits Taiwan for further arms lobbying, with prospect of fat ‘welcoming fees’
Biden admin’s 5th arms sale to Taiwan slammed for double dealing
A
line of vehicle-mounted howitzers attached to a combined-arms brigade with the army under PLA Eastern Theatre Command open fire during a
live-fire exercise on June 16, 2022. Photo:China Military
The US on Friday (US time) announced the fourth arms sale to the island of Taiwan in 2022 - the fifth total under the Joe Biden administration - despite the Taiwan question has been repeatedly mentioned in several recent China-US high-level meetings which showed consensus for avoiding escalating tension.
Chinese mainland experts on Saturday slammed the latest US deal featuring a package involving spare parts for tanks and combat vehicles plus technical assistance worth $108 million, saying it exposed the US' two-faced nature and its failure to honor its own words.
The US State Department has approved the possible sale of military technical assistance to Taiwan for an estimated cost $108 million, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a press release on Friday.
The proposed sale will contribute to the recipient's goal of maintaining its military capability while further enhancing interoperability with the US and other allies, according to the press release.
The figure of $108 million is an unreasonably high price for just spare parts and intangible technical assistance, and it is obvious that the US arms firms are again leeching on Taiwan for its money, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Saturday.
Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party authority is only paying protection money for things that cannot help them gaining a chance standing up to the Chinese mainland's People's Liberation Army (PLA), the expert said.
The approval of the arms sale came after a sequence of frequent interactions between senior officials from China and the US since June, including those between Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as well as Chief of the Central Military Commission Joint Staff Department General Li Zuocheng and Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley.
Both sides underscored consensus on avoiding escalating confrontations, and the Taiwan question was repeatedly mentioned especially during meetings between military officials, observers said.
But the latest US arms sale to Taiwan, as well as a US warship's recent trespassing into Chinese territorial waters in the South China Sea, exposed that the double-faced US is only offering lip services to China, analysts said.
The US' strategic goal is very clear now, which is to contain China's development. This means the promises that the US made during high-level talks are not trustworthy, and it will bound to continue provoke China on China's core interests including the Taiwan question, Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Saturday.
China no longer has unrealistic illusions over the US, and the PLA is preparing for the worst-case scenario in which a cross-Straits conflict would take place in order to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, analysts said.
Some 10 PLA warplanes, including fighter jets and bombers, entered the island of Taiwan's self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone on Friday, the island's defense authority said in a press release on the same day.
Unlike Washington's opportunistic probing, all options are clearly on the table for the Chinese mainland. The noose around the
neck of the "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces is tightening, and Pelosi has one foot on the stool of the gallows. If Pelosi, who has
always been fond of playing tough on China, wants to insist on this way, we will definitely prepare sufficient "consequences" for her.
Once again, media has reported that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan in August after an aborted April
visit to Asia that might include a trip to China's island due to testing positive for COVID-19, with analysts saying that if she intends to make
a blatant provocation against China, she would spark a much more dangerous incident than the Taiwan Straits Crisis in 1996, and it would cause a huge setback for China-US ties.
Since it declared independence on July 9, 2011, the northeastern African country of South Sudan has been engulfed in civil
war, with locals unable to combat hunger and poverty. To promote peace and at the invitation by the UN, China ...
As I See It by Professor Dennis Etler* 
