GOVERNMENTS Part B
(One reason we have expanded publication times is that we were not editing as well as we could and were leaving too many details which often intrigue us but may seem tedious to others. We are shortening post to make them more "digestible". )
Re 13:1 And he took his place on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads unholy names.
2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been given a death-wound; and his death-wound was made well: and all the earth was wondering at the beast.
4 And they gave worship to the dragon, because he gave authority to the beast; and worshipping the beast, they said, Who is like the beast? and who is able to go to war with him?
5 And there was given to him a mouth to say words of pride against God; and there was given to him authority to go on for forty-two months.
6 And his mouth was open to say evil against God, and against his name and his Tent, even against those who are in heaven.
7 And it was given to him to make war on the saints and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and language and nation.
8 And all who are on the earth will give him worship, everyone whose name has not been from the first in the book of life of the Lamb who was put to death.
9 If any man has ears, let him give ear.
10 If any man sends others into prison, into prison he will go: if any man puts to death with the sword, with the sword will he be put to death. Here is the quiet strength and the faith of the saints.
11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and his voice was like that of a dragon.
12 And he makes use of all the authority of the first beast before his eyes. And he makes the earth and those who are in it give worship to the first beast, whose death-wound was made well.
13 And he does great signs, even making fire come down from heaven on the earth before the eyes of men.
14 And those who are on the earth are turned from the true way by him through the signs which he was given power to do before the beast; giving orders to those who are on the earth to make an image to the beast, who was wounded by the sword, and came to life.
15 And he had power to give breath to the image of the beast, so that words might come from the image of the beast, and that he might have all those who did not give worship to the image of the beast put to death.
16 And he gives to all, small and great, the poor and those who have wealth, the free and those who are not free, a mark on their right hand or on their brows;
17 So that no man might be able to do trade but he who has the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. He who has knowledge let him get the number of the beast; because it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred and sixty-six.
(BBE)
2Th 2:1 Now as to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our meeting with him, it is our desire, my brothers,
2 That you may not be moved in mind or troubled by a spirit, or by a word, or by a letter as from us, with the suggestion that the day of the Lord is even now come;
3 Give no belief to false words: because there will first be a falling away from the faith, and the revelation of the man of sin, the son of destruction,
4 Who puts himself against all authority, lifting himself up over all which is named God or is given worship; so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, putting himself forward as God.
5 Have you no memory of what I said when I was with you, giving you word of these things?
6 And now it is clear to you what is keeping back his revelation till the time comes for him to be seen.
7 For the secret of evil is even now at work: but there is one who is keeping back the evil till he is taken out of the way.
8 And then will come the revelation of that evil one, whom the Lord Jesus will put to death with the breath of his mouth, and give to destruction by the revelation of his coming;
9 Even the one whose coming is marked by the working of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,
10 And with every deceit of wrongdoing among those whose fate is destruction; because they were quite without that love of the true faith by which they might have salvation.
11 And for this cause, God will give them up to the power of deceit and they will put their faith in what is false:
12 So that they all may be judged, who had no faith in what is true, but took pleasure in evil.
(BBE)
Matt 24:23 Then if any man says to you, See, here is the Christ, or, Here; do not put faith in him;
24 For there will come up false Christs, and false prophets, who will do great signs and wonders; so that if possible even the saints might be tricked.
25 See, I have made it clear to you before it comes about.
A number:
New American Standard Bible
The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.
King James Bible
And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The number of mounted troops was 200 million; I heard their number.
International Standard Version
The number of cavalry troops was 200,000,000. I heard how many there were.
NET Bible
The number of soldiers on horseback was two hundred million; I heard their number.
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n2066.cfm
We have talked about Russia in the end times scenario and we will expand on that a bit further later. But there are other forces looming in the Asia. One which actually began long before the Russian economic revolution.
But business and Chinese "capitalism" have not always walked hand and hand into the sunset.
http://www.cnbc.com/2013/09/26/why-big-american-businesses-fail-in-china.html
After numerous unsuccessful attempts, in 1974 (Not long AFTER the capitalist "revolution" had begin. Will.) Xi Jinping was accepted into the Communist Party. The following year he began to study chemical engineering at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, earning a degree in 1979. From that point forward, he steadily rose through the ranks of the Communist Party. Between 1979 and 1982, Xi served in the Central Military Command as vice premier, gaining valuable military experience. It was around this time that he married his first wife, Ke Lingling, the daughter of the Chinese ambassador to Great Britain. The marriage ended in divorce within a few years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump concluded their first in-person meeting, striking a friendly tone, avoiding political gaffes and even agreeing to tackle trade imbalances. But soon after the meeting ended, Chinese state media scolded Trump for his military action in Syria.
China will make concessions to give the U.S. better market access in two areas — financial sector investments and beef exports — in efforts to avoid a trade war, the Financial Times reported. This is part of a wider 100-day plan to be hashed out between the two sides.
The Trump-Xi meeting spotlighted trade tensions between the two countries, and other items high on the agenda included discussing a response to an increased nuclear threat out of North Korea. Although the talks were overshadowed by a U.S. strike in Syria, experts have said the meeting was a success given that both sides remained cordial, and took a step toward tackling the trade issue by increasing China's imports from the U.S.
The US and China have found a common capitalist ground and this is the most important part of the discussion of the kings and the Antichrist. Economics triggers everything. The victory of Capitalism has the USA believing they have won the philosophical battle, that everyone now believes as they do and therefore true alliances are possible with our old enemies. As we will see, even Vietnam, the old enemy we sunk millions into NOT defeating seems to now be our financial buddy. South Korea has been a model of steady to stagnated economic growth with two Asian car giants, Hyundai and Kia. who is partially owned by Hyundai, as their economic core. It stands in stark contrast to North Korea.
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/013015/how-north-korea-economy-works.asp
North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), is regarded as an unreformed, isolated, tightly controlled, dictatorial command economy. The Korean peninsula was a Japanese colony from 1910-1945. As World War II drew to a close, the Japanese forces in the northern region of Korea surrendered to the Soviet troops while the American troops took charge of the southern region. The supposed reunification through elections never took place in the Korean peninsula and the two regions appointed their respective leaders. In 1950, Kim II Sung backed by the Soviets made an attempt to capture the US backed southern region (Republic of Korea), resulting in the devastating Korean War (1950-53).
Kim II Sung's aspiration of bringing the entire peninsula under his communist rule failed. Soon after, North Korea (DPRK) established itself as a centrally planned economy but with dynasty succession and not just one-party supremacy. Pyongyang adopted three guiding policies: “a self-sufficient national economy”, “heavy-industry-first development” and “military-economy parallel development”. Outsider experts feel that these policies have been an obstacle in the country’s economic development. The shortcomings of the policies got accentuated by the regime’s focus on songun (military-first politics) which have landed North Korea in a state of chronic economic problems. There is stagnation in industrial and power output along with food shortages because of the systemic problems. According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook, “Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of years of underinvestment, shortages of spare parts, and poor maintenance. Large-scale military spending draws off resources needed for investment and civilian consumption.”
Keep in mind they are still China's puppet government. Being puppets seeming to be in control has to chafe their leaders.
(One reason we have expanded publication times is that we were not editing as well as we could and were leaving too many details which often intrigue us but may seem tedious to others. We are shortening post to make them more "digestible". )
Re 13:1 And he took his place on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads unholy names.
2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority.
3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been given a death-wound; and his death-wound was made well: and all the earth was wondering at the beast.
4 And they gave worship to the dragon, because he gave authority to the beast; and worshipping the beast, they said, Who is like the beast? and who is able to go to war with him?
5 And there was given to him a mouth to say words of pride against God; and there was given to him authority to go on for forty-two months.
6 And his mouth was open to say evil against God, and against his name and his Tent, even against those who are in heaven.
7 And it was given to him to make war on the saints and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and language and nation.
8 And all who are on the earth will give him worship, everyone whose name has not been from the first in the book of life of the Lamb who was put to death.
9 If any man has ears, let him give ear.
10 If any man sends others into prison, into prison he will go: if any man puts to death with the sword, with the sword will he be put to death. Here is the quiet strength and the faith of the saints.
11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and his voice was like that of a dragon.
12 And he makes use of all the authority of the first beast before his eyes. And he makes the earth and those who are in it give worship to the first beast, whose death-wound was made well.
13 And he does great signs, even making fire come down from heaven on the earth before the eyes of men.
14 And those who are on the earth are turned from the true way by him through the signs which he was given power to do before the beast; giving orders to those who are on the earth to make an image to the beast, who was wounded by the sword, and came to life.
15 And he had power to give breath to the image of the beast, so that words might come from the image of the beast, and that he might have all those who did not give worship to the image of the beast put to death.
16 And he gives to all, small and great, the poor and those who have wealth, the free and those who are not free, a mark on their right hand or on their brows;
17 So that no man might be able to do trade but he who has the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. He who has knowledge let him get the number of the beast; because it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred and sixty-six.
(BBE)
2Th 2:1 Now as to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our meeting with him, it is our desire, my brothers,
2 That you may not be moved in mind or troubled by a spirit, or by a word, or by a letter as from us, with the suggestion that the day of the Lord is even now come;
3 Give no belief to false words: because there will first be a falling away from the faith, and the revelation of the man of sin, the son of destruction,
4 Who puts himself against all authority, lifting himself up over all which is named God or is given worship; so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, putting himself forward as God.
5 Have you no memory of what I said when I was with you, giving you word of these things?
6 And now it is clear to you what is keeping back his revelation till the time comes for him to be seen.
7 For the secret of evil is even now at work: but there is one who is keeping back the evil till he is taken out of the way.
8 And then will come the revelation of that evil one, whom the Lord Jesus will put to death with the breath of his mouth, and give to destruction by the revelation of his coming;
9 Even the one whose coming is marked by the working of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,
10 And with every deceit of wrongdoing among those whose fate is destruction; because they were quite without that love of the true faith by which they might have salvation.
11 And for this cause, God will give them up to the power of deceit and they will put their faith in what is false:
12 So that they all may be judged, who had no faith in what is true, but took pleasure in evil.
(BBE)
Matt 24:23 Then if any man says to you, See, here is the Christ, or, Here; do not put faith in him;
24 For there will come up false Christs, and false prophets, who will do great signs and wonders; so that if possible even the saints might be tricked.
25 See, I have made it clear to you before it comes about.
A number:
New American Standard Bible
The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.
King James Bible
And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The number of mounted troops was 200 million; I heard their number.
International Standard Version
The number of cavalry troops was 200,000,000. I heard how many there were.
NET Bible
The number of soldiers on horseback was two hundred million; I heard their number.
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n2066.cfm
Note the word, "bound" in this chapter. The meaning of the word in the original Greek is "deo", Strong's Number 1210. This word carries a meaning other than imprisoned; the secondary meaning is an obligation to a higher authority. In other words, the demons are not only physically bound right now in the "great river Euphrates" area, but when they are released, they are required by God's sovereignty to carry out Biblical prophecy. At no time are these demonic angels able to exercise any kind of free will, but can only act in accordance with God's prophetic plan -- of which they will fulfill this somber part.
This incredible prophecy tells us that one of God's punishments is to loosen four great demonic "angels" which have been bound somewhere in the vicinity of the River Euphrates, probably in that extra-dimension in which angels and demons exist. These angels lead some great army of men numbering 200,000,000 [200 million] strong.
This is not the only time we see demonic beings leading a great army to battle during the Great Tribulation Period. In Revelation 16:13-14, we see that demonic spirits possess the Antichrist and the False Prophet, and go throughout the world to deceive the leaders of the world to gather in the Valley of Meggiddo for the Battle of Armageddon. We are getting a little ahead of ourselves here, but we wanted to establish the fact that demonic beings are going to be allowed to really and truly deceive the minds of human leaders during the Great Tribulation, to persuade human leaders to lead their forces into battle.
Now, let us go back to Revelation 9:13-16. We see that the 200 million man army will be allowed to kill one-third of the population of the world!! In other words, this 200 million man army will be well equipped with weapons of mass destruction. We consider weapons of mass destruction to be of three (3) types: nuclear, chemical, and biological. This unbelievable army, comprised of an unprecedented number of men, will possess the firepower capable of killing one-third of all the inhabitants of the Earth!
Finally, notice that God reveals, in this passage, that He has prepared these mighty four demonic angels for a specific time: This specific time is described as "an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year". In other words, God has determined, a long time ago, the exact day, of the exact month, of the exact year that this invasion will occur! God is in total control. All we know is that it will occur in the 7-year Tribulation Period, and most probably the last part of the 3 ½ years known as the Great Tribulation.
Now, when we return to our passage in Revelation 9, we get further insight as to who this army may be, and from where they might be coming. Let us now to the next verse, to get more information on this unprecedented army.
"And in my vision the horses and their riders appeared to me like this: the riders wore breastplates the color of fiery red and sapphire blue and sulphur (brimstone) yellow. The heads of the horses looked like lions' heads, and from their mouths there poured fire and smoke and sulphur (brimstone). A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues--by the fire and the smoke and the sulphur (brimstone) that poured from the mouths of the horses. For the power of the horses to do harm is in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails are like serpents, for they have heads, and it is by means of them that they wound people." (Revelation 9:17-19; Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary)
Most Bible scholars have had great difficulty in understanding this passage, as this army is described by the Apostle John in a manner which is not absolutely clear to us. Before we attempt to ascertain the meaning of this description, let us go forward in Revelation, to the point where we see this army coming up to the great River Euphrates.
"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way [road] of the kings of the east might be prepared." [Revelation 16:12].
In this Vial Judgment, we see that the Euphrates is dried up for the specific purpose of allowing the "Kings of the East" to cross with their 200 million man army. Wow, the Kings of the East. What country is East of Israel that is capable of fielding a 200 million man army? There is only one country: China.
When you count their Militia, in conjunction with her active Army, China can field an army of 200,000,000 men!! In the last several decades, China has enforced the draconian decree that each family can only have one child. Since the traditional Chinese culture prefers boys over girls, Chinese parents have quietly been killing girls so they can get pregnant again to have boys. China is now in the situation where she has tens of millions more men than women. "This sexual imbalance will result in an excess of over seventy million young men in China by the year 2000, with no women for them to marry ... This situation could fulfill the prophecy of John about the two-hundred-million-man army from the East that will fight in the Battle of Armageddon." ["The Signature Of God: Astonishing Biblical Discoveries", by Grant Jeffrey, Frontier Research Publications, Inc, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1996, ISBN 0-921714-28-9, Page 198]
(Below you will read the Xi ended this one child policy. One thing that made him popular with the people. One thing that would keep his population growing and keep a constant supply of cheap labor for manufacturing. Because, as easily as a lack of women, population pressure would create a need for expansion AND reduce the value of a single human being when seen as mere fodder for the success of capitalism. Will.)
If we understand that this army from the East, totaling 200,000,000 men, is Chinese,(Or a combination of armies from the hugely populous East. Will) then let us look at the difficult passage in Revelation 9:17-19. We are told that the riders of these "horses" wore breastplates of "fire, jacinth, and brimstone", we have to ask ourselves what kind of colors would this be?
"Fire" ranges from yellow to bright red, and usually shades in between
"Jacinth" is defined in the dictionary as being "Reddish Orange"
"Brimstone" is defined as being "Bright Yellow"
If you have viewed Chinese art, you will discover that these very colors are used abundantly! These colors are traditional Chinese colors.
Then, we read that the power to destroy one-third of all mankind comes from both the "mouth" and the "tail". Leaving aside, for a moment, the difficulty of describing these riders as riding "horses", I submit to you that modern tanks, armored carriers, and artillery fire their projectiles, or missiles, primarily from their "mouths", but other weapons fire from the rear, from their "tales". If you have ever seen a helicopter or an airplane fire missiles from underneath, the plume of the missile trail makes it appear as if the missile has come from the rear.
(Or it could mean that army itself had been killing people in all directions, like Russia to the North, Australia to the south, misses against the US and Europe. Will.)
(Or it could mean that army itself had been killing people in all directions, like Russia to the North, Australia to the south, misses against the US and Europe. Will.)
We have talked about Russia in the end times scenario and we will expand on that a bit further later. But there are other forces looming in the Asia. One which actually began long before the Russian economic revolution.
China actually began its lunge to capitalism in 1978, two years after the radical Maoists who wanted a return to the heaviest policies of the Cultural Revolution went down in political defeat. Deng Xiaoping set in motion a capitalist surge, He suggested the "cat theory" that it didn't matter if a cat was white or black so long as it got the job done in catching mice. The idea being capitalism and socialism are tools the government uses to accomplish a stable economy so it doesn't matter which one is used so long as stability is attained.
Deng Xiaoping Theory can be seen as a major departure from Mao Zedong Thought, as Deng insisted that "economic development is the centre of party work". Two of the late patriarch's famous dicta were: "It always stands to reason to develop the economy faster" and "The economy must cross a new threshold every few years." Deng's plan resulted in tremendous development, explosive growth and the first traces of a consumer society. At the same time, it engendered undesirable consequences that affected stability and the potential for the party's continued rule. They include polarization of rich and poor; a big gap between coastal and western China; rank corruption; and the neglect of indoctrination in Communist orthodoxy in particular.
Deng's thoughts were always toward the practical, to applying the theory to the case in point. If we communism as a religion and socialism as the underpinning teachings, then Deng took the "church" in a "new age" direction. Socialism was all right as a philosophy but, hey, people go to eat. And taking things in that direction required Deng change Chinese thought from isolationist to international. every one of his directives had to do with the way the world was at that moment an ow china could best benefit. He took a non confrontational approach to the US and banking interest took a friendly approach ti business that could open up a several billion person market. But business and Chinese "capitalism" have not always walked hand and hand into the sunset.
http://www.cnbc.com/2013/09/26/why-big-american-businesses-fail-in-china.html
Google's Chinese defeat is one of the most dramatic, and the most complex.
The context is well known. In 2010 Google announced that it had been hacked, and would no longer be censoring at the government's behest. It moved its servers to Hong Kong. Its market share dipped from 30 percent to 3 percent in 2013.
What happened? While poor decisions in Mountain View certainly played a part, politics was what killed Google. From the very beginning of its China venture, Google was hamstrung. Launched in 2006, Google.cn was a bare-bones search engine, with no Gmail, blog software, or YouTube; the company refused to keep its servers in China, for fear of having to turn over user data.
In 2008, Beijing demanded that Google more thoroughly censor its auto-fill search suggestions. In 2009, Google detected a breach of its servers that the company traced to China. The attackers not only stole corporate secrets, but also rifled through the personal accounts of dissidents and activists related to China and Tibet. By 2010, Google's chiefs had had enough. They decided that they would no longer comply with Beijing's demands.
The lesson from Google's China fiasco is hard, but important. In the end, foreign companies who want to thrive in China have to abide by the rules of a repressive, autocratic government. That means either compromising with policies you may find unsavory — as Google did, at first — or getting out.
"China is a tough, large market with fierce competitors," Kaifu Lee, Google's former China head, recently wrote. "To have a chance in China, the American company must empower the local team to be responsive, autonomous, localized, and ready for combat."
China engages in autocratic capitalism, defined in Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism and The Economics of Growth and Prosperity by William J. Baumol, Robert E. Litan and Carl J. Schramm
as a condition where "growth clearly is a central objective but where capitalism is repressively "guided" by the state."
The Current Leader of China
After numerous unsuccessful attempts, in 1974 (Not long AFTER the capitalist "revolution" had begin. Will.) Xi Jinping was accepted into the Communist Party. The following year he began to study chemical engineering at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, earning a degree in 1979. From that point forward, he steadily rose through the ranks of the Communist Party. Between 1979 and 1982, Xi served in the Central Military Command as vice premier, gaining valuable military experience. It was around this time that he married his first wife, Ke Lingling, the daughter of the Chinese ambassador to Great Britain. The marriage ended in divorce within a few years.
From 1983 to 2007, Xi Jinping served in leadership positions in four provinces, beginning with Hebei. During his tenure in Hebei, Xi Jinping traveled to the United States and spent time in Iowa with an American family, learning the finer points of agriculture and tourism. After his return, he served as vice mayor of Xiamen in Fujian, where in 1987 he married folk singer Peng Liyuan, who also holds the rank of army general in the People’s Liberation Army. The couple has a daughter, Xi Mingze, who studied at Harvard University under a pseudonym.
Rise to National Prominence
Xi would make a steady ascent in the ensuing decades, with postings as governor of the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces and as party secretary. In 2007, his career got a further boost when a pension-fund scandal rocked the leadership of Shanghai and he was named as its party secretary. He spent his tenure promoting stability and restoring the city’s financial image, and that same year was chosen for the Politburo Standing Committee. In early 2008, Xi’s visibility became even greater when he was elected vice president of the People’s Republic of China and placed in charge of preparations for the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing.
Elected Leader of the People's Republic of China
In early 2012, Xi Jinping traveled to the United States to meet with President Barack Obama and members of his cabinet. He also made a nostalgic trip back to Iowa and then visited Los Angeles. During his visit, he spoke of increasing trust and reducing suspicions between the two countries while respecting each other’s interests in the Pacific-Asian region.
Later that year, on November 15, Xi Jinping was elected general secretary of the Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission. In his first speech as general secretary, Xi broke from tradition and sounded more like a Western politician, speaking about the aspirations of the average person and calling for better education, stable jobs, higher income, a more reliable safety net of retirement and health care, better living conditions and a better environment. He also vowed to take on corruption within the government at the highest levels. He referred to his vision for the nation as the "Chinese Dream."
On March 14, 2013, Xi completed his ascent when he was elected president of the People’s Republic of China, a ceremonial position as head of state. In his first speech as president he vowed to fight for a great renaissance of the Chinese nation and a more prominent international standing.
Achievements and Controversies
Fulfilling one of his early promises, Xi almost immediately embarked on a campaign to deal with government corruption. He arrested some of the country's most powerful figures, including former security chief Zhou Yongkang, and by the end of 2014 the CCP had disciplined more than 100,000 officials.
Xi also set about stimulating a slowing economy. In 2014, China introduced the "One Belt, One Road" initiative to bolster trade routes and launched the ambitious Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Domestically, his party expanded the power of private banks and allowed international investors to trade shares directly on the Shanghai stock market.
Xi has also changed some of the laws enacted by predecessors, formally ending China's one-child policy in 2015. His elimination of the "reeducation through labor" system, which punished individuals charged with petty crimes, was viewed favorably.
However, the Chinese leader has drawn scrutiny for his methods. Critics have noted that his crackdown on government corruption mainly targeted political opponents, and the CCP has come under fire by human rights groups for jailing journalists, lawyers and other private citizens. Under Xi's reach, censors have sought to eliminate Western influence in school curriculums and limited the public's internet access.
Xi has also overseen economic regulations that have reverberated beyond his country's borders. The government stepped in to prop up a sagging housing market in 2014, and suddenly devalued the yuan in the summer of 2015. Despite promising during a trip to the United States in September that China would never manipulate currency to increase exports, Xi has been accused of that very approach.
Global Standing
As part of his goal to establish China as a 21st century global superpower, Xi has pushed for military reform to upgrade naval and air forces. Already chairman of the Central Military Commission, in 2016 he added the title of commander in chief of its joint battle command center.
In recent years, Xi has asserted China's naval capacities through the construction of artificial islands within disputed territories of the South China Sea. Despite his claims to the contrary, satellite photographs indicated that the islands were being used to house military developments. In July 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled that China had illegally claimed those territories, although China refused to accept the authority of that ruling.
"While often at odds with the U.S. over trade issues, Xi has publicly acknowledged the need for China to cooperate with its Western counterpart on the issue of climate change. In September 2016, Xi and U.S. President Barack Obama announced they were formally adopting the international climate-change agreement reached in Paris the previous December to reduce emissions from the world’s two largest economies."
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/10/trump-xi-meeting-concluded-without-gaffe-but-criticism-soon-followed.html
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/10/trump-xi-meeting-concluded-without-gaffe-but-criticism-soon-followed.html
China will make concessions to give the U.S. better market access in two areas — financial sector investments and beef exports — in efforts to avoid a trade war, the Financial Times reported. This is part of a wider 100-day plan to be hashed out between the two sides.
The Trump-Xi meeting spotlighted trade tensions between the two countries, and other items high on the agenda included discussing a response to an increased nuclear threat out of North Korea. Although the talks were overshadowed by a U.S. strike in Syria, experts have said the meeting was a success given that both sides remained cordial, and took a step toward tackling the trade issue by increasing China's imports from the U.S.
The US and China have found a common capitalist ground and this is the most important part of the discussion of the kings and the Antichrist. Economics triggers everything. The victory of Capitalism has the USA believing they have won the philosophical battle, that everyone now believes as they do and therefore true alliances are possible with our old enemies. As we will see, even Vietnam, the old enemy we sunk millions into NOT defeating seems to now be our financial buddy. South Korea has been a model of steady to stagnated economic growth with two Asian car giants, Hyundai and Kia. who is partially owned by Hyundai, as their economic core. It stands in stark contrast to North Korea.
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/013015/how-north-korea-economy-works.asp
North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), is regarded as an unreformed, isolated, tightly controlled, dictatorial command economy. The Korean peninsula was a Japanese colony from 1910-1945. As World War II drew to a close, the Japanese forces in the northern region of Korea surrendered to the Soviet troops while the American troops took charge of the southern region. The supposed reunification through elections never took place in the Korean peninsula and the two regions appointed their respective leaders. In 1950, Kim II Sung backed by the Soviets made an attempt to capture the US backed southern region (Republic of Korea), resulting in the devastating Korean War (1950-53).
Kim II Sung's aspiration of bringing the entire peninsula under his communist rule failed. Soon after, North Korea (DPRK) established itself as a centrally planned economy but with dynasty succession and not just one-party supremacy. Pyongyang adopted three guiding policies: “a self-sufficient national economy”, “heavy-industry-first development” and “military-economy parallel development”. Outsider experts feel that these policies have been an obstacle in the country’s economic development. The shortcomings of the policies got accentuated by the regime’s focus on songun (military-first politics) which have landed North Korea in a state of chronic economic problems. There is stagnation in industrial and power output along with food shortages because of the systemic problems. According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook, “Industrial capital stock is nearly beyond repair as a result of years of underinvestment, shortages of spare parts, and poor maintenance. Large-scale military spending draws off resources needed for investment and civilian consumption.”
Keep in mind they are still China's puppet government. Being puppets seeming to be in control has to chafe their leaders.
Vietnam stands out here, also. A story from that war and its aftermath symbolizes what has happened to the Communist movement throughout Asia.
"The Coffee Lady belonged to neither side in the conflict. She was simply a Vietnamese woman, in love with an American man and in search of a decent life. Liberation Day did not bring easier times. At first, she found work in one of the new cooperative factories. There, she sat bowed over a sewing machine for 11 hours a day, earning nothing more than a ration card that entitled her to small amounts of low-quality rice and even smaller amounts of meat. For years, she shared a tiny house with her brother, who spent his days in another textile workshop. The economy ran into a decade of depression. “Life was tough for ordinary people,” she said.
"The US left Vietnam in a state of physical ruin. Roads, rail lines, bridges and canals were devastated by bombing. Unexploded shells and landmines littered the countryside, often underwater in the paddy fields where peasants waded. Five million hectares of forest had been stripped of life by high explosives and Agent Orange. The new government reckoned that two-thirds of the villages in the south had been destroyed. In Saigon, the American legacy included packs of orphans roaming the streets and a heroin epidemic. Nationally, the new government estimated it was dealing with 10 million refugees; 1 million war widows; 880,000 orphans; 362,000 war invalids; and 3 million unemployed people.
"The economy was in chaos. By the time Liberation Day arrived, inflation was running at up to 900%, and Vietnam – a country full of paddy fields – was having to import rice. In peace talks in Paris, the US had agreed to pay $3.5 bn in reconstruction aid to mend the shattered infrastructure. It never paid a cent. Adding insult to penury, the US went on to demand that the communist government repay millions of dollars borrowed by its enemy, the old Saigon regime. Vietnam desperately needed the world to provide the trade and aid that could turn its economy around. The US did its best to make sure it got neither.
"As soon as it had lost the war, the US imposed a trade embargo, cutting off the war-wrecked country not only from US exports and imports, but also from those of other nations that bowed to American pressure. In the same way, the US leaned on multilateral bodies including the IMF, the World Bank and Unesco to deny Vietnam aid. The US acknowledged that Agent Orange was likely to cause serious illness and birth defects and paid $2 bn compensation – but only to its own veterans. The Vietnamese victims – more than 2 million of them – got nothing.
"It is not clear how any economic model could have survived this hostile encirclement. Inevitably, Vietnam’s socialist project began to collapse. It adopted a crude Soviet policy that forced peasant farmers to hand over their crops in exchange for ration cards. With no incentive to produce, output crashed, inflation climbed back towards wartime levels, and the country once again had to import rice. In the early 1980s, the leadership was forced to allow the peasants to start selling surplus produce, and so capitalism began its return. By the late 1980s, the party was officially adopting the idea of “a market economy with socialist orientation”.
"... During the 1990s. Foreign investors were allowed to come in and private businesses were encouraged – free trade, free markets, profits for some, wages for others. Behind the scenes, the government was sending signals of compromise to Washington. It stopped asking for the $3.5bn reconstruction aid or compensation for Agent Orange and war crimes. It even agreed to repay the old Saigon regime’s war debt of $146m. By 1994, the US was appeased and lifted the trade embargo that had been throttling Vietnam for nearly 20 years. The World Bank, the IMF and other donors began to help. The economy started growing by up to 8.4% a year, and Vietnam was soon one of the world’s biggest exporters of rice.
"Crucially, throughout the 1990's, there were still strong factions within the Communist party that defended socialism against the new tide of capitalism. In spite of the economic chaos, they had succeeded in engineering a dramatic reduction of poverty. When the war ended, 70% of Vietnam’s people lived below the official poverty line. By 1992, it was 58%. By 2000, it was 32%. At the same time, the government had constructed a network of primary schools in every community, and secondary schools in most; it had also built a basic structure of free healthcare. For a while, the socialist factions still had enough political muscle to direct the new capitalist vehicle. Three times during the late 1990s, the World Bank offered extra loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars if Vietnam would agree to sell its state-owned companies and cut its trade tariffs. Each deal was rejected.
"But from 2000, the rate of change accelerated and the political balance shifted. Reflecting persistent pressure from international donors and foreign investors, Vietnam now approved the sale of its state-owned companies. It also struck a trade deal with the US, and finally hit a peak in 2006 when it was given membership of the World Trade Organisation, which meant it could reap yet more foreign investment and aid. Three decades after the communists emerged as victors in the war, it was now a fully integrated member of the globalized capitalist economy. The west had won after all."
"On the pavement in Saigon, the Coffee Lady watched all of this unfold, and yet she saw no change in her life. “I earned the same, lived in the same room,” she says. “There were more things in the shops, but the prices kept going up. The country changed, but not for people like me. The people who had connections got richer.” All throughout these years, she had stuck with the same brand of Vietnamese-made coffee, Trung Nguyen. While she remained poor, the man who owns that company rode the new tide of free enterprise and is now reckoned to be worth $100 m."
The recurring thing you will see is that socialism didn't actually fail; it got beaten to death by the international monetary system. That is one deception in the Great Deception. Government aid doesn't work for the poor and the monetary system has all these cases that they used their power to create as evidence they were right. It resembles the senators killing Caesar then saying his policies couldn't work anymore because he was dead. Which, if you think about it, is what almost every coupe de grace really declares.
Next we discuss Laos in the Kings of the East.
"On the pavement in Saigon, the Coffee Lady watched all of this unfold, and yet she saw no change in her life. “I earned the same, lived in the same room,” she says. “There were more things in the shops, but the prices kept going up. The country changed, but not for people like me. The people who had connections got richer.” All throughout these years, she had stuck with the same brand of Vietnamese-made coffee, Trung Nguyen. While she remained poor, the man who owns that company rode the new tide of free enterprise and is now reckoned to be worth $100 m."
The recurring thing you will see is that socialism didn't actually fail; it got beaten to death by the international monetary system. That is one deception in the Great Deception. Government aid doesn't work for the poor and the monetary system has all these cases that they used their power to create as evidence they were right. It resembles the senators killing Caesar then saying his policies couldn't work anymore because he was dead. Which, if you think about it, is what almost every coupe de grace really declares.
Next we discuss Laos in the Kings of the East.
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