Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Once upon a time, there was a man who thought he could be ruler of China. He promised the people democracy, he promised them modernization, he promised them a glorious new future. He promised them all these things, and the people, desperate and war-weary after nearly a century of hard-handed oppression, put their faith in his untruths.
At first, the new China seemed successful. For the first time in most living memory, the people actually had a choice in how their government was run. The tyrant was deposed; peace looked achievable. Asia was at last poised to usher in utopia.
Or so they thought.
The democracy was a sham. China had merely exchanged one dictator for another; instead of state terror and physical suppression, citizens were now subdued by sophists and spin-doctors whose empty prose turned wrong into right. They were promised change; but no sooner was the president sworn in than he deployed the army to quell the discontent factions. Peace by the sword. A familiar pattern.
But there was one key difference, one fundamental way in which the new régime was worse than the old. His vision for China was not of indigenous nationalism, but as a colony, a branch-plant for European culture. He belittled the mosaic of Asiatic cultures that composed the country; he shunned his own language, his own history, the tradition of his own people to curry favour with foreign benefactors half a world away. He imposed Catholicism upon the citizenry, and in exchange for an annual tithe paid to the Holy See, the Pope turned a blind eye to the rampant injustice that plagued the country. Little surprise then that
he, not his predecessor, dragged China into regional warfare: a colonist surrounded by “inferior” cultures will recognize only one course of action.
When European imperialism had dug its roots firmly into state thinking, he completed his treason by handing over sovereignty to a foreign import, the infamous George I who, within months, codified the dictatorship with a return to absolutism. Free of the need to feign legitimacy, he quickly smothered whatever democratic seeds remained. Cursed with ever-worsening insanity, the king began a vicious campaign of global conquest, renewing the strife his ascension to the dubious throne was supposed to have ended.
The punch line to this joke was atomic war and billions murdered.
And now, Mr. George returns to repeat the horrid cycle of war and exploitation that rendered the Chinese life solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. This time, there is no mistaking his intentions: he willingly submits himself to the son of his late dictator, dutifully rubber-stamping whatever his master decrees, the little pug whose legs are too short and breathing too laboured to let him do anything but follow. He has renewed his cultural genocide, obliterating the Chinese language, and through recent state-mandated educational “reform”, seeks to erase China’s short-lived democratic legacy and the identity of any ethnicity beyond his own. The so-called opposition parties protest in public at the same time they ready the shackles for their constituents.
To those who have studied totalitarianism, the logic is frightening in its clarity and simplicity. Obedience to the leader must be absolute; any window for heresy must be destroyed utterly, lest it divert attention away from Big Brother. Culture must be homogenized and rendered subordinate to the State, twisted to glorify the ruling class and instil within the populace the delusion that its reign is the “natural” order. One sees for oneself this process thoroughly at work: the cultural and historical revisionism instigated under Christos and retooled under George has been renewed full force. The faces keep changing, but the body does not.
Countless times the Scarlet Lancers have reiterated our vow to defend China –
all of China, not merely the most profitable demographic– and countless times the despots of the world have challenged our commitment. Predictably, their short-sightedness fools them into declaring premature victory, as they have done so often before, each time rebuffed by the cause of the just. And with each arrogant performance, they entrench their illegitimacy within the international community, disgracing their people, branding themselves pariahs. The Otto régime knows it is defenceless alone, and so desperately allies with the few remaining states of similar ethical bankruptcy, hoping to stay its inevitable reckoning a little while longer.
It is altogether fitting that China has found refuge in the IRA: the alliance’s contempt for morality is only surpassed by its mutual lust for self-gratification. One begins to wonder whether its members had any concern at all for their reputation when they embraced the global leper, or if they could do so without fear, knowing they already bore the plague. Just as the
ancien régime marred everything it touched within China during its previous ill-gotten reign, so has it now marked the insidious collaborators striving for global domination. Do not put too much faith in your new friends, George; we had hoped to avoid direct confrontation so early, but since Russia has adopted the peremptory approach to implementing its imperial agenda, we will take the requisite steps to protect ourselves.
Ironically, your new alliance has unwittingly benefitted our cause. Amidst the chaos and treachery of the decade’s politics, a new sorting algorithm has emerged to distinguish the darkest black from the nebulous grey. Thomas Hobbes postulated that mankind would war with each other if not checked by a higher power. The IRA has become that power: not because it prevails as global sovereign, but because it represents the common enemy of self-determining peoples the world over. You had joined thinking you would be shielded from the consequences of your actions; instead you cower beneath the bullseye that directs the arrows of all crusaders of liberty and justice. When the Xinjiang democracy was violently deposed, the world was poised to strike back in defence; the rise of Italy and Russia interrupted the liberation, shattered the cohesion as the global vision was diverted by regional squabbles. But now that the dust has settled, the truth stands clear, as what seemed chaotic factionalism has congealed into a monolithic despotism, advancing a philosophy of order as immutable as it is unforgiving. The borderlines have been redrawn, and international solidarity has been renewed.
Like the Ouroboros, tail in mouth, this coalition of dictators devours itself through its regressive, megalomaniacal designs. But unlike the Ouroboros, the tyranny is but a temporary deviation from the eternal dream. Already the “permanent” leaders are being displaced: Russia has revolted against the imperialists; Italy has thrown out its overlords. Democracy continues to trump the despots. As the circle grows ever-smaller, the fate of the Chinese traitors becomes ever-clearer. As the alliance falls apart, the usurpers realize they have painted themselves into a corner. Still clinging to the illusion that they command respect, Otto and his cronies continue to flaunt themselves as the harbringers of a new era, but nobody is fooled by the rusty rhetoric: military spending rapidly eclipses social services as the pretenders entrench themselves for one last desperate defence. It is not a question of if the régime will survive. It is merely a question of how long it will drag out its death, and how many innocents it intends to sacrifice to buy itself a few extra futile minutes.
We do not expect the régime to heed us given its consistent and brazen contempt for peace, democracy, and international law: every overture we have made has been thrown back in our faces by those arrogant few who stubbornly cling to their limited understanding of the world. We would recite our usual appeals to justice and common sense, but we can already predict the answers. Nevertheless, we will give one last piece of advice, free of charge: if there is a shred of honesty and human decency still present in the government, it would to well to make its peace, spiritual and material.
The reckoning draws ever nearer.