Reminiscing On My Trip to China

This standoff with China got me thinking of my visit in the late 80’s. I was thinking which country, US or China is more likely to withstand a battle of economic hardships. To be clear, I believe in America and the courage of the American people. Americans are winners. America is the world leader and it bugs me that we want to shrink back from that role. Isolationist policies are not in Americas best interest. We export and influence the entire world with our brand of music, technology, sports. I was in Morocco also in the 80’s wearing a Lakers shirt and some random little kid runs up to me excitedly and starts yelling, “Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, James Worthy”. I was like WTF. I had to give the kid, a true Laker fan from Tangier the shirt.

Back to China, we entered China through Macao. Crossing into China was similar to crossing into Mexico but worse. We were on buses thank God because there were mobs of beggars waiting at the border. Dirty and many missing limbs. We were ushered off the buses in a private area where our passports were inspected and then right back on the buses. On one of the excursions they took us to a open air market where let us off the buses to shop and walk around. It so happens that the first section we saw was the “meat department “. Shocking to the senses. Meat on display on slabs with flies everywhere. Hot AF, the smell was overpowering. I would guess 40% of the people got right back on the buses in a hurry, some obviously nauseated. There were live ducks, chickens and other animals I could not identify. There were skinned animals hanging from wires. Some with long tails that I can’t begin to describe or guess what they are. Poor people will eat anything that won’t eat them first.

One last story, during my college years I worked at a paint manufacturing company. There was a guy there who had been in the Korean War. He told me the Chinese always attacked around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. Total darkness, they would blow bugles to signal their attack. He said our soldiers would fire flairs into the air to illuminate the area. The sight was terrifying. Hordes of Chinese, more like waves charging at them. He said the Chinese soldiers in the back of the waves didn’t even have rifles. They would just pick up the rifles of the dead in front. The machine guns would turn red and glow bright in the darkness. Eventually they would retreat only to attack again the next night.

We know what happened in that war. A stalemate. My point if I have one is these people aren’t easily bullied. They can take a lot of punishment. Let’s see how this standoff ends.