What’s the likelihood of that?  The new President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, is actively reviving the cult of Mao Tse-Tung that was so destructive of China and of Sino-US relations in the last century, which continue to taint our relationship today, and which poison now is being refreshed.

Early, public symbols of the revival include

• a visit to a village from which Mao attacked Beijing in 1949 and from which Xi vowed that “our red nation will never change color.”
• a visit to a lakeside villa where Mao summered.  At the opening of a new exhibition there, Xi declared that the villa should be a center for educating youth about patriotism and revolution.  Notably, the exhibition wholly elides the 10s of millions of Chinese butchered by Mao, particularly during the mass starvation he inflicted with his cultural “revolution.”
• echoing Mao, Xi  is launching a “rectification” campaign to purge the Communist Party and limit discussion of ideas such as democracy, rule of law, enforcement of the constitution, and other such evils.  This is how Mao presaged his cultural revolution.

In a reflection of Mao’s “reeducation” programs, both explicit and through state media, Xi has

• commanded army generals and senior officers to reconnect with the “masses” by serving as privates for 15 days minimum.
• ordered officials to combat the spread of such evils as universal values, press freedom, civil society, and judicial independence.
• through his Communist Party, with its purification in progress, warned officials to combat “dangerous” Western values.
• related to this, officials have been instructed to “cut off at the source channels for disseminating erroneous currents of thought.”
• published attacks on “civil society” and the concept that Party power actually should be subject to constitutional limits.
• had police detain political activists (although this represents no actual change).

Mao was a steadfast enemy of the West and of us in particular.  His successor is showing himself to be disinterested in friendship.

Last week in his press conference with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, President Barack Obama had this to say:

…we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson.

Obama waxed on in this vein for quite a bit in that press conference.

Here’s how Ho used his…inspiration:

• October 1945…Ho ordered the slaughter of his political opponents, including 50,000 of the then-powerful Trotskyist communists.
• …butchery of peasant farmers who resisted his brutal taxation in the early days of Ho’s regime.
• …killing of landlords and bourgeois-class merchants….
• Estimates…as high as half-a-million killed in Ho’s effort to consolidate power….
• Following…US retreat from Vietnam, untold thousands of Vietnamese, deemed collaborators by the regime, were put to death.
• [Ho]…used VI Lenin’s tactics: murder, terror and “reeducation” to obtain, maintain, and expand power.

Keep in mind that Obama is a highly trained lawyer and politician.  In the former capacity, knowledge of history was part of his training (he went to Harvard, after all), and in both capacities, words are his stock in trade.

Obama knew exactly what he was saying in the press conference.

Hmm….

President Barack Obama’s sharp talk on what other countries ought to do with our own Edward Snowden is having no effect.

[T]he State Department pointedly warn[ed] a defiant Ecuador there will be “grave consequences” if the foreign government grants Snowden asylum.

And Obama expressed his disdain for Snowden the “29-year-old hacker,” saying he wouldn’t be “scrambling jets” to catch him.  But then, as Power Line put it, Obama couldn’t be bothered to scramble jets for Benghazi, either.

Just to demonstrate the effectiveness of Obama’s very stern finger wagging, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa

thumbed [his] nose…by offering the US $23 million a year in aid…in order to improve the humanitarian situation in the United States.

Yeah.  Obama showed him.

Seth Cropsey, Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy for both Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush, made some points in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week.

Beijing continues to build up its medium-range and long-distance missile arsenal, antiship cruise missiles, space weapons and military cyberspace capabilities.  China is also improving its fighters, building three classes of attack submarines, and has commissioned its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.  It is, in short, building an advanced system of weaponry capable of striking Asian states from afar.

The US’ response:

plans for increasing the US Marine contingent based in Darwin on Australia’s north coast to 1,100 from 250 [ultimate goal in a nebulous future: 2,500].

And

Facing this…is a US fleet less than half the size it was…in the early 1990s.  The plan to build the 306-ship fleet that the Navy says is necessary to accomplish all its missions rests on assumptions about shipbuilding costs that the Congressional Budget Office and Congressional Research Service agree are unrealistic.  …  On Tuesday, Rep. Randy Forbes (R., Va.), chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on sea power, told a group at Washington’s Hudson Institute that “In 2007, the Navy was able to meet about 90% of America’s combatant commanders’ need [for ships].  This year that figure will fall to 51%.”

And

The defense budget since 9/11 has averaged 4.1% of GDP.  Under the budgets projected by the Obama administration, the figure is projected to drop to 2.5% in less than a decade.

Here is the American retreat in full throat.

Why?