Dabing Li worked in China, the US and Hong Kong as a textile salesman, a trade official, banker, consultant and entrepreneur. Now retired, he resides in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The misguided anger and recklessness Donald Trump hijacked is still simmering in the US and elsewhere, including China, albeit for different reasons. China’s development momentum and the US abuse of state power are a highly combustible mix, and that fundamental has not changed.
US leaders have been quick to bash China rather than cure their own ills, from record numbers of Covid-19 infections to high unemployment and fiscal profligacy. The national security law has now become a convenient scapegoat.
The ongoing Occupy movement by pro-democracy protesters has wreaked havoc in Hong Kong. There is no end in sight. Yet, in this melodramatic saga, we may be forgetting the basics: What exactly is "democracy"?