2-22-09   A Chinese bestseller titled The Currency War describes how Jews are planning to rule the world by manipulating the international financial system. The book is reportedly read in the highest government circles. If so, this does not bode well for the international financial system, which relies on well-informed Chinese to help it recover from the current crisis.

Such conspiracy theories are not rare in Asia. Japanese readers have shown a healthy appetite over the years for books such as To Watch Jews is to See the World Clearly, The Next Ten Years: How to Get an Inside View of the Jewish Protocols, and I’d Like to Apologize to the Japanese: A Jewish Elder’s Confession (written by a Japanese author, of course, under the name of Mordecai Mose). All these books are variations of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Russian forgery first published in 1903, which the Japanese came across after defeating the czar’s army in 1905.

The book’s author, Song Hongbing, claims that behind world-changing events like the battle of Waterloo, Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, President Kennedy’s assassination, and the deep recession in Asia during the 1990s stood an intricate conspiracy aimed at increasing Jews’ wealth and influence.
Song, a Chinese computer engineer and history buff who resides in the United States, writes that almost every defining historical moment has been instigated by Jewish bankers, and mainly the Rothschild family, which Song says dominates the global banking system, including the US Federal Reserve System.

Song’s book was published in China about a year and-a-half ago, and initially sold an insignificant number of copies. But in recent months the global crisis has turned the book into a hit. Estimates put sales of “Currency War” well over a million, not including hundreds of thousands of illegal copies that can also be downloaded off the net.

The Chinese picked up many modern Western ideas from the Japanese. Perhaps that is how Jewish conspiracy theories were passed on as well. But Southeast Asians are not immune to this kind of nonsense, either. Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad has said that “the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.” And a recent article in a leading Philippine business magazine explained how Jews had always controlled the countries they lived in, including the United States today.

In the case of Mr. Mahathir, a twisted kind of Muslim solidarity is probably at work. But unlike European or Russian anti-Semitism, the Asian variety has no religious roots. No Chinese or Japanese has blamed Jews for killing their holy men or believed that their children’s blood ended up in Passover matzo. In fact, few Chinese, Japanese, Malaysians or Filipinos have ever seen a Jew, unless they have spent time abroad.

So what explains the remarkable appeal of Jewish conspiracy theories in Asia? The answer must be partly political. Conspiracy theories thrive in relatively closed societies, where free access to news is limited and freedom of inquiry curtailed. Japan is no longer such a closed society; yet, even people with a short history of democracy are prone to believe they are victims of unseen forces. Precisely because Jews are relatively unknown, therefore mysterious, and in some way associated with the West, they become an obvious fixture of anti-Western paranoia.

Such paranoia is widespread in Asia, where almost every country was at the mercy of Western powers for several hundred years. Japan was never formally colonized, but it, too, felt the West’s dominance, at least since the 1850s, when American ships laden with heavy guns forced the country to open its borders on Western terms.

The common conflation of the U.S. with Jews goes back to the late 19th century, when European reactionaries loathed America for being a rootless society based only on financial greed. This perfectly matched the stereotype of the “rootless cosmopolitan” Jewish moneygrubber. Hence the idea that Jews run America.

One of the great ironies of colonial history is the way in which colonized people adopted some of the very prejudices that justified colonial rule. Anti-Semitism arrived with a whole package of European race theories that have persisted in Asia well after they fell out of fashion in the West.

In some ways, Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia have shared some of the hostility suffered by Jews in the West. Excluded from many occupations, they, too, survived by clannishness and trade. They, too, have been persecuted for not being “sons of the soil.” And they, too, are thought to have superhuman powers when it comes to making money. So when things go wrong, the Chinese are blamed, not just for being greedy capitalists, but also, like the Jews, for being Communists, since both capitalism and communism are associated with rootlessness and cosmopolitanism.

As well as being feared, the Chinese are admired for being cleverer than everybody else. The same mixture of fear and awe is often evident in people’s views of the U.S., and, indeed, of the Jews. Japanese anti-Semitism is a particularly interesting case.

Japan was able to defeat Russia in 1905 only after a Jewish banker in New York, Jacob Schiff, helped Japan by floating bonds. So The Protocols of the Elders of Zion confirmed what the Japanese already suspected: Jews really did pull the strings of global finance. But instead of wishing to attack them, the Japanese, being a practical people, decided they would be better off cultivating those clever, powerful Jews as friends.

As a result, during the Second World War, even as the Germans were asking their Japanese allies to round up Jews and hand them over, dinners were held in Japanese-occupied Manchuria to celebrate Japanese-Jewish friendship. Jewish refugees in Shanghai, though never comfortable, at least remained alive under Japanese protection. This was good for the Jews of Shanghai. But the very ideas that helped them to survive continue to muddle the thinking of people who really ought to know better by now.

Ian Buruma is a Professor of human rights at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y. His latest book is The China Lover.

http://www.vosizneias.com/27746/2009/02/22/china-the-jewish-myths-of-a...

China, Anti-Semitism and the “Goldman Sachs Conspiracy”

After my post last week on Li Delin’s (李德林) book “Goldman Sachs Conspiracy (高盛阴谋), both Forbes and the Associated Press wrote about the Chinese bestseller.

Li Delin did not like the Western press coverage. In a post on his Sohu blog titled “Americans Don’t Get Excited, It Was Just a Creation Out of a Piss 美国人别激动，那只是一泡尿的创意“, Li criticizes the attention, both because my post suggested possible anti-Semitic undertones, and because he thinks in general that the press is making too big of a deal of his book. Li says he had no ulterior motive, and that his publisher and a staffer came up with the idea for the book over a piss and then hired Li to write it.

As for any anti-Semitism, I should have given more perspective in my original post beyond that it contains “an undercurrent of anti-Semitism”. Apparently some Chinese people think that Isreali Shar Pei dogs are an especially smart breed. In my experience, Chinese tend to like Jewish people because they believe that the stereotypical Jewish person places very high value on family, education and money–just like Chinese do. In fact, some of my friends have told me that if their daughters have to marry a foreigner they hope he is Jewish. As anyone who has lived in China knows, the Chinese are very open about discussing other races and religions, sometimes pejoratively, sometimes not.

Growing up I was taught to try to avoid viewing people through racial or religious prisms. Maybe that makes me too sensitive, or maybe not. I read through this book and thought about the firestorm that would erupt if Matt Taibbi or others had written about Goldman Sachs and said they had the IQ of Israeli Shar Pei Dogs (p. 26), referred to founder Marcus Goldman as having Bavarian Jewish blood (p. 217), or described J. Aron as a firm “with pure Jewish bloodlines” (p. 249). And these are just references I found skimming through a handful of chapters in the book; there are no doubt more.

To my Jewish readers, do you think this has anti-Semitic undertones? Or are these just innocent descriptors used by Chinese with no inhibitions discussing foreigners?

The bigger issue I have with the book is the very strong nationalist sentiment, and especially the idea that Goldman is out to get with China. That just does not conform with reality. People who know me know I am no Goldman defender, but if an author is going to bash the firm I hope they at least do so with facts, of which there are plenty to justify attacks on the bank.

I purchased the official copy at a state-owned Xinhua bookstore. There is also at least one pirated version available online that does not contain any reference to Israeli Shar Pei dogs. As for calling this a bestseller, the rule of thumb as I understand it is that for every official copy sold in China there are probably 10 pirated versions read. Assuming 100,000 sold, that would mean 1 million or more people have this book. No matter what the government thinks of Goldman Sachs, more and more Chinese think they are anti-Chinese banksters. And that can’t be good for Goldman’s business in China.

http://www.sinocism.com/archives/1094

China's Interaction with Israel and the Jewish People Interview with Shalom Salomon Wald  

"The Chinese Foreign Ministry has a research department. In it there are probably Hebrew-speaking experts, among many more Arabists and Iran experts. An assistant to the foreign minister spent several years studying in Israel and speaks Hebrew quite well. The official Chinese press agency Xinhua has several journalists stationed in Israel and I was told that soon two of them will be fluent in Hebrew.

"The previous Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, has read books about the Jews and was favorably disposed toward Israel. He felt, however, that Israel slapped him in the face when it was forced by massive American pressure to break in 2000 the contract with China for the delivery of Falcon intelligence planes.

"The Chinese government knows that their country is feared and not popular in the West. They hope that Jews in the United States will have some understanding for them and may put in a good word here and there. They greatly admire Henry Kissinger, who helped establish U.S.-Chinese relations. Kissinger visits China once a year and is probably the country's most respected living foreigner.

"Economic relations between Israel and China are developing quickly. As a single country China is now one of the largest exporters to Israel after the United States. In recent years several thousand Chinese industrialists have visited Israel, which is another sign of the rapid growth of economic relations. There is much respect in China for Israeli technology. Economic relations between American Jews and China are also developing very fast.

"Even though the evidence is mixed, I would venture to say that a substantial portion of the political and intellectual elites have superficial good feelings toward the Jewish people and Israel. This can change rapidly, however, if prominent Jews make anti-Chinese statements. Like the Jews, the Chinese are very sensitive people.

"A few years ago a book came out by a not very well-known Chinese author that discussed international currency problems and international attacks against the Chinese policy in the field. These were attributed to Jewish financial power. Whenever and wherever the subject is money and Jews are linked to it, they come out negatively. How much impact the book had we don't know. One wonders whether, with China's increasing openness toward the external world, foreign anti-Semitism will also creep in gradually.

 "There are a number of blogs on the Middle East by young Chinese. So far these have been overwhelmingly pro-Israeli and less sympathetic to the Arabs. One has to understand that China is not a country where everybody can put on the web whatever he wants, as is the case in Israel. It is  interesting that the Chinese authorities, who are usually very sensitive about political issues, do not censor the pro-Israeli blogs."

There are five or six main Chinese academics who teach Jewish religion, history, and culture at various universities. It is very important that there are such people who educate, in a positive way, thousands of young Chinese in the knowledge of Judaism and Jewish history. In twenty years some of these students will be in senior positions and are likely to advise their country's leaders on Jewish and Middle Eastern issues.

The Criticism of the Olympics

"Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Steven Spielberg resigned as their artistic director. He denounced the Chinese for their attitude toward the Darfur genocide, as if the Chinese alone could change that situation. This made headlines in the Chinese media because Spielberg was highly regarded as the director of Schindler's List. Millions of people had seen the movie and felt sympathy for the Jews. They interpreted his criticism as ‘Here comes this famous Jew whom we respected and considered a friend and slams the Chinese.'

"When Elie Wiesel expressed criticism of China for its Tibet policy, this also made headlines and many Chinese took it badly. Far worse were the close to two hundred American rabbis, many of them liberals, who issued in spring 2008 a violent statement comparing the Beijing Olympics with the Berlin ones in Nazi Germany in 1936. They also mentioned China's support for Sudan and asserted that it was providing missiles to Iran and Syria, which is false-they did not even check this with the Israeli embassy in Washington.

"There were many Jewish reactions condemning the rabbis. Major Jewish organizations distanced themselves from their statement. The Anti- Defamation League criticized the comparison between the Beijing and Berlin Olympics. The rabbis' call led to a flurry of anti-Semitic internet statements by young Chinese. No foreigner who wants to improve human rights can do so by attacking China frontally. Chinese people turn hostile when they feel that their culture, country, and history are being maligned. This may seem exaggerated to us, but are we Jews so different? One hundred fifty years of humiliation and occupation, starting with the despicable Opium Wars, have left deep wounds in Chinese memory.

"The angry blogs were a shock to the Chinese Judaic scholars. One of them wrote to a friend of mine that he felt trapped. His students were asking why he was teaching the culture and history of a people so hostile to China. Many of those in power study Chinese blogs in order to understand what young people think. Anti-Jewish reactions on the internet are a signal to them. Fortunately Xinhua wrote that Israel's president Shimon Peres, who was an official guest of the government for the Olympics, was very happy with his visit."

Jews in China

"There are a few people in the town for Kaifeng who claim to be  descendants of Jews who lived there many hundreds of years ago. This town was the capital of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1126) and the Jewish community flourished there from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. According to the Orthodox halakhah [Jewish law], their current progeny are not Jewish.

"There are now several thousand foreign Jews residing in China, mainly businessmen. As foreigners they can practice their religion freely. The Jewish community is growing fast. There are Chabad houses in Shanghai and Beijing, where a large mikveh [ritual bath] has been built as well.

"Chabad has established very cordial relations with the authorities. When these want to know something about Judaism, they may ask the rabbis. Chabad is protected by the Chinese police because the authorities are very concerned about the dangers of terrorism, whether in Muslim provinces or in the big cities.

What Should Israel and the Jews Do?

When asked what Israel and the Jewish people should do to promote their interests, Wald replies: "They should support all activities that make Jewish history and culture better known to the Chinese. One should not stress political aspects but explain that Jews have a continuity of presence and rights in the Holy Land and that the state of Israel is the renewal of four thousand years of history. Activities should better be called cultural as religion is not a positive word in China.

"One should also explain to the Chinese that one of the reasons Jews have been influential in world history is because they attach so much importance to social ethics, the sanctity of human life, and the rights of individuals. Moreover, old Jewish law does everything to prevent the execution of criminals. If you say these things without ever mentioning China, the Chinese have fine-enough perception to read between the lines what you mean and are interested.  

"Jews and Israel should support the Chinese scholars who teach Judaism. Although they get some help from their universities, Jewish organizations abroad, and individual Jews, there is no systematic and sufficient support mechanism. This must be improved. I have developed more detailed ideas about it in my book.

"It should be discussed how, on a relatively modest basis, a support mechanism can be developed. It should help fund TV movies on Jewish history, and assist in translating books about Judaism-preferably easy ones-into Chinese. It is still relatively cheap to do this. A few years ago the translation and printing of a book in an edition of four thousand copies cost between $4-5,000. There is demand for information on Jews, Judaism, Israel, and the Middle East.

"When I interviewed in China for my book, among young Chinese the most frequent recommendation was to establish a Chinese website on Jewish history and culture. In view of the rapidly growing number of internet users, this might be very cost effective."

Source:  Inst for Global Jewish Affairs

Submitted by andie531 on Tue, 2010-12-28 18:02

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