Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio isn’t shy about his affections for Communist China. Still, Dalio’s latest comments on China are quite extraordinary.
Answering questions on Reddit on Tuesday, Dalio suggested that China might have a better system of government than those of the democratic world. Don’t take my word for it, read what Dalio said.
The absurd irony of that comment appears lost on Dalio.
It might be “a matter of opinion” for Americans as to whether societies are best served by the inclusion of the people, or by top-down authoritarian leadership. But not so much for the Chinese people. As the courageous Chinese citizens of Hong Kong have found, Xi Jinping’s regime is not terribly interested in public opinion. Xi is interested only in securing absolute dominion over all his subjects.
That wasn’t Dalio’s only gem of wisdom. When asked, “What are the biggest things people who ignore China are missing?” Dalio responded, “That it is a very civilized society that is doing extraordinarily well and is not consistent with the stereotypes that one might believe are true. It is by no means perfect (nor is any other country) and should be open-mindedly assessed based on evidence, rather than emotionally reacted against based on derogatory characterizations.”
This is pitch-perfect Chinese propaganda.
To claim that Communist China is a “very civilized society” is to endorse that regime’s ongoing genocide, to say nothing of its murderous past. Nor, as Dalio so idiotically presents, is the evidence in question. Communist China ensures a society that engages in the imprisonment and reeducation of millions of innocent Muslims in Xinjiang province, sterilizes some, and then deploys the rest into servile labor. It is a society that disappears writers for the sin of making clown jokes. It attacks impoverished fishermen in their own waters. It is a society that steals and pollutes both rivers and vast seas. It deploys semipsychotic diplomacy around the world. It deceives the world about the origins and infectiousness of a virus, then sells the world inferior medical equipment at high costs.
It’s unclear why Dalio, a frequent speaker at Chinese Communist sponsored summits, is so proud to excuse these crimes against humanity. Unless, that is, one considers that China is Dalio’s major financial ally and that Beijing values few things more than high profile Americans who are willing to serve as its propagandists. More than that, it sees these propagandists as a critical means by which to influence the U.S. government.
Regardless, Dalio should no longer be considered a serious political analyst. Whether he intended it or not, he has made himself the servant of a truly evil regime.
