My fellow citizens:
I stand here today humbled [as opposed to the smugness in my January 11 blog] by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors [explained in my April 2 blog]. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often, the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms [weather conditions described in my January 11 blog]. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebearers [explained in my April 2 blog], and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood [Bill Clinton cracked the nut in his campaign for Obama presidency as explained in my February 20 blog; The origin was from my blog Untitled.]. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some [see my blog Untitled], but also our collective failure to make hard [see my blog Untitled] choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics [cynical attempt to cast doubt on my cause of seeking justice for Cecilia Zhang]. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land -- a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges [I said that number 11 was considered a challenge for the United States in my January 11 blog] we face are real [as opposed to “imagined”, an earlier nut often used to attack me as a mentally sick person]. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things [see, for example, this blog of mine]. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey [I called my pursuit of justice for Cecilia Zhang my journey] has never been one of shortcuts [see this blog of mine] or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted -- for those who prefer leisure over work [I mentioned bowling as a collaborating event to help my memory in writing my January 11 blog. Mr. Obama’s attack of me was really below the belt. -- I was sentenced into the mental health system because of the meddling of Canadian government, who had worked hand-in-hand on my file with his predecessor’s administration. -- CBC NewsWorld picked up Mr. Obama’s attack message and showed some stereotypical bowling mental patients in its National program one week later.], or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.
For us [It was a key word in one of my private emails years ago], they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us [It was a key word in one of my private emails years ago], they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us [It was a key word in one of my private emails years ago], they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey [I called my years of pursuit of justice for Cecilia Zhang my journey] we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act -- not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions [This is an example of Mr. Osama’s “lawyerly instinct” - switching concept. I had called him an ambitious person in my January 18 blog.]-- who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short [see this blog of mine]. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them -- that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control [This is a subtle blame of ma based on my January 11 blog. That’s why I wrote the update and posted it on February 28.] -- and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation [for the purpose of containment of China] and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism [China is still officially a “communist” country.] not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause [my cause is justice for Cecilia Zhang], the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort -- even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus [Chinese is notably absent.] -- and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West [Mr. Obama must have gotten this idea from my January 18 blog]: Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy [Mr. Obama was trying to blame me again for the market meltdown of autumn 2008. That’s why I wrote the update to my January 11 blog and posted it on February 28]. To those who cling to power through corruption [See my April 8 installment on China’s democratization] and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history [Political interpretation - as I learned later - of Mao’s famous quote: “All reactionaries are paper tigers” that I used here.]; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference [See this blog of mine] to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment -- a moment that will define a generation -- it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence -- the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed -- why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter [Together with the previous paragraph, Mr. Obama was apparently attempting to invoke the scene of a nuclear winter - a false interpretation of my blog Summer Hibernation], when nothing but hope and virtue could survive... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet ［it］."
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested [See Biden’s gaffe during the presidential election as I mentioned in my December 25, 2008 blog], we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
As originally posted: Global financial crisis and the fate of two nations
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As to why my actions had such impacts on the stock markets, I realized that the markets knew that the ultimate recovery of U.S. economy, whether it was through the earlier bailout of major financial institutions or the coming economic stimulus package, depended heavily on China's purchase of U.S. Treasury securities. Even when I myself do not have a full grasp of the practical significance of being the leader of China, other people and the markets know better than I do.
I noticed that after I posted my first blog on this subject on December 31, U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson gave an interview to Financial Times, blaming other countries (mostly China) for the financial crisis. Apparently the Bush administration saw what's coming from my first blog and had already started to pre-spin. They could afford to do so now because the financial crisis had been offloaded to the next administration. That's why Mr. Paulson gave the interview to a non-U.S. newspaper.
I am not going to respond to Mr. Paulson's shameful and idiotic remarks here. Instead, I will let the facts of the financial crisis speak for themselves. And I will organize my description of the financial crisis into three parts, separated by the day when the sun came out on the markets.
Around the day when the sun came out on the markets
I wrote on December 31, 2008:
"During the more recent financial market turmoil, the Dow Jones index shot up hundreds of points one day and nobody seemed to able to explain it. A market professional told the host of a business program on TV that the market rumor of the day was that "The sun has come out." Well, that's exactly what I told my mother over the phone the afternoon before when she asked me about Vancouver's weather. But an implication of this case was that both Bush administration and Harper government knew the plan to - I don't know how to put it - make me a monarch-like leader of China, not simply just replace Hu Jintao."
On January 4, 2009, I added:
"I still can't find out from which TV program (Nightly Business Report?, Business News Network?, or least likely, CNN?) I heard that my "private" telephone conversation had become market-moving rumor. But I am confident with my memory. As a matter of fact, I remember this market professional used bipolar - which is what I likely have - to describe the market.
I am able to determine, however, that the day when the sun came out on the markets was September 30. The Dow shot up 485 points, representing a capital gain of hundreds of billions of dollars.
As such, things are coming back to me now. Bush televised speeches. The weather in Vancouver. My own mood and how the markets reacted to my mood. Bush came on TV again in front of a bookshelf. I went to SFU library…. Plus the inexplicable. Details Soon."
The markets went up sharply on September 30 after it had discerned - thanks to the Bush administration and Harper government - that I was in a good mood. Yes, the sun had come out in Vancouver after days of rain or clouds when I called my mother on September 29. But that's hardly the reason for my good mood. I was in a good mood because of Mr. Bush's televised speech earlier that day.
As usual, Mr. Bush's message in his televised speech was in the setting. Previously, I talked about Mr. Bush's televised speech in front of a bookshelf on December 19, 2008. And I will talk about another bookshelf speech of his on September 30, 2008 later in this blog. A third example I could think of was his televised speech on September 13, 2007 where he used a piece of paper that was supposedly a letter he received from an average citizen.
I do not claim to have followed every one of Mr. Bush's televised speeches. But it would be safe to venture that it was extremely rare for Mr. Bush to go on camera at exact dawn. His message to everyone was that he had radically changed his mind and he now supported my leadership in China, where a super leader is sometimes referred to as the sun. -- Right after my blog on December 31, Mr. Bush's spokesman made a news about him being an "early riser", clearly trying to counter what I was about to reveal. If Mr. Bush really thought that my interpretation of his message were wrong, why did he bother to pre-spin my revelation?
Mr. Bush's televised message came as a big relief for me, which explained my good mood on September 29. (As it turn out, Mr. Bush is not a Junzi, as evidenced by his behavior on or around APEC Summit. But that's another story.) But the markets were reacting to the political implications of the rumor that "The sun has come out", rather than my personal mood, otherwise, how did the market know that my mood had not changed from the day before?
The markets interpreted my saying that "The sun has come out" in a good mood as a sign that I would support the U.S. bailout financially on behalf of China. Looking back, I believe Mr. Bush would not have gone to the camera at exact dawn if he had not had that request in his mind. At that time, however, I never thought about helping the U.S. bailout. My good mood was largely a result of my sensing that I was going to be free soon. To be the leader of China was, and still is, largely a very, very abstract concept in my mind.
Now comes the important question: What made Mr. Bush, who had worked against me for years, change his mind 180 degrees? To answer that question, I'll have to go back to the beginning of the financial crisis and to my borrowing the 7 books on September 16-17.
Before the day when the sun came out on the markets
On January 4, I wrote about the problem I encountered in trying to borrow these 7 books and how it might be related to the market decline on September 17:
"While researching on this subject, I also discovered another case of potential market corruption. I strongly suspect that market insiders knew before the start of trading on September 17 that I was going to borrow 7 books later that day. This may help to explain the 449 points drop in Dow that day. -- A New York Times report that day only attributed a general fear in the market for the decline. -- Of course, the potential market impact of my borrowing books was never on my mind. As I said in the [main] previous blog, I borrowed the 7 books out of fear for my own safety.
It was actually on Tuesday September 16 that I first went to the Vancouver Public Library central branch to try to check out 7 books. After I had chosen those 7 Chinese books, however, I realized that I had forgot to bring my library card with me. So I asked the library staff to hold the books for me and I went home to get my card. When I came back to the library - it must have been in the late afternoon - I found, to my surprise, that the central library was closed due to "an unknown fume". That's why those 7 books were checked out the next morning.
So the questions are: Where did the fume come from? Did it have anything to do with the governments? Was I followed in the library? Did the governments know the 7 books I left with the reserve counter on September 16? If so, did they leak that information to Wall Street insiders?"
I had said that after I saw the U.S. economic bubble was going to burst in a big way, I changed my plan from doing nothing to doing something. I did so out of fear for my own safety, which was true. I did not know exactly what Messrs. Bush and Harper's plan would have been if I had not acted. But no matter what it was, it was not going to be good for me. Perhaps subconsciously, I wanted to do something so that they would not proceed with their plan.
I also mentioned that by borrowing 7 books, I wanted to deliberately grasp people's attention, which was also true because, of all the numbers, the meaning of 7 is the most dramatic. For people who do not already know, here is my summary of the political meanings of some of the commonly used numbers (I figured them out by myself over the years so I can not say that they are 100 percent accurate):
- One is rarely used. It could mean unity?
- Two is rarely used until people gave it the meaning of eleven recently.
- Three is used to refer to former president JIANG Zemin, the third generation of Chinese leadership.
- Four is normally used to refer to current president HU Jintao, the fourth generation. Recently it has also been used to mean me.
- Five has been used for a long time to mean me as I was initially known as the candidate for the fifth generation.
- Six was sometimes used to mean me, too, after I said that I wanted to be considered for the sixth generation. (Frankly, I just wanted to get out of politics.)
- Seven means hyper-urgency and calls for immediate action. Its origin was that some anti-China crowd dreamed of dividing China into 7 pieces.
- Eight is a lucky number in Chinese. It means good fortune. As such, it could mean anything related to money, such as business or economy.
- Nine means the end of Chinese Communist Party.
- Ten means perfect?
- Eleven is considered a challenge for the United States as it invokes the event of 9/11.
Considering that my borrowing those 7 books was prompted by the market meltdown, was it really true that "the potential market impact of my borrowing books was never on my mind"? I don't know. Could it possible that, perhaps subconsciously, it was on my mind? I still don't know. Anyways, I am not a psychoanalyst so I am not going to over-analyze myself. In the end, my borrowing 7 books at the start of the financial crisis was probably an act of instinct. I wanted to do something and I did. And I stayed tight and observed afterwards.
Looking back, I would say that, had I not acted, there was a very good chance that Mr. Bush would have unloaded the financial and economic mess created largely under his watch to other countries. That was evidently his best option. (His second-best option would be to minimize the fallout from the crisis and unload the rest of it to his successor.) And he would have done so by very possibly creating another crisis, likely of a military nature because that's what Mr. Bush is good at, backed up with years' astronomical military budget. Finally, he would have framed me in his scheme.
Indeed, I think the Bush administration, with the cooperation of the Harper government, would likely have succeeded in executing their plan, given how biased western media is. (I remember that, at the beginning of the 5-day Russia-Georgia war, a TV reporter, freshly out of the White House, fumbled his notepaper to find the word to describe the Russians to his audience. And the word, as it turn out, not surprisingly, was later used by virtually all the western journalists throughout the reporting of the war, whether they worked for TV stations or newspapers, whether they were based in U.S. or elsewhere. Do you know what the word was? I will give you a hint: They have not used the word very much at all in reporting the current Israeli-Gaza conflict, although it would have been a much more pertinent word to use on the Israelis this time around. -- I agree that media freedom is important. But no less so is objectivity. Which is more evil, keeping the public in the dark or keeping the public misinformed? Thank about it.)
I mentioned in my previous blog that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a scathing speech on Russia on September 18, the day after I had borrowed those 7 books. I should also have mentioned that in Canada, ever since I wrote to the Russian Embassy for political asylum, Russia-bashing had been on Mr. Harper's agenda. He increased the intensity during my visit to Ottawa, besides beating up the urgency of a snap election. He would have surely followed Bush administration's lead after I borrowed those 7 books if not for the election campaign he was in at the time. Indeed, Messrs. Bush and Harper had previously tried to taint me as either a terrorist or a spy who worked with the Russians against the United States. As I wrote about my May 2007 visit to the Russian Embassy, they repeatedly tried to frame me then by staging sensational bomb scare incidents in Ottawa. And they had the mainstream media, such as the National Post, on their side, creating false impressions among the public beforehand.
That's why I was so worried when I noticed suspicious persons and activities around me after I came back from Ottawa in late August. Given the lethal truth, i.e., it was Mr. Bush who gave the order to the Georgia president to provoke a war with the Russians on the day of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, I tried to postpone revealing to the world, I knew that Messrs. Bush and Harper's plan was going to involve some gigantic spin and be really bad, bad, bad.
In short, that's the background for my borrowing those 7 books. I wasn't signaling to anybody to take immediate action, even though that's how 7 is interpreted politically. I was simply trying to upset Messrs. Bush and Harper's plan, no matter what it was, and to save myself.
Apparently, my action even confused both the Chinese and the Russians. The Russian Embassy sent me an email two day later, asking for more documents to support my political asylum application, apparently in displeasure. Those were unnecessary given the implicit understanding I had reached with them during my visit.
As for the Chinese, they might have interpreted that I was calling for action on the financial front. Frankly, that would have been stupid. But, I guess precisely because of this stupid interpretation of my action, Mr. Hu Jintao once again solidified his standing in the government as evidenced by "an important speech" he gave to a large gathering of provincial/ministerial level officials within 36 hours or so after I had checked out the 7 books, the earliest opportunity one could arrange such as assembly in Beijing.
In Washington, Mr. Bush canceled his travel to "closely monitor the situation in our financial markets" on Thursday September 18, as he said in a televised speech, sounding like a commander in a war. However, the markets tanked despite huge amounts of coordinated liquidity injections among several central banks. Edmund L. Andrews of New York Times reported:
"This forced Mr. [Henry M.] Paulson [Jr. The Treasury secretary], and Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, to think the unthinkable: committing taxpayer money to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in distressed assets from struggling institutions.
Rumors about the Bush administration's new stance swept through the stock markets Thursday afternoon. By the end of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average shot up 617 points from its low point in midafternoon, the biggest surge in six years, and ended the day with a gain of 410 points or 3.9 percent."
Note the timing: Late afternoon Thursday September 18 would have been early morning Friday September 19 Beijing time, just hours before the big gathering organized for Hu Jintao. Later that evening, Mr. Bush sent Messrs. Paulson and Bernanke to the Capitol Hill to meet with congressional leaders for the bailout money. It appears to me that Messrs. Paulson and Bernanke were not so much forced by the jittering markets to do the bailout, as reported by the Times. They started doing the bailout once they had made sure that Mr. Hu was back in charge in China and would, as a poodle for George W. Bush, foot the bill for them. This could explain why they did not even have a concrete proposal going into the congressional meeting on Thursday evening. Indeed, it was reported that as late as Saturday, the proposal to Congress was only three page long. The $700 billion bailout figure was more intriguing, though.
At that time, I did not have my own Internet connection. I probably spent about a couple of hours a day on the Internet. I was not appraised of these developments on a hourly basis, as such, there was no way for me to connect them together. I do remember that on Tuesday September 23, I was quite downbeat. I went to bowling with a group of people that afternoon and my mind was entirely preoccupied with the off-putting political developments, especially Bush's phone call to Hu on Monday, as I had just learned.
The phone call between Messrs. Bush and Hu was meant to help each other politically, just like their telephone calls before. Since Sino-U.S. relation was the most important bilateral relation for China, Mr. Bush's support of Mr. Hu's leadership meant a lot to Mr. Hu politically. In return, Mr. Bush must have got what he wanted, i.e., commitment from Mr. Hu to help finance his huge bailout. (After the bailout plan had been passed by the U.S. Congress, a Hong Kong-based newspaper reported that Chinese government had committed to purchasing up to $200 billion of new U.S. debt. Although I have not seen similar report through another news outlet.)
I knew these disheartening developments were connected to my borrowing those 7 books. So I started thinking of ways to fix the problem. If I could somehow let people know that the 7 books were actually supplemental to the key book, Democracy of the dead, which was mentioned in American business in China, it would dilute the political meaning of 7 somewhat.
However, I did not want people - mostly Chinese politicians - to know that I was interested in the book for a reason. -- I am interested in democratization in China; but I have to consider China's reality. I did not want to give the impression that I was interested in something that was out of reach in China. However, if the book has a Chinese translation, it probably is not that unacceptable, I thought.
The next afternoon, Wednesday September 24, I phoned UBC Asian Library to ask the librarian a question: How to find out if a English book has a Chinese translation. She was quite helpful. She not only told me the answer to my original question, she also found out that there was a copy of Chinese translation available in Vancouver Public Library.
I believe that my phone call to the UBC librarian, like virtually all my other calls, was monitored by the Harper government and Bush administration. I am not sure if this information gave Mr. Bush the urgency to imply publicly that foreign investors were to blame for the financial crisis, as he did in his prime time televised address a few hours later in the evening. (Although he did not mention China by name, it's not that difficult for people to see which country he had in mind.) China's fault was, according to him, investing too much in the United States. And this after he had played politics to make sure that China under Hu Jintao would finance his huge Wall Street bailout!
Note that, as I mentioned before, I believe that I was followed in SFU library and Mr. Obama appeared to know that I was reading Democracy of the dead there. (Indeed, from his campaign rhetoric, Mr. Obama appeared to be encouraging me to make my reading that book "public".) As such, Mr. Bush should know the book I was reading, too. Therefore, Mr. Bush did have a reason to act promptly, after my phone call to the UBC librarian, to put the blame on China, if that blame game had been part of his plan.
After watching Mr. Bush's speech, I felt a sense of urgency. Mr. Bush seemed to have completed his circle of blame: Russia, me, and now China. I immediately went to VPL that evening (in heavy downpour, if my memory is correct) to try to borrow that book.
To my disappointment as well as puzzlement, I could not find the book on the shelf, even though the computer showed that it was in the library and available. (Indeed, I remembered that, when I borrowed those 7 books one week before, I went through that bookshelf and this book was certainly not there. The first time I saw that book was on November 20.) When a library staff, having failed to locate the book for me, suggested that I put a hold on the book, I followed her suggestion.
I believe this book hold changed the perceptions of my book borrowing activities. I also believe I had come dangerously close of being framed by the Bush administration and Harper government. And I believe the consequence would have been really, really ugly - not just for myself, but for the world.
It was probably in this context that the Obama campaign told the McCain campaign that "you guys over-reacted". On Friday September 26, I first sensed that Mr. Bush was changing his attitude towards me when he repeatedly used the word big in his televised remarks. The next morning, he gave his "The sun has come out" televised speech at exact dawn to essentially entreat me to support his bailout plan on behalf of China.
After the day when the sun came out on the markets
Having listened into my telephone conversation with my mother on September 29, Mr. Bush knew that I had gotten his message, i.e., that I knew that he now supported my leadership, although not the complete one - I should add. By making his televised speech in front of a bookshelf the following day, Mr. Bush hinted to me to look into my borrowing record, as if there was some problem there.
I looked into my book records and the problem seemed to be that, since the book I reserved with VPL on September 24 still had not been found (a mystery!), the record was 7-1 rather than 8. And in Chinese, 7-1 is the short for July 1, which is the birthday of CCP. Therefore, this part of my book record might give people the impression that I was for CCP, in contradiction to my reading the book Democracy of the dead itself.
Now, I am a nice guy. If people are nice to me, I would be nice back, even if I had been wronged before. I understood that this was an important concern for Mr. Bush because it was related to his legacy, i.e., whether or not he could claim that he had played a role in China's moving to the direction of democracy, even though I knew how hypocritical he had been on this issue. So, I started thinking of ways to fix the problem for him.
Since it had been a week since I put a hold on the Chinese version of Democracy of the dead with VPL, I'd better give up waiting for it to show up. This meant that I would need to borrow the original version from the SFU library, the book I had moved to another location inside the library and read there. I also wanted to keep the total number of books 9, to make my message clear. This meant that I would have to return at least one of the two books on loan from SFU at the time.
After Mr. Bush had "told" me, with his bookshelf speech, that he was watching closely the books I was reading and wanted to communicate with me this way, I became a little conscious about my book borrowing activities. This was in comparison to my trying to draw people's attention with those 7 books earlier. Knowing that other people, especially those in the U.S. election, would be watching too, I was determined to give my best efforts. I decided to borrow the best book on Warren Buffett: The essays of Warren Buffett, arranged by Lawrence Cunningham. Given the financial crisis at hand, I wished that the Americans had had heeded Mr. Buffett's warnings years before. (I should note that, when John McCain accused Mr. Obama as a socialist during the campaign, Mr. Obama countered that "Warren Buffett is not a socialist".)
In the morning of October 1, I used the Internet and telephone to check the availability of these two books in SFU library. That's probably why someone had deliberately but slightly moved the book, Democracy of the dead, just before I got to the library later that day. It was clearly intended to bully, just like the many occasions where police cars would watch me near my home coming back from libraries. Anyways, I checked out Democracy of the dead and put in a request for The essays of Warren Buffett as it was still in processing.
Now, I don't remember when I first realized that people had given the number 2 the meaning of 11. But I am positive that, on October 1, I wasn't aware of it. Indeed, my goal was to make the total number of books on loan 9 and that was my focus on that day. (Just to be clear, I am still in favor of establishing a multi-party democracy in China, as long as it can be done in an orderly fashion.)
While researching on the financial crisis, I realized that the stock markets might have interpreted my borrowing records quite differently. If the markets interpreted the two books as 11, there were three key numbers in my borrowing records: 7, 9 and 11. The political interpretations could be complicated but the implications for the markets were not good as the markets knew the key to the success of the bailout and the recovery of U.S. economy was China's cooperation.
Since 7 is a bad number for China, 9 a bad number for CCP and 11 a bad number for the U.S., that three number came together in my borrowing records appeared to suggest that the fate of both China and U.S., in addition to the future prospect of CCP or China's democratization, were all intertwined, although I had not intentionally sent out that message with my borrowing records. Think of it. The markets got it right on the money. Whether it's nuclear weaponry (as I unwittingly discovered) or the economy (as popularized by Larry Summers), there are so-called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) between these two countries. And as I argued before, how to manage the democratic transition of China without creating chaos is not only a challenge for China, but also one for the world at large.
Given the uncertainty coming out of the interpretations of my borrowing records, it's no surprise, then, that we saw ten consecutive declines in stock markets in early October, representing 2.4 trillion dollars in total losses, despite the fact the Congress had approved the $700 billion bailout package.
As a former trader, I learned that the markets are always right. Intriguingly, the Dow Jones industrial average on the day when Mr. Bush gave his "The sun has come out" speech dropped 777 points.
That's 7 times 111. I can't explain that.
