Is the U.S. targeting China? Is China targeting the U.S.?

In a previous post, we've discussed allegations that the Egyptian uprising -- welcome as it was -- received some very sub rosa prodding from outside forces. Now we learn that the fever of rebellion has moved to China, which has seen the first stirrings of a "jasmine revolution." From the AP:

Many activists said they didn't know who was behind the campaign and weren't sure what to make of the call to protest, which was first posted on the U.S.-based Chinese-language advocacy website Boxun.com.

China's authoritarian government has appeared unnerved by recent protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and Libya. It has limited media reports about them, stressing the instability caused by protests in Egypt, and restricted Internet searches to keep people uninformed.

(Emphasis added.) Boxun says that hackers attacked the site on Saturday.

This socialist web site (previously unknown to me) avers that the above-quoted AP story is but one of many recent stories designed to whip up anti-Chinese sentiment:

More often than not, they didn't really happen. Or, alternatively, they did happen and were instigated by Taiwanese or CIA agents, or both....with the aim of destabilizing the Chinese social order and bringing about its downfall.

Why would the CIA do that? If the Chinese "social order" should fall, who would buy our bonds?

Nevertheless, Boxun is an interesting entity. Wikipedia says that the servers run out of North Carolina, although this page locates those servers in Houston, Texas. The site was founded by a "businessman" who calls himself Wei Shi (apparently a pseudonym), pictured here. Boxun writers have been jailed for criticizing Chinese authorities.

Wikipedia's entry -- written in poor English -- has some interesting info about how Boxun operates:

A policy of Boxun's states that anyone is free to submit news to the website, which has resulted in a large number of articles remaining anonymous; the site has a team of editors to confirm and verify the contents at the best.

The obvious question: Who pays that team of editors?

The above-stated policy opens the floodgates to all sorts of disinformation and misinformation. And Boxun can plausibly deny responsibility. Clever, no?

The tone of recent Boxun stories has been rather apocalyptic. For example, this piece talks about the Communist Party's plans to destroy their "paper trail" after the party loses power, which (we are led to believe) could happen any day now.

Even more worrying is this 2005 item. It originally appeared on Boxun and on an allied site called www.Peacehall.com. (If you visit that site right now, you'll find that they are mirroring Boxun material in order to get around the aforementioned hacker attack). The story has a grabber of a headline:

War Is Not Far from Us and Is the Midwife of the Chinese Century

Leading CCP official argues for exterminating U.S. population

The bulk of the story offers the text of an alleged speech delivered by "Chi Haotian, Minster of Defense and vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission." The main points:

1. Chinese people are racially superior. Unlike the rest of humanity, the Chinese did not develop from African ancestry.

2. The Party is psychologically preparing the Chinese populace to inflict mass death on other countries.

3. German and Japanese fascism provide models worthy of emulation. The Germans failed because "they are, after all, not the most superior race."

4. Atheism makes China stronger than the west.

5. China needs lebensraum and must therefore attack, destroy and depopulate the United States.

There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of “cleaning up” America all of a sudden.

From a humanitarian perspective, we should issue a warning to the American people and persuade them to leave America and leave the land they have lived in to the Chinese people. Or at least they should leave half of the United States to be China’s colony, because America was first discovered by the Chinese.

Do I believe that this speech is genuine? Of course not.

I know hoaxes. I collect hoaxes the way some people collect pepper mills. In my considered opinion, this thing has that familiar Protocols of Zion reek perfuming every word.

Most hoaxers lack subtlety. They don't know when to quit. In the real world, bad guys don't rub their hands together while giving public harangues on The Importance of Being Evil. If Chi Haotian ever did give such a speech, he would surely do so behind closed doors -- in a forum inaccessible to western electronic eavesdroppers, and certainly inaccessible to any Boxun journalists.

The target for this hoax would appear to be the citizens of the United States. Someone at Boxun -- or someone using Boxun as a conduit -- wants to foment hatred of China.

Fortunately, the hoax has not had much penetration in America, although it has had some limited circulation in the west: See this World Tribune story. Rense published it, but no-one takes Rense seriously.

As near as I can tell, the alleged 2005 speech received only one piece of critical analysis, on a site called The Glittering Eye. Apparently, there is some possibility that the Falun Gong cult may have had a hand in this thing.

Someone is playing a very strange game here. Maybe several "someones" are involved.

Is there an entity that wants to foment armed conflict between China and the United States?

Is there an entity that wants to foment revolution in China?

If so, are the two entities one and the same? Or are they separate players, playing separate games?

At this point, I am certain of very little. But I know this much: Although the Chinese government is indeed repressive, brutal and undemocratic, it is not in the interest of the United States to have chaos in that country. Our economies are too intertwined. I strongly doubt that anyone connected with the Obama or Bush administrations is behind the 2005 hoax and other Boxun stories.

While writing this post, my mind flashed on that hoary old plot from the Connery-era James Bond movies -- the one in which SPECTRE attempts to gin up a war between the superpowers in order to rule what is left of the world. Is something similar occurring now?

Maybe that idea is over the top. Okay, then: Let's hear your explanatory scenario.