You are stupid either way (#219, Topic A)

In doing entries in this blog, I cannot help thinking that, in important utterances by important westerners for consumption by people of Chinese ancestry, there is an implicit -- perhaps even explicit -- conviction that the recipients of these utterances are stupid. An example is an utterance I quoted earlier -- by Britain's foreign secretary, back in 1839, instructing his trade representative in China to "strong impress upon the Chinese plenipotentiaries how much it would be to the interest of that Government to legalize the [opium] trade" (Hanes, Opium Wars, p 149). If the Chinese government did not take this sage advice, ipso facto, she was stupid. If she did take the advice, thereby ruining her citizens' health and exhausting her treasury's silver reserve, she would be viewed as even more stupid -- indeed, the utterer would be laughing all the way to the bank. Either way, the recipient is stupid. Another example is an utterance by US' new treasury secretary, who arrived in China just today to advise that her currency be revalued "for China's own good." (#217) Again, if China did not take this sage advice, which is for her own good, ipso facto, she is stupid. If China did take this advice, producing a result similar to that produced in Japan after taking a similar "it is for your own good" advice two decades ago (16 years of recession, from which it barely emerged), she would be viewed as even more stupid. Again, either way, the addressee is stupid. It is win-win to the utterer, and stupid-stupid to the addressee. What a lovely scheme!