THE VIDEO (28 APRIL 2025 CHINA POST #569) ABOUT THE LINKS BETWEEN CHINA AND THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MY FATHER – JACK PERRY (1915-1996) – TRIGGERED QUESTIONS FROM READERS OF THIS COLUMN.
AS A CONSEQUENCE, IN THIS AND SUBSEQUENT ISSUES OF ‘GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON’, THERE WILL APPEAR A CHRONOLOGICAL NARRATIVE THAT LED MY FATHER FROM THE EAST END OF LONDON TO THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA.
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#1 CHINA’S MILITARY BUILD UP.
#2 CHINA AND JACK PERRY – PART 1.
#3 US-JAPAN RELATIONS HIT PROBLEMS
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#1 PEARLS AND IRRITATIONS – AUSTRALIA
CHINA’S MILITARY BUILD UP
“There is nothing extraordinary about China‘s military build-up. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China has been spending a relatively modest US$314 billion on defence (or 1.72% of GDP) compared to US$997 billion for the US (or 3.4 % of GDP). The well regarded Peterson Institute says US spending is higher than the total for the next nine countries.
The growth of Chinese defence spending has been steady in percentage terms over several years. The World Bank says since China opened up and reformed the economy in 1978, GDP growth has averaged more than 9% a year. More than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty. There have also been significant improvements in access to health education and other services. As expected, GDP growth has been more modest in recent years.
There is nothing surprising about China improving its defence forces. It is confronted by a large military build-up close to its borders by the US and its allies. China has not built up its forces around mainland US or anywhere close to them. China is adopting the same policy that Australia used to have, of defending the approach to its borders.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
Is China expansionist? Is China seeking to invade other countries? Or is China defensive without any intention to bring other sovereign countries within its control?
Most readers will be familiar with the oft quoted statistic – the U.S. 800+. China 1. The number of overseas military bases for the U.S. versus the number of Chinese overseas military bases. 800+ to 1 does tell a story.
There is another – China has loaned more than one trillion U.S. dollars to 150 countries to fund ports, roads, transport and infrastructure investment in the recipient country. But no Chinese bases and no Chinese troops have followed the loans. A country bent on Empire building would ensure that military feet on the ground would follow every dollar spent. And yet there is not one Chinese soldier, sailor or aircraft personnel stationed outside China.
So why is China building aircraft carriers? Why is China spending any money on defence if it has no intention to seize foreign property? The answer lies in the statements of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff who have declared 2027 as the year for the U.S. to consider military action against China. The Obama Tilt has become the Trump Surge. Trump’s dominant interest is not with Ukraine nor with the Middle East though both conflicts dominate the media. His focus is on the only country in the world that can go head-to-head against the U.S. – that is China.
The Cold War was the U.S. v the U.S.S.R. It ended in 1991 and led the U.S. as the only Superpower. The U.S. looked with contempt on China dismissing its flirtation with Marxism and assuming that China’s entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) would “soften” China away from politics and in the direction of economics, the adoption of a capitalist mentality and Western democracy and the withering away of the Communist Party. The U.S. committed a significant error. It had misread China. U.S. politicians and diplomats were blind to China’s intentions and long-term goals.
The omission to take China seriously was nothing less than a substantial case of We Know Better. “We, the U.S., have seen off the USSR. And we will see of the PRC. After all, the U.S narrative went, the USSR and China are both Communist Countries governed by Communist Parties. The two countries shared the same allegiance to Marx, Engels and Lenin. The USSR has failed and, inevitably, China will fail.
The human failing on the part of the U.S. was not small. They could dispense with any study of China, they thought, because China would mechanically follow the USSR path, and, likewise, flounder and fail. Intellectually the U.S. hotspots of advanced education – Harvard, Yale, West Point, the Pentagon, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department, Foreign Affairs – all got it wrong. Their mindset was complacent, and arrogant. It was also academically and political flawed. It remains an error with historical consequences and one that has not been addressed by the intelligentsia in the U.S.
One much overlooked explanation for the U.S. error was the decision made in the early 1950’s by the U.S. State Department to ban any U.S. citizen from visiting China. I became aware of this during my first visit to China in July and August 1965. At that time there were few tourists in China and we regularly bumped into each other as we stayed at the same hotels in the cities – few in number at that time – open to visitors. I struck up a rapport with an American student of my age and we chatted. He gave his name as Max which he quickly admitted was not his true name. He explained that he could not provide any personal details because if it became known in the U.S. that he was in China his passport would be taken away.
Between 1949 and 1972 no U.S. citizens visited China which meant that the U.S. had no politicians, academics, scientists, businessman, reporters who could witness at close quarters the development of China. The people of the U.S. were ignorant about China because of its government’s decision to isolate China.
It was an own goal and it had a consequence. A generation of U.S. politicians and intellectuals were growing up without access to China and it contributed significantly to the U.S. political failure to see the major differences between the USSR and the PRC. The U.S. was caught out – big time.
Back to today. China has no illusions about the U.S. It knows that the U.S. is a hegemon – a world hegemon. China has no such goal – neither regional hegemon nor world hegemon. It knows the world soon will be “multi-polar” with many powers coming to the fore – Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Argentine and India as well as Russia to name just a few. China is content with such a world and will facilitate its development. But 800+ to 1 will remain the dominating statistic that tells the story.
The U.S. knows that it has to bring China down – Trump’s 2018 decision to squeeze China by denying them semiconductors was a Statement of Intent. China saw the writing on the wall. Be Prepared. China is in the U.S. sights. The Rising Power – China – is challenging the Established Power – the U.S. War is a probability. It can be avoided but no one in China will pay any attention to “nice” words coming from Trump’s Washington. Deeds speak louder and the build-up of U.S. military force in the Far East is the U.S. statement of intent. Follow Foreign Affairs for clarity of U.S. intentions.
GRAHAM PERRY
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#2 CHINA AND JACK PERRY
PART 1.
Jack Perry was born on 31 March 1915. At birth he was named Israel Perisky – a name he retained until his marriage on 5 February 1939 when he adopted the name by which he is popularly remembered – Jack Perry.
Jack’s father, Abraham Perisky, was from a small village near Warsaw in Poland and his mother, Rebecca Goldstein, was from a small village outside Vilna in Lithuania. They arrived, separately, in the UK in 1895. Abraham was one of nine children and Rebecca was one of seven children. On arrival in the UK Abraham became an apprenticed tailor and then a master tailor. They met in London and married in 1901.
They had four children – Golda born in 1904, Lily born in 1906. Joseph born in 1908 and Jack in 1915. They lived in Teesdale Street in Bethnal Green which had become the centre for men’s tailors, ladies dress makers, blouse makers and other sections of the clothing trade including sequins, zip fasteners and pleating.
Why Bethnal Green? Why Hackney? Why the East End of London. The answer lies in the Jewish narrative. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Jews entered the U.K in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century. They were fleeing poverty, discrimination, backwardness and antisemitism. Larger numbers of Jews crossed into France, Holland and Belgium. They fled in the main from Tsarist Russia and the staunchly Catholic Poland and those that did not settle in Western Europe found sanctuary (2m Jews) in the United States of America where they participated in the speedy and comprehensive industrialisation of this former U.K. Colony
The Jack Perry Story starts very much as a Jewish story and its impact left its mark on Jack for the rest of his life. Religion played a large part in his early life but once politics had caught his interest it reduced the time available to maintain his religious links.
His father Abraham regularly sent money to his eight brothers and sisters in Poland and raised funds to visit them in 1925 taking large supplies of food and clothing. He stayed for four weeks leaving almost sixty relatives – all of whom perished in the Nazi gas chambers.
Life was conventionally Jewish in Jack’s youth. Regular attendance at synagogue during the week was followed by participation in the shabbat service every Saturday. Jack was a bright student and excelled in school and in synagogue. However he had medical problems which dogged him throughout his life. He suffered from asthma and was often off school for three weeks or more at a time.
This was a negative that his mother turned into a positive. She visited the local library weekly and returned home with books of English Literature – Charles Dickens, HG Wells, Henry Fielding and Matthew Arnold – which Jack had to read within seven days. In his youth there were no computer games, no mobile phones or television but there were books – many of them. Jack read and read and thereby accelerated the development of his mind and his intellect. It was to hold him in good stead in the years ahead when he encountered Marxism and China.
Family life was conventionally Jewish. The kosher dietary laws were strictly observed. Shabbat was a ritual ushered in every Friday when candles were lit and a Kiddush Prayer recited by Abraham prior to a special Friday night dinner prepared by Rebecca. Saturday morning was set aside for synagogue. Pesach (known as Passover) and Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur were occasions for special prayers followed by a family feast.
The highlight of Jack’s education was a scholarship he won to attend Dame Alice Owen, a prestigious grammar school. He described his time at the school as one of “juvenile happiness with a well stocked library, comfortably spaced desks, splendid music room and a well equipped gymnasium”. There was also regular access to well-maintained playing fields. Asthma permitting, he played football and cricket.
But this joyous period came to an abrupt end when his father’s tailoring business failed due to illness. Despite having his education paid by the school, Jack had to say farewell to Dame Alice Owen and start work in order to contribute to the much diminished family income. Just before his fifteenth birthday he found work as a messenger boy/general sweeper-up earning a little less than £1 per week in a warehouse in London’s clothing trade.
Politics did not play a prominent role in Jack’s family life. Both parents, like many fellow East End Jews at the time, were supporters of the Labour Party but without any of the intensity that permeated Jack’s life in later years. His upbringing was dominated by school, synagogue and sport. He played football for Maccabi – the Jewish Youth Club and in the summer with few cars in Hackney he was absorbed with playing cricket in the streets using lampposts as the wicket. He was a bright youth and was often accorded the honour of leading prayers in the youth service and in the main service for adults after his barmitzvah at the age of thirteen.
All the time he was reading – every morning, every evening. His mother was relentless with the turnover of library books and this contributed to the early development of Jack’s intellectual knowledge and skills. But politics did not enter his life until 1933 when Hitler came to power in Germany and Oswald Mosley and his bullying blackshirt followers came to the East End of London.
He read about Hitler in the daily paper but the Fuhrer was in Germany, whereas Mosley was on the streets of the East End of London, and violence perpetrated by Mosley’s thugs was a daily occurrence. It was the Here and Now.
Jack – aged 18 – started to ask questions of the Rabbis. Why are Jews being attacked? What is Fascism? Why is there no fightback? Repeatedly he was advised to keep a low profile – “this will pass. Peace will return to the streets of Hackney”. This Rabbinical advice did not placate Jack. And the street assaults of Jews increased in number and intensity. The sap was rising and he was becoming increasingly aware and informed. He paid less attention to the Rabbis and more attention to politics – the Jarrow Marchers, Spanish Civil War, the unfolding events in Germany and the growing importance of the USSR.
Whilst politics did not occupy time in Jack’s family home, the situation was different in the home in which his girl friend and soon-to-be wife, Doris Shaer, lived. Her father, Morris Shaer, was learned, informed and politically alert and Jack spent many hours discussing politics with him. Morris educated Jack in the politics of the Left and helped to accelerate his growing political maturity. What did Keir Hardie and Ramsey MacDonald stand for? How left was the Labour Party? What was Prime Minister Baldwin’s policy of appeasement? What was the classless society that the USSR was attempting to build? What was the Communist Manifesto?
PART 2 – The fight against Mosley on the streets of the London East End
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#3 U.S.-JAPAN RELATIONS HIT PROBLEMS
NIKKEI ASIA
“ Five months into President Donald Trump’s second administration, the U.S. and its most important ally in the West Pacific, Japan, do not seem to be in sync.
On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced that he will skip attending the NATO summit in the Netherlands this week. He also refrained from either supporting or condemning Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend.
These are just the latest signals of dissonance in recent weeks. When Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya visits Washington later this month for a gathering of the Quad foreign ministers — along with counterparts from India and Australia — the U.S. and Japan will not hold a widely expected two-plus-two meeting of foreign and defense ministers.”
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
The U.S. likes to boast of the alleged unity of the “rules-based nations” when it comes to China. But fragmentation is increasingly apparent. Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand are just four countries who are failing to fall in behind the U.S. hoped-for alliance against China. More will follow – India and South Korea – as countries realise that China is not a threat to their security and instead of drawing back from China they increasingly seek stronger links with China.
Trump is frustrated with Europe over Ukraine and with Israel over the Middle East. Trump’s priority is China and the need to curtail its ever-increasing power and influence and Ukraine and the Middle East are a big irritation for Trump.
Big challenges lie ahead as the tensions between the U.S. and China rise and within this overall setting it is important to maintain a focus on how hitherto pro-U.S. nations are hedging their bets and strengthening their relations with China. Change is underway.
