Dr Fu Manchu, or Fu Manzhou in Chinese, is an immortal arch-villain. He dwells in the adventure stories written by English author Sax Rohmer from before World War I and for the next 40 years as the age of Western imperialism faded.
Fu Manchu was a big hit for his sheer malevolence. He graduated onto celluloid from the silent movie days — the first appearance being The Zayat Kiss in 1912 and later, The Face Of Fu Manchu, The Brides Of, The Blood Of, The Mask Of, The Castle Of, The Vengeance of the Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu.
He was on television, in serials, on the radio, comic strips/books, popular music, and on the Marvel franchise, where he still is, wagging his bushy eyebrows, after 90 years.
No more the bowing and scraping ‘Coolie’ of the poor immigrant, Fu Manchu is nevertheless depicted in stereotypical Chinese pigtail, but now in upper strata Mandarin costume, with a trademark wispy drooping moustache. He plays mad scientist, supervillain, assassin, crime boss suiting his skulduggery to the opportunity. It was quite a career in ‘the unemotional cruelty of the Chinese’, the one-man Yellow Peril.
The inscrutable but violent Chinese underworld thrives still in the West, most notably in Canada and in pockets throughout the United States, dealing largely in drugs, money laundering and prostitution.
The current day Chinese spy networks likewise are spread to multiple countries via their universities, where Chinese funding is prominent, in media, through lobbyists, via the ubiquitous ‘Confucius Institutes’ that Rishi Sunak recently vowed to uproot should he become head of the Conservative Party and UK prime minister.
The Chinese also do a lot of intelligence gathering via their cyber warfare infrastructure, Chinese made electronics, the 5G and beyond backbones developed (and largely banned by many countries including India, Canada, the US) by Huawei.
Over the years the Red Chinese have been very successful at stealing military designs and secrets from other advanced countries.
Fu Manchu could be the new Chinese logo instead of the hammer and sickle, for typifying current day Red China with its menace in the South and East China Sea, the Indian Ocean, Taiwan, on India’s borders and boundary disputes with multiple countries. It follows sharp trade practices wherever it goes, and deliberately bankrupts countries with its expensive loans and rapacious accumulation of collateral from debtor nations.
The spirit of Dr Fu Manchu, once seen as a Western caricature of aggressive Chinese intent out to dominate the world, still lives! It lives on in the hearts of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and its dragons, who now wear unremarkable hairstyles, dark blue Western lounge suits and red ties.
For a time, the West lost its way, persuaded by President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger, in the 1970s, to see the Chinese as allies in the struggle to bring down the evil Soviets. It was in this period that depiction of the sinister Yellow Peril was diluted into satire.
It asked for laughs on the Goon Show and Fu Manchu played by the Inimitable Peter Sellers in 1980.
Fu Manchu has risen to full strength villainy again, and is now determined to inflict both insult and injury to the lumbering elephant next door. Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo have been caught out in their tax evasion, filling and decamping to China with their swag bags of laundered money. The elephant came in late, but has now seized assets and bank deposits. It has banned fast selling Chinese phones priced at under Rs 12,000 in the Indian market which is the second largest in the world.
Fu Manchu on his part is having trouble selling phones domestically in China riven by Covid lockdowns and a sharp economic slowdown. It is likewise down on its exports elsewhere, as the Western world, its chief clients, are dealing with high inflation and near recession post-Covid and because of the ongoing Ukraine war. Besides, everyone is busy reducing their dependence on the Chinese supply chain.
In India hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal apps offer (over the Internet) short-term small loans of as little as Rs 10,000 up to about Rs 10 lakh. They proliferated during the Covid lockdowns and were often availed of by financially illiterate, desperate people, at the bottom of the pyramid.
The loans are disbursed on a no-questions-asked or collateral demanded basis, and instantly. But every contact on the debtor’s cellphone is accessed along with its name, address, and other particulars. Then the nightmare begins, almost immediately, certainly within a week. Eventually, those who are unable to pay on time accumulate a whopping, unimaginable, galloping 2,100 percent interest.
Fu Manchu is ruthless. He puts intimate pictures stored on your cellphone on the Internet, if you don’t pay on time. This, along with tags to everyone you know from the Swiggy and Zomato delivery services, to the girl in your office that you are keeping secret from your mother and wife.
It takes 25% of your loan up-front as a processing fee. It sends lewd messages to your daughter if you can’t cough up. It assists in India’s population control by causing, aiding, and abetting multiple suicides by borrowers who can’t take the relentless harassment any more.
Alarmed by the difficulties caused by unregulated loans given out by Chinese-owned NBFCs, the government is cracking down on all such loan apps and those who are involved in their disbursements. In some instances, monies in their accounts have also been seized.
It’s not just Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal in India’s immediate neighbourhood that Fu Manchu has driven into a beholden bankruptcy. It has picked on the hoi polloi of India in order to punish the common man for the arrogance of the Indian rulers who refuse to kowtow to the dragon. It is also breathing fire on India’s borders. Fu Manchu has been caught out by the Indian elephant though, and must invent new dastardly schemes to keep the running battle going.
The Chinese are good at painting themselves innocent in their Global Times mouthpiece and in bland statements from their foreign office. They even advise India on how it shouldn’t put obstacles in the way of trade. There is not a word however on culpability, on wilful fraud, on relentless economic warfare and espionage with intent to subvert and harm.
Placing multiple restrictions and stepping up scrutiny may yield some results, but ultimately throwing out Chinese enterprise and trade seems to be the only remedy, as they refuse to change their ways. However, with a huge trade account balance in China’s favour, it looks like India can’t do without Chinese goods.
India is not alone in coming to this hard conclusion towards expulsion. Even long-term friends and trading partners like Germany are acting against the Chinese now. Nobody is going to let Dr Fu Manchu get away with it despite the pains involved in separation. If he can’t help being the eternal villain, then he must meet his nemesis. The old pig-tail wearing dynasties are gone. Will it be the turn of the blue-suited CPC villains next?
The writer is a Delhi-based political commentator. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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