China Has Learned Not to Wage War
China is one of the world’s oldest civilisations. In a huge, influential country ruled by warlords and threatened by external enemies, the Chinese often pioneered new military technology (inventing gunpowder in the 9th century).
Modern Chinese strategists know their history; they still follow the teachings of Sun Tzu, a General who wrote The Art of War around 500BC. Two of Sun’s maxims were:
* Choose a strategy which focuses on an enemy’s weaknesses
* Preferably do not wage war at all
For example, the largest copper mine in Afghanistan is being quietly run by the Chinese, who are building a railway from it into China; no military personnel are involved.
The Greatest US Weakness is the Pentagon’s Power
The Chinese correctly see that the greatest US weakness is the Pentagon’s stranglehold on US foreign and domestic policy. With military industry interests in every political constituency, over-powerful lobbyists rebuff any major Pentagon budget cuts.
This is slowly but surely bringing the US economy to its knees, and destroying the morale and health, let alone lives, of young Americans.
China is Fooling the Pentagon
Sun Tzu taught China not to confront the US militarily. Instead, China’s strategy is to fool the Pentagon with glimpses of new weapons systems, but without any intention of matching the US capability. Two examples:
* China’s J-20 stealth fighter. In January 2011, despite China’s notorious secrecy, a prototype was photographed for the first time as the US Defense Secretary visited Beijing. The Pentagon used this to justify no cuts to the US F-35 stealth fighter programme. US stealth aircraft technology is some 20 years ahead of China’s. The F-35 programme is the most costly in military aviation history, yet still has unresolved problems.
* China’s first aircraft-carrier. China has one small, ex-Soviet aircraft-carrier, with no strike or fighter aircraft to operate from it. Instead, China has revealed a new anti-ship ballistic missile system which, with its increasingly capable submarine force, would have little difficulty in taking out US carriers if they threaten China. Meanwhile, it released a video of a design for a Chinese supercarrier, since found to be a hoax.
This strategy is also weakening the economies of Japan and South Korea.
China Wants Equal Treatment
As a leading economic power, China is slowly modernising its relatively weak military forces, primarily for prestige reasons. It feels entitled to defend its interests in its own backyard, especially when history is on its side regarding the disputed islands in the East and South China Seas. Its recently established Air Defence Identification Zone was a long-delayed response, under severe provocation from the US and Japan, to the Japanese ADIZ. The US, Russia, UK and France have had their own unilaterally declared zones for years.
China has begun restoring a “level playing field” in its sphere of influence. However, this entails a growing risk of confrontation, because of the belligerent responses of the US and its local allies.
THANKS to Rob Green for the above.
20 Responses
Preferably do not wage war at all? Seriously who are you trying fool? China is no victim of war! it is an aggressor which still illegally occupied Tibet, East Turkistan, Inner Mongolia, Paracel islands, and some of Spartly islands. China started military adventurism and aggression on Vietnam 17 times in the last 2,400 years.
Vietnam is just like a province before they be colonized. After world war 2, Roosevelt planed to give Vietnam to Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek think that it doesn’t matter. So Chinese let Vietnam be independent. Someday Vietnamese will be ruled by China.
I from China
I love my country
Now is 2018 I assumed that no one is fool to believe the US is really coming for peace
When US soldier fighting for the price of gas
U need to understand they went to Mideast is not come for peace
IS FOR OIL
In fact I don’t blame you
US and CHINA is two different type of country
We all know we gonna fight for our country
Only different is we have more people
So live your life incase the war is coming!
🙂
Do you have any evidence that China uniting with those lands was “illegal”?
I can write about those lands which I know well:
Tibet was part of China for centuries. Most of Tibet’s people supported being part of China’s socialist revolution & they are much better off in China’s more democratic & egalitarian system than the undemocratic brutal feudalism & slavery they suffered before:
https://dissidentvoice.org/Articles9/Parenti_Tibet.htm
As for Xinjiang, it was not called “East Turkestan” originally. The Mongols were there before the Uyghurs. And in the late 1750s, it became part of China. Thus it is more part of China than Sicily is part of Italy or Florida is part of the USA (those countries were created AFTER the 1750s).
In recent years, some wahabi Uyghurs, supported by the US-backed Saudi dictatorship, have called it “East Turkestan” and have done terrorism to try to terrorise China’s govt into allowing Xinjiang to become independent (Wahabism is a fake version of Islam, which goes against the teachings of the Koran, such as the teaching not to kill civilians in war). That Uyghur terrorism has killed many people, mostly other Uyghurs.
As for Vietnam, China has not attacked Vietnam since 1979 and has not attacked ANYONE since 1979. In contrast, first world countries like the USA are constantly making wars to this very day.
China is not a credible military threat to the United States, nor economically as their economy is built and based off the United States’. If I were to hazard a guess, China only wants to become a economic powerhouse but lacks to political and cultural landscape to do so, I want China to change to embrace peace and prosperity and democracy, I think with a U.S. & Chinese alliance, the world would become a better place, and hopefully give the U.N. the ability to supersede the U.S. as the dominant global police and have real power to stop genocide, and terror, etc. Together I think China and the U.S. could change the world for the better, and make a more peaceful tomorrow, but corruption and the communist system they have in place needs to change in favor of the common/individual Chinese citizen first and get rid of the one-party monopoly, without doing so China can’t compete militarily, though they certainly have proven themselves more capable of defending themselves than ever before and hopefully that will foster a new era of free-thinking, happy, peaceful, and Chinese citizens; with their 1.3/4 billion citizens and natural resources/focus on education China can very well be a force for good as is the U.S. and I look forward to that alliance/goodwill. No nation nor group of nations would dare challenge that, and for that reason were it to happen China/U.S. can change the world, bring permanent peace, and as a species we can advance technologically, culturally, and for the betterment of mankind for all.
I from China
I love my country
Now is 2018 I assumed that no one is fool to believe the US is really coming for peace
When US soldier fighting for the price of gas
U need to understand they went to Mideast is not come for peace
IS FOR OIL
In fact I don’t blame you
US and CHINA is two different type of country
We all know we gonna fight for our country
Only different is we have more people
So live your life incase the war is coming!
🙂
The problem is the US wants 100% security for itself. That means in a war it expects to destroy/defeat China with minimal costs like in the war against SH.
Well,well. China may not be in the same league with the Pentagon but by golly they would make it crystal clear to whoever win the Presidency,any war aint going to worth the cost/cake walk.
Are you serious? China was a co-conspiritor of the Soviet backed North Korean invasion of South Korea:
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114908
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/search-results/1/%7B“subject”%3A”1509″%7D
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114898
http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/110689
China invaded Vietnam in 1979 to come to the aid of its puppet government of Cambodia which Vietnam declared war on. The Chinese modernisation of its military was a result of their defeat in Vietnam.
There is only 1 Korea. The Korean War started when the US military propped up a puppet dictatorship in southern Korea (putting into power men who had collaborated with the Japanese military occupation of Korea) and refused to go ahead with the all-Korea democratic elections they had agreed to. The US military and the South Korean dictatorship outlawed the most popular political party in Korea (the Workers’ Party), making any elections they might hold undemocratic.
The US military and the South Korean dictatorship also killed 50,000+ leftwing Korean people. Thus the war began.
The Workers’ Party govt and its supporters then marched south to help defend their fellow Koreans and overthrow the US puppet dictatorship and the US occupation forces which supported it.
Do you know the history about China? If not, please don’t be so stupid
yes i do know china’s ugly history of war
China is a major threat to democracies around the world. Unfortunately they are smart and playing the long game to become the dominant country in everything. We need to wake up and invest in technology and make our country financially sound. We are spending more money than we can afford on everything except technology. Our military expenditures are overbroad on old technology and redondant equipment just to make contractors and lobbist rich! Wake up America before its too late!
China has no bases near the USA. China hasn’t attacked any other country since 1979.
In contrast, the USA has ~400 bases surrounding China. Also, since 1979, the USA has attacked many countries. This shows who the real threat is.
The USA has attacked MANY more countries & kills MANY more people than China has done.
“The Coming War on China”: in this documentary, John Pilger shows the US is the real threat in the Pacific, not China:
http://smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-coming-war-on-china-pilger-says-us-is-real-threat-in-the-pacific-not-china-20170209-gu96bp.html
https://vimeo.com/277068625
The author seems to be Devil’s Advocate! There are just too many like him in MSM, reading this article was a waste of time.
I enjoyed the article. When people from capitalist countries (like the author) reject the pro-war, anti-China propaganda that is in so much of the capitalist media, then we reduce the threat of war.
If China wasn’t such a great threat, I would say lmao. This is complete bullshit. They are not only s threat to the US, but also to everybody else. They are buying up Africa while cheating the people they buy from; they have some of the scariest missiles in the world, on the level of US, Russian, NKorean, or Israeli missiles; they are supplying the US drug addiction; they are hacking everything through Huawei’s products; they are overfishing; they are stalking Chinese expats and abducting them; and a lot more. Not a threat? Please.
China spends a fraction what the US does on militarism, has a tiny number of foreign bases, reduces and increases its military spending when the US reduces or increases, hasn’t started a war while the US has started dozens. Not a threat.
Is this site about pacificism or is it an anti-American polemic? I am anti-war and came to the site wanting to read more about this topic but was interested to see that it was mostly anti-US articles. But surprisingly little about about the militarization of the arctic circle, the gradual annexation of the South China Sea and the annexation of the Crimea.
Deaths from the popular-vote-supported annexation of Crimea: 0. We want all the news you can send us on militarization by anyone. But you can’t object to anti-U.S. bias by pushing U.S.-driven nonsense like the obsession with Crimea.
China has no bases near the USA. China hasn’t attacked any other country since 1979.
In contrast, the USA has ~400 bases surrounding China. Also, since 1979, the USA has attacked many countries. This shows who the real threat is.
The USA has attacked MANY more countries & kills MANY more people than China has done.
“The Coming War on China”: in this documentary, John Pilger shows the US is the real threat in the Pacific, not China:
http://smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-coming-war-on-china-pilger-says-us-is-real-threat-in-the-pacific-not-china-20170209-gu96bp.html
https://vimeo.com/277068625
As for the claim that “China is buying up Africa”, in reality, first world countries have dominated, exploited and impoverished the people of Africa for centuries (including since political independence). In contrast, China offers win-win deals which develop Africa’s infrastructure and provide university scholarships for Africa’s people. Naturally, Africa’s people generally prefer China’s offers to offers from first world countries. If you want them to not accept China’s deals, then I suggest you offer them more generous deals, not the usual exploitative deals that first word countries offer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tdPGbGgBzA
As for missiles, whether or not they are “scary” is subjective. I find US nuclear missiles more scary, because:
(1) the USA has 5,800 nukes, while China only has 320;
(2) the USA has used nukes on people (cities in Japan) twice, while China has never used their nukes on people;
(3) the USA is constantly attacking other countries, while China has not attacked any other countries since 1979;
(4) the USA has a policy enabling them to use nukes as a first strike, while China has a policy of only using nukes in retaliation for being attacked by nukes.
There is no evidence that China sells illegal drugs, while the USA sells plenty of illegal drugs, controls the trade of drugs produced in Afghanistan, Colombia etc., directly (using CIA & DEA) & indirectly (by propping up regimes that sell drugs).
Edward Snowden showed that the USA does more hacking than any other country, and with Vault 7, he showed that the US govt has produced programs that dishonestly frame other countries for hacking.
Furthermore, many articles (even in capitalist media) admit that the US govt supported the development of the major US tech corporations (such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, etc.), and that those tech corporations have contracts with the US govt to share user data with the US govt (including with programming that enables easy US govt access to data).
As for over-fishing, every capitalist country does that. Socialist China doing so is nothing special.
As for the claim that “they are stalking Chinese expats and abducting them”, I have seen no credible evidence of that, but there is plenty of credible evidence that first world countries have done that to people: Canada did it to Chinese citizen Meng Wanzhou, the UK did it to Julian Assange, and the US govt does kidnaps people regularly and tortures them in CIA blacksites reglarly. The US govt also assassinates people every week and bombs civilians on a daily basis (US govt reports show that 90% of people killed in US airstrikes are civilians).
The US govt gives military aid to 73% of the world’s dictatorships.
https://truthout.org/articles/us-provides-military-assistance-to-73-percent-of-world-s-dictatorships/
US wars have killed 20+ million people since the end of WW2.
Furthermore, China has lifted ~850 million people out of poverty, and has ended homelessness and extreme poverty in China, plus China has a policy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries. In contrast, the US govt uses wars, proxy wars, coups, sanctions, support for terrorists and support for oppressive regimes to impose capitalism on billions of people, which kills a further 20 million people every year by inequality and poverty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnIsdVaCnUE