[Epoch Times, September 20, 2021](English Epoch Times columnist Grant Newsham) US President Joseph Biden had a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week. Biden’s stated goal is to build a “guard fence” for the US-China relationship to ensure that the competition between the two countries does not evolve into a complete conflict or war.
It sounds pretty good. But this goal is to assume that Beijing thinks it is only “competing” with Washington, rather than it is already launching a multi-front, multi-domain war against the United States. Biden claimed that the United States was only competing with China, which actually gave Xi Jinping a victory in one of the battlefields-psychological warfare.
Please look at the following list of battlefields. It looks like war. The only thing missing is hot war.
Deadly political battlefield
Beijing has long been engaged in a global political war that has subverted governments and elites around the world. This allows countries that are politically aligned with Beijing (or at least neutral) to be anti-American, while also isolating and punishing countries that tend to boycott the CCP. The results include political and economic knee-jerks, and eventually the military intervention of the CCP.
The CCP is launching this war on all geographical fronts. It is very active in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific. It has even set its sights on the North Pole-claiming to be a “near-Arctic country” despite this concept. It does not exist in international law. Antarctica and its strategic location and resources are also the targets of the CCP.
The Chinese Communist Party’s idea is to put the Americans (and their dwindling allies) in a situation where they cannot act—or at least cannot act at an acceptable cost. If this were the case, the game would be over before the Americans discovered that the competition was actually a war. In other words, it means “win without a fight.”
A series of battlefields are included in the larger political battle. Please see the following:
Biochemical warfare:
We have been playing for two years. At the very least, Beijing missed the opportunity to sow the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, while claiming its innocence and blocking investigations that could save lives and save the economy. The CCP will know how to solve this kind of problem next time.
civil war:
Beijing’s large-scale targeted manipulation through social media has to a certain extent provoked conflicts within the United States. The CCP does not need too much effort, what better than the enemy’s internal fighting?
Drug war:
Most fentanyl originates from China, and more than 60,000 Americans died of fentanyl overdose last year. This is more than the number of American troops killed in the entire Vietnam War.
Economic warfare:
In the past few decades, the CCP has acquired hundreds of major U.S. companies and acquired key U.S. technologies through various means. In the past 30 years, the CCP has also urged American companies (at the instigation of Wall Street) to transfer many manufacturing industries to China. This has caused major economic losses in the U.S. economy. Local residents were shocked and desperate, and became addicted to fentanyl imported from China. .
In a gradual, voluntary surrender operation, American companies established a supply chain of key materials and products such as medicines in China.
Beijing is also strengthening its economic defenses. This is a standard operating procedure for a country in a state of war, which to some extent enables itself to “endure sanctions” (modern economic equivalents can withstand siege).
trade war:
We have been fighting on the economic front for 20 years. When Washington allowed China to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, it allowed the CCP to launch attacks, even though the CCP did not meet the requirements of the WTO at the time. You don’t need a strategic genius to know what will happen next. Even before that, as a national policy, Beijing had been actively violating the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Financial warfare:
The CCP is trying to replace the U.S. dollar and make the renminbi the world‘s reserve currency. The U.S. dollar is the last firm means of exerting pressure on the CCP by the United States. However, the Biden administration and previous administrations are doing their best to devalue the dollar. If the CCP makes enough progress in this area, the United States will not even be able to fund its own defense.
While weakening opponents’ defenses through political warfare, Beijing is also preparing and positioning for the “traditional” hot war.
For the CCP, political warfare and hot war are part of the same whole, and it will transition from one to the other as needed to achieve its goals. Ask Tibet, Vietnam, India, or other countries (and regions) that the CCP has attacked over the years.
The top level of the U.S. military is eager to engage with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army again, and CCP officers are eager to engage with the United States, albeit in a different way. Some examples include:
Military scale, military power and coverage:
The CCP has carried out the largest and fastest national defense construction in history since World War II. The PLA is significantly expanding its size, military strength, and coverage. In some cases, the People’s Liberation Army can already compete with the US military.
The Chinese Navy’s fleet is larger than that of the U.S. Navy, and the CCP is producing hypersonic and “carrier killer” missiles. The CCP is also rapidly improving its subsea combat capabilities.
In terms of military expansion, the CCP is seizing maritime territories, including building artificial islands in the South China Sea, turning them into military bases, and controlling the area, thereby expanding the PLA’s combat range.
Beijing is also building ports and airports around the world. The CCP started with a commercial invasion, but its ultimate goal is a military presence. The Republic of Djibouti is just the beginning. The “Belt and Road” initiative is essentially the world‘s largest potential dual-use infrastructure project to date.
Outer space warfare:
The CCP is preparing to become the “superior of the galaxy”, including strategic moon positioning and anti-satellite weapons, to destroy American satellites so that the U.S. military cannot find targets.
Cyber warfare:
The CCP has already begun operations to plunder the strategic network data (including biometric technology) and industry-led trade secrets of the US government and private companies. Although the Americans knew who did it, the CCP captured it almost unscathed.
Nuclear war:
The People’s Liberation Army is building a nuclear weapons arsenal, which will surpass the United States and Russia by 2025.
Is this normal?
All this is breathtaking, and people have to admire the CCP’s consistent and clear goals. But isn’t the CCP doing what all “big powers” are doing?
It’s just that this “big country” is greedy and tries to dominate and control its neighbors and other parts of the world. How a government treats its citizens (the CCP is to suppress the people), so that people have a good understanding of how it will treat everyone else.
Remember, Beijing has already done all this-let itself win a hot war without facing the enemy, or a war without a hot war. No one, and no country has called to attack China.
In fact, the United States and the free world are doing their best to welcome China into a civilized society. The WTO is a good example. In addition, the US military has been eager to “engage” with the People’s Liberation Army for decades. Even President Ronald Reagan provided the CCP with advanced military technology.
Successive presidents, up to Donald Trump (Trump), have been pacifying Beijing, while ignoring the CCP’s aggressiveness and improper behavior, as well as the CCP’s violation of human rights, as well as the violation of any form of “rights”, including the rule of law.
All of this is based on the idea that the CCP will achieve liberalization and become a so-called responsible stakeholder.
But when the United States extended the hand (and wallet) of friendship, Beijing quietly but openly launched the war.
Some Americans did notice what the CCP was doing, but they were ignored, ridiculed, fired or rejected.
Other countries have also tried to issue warnings, because being close to the CCP helps people see the problem better. Some Indians have been warning the Americans for many years. They pointed out that since 1962, India has been at war with the CCP.
The Japanese military has also tried to warn the US military, but these warnings are usually ignored politely and even rudely rejected in some cases.
But in the final analysis, it’s because the ruling elites in the United States are too arrogant and don’t know what happened, and even now they don’t believe it very much—or they just want CCP money.
To believe that everything the CCP has done is just coincidence, rather than malicious, is equivalent to believing that the CCP cannot think coherently or plan for the future. More precisely, they are acting impulsively and have no short-term memory.
Despite all the battlefields mentioned above, some people still say that as long as there is more dialogue or contact, the CCP will change its mind. We cannot blame the CCP for exploiting the credulity and corruption of Americans, which are the basic principles of political warfare.
The Trump administration understands that “war” is going on and tries to change direction, but they don’t have enough time.
People hope that the Biden team understands that the CCP is at war with the United States, not just “competing”, and the “guard fence” agreed by the CCP is more likely to be the fence that Beijing thinks will restrict Washington, and it is unhindered. Forward.
Competition is a matter between car rental companies and soft drink companies, and it can even be a matter between democratic countries. But the regime that rules China is neither democratic nor a car rental company. It’s something that will bleed.
About the Author:
Grant Newsham (Grant Newsham) is a retired US Marine Corps officer and a former US diplomat and corporate executive who has lived and worked in the Asia-Pacific region for many years. Grant served as the head of intelligence reserve for the Marine Forces Pacific, and twice served as the U.S. Navy attache to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. He is a senior researcher at the Center for Security Policy.
Original: China Went to War a Long Time Ago, but the US Didn’t (Want to) Notice was published in the English “Epoch Times“.
This article only represents the author’s views and statements.
Editor in charge: Gao Jing#
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