China
By Geoff Metcalf (03/05/07)
"If you know, to recognize that you know, If you don't know, to realize that you don't know:
That is knowledge." --Confucius
China is increasing military spending almost 18% this year, adding to the accrual of over a decade of double-digit yearly increases. China's neighbors and the U.S. are getting increasingly hinky about the build up. Meanwhile. U.S. deputy secretary of state, John Negroponte, has urged China to be more open about the military buildup? Get real John!
He said, "We think it's important in our dialogue that we understand what China's plans and intentions are,". Huh?!?
We know what China's intentions are. There is a compendium of books crystallizing the growing, inevitable, significant 'China Threat'.
· The China Threat by Bill Gertz
· Hegemon: China’s Plan to Dominate Asia and the World by Steven Mosher
· The Coming Conflict with China by Richard Bernstein
· Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America by Qiao Liang
· China: The Gathering Threat by Constantine C. Menges
· Red Dragon Rising: Communist China's Military Threat to America by Edward Timperlake
I interviewed Mosher several years ago http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/qa/19656.html it is an interview worth revisiting.
For those folks who have bought into the pitch that if only we make nice with China, we can and will corrupt them and win them over to our capitalist way, they are in denial.
China is rapidly becoming a super-power and they have ambitions that are even greater than super-power status. “They want to become a super-super-power. They want to become the Hegemon, the dominant power in the world."
Americans want instant gratification. Asians tend to not only develop long-term plans -- decade-long plans -- they also actually work their plans.
"They do." Mosher agreed. "They have plans for world domination that make reference to Chinese history 2500 years ago -- when the institution of Hegemon first developed -- when China first came together as a unified state and it sought to bring in peripheral areas under its dominance. That's a long-range plan by any standard."
I have often complained that the problems we face in this country, the erosion of our republic, are a product of incrementalism. China's incrementalism is on a much grander scale. They really do intend to be a dominant force.
Mosher said, "I believe they have a three-tiered plan for achieving hegemony. The first is local hegemony. They will move to take back Taiwan.â€
“The second stage of hegemony will be regional hegemony where they take back or bring under their control territories that China historically dominated but lost in recent decades…after that they intend to get seriously global ..." Mosher said.
Mosher said, “the long night of China's national humiliation from the first and second opium wars in the last century -- and China's defeat at the hands of the Japanese in World War II -- all of that can be avenged in the years to come.â€
Notwithstanding the myopia of our State Department, China's rhetoric has been routinely harsh. They consider us the enemy -- they have said as much for God and everybody to hear. They threatened to fire a nuke at L.A. if we gave them any grief over Taiwan. And it wasn't a one time only boast.
They did that in 1996 during the Taiwan Straits crisis when they were lobbing missiles off Taiwan. They told us we would not come to Taipei's defense because we would not want to sacrifice Los Angeles for Taipei. They sent us their War Plans for the invasion of Taiwan. China has not been secret about their plans.
The Chinese legislature's spokesman, Jiang Enzhu said, "China is committed to taking the path of peaceful development and it pursues a defensive military posture...China has neither the wherewithal or the intention to enter into an arms race with any country and China does not and will not pose a threat to any country." he was blending truth with lies.
China has known for some time 'they aren't ready'...yet. Which is exactly why they are spending like crazy to 'catch up'.
The 2007 budget marks an increase of $6.84 billion over last year. If or when China IS ready, it is a virtual certainty they will take us on. China's 2.3 million-strong military is the world's largest. The Pentagon believes China is sandbagging and 's military spending may be much greater since the announced budget doesn't include weapons purchases and other key items.
Jiang defended spending as "quite modest" compared to what is spent by the U.S., Britain, France, and Japan. President Bush signed a bill authorizing $532.8 billion in military spending for the 2007 fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
Eventually, inevitably, failing some unlikely policy sea change, China will take us on. They is preparing…we are not.
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