What Is Beijing Really Up To?
By Jim E. Reames (06/16/03)
A recent article in the Washington Post, by John Pomfret, caught my eye when I read on June 11th “Beijing Plans to Reorganize its Armed Forces.”
According to Mr. Pomfret, Beijing plans to soften its military force by 1.85 million troops because at the present time it is spending some $60 billion, per year, on defense, which is compatible to Russia. To some this may appear to be a signal that the world is getting safer. But to the critical eye it may mean just the opposite.
I remember that last May 21st President Hu Jinato had hinted a cut was being planned. In other words China appears to be taking a lesson from the United States with a greater emphasis placed on domestic law enforcement and National Guard units vs. the high cost of an all encompassing regular army. To use an American term, China simply wants its military to become “lean and mean.” This is consistent with its 1997 cut of 500,000 soldiers that reduced its Soviet-era continental command structure with a military that is becoming more geared to projecting power towards its own sea lanes and Taiwan than to populate and maintain a vast continental army.
Of greater interest is the surfaced knowledge China has an on-going love affair with the combined discipline of traditional asymmetric and cybernetic warfare research (read “Unrestricted Warfare” by Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui), translated to suggest that Beijing fully understands the military/economic significance of hit and run asymmetric war. They are also skilled at duplicity.
When you think about it, cybernetic warfare represents one’s ability to launch an attack on American soil without the financial overhead of huge military human resource. There is no need for massive naval fleets. There is little need for inter-continental warplanes like our own B1 and B2 bombers. You don’t even have to feed huge armies when America’s millions of personal computers and our servers can be turned into killers with the use of worms and highly skilled hackers. In cyber wars there is no need to even have hospital ships. You don’t need to recover the dead and wounded!
But just as it has been decided by top military strategists that wars can not be won by air campaigns alone, it is also true that total military victory can never be won in cyber space alone. For that reason one of the FBI’s great fears is that tomorrow’s terrorists will somehow combine the tactical advantage of hit and run blows with the high speed and dependability of Twenty-first Century technology. Together, this method of battle costs far less money to orchestrate while at the same time it is next to impossible to defend against. Thus, Twenty-First Century technology and the power of underground cell groups represent the perfect army of the future. And what better pawns are there than the religious fanatics of Iran, Iraq, and the Middle East?
One of the largest mistakes of the American news media is today’s journalists are so busy trying to be, and remain, politically correct or to get the inside scoop on partisan politics they seem to overlook things that are sitting right in front of them. Here’s an example. It is arrogant of the United States to continue on the path of our future and not recognize that other nations are learning how to employ “Black Opps” warfare. It is even more arrogant for us to never discuss the possibility that other nations have their very own variants of our prestigious Navy Seals, their own Special Forces, and their Own Special Operations platoons.
It is down right ill-responsible when our political leaders get so caught up in partisan warfare that they fail to recognize one simple postulate: While America conducts its every four year political contest for control of the White House there are other nations that just love to watch us struggle with global terrorism and our losing battle against illegal drugs.
Every four years our politics stand in the way of fighting organized crime that is aimed at the heart of America while Canada is on the threshold of making marijuana legal, meaning it will be for sale on our own streets when and if they do.
America, I believe, is deliberately being pre-occupied with DOJ busy-work by China and a few other movers and shakers that just keep trudging ahead, taking one step at a time in the direction of technological military and economic parity. According to the congressional testimony and white papers of Frank Cilluffo (Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D. C.) there is an amalgamation of International terrorism and organized crime. This was documented by a recent FBI arrest of drug lords here in the United States who was selling common street drugs to help fund International Terrorists. It is all-consistent with what was stated by recently retired General Wesley K. Clark on Sunday, June 15, 2003, while being interviewed on television, that at the present: 70% of America’s military is pre-occupied in the Middle East and in Europe, with another 10% committed to North Korea. That does not leave our military much wiggle room. It is, instead, keeping us pinned down and pre-occupied. One needs to ask, then, whether or not any (or how much) of all this is predisposed strategic planning?
At the present there are some who claim China is two decades behind the United States in military technology. But at ever-increasing speeds of technical change it may only take them five or ten years to actually reach parity with us, especially when our top technology keeps getting smuggled out. Our nuclear warhead technology, for example! And far too much information is being given away right over the Internet. Or it is being taken from government sub-contractors who are more interested in profit than in solid background checks and powerful internal security.
This whole thing reminds me of the old Hollywood movie “Rocky,” where The Champ was too occupied with his own reputation and ego to take notice of the young “Italian Stallion” street-stud who was getting ready for the big fight ahead. Then after stepping into the ring, The Champ learned he had a serious fight on his hands, and it turned out to be a fight for his own survival, sort of what it will be like when the United States and China finally do battle.
One of the first signals of military maturity is when a nation’s leaders recognize the need to spend assets on things like national economic success and greater geopolitical influence, while simultaneously insisting that its military re-invent itself, sort of like what America did with its all volunteer armed forces. Such adjustments increase national self-confidence upon the parallel vehicles of military strength, financial diversity, and international awareness.
China represents the sixth largest economy in the world and President George W. Bush just exercised his executive authority to cut off America’s imports from China’s third largest manufacturer, Morinco (a huge supplier for SkopKo, K-Mart, and Walmart) as a punishment for supposedly supplying illegal missile parts to Iran. When I first read of this I was reminded of just why Japan declared war on us a few decades back.
In one respect it is healthy for China to grow up and to join the world community. Conversely, they represent future marketplace competition while becoming stronger in military assets.
My concern is that while the political forces of American politics is 20-20 focused on our finding WMDs hidden in the sand of Iraq the wheels of war are still turning. The day may come when the world may soon see more than one super power, like was felt during the Cold War…and was realized in WWII. America needs to be spending far less money on welfare and far more money getting ready for military and police action against highly organized asymmetric war. America’s news media needs to get its eyes off of Hillary Clinton and onto the subject of possible serious military attack waged against this nation.
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