by Pepe Escobar – posted with permission
Chinese General Qiao Liang argues, ‘If we have to dance with the wolves, we should not dance to the rhythm of the United States’
A Chinese anti-US propaganda poster from the Korean War era. Photo: Facebook
In 1999, Qiao Liang, then a senior air force colonel in the People’s Liberation Army, and Wang Xiangsui, another senior colonel, caused a tremendous uproar with the publication of Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America.
Unrestricted Warfare was essentially the PLA’s manual for asymmetric warfare: an updating of Sun Tzu’s Art of War. At the time of original publication, with China still a long way from its current geopolitical and geo-economic clout, the book was conceived as laying out a defensive approach, far from the sensationalist “destroy America” added to the title for US publication in 2004.
Now the book is available in a new edition and Qiao Liang, as a retired general and director of the Council for Research on National Security, has resurfaced in a quite revealing interview originally published in the current edition of the Hong Kong-based magazine Zijing (Bauhinia).
General Qiao is not a Politburo member entitled to dictate official policy. But some analysts I talked with agree that the key points he makes in a personal capacity are quite revealing of PLA thinking. Let’s review some of the highlights.
Dancing with wolves
The bulk of his argument concentrates on the shortcomings of US manufacturing: “How can the US today want to wage war against the biggest manufacturing power in the world while its own industry is hollowed out?”
General Qiao dismisses the possibility that Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India and other Asian nations may replace China’s cheap workforce: “Think about which of these countries has more skilled workers than China. What quantity of medium and high level human resources was produced in China in these past 30 years? Which country is educating over 100 million students at secondary and university levels? The energy of all these people is still far from being liberated for China’s economic development.”
He acknowledges US military power even in times of epidemic and economic difficulties is always capable of “interfering directly or indirectly in the Taiwan straits question” and finding an excuse to “block and sanction China and exclude it from the West.” He adds that, “as a producing country, we still cannot satisfy our manufacturing industry with our own resources and rely on our own markets to consume our products.”
In consequence, he argues, it’s a “good thing” for China to engage in the cause of reunification, “but it’s always a bad thing if it’s done at the wrong time. We can only act at the right time. We cannot allow our generation to commit the sin of interrupting the process of the Chinese nation’s renaissance.”
General Qiao counsels, “Don’t think that only territorial sovereignty is linked to the fundamental interests of a nation. Other kinds of sovereignty – economic, financial, defense, food, resources, biological and cultural sovereignty – are all linked to the interests and survival of nations and are components of national sovereignty.”
To arrest movement toward Taiwan’s independence, “apart from war, other options must be taken into consideration. We can think about the means to act in the immense gray zone between war and peace, and we can even think about more particular means, like launching military operations that will not lead to war, but may involve a moderate use of force.”
In a graphic formulation, General Qiao thinks that, “if we have to dance with the wolves, we should not dance to the rhythm of the US. We should have our own rhythm, and even try to break their rhythm, to minimize its influence. If American power is brandishing its stick, it’s because it has fallen into a trap.”
In a nutshell, for General Qiao, “China first of all must show proof of strategic determination to solve the Taiwan question, and then strategic patience. Of course, the premise is that we should develop and maintain our strategic force to solve the Taiwan question by force at any moment.”
Gloves are off
Now compare General Qiao’s analysis with the by now obvious geopolitical and geo-economic fact that Beijing will respond tit for tat to any hybrid war tactics deployed by the United States government. The gloves are definitely off.
The gold standard expression has come in a no-holds barred Global Times editorial: “We must be clear that coping with US suppression will be the key focus of China’s national strategy. We should enhance cooperation with most countries. The US is expected to contain China’s international front lines, and we must knock out this US plot and make China-US rivalry a process of US self-isolation.”
An inevitable corollary is that the all-out offensive to cripple Huawei will be counterpunched in kind, targeting Apple, Qualcom, Cisco and Boeing, even including “investigations or suspensions of their right to do business in China.”
So for all practical purposes, Beijing has now publicly unveiled its strategy to counteract US President Donald Trump’s “We could cut off the whole relationship” kind of assertions.
A toxic racism-meets-anti-communism matrix is responsible for the predominant anti-Chinese sentiment across the US, encompassing at least 66% of the whole population. Trump instinctively seized it – and repackaged it as his re-election campaign theme, fully approved by Steve Bannon.
The strategic objective is to go after China across the full spectrum. The tactical objective is to forge an anti-China front across the West: another instance of encirclement, hybrid war-style, focused on economic war.
This will imply a concerted offensive, trying to enforce embargoes and trying to block regional markets to Chinese companies. Lawfare will be the norm. Even freezing Chinese assets in the US is not a far-fetched proposition anymore.
Every possible Silk Road branch-out – on the energy front, ports, the Health Silk Road, digital interconnection – will be strategically targeted. Those who were dreaming that Covid-19 could be the ideal pretext for a new Yalta – uniting Trump, Xi and Putin – may rest in peace.
“Containment” will go into overdrive. A neat example is Admiral Philip Davidson – head of the Indo-Pacific Command – asking for $20 billion for a “robust military cordon” from California to Japan and down the Pacific Rim, complete with “highly survivable, precision-strike networks” along the Pacific Rim and “forward-based, rotational joint forces” to counteract the “renewed threat we face from great power competition.”
Davidson argues that, “without a valid and convincing conventional deterrent, China and Russia will be emboldened to take action in the region to supplant US interests.”
Watch People’s Congress
From the point of view of large swathes of the Global South, the current, extremely dangerous incandescence, or New Cold War, is mostly interpreted as the progressive ending of the Western coalition’s hegemony over the whole planet.
Still, scores of nations are being asked, bluntly, by the hegemon to position themselves once again in a “you’re with us or against us” global war on terror imperative.
At the annual session of the National People’s Congress, starting this Friday, we will see how China will be dealing with its top priority: to reorganize domestically after the pandemic.
For the first time in 35 years, Beijing will be forced to relinquish its economic growth targets. This also means that the objective of doubling GDP and per capita income by 2020 compared with 2010 will also be postponed.
What we should expect is absolute emphasis on domestic spending – and social stability – over a struggle to become a global leader, even if that’s not totally overlooked.
After all, President Xi Jinping made it clear earlier this week that a “Covid-19 vaccine development and deployment in China, when available,” won’t be subjected to Big Pharma logic, but “will be made a global public good. This will be China’s contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.” The Global South is paying attention.
Internally, Beijing will boost support for state-owned enterprises that are strong in innovation and risk-taking. China always defies predictions by Western “experts.” For instance, exports rose 3.5% in April, when the experts were forecasting a decline of 15.7%. The trade surplus was $45.3 billion, when experts were forecasting only $6.3 billion.
Beijing seems to identify clearly the extending gap between a West, especially the US, that’s plunging into de facto New Great Depression territory with a China that’s about to rekindle economic growth. The center of gravity of global economic power keeps moving, inexorably, toward Asia.
Hybrid war? Bring it on.
Washington wants to prevent Russia and China supplanting US interests. Moscow and Beijing pursue what they see as their own legitimate interests. What we face is not a “hybrid” war or “new Cold War” but a world war.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Thank you for the great article, Pepe Escobar.
I have noticed that in comment sections on some internet sites, especially Zero Hedge and even Fort-Russ, there are mostly US americans who, as you state in your article above, have a severe “..toxic racism-meets-anti-communism…” demeanor. They are possessed. I can almost see these individuals frothing at the mouth in their fervor, based on their comments and numerous posts for each article which has anything to do with China (including, and especially when dealing with the Covid-19). They will shout down anyone disagreeing with their brain fever. This,obviously, does not bode well for peace in the world. The US and its minions, along with the mouthpiece media of theirs and the brainwashed masses, are pushing for war and genocide on China but they are leaving their options open globally. What in heaven’s name are these “exceptional” brats after? I don’t think that even *they* know. It is pure ideology, racism and ignorance.
It is disgusting, alarming and very saddening to see so many people and their erstwhile “leaders” being so full of hate, so vindictive and so bellicose.
I’m not sure if it’s a comfort or scarier still, but they didn’t get there on their own. Some of those grassroots are astroturf; there’s significant money prodding people in certain directions.
To me it seems to be the exact opposite: Zerohedge has become very Sinophobic and the comments are rebuking this new Sinophobic editorial line.
Zerohedge hasn’t been the same since they got kicked off Twitter back in Feb 2020.
It’s getting very hard to read much of ZH anymore, even though I appreciate their timely posting of alt-news, because of its sudden extreme Sinophobia, which is now prevalent everywhere in the US.
The comments have a bit of mix, but has always been mostly very low-brow USA cheerleaders, with shockingly racist/misogynist attitudes. But at least they also hate the ruling class as well.
I went onto ZeroHedge to see what everybody is talking about. Its impressive
“The path from low income (about $5,000 per capita) to middle-income (about $10,000 per capita) is fairly straightforward and mostly involves reduced corruption, direct foreign investment and migration from the countryside to cities to pursue assembly-style jobs.
The path from middle-income to high-income (about $20,000 per capita) is much more difficult and involves creation and deployment of high-technology and manufacture of high-value-added goods.
…China remains reliant on assembly-style jobs and has shown no promise of breaking into the high-income ranks.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/rickards-china-more-bark-bite
The article also mentions that war is possible if the CCP loses legitimacy at home if China’s GDP growth does not continue its upward trajectory.
As usual, the American writers fail to understand China. Amongst Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asian countries, a common greeting is “have you eaten yet?” To an outsider this is strange. It comes from a recent cultural history when people in China were so poor that having had a meal was equivalent to well-being. This is the base which the Chinese view their government. The same government that has given them the greatest economic improvement in their 4000 year history.
Not only this, but many Chinese blame the previous dirt poor situation of the Century of Humiliation at least partly to the actions of the western colonial powers. So for Americans to think that they can wage an economic war on China, cause the nation to suffer so much that the people will overthrow the CCP, is simply ignorant. The people will just get more incensed at the attempt to impose a Century of Humiliation 2.0, and this time China is not a decrepit, weakened, backward Qing dynasty China.
The USA has bitten off far more than it can chew. It is looking at a country that lost 20M in WW2 and still kept on fighting. Along with the 27M loss of the Soviets, the USA which lost a mere 0.5M (and 60,000 in Vietnam) has no idea what pain is. We will soon see which country can withstand more pain. Bring it on, I have my popcorn and non-american soft drink ready.
” … targeting Apple, Qualcom, Cisco and Boeing”
Targeting Apple, Qualcom, and Cisco would most likely cast a bad shadow on the idea that China is open for business. US tech companies are already getting beat up pretty badly by their own government. Boeing however is fair game and reliant on the Chinese market for its future. Cancellation of all orders under the pretext of national security would be the ultimate payback.
Canceling all Boeing orders under the pretext of an inferior, unsafe, and deadly product line would be equally as valid. It’s only a matter of time for Boeing.
Exactly correct. That 737 MAX has a balance problem that makes it want to dive into the ground. Boing knew it but didn’t want to correct it, because it wanted to compete in the market agaiinst competitors. So it created software to save the aircraft from diving. The correction would require a new aircraft with proper balance of engines, wings, fuselage, etc, you know, an aircraft that wants to fly rather than dive.
Patrick
You are right in your logic but the facts are wrong.
The Max will have the tendency to nose up. That’s why Boing developed a system that put the nose down.
That system downed those aircrafts because it was not in the airplane manual so the pilots did not know it exist.
On top of that, the safety system was a single, failure prone one.
In any safety-conscious field a safety feature needs to be redundant.
The very least is to have two angle of attack sensors. If they do not give similar readings the system should not be used. In technical implementation it may be that three out of four sensors have to give similar readings.
Those things are common engineering knowledge.
For cost-cutters such things seem not necessary till reality proves otherwise.
A very cogent assessment of the present Sino-Sammo entanglement. Thanks to Pepe and Saker for bringing us this.
The Taiwan Strait predicament has now been elevated by some analysts to being #1 in likelihood as the trigger for WWIII. But my own view is that, while China has repeatedly emphasized the importance of sovereign unity and integrity, taking actual administrative control over Taiwan is actually not their cup of tea. What has Taiwan to offer for the mainland Chinese besides being a vacation spot? It is populated in the majority by brainwashed pro-Sammo or pro-Japan wannabes whose strongest feeling is one of anti-mainlanders. It has lagged miserably over the last 20-30 years in economic and technological development. It has lost its soul. China would find better returns from investing in the Northeast/Northwest regions than throwing money at a population who don’t want to be Chinese at all. On the other hand, the strategic location of the island is such that China cannot afford to willingly allow its dominance by China’s formidable enemies–America and Japan. China’s prudent stance is therefore to leave it as it is but insisting on the sovereignty claim, precluding American/Japanese use of it as launching pad of forces against China. I doubt Sammo would initiate WWWIII for the sake of Taiwan Independence, nor could he mobilize much of the rest of the world to form a united front against China in such a pretext. In this I agree with Pepe that:
“To arrest movement toward Taiwan’s independence, “apart from war, other options must be taken into consideration. We can think about the means to act in the immense gray zone between war and peace, and we can even think about more particular means, like launching military operations that will not lead to war, but may involve a moderate use of force.”
I also agree with Pepe that: “…. Those who were dreaming that Covid-19 could be the ideal pretext for a new Yalta – uniting Trump, Xi and Putin – may rest in peace.” China’s gloves are indeed off. America is now un-mistakenly viewed as China’s Enemy Numero Uno! The third decade of this century will witness the latest version of the Thucydides Trap.
clearly being an “oriental voice”, you don’t sound like you know the pysche/policy of the chinese view. the ccp/kmt (in taiwan) parties have their legitimacy based on the unification of all of china. they even have it in their own constitutions (albeit, the kmt’s also include mongolia as part of china, it’s part of taiwan’s constitution, vs the ccp who see’s it as an independent country). so for the ccp to neglect this would mean the undoing of their control of the rest of china as their successful negotiation to reunify hong kong and macau shows to the chinese public that taiwan will be inevitable. if not, then they will definitely lose legitimacy. what you’re asking of letting taiwan go its own way is not worth its salt to the people and the parties involved. it is the ruin of both the ccp/kmt as a whole, tho more with the ccp than kmt.
at the same time, the idea that taiwan is a pro-schmuel/jap isn’t that wrong, tho depending on who you speak to in taiwan. the pro-schmuel’s are really pro-biz (yet still pro-china in its way) and sovereignists. those same sovereignists are also sons/daughters of the japs that decided to stay in taiwan after wwii when taiwan was given back to china (under the kmt rule, not ccp rule as they didn’t won the civil war til 1949).
these same japs changed their japanese names back to chinese (this came from inter-marriages and the fact that some taiwanese were jap soldiers/supporters during the jap colonisation of taiwan and during wwii. a good ex is the former taiwan pres, lee teng hui, who is a jap sympathiser and his bro was a jap soldier and interred in the yasukuni shrine, tho he is of chinese descent). so if you really want to check on the sovereigntists, most of them are descendents of the japs w chinese heritage (either from mom/dad’s side and a good ex is the present prez of taiwan, tsui ying wen, who’s heritage of parent/grandparent who is chinese on the father’s side and mom is japanese if i can remember or vice versa). either way, they want an independent taiwan, which won’t be supported by the prc, kmt and to a certain extent uncle schumuel as they know it will be a full blown war.
despite that, i agree that it is better to reunify taiwan with china peacefully vs violently (war as an ex). the only diff is if uncle schumuel and the jap’s would allow it. the geostrategic spot of taiwan going back to the prc would be catastrophic for uncle schumuel’s forces in asia as they’ll be blocked in from their travels with strong prc navy to back up its sovereignty and also the question of economic viability of both south korea and japan in not crossing the taiwan strait….
Much too simplistic. China will not bother with Taiwan unless the US or Japan places dangerous military hardware there and the decision to attack or not will be made on purely strategic military grounds.
China’s first step will be to deal with Hong Kong. the combination of the foolish US backed student riots plus Covid has probably pretty well destroyed Hong Kong as a separate entity. Real estate prices are crashing and any chance that it had of regaining status as the western trading hub in East of China is pretty well over. With the Western powers in a deep recession and China emerging strongly, HK will have no choice but to turn towards China. I mauy be wrong but with the US/China trade war, the importance of HK as a gateway will probably vanish. However they will not get back their place in the world but will limp along for the next 25 years until they are formally resumed by China. With luck some of their cherished systems may be retained, but the student riots did them no favours. It is a little ironic that the masks which rioters donned as a sign of protest are now practically mandatory..
Taiwan people will be watching closely and those with brains will swing back towards a China focused approach. I do not think there is much love of Japan in Taiwan.
@known_unknowns,
Tsai Ing-wen is 3/4 Hakka Chinese and 1/4 Taiwanese Aboriginal. She has no Japanese heritage.
Let’s look a the full spectrum containment the US intends for China and Russia. (They do see the two as one Asia-Pacific threat.)
Naval containment to interrupt (blockade) merchant vessel traffic on the same waters the US insists on Freedom of Navigation for the world’s ships. Except, only China’s ship shall have no FON.
Terra containment in Eurasia: focused on sources of minerals China needs for energy and manufacturing and agriculture, and on routes of transport, ports and infrastructure projects. Primarily, delaying projects with local political pressures and then using Islamic radical proxies, using terrorism to disrupt China. All other nations will suffer continued poverty, war, chaos because the BRI liberates 4.5 billion people from endless third world status and the US refuses to allow their development.
Space containment, using the newly formed Space Force, the US has already laid claim to the Moon, though on the dark side China has for 500 days been exploring and sending back scientific data. Satellite warfare is in the cards. The US secret vehicle X37B just returned to its orbit. What weapons are on this covert launchpad?
Finally, an Indo-Pacific Command, formulated to bring China adversaries into close coordination like a NATO wannabe, all in order to contain and squeeze China in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, as well as trapping China within the inner islands chain of the Sea of Japan, East China waters, Philippine Sea, South China sea, Straits of Mallorca. All these points of probable confrontation are meant to be overwhelming for Chinese authorities, maybe even an inducement to react with arms and then suffer a crushing defeat as it is faced with US, Japan, Australia and India’s naval forces.
China is facing great challenges in the coming months and years. It’s tactics must be asymmetrical, and it must coordinate with allies to create strategic counter moves.
One sees ttwo additional parallel things on this view of the future.
The northern pole maritime route for Chinese – and Russia’s – trade and important a role it will play. Russian oil companies overtures to partnerships with the chinese ones in the pole region is a perfecly logical step.
And a decisive if any chinese business agressiveness in Africa.
And as an overall premise presiding all the picture: the overwhelming economic and technological supremacy of Beijing has its own weight… an inescapable, invisible, non negotiable
weight.
China always defies predictions by Western “experts.” For instance, exports rose 3.5% in April, when the experts were forecasting a decline of 15.7%. The trade surplus was $45.3 billion, when experts were forecasting only $6.3 billion.
How could this number be remotely possible, given the entire economy of their major trade partner is shutdown still, importing almost nothing from anywhere?
Assuming these numbers aren’t as heavily doctored as are the exceptional empire’s, then this would be the concrete evidence of the abrupt AND SUCCESSFUL turn & redirection of china’s products to friendlier markets, using the shutdown as cover.
Perhaps why we are hearing so much bloviating & bellowing from the higher-ups stateside, to hide this as long as possible.And directly openly stating they will freeze china’s $1T treasury hoard.
Various stories hinted at this, much hidden here by ‘western’ press, for example supposedly recently before covid, China cancelled a huge coal contract they had with Oz, because they get it now from Africa.
BTW, 35th anniversary tomorrow MAY 20th of Thatcher signing back HK, not effective till JUNE30/1997.
How could [China’s trade surplus of $45.3 billion] be remotely possible, given the entire economy of their major trade partner is shutdown still, importing almost nothing from anywhere?
The USA is not the world. China’s largest trading partners are ASEAN, Europe, then the US.
Exactly Cyril. If the US is shut then China replaces US export markets.
ASEAN buys cheap plastic spoons and mosquito nets. US where the high value goods go (purchasing power). So, its absolutely essential to prevent a meltdown.
@Anonymous
The U.S. still buys lots of cheap stuff — that is why the Walmarts and Costcos are so successful. I suspect the high value goods constitute only a small fraction of China’s exports to America — and destinations for the cheap stuff are quite easy to replace.
Plus, China’s own internal market is enormous, able to absorb whatever the rest of the world is unable to buy.
The conclusion is that the US economy can melt down completely and China will still be fine.
Southeast Asians are astounded when revealed that 40% of Americans do not have $400 in their bank accounts. We in the locked down countries of SE Asia are wondering why Americans are all clamouring to “open up” their states. We now understand that Americans are living from hand to mouth. The high incomes are cancelled out by high costs, and nobody saves much.
Americans are constantly over estimating themselves. This is why people around the world are pleased to see China resisting the American arrogant hegemon. But if your news sources are all in English, you wouldn’t know that.
@littlereddot,
How much support is China really getting in its resistance to the US? The impression I get, and I’ll admit that my sources are almost entirely English-language media, is that there is growing anti-Chinese sentiment around the world, a situation that the coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated. Are Southeast Asian countries not upset about China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea? I know Vietnam, for example, is entering into a sort of quasi-alliance with the US to help stave off China’s advances and I can’t imagine that the other countries in the region would be too happy with China at the moment.
The decision on Taiwan’s future should really belong to its indigenous peoples (who have lived there for thousands of years).
As for China versus the West…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re4m7RisWyE
Interestingly, Taiwanese Aboriginals have traditionally leaned towards the pro-unification KMT, as opposed to the pro-independence DPP.
Should the decision on, say, the US’s future belong to its indigenous peoples (who have lived there for thousands of years)?
FYI, indigenous peoples in Taiwan account for about 2% of the total population.
North America is a continent not an island, and England isn’t irrationally claiming ancestral ownership, as in the case of the PRC and Formosa. The population percentage of Taivuan and other indigenous tribes isn’t the point, it is the fact that they are ethnically Austronesian, so in terms of human geography their island home is part of South-East Asia, not China.
Chinese emigrants only began settling in large numbers about three hundred years ago. So what is the basis of China’s claim to Formosa? Is it that the Ch’ing Dynasty ruled the island for two centuries, or is it perhaps that the PRC still sees the KMT refugees of 1949 and their descendents as rebel citizens?
if you want to know, formosa is a dutch name that the dutch gave when they sought an area to trade with the japs and china. yet, they also know that taiwan was part of china and tried to pry it away like what they did with the dutch east indies.
on your point of taiwan being in qing rule for only 200 yrs, it’s true. tho, it’s partially true with the fact that before the dutch and the qing, taiwan was already part of china. the famous taiwanese pirate, coxingga, is chinese. after the loss of beijing to the qing, coxinga and his loyalists went to taiwan and fought the qing til they eventually negotiated a peace to reunify china. hence, saying that the natives are austronesian isn’t necessarily wrong, you also forget that taiwan was very chinese before the qing. which was also part of the reason for taiwan being reunited back to china after wwii, when the allies realised that taiwan is more chinese than jap, despite its colonisation.
besides that, your argument that england isn’t claiming ancestral ownership of n america is false as the slaughters, use of common law upon a group that had tribal law and the killing of non-allied natives prior to the europeans’ appearance, and even the present control/law that prevents these same groups from running their own lives/areas says that they’re still colonised by the english descent.
lastly, the part that they’re part of se asia, very true. but ask any of the natives in taiwan, if they see themselves as part of those same se asian natives, png?, phil?, malaysian”, indonesian?, they won’t see it as such. these groups are not real nations as they were created by the colonial europeans who had created a country out of nowhere. similar to india….
so i’m sorry, your excuse/arugment that the prc’s argument of taiwan is based on your own recent interpretation of history within asia, then maybe you should read up on history there first. it’s baseless and if you use european common law, there’s more than enough proof otherwise…
In Taiwan and other Chinese societies Coxingga is better known as Zheng Chenggong.
Formosa is also a geographic name (Formosan Bear, Formosan Deer etc.) The island’s long relationship with China has mostly been like that of the neighbouring Ryukyu islands; tributary but independent. My own view is that present day Taiwan is de facto independent (but that Lianjiang, Kinmen, Wuqiu and the Matsu Islands belong to the PRC).
Isn’t Tasmania an island? Doesn’t New Zealand consist of two main islands? Shouldn’t their indigenous peoples, real Austronesians, decide the islands’ future? After all, European emigrants only began settling there in large numbers about 250 years ago.
Aren’t Guam and Oahu of Hawaii islands? How about Guam and Oahu independence?
The DPP, by far the main pro-independence party in Taiwan, surely does not share your view that indigenous peoples in Taiwan should decide the island’s future. Actually, AFAIK, even the indigenous peoples in Taiwan don’t.
Why isn’t the percentage of indigenous peoples the point? Why should 2% of the population decide the future of a society? What kind of democracy is this?
If England were proposing to annex New Zealand on the grounds that it was traditionally and inherantly English then the Maoris would indeed have a central role to play in any response. I have not advocated minority rights over majority rights as you suggest, except when what is being proposed is the complete annexation and absorption of a traditional culture by a much larger one. In this case I do believe that the vanishing minority has a greater say on the path to be taken that their numbers would ordinarily warrant.
@Hajduk,
What’s your point in drawing a distinction between an island and a continent? Does the fact that North America is a continent validate the European settlers’ claim to the land? England is no longer making claims to its American colonies because the issue has been settled by war. England lost, simple as that. The Chinese civil war never ended and the CCP is seeking a final resolution to the war in the form of reunification. The situation is not unlike that between North and South Korea. And China is not the only country that recognises Taiwan as Chinese territory; the US, for one, also recognises Taiwan as Chinese territory and the US just likes to stick it to China by encouraging the pro-independence movement in Taiwan.
In any case, Taiwan’s geographical location within the first island chain makes it an important strategic asset for both the US and China, and that’s the real reason for the US’s interest in Taiwan.
In terms of indigenous rights there are undoubtably parallels between Native Americans and Aboriginal Taiwanese but they are not directly comparable. England isn’t making claims on America because seizing and exploiting foreign lands is now considered backward (except by Americans). It’s a minor chapter in England’s history, which means little or nothing to young British people today, likewise the war of 1949 is ancient history for young Taiwanese.
I’m always baffled by the persistent stupidity of our U.S. elected officials and establishment types because they believe what they say. Tom Cotton, Gordon Chang, and company are giddy about the prospect of suing China for Trillions of $, possible debt forgiveness and a draconian trade shutdown as they end the sentence with ‘move our vital supply chain back to the U.S.’ to soften their maniacal tone.
The stupidity I am referring to is that they think that China is like Iran, Venezuela, and Iraq, a country that we can punish economically while just receiving minimal punishment in return. There are U.S. companies and bank accounts in China that they could seize if we went Count Dracula on them. They could intercept a portion of our merchant shipping if we did that to them. Granted they have more at risk but what do you think would happen to our stock market and economy if both China and the U.S. started sniping each others shipping? Even if China was in the losing end, the fight itself would rip us to pieces.
Oh and if China was really backed into a corner, I’m certain they could find ways to disrupt or cause some problems for us while we try to re-route our supply chain to countries like Vietnam.
Tom Cotton probably thinks we can force China to pay for our entire $30T debt over 100yrs (humiliation anyone?) and that we will name a century after him.
The entire fantasy of US economic resilience is based on the cotton candy of the Stock Market. It is pumped with sugar and air. If the reality of a world trade war and broken supply chains and rising inflation in the US gets into the algorithms of the market, it will crash. Under the suspension of trades rules it will take a few days, but he great billionaires, pension funds and wealth funds will be destroyed.
So, nothing that risks such a calamity will be allowed to go forth.
Trump has gotten away with his tariffs because China was caught with stars in their eyes, admiring US instead of anticipating the inevitable backlash.
Now they know that the war against China, against China’s success, against Chinese accomplishments all of which are being targeted for destruction, obstruction, demonization and wreckage.
The harsher the US Infowar and media bias, the sooner the Chinese will coalesce their energies and efforts to counter the US onslaught.
They can have no illusions about the US intentions. It is to decimate the wealth and influence and potential of China as competitor to the US in the 21st Century.
Interesting article by Escobar. If one cares to notice, this anti-China cold war is a neocon based aggression. The primary movers of it are mostly neocons or the sorts who follow the neocon lead. China is one country the zionazi-gays have not been able to dominate. Coupled with China’s economic rise and appeal to developing countries, these zionazi oligarchs are going apeshit trying to bring China down. In addition to other articles referenced in the article, see also this Global Time report:
Chinese ridicule Trump’s China ‘cut-off’ threat
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1188437.shtml
“Americans will suffer
“Again! Trump is talking nonsense.” Trump seems to be losing his mind right now. Even he has such crazy ideas of cutting ties with China, US politicians, businessmen and Americans would not allow him to do so, Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for US Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times.
He noted that Trump is bluffing and acting tough toward China to win more support. Fox News, which has been regarded as Trump’s defender and is notorious for a lack of professionalism, is also making eye-catching news to draw attention.
Jin Canrong, the associate dean of Renmin University of China’s School of International Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday that Trump made very irresponsible and emotional remarks in the interview.
“The China-US relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world and involves huge interests of the two countries, as well as the rest of the world. Therefore, it is not something he can cut off emotionally,” Jin said.
“If the US unilaterally cuts off ties, the American people will pay a heavier price than us, because China’s domestic market is huge and 75-80 percent of Chinese manufacturers are supplying China’s market, and the 2 to 5 percent that supply the US can also be absorbed by the domestic market,” he noted.
China has nothing to be afraid of as “in the past, we didn’t solve the Taiwan question because we wanted to maintain the China-US relationship, and if the US unilaterally cuts it off, we can just reunify Taiwan immediately since the Chinese mainland has an overwhelming advantage to solve this long-standing problem.”
“Trump is like a giant baby on the brink of a meltdown as he faces tremendous pressure due to massive failures that caused such a high death toll,” Shen Yi, an expert from Fudan University, told the Global Times. “It’s like someone who wants to show his guts when he passes by a cemetery in midnight. He needs to shout to give himself the courage,” he said.
Shen also noted that the American companies and industries would suffer the most severe consequences, because the supply chain has been integrated with China.
“The Chinese public would only take such bluffing as a joke,” Shen said, adding that there has been no US president in the history who has made such a ridiculous statement against China, not even during the Cold War.
Yuan Zheng, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said he could not even remember any US leader who took a similar action. “His flip-flop rhetoric is unprecedented, but we need to take a look at whether Trump will take real action,” he said, noting that there is no need to pay attention to claims that are unrealistic and meaningless.
“For Trump, fantasy is power; bluffing is power, so he might use the future of his country to gamble with China. Although China always believes cooperation is the only right choice for the two countries to solve the problems together, if the US unilaterally and irrationally chooses all-out confrontation, China also needs to be prepared.”
The west and the United States were built on genocide, slavery (unearned income – wall street financialization is only latest iteration) and theft. Current neo-confederate administration exemplifying what Amerikkka stands for would like a repeat of opium wars to vampirize a balkanized China. This time around, I doubt they will succeed like former brahmins from east coast establishment. They are lead by incompetent cretins like Trump, Pompeo and Pence. Those western elites are rotten conceptual fruit from post-industrial and financialized economies, it’s evident they don’t have required competence and paradigm to win against skilled and patient foes in China and Russia. How all this plays out remains uncertain, but one can bet racial animus will play a part in their demise, especially with regards to enforcement of Monroe doctrine in the Americas. Eurasian powers should lay a trap for MAGA Yt supremacists and liberal interventionists in Venezuela. Wouldn’t it be sweet if exceptionals decided to attack Venezuela to fix their structural problems ? Russia and China are too husky for empire of illusion… I got a hunch south american untermensch from african, pardo and indians extraction could end the overconfident empire with a resounding defeat, right in their own backyard.
A huge fleet of 117 tankers is bringing super cheap crude to China
https://www.rt.com/business/488927-china-buys-super-cheap-oil/
“At present, a total of 117 very large crude carriers (VLCCs) – each capable of shipping 2 million barrels of oil – are traveling to China for unloading at its ports between the middle of May and the middle of August. If those supertankers transport standard-size crude oil cargoes, it could mean that China expects at least 230 million barrels of oil over the next three months, according to Bloomberg. The fleet en route to China could be the largest number of supertankers traveling to the world’s top oil importer at one time, ever, Bloomberg News’ Firat Kayakiran says.
Many of the crude oil cargoes are likely to have been bought in April, when prices were lower than the current price and when WTI Crude futures even dipped into negative territory for a day.
Last month, emerging from the coronavirus lockdown, China’s oil refiners were already buying ultra-cheap spot cargoes from Alaska, Canada, and Brazil, taking advantage of the deep discounts at which many crude grades were being offered to China with non-existent demand elsewhere. ( https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Chinese-Bargain-Hunters-Are-Stucking-Up-On-Ultra-Cheap-Crude-Oil.html )
China was also estimated to have doubled the fill rate at its strategic and commercial inventories in Q1 2020, taking advantage of the low oil prices and somewhat supporting the oil market amid crashing demand by diverting more imports to storage, rather than outright slashing crude imports.
China’s crude oil imports jumped in April to about 9.84 million barrels per day as demand for fuels began to rebound and local refiners started to ramp up crude processing, according to Chinese customs data cited by Reuters.”
Well, now we know who was taking advantage of those pindo negative oil price sales… ;-D
The Chinese are at the advantage here, not being neocon/likud bottom rungers. The desperation of zionazia is expressed in choosing the neocon lowlife to run things in the westrrn colonies. Yes, their extremism provides the initiative in getting extreme cspitalist policies through and continues the push to the extreme far right in the zionazi-gay colonies. But it is at the cost of intelligent long term strategy. Short term immaginary gain at the cost of real gain. The fast food, face feeding, bum bandit approach.
I would like to see a complex response to US bankruptcy that would involve turning military spending to more insolvency – related activity. Each billionaire should be made to surrender wealth, if they will not wisely use the wealth.
By a determined effort homelessness could be cured and education could be completely revolutionised. The new knowledge is available NOW – any hesitation ? Well you all know the aphorism.
Mr Trump could be a historic figure if he admitted US bullying worldwide.
‘He who hesitates is lost ?’ Hesitating can last quite a while, as folk dither and splutter and spout on and on and jump up and down, and do anything to avoid standing calmly and conversing intelligently together about ways out of this mess based upon a total reversal of accepted ways of thinking, of which your’s is one, but may result in further alarmed spluttering’s.
”Every possible Silk Road branch-out – on the energy front, ports, the Health Silk Road, digital interconnection – will be strategically targeted. Those who were dreaming that Covid-19 could be the ideal pretext for a new Yalta – uniting Trump, Xi and Putin – may rest in peace.”
That’s the big advantage of Pindo parasitism and its manifestations everywhere: They are so hysterical, vulgar, and imbecilic — demanding everything from everybody in exchange for utter garbage — that any genuine international cooperation is absolutely impossible unless the Pindos are kept out of it.
Like most other people, my hope is that the Covid pandemic inflicts as much damage, pain, and suffering on the Exceptionals and Indispensables as possible. Serves them right.
Thanks to clarify the present world!
There were rumors that a since a decade ago, an internal, homegrown taiwanese political Party has PRECISELY the reunification with Beijing as an aim on their platform.
Question: has the party been restricted or banned and/or how much has the party expanded ever since?
China has lifted over 850 million of it’s people out of poverty from 1978 to 2018. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/china/overview
Part of this was to make sure there were internal consumers for products that China produces. There were 300 million middle class Chinese 20 years ago and that is a little less than the current population of the US. Exports to the US are a fraction of the total of Chinese exports to the world and China wants business and not war, thus the fact that there are so few ICBM’s in their strategic arsenal (noting that 300 may be more than enough to ruin everyone’s day).
A hot war is being pushed by the Neo cohens, because they like chaos in the world. The bible beaters here (Fat Mike and Pence) follow the word of God and need millions of Chinese to invade the holy lands as to bring about the return of Christ, like a self fulfilling prophecy that will bring about the end of the world. In short chaos.
I think that both Russia and China know what is in store from the Anglozionist and when push comes to shove, may help to defend each others interest from the US and its vassal states. I read in the comments of various Mainland websites and the common man states that they will not bow down to anyone anymore and the 100 years of humiliation is at an end. One can only hope and I think China will be better for the world than the current “evil” empire.
Pepe’s Exhibit A that should indicate China’s readiness to take on the Monopolists more successfully than during the Opium Wars, a General, who buys the Corona hoax wholeheartedly, and is talking about utterly useless – and even torturous – ventilators …
Bad start. Very, very bad start.