“The supreme act of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

-The Art of War

Introduction

John Ratcliffe, the former Director of National Intelligence, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal in December 2020 issuing the following warning:

“China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II. The intelligence is clear. Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically.”

Military Biuldup

Beijing has the most powerful Navy and Air Force in the Pacific region. China has transformed what was an obsolete military into one that can challenge the U.S.

Beijing has engaged in a protracted effort to systematically infiltrate U.S. defense bases and steal critical technologies. The strategy is “target, copy and transfer.”

During a webinar hosted by the think tank “:Hudson Institute” on February 16, retired Marine Major General Arnold Punaro said, “China has not only modernized their military, but they have quadrupled their military. We are spending more on our military in constant dollars than during the peak of the Reagan buildup, yet our fighting force is 50 percent smaller. We are drowning in beauracracy and waste.”

China’s growing power and willingness to exercise it, poses a long-term challenge to the United States.

Developing Nuclear Arsenal For Global Domination

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building up its nuclear arsenal as part of a greater effort to undermine the West and create a new international order.

Peter Pry, a nuclear strategist specialist at the think tank “Center for Security Policy,” does not think China is building up its nuclear forces for deterrence but for global domination.

He said that U.S. leadership is too slow in adapting to the threat, in no small part because of the deep financial ties many American businesses have with China.

Chinese communist leadership does not share the United States’ aversion to initiating nuclear conflict. Pry noted that Chinese state media had threatened both Australia and Japan with nuclear aggression in recent months.

Pry warned that the United States has taken a “30-year holiday” in modernizing its own nuclear arsenal, providing China the time to develop capabilities to match and overcome U.S. defenses.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed deep concerns about the rapid growth of China’s arsenal. Blinken noted Beijing’s sharp deviation from its decades-of nuclear strategy based on miniumum deterrence.

During a congressional hearing in April, U.S. Navy Admiral Charles Richard told Congress that China’s nuclear stockpile is “on pace to double by the end of the decade.”

Hypersonic Missile

At a press conference in Geneva last year, U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said that Washington is concerned about China’s deployment of hypersonic weaponry which the United States has not developed a means of countering.

Unlike a traditional intercontinental ballistic missile, that exits the atmosphere and reenters using a predictable arc, the hypersonic missile “glides” to a target on a low orbit before striking. The missile has no arc that can be intercepted.

Taiwan

The CCP views the self-ruled island of Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to bring it under their rule, by force if necessary.

Beijing’s Taiwan ambitions stem primarily from its desire to get its hands on the island’s semiconductor-making capability. Taiwan is home to TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker.

Control of South China Sea

The CCP lays claim to almost all of the South China Sea, despite a 2016 ruling by an international court finding its territorial claims were unlawful. The South China Sea is one of the world’s major shipping routes.

According to U.S. Indo-Pacific commander Admiral John Aquilino, at least three of the islands have been fully militarized by China with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile systems.

Control of International Organizations

The CCP is actively working to exert greater influence over global bodies such as the United Nations. China has obtained leadership positions on four of fifteen United Nations specialized agencies.

Buying U.S. Elites With Lucrative Deals

According to Peter Schweizer, author of the book “Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China” the CCP relies on a strategy of buying powerful figures in American politics and business to extend its influence.

“The strategy is to buy off the elites in the United States by giving them lucrative deals and special access to the Chinese market,” Schweizer says.

It encompasses the biggest names on Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. including the Biden family. Wall Street and Silicon Valley have received billion-dollar deals and the Biden family has received tens of millions of dollars from CCP-linked businesses.

Elected members of the Senate and the House of Representatives are required to disclose any financial deals they make with a foreign government. Politicans get around this requirement by having family members, not subject to the disclosure rules, undertake the deals with the CCP.

Kissinger Warning

Former U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger has warned that strains with Beijing pose “the biggest problem for the world.”

The 97-year-old veteran diplomat warned that advances in nuclear technology and artificial intelligence have multiplied the doomsday threat. “For the first time in human history, humanity has the capacity to extinguish itself.”

Conclusion

Chad Wolf, then Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, warned in a speech in December 2020 in Washington D.C. that “the CCP views the United States as a political and ideological threat and seeks to destroy the United States. Our struggle with the CCP is nothing short of a civilizational conflict.”

Photo by Caireen Burns