OPINION:
The United States has been at war with China since at least 1947-49, when Chiang Kai-shek, his extended family and the Chinese Nationalist regime were air and boatlifted from mainland China to Taiwan, this after Mao Zedong’s Communist forces prevailed against Chiang’s Nationalists. During the Korean War (1950-53), large scale military combat between U.S. and Chinese forces actually took place; however, since then the war has largely been an economic one, and the Chinese have beaten the United States badly.
Make no mistake about it, it is truly a war — although many fail to realize it. Here are just a few of the basic reasons the Chinese have beaten us and continue to win the war:
• Americans are incredibly naive and fail to perceive the gradual Chinese takeover of key world economic sectors — the standard Chinese joke that we are “fat, lazy and stupid” has turned into a sad reality. When we are attacked, it’s always a surprise.
• The Chinese have always stolen our legally protected technology and information from us. While it may have started with books, movies and CDs, it has now moved into all of our information and technology sectors. This will soon overpower efforts to control it — if it hasn’t already.
• The Chinese spy network is by far the largest in the world, with millions of “overseas Chinese”; many deeply embedded in traditional spy “covers” and many others at foreign universities. This, as Chinese travelers are routinely tasked and debriefed as a condition of their travel and/or continued overseas status. The typical motivation is their family in China.
• While the Chinese work ethic is second to none, the traditional Chinese “ethical” approach to economic, trade and money matters generally, is centered around deception. In the case of military matters, Sun Tzu said it best: “Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can? The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. All warfare is based on deception.”
• Chinese economic exploitation of their working underclass by the political and economic elite is a basic tenant of the way China’s economy has always “worked.” China is technically a communist nation, but yet has more billionaires than any other nation, while the working Chinese population is strictly controlled at every level.
• China has used the Internet to implement their oppressive policies and as a way to conduct worldwide information operations. The Chinese continue to steal vast amounts of “confidential” and otherwise protected information and will likely soon have their own Internet for total internal control.
The Chinese will eventually eradicate and isolate all domestic religious activities and groups that oppose their approach to total government control.
Is there any defense — or even an explanation — of why the Chinese behave the way they do?
Yes: The Japanese killed somewhere between 20 million to 30 million Chinese in the 1930s and ’40s in their quest to control all of Asia, yet the United States rebuilt Japan after defeating them, turning Japan into an economic powerhouse in the post-World War II world. That’s also why most every Asian nation — especially those the Japanese occupied and oppressed, including all of Korea — still hate the Japanese. Finally, it wasn’t until 1979 until the United States officially “recognized” the PRC as the legitimate government of China.
What should the United States be doing — beyond dealing with wars of the past and the continuing conflicts in Korea — to 1) “adjust” our longer-term relationship with China, and 2) minimize the largely economic damage they are inflicting on us? This is clearly a massive problem that will not be fixed overnight.
President Trump deserves credit for not only his efforts to end the Korean conflict but reverse the serious trade imbalance with China which is a major step forward in dealing with the most obvious economic issue. Beyond that there needs to be a major all-of-government effort to fight and win the war with China.
The intelligence community needs to undertake a major assessment of the full range of Chinese operations against the United States, which go well beyond old-style tradecraft, and now encompass widespread theft of intellectual property, technology and massive mining of data on our citizens and corporations. The results of this much-needed intelligence estimate need to be public and the basis for effective legislation to stem the flood of our technologies and data to China.
New executive orders and guidance to the Defense Department need to be issued dealing with this as warfare against the nation. Cyber and information operations against the United States need to be countered with the full range of resources available. Multi-billion-dollar aircraft carriers won’t solve the problem. This level of investment in advanced cyber operations will help to stem the tide.
Finally, the United States needs to regain the technology lead in several key sectors. Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems and a myriad of others need to be supported and protected as they are the future. Winning the war against China requires a multi-dimensional approach and one unlike any other war ever fought. We need to organize for this and engage before it is too late — and there is not a great deal of time left to do it.
• Daniel Gallington and Abraham Wagner served in senior national security positions.
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