“The Supreme Art of War is to subdue the enemy without fighting. A good defender hides under nine layers of earth; a good attacker moves above nine layers of heaven. Thus he is able to both preserve himself and achieve a complete victory.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“…[W]hen society itself is the tyrant—society collectively, over the separate individuals who compose it—its means of tyrannizing are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries…it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression….leaves fewer means of escape… and enslave[es] the soul itself.” — John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Hello Everyone, Happy Friday.
Hope Everyone’s Fantasy Football Season started well.
The title to our column today is an old parable. A Chinese one. It comes from The Thirty-Six Stratagems, a Chinese essay taught in China to illustrate a series of strategies the Chinese use in politics, war, and civil interaction. Its focus is simple and theme steady. The common trend revolves around the use of deception and cunning, both on the battlefield and civil life. And when the Communist Party of China’s ultimate goal is global hegemony and control—and thus, domination over the United States of America—everywhere and everything is a battlefield—and I mean everything. Don’t ever forget that. Our Marines are already preparing for the next decade to counter Chinese aggression.
The use of deception and cunning sounds eerily similar to the Communist Party of China’s engagement with the United States of America since the mid-1990’s. A time when then-Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph Nye had the policy of “if we treat China like an enemy, they will become an enemy.” Unfortunately, since then, and until the election of Donald J. Trump for President, we have treated Communist China as a little brother, in need of being shown the ropes. In return, Communist China has treated us, well, how communist countries have treated the United States since the emergence of the world’s first “great” communist power, the United Soviet Socialist Republic.
I always find this very, very, very ironic. Countries which have “republic” or “democratic” in them are nothing of the sort, like the People’s Republic of China, run by the Communist Party of China. Or, you know, the People’s Republic of North Korea run by Little Rocket Man. The names of those countries are warm on the heart and lands nice on the ears. Sort of like some other ideas… Thankfully, for those of us with our eyes open, we use them.
Communism, Socialism, “Democratic”-Socialism, “Socialism” with Chinese Characteristics. Potato, Potatoe; Soda, Pop. As stated before here in this column…it is all communism. I guess when you are it, you do not really have to tell people that. They sort of already know. Hence, the United States of America. I sure do love saying that. Has some power to it. Makes sense, Freedom is powerful.
Our topic of discussion for today is a continuation in our series on lovely, sweet, good ol’ communism—and our most lethal adversary to our freedoms, liberties, and pursuit of happiness: the Communist Party of China. My favorite.
Honestly, if people weren’t still, to this day—even though there is a plethora of history to show otherwise—deceived by the angels of communism, I would have to find another topic to write a lot about. And if people weren’t still convinced that China is not an enemy. However, this is where we are at, and I am all for it.
Thanks, commies. And, thanks capitalism and freedom for the ability to discuss.
The old parable originates from the mid 7th century where the Chinese Empire was being threatened by a neighboring country, what is now Korea, and the Emperor was hesitant to launch an invasion. The generals convinced the Emperor to feast for a few days and party. They lead him down a long tunnel which ended in a room. The room was on a boat. Days later, they were nearing Korea, with a Navy and an Army. At the last moment, they unveiled to the Emperor the truth and the Emperor was forced to launch a war. Deceived by his own people to launch war.
Oddly, the reverse seems to happen here in the United States. Gulf of Tonkin. W.M.D.’s.
I digress.
The objective of deceiving the sky is to create a false sense of reality for the observer to fall prey to. While the target, or targets, are being deceived, you lure them into where you want them. Then only to reveal this false sense of reality, when necessary, at the right moment.
What do capitalists like the most? Of course, making money and expanding business. Who doesn’t like to be successful, achieve more, and grow? Competition is great, except when the competition wants to take away your freedoms.
China has played the United States like a drum for the last three decades. Ever since Deng Xiaoping opened up China’s economy to the world and enacted massive market reforms, they have given the United States and our corporations what they wanted: entrance to the world’s largest marketplace, for a price. That price tag being around $500 billion a year in intellectual property theft.
Now, in today’s day and age, the price tag of the past administrations’ incompetence, ignorance, and outright refusal to combat the foreign economic aggression against the United States by the Communist Party of China has cost us almost over 200,000 lives and trillions of dollars in lost economic output.
What has gone unnoticed and unmentioned in the Main Stream Media is something of vital importance. Satellite images from October 2019 show, for six different hospitals in Wuhan, a massive increase in car traffic. I guess you cannot deceive the sky when we have satellites in space. What China can do, and did, is deceive the world.
The topic of China is more important than what it is being given credence to in the Main Stream media and public forum as we come closer and closer to the November 2020 Election between Jobless and Spineless Joe Biden vs Donald J. Trump. Why? You might be asking.
One of these presidential candidate’s families has become rich off of Chinese investment—while that candidate was in office. Moreover, one of these candidates spent eight years with an administration being in bed with the Communist Party of China and helping China become the world superpower that it is—one threatening its neighbors and our allies in the South China Sea and slowly but surely, like a parasite, destroying what little freedoms Hong Kong has left.
The other candidate is Donald J. Trump.
Everyone is focused on the Coronavirus. We cannot turn on any news channel nor go to many other online publications without such a focus. I understand its importance to our current crisis. However, we must not be too myopic with tunnel vision and not think about what could potentially be not too far in the future. There is a tale of two Americas depending on the outcome on Election Night. One of these futures is prosperous with the United States continuing to be the beacon of freedom, hope, and prosperity to the entire world; The Shining City Upon a Hill.
The other future, as it stands right now and from that candidate’s prior track record, is more akin to the past during the times of 1930-1940 where Neville Chamberlain engaged in appeasement with Mussolini and Hitler.
Sound too dramatic? During the Obama Administration, both the Communist Party of China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin engaged in massive campaigns of annexations, military buildup, assassinations, and concentration camps. During 1930-1940, the very same happened in Europe. To think another World War is a thing of the past is to deny human nature and deny the real intentions and objectives of communists and authoritarians. Dictators appreciate staying in power, so does their party.
Let’s face facts, President Trump is the only president in history to truly confront an enemy superpower before they attacked us—and by that, I mean actual physical warfare. China has been attacking us in a form of Hybrid Warfare for decades. In our United States history, it was not until Germany sank too many of our merchant ships that we decided to enter World War I. And it was not until Pearl Harbor that we engaged in World War II. Preemption and deterrence are powerful and smart strategic alternatives to war—and President Trump has been engaging in this since day one.
Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Biden had no problem allowing economic and financial aggression against the United States for decades. With that being said, I leave you today with this quote from Unrestricted Warfare (1999) by Colonel Qiao Liang and Colonel Wang Xiangsui of the Communist Party of China’s People’s Liberation Army, “In future wars there will be more hostilities like financial warfare in which a country is subjugated without spilling a drop of blood.”
Come November, the choice seems clear cut.
