At the risk of beating a dead horse on the topic of trade wars, the sequence of unfolding events is making me cautious near term.
Let me explain why.
First, for all those market pundits, analysts and investors who are following the twists and turns of this trade tiff using Trump’s Art of the Deal as their playbook…
I have a better read for you. Pick up a copy of Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War instead! Continue reading
China is engaged in a broad-ranging information warfare campaign as part of a covert effort to take control of the South China Sea — in the words of ancient strategist Sun Tzu, without firing a shot.
The Chinese cyber attacks have been carried out extensively on regional states along with political influence operations designed to falsely convince the international community that the waters of the sea are and have been China’s sovereign maritime territory.
James Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, told a Senate hearing last week that aggressive Chinese cyber attacks were continuing. ”China continues to succeed in conducting cyber espionage against the US government, our allies, and US companies,” he said. Continue reading
BEIJING – There’s a Chinese saying that stems from the philosophy in Sun Tzu’s ancient text “The Art of War”: You can kill 1,000 enemies, but you would also lose 800 soldiers.
Centuries later, the proverb is suddenly apt again, being mentioned frequently in discussions around Beijing. Now, it highlights the potential damage U.S. President-elect Donald Trump could inflict if he makes good on his threat to start a trade war with China, the world’s second-biggest economy.
Having backed off some other campaign pledges, it’s unclear if Trump will end up slapping punitive tariffs on China — and Beijing has signaled some optimism he will be more pragmatic in office. Still, the message from China is that any move to tax Chinese imports would bring retaliation: The U.S. economy would take a hit and America would damage its long-standing ties with Asia. Continue reading
“Military operations require secrecy,” former CIA Director James Woolsey told Fox News in a recent interview. He criticized the Obama administration for telling the world — and Islamic jihadists — what it plans to do.
“The administration cannot keep its mouth shut on these things,” Woolsey said on Friday. “Had they been in power during World War II, they probably would have made speeches about how well we were doing breaking the Japanese codes. I have no idea why they do this sort of thing, unless they care more about the public relations than they do about winning the war. Continue reading
In Sun Tzu’s The Art of War present Chinese military strategy in the South China Sea comes into focus. Tzu argued that the best war is one not waged, one in which the cleverest leader wins without fighting.
The Chinese declaration over its perimeter zone incorporates a number of islands claimed by other regional nations, e.g. Japan and the Philippines. With the construction of reefs that can accommodate air force assets, the government is sending a message: the so-called contested islands are part of the Chinese Middle Kingdom. Continue reading
Chinese soldiers march in formation passed Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City during a military parade on September 3, 2015 in Beijing, China. (Photo: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Update: Previous link mistakenly led to another story. The link is now fixed and brings you to the article source.
Because the Chinese have been studying the cycles. From generational theorists William Strauss and Neil Howe, they have learned that political/cultural cycles last only 65 years, and then they collapse, cycles first observed by Taoist monks and Roman philosophers. And China is exactly 66 years advanced since the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. In terms of generational cycles, China is on the eve of destruction. (In terms of the Strauss/Howe theory, so are we.)
The Chinese have been studying Western theories and economic cycles like the Elliott Wave, which suggests that the life cycle of a dominant currency has its limitations, and the American dollar cycle has ended. They have been studying economist Harry Dent, investment gurus Jim Rogers, Marc Faber and libertarian Ron Paul, seen often here only in the shadows, and understand that America is at a full economic transition, potentially a catastrophic cultural turning.
They have been reading Nicholson Baker’s day-by-day account, Human Smoke: The beginnings of WWII, the End of Civilization. They understand fully without Western sentimentality or illusion what comes next at the end of the economic cycle: Total war. Continue reading
There’s only one way to interpret this, as the PLA or any modern military today is not this ignorant: 100% pure propaganda designed to lull the West to sleep thinking the Chinese are still backwards and living in the 1950’s. Sadly, America likely will fall for it.
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” – Sun Tzu
Huang Xuhua, China’s chief submarine designer, has told Shenzhen Satellite Television that China’s Type 091 Han-Class nuclear-powered submarine was designed and developed based on two toys from the United States. Continue reading
This is a Chinese ‘charm offensive’ in full motion. It’s of course more wise than gunboat diplomacy, for which they already have thousands of missiles ready at a moment’s notice to rain down on Taiwan, but equally as dangerous in the long-term for the United States. The end-game aim for China is to push America completely out of Asia, for a regional Asian bloc and have nations (for example) such as Japan, both Koreas and Vietnam under its protectorate umbrella.
(Reuters) – Ever since a civil war split the two sides more than 60 years ago, China has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province that needs to be absorbed into the mainland. To that end, the legion of Taiwanese businessmen working in China is a beachhead.
In June, hundreds of those businessmen gathered in a hotel ballroom in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. They were there to toast the new head of a local Taiwan merchants’ association. They sipped baijiu liquor and ate seafood as a troupe performed a traditional lion dance for good luck. An honored guest, senior Communist Party official Li Jiafan, stood to deliver congratulations and a message.
“I urge our Taiwanese friends to continue to work hard in your fields to contribute to the realization of the Chinese dream as soon as possible,” said Li, using a nationalist slogan President Xi Jinping has popularized. “The Chinese dream is also the dream of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait – our dream of reunification.”
Li, who ended his speech to beating drums and loud applause, is a department chief in the Shenzhen arm of the United Front Work Department, an organ of the Communist Party’s Central Committee. Its mission: to spread China’s influence by ultimately gaining control over a range of groups not affiliated with the party and that are often outside the mainland.
United Front documents reviewed by Reuters, including annual reports, instructional handbooks and internal newsletters, as well as interviews with Chinese and Taiwanese officials reveal the extent to which the agency is engaged in a concerted campaign to thwart any move toward greater independence by Taiwan and ultimately swallow up the self-ruled island of 23 million. Continue reading
The best warfare strategy is to attack the enemy’s plans, next is to attack alliances. – Sun Tzu, The Art of War
A growing chorus of nations is decrying Washington’s unrestrained cyber espionage. However, there is only one country with both the means and motivation for using mounting international resentment to challenge American hegemony. The NSA surveillance of America’s allies has opened up two vital fronts in which China can erode American global dominance. Continue reading
Truthfully, this doesn’t necessarily mark a “true return”. This is nothing short of evidence of a continued practice of Maoism. The CCP’s long-range strategy hasn’t changed one bit since Mao’s departure. With the U.S. in suicidal decline, China can more often openly display its true intentions. This is only but a new chapter in the evolution of Maoism through the employment of Sun Tzu strategy — something still very relevant in China today.
Last week finally saw the epilogue of the eventful Bo Xilai affair. The former high-ranking official of the single-party state, both a member of the Chinese Community Party (CCP) Politburo and the most powerful figure of the Chongqing municipality, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in the Shandong province. But this legal and political saga is far from being over, as there are other similar cases that have yet to play out.
It was no coincidence that Bo Xilai’s trial took place in a different province than the one where his clans and networks were based. He operated in the Sichuan province, where he tried to sideline rivals under the cover of a vast anti-corruption campaign, and also in the Shanxi province, where he was born and inherited the network of connections built by his father, the revolutionary and former top party official Bo Yibo. Only in this way can the justice system of a single-party state overcome clan networks. Continue reading
From time to time, Global Geopolitics will post an article in its entirety. This serves to be a case in point. From geopolitical expert, JR Nyquist’s August/September, 2012 column on his website, validating China’s true intention is the topic at hand. It’s highly recommended that visitors also pursue his weekly columns for in-depth knowledge and additional insight on all things geopolitical.
The following commentary should be appended to a discussion of the alleged speech of General Chi Haotian about destroying and invading the United States: In this regard you suggest (1) that the speech is a hoax. This is entirely possible, although close analysis tends in another direction. Strategy is my subject and my life-longstudy. Believe it or not, it is possible in strategy to know certain things indirectly, by inference and analysis. After careful consideration, with regard to the speeches attributed to General Chi, I think it is unwise to say “we don’t know” and “it doesn’t matter.” In fact, it’s not impossible to analyze a documentto determine its authenticity. Here is a task entirely within the reach of a strategic analyst. Furthermore, if the document is authentic then it matters agreat deal; for the enemy’s intentions are laid bare, with countless implications (and potential war-winning insights). When we first encounter an unfamiliar text, we don’t know how to judge it. We are completely lost, and this is normal. Those who claim to understand something on first contact are deceiving themselves. Nothing worth knowing is understood immediately. When I first read the two speeches attributed to General Chi Haotian my reaction was to dismiss them as you did. When I read the first paragraph of the second speech, I rolled my eyes and laughed at what seemed to be an obvious fraud. At first reading they were not credible. (This is the same reaction I had to Golitsyn in 1984). Two years elapsed and, as chance would have it, I was doing some research on Mao Zedong’s strategic ideas. In the midst of this research I was stunned by Mao’s determination to build a fleet and invade North America. I was also struck by the brutality and cynicism of his statements. I went back and started re-reading SunTzu and the commentaries on Sun Tzu. My mind suddenly drifted back to the two speeches attributed to General Chi Haotian.
On my second reading I realized these speeches are only incredible from a Western point of view. From a Chinese strategist’s point of view, these speeches are consistent with 2,500 years of Chinese history and thought. There is nothing inauthentic in these two speeches. If they are a hoax, then a genius produced them. More than that, this aforesaid genius possesses authentic tidbits of military intelligence that are not known by the general public — but were revealed to me by a high-ranking Russian military defector with more than three years experience in China. Mao once said that the first Chin emperor was nothing compared with himself. The first Chin emperor only killed a thousand Confucian scholars. Mao had killed hundreds of thousands of Confucian scholars. This was Mao’s boast. Such boasting is unknown to Western history, except to figures who are dismissed as madmen. One is reminded of the Chinese warlord whose father was taken prisoner and held hostage by a rival. In this instance, the rival threatened to boil the old man alive. The war lord sent his reply: “Save me some of the soup.” One has to dig through the Dark Ages of Western history to find anything like it. Or else it is something from the history of Caligula or Nero or Eliagabulus, who were considered dreadful failures and misfits. In China such behavior on the part of leaders has long been normalized. The Western ethic, which followed from the hero-worship of the ancient Greeks and Romans, places nobility as the true standard of greatness.
Chinese civilization places a high premium on realistic thinking, brutality and success. This is greatness in the Chinese context. How does this point argue the authenticity of the alleged speeches of General Chi? A person who disagrees with the strategic culture of China, favoring freedom and humane government, doesn’t possess the mentality needed to reproduce such abrilliant piece of mimicry. One would have to be a student of Sun Tzu and the Chin emperor and Mao Zedong, not a student of Thomas Jefferson or Lincoln. Such astudent would not value freedom, having absorbed a philosophy entirely at odds with Western culture. More than that, it is a culture that believes in the West’s weakness and inevitable fall. If you were going to advance a fraudulent speech by a Chinese communist leader, would you dare put into his mouth the statement that Nazi Germany was “too soft”? Would you dare open your first paragraph with the assertion that you are pleased that 80 percent of Chinese polled would approve killing women and children in a war? Anyone with the sophistication to produce this document would have avoided going so far, fearing that the reader would laugh out loud at such an obvious propaganda fraud. Only a simple person would start Chi’s second speech with that kind of paragraph, and a simple person did not compose this speech!
To make a credible fraud, you have to downplay the wickedness of the Communists. You must be subtle in your presentation so that the fraud has a chance to sound credible. But the Chi speech is not subtle as a fraudulent presentation would have to be. Instead, it is deep and profound and brilliant in its totalitarian perspective. The compassion for the American victims comes late in the second speech, long after the skeptics would’ve stopped reading it. I do not know if the speech is genuine. But if I had to lay a bet, then I’d wager on its authenticity. That is to say, I suspect it is authentic. And the way to test its authenticity is to see if Chinese actions are consistent with its program. There is something more, as well. I know from my discussions with a Russian defector that Russia and China agreed to split North America between them as follows: Russia would get Alaska and parts of Canada, while China would get the lower 48 states (which contains the best land). The agreement on this was affirmed by the Russian General Staff in early 1992. This joint agreement on a future wa ragainst America is the basis for the Sino-Russian alliance. And if you read General Chi’s speech carefully, you will see that he brilliantly lays out the logic of the Chinese offensive and their means of advancing. He does not mention Russia’s role because Party cadres don’t need to know about Russia’s military contribution. They only need the most general strategic outline and why the war is necessary. You must read this speech several times in order to understand its profound science. If this speech is counterfeit, the counterfeiter spent many years devising it. In fact, a hoax of this type could only be produced, as I noted before, by a genuis. If General Chi was not the author, then the author should be a general — and ought to have General Chi’s job.
In point (2) you mention 9/11. Chi’s speech explains why a false flag terror attack is necessary in advance of a biological warfare offensive against the United States. As would be proper, General Chi gives nothing away. He merely implies that the Americans will not know who is really attacking them. This is intrinsic to his speech, even though he doesn’t spare words explaining why. In point (3) you ask if this is good propaganda material against communism. Since our goal is to understand the enemy, the propaganda value is of secondary importance. importance. If these speeches are authentic, our activism must counter the Chinese.
Full article: Authenticating China’s Strategy: Letter to a friend (JR Nyquist)
The CCP / PLA (“state-run media” should clue the reader in) masterfully follows Sun Tzu in painting itself as a victim of US aggression, when in fact they are aggessively pushing for terriritorial gains over natural resources and threatening war with their neighbors. Case in point: Taiwan — with over 2,000 (last count ~2010) missiles aimed at the democratic island. With a US in militarily decline, one foot off the economic cliff and politically weakened because of this, one shouldn’t be surprised to see traditinal allies such as Japan, South Korea and such run towards a new protectorate and form Asian bloc lead by China within the next two to five years.
China’s state-run media ramped up condemnation of the United States on Monday over tensions in the South China Sea, with the Communist Party’s top newspaper telling Washington to “Shut up” and charging it with “fanning flames” of division in the region.
…
“We are entirely entitled to shout at the United States, ‘Shut up’. How can meddling by other countries be tolerated in matters that are within the scope of Chinese sovereignty?,” said a commentary in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, an offshoot of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s top newspaper.
The main, domestic edition of the newspaper was equally harsh, and accused Washington of seeking to open up divisions between China and its Asian neighbors.
“Fanning the flames and provoking division, deliberately creating antagonism with China, is not a new game,” said a commentary in the People’s Daily domestic edition. “But of late Washington has been itching to use this trick.”
Full article: China media tell U.S. to “shut up” over South China Sea tensions (Reuters)
A June 27 Washington Times headline reads, “Inside China: PLA says war with U.S. imminent.” Incredibly, PLA Maj. Gen. Peng Guangqian has made a speech in which he complained that the United States was “exhausting all its resources to establish a strategic containment” of China. Using Communist terminology, Gen. Peng said that the “contradictions” between China and America were structural and not amenable to change by any individual – whether George W. Bush or Barack Obama. When speaking of contradictions, Marxist theory (including Chinese Communist theory) holds that the central contradiction is class struggle. When Gen. Peng says the “contradictions” between America and China cannot be resolved by a single individual, he is referring to the inevitable outcome of class struggle. That outcome, by Marxian historical necessity, can only signify defeat of the world bourgeoisie; and America is the embodiment of the world bourgeoisie. Therefore, since the Chinese Communists embody the cause of the workers and peasants of the world, today’s compromise with American capitalism should be viewed by the Communist Party of China as temporary. From the beginning of his reforms, Deng Xiaoping said that it “was a mistake to lose faith in socialism.” Deng underscored the fact that China was engaging the West to get technical and financial support. (Of course, Nixon and Kissinger believed that Chinese Communism would be softened by trade and peaceful exchanges.)
…
The statements of Gen. Peng and Adm. Zaozhong suggest there is a split between the civilian leadership of China and certain military officers. As if to reinforce the credibility of this scenario, the PLA Daily has complained of the marginal loyalty of certain military cadres. Last February, Lt. Gen. Gu Junshan was purged in the midst of a leadership shakeup within the PLA. Communist China’s leader, Hu Jintao, has vigorously asserted his authority over the military. Supposedly, there is a massive power-realignment taking place in China.
Foreign observers should be wary of reported disunity in China. It may be true, of course, that Nixon’s opening to China has had the desired effect of softening the Communist leadership. There is also the possibility, on the other hand, that China’s leaders are following the advice of their ancient mentor, Sun Tzu, who once wrote: “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe that we are away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him.”
Only time will tell which is feigned disorder, and which is real; whether the market has prevailed, or the militarists.
Full article: The Market and the Militarists (JR Nyquist)
As you read the selected passage, bear in mind this book was written roughly around 500 BC. Now fast-forward to 2012. Do you see any parallels?
Sun Tzu — The Art of War; Chapter Two: Doing Battle
A nation can be impoverished by the army when it has to supply the army at great distances.
When provisions are transported at great distances, the citizens will be impoverished.
Those in proximity to the army will sell goods at high prices.
When goods are expensive, the citizens’ wealth will be exhausted.
When their wealth is exhausted, the peasantry will be afflicted with increased taxes.
When all strength has been exhausted and resources depleted, all houses in the central plains utterly impoverished, seven-tenths of the citizens’ wealth dissipated,
the government’s expenses from damaged chariots, worn-out horses, armor, helmets, arrows and crossbows, halberds and shields, draft oxen, and heavy supply wagons,
will be six-tenths of its reserves.
Therefore, a wise general will strive to feed off the enemy.
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