By Hugh Murray
China just signed a deal with the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, not long after surprising America by signing another deal with Samoa. China has cash to help build infrastructure, pay of bribes to politicians, and do other things, like perhaps construct a Chinese naval base located there. The UP reports today that China is negotiating with 7 other island nations in the Pacific right now. Well, it is a good thing the Hawaiian Islands are already American territory or perhaps China might soon have a base there. Is Pearl Harbor up for sale now? These new treaties will give China room to get to the other side of the Philippine Islands, possibly interfere with American shipping to Australia, Philippines, Vietnam, and if war comes, restrict our plans to defend Taiwan.
China was once the world's premier naval power. But first an aside: during the American Revolutionary war, a young Andrew Jackson fought beside his brother against the British. They were captured. When a British officer commanded the 13-year-old Andrew to polish the gentleman's boots, the young Andrew refused. The officer drew his sword, slashed Andrew's left hand to the bone and hit him on the head - leaving scars on both head and hand. In the late 1300s, there were wars in China a leader of a Mongolian group killed in fighting the Chinese, and when his young son was questioned by his dad's opponents, the youth spoke defiantly. He too was punished. But there are cultural differences. This youth was castrated, became a servant in the court of the victor's, and rose in rank. By the early 1400s, this boy grown to manhood, becomes Admiral to the largest fleet ever to sail - some 28,000 sailors sailing from near Suzhou down the South China Sea, the Spice islands, India, Sri Lanka, even Arabia (Admiral Zheng He is a Muslim and goes to Mecca), and to East Africa. They return to China with many goods and animals like giraffes that were unknown in the Middle Kingdom. The Admiral, with several major expeditions to the Indian Ocean and Africa, may give the Chinese a claim to the South China Sea. Compare his huge expeditions with those that came later: Magellan fewer than 300 men\; da Gama 170; and Columbus, a mere 90 men. Yet, which voyages changed the world?
(One more aside: it is interesting to note that both He in China and Jackson in America begin on the bottom rungs of society, and in both lands, both rise to the top or near the top. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans and was later elected American President; He in China fought in the military there and became the most famous Admiral or one of the largest fleets on several successful expeditions. But he never became emperor. Both societies may have been more open to talent than we are aware of.)
Moreover, by 1433 China had a new emperor, and soon he decreed that there should be no more ocean-going ships to sail, or to be built, and all those in existence and all their plans should be destroyed! Surely China did not dominate the South China Sea after 1450. China ceased to be a naval power. There are cultural differences, and often these have huge consequences. In the 1890s China even lost a war to Japan, a nation only "opened" to the world by the American navy's Commodore Perry in 1853. Japan then quickly sought to catch up with the west, learning from imported military figures from Prussia and naval ones from Britain. When China lost to Japan, it had to cede Formosa (Taiwan) to the Japanese. The island remained Japanese until 1945, when Japan lost WWII.
Formosa, no longer Japanese would go to the official Chinese government, the one recognized by the new UN organization and all major powers, the Nationalist government headed by Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1944 there was no A-bomb, and even as Nazi Germany seemed destined for defeat, America faced the huge problem of invading the Japanese home islands. FDR made promises to Stalin in order to get him to declare war on Japan. It was agreed he would do so within 3 months of the German surrender. In August 1945 the US dropped 2 A-bombs on Japan, the Soviets entered the war against Japan, quickly over-running the depleted defense forces in Manchukuo, Japan surrendered. Soviet troops were in Manchuria, dismantling factories to bring them to the USSR, but taking the Japanese weapons, and instead of giving them to the "official" Chinese government, gave them to the Communist rebel regime of Mao Zedong. A Nationalist faction under Wang Jingwei, that had collaborated with Japan was totally discredited, but civil war increased between the "official" Chiang Nationalists and Mao's Communists, now supplied with weapons by the Soviets. American Pres. Truman sent Gen. George Marshall to end the conflict, and he demanded Chiang form a coalition with Mao, or Marshall said there would be no aid. This policy allowed the Communists to conquer more of China. Finally, Marshall okayed help for Chiang, but Communists in the FDR Administration, like H D White in Treasury, obstructed any real aid to Chiang. The result - in 1949 Mao broadcast from Beijing the creation of the Peoples' Republic of China. Chiang, with the remnants of his defeated army, fled to Taiwan, protected by the US Navy. Taiwan became what was left of the Republic of China. This was the origin of the 2-China policy.
In 1950 North Korea invaded its southern neighbor; Truman decided to send American troops to aid the South, and the war was on. Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur was able to land forces behind the lines of the invaders, encircling the North Communists, and soon the whole peninsula was in anti-Communist hands. Then in cold winter, the Chinese Communist "volunteers" crossed the Yalu using their large numbers and enduring heavy losses, but pushing the anti-communists back to the approximate border of before. And so it remains.
Having been unofficially at war with the PR China, there were few relations between the 2 nations. Then, the Vietnam war, found America in a difficult war. Even though there were now many reports of a rift between the USSR and the PRC, America was on the outside. Diplomat Henry Kissinger got Pres. Richard Nixon, a Republican, to try to put a wedge between those 2 Communist lands Ping pong diplomacy. The US urged less Chinese support for the Vietnamese, which did occur. Under Pres. Carter, the US formally recognized a 1-China policy, and the Rep. of China was now simply Taipei. The US overthrew the royal leader of Cambodia, Prince Sihanouk, who was soon replaced by the radical Khmer Rouge. Both China and the US seemed happy with that, while Communist Vietnam (ally of the USSR) was furious that the Cambodians were murdering Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge then began a great extermination policy of its own people too, killing up to 2 million. Anyone who had glasses was suspect. To what extent did the US secretly work with the PRC in Cambodia? As Vietnam was trying to overthrow the leaders of Cambodia? China and Vietnam also had their own small war against each other along their common border.
The late 80s, Tiananmen - the CP will continue to rule China. But deals with the west for trade, very cheap labor assured will mean low prices in America. Under Clinton and Bush, more trade deals, and China joins World Trade Organization, keeping its home market safe by requiring foreign corporations to form partnerships (where Chinese can steal secrets on manufacturing). When in the 1990s China cannot get missiles off the ground, the Clintons make deals, receive campaign "donations," and Chinese rocket problems are solved. PRC makes honey deals with high ranking American politicians, the Biden family, the Clintons, Feinstein, Republican Senate leader McConnel. The CPR leadership learns a weak link of democracy - corruption.
Kissinger worked to separate Russia and China. Biden, with his reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, has made the Russo-Chinese relation ever closer. Just as the Biden economic war against Putin may be making the US far weaker, the the ruble stronger today with the dollar than when Biden announced his policy. Worse, the Biden, Democrats and Rhino Republican policies of giving Zelensky all he wants, simply keeps the war going in Ukraine. Inflation is a problem in the US. Now we just voted $40 billion more for that war. UKRAINE IS NOT A DIRECT AMERICAN INTEREST. Worse, we are facing a battle about Taiwan, which we need to win. Will we have sufficient weapons? Money? Manufacturing capabilities for continued weaponry? (Remember, we are dependent on Taiwan for the chips so necessary in the new weaponry. If China attacks Taiwan, or merely surrounds it and blockades it, will the USA be able to manufacture anything?? China has built up its navy so it is powerful. Untested, yes, but are we up for the test ourselves? China was testing hypersonic missiles last year - Gen. Milley called it a "near Sputnik moment." The other day the US Air Force reported we too have had a successful test (after some failures).
China ignores the World Court's decision on the South China Sea; the court denied it is China's. China rejected the court's judgement and instead built up islands in the sea, then broke its word and militarized those islands. China has signed contracts with 2 island groups in the Pacific since April 2022, and is trying for 7 more deals. Will the Pacific be China's new lake??
Some maintain that the recent virus lockdowns in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xian, and even Beijing have nothing to do with any virus, but they are exercises in control in case there is a major war (with the USA).
If China were to strike first, and not just in Taiwan, but hit our shores too, Would we be able to respond AND WIN? What about Chinese money near the Panama Canal?
Instead of bowing to Zelensky's demands, we should tell him to make a deal and end the war, while we prepare for our own defense. To the Chinese we seem at a weak point - an elderly, maybe senile leader, high crime rate, inflation, instability, and general confusion, more worried about proper pronouns than how effective is your missile. They want Taiwan by 2049, but why wait? Especially if the balance of power has changed, if the most advanced nation is the Middle Kingdom, which rests between heaven and earth? Perhaps they will conclude this year is the time for the Middle Kingdom to take its rightful place. Are we prepared to shatter that "cultural difference," and prove that their proper place is NOT a superior one to all the rest of the earth. Are we prepared to prevent a modernized, 1984 one-party state from becoming a modernized one-party world? Our democratic republic has its flaws, but it is the last best hope for humanity.
To prepare for the big one, let us end the Ukraine war now.
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