China's War Warnings
by Gordon G. Chang • March 12, 2023 at 5:00 am
The world needs to look at what the Chinese leadership is in fact doing. Xi Jinping appointed what is now known as his "war cabinet" in October, at the Communist Party's 20th National Congress; he is implementing the largest military buildup since the Second World War; he has been trying to sanctions-proof his regime; and he is mobilizing the civilian population for war. Communist Party cadres, for example, are taking over privately owned factories and converting them from civilian to military production.
In the latest move, China's regime is establishing National Defense Mobilization Offices across the country. The Reservists Law went into effect the first of this month.
Whatever China intends, its intended victims need to match its preparations. There has never been a time when it has been more important to deter the People's Republic of China.
Even if all this is the biggest bluff in history, the Chinese military is provoking incidents that could lead to war, especially in the tense climate Xi Jinping has created. In December... a Chinese fighter jet dangerously intercepted a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the South China Sea.
Moreover, beginning January 28, China's large spy balloon intruded into American airspace, then proceeded to surveil nuclear weapons sites, including Malmstrom, F. E. Warren, and Minot Air Force Bases, which house all of America's Minutemen III intercontinental ballistic missiles..... This path suggests China is gathering intelligence for a nuclear strike on America's strategic weapons — and shows Beijing's utter disrespect for the United States.
Whatever China's intentions... this cannot end well. The problem is complacency. Xi Jinping and Qin Gang, whatever they are doing, are establishing a justification to strike America — and they are making preparations to do so.
"If the U.S. doesn't hit the brakes and continues to barrel down the wrong track," China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on March 7, "no amount of guardrails can prevent the carriage from derailing and crashing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation." He also spoke of "catastrophic consequences."
The unusually pointed warning followed that of Chinese ruler Xi Jinping of the day before. "Western countries, led by the U.S., are implementing all-round containment, encirclement, and suppression against us," he told the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing.
These comments suggest a marked deterioration in relations between Washington and Beijing. What is happening?
"We have to not rule out the stratagem of empty fortress," tweeted City University of New York's Ming Xia, one of America's most astute China watchers, on March 8.
