By Rich Kozlovich First, we have to understand that whenever you read anything about China you must see past what's written. China is a complicated country, with a long and profound history. China's culture is considered the world's oldest culture by many, and China houses most of its population, which is one quarter of the world’s population, in an area about the size of everything east of the Mississippi River in the United States, and they are ethnic Han. The rest of China is sparsely populated and mostly occupied by other ethnic groups that hate the Han and consider the central government illegitimate, and the general population has grown to doubt the legitimacy of the central government as a result of all the incompetence and corruption.
The government’s one child policy has created a large male/female imbalance in the population as a result there isn’t enough women to go around. This creates serious social consequences and dissatisfaction. Pollution is terrible and the government is spending huge amounts of money to keep everyone working, including building cities that no one occupies, and the banking system has troubles the government hides.
What is clear is the Chinese leadership is striving for two things. Social and economic stability, world dominance in both and continued central control of all things in the hands of the communist leadership.
Make no mistake about it, they’re still commies, and commies are dictators, and so what do dictatorships do to distract the population from their problems? They start a war! Only this is far more problematic than it was decades ago.
So who do you start a ruckus with? Taiwan, Japan, India or the maybe the Philippines?
There are a handful of tiny Islands off the coast of China known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan which are barren and uninhabited. These five islands “encompass a grand total of seven square kilometers” and were won from the Chinese in the first Sino-Japanese war of 1895. But after 1968 the Chinese decided that they wanted them back; after it was discovered “the islands may be sitting on top of huge oil and gas reserves”, which China has none. A lot of coal, but no oil, or at best very little.
This gives the Chinese a potentially legitimate gripe, especially when you consider what the Japanese did to them in WWII and were then the losers of that war. By pushing this they then bring into play far more than these islands and its potential wealth. They create a Munich Moment. The real goal of the Chinese government is to be the big dog in the South China Sea and ultimately all of South East Asia.
If they push this and win; it seriously weakens American influence, militarily and economically. The rest of the countries in the area then can be much more easily bullied into falling into line, including India and the Philippines, and of course even Australia. But all these threats and seeming preparations for military action is triggering a backlash. Taiwan is now building their own submarine, bypassing China's successful efforts blocking Taiwan's efforts to acquire one from other countries.
Taiwan is also seeking "allies" in other non-neighboring nations like Lithuania:
Taiwan will set up its first office in Europe using the name
“Taiwan,” drawing a rebuke from China and praise from the U.S. as the
island democracy seeks to strengthen its diplomatic presence around the
globe in the face of pressure from Beijing............. Taiwan’s other diplomatic outposts on the continent are under the name
of “Taipei.” “Lithuania has firmly believed in universal
values such as democracy, freedom and human rights, and is a like-mined
partner of Taiwan,”.....Taiwan and Lithuania are both at the
strategic front line to safeguard democratic and free regimes.......Lithuania has firmly believed in universal values
such as democracy, freedom and human rights, and is a like-mined partner
of Taiwan.”
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They have a huge economy that may not be real.
- They have a banking system that's an illusion.
- They have a huge national debt.
- They absolutely need trade with world to maintain their economy.
- They don't have oil reserves.
- They have a huge military that may not be effective.
- They have competent economic neighbors in Japan, India and the Philippines, to whom China has made threatening moves. Economies they don’t really want to compete with because they may not be capable.
- They have a central planning system that is clueless, and an economy predicated on total employment, not profitability. They were smart enough to leave Hong Kong alone because it was a huge money machine for the government, but they won't allow the nation to go down that path because it would destroy the elitists that run the country. A course of action they've now abandoned because they fear that kind of freedom Hong Kong had would spread to the mainland.
- They have serious internal problems with the general population, many of whom consider the central government illegitimate and staggeringly corrupt.
The problem still remains that has been foundational of all of their problems since Mao. They’re still commies! They think like commies, they act like commies, ergo, they’re commies, and commies are now, and have always been, aggressive, unreasonable, murderous and failures at basic economics and human rights. Both of which I will address in other pieces. And they're staggeringly corrupt.
Pay attention to this whole South East Asia economic situation. There is a reason China is expanding it's navy, including air craft carriers. It's all an effort to instill an economic hegemony through Asia via military intimidation. There are serious internal and/or external events in the offing with China that will impact the whole world, and the world is taking notice and recognizing China is the world's biggest threat, and one thing all this military intimidation has done is make everyone aware of how dangerous they are, and the world is going to react.
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