Our military has a disturbing tendency to keep fighting the last wars, not the likely future ones. Now a visionary general is being forced into retirement because he’s advocating a very different approach to counter Chinese aims to achieve dominance in space.
For decades, the U.S. has given China preferred trade & economic status. In a long overdue effort, President Trump is now negotiating new and more balanced trade deals with China, but however effective new trade deals will prove to be, they cannot address the many other dangers posed by China’s Communist Party.
Over the past forty years, since Deng Xiaoping began his policy of “Reform and Opening,” the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has evolved from a less developed country to the second largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world. Over the past 25 years, it has also steadily transformed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a force that is capable of influencing regional, and increasingly global, security environments.
Just this year, the Chinese Communist Party held an election in the Great Hall of the People where Xi Jinping was voted “President for Life.” The vote was 2,958 for and six against. With this vote they proclaimed that China is now realizing its dream of national rejuvenation, and it’s grand strategy to restore its Empire.
You’re looking at a country which is the most radical actor on the global stage since the French Revolution.
How would you react if the government put facial recognition cameras everywhere and kept tabs on your every move – right down to to how many squares of toilet paper you are using? It’s happening in China, as the communist government there clamps down on freedom and ramps up its economic and territorial ambitions in its quest to become the dominant player on the world stage.