In October 1991, China's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, went to watch the test flight of the Jian-9 fighter in Sichuan. After watching the fighter's takeoff, Deng said that the recent changes in Eastern Europe were due to economic problems. "The key was that the [Soviet] economy had long been in bad shape...." On its side, said Deng, China had solved its economic problem. The People's Republic was growing, and so was its capacity for building advanced weapons. Soon China would be able to build a powerful air force.
During the 1980s Chinese leaders often revealed the strategy behind their country's economic opening to the West. In statement after statement, the Chinese Communists affirmed that they were taking a page out of Lenin's playbook. In the early 1920s Lenin initiated the Soviet Union's New Economic Policy (NEP), opening Russia to capitalist investment. As one might expect, the Soviet economy prospered during the NEP period and Russia was able to lay the foundations of its military industry. Due to its proven track record, something akin to Lenin's NEP has been adopted by China. The Chinese leaders assured the Communist Party elite that this policy was ideologically "correct." Learning from capitalism and drawing foreign capital to China would be the basis for China's future military superiority.
It took a long time for Deng's ideas to win acceptance in China. At one point he was demoted from his leadership position. For many years, Chairman Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic, attempted to build Chinese industry with slogans and half-baked schemes. On 28 June 1958 he told his generals, "We must build big ships, and be prepared to land in Japan, the Philippines, and San Francisco." He hoped that his new socialist China would be able to produce an enormous fleet. "The Pacific Ocean is not peaceful," he said. "It can only be peaceful when we take it over." Mao even asked the Russians for help. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev tried to dissuade him. "Build submarines and light ships armed with missiles," said Khrushchev. "A big warship is a steel coffin." The Russians tried to explain the costs and technical difficulties of warship construction. Mao was irritated by their tedious explanations and humiliated by Moscow's suggestion that China could ill afford large warships. "I don't need a fleet, then," he sourly interjected during a meeting with Khrushchev. "I know guerrilla warfare. China can always retreat from the coast and fight a guerrilla war."
Mao was possessed by a grand dream. "We must control the earth," he told his associates. But China was economically weak. The People's Liberation Army was equipped with obsolete weapons. Mao's Great Leap Forward and his Cultural Revolution produced economic chaos. It was not possible to catch up with America through ideological slogans and political enthusiasm. And so, Mao realized that Deng Xiaoping was correct after all. As the People's Daily later explained, "whether a socialist country should make use of capitalism or not is a question which has long been resolved both in theory and practice. It is of even greater importance for an economically backward socialist country to solve the question correctly."
Mao was in a hurry and got nowhere. Deng Xiaoping was patient. He was the tortoise to Mao's hare. In some situations an attempted shortcut is self-defeating. The Chinese leadership saw the wisdom of Deng's strategy. "For a relatively long time," said Gen. Mi Zhenyu, "it will be absolutely necessary that we quietly nurse our sense of vengeance.... We must conceal our abilities and bide our time." And that is what the Chinese Communists have done. Mao's dream of controlling the Pacific Ocean and landing in San Francisco isn't as farfetched as it was in 1958. China has prepared a large merchant fleet. It was Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev who first advised Mao on this matter. "We believe one should build a merchant fleet with the view of using it for military goals."
And why should China build such a fleet?
"To resolve the issue of America we must be able to transcend conventions and restrictions," said Chinese Gen. Chi Haotian in a secret speech to Party cadres. "In history when a country defeated another country or occupied another country, it could not kill all the people in the conquered land, because back then you could not kill people effectively with sabers or long spears, or even with rifles or machine guns." According to Gen. Chi, "Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves. There has been rapid development of modern biological technology, and new bio-weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of 'cleaning up' America all of a sudden."
Like all prospective mass murderers, the Chinese Communists see themselves as humanitarians. And so, it is only natural for them to have qualms. Chi Haotian described the inevitable fight between America and China is a tragic necessity. He spoke of the horror and cruelty of the work ahead. "Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness," he acknowledged, "but if the Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people!" The Chinese land cannot support 1.3 billion inhabitants indefinitely. The eco-system of China is already collapsing. So China has no choice. "From a humanitarian perspective," said Chi, "we should issue a warning to the American people and persuade them to leave America ... to the Chinese people." Of course, such a warning would hardly be effective. Therefore China has only one choice. "That is," said Chi, "use decisive means to 'clean up' America, and reserve America for our use.... Our historical experience has proven that as long as we make it happen, nobody in the world can do anything about us. Furthermore, if the United States as the leader is gone, then other enemies have to surrender to us."
Of course, this plan of battle is very dangerous. The Chinese strategists are therefore prepared for two scenarios: (1) A successful surprise attack on America, with little loss to China; (2) Full-blown U.S. nuclear retaliation that would kill 650 million Chinese. In facing this situation, explained Gen. Chi, the Communist leadership must be fearless. "In Chinese history, in the replacement of dynasties, the ruthless have always won and the benevolent have always failed." One must not be deterred by the human cost. Modern warfare is mass destruction warfare. It involves the mass killing of human beings. "Maybe we can put it this way," explained Gen. Chi: "death is the engine that moves history forward. During the period of the Three Kingdoms, how many people died? When Genghis Khan conquered Eurasia, how many people died? When Manchu invaded the interior of China, how many people died?" Chi then admitted, "It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths. But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we'd have to pick the latter.... That is because, after all, we are Chinese and members of the CCP...."
The outline of China's military strategy is clear. The Chinese are building a large navy with many merchant ships because they want to control the Pacific Ocean and transport millions of colonists to a depopulated North American shore. The biological weapons for "cleaning up" America have already been built. The destruction of America's early warning system and the decapitation of the U.S. government can be achieved through "terrorist" strikes (i.e., by special forces commandos). There is also an economic dimension to the attack plan. First, do everything possible to hasten America's financial collapse. (To this end the Americans have made their own special contribution). Second, the bankruptcy of the U.S. government naturally brings about the spontaneous strategic disarmament of the American military; third, use the Arab terrorist threat as a diversion so that the Americans will react against the wrong countries when they are attacked with biological weapons; and fourth, finish off the Americans when they are defenseless and disoriented.
Once China has vaccinated its own soldiers the biological assault can begin. The plan has many risks, and the average American would readily dismiss such a plan as madness. But we all should be reminded of the madness of Hitler, who attempted to exterminate the Jews in Europe. It is hard to believe that someone would exterminate people who were quite harmless. However, that is exactly what happened. The Nazis built their edifice on the myth of Jewish malevolence. This served as their justification. The Nazis merely projected their own malevolence onto their intended victims. Today the agents of Communism have constructed their justification for the extermination of America. The Russians and Chinese, together with their allies in the Third World, have carefully laid out their case. We have all heard the anti-American propaganda. It is everywhere. According to this propaganda the Americans are imperialist aggressors. The Americans are murdering millions of people. The Americans are stealing the world's resources. The Americans are the cause of global warming. The planet itself is doomed unless the Americans are eradicated.
Here we find a variation on Hitler's theme. Instead of blaming the Jews, it blames the Americans (and their Zionist allies). Instead of gas chambers and ovens the perpetrators will use nuclear and biological weapons. Instead of looting a minority community in the midst of Europe, an entire continent will be looted. The plan of war aims at plunder in the form of empty buildings, infrastructure, machines and real estate. With that plunder comes global dominance.
I end this column with one last thought supplied by the Wall Street Journal on March 7. In a column titled "China's Military Mystique" we read of China's "rapidly increasing defense budget." The Bush administration wants an explanation. Why is China building so many ships and guns and planes? Everyone assumes that China is building up to attack Taiwan. "But China's military advances are no longer just about attacking Taiwan," says the Journal. Having tantalized us with an intriguing tidbit of geopolitical algebra the Journal trails off in the direction of China's anti-satellite weaponry. The American mind has yet to wrap itself around the concept of a genocidal WMD assault. We watch as the Chinese prepare to slaughter us. We blink and avert our gaze.
