A war is coming in East Asia and we are nowhere near ready

Sam Faddis September 5, 2024
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Originally published by AND Magazine

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Jake Sullivan, Biden’s National Security Advisor, just traveled to China. The focus of his meetings was on national security matters. He was treated with contempt and lectured by the Chinese on American “adventurism” in the Pacific. This is the way the Chinese have historically spoken to the leaders of tributary vassal states. That was intentional, because the Chinese Communist Party increasingly views us as a fading second-rate power soon to be brushed aside.

Gen. Zhang Youxia, one of two vice chairs of the Central Military Commission, told White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan that promoting what China calls the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland is “the mission and responsibility” of the military, according to a statement from China’s Defense Ministry.

“The Taiwan question is at the very core of China’s core interests, bedrock of the political foundation of China-U.S. relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations,” Zhang told Sullivan. In case you do not speak either Mandarin or Marxist, that translates to, “We will go to war over this issue. Back off and walk away.”

Zhang went on saying, China’s territorial sovereignty “brooks no infringement and its core interests cannot be challenged. We do not provoke trouble, but we will never flinch in face of provocation. The Chinese military will resolutely defend the reunification and interest of the motherland.”

Zhang’s tone should not have been surprising. He has been equally blunt in the past making clear on numerous occasions that Beijing intends to take control of Taiwan and force its “reunification” with mainland China. Lest you be inclined to think the Chinese have in mind some peaceful meeting of the minds, Zhang has also said this. “No matter who wants to separate Taiwan from China in any form, the Chinese military will never agree and will show no mercy.”

Following Sullivan’s browbeating by Zhang, the Chinese Defense Ministry issued this statement. “China demands that the United States stop military collusion between the US and Taiwan, stop arming Taiwan, and stop spreading false narratives about Taiwan.” The false narrative would be that the Taiwanese get to decide whether or not they really want to be absorbed into the gulag that is the People’s Republic of China

Just to make sure that everyone understood that China meant what it said, while Sullivan was in Taiwan the People’s Liberation Army flooded the Taiwanese air defense zone with aircraft. At least thirty such incursions happened on just one day during Sullivan’s capitulation tour.

China’s Foreign Minister also chimed in on Taiwan. While Sullivan was still in Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Xi said that Taiwan‘s independence poses the greatest threat to stability in the immediate region. Wang also called on the United States to comply with Chinese interpretations regarding China and “support China’s peaceful reunification,” the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang as saying.

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Sam Faddis
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