China and
the Art of War
Part 1
By John D. Turner
“To capture the enemy’s
entire army is better than to destroy it; to take intact a regiment,
a company, or a squad is better than to destroy them. For to win one
hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the supreme of
excellence. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the supreme
excellence.”
–Sun Tzu, The Art of War
The United States sits in a position where few in history have
sat. Global military power, global economic power, global cultural
power – we currently have it all. For many of us, it seems the
natural state of things; indeed, many of us have known nothing else.
Global military power means that our armed forces can strike
anywhere in the world to protect US interests and it's allies. From
aircraft and ballistic missiles, to naval ships and grunts on the
ground, we have the capability to put force on target pretty much
wherever we may wish.
Global economic power means that, when it comes to world trade,
the US dollar reigns supreme. In many countries, the dollar trades
freely as a “secondary currency”. In some, it is the primary
currency, or the primary currency is pegged to it. Oil, the
lifeblood of the world, is traded in dollars.
Global cultural power means that you can find American cultural
artifacts just about anywhere you go. Blue jeans are ubiquitous, as
are t-shirts and bikinis. While it may not be haute cuisine, you can
find McDonalds in most countries; and Coca Cola and chewing gum are
everywhere. American words are creeping into languages across the
world. This is especially annoying to the French, who have a
government office tasked with the job of “purifying” the French
language, by inventing new “French” words to replace the American
ones. American music, and American-style music can be found in dance
halls and discotheques, and on radios and TVs across the globe.
Prior to the end of World War II, the English taught in foreign
countries was British English. Today, it is overwhelmingly American.
The language of commerce is predominately English. Air traffic
control, world wide, is done in English. The Internet, developed in
the United States, is run by American companies, and standards used
on it are predominately developed here. English is the predominate
language on the Internet. Even in foreign countries where English is
not the primary language, businesses, major news organizations, and
government entities usually have an English version of their website
too.
Few Americans, born and raised in this cornucopia of plenty,
cannot conceive of life in any other way. To most, it is the natural
order of things.
Our shelves are always stocked. Our stomachs, for the most part,
are always full. Even our poor, in this country, have an obesity
problem - along with microwave ovens, washing machines, color TVs,
telephones, electricity, and a car or two in the driveway.
This abundance of plenty means that when we want something, it’s
there. Sacrifice is not a word in the vocabulary of most Americans,
at least not in the sense that it once was, and still is for much of
the world. Sacrifice today, means not being able to catch the latest
episode of your favorite TV show because you had to take your kids
to a soccer game instead. But not to worry; it isn’t really a
sacrifice, because you can catch it later on TiVo (without the
commercials, no less!), assuming, of course, that you can make time
in your busy schedule to do so.
We live in a culture ruled by the 15-second sound bite; where all
life’s problems can be solved in a single 60-minute TV show, or, if
they are too big, in a miniseries, movie, or two-part episode; where
last weeks news is “so last week”. This cultural attention deficit
disorder spills over into the political arena as well. We’ve come a
long way from President Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do
for you, ask what you can do for your country”. Now it’s not simply
“what have you done for me lately” but rather “what did you do for
me today”?
Long-term thinking simply isn’t a cultural norm in our society.
If you look at the way we handle things in this country, it’s pretty
much crisis management. Our government systems tend to be reactive
in nature. We get attacked, we attack back. If something happens we
don’t like, we pass a law. If a hurricane, tornado, flood, or some
other natural disaster strikes, we clean up the mess but we don’t
plan ahead to mitigate the disaster before it occurs.
Even if we do generate a long-term plan, it’s likely that, before
we get to that end, it will have changed, mutated beyond
recognition, or be canceled altogether. It has been said that the
landing of a man on the moon is one of the greatest accomplishments
in the history of the human race. I have my doubts that we could put
such a program together today. It is my belief that we would lose
interest and reallocate the funding for it somewhere else to pay for
another pet government project before it could come to fruition.
We even have trouble remembering why we are fighting a war on
terror. For many of us 9-11 is so five years ago.
However, not all countries have the same myopic view of things as
we. A good example of this is China, a country that has been around
for over 1200 years. A country where the word “new” applies to
things that are older than the United States itself. A country that
takes the long view of things, where planning 10, 20, even 50 years
into the future is the norm.
It is fashionable to think of China these days as our friend.
Other than Cuba and North Korea, it is the only remaining bastion of
Communist worker’s paradise, so beloved by liberals remaining on the
planet. Which probably explains why, although liberals get all
worked up over what they call “sweat shops” in third world countries
providing low-cost goods to “greedy capitalist industry-types
exploiting the workers by not paying them enough”, they don’t even
raise an eyebrow when it’s China supplying the low-cost goods, by
virtue of not only low-cost sweat-shop labor, but of “free”
slave-labor as well! It’s OK, if the exploitation comes from
“peace-loving” Communists in the worker’s paradise, after all.
Most may consider it to be a bit of a stretch to call China our
“enemy” at this time, although that may change in the future. It
certainly would be correct to consider China an adversary however,
and from the Chinese perspective, for them to consider us an
adversary as well. China has its own set of ambitions and goals,
many of which are at odds with ours. A big one, which the United
States has thwarted for some time, is the conquest of Taiwan, which
they consider to be a rebellious, break-away province, ending once
and for all the civil war in which they deposed the Nationalist
Chinese government.
This has been a difficult proposition for China since it
consolidated power on the mainland in 1949, and the remains of
Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist government fled, to what was then
called Formosa, in exile. The United States supported the
Nationalists, and signed treaties promising to come to their aid if
attacked. Much in the way of military equipment – aircraft, ships,
submarines, and other defensive systems, have been sold to Taiwan to
enable them to retain their independence. And in the process, Taiwan
has become a prosperous, democratic “country”, despite the fact that
every time they sound like they want to formally declare themselves
an independent nation, instead of a government in exile, the 900
pound gorilla on the mainland threatens them with forcible
annexation.
Each time there has been a crisis between China and Taiwan (and
there have been many), the United States has come to the rescue,
typically, by sending one or more carrier battle groups to the area.
In the past, China has been unable to do anything about it, as they
have not been able to realistically pose an invasion threat. The
Taiwanese air force, while inferior in numbers, has had superior
aircraft and training; attaining the air superiority needed to force
an invasion has been problematic. In any event, China hasn’t had an
invasion fleet with which to attack, much less a blue-water navy
sufficient to protect it and to deter an American response. While
they do possess nuclear weapons, and are willing to accept some
level of damage to the Taiwanese infrastructure (inevitable in any
conflict), they want to capture Taiwan, not reduce it to a glowing
wasteland. And up until recently, these nuclear weapons didn’t
figure into the equation when it came to deterring the United
States, as their targeting systems weren’t up to the task of hitting
our naval units, and their missiles didn’t have the range to strike
our mainland.
But things have changed. And while China is a long way from
becoming a military superpower in the manner of the United States,
they are well on their way to becoming a regional military
“superpower”. And they are making great strides at challenging us on
the economic front as well. As a country that does take a long view
of things, and plans, rather than reacts, China has been and
continues to lay the ground work to eventually achieve the goal of
what they refer to as “reunification”. Preferably, as Sun Tzu has
said, without firing a shot. And beyond that…
As I said before, China thinks long term, and time is on their
side. In the history of the world, no nation or empire has stayed on
the top of the heap indefinitely. Is it time for the United States
to relinquish the top position? I sure hope not. Whereas the liberal
might think it fine, as long as no one impacts his or her life,
history shows that this is seldom the case. Imagine a world where
Saddam’s Iraq was the superpower; Or Stalin’s Russia; Or Hitler’s
Germany; Or Osama’s Muslim caliph; Or even France…
“The clever combatant
imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy’s will
to be imposed on him.”
– Sun Tzu, The Art of War
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