Wei Lingling of the Wall Street Journal (and a former OPC Foundation scholarship winner) and I have been wondering about the same thing–China’s incredibly brazen use of propaganda. Here’s her take: https://wsjchina.cmail19.com/t/d-e-ejdjrjk-driitdljhj-r/
I was particularly struck by this line of argumentation from China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. “Should China and the United States keep to the right direction of moving forward with stability or return to a downward spiral? This is a major question before our two countries, and tests our sincerity and ability,” Wang told Blinken during a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, after saying US-China ties were “beginning to stabilize.”
He added: “Should our two sides lead international cooperation against global issues and achieve win-win for all? Or engage in rivalry and confrontation – or even slide into conflict, which would be a lose-lose for all?” he said, speaking through an interpreter.
My analysis: The use of the words “stability” and “stabilize” are key. We are in a profoundly unstable moment–the Chinese are supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Iran’s aggression through proxies in the Middle East. China is engaged in a massive world-wide campaign against the concept of democracy using tools like TikTok. It has stolen incredible amounts of technology, up to and including designs for its latest aircraft carrier. It has planted malware in our critical infrastructure to disrupt our economy with the flick of a few buttons. We require a massive mobilization of our resources and our technology to respond.
But Wang Yi does not want to see that. He has the audacity to argue that China wishes to take part in “win-win” strategies, which is laughable. He portrays any deviation from America’s current lose-lose strategy as equaling “confrontation” and “a slide into conflict.” We already are in a confrontation but that does not have to mean a military conflict. This is the great vulnerability in American thinking and the Chinese are exploiting it. As I argue in “The New Art of War” in 2019, the Chinese strategy is to win the war without fighting, as Sun Tzu once famously wrote. It is a different pattern of conflict that we have not been able to recognize. (You can easily find that book on Amazon.)
Of course, any military conflict would be disastrous for America, China and the whole world. We lost wars on the Asian mainland in Korea and Vietnam. Not to mention Afghanistan. Millions of Chinese would go hungry in the dark because China is so much more dependent than the United States on imported food and energy. America’s economy also would be crippled–Home Depot and Wal-Mart would be out of business.
So we should not fall victim to the Chinese propaganda that trying to rectify the imbalances in the relationship and defending our democracy and national security would lead to “conflict.” This plays into a weakness in the American black-white, yes-no mindset. Naively, we think someone is either our friend of our enemy. But this is a much more subtle game than we have ever encountered. It’s time we recognize it.
