12 Signs That The United States And China Are Moving Toward War
By Michael Snyder
If the United States and China are supposed to be such “great friends”, why are both sides acting as if war is in our future? Thanks to events in the South China Sea and the blatant theft of the personal information of millions of U.S. government workers, tensions between the United States and China are the highest that they have been in decades.
Most Americans typically assume that a real, actual shooting war between the U.S. and China could never possibly happen, but as you will see below the Chinese are actually spending a lot of time and money preparing for precisely such a conflict. In fact, the Chinese are working feverishly to develop new offensive weapons systems that would only be used in such a war.
Of course it is extremely unlikely that a military conflict between our two nations will happen in our immediate future, but without a doubt we are moving in that direction. And this is how wars typically happen – things build up over a period of time before they finally reach a breaking point. Just think about what took place between the United States and Japan in the lead up to our war with them. There were years of diplomatic troubles before Japan finally made the decision to launch a “surprise” attack on Pearl Harbor.
Right now, I believe that we are moving into a similar period of diplomatic trouble with China. Initially, this will likely affect our trade relationship with the Chinese, but ultimately it could be much more than that. The following are 10 signs that the United States and China are moving toward war…
#1 China’s moves in the South China Sea have greatly angered Obama administration officials. Some of the islands that China has grabbed are also claimed by Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and the Philippines. The United States is bound by treaty to defend the Philippines in any conflict with China, and Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam are all slated to be parties to the new super secret global trade treaty that Obama is currently negotiating. The following comes from Business Insider…
China’s reclamation of more than 2,000 acres of land on disputed islands and atolls in the South China Sea since last year has raised international alarm over its territorial ambitions. Washington took the unusual step last month of publicizing a U.S. military surveillance flight that showed the massive scale of China’s island-building.
China says the islands are its sovereign territory, but Washington argues that the continuation of building work and militarization of the islands could enflame complex territorial disputes with China’s neighbors, with whom the U.S. is seeking to forge closer ties while preserving freedom of navigation in sea lanes crucial for world trade.
#2 In China, there is talk that a war may be necessary to defend China’s interests in the South China Sea. In fact, a newspaper that is a mouthpiece for the Communist Party actually stated that war with the United States “is inevitable” if the U.S. continues to insist that the Chinese must halt activities on those islands…
Coinciding with the publication of the white paper, an editorial in The Global Times – a tabloid newspaper mouthpiece for the ruling Communist Party – issued a warning to the US to halt its protests over the South China Sea.
Last week, China’s foreign ministry revealed it had lodged a complaint with the US over an American spy plane that flew over parts of the disputed archipelago.
The article read: “We do not want a military conflict with the United States, but if it were to come, we have to accept it.”
It added that China should “carefully prepare” for the possibility of war with Washington and that “if the United States’ bottom line is that China is to halt activities, then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea”.
#3 The theft of the information of up to 14 million federal workers is being described as “an act of war“. At this point, the Obama administration appears convinced that this horrible act was committed by the Chinese government…
Cybersecurity is another source of acrimony that’s up for discussion, given fresh urgency by the massive security breach that led to the theft of personal information of as many as 14 million current and former U.S. federal employees. The Obama administration believes that China’s government, not criminal hackers, was responsible for the breach that included detailed background information on military and intelligence personnel.
China has denied involvement in the break-in and says it is also a victim of cyberattacks.
So was China behind this theft?
Perhaps we will never know for sure, but without a doubt this incident has raised tensions between the two nations.
And as tensions continue to increase, it is likely that the cyber espionage being committed by both sides will only get worse. Ian Bremmer, the founder of Eurasia Group, recently told Business Insider that he believes that a “virtual war” between our countries has already begun…
“We should be very clear: China is at virtual war with the United States, and the threat is far higher than that of terrorism, which gets the lion’s share of attention — and, in the post-9/11 world, funding.”
#4 China recently conducted a series of massive military exercises that simulated an attack against Taiwan. Since the U.S. is committed to protecting Taiwan, a real conflict of this nature would almost certainly involve the United States. The following comes from an article that was posted on janes.com…
In a new analysis by Richard Fisher and James Hardy, IHS Jane’s reports that “A series of Chinese military exercises between late May and early June showcased the ability of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to project land, air, and naval power into the area around Taiwan.”
The exercises demonstrated the People’s Liberation Army’s plan to use civilian ships during emergencies to help boost its forces.
“To compensate for the relatively small size of its formal naval amphibious transport fleet the PLA has co-funded construction of a large number of ferries used by civilian companies. They will be made available to the PLA during emergencies and are a frequent element in civil-military transport exercises,” Fisher and Hardy write.
#5 According to Paul Joseph Watson, thousands of Chinese merchant ships are being retrofitted for military purposes. The only possible conflict in which the Chinese military would need “thousands of merchant ships” would be a war with the United States…
China is set to retrofit thousands of merchant ships for military purposes so they can be used in the event of a war, another disturbing indication of growing tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Shipping industry publication TradeWinds reveals that China is preparing a new fleet of “war-ready ships” to serve as “a reserve military logistics wing” in the event of a naval conflict.
The new policy will apply to “containerships, ro-ros, multipurpose ships, bulkers and other ships,” with shipbuilders receiving a government subsidy to pay for the cost of making the vessels “militarily useful.”
#6 The Chinese have developed a “carrier killer” missile which was specifically designed to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers. There are some that have suggested that these new missiles may have made U.S. aircraft carriers obsolete…
Nevertheless, some have suggested that the DF-21D has rendered the supercarrier obsolete. While it depends on how we use the term “obsolete,” it’s probably too early to make that claim. China has expended vast time and resources determining how to kill US carriers, which suggests that the Chinese military takes carrier capabilities seriously. Moreover, the number of countries with both the interest and technical capability to develop the system of systems necessary to operate an ASBM is probably limited to two for the foreseeable future, with only Russia joining China.
#7 The Chinese now have the capability of equipping their nuclear missiles with MIRV warheads. According to Bill Gertz, this has significantly equalized the balance of power between the U.S. and China…
China carried out a long-range missile flight test on Saturday using multiple, independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs, according to U.S. defense officials.
The flight test Saturday of a new DF-41 missile, China’s longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile, marks the first test of multiple warhead capabilities for China, officials told the Washington Free Beacon.
China has been known to be developing multiple-warhead technology, which it obtained from the United States illegally in the 1990s.
However, the Dec. 13 DF-41 flight test, using an unknown number of inert maneuvering warheads, is being viewed by U.S. intelligence agencies as a significant advance for China’s strategic nuclear forces and part of a build-up that is likely to affect the strategic balance of forces.
#8 Of much greater concern than the MIRV warheads are the new hypersonic glide vehicles that China has developed. These ultra-high-speed missiles are capable of carrying nuclear warheads and represent a huge threat to the United States…
China recently conducted the second flight test of a new, ultra-high-speed missile that is part of what analysts say is Beijing’s global system of attack weapons capable of striking the United States with nuclear warheads.
The latest test of the new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) known as Wu-14 took place Aug. 7 at a missile facility in western China, said U.S. government officials familiar with details of the test reported in internal channels.
#9 The Chinese Navy is building a series of extremely quiet ballistic missile submarines. These subs could potentially creep up to our coastlines and rain nuclear missiles down on us within just a few minutes. The following comes from an article by Bill Gertz…
The Chinese Navy has deployed three ballistic missile submarines at sea capable of striking the United States with nuclear missiles, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command said Tuesday.
Adm. William Gortney, the commander, said the submarines are a “concern” and will be able to strike the United States when fully deployed with missiles and warheads.
The missile submarines are deployed in the South China Sea at a base on Hainan Island, according to a defense official.
#10 The Chinese have developed submarine-based nuclear missiles that could potentially reach all 50 states from the waters of Hawaii…
China could soon target the United States with sea-based nuclear weapons as it is reinforcing its submarines with long-range nuclear ballistic missiles, a US congressional report has found.
China’s military is set to acquire a reliable, hard-to-destroy sea-based nuclear deterrent, with a dozen JL-2 missiles that are being mounted on its JIN class submarines, according to a report submitted to Congress by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
The missiles have a strike range of around 7,350 km, meaning they can reach all 50 US states if they are launched from waters west or east of Hawaii.
#11 At a time when the U.S. military is actually shrinking, Chinese military spending is increasing each year by double digits…
China’s government in March announced a 12.2 percent increase in military spending to $132 billion. That followed last year’s 10.7 percent increase to $114 billion, giving China the second-highest defense budget for any nation behind the U.S., which spent $600.4 billion on its military last year.
#12 The Chinese military is not the only one preparing for a war between our two nations. It turns out that the U.S. military has been conducting military exercises that are specifically geared toward simulating a conflict with China. The following comes from the BBC…
Watching the US Navy close up like this, it is hard not to be slightly awed. No other navy in the world has quite the same toys, or shows them off with the same easy charm.
But as I stand on the deck filming my report on how “the US is practising for war with China”, I can see my host from the Navy public affairs office wincing.
You get used to hearing the PR rhetoric: the US Navy “is not practising for war with any specific country”. But the US Navy has not assembled two whole carrier battle groups and 200 aircraft off the coast of Guam for a jolly, either. This is about practising what the Pentagon now calls “Air Sea Battle”.
It is a concept first put forward in 2009, and it is specifically designed to counter the rising threat from China.
Like I said, a war between the United States and China is not going to happen in our immediate future.
But it would be a grave mistake to assume that it could never happen.
Over in China, their military operates under the assumption that a war between the two superpowers will definitely take place at some point, and the Chinese are working feverishly to figure out ways that they can come out on top in such a conflict.
Yes, the Chinese have become exceedingly wealthy selling us goods. In the process, we have lost thousands of businesses, millions of jobs and we now owe the Chinese more than a trillion dollars. The Chinese never intended to have a balanced and fair trading relationship with us, because it has always been their plan to emerge as the sole, dominant superpower on the entire planet.
Once our debt-fueled economy collapses, the Chinese won’t have too much use for us anymore. Instead, we will just be a barrier in the way of their goal of total global domination.
If you don’t think that the Chinese view us in this manner, just read some of the white papers produced by the Chinese government and the Chinese military. They do not consider us to be a “friend” at all. Rather, they consider us to be an enemy that must ultimately be vanquished.
Sadly, most Americans seem to assume that the global community is just one big, happy family these days.
In the end, we will likely pay a very great price for being so naive.
