Playing the long game ...

Yours truly has been fascinated by the rapid rise of China as nascent superpower thanks, in large part, to the largesse of the US in encouraging its corporations to offshore manufacturing to China back in the 1980s, something that has, and is, compromising the US in ways that truly boggle the mind. If that's not enough food for thought, a very good and wise Hong Kong friend of mine, who knows far more about this subject than this rube, generously sent BRT his take on what is happening to America when inept politicians encounter an adversary who plays the long game in the pursuit of global dominance as we move further into the 21st century.

To whit.

China’s industrial development plan named “Made in China 2025” aims to make China largely self-sufficient by 2025 in certain technologies Chinese leaders expect will drive the “4th industrial revolution”. The plan’s longer term goal is global dominance in these technologies by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. 

Already, China has claimed sovereignty over, and militarized the South China Sea in contravention of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and in defiance of a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague which has determined that China’s territorial claim is illegal. The tepid response to China’s blatant power grab by the United States and the western international community is an ominous harbinger of what’s to come with China’s ascendancy on the world stage.

Equally alarming is the increasingly strident tones of China’s calls for the reunification of Taiwan, again met with no substantive response by America or the western powers. The lack of a firm stance by America prompts the question: Will the United States live up to the security assurances accorded to Taiwan in the event of a military attack by China?

Across the globe, from Latin America to Africa and Asia, China’s strategy of building and financing infrastructure projects with the objective of gaining influence and control continues unabated under its Belt and Road Initiative.

These and other moves by China lend credence to the theory that it is pursuing a highly focused, methodical and relentless strategy to achieve global supremacy and displace America by its target date of 2049. 

The center piece of the game plan is to undermine and sabotage American interests and influence in Asia. To achieve this objective China is manipulating the puppet regime of North Korea and deploying its leader, Kim Jong Un, as a foil against President Donald Trump.

For its part, the current administration is playing right into China’s hands by retreating from the world, leaving behind a vacuum of leadership which the Chinese are only too happy to fill.

Any questions?