For in depth analysis and links please read my in depth article HERE

Despite its communist system the People’s Republic of China (PRC) still follows China’s ancient philosophical ideas. Confucian thought permeates China’s society and has done for thousands of years. But it isn’t the only one. Sun Tzu – China’s legendary military strategist – wrote his treatise on warfare The Art of War two and a half thousand years ago and it is still taught in all the world’s military academies today.

The book is small, no more than a hundred or so pages in English translations, but its influence is profound. It is a perhaps best described as a manual for the conduct of war and it covers the whole gamut of wartime considerations from logistics to terrain to economics, and everything in between. It also acknowledges that war is the last resort. It is expensive and destructive and should be avoided if possible. Wise words indeed. In fact, it even gives the ultimate form of war in order to minimise these destructive impacts: this is a war which your enemy doesn’t even know they are fighting!

Economics

We all know everything is made in China. But it wasn’t always so. Older folk will remember when everything was made in Japan. Then the Japanese got rich, everything there got expensive, and everyone moved all their shit to China.

In the following decades China began to get cash rich. They spent extraordinary amounts of money improving their infrastructure and modernising their cities. Then once everyone traded in their bicycles for BMWs then began to buy everyone else’s shit too. They have bought companies, land, real estate, and a fair few politicians.

Despite their communist system the Chinese have learned how to meld their political ideas with a form of capitalism that has turned them into an economic superpower – they watched the Soviet Union crumble under the weight of its own economic ineptitude, and being the smart cookies that they are made sure that they wouldn’t make the same mistakes.

Belts and Roads

One of the really cool things they did with all that moola was develop what they call the ‘Belts and Roads Initiative’. This is a quintessential soft power diplomatic policy. It entails China giving big bucks to despotic developing countries that want infrastructure investment without those pesky westerners sticking their noses into the corruption and human rights abuses that corrupt despotic human rights abusers tend to do.

China gives money, China gets access to ports, mines, and laundromats. African dictator gets billions of dollars which he can spend on his mistresses in the South of France. Win, win.

It has another benefit though. When China faces some form of international outcry over building islands in other countries’ territorial waters, or using concentration camps, or just being bitches about stuff then China has a ready made group of buddies that will stand up for it and vote down any type of sanction.

Britain and America used to have that influence but then they invaded everyone, stole all their stuff, killed half their people, and exploited the rest, so they don’t have so much goodwill anymore, ya’know. China doesn’t care what you do as long as they get their belly rubbed.

Espionage

Everyone spies on everyone; this should not be a surprise. Even allies spy on their BFFs. But espionage isn’t just spies in long trench coats hiding in dark alleys. The term secret agent doesn’t just apply to those sneaky bastards working for intelligence agencies. An agent is anyone that works for the interests of a particular government. These can be foreigners or citizens. They can be normal people doing normal jobs: real estate agents, teachers, journalists, and academics. Anyone can be used to further a country’s interests.

Over the past few decades China has sent millions of students overseas to study and many of those have stayed behind to work in a range of industries; this includes universities, technology companies, medical fields, real estate, and even NASA. These people are Chinese, they are Chinese citizens, and have family and friends in China. It is fair to assume that their allegiance is to China not their host country. Some may have been agents all along – deep cover if you will – and others co-opted at a further time. This can be for money, threats to their families, or just patriotism.

And we know they have bought off corrupt politicians. These are facts. Oh and sometimes they just need to wave loadsamoney in front of people and corporations and they’ll do whatever the Chinese want – you see they understand that westerners are fundamentally greedy pricks.

Social Disruption

Imagine getting your enemies to fight amongst themselves about bullshit like whether women can have dicks, or get white people rioting over a police brutality, or locking people in their homes because they didn’t want to take experimental drugs. You know shit like that.

Now if they are all fighting amongst themselves then they won’t notice when we buy everything, build military bases next door to them, and then we can really fuck them over. Now because everyone wants China to buy their stuff, and needs China to build their stuff, we can get corporations and governments to play along. Pretty soon everyone wants a Chinese Social Credit System and we can all live like happy Shanghaiers. And those that don’t? Well, the Uighurs can give you an insight into how that’s worked for them.

Climate Change

Read my full article for this one – it’s a doozy. Little bit conspiratorial? Yes. True. Also, yes.

Conclusion

Is China doing anything really shady? All great, or aspiring great powers, try to influence the world for their benefit. I’m not saying the Chinese are doing anything anyone else isn’t trying to do. I’m saying they are doing it better. And I am saying the Chinese are waging a war against the West, a social and economic war, that we don’t even realise we are fighting. They are winning. And if the time comes when we find ourselves perhaps needing to fight a hot war then we might just have found ourselves starting from a long way behind. Too many in the West see China as a strategic partner; they see us as competitors. Perhaps the West’s leaders should read The Art of War.