Posts

Showing posts with the label Blackmail

Why Has China Not Gone To War Yet?

Image
  Year after year, the US cries wolf about China’s impending military aggression. The familiar refrain from the White House, Congress, Pentagon, CIA, and retired generals comes in invariably alarming tone: China’s invasion of Taiwan is imminent; President Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready for invading Taiwan by a certain year; and rising tensions in the South China Sea will trigger WWIII. Year after year, the wolf fails to show up. Yet, the US Empire’s mass media keeps amplifying this false narrative, day in day out. These tired tropes never die. For good reasons. They vilify China as America’s greatest enemy. They advance the National Security Council’s bellicose agenda. They prompt Congress to boost ever greater defense budgets. They serve to rally American allies. The sweeping China military threat narrative brushes aside a major question: Why has China not gone to war yet, despite enjoying 40 years of dizzying economic boom and rapid military modernization? The U

China Must Bulk Up Its Nuclear Arsenal

Image
  Not a day goes by without the US raising the specter of China as an existential threat. Joining the fray, the Pentagon issued an alarming report in 2023 over China's faster expansion of its nuclear arsenal, which, it claimed, went from 400 warheads in 2022 to 500 in May 2023 and is projected to reach 1,500 by 2035.   This is great news. China's so-called "sharp" development of nuclear weapons is overdue. A stronger nuclear stance will deter adversaries from blackmailing and launching nuclear strikes.  To America, China's "rapid" nuclear modernization threatens the nuclear balance and poses as an "existential challenge" to its security. Upon reviewing the Pentagon report, Congress members declared that the Chinese buildup is a wake-up call to speed up the overhaul of US nuclear forces. The White House urged the Chinese government to come to the negotation table in the hope of striking a deal over arms control. The numbers bely the American cla