China Preparing for War

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

China has been at peace with neighboring states for decades. Its last major confrontation with an adversary was during US aggression against North Korea in the early 1950s. 

Minor confrontations alone occurred since then, including the 1958 month-long Taiwan Strait crisis, the 1962 four-week Sino/Indian conflict, the 1979 month-long confrontation with Vietnam, among other incidents.

Nothing for decades approached full-scale war. China's ruling authorities want peace, not conflicts with other nations. 

US rage to dominate the Indo-Pacific region changed things, forcing President Xi Jinping to order the People's Liberation Army to prepare for possible war.

Addressing China's Central Military Commission, Xi said "(a)ll military units must correctly understand major national security and development trends, and strengthen their sense of unexpected hardship, crisis and battle."

"The world is facing a period of major changes never seen in a century, and China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for development." 

Xi ordered stepped up military training and exercises, saying China's armed forces must "prepare for a comprehensive military struggle from a new starting point", adding: 

"Preparation for war and combat must be deepened to ensure an efficient response in times of emergency."

Days earlier, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) Daily editorial stressed there's "no time for slackening in war preparation."

Part of what's going on is what Xi called his aim for "peaceful reunification" with Taiwan. Beijing considers the island state a breakaway province, reunification inevitable, by force if "democratic consultations" fail to "reach transitional arrangements for the peaceful development of cross-strait ties," adding:

"Chinese don't fight Chinese," while saying his government "makes no promise to renounce the use of force and reserves the option of taking all necessary means" for reunification, stressing no tolerance for "foreign intervention."

"(O)ne country, two systems" is the way forward, he said, the approach adopted in reunification with Hong Kong and Macau.

Xi's remarks followed enactment of the US Asia Reassurance Initiative Act (ARIA), discussed in a separate article - legislation authorizing funding for Washington's imperial Indo/Pacific agenda, mainly by its military footprint in a part of the world not its own, the way it operates globally.

Retired PLA colonel Yue Gang said Xi's remarks were in response to Sino/US geopolitical differences - too world's apart to resolve, my comment, not his. 

"China is increasing its military (preparedness) so that it has the best solutions for the worst outcomes, either related to the US or" Taiwan, he added.

According to military analyst Ni Lexiong, Xi's remarks were "intended as a warning to those who sought to obstruct the mainland's plans for the reunification of Taiwan," notably the US.

China's Global Times said Beijing "should expect more US provocations" ahead, adding "the country has sufficient power to make Washington pay an unbearable price if the US infringes on China, so as to form a powerful deterrent against the White House."

China and Russia alone are able to challenge Washington's aim for global dominance, especially united.

Military confrontation ahead may be inevitable, the ominous possibility of nuclear war assuring losers, not winners, if waged.

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