One marvels at what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has accomplished. And no, it's not the Shenzhen skyscrapers or the new Beijing airport. Rather, the CCP has pulled off the most successful psychological operations campaign in history over the last four decades. It managed to neuter the United States – the only country that might have prevented it from building an economy and a military able to challenge and conceivably defeat the Americans.

And it didn't have to fire a shot. More impressive, it got the Americans to assist and even fund the effort – convinced that the PRC was unthreatening (or could be made so), indispensable, and a gold mine. The Chinese didn't exactly hide their intentions. One only had to pay attention – and take Beijing at its word.