Last month’s decision by the United States to sell $6.4 billion worth of arms and military supplies to Taiwan “will not affect steadily improving ties between Taipei and Beijing,” according to Chiang Pin-kung, Taiwan’s top China negotiator. The deal “should not have any impact on ongoing China talks and the future development of bilateral ties,” he added.

China’s reaction, however, was much less sanguine. Beijing immediately suspended military exchanges with Washington and threatened sanctions against the military contractors supplying the war matériel to Taiwan.  And on Monday a group of Chinese military officers, in state-controlled media interviews, urged China to increase its defense spending and deploy additional troops to offset the new agreement between the United States and Taiwan.  

Major General Luo Yuan issued a warning that China could attack the United States “by oblique means and stealthy feints. For example, we could sanction them using economic means, such as dumping some U.S. government bonds.”  He added:

Our retaliation should not be restricted to merely military matters, and we should adopt a strategic package of counterpunches covering politics, military affairs, diplomacy and economics to treat both the symptoms and root cause of this disease. [Emphasis added.]

Gen. Luo said China needs to change its approach to the United States and more aggressively assert its power:  “China’s attitude and actions over U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan will be increasingly tough. That is inevitable with [our] rising national strength.”  

Former China specialist for the State Department, John Tkacik, said that China’s Central Military Commission “has the power to order financial measures such as selling U.S. securities,” reflecting the fact that the military is a powerful force in the Chinese communist system, headed up by President Hu Jintao and two key generals.  Tklacik added:  “The Chinese military now believes that China has tremendous economic and financial leverage … over the United States, and they are giving fair warning…that they will use it.”  

If a sufficient quantity of bonds were in fact sold, interest rates could rise significantly and shut down the nascent (and questionable) economic recovery in the United States. Such an economic threat was dismissed by State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley, who said “that would be biting the nose to spite the face.” However, the threats by the Chinese generals reflect the views expressed in Unrestricted Warfare,  an obscure book written in 1999 by two political officers in China's People's Liberation Army, Senior Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui.

Unrestricted Warfare outlines a strategy of "asymmetrical" or "multidimensional" warfare that extends beyond the mere use of the military on a battlefield to include terrorism, hacking into websites, and targeting financial institutions.

Not that China is ignoring the military component of "unrestricted warfare." According to the Washington Times,

China's military spending has increased sharply over the past decade as part of China's semi-secret military buildup that has involved new deployments of advanced ballistic and cruise missiles, large numbers of new warships and submarines, new advanced fighter bombers and various high-tech weapons ranging from computer network attacks and anti-satellite weapons.

In dismissing the threat of financial attacks by China by selling portions of their U.S. government securities, Crowley said, “The economies of the United States and China are intertwined.”  

So the “tiff” between China and the United States over military equipment sales to Taiwan reinforce once again the position against “foreign entanglements” expressed repeatedly by our Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson said:

I sincerely join... in abjuring all political connection with every foreign power; and though I cordially wish well to the progress of liberty in all nations, and would forever give it the weight of our countenance, yet they are not to be touched without contamination from their other bad principles. Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Lomax, 1799.

George Washington, in his Farewell Address, iterated the same position:

Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European Ambition, Rivalship, Interest, Humour or Caprice? 'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign World ... I repeat it therefore, Let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.

This “tiff’ then is just the tip of the “unnecessary” and “unwise” entanglements iceberg towards which America is headed.

Photo: AP Images

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Ivanhoe said:

The Dragon Commeth It seems that we have created our own bane. We have feed this dragon and now it wants to devour us.

February 10, 2010

Flu-Bird said:

Build the missle defense Its time to build the missle defense sheild and defund all the pork projects like the super train the stymulus and the endangred woolybear catterpillars

February 10, 2010

Mikey Pinkie-rings said:

LOL... dude you have got to wake up sometime db... Your attitude that you have displayed is exactly what will cause us to continue down the path towards destroying any chances of a sovereign recovery. We can't just blow up everybody. Aren't we already the bullies on the block? The reality is that if we stopped buying stuff from China, we would be just fine for a week or so. After that, we'd realize that we don't have enough manufacturing to pick up the slack. Then, on top of that, Mr. db, the total collapse of the dollar would bring us financially to our knees. What, you expect us to repudiate our debt? Good luck. That just means that we will have to use real money. Got any? Those worthless pieces of paper in your wallet won't be worth anything. Do you have enough real (constitutional) money? If not, then, you had better start learning how to say, "Excuse me Sir, I did not mean to offend you," in Mandarin. Good luck with that.

February 11, 2010

Comatus said:

Mikey's right. We can't afford to be arrogant - we're no longer innovating or producing like we were 40 years ago. We have allowed foreign nations - China, the Emirates and others - to pick at our wealth, buying our crown jewels and reaping the reward instead of creating wealth for the Americans who created them. We should never have allowed foreign nations to buy our debt - but then again, we should never have spent ourselves into debt in the first place. It's a sad state of affairs we now find ourselves in, and we have only our own lazy-ass apathy to blame for it -- we should have voted the bastards that did this to us out of office long ago, but we were busy watching Access Hollywood and couldn't make it to the polls...

February 11, 2010

Thomas Paine said:

Fix Trade imbalance This friction with China is good. We have averaged a $700 billion annual trade deficit over the last three years (World Bank report). China has had a contniuous trade surplus. This is real (unborrowed) wealth that we have been intentionally transferring away from our own country. We then borrow money to create false prosperity to make up for the outsoursing. Borrowed growth must get paid back. Must fix the trade balance to survive.

February 11, 2010