Tag: china

Threat From China Is Being Hyped

Articles in the American media usually portray China as a potential adversary, and recent press coverage is no exception. Stories have appeared about China’s military hacking into the computer systems of the American government and business and Chinese oil companies’ reaping of unfair gains in Iraq on the backs of dead American soldiers. Yet the … Continue reading “Threat From China Is Being Hyped”

Cyber War: Another Epic Fail

WASHINGTON—If you weren’t paying attention last week, you might have missed the news that Chinese hackers have accessed blueprints of our most advanced military weapons and communications systems, including Patriot missile technology, the V22 Osprey, the Aegis Ballistic Defense System, and the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship. This epic fail of our so-called “cyber security” efforts … Continue reading “Cyber War: Another Epic Fail”

US Goading Japan into Confrontation With China

"………..Their defeat Doth by their own insinuation grow. ‘Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensèd points Of mighty opposites." ~ Hamlet on the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. At the height of the 2012 election campaign in late October, a U.S. delegation tiptoed into Japan and then China with … Continue reading “US Goading Japan into Confrontation With China”

Four More Years: The Asia Pivot

In March 1990, Time magazine ran an article titled “Ripples in The American Lake.” It was not about small waves in that body of water just north of Fort Lewis, Washington. It was talking about the Pacific Ocean — the largest body of water on the planet, embracing over half of humanity and the three … Continue reading “Four More Years: The Asia Pivot”

Strengthening Alliances in East Asia Is the Wrong Way to Go

Risking an explosion of public anger in Okinawa, the U.S. Marine Corps is sending crash-prone MV-22 Osprey aircraft, which take off and land like a helicopter but fly like an airplane, to the islands. The white-hot opposition to the aircraft on the islands goes much deeper than just the possibility of a few civilians being … Continue reading “Strengthening Alliances in East Asia Is the Wrong Way to Go”

US Pivot to Asia Promises More of the Same

The United States claims to be pivoting its martial involvement toward Asia, but one can truly discern the U.S. military’s priorities by looking at where it warehouses military weapons for war. When these stockpiles are examined, it looks like the future will be similar to the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium. … Continue reading “US Pivot to Asia Promises More of the Same”

Bo Xilai and Mao’s Ghost

As riots shake China’s Guangdong province, and the kudzu-like growth that has catapulted the country into modernity starts to sputter, the case of Bo Xilai, and his wife, Gu Kailai, combines virtually all of the elements that are pushing the country into a crisis: official corruption, the growing income disparity between the party elite and … Continue reading “Bo Xilai and Mao’s Ghost”

Cyberwar for Me but Not for Thee

In my last column, I wrote about how the U.S. has pivoted to Asia (the administration prefers the term “rebalanced”) because of the concern of a rising China. In addition to China’s growing military capabilities [.pdf] — such as modernizing its nuclear forces (including a development of a road mobile intercontinental ballistic missile capable of … Continue reading “Cyberwar for Me but Not for Thee”

Promises to Keep

The Chen Guangcheng affair is an object lesson in why the US government shouldn’t stick its nose in other nations’ business, a veritable textbook case illustrating why and how "democracy promotion" can backfire and hurt our interests abroad. Chen, the "barefoot lawyer" who has spent years fighting China’s forced abortion and sterilization policies, could not … Continue reading “Promises to Keep”

China’s ‘Reformist’ Crooks

The US embassy in Beijing is a pretty happening place of late. First the police chief of a major city tries to defect and implicates the wife of a top Chinese leader in a murder plot. The police chief, one Wang Lijun, leaves the next day, is spirited away by the authorities – and Bo … Continue reading “China’s ‘Reformist’ Crooks”