China is top heavy when it comes to decision making. So it makes sense for the US to focus on influencing Xi and his inner circles, including the use of psychological warfare.
So a cowardly anglo wants to propose targeting Xi's family and the families of the politburo, whilst staying anonymous.
"The author of this body of work has requested to remain anonymous, and the Atlantic Council granted this request."
Haha looks like China sanctions on pompeo already has bring out the fear of god out of these China hawks lol
Frankly, I hope he (or she) wrote the entire thing, instead of wasting some aide or intern's time.
"The author of this body of work has requested to remain anonymous, and the Atlantic Council granted this request."
Haha looks like China sanctions on pompeo already has bring out the fear of god out of these China hawks lol
So I guess Mr. X (or Ms. X, stupidity does not distinguish between gender) wants to abolish the democratic process?The United States’ list of red lines should be short, focused, and enforceable. China’s tactic for many years has been to blur the red lines that might otherwise lead to open confrontation with the United States too early for Beijing’s liking. For this reason, China does not use its declared strategy to indicate real shifts in its behavior, knowing that doing so is more likely to generate a reaction in US politics than if it keeps quiet. Beijing has learned over many decades that most political debate in Washington occurs around public political rhetoric rather than covert policy behavior. China also has deployed multiple techniques to ensure plausible deniability for what its party-state apparatus is doing around the world, using softer assets rather than hard military assets to assert its interests wherever possible (such as China’s extensive use of its fishing fleet, coast guard vessels, and other craft, rather than naval vessels, in the South China Sea).
Therefore, the United States must be very clear about which Chinese actions it will seek to deter and, should deterrence fail, will prompt direct US intervention. These should be unambiguously communicated to Beijing through high-level diplomatic channels so that China is placed on notice. This communication should only be made public if and when deterrence has failed and US retaliatory action has been initiated. This will be necessary to secure US public opinion and allied buy-in for the US response.
This list of red lines should include these elements:
- any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons action by China against the United States or its allies, or by North Korea where China has failed to take decisive action to prevent any such North Korean action
- any Chinese military attack against Taiwan or its offshore islands, including an economic blockade or major cyberattack against Taiwanese public infrastructure and institutions
- any Chinese attack against Japanese forces in their defense of Japanese sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands and their surrounding EEZ in the East China Sea
- any major Chinese hostile action in the South China Sea to further reclaim and militarize islands, to deploy force against other claimant states, or to prevent full freedom of navigation operations by the United States and allied maritime forces
- any Chinese attack against the sovereign territory or military assets of US treaty allies
The assets that should be deployed by the United States (and where appropriate, its allies) in support of each of these red lines will vary. These matters should not be advanced in public debate. The policy logic, however, remains clear: in each case, it is to signal the significance of these red lines to Xi’s administration and to deter, and if necessary defeat, any Chinese actions that violate them. China is likely to be stunned by this level of strategic clarity. It has grown accustomed to a United States that has become unwilling to confront it or that does so only episodically and temporarily. Inevitably, China will probe how serious the United States will be in the execution of this new strategy—by identifying the weakest link in the chain. The United States must be prepared for this probing. However, it is important to remember that most of these red lines play directly into current internal debates within the Chinese system on whether Xi has already pushed the United States too far.
Kennan was no fucking good either, he didn't get anything right, was a pariah in the state department. lots people predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, including Hitler. it was destroyed by Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
What especially amazed me (and stood out from all the other mistakes and contradictions) was the authorial intent to effectively suppress public debate in American over foreign policy.Well, Kennan's main insight was supposedly that he saw intrinsic contradictions and weakness in Soviet system and therefore advocated more patient and confident containment strategy when there was this red scare permeated the western countries. Whether Kennan was purely lucky or had real foresight, containment strategy was a better one compared to going into a hot war with Soviet Union, considering the tense situation in the early days of the Cold War.
This anonymous author, though, has no real insight whatsoever in China's strength and weakness vis-a-vis the US's. His/her whole premise for his/her recommendations can be boiled down to the assertion that China is extremely cautious about military conflcit with the US. His/her recommendations therefore largely amount to throwing a lot of delusional and desperate red lines, which can easily trigger serious military conflicts.
it was pretty clear that the author is living either 30 years in the past, or some parallel universe fantasy land.
So a cowardly anglo wants to propose targeting Xi's family and the families of the politburo, whilst staying anonymous.
Do they really want to play this game?
Death squads might work in third world countries in latin america, too poor to target the Beltway Elites, but if US politicians want to play this game- and to a degree they have by kidnapping Meng- then they can expect real twisted shit. Shit like having pieces of their kids being mailed to them, week by week.
- leapfrog the United States as a technological power and thereby displace it as the world’s dominant economic power
- undermine US dominance of the global financial system and the status of the US dollar as the global reserve currency
- achieve military preponderance sufficient to deter the United States and its allies from intervention in any conflict over Taiwan, the South China Sea, or the East China Sea
- diminish the credibility of US power and influence sufficiently to cause those states currently inclined to “balance” against China to instead join the bandwagon with China
- deepen and sustain China’s relationship with its neighbor and most valuable strategic partner, Russia, in order to head off Western pressure
- consolidate the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into a geopolitical and geoeconomic bloc in support of China’s policy ambitions, forming the foundation for a future Sinocentric global order
- use China’s growing influence within international institutions to delegitimize and overturn initiatives, standards, and norms perceived as hostile to China’s interests—particularly on human rights and international maritime law—while advancing a new, hierarchical, authoritarian conception of international order under Xi’s deliberately amorphous concept of a “community of common destiny for all mankind”