China Marches On
It's time for the West to start deceiving China.
It has long been clear that Chinese data has been systematically distorted by Chinese reporters themselves. The first statement to this effect was made in the initial report by the Joint Congressional Commission, of which I was co-author, which stated that all Chinese data were based on a hoax. I have repeated this claim several times.
The motive for this distortion is easily discerned: the taxes levied on the provinces by the central government, once the data have been filed. The provincial governments do not wish to share their wealth with the federal government, and hence they deliberately understate their income. The net effect of these changes is to report inflated income at the federal level, restrict the overall taxation of the provinces, and increase cash flow to provincial government treasuries. That is why the cash flow to the central government has been so low for such a long time. It is also the reason for the ongoing investigations by the Chinese federal government into regional withholding by regional administrations, and mounting accusations of cheating against regional officers.
China penetrates Communist Party organizations all over the world to make sure it knows what competing parties are up to, and to spread disinformation about pro-Soviet operations. The struggle between pro-Chinese and pro-Russian forces has been very intense for several decades, and is likely to continue for many decades. The newfound friendship between Beijing and Moscow has not brought peace to the two powers, as they compete for global hegemony. There is limited cooperation, but nothing like a strategic alliance. There is no treaty between the two former superpowers, and no detailed agreement on how to wage a mutual war against their common enemies in the West, from North America to Central and South America, from Europe to Israel, from Australia to New Zealand.
The great debate over the future of China has centered on her choices in the near term. These are largely cultural choices. Will Beijing follow the American model, thereby creating ideological and political rigidity that would make it impossible for the Chinese to compete effectively in the international marketplace? Or will they instead find a way to compete with the West?
It has long been a basic assumption of modern geopolitics that contemporary creativity requires free experimentation, and that systems imposing hard-and-fast rules are destined to fail. That is why modern authoritarian states have employed subversion so extensively. Copying the Western production methods has enabled them to make products similar to our own, while depending on us to develop the technology and assembly lines required to make the system work.
It is up to the West to deceive China, luring Beijing to steal technology that doesn't work, thereby preserving the real secrets of our military system, and enabling us to penetrate the enemy network. If we fail to do this, we leave the Chinese in firm control of modern military technology, and their own increasingly well-trained and disciplined men and women.
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