Is China really preparing for war against the United States?
What if China and the US went to war? Here are the answers contained in an editorial in the Global Times, the English language version of the People's Daily and therefore direct voice of the Chinese Communist Party.
A question has stirred the sleep of those who have watched with concern the US-China clash of recent years: what if in the end the situation got out of control and the two superpowers went to war?
Among those who have asked this question, and have given you answers that are quite discouraging, is Hu Xijn, editor of the Global Times , the English language version of the People's Daily and therefore direct voice of the Chinese Communist Party.
This week Hu published a particularly bellicose editorial that leaves no hope for those who believe that the confrontation between the two rivals must necessarily remain in the tracks of a verbal confrontation. On the contrary, with this article Hu wanted to prepare the Chinese people for what he considers a tangible scenario: war.
“The Chinese people do not want war – is the opening of the editorial – but we have territorial disputes with several neighboring countries encouraged to the US to face China. Some of these countries believe that US support offers them a strategic opportunity to treat China outrageously. They believe that China, under US pressure, is afraid, unwilling or unable to engage in a military conflict with them (…). Consider also that there is the question of Taiwan, where the risk of China being forced into war has risen sharply in recent times ”.
Having said that, Hu jumps to his disturbing conclusion: “Often, the less you want war, the more prominent the dilemmas mentioned above become. Chinese society must therefore have the courage to calmly engage in a war aimed at protecting its key interests, and be prepared to pay the costs ”.
Reading this passage, one might conclude that Hu is encouraging the party to make peace with itself and to prepare for war with countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Indonesia – those with which it has a territorial dispute over the South China Sea – naturally with their American protector at their side.
Later, however, Hu seems to make it clear that China's need, rather than arming guns, is to convince others to be terrified of a possible conflict: "China's overall strength", writes Hu, can actually be transformed into a strategic deterrent against all provocateurs: "As long as the outside world perceives such truths emanating from China, war can be avoided."
Considering that the Global Times is written mainly to be read abroad, and that Hu is a very popular personality outside his country also thanks to his Twitter account, we can deduce that China wanted to convey a message of determination and at the same time of fear – feelings both justified by the encirclement that the US Navy has been making towards the Chinese Navy for some time to underline that the South China Sea and the other areas under dispute are free zones for navigation and not, as it would claim Beijing, owned by someone. Including Taiwan .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-cina-si-prepara-davvero-alla-guerra-contro-gli-stati-uniti/ on Sat, 19 Sep 2020 08:30:43 +0000.