Don’t be fooled by US claims of Chinese military superiority
- In a repeat of Cold War-style propaganda, Washington and some of its allies are working to create an impression that China could prevail in a war with America in the Asia-Pacific, thereby creating an excuse for a greater US-led military build-up
When the United States starts warning how militarily strong an adversary is, it means it is gearing up for war. Usually, it means a hot war, such as what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Cuba, the war on terror, the war on drugs ... So, a threat, whether real or imagined, has to be exaggerated out of all proportion to justify the use of overwhelming force, which if committed by any other country, would amount to serious war crimes.
However, it can also be a cold war, if the adversary proves too big to be easily toppled. Such was the Soviet Union, whose military capabilities were deliberately exaggerated with overestimates. That was the so-called missile gap of the 1950s and early 1960s, in which Washington falsely claimed Moscow had more nuclear warheads. The purpose, of course, was to enable the US military to gear up and the military-industrial complex to cash in, courtesy of US taxpayers.
Talk about socialism for state-sponsored corporations! The US, not China, invented them.
Now of course, the adversary is China, against which, however, there is still no consensus whether it is to be a cold or hot war. But one way or another, there has to be a massive military build-up and that can only mean “warning” against China’s supposed military superiority in this and that combat area.
The latest from the Pentagon? “China has already achieved parity with – or even exceeded – the United States in several military modernisation areas,” including shipbuilding, land-based conventional ballistic and cruise missiles, and integrated air defence systems, it claimed.
And last week? Something from Australia, the closest English-speaking ally of the US in this part of the world. The US military is no longer the primary force in Asia, and missiles from China’s rapidly improving military could overwhelm its bases in hours in the opening of hostilities, according to a new study by the United States Study Centre, at the University of Sydney. It warned that America’s defence strategy in the Indo-Pacific region “is in the throes of an unprecedented crisis” and could struggle to defend its allies against China.