Just this morning we saw the racialist "Xi Urges ‘Asian Family’ Unity as Trump Seeks to Confine China".
Shades of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere that Japan rolled out in 1940.
From AND magazine, April 12:
Is It August 1941 Again? If So Is There A Chinese Operation Z In The Works?
For many years before the United States entered World War II, tensions between the United States and Japan escalated. In the months prior to December 7, 1941, those tensions reached the breaking point. Responding to the Japanese occupation of airfields in French IndoChina, the U.S. froze all Japanese assets on July 26, 1941. On August 1st, it imposed an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to Japan. Without those exports, the Japanese economy and military would grind to a halt.
The Japanese were faced with a clear choice. The sanctions imposed by the United States were a fatal blow to Japan’s economy. Tokyo could knuckle under, or it could strike first.
The Japanese chose to go on offense. They launched Operation Z. On December 7, 1941, they struck Pearl Harbor.
The United States and China are now engaged in a full-scale trade war. The tariffs imposed by President Trump on China mean the death of China’s export economy. Factories are closing. Containers are being stacked up on the docks. Orders are being canceled.
The Trump administration is contemplating upping the already crippling pressure. There is open discussion of delisting Chinese companies on the American stock exchanges. This means cutting off the flow of American investment money to China. It means the end of the Chinese economy.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in an interview on Fox Business Network on Wednesday, said, “Everything’s on the table” when asked whether Chinese companies trading in U.S. markets could be delisted. “That will be President Trump’s decision,” Bessent added.
The conventional thinking seems to be that Beijing will come to the table. They will negotiate. Something will be worked out. We will settle back down into a slightly modified form of business as usual. The world will move on.
Maybe.
Maybe not. Maybe Xi understands that what is happening is not about a minor adjustment of the economic order. Maybe he gets it. Trump is completely reshuffling the deck. He intends to undo our greatest strategic mistake, our economic entanglement with a hostile Communist regime.
Maybe as well Xi does not really care about the prosperity of the Chinese people or a rising standard of living. He is dedicated to world domination and making the Chinese Communist Party the world’s lone superpower. He is prepared to do whatever it takes to accomplish that.
If so, then what we are going to see may not be a rational, “Western” response. It will be a preemptive strike staged before tariffs and delisting have a chance to degrade China’s capabilities. Just as Tokyo made the decision to move at a time of its own choosing and catch us off guard, Beijing may strike now and without warning.
The questions then become where, when, and how?
Taiwan blockade: The Chinese have been rehearsing this for years. The pressure has only increased recently. The assets to impose such a blockade are already in place. In December of last year, the Chinese conducted the largest military exercise it has ever conducted. It involved three PLA military commands, operating jointly to command a force of 134 People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) warplanes, 60 PLAN warships, 30 Chinese Coast Guard vessels, and thousands of Chinese troops. The exercise extended from the South China Sea to Japan’s Ryukyu Islands. During the exercise, Chinese forces practiced attacking foreign ships, including commercial vessels, and blockading maritime trading routes. They also practiced encircling Taiwan and cutting off all access to the island.
In short, the Chinese are primed and ready and can isolate Taiwan virtually overnight if told to do so.
Cyber attacks on the US: FBI Director Christopher Wray warned last year of the critical threat posed by Chinese “Volt Typhoon” cyber capabilities. He made clear that the Chinese were prepositioning themselves to be able to shut down American critical infrastructure in the event of a crisis. They were ready, in his estimation, to turn off the lights, the water, our communications, and crash the banking system. The ultimate purpose of this activity, according to Wray, was to give Beijing “the ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing.”....
....MUCH MORE
We happened to catch Director Wray's warning and thought it important enough to post:
Reminder—Former FBI Head Chris Wray's Out-the-Door Interview: "The Chinese government is prepositioning on American civilian critical infrastructure to lie in wait on those networks..."
Both for the warning and for the acknowledgement that this happened on his watch.
Our outro was "This disclosure raises a whole bunch of questions but for now we'll just take it at face value."
Among those unvoiced questions: Why would you admit to incompetence?
As a limited hangout for complicity.
Hoo boy, that way lies madness.
