China is asserting itself on the world stage but with a 21^st Century strategy.   Striving to resurrect its former glory as a power after a century of foreign domination, World War and Mao’s murderous Cultural Revolution, China’s socialist dictators realize that their Socialist Dictatorship must be protected to insure its capitalist survival.  Conventional warfare and nuclear devastation can’t be cards to play which is how I plotted out my thriller, “Stealing Thunder” with its Chinese power grab.

So, what are China’s ‘weapons’ for the next Pacific conflict?

Nationalism. The Communists keep the anti-Japanese sentiment on low boil, cranking up the temperature as warranted.  Their TV shows have plots detailing Japanese atrocities – and the Chinese victory.   And today’s socialist leaders are very good at manipulating these nationalist sentiments.

In the shadow of the Senkaku island incident, on September 18, 2010, Chinese demonstrated in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other cities to protest the 79^th anniversary of the Mukden Incident.  This event, where the Imperial Japanese Army dynamited a railway and blamed Chinese radicals, became Japan’s reason to invade Manchuria and China  proper.  The timing was perfect to jar the Japanese public – and reminder one billion Chinese about the murder of their parents or grandparents.

And China is acting upon the Asian stage, reigniting Japan’s World War II history with its neighbors to put itself in a leadership position in moral outrage to isolate Japan.  Japan certainly doesn’t help itself when its textbooks ignore the forced prostitution of Korea’s pleasure women or the extent of its aggressive war. Raising the bloody ghosts of history serves a Public Relations purpose, not unlike Jesse Jackson’s tactic of injecting racism into corporate relations to scam ‘donations’.

Second, economic influence. China’s economy, now the world’s 2^nd largest, is driving world fears about a currency war between the undervalued yuan and overvalued Western currencies.  In simple economics, a country with a ‘weaker’ currency can ship more exports to drive domestic production and create jobs.   China has kept its currency artificially, perhaps as much as 20% – giving it an advantage. As the world’s biggest exporter, China has accumulated vast reserves of world currency – including U.S. Treasury Bonds.    These holdings are a dagger to America’s economic jugular. China wanted to join flourishing Western economic circles, but did not necessarily want to embrace Western standards of banking, disclosure, transparency and currency fluctuations.   The currency manipulation is known as “Chinese Rules.”   Japan recently weakened the yen to boost its economy and, significantly, did this devaluation on its own.   Chinese Rules.  Currency War.

Read More »