China is setting fires.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping green-lighted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is supporting that war with lethal and other assistance. In North Africa, Beijing, in conjunction with Moscow, has been fueling insurgencies that resemble wars. In the Middle East, China is backing Hamas’s monstrous attacks on Israel.
“Tehran for some time has distributed Chinese weapons to its terrorist proxies throughout the region,” Jonathan Bass of energy consultant InfraGlobal tells Gatestone. “The Middle East, thanks in no small measure to Beijing, is soaked with blood.”
What is the Communist Party of China up to?
Mr. Xi, who reveres Mao Zedong, is taking a page from his hero’s “peasant revolution” playbook. Mao in 1949 prevailed over his enemy, Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government, by “encircling the cities from the countryside.”
Ukraine, North Africa, and Israel, as Beijing sees it, are parts of the “countryside” today. So, what is the “city”?
The main enemy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the United States of America.
Moreover, the Party believes it must destroy the U.S. because of what America stands for. An insecure ruling organization is worried about the inspirational impact of America’s form of governance and values on the oppressed Chinese people. This means the United States will never have amicable relations with China as long as the Communist Party rules it.
Today, therefore, the CCP is waging proxy wars against America, such as Russia’s campaign to annex Ukraine, or backing Iran, which has for decades been calling for “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” Beijing’s takeover of North Africa looks like an attempt to control the migration routes to Europe. Splitting off Europe from America, in turn, would be another step in starving the U.S. Similarly, China is buying friends in, among other places, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean as a means of further isolating America.
President Joe Biden is either unwilling or unable to defend the world from malicious Chinese communism. The catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, completed in August 2021, signaled that American policy was in collapse. As a result, in the “countryside” there are many soft spots for Mr. Xi to attack.
Many, especially on the American right, believe the United States must conserve resources. They recommend, for instance, withdrawing support from Ukraine to ensure America can defend Taiwan. Similarly, the Biden administration did not lift a finger in North Africa in the past several months, ceding this crucial area to Beijing and Moscow.
Allowing China, Russia, and friends to take over areas is a critical—and probably fatal—mistake. Victories, for one thing, create momentum and the appearance of inevitability. Mr. Xi promotes the notion of the inevitability of Chinese rule as he tries to intimidate others into submission. China’s successes just embolden the regime to press attacks.
Momentum has been working against the United States for two years. Mr. Biden took the oath of office in a peaceful world. He then presided over a rapid collapse of the international system.
How, then, does the United States confront China’s proxy-war strategy? Washington can turn the tables on Mr. Xi by taking down Chinese proxies, thereby isolating Beijing and creating the appearance of Chinese failure.
Is confronting China risky and dangerous? Will doing so result in harm to America?
The answer to both questions is “yes,” but after three decades of particularly naïve, indulgent, feeble, and otherwise misguided policy, Washington has no good options. The worst option of all is to continue policies that have created this disastrous situation. Every course of action will be exceedingly risky.
Something has to be done, however. China is bleeding the United States and its friends.
America and the free world are running out of time. Mao in the late 1940s thought it would take him a decade to dislodge Chiang. As it turned out, he only needed about a year. Encircling the cities worked then. And it is working now.
America, therefore, is about to lose everything.