Ready for World War Xi?

Chinese soldiers operate with their Type 96A tank during the Tank Biathlon competition at the International Army Games 2022 in Alabino outside Moscow on Aug. 16, 2022. Moscow has announced joint military exercises with China, India, Mongolia, Belarus, and Tajikistan. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Commentary

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping has announced that China is prepared to confront any nation that dares to stand in its path of “national rejuvenation.”

In the process of establishing himself as China’s undisputed totalitarian leader in October’s 20th Communist Party Congress, Xi expressed his plans for China’s future in terms of “national rejuvenation.”

Where’s the National Rejuvenation?

Taken at face value, a national rejuvenation conveys the idea of rebuilding and restoring the nation’s economy and culture, both of which are currently languishing. That would make perfect sense.

China could certainly use a national rejuvenation. The country’s economic outlook isn’t good with the collapse of its real estate development sector, high unemployment, loss of foreign investment, and the mass departure of foreign manufacturers. In fact, conditions continue to deteriorate.

China Collapsing Under One-Man, One-Party Rule

Culturally, the Chinese people are unhappy with the trends they see and are doubtful about the future. COVID-19 lockdowns have led to a rapidly contracting manufacturing sector, loss of earnings, and shortages, all of which result in unrest.

Additionally, the urban young face growing despair and disillusionment; a 20 percent youth unemployment rate shows few signs of abating. What’s more, there’s a growing rejection of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) totalitarian policies and political legitimacy among the younger generation.

To address these very real and destabilizing threats, the CCP is taking control of every aspect of Chinese society.

Beijing's epidemic control policy has hit China's food and beverage industry hard. The picture shows a restaurant in China with no customers coming to the door. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

National Rejuvenation Means War and Threats of War

Repairing domestic conditions isn’t Xi’s top priority. In fact, Xi’s definition of “national rejuvenation” has little or nothing to do with improving the lives of the Chinese people but rather with China taking its rightful place in the world as the “Middle Kingdom.”

That self-referential description refers to more than just China’s geographic location. Xi’s vision is to remake the world in his own image, which involves putting China, not the United States, at the center of the world’s culture, political ideas, and economic activity.

That puts a fine point on Xi’s statement that China’s national security was facing “increased instability” that would require “arduous” labor from the “People’s Liberation Army” (PLA).

The “arduous labor” of armies is, of course, waging and winning wars.

That objective was made clear in a number of overt statements by Xi and top CCP officials in various contexts. For example, regarding the role of the PLA, Xi’s ultimate goal is unmistakable.

“The entire military must ... focus on combat ability as the fundamental and only criterion, concentrate all energy on fighting a war, direct all work towards warfare and speed up to build the ability to win.”

In short, Xi seeks to position China as the new and preeminent leader in global governance. That means replacing the United States as the global hegemonic power. That certainly adds context to Beijing’s state media outlets that typically talk about the United States as a potential threat to the Party.

By its very nature, hegemonic power is complex and multi-layered, but ultimately, it’s based on the threat and application of unrivaled military power. That’s precisely why military preeminence is at the top of Xi’s list on the way to ruling the world.

A Long List of Military Possibilities

What does that mean going forward? How will China’s behavior beyond its shores differ from what we’ve seen up to now?

Xi has already warned the rest of the world of what he wants to do, which is to keep China on a trajectory that will lead to confrontation with the West. The obvious beginning would be Taiwan, but there are other places Beijing could interject itself militarily.

A Navy Force helicopter under the Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese army takes part in military exercises in the waters around Taiwan, at an undisclosed location, on Aug. 8, 2022. Eastern Theatre Command/Handout via Reuters

The Malacca Straits, for example, remains a strategic vulnerability for China, as its largest source of oil (about 70 percent) from the Mideast must pass through that narrow passage. Solving the “Malacca Dilemma” remains a high priority for Beijing.

Japan is also well aware that it’s on Beijing’s radar as a regional nation to be persuaded to follow China’s lead one way or another. Tokyo is busily rearming the nation as you read this.

China’s navy is now a regular presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, providing a very real challenge to the Western powers. Moreover, its vast Djibouti military base positions China to quickly project power in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Further afield, China has invested heavily in both the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the Panama Canal. It’s no secret that the passage between the two oceans has military and commercial strategic value. It has yet to militarize the canal region, but Beijing has provided Venezuela with anti-ship missiles. It has done so with Iran as well.

If Xi plans to assert China’s power backed by military prowess on the road to global hegemony, these would be some of the likely places to do so.

On the flip side, there’s a bit of myth-building in Xi’s aspirational rhetoric. China has never been the world’s cultural, political, and economic center. But it does put pressure on Xi and the CCP to deliver on the rhetoric.

Of course, Xi wouldn’t be the first megalomaniacal dictator to openly fabricate myths of the past or promote his visions of the future as a prelude to changing the world.

There once was a failed artist from Austria with a mustache who moved to Berlin.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.