“The warfare is daily,” Gen. Robert Spalding says of China’s policies. “It never ends.”
Spalding is an expert in unrestricted warfare and the author of the new book “War Without Rules: China’s Playbook for Global Domination.”
You have to understand what the CCP was doing. Scientists need data, and the Chinese were obfuscating the data. If you don’t have data, you plan for the worst and hope for the best. That’s what you’re thinking as an epidemiologist.
The CCP would never come out and say anything if there were a crisis. They seclude themselves. That allows them to watch the situation and see how it develops. They’re very good at figuring out a way to take advantage of how a thing is developing.
Why? Because you want to take advantage. You don’t want to suffer the pandemic on your own. If it happened in America, we would say, “Let’s keep it here. Don’t let it break out internationally.” Now, you’re not thinking like the CCP, where warfare is daily; it never ends. Everybody needs to suffer the pandemic, because if we all suffer the pandemic, then they’ll be able to take advantage of that fact. They own the supply chain. They have personal protective equipment and masks and everything else. This is the way the CCP thinks.
And that’s what unrestricted warfare is all about.
The parasitic nature of China is one part industrial. The money that would’ve gone toward building infrastructure that supported our industrial base was poured into China. It wasn’t invested in the United States, in our industrial base and manufacturing; it was invested in China.
Ultimately, the problem with a parasite is that it ends up killing the host. In the case of the CCP, that is their goal anyway. They want to kill the host. You end up with a less efficient society that’s not well-organized or self-actualizing, but you’re better off than everybody else is, so you’ve won.
The brilliance of China is to give concessions by saying they’re going to give concessions but not actually giving the concessions. A good example of this is, “Stop hacking into our systems.” They reply, “Oh, OK. We’ll stop that.” But do they stop? No, they don’t stop.
Maybe they’re testing how they might approach a Taiwan invasion, if it starts to go wrong or if it becomes too bloody and the population needs to be suppressed. I don’t think it’s because they actually believe that it will prevent the spread of COVID; that’s not it.
There are many things that go into how the CCP thinks about lockdowns, because they’re an incredible tool for control. The CCP doesn’t do things willy-nilly. It’s very deliberate.
What’s important to Xi is taking back Taiwan. He said he’s not going to leave it to the next generation. And I honestly don’t believe there’s anything we could do to stop the CCP from invading Taiwan.
What’s achievable for us is something that says, “Hey, we are going to do our best to ensure the safety of the people of Taiwan.” We’re not going to be able to stop China’s invasion. That’s beyond our ability at this point, because we’ve allowed them to build up too much military power on their side of the strait.
We have no chance—short of nuclear war—at winning a war [with China] over Taiwan. Nobody wants to contemplate nuclear war, because you’re talking about the potential end of civilization. So, if it’s the end of civilization, or if China gets Taiwan, what’s your choice if you’re the president of the United States? And if that’s the case, what do we do? What’s our responsibility? It’s to do the best we can to provide for [Taiwan] and to struggle to defeat communism, but you’re talking about a long-term struggle.
We need to get reacquainted with our own principles and values—what they mean. Therein lies the allure of America. We don’t have to wage unrestricted war on China. What we have to do is reach our true potential, because once Americans reach their true potential and have the blessings of liberty, then their enthusiasm and boundless energy cannot be subdued. It will shine like a beacon around the world.
For over two centuries, this has made us strong. People look to us and say, “I wish I were like that.” We’ve allowed China to basically erode international order, our own domestic institutions, and those principles and values. We must break free of that. Then, we’re going to shine like a beacon again. When we do, we can work with other nations with similar aspirations.
China can’t compete with that. They know it. That’s why they’re so afraid. There are Chinese people who would embrace American freedom if they could.