By Theodore Shoebat
The Chinese government has now been talking about the rise of China as a major global power. As we read in the South China Morning Post:
A Chinese Communist Party official responsible for the country’s security apparatus has told law enforcers that the time for China’s rise has come but the struggle with the US will be a “long protracted battle”.
Chen Yixin, secretary general of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission – the top agency in charge of law enforcement – said at a study session on Monday that while the world was at a turbulent time, the global environment was to China’s advantage.The session was held to study a speech President Xi Jinping made last week in which he said “time and momentum was on China’s side” in terms of global geopolitical changes. Monday’s session was attended by senior commission members who are expected to pass the message on to the rank and file.
“The rise of China is a major variable [of the world today] … while the rise of the East and the decline of the West has become [a global] trend and changes of the international landscape are in our favour,” Chen was quoted as saying in a report published on the commission’s website.
“The US suppression [of us] is a major threat but [our struggle with the US] is both a skirmish and a protracted war.”
China’s plan to rise into a substantial force goes in line with its projection for 2027 in which the country will, supposedly, have an advanced state.The Chinese military has planned that by the year 2027 China will reach a state of military advancement to win wars. 2027 will be the 100th anniversary for the establishment of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and so the country projects a powerful military machine by this year. What is very interesting is that initially Xi Jinping had the goal of making this date 2049 by which time he envisioned China would “build a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious.” But this goal was brought to the earlier date of 2035 which is a long time from now. So it appears that the shift to the year 2027 as the projected point for a stronger and more advanced military is more of a realistic expectation. What does China plan for the year 2027 as far its military goes? Katsuji Nakazawa, writing for Nikkei, answers this question:
“What kind of military advancement does China envision by 2027?
The Ministry of National Defense seems to be unsatisfied with the current status of the military. The ministry has said that while China’s economy has become the world’s second-biggest, its military is not commensurate to the nation’s economic power.
With the 100th anniversary in sight, Xi is planning a new strategy.
Attending a military training meeting of the Central Military Commission on Nov. 25, Xi ordered the armed forces to strengthen training under real combat conditions and raise their capability of winning wars.”
China has a “Five Year Plan” from 2021 to 2025, one of the priorities of which is “elevating the level of national security.” According to Dean Cheng, the purpose of this five year plan is so that “the PLA will be fully mechanized and informationized by 2027.”
With the rise of China will also come the counter-force, and that is Japan. The Japanese are also making their own fighter jet — the F3 —; it is going to be based on the Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin and it is planned to be ready by 2027. According to Defense Industry Daily:
“The Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin was recently photographed while out for its first taxi test at Nagoya airport. After its unveiling to the public just last month, a maiden flight for the stealth demonstrator, formally known as the ATD-X, is just weeks away, bar any upcoming technical problems. The Shinshin, which means “spirit of the heart,” is Japan’s first foray into developing experimental stealth technologies and will form the basis for its fifth generation F-3 fighters planned for 2027.”
At the heart of this project is the pursuit to be independent from American power. As long as the United States determines the security of Japan, the US continues to be the dominating power of the Pacific. But, if the US loses its position as the source for Japan’s defense, then the US will lose its ability to contain Japan. The American-Japanese security understanding (in the words of James Fallows) “prevents Japan from building as large an army as it would need on its own,” and “leaves the United States as the reigning power in the Pacific”. The ability to contain Japan secures American foreign policy in the far northeast of Asia, as Fallows writes: “Unless Japan is contained, therefore, several things that matter to America will be jeopardized: America’s own authority to carry out its foreign policy and advance its ideals”.
While Lockheed Martin will have some participation in the design of this jet— providing technical support to Mitsubishi for airframe design and systems integration — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is going to be leading in its creation alongside a thousand other Japanese companies. The move to make domestic fighter jets is a reflection of an ongoing trend of world powers. Forbes Magazine has observed that in just a few years “Berlin/Paris, London and Tokyo have all tangibly committed to development of a domestic stealth jet despite predictions that enormous price tags ($40+ billion) would dissuade them.” And the reason for this? as the same Forbes article states: “expensive domestic development of such fighters is required to retain an independent military aviation industrial base, lest these countries become dependent on the U.S. companies and to the whims of Washington.” In other words, powerful and wealthy countries like Japan and Germany are tired of being ruled by the United States. There is undoubtedly a revolution taking place against the American empire.
If this revolt is successful, then the world will shift from being under an American hegemony to a multipolar world wherein a cluster of countries will be the most powerful nations. These new powers will pursue empire, and considering the histories of some of these countries — Turkey, Germany and Japan — this will not lead to anything good, but a vicious torrent of destruction.
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