Chinese state media has just announced the imminent test flight of a new long-range stealth bomber called the Hong-20. A “military expert” told reporters that “usually, the development of equipment an
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Chinese state media has just announced the imminent test flight of a new long-range stealth bomber called the Hong-20. A “military expert” told reporters that “usually, the development of equipment and weaponry of the People’s Liberation Army is highly confidential.”
Revealing the bomber name before trials shows the Chinese aviation industry is gaining more confidence, the expert boasted.
If there was ever an example of “projection,” this is it. The Chinese are not “confident;” they are scared.
The communist regime, which by the way just confirmed it is holding over 1 million of its citizens in ‘re-education’ camps in the restive western region of Xinjiang, is acting like a deer in the headlights. In the face of real “Trumpian” confidence radiating from Washington, China’s leaders are acting like the schoolyard bully who for the first time just got punched in the face, and figured out they don’t like it one bit.
President Trump has done the one thing Beijing thought would never happen — he is using the full weight of American power for the first time since World War II, economic, political, moral and yes, even military power. And it’s working.
We should expect more bravado and parading of weapons from China, which is desperate to turn American public opinion against Mr. Trump’s hard line. There has been lots of love shared between the American elites and those in Beijing over the last few decades. That is over now. The globalist game is over. The hollowing out of America is over.
I don’t believe the narrative in the mainstream U.S. media created about the People’s Republic. I have never believed the Wall Street apologists for the dictators.
The experts claim that China’s economy is well on its way to surpassing the United States in terms of GDP. But, that was before Mr. Trump stopped letting Beijing treat trade as a one-way street. China’s economy is actually a house of cards, propped up by uncollectable debts and exploitative trade practices. The government has to build empty “ghost cities” just to keep people employed and not rioting. Did I mention the re-education camps? That all doesn’t sound like a stable, growing society to me.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., we are in the midst of a real reset, one that will benefit the country in the long run. There will be some short-term pain — as we are seeing in the American stock market — as we forge new expectations and the old ways of doing business pass by the wayside.
We’ve just learned that China is trying to influence next month’s midterm elections. They must be thinking, “For God’s sake we can’t let Trump consolidate power, or we are finished!”
We should expect more malign behavior, more fear-mongering in the South China Sea, more spy technology embedded in our communications equipment, more military parades, and more general Chinese chest-thumping.
The Chinese will continue to lash out, as cornered creatures tend to do, and now the leadership’s deceptions are being exposed for all the world to see. President Trump is threatening the very hold on power of the Chinese Communist Party. In their world, they cannot allow this to happen.
Ronald Reagan won the Cold War and tore down the Iron Curtain.
Donald Trump may be doing the same thing, only this time in the Pacific, frustrating the insidious Chinese plan to undermine America without firing a shot, and threatening the communists’ hold on power in Beijing.
• L. Todd Wood is a former special operations helicopter pilot and Wall Street debt trader, and has contributed to Fox Business, The Moscow Times, National Review, The New York Post and many other publications. He can be reached at LToddWood.com.
