23 September 2021

China Reader Special Edition


Leadership Remarks about Indo-Pacom Activities

Extracts taken from statements by Adm. John C. Aquilino, U.S. Navy; Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, U.S. Army, retired; Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III; and Adm. Philip S. Davidson, U.S. Navy Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

The Question: Why Would China Not Invade Taiwan Now?

Tim Willasey-Wilsey

In a reprint from The Cipher Brief, a British geopolitical expert and career diplomat discusses whether China’s People’s Liberation Army is capable of achieving a quick victory over Taiwan in the near future. The article includes commentary by former senior U.S. military and intelligence officials.

The Long March: A Generational Approach to Achieving the People’s Republic of China Strategic Objective to Annex Taiwan

Military Review Staff

Editor’s commentary on the political dimension of the long-term generational approach the People’s Republic of China has taken in its decades-old political effort to strip away all diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and support from the world community of nations as a preparatory phase for possible invasion and annexation of the island.

Extract from “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2019”

Office of the Secretary of Defense

An extract from the most recent Department of Defense report on the diverse security threats posed by China.

Steal the Firewood from Under the Pot: The Role of Intellectual Property Theft in Chinese Global Strategy

Capt. Scott Tosi, U.S. Army

Chinese intellectual property theft has broad implications for the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense, threatening U.S. military technological superiority in future decades.

Extract from “The FBI and the National Security Threat Landscape: The Next Paradigm Shift”

Christopher Wray, Director, FBI

An extract from an FBI transcript in which Wray discusses how China has pioneered a societal approach to stealing innovations using Chinese intelligence services, state-owned enterprises, private companies, and graduate students and researchers at U.S. universities through a wide variety of actors working on behalf of China.

Extract from “China’s Impact on the U.S. Education System”: Staff Report

United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

A U.S. Senate subcommittee investigates the real purposes of Chinese government investment in establishing “Confucius Institutes,” which appear to be instruments aimed at promoting Chinese cultural, economic, and political influence in the United States.

Pivot Out of the Pacific: Oil and the Creation of a Chinese Empire in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Capt. Philip Murray, U.S. Army

The author argues that in China’s rise to economic and political influence, it is behaving in a manner little different from any other historical example of a great power’s expansion of economic power and influence.

The People’s Bank of China’s Monetary Armament: Capabilities and Limitations of Evolving Institutional Power

Lt. Johnathan D. Falcone, U.S. Navy

The battlespace in modern warfare has expanded to the economic domain. According to the author, it is strategically necessary for the United States and the Federal Reserve to maintain influence over and leadership of the international financial system.

Geoeconomics

Col. John F. Troxell, U.S. Army, Retired

The author offers a detailed discourse on the importance of geoeconomics, specifically as it applies to competition between China and the United States, based on a review of War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft by Robert D. Blackwill and Jennifer M. Harris.

China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative and Its International Arms Sales: An Overlooked Aspect of Connectivity and Cooperation?

Capt. James Daniel, U.S. Army

The author discusses China’s efforts to rebuild international trade routes, establish a global network of ports, and proceed with other initiatives aimed at making China the centrifugal economic power of the world. He details the linkages between those activities and China’s parallel involvement in the international weapons trade.


Cover photo: This artwork is a dark homage to a proposed concept developed by U.S. Federal General-in-Chief Winfield Scott who recommended to President Abraham Lincoln a Federal strategy to suffocate the Southern state insurrection by blockading or seizing its life sustaining ports during the U.S. Civil War. This plan became known popularly as “Scott’s Great Snake” or also as the “Anaconda Plan.” The modern day Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative" reflects what appears to be a similar concept on a much grander, global scale. The Communist Chinese Party is undertaking a mammoth effort to develop a trade system in which China envisions itself becoming the global focus of all trade via highly developed land and sea trade routes. Part of this effort includes building or controlling facilities at the choke points of the worlds’ most important maritime shipping lanes—which would enable China to threaten competitors and adversaries by either impeding or controlling the transport of oil and other vital resources. (Graphic by Dale Cordes, Army University Press)

China’s Maritime Militia and Fishing Fleets: A Primer for Operational Staffs and Tactical Leaders

Shuxian Luo

Jonathan G. Panter

China uses its maritime militia and fishing fleets as policy instruments to bridge the economic, informational, and military realms. Two PhD candidates provide a thorough discussion on China’s maritime policies and activities; the strategic uses, strengths, and limitations of China’s maritime militia and fishing fleets; and the challenges they pose to U.S. forces.

The Strategic Significance of the Chinese Fishing Fleet

Lt. Cmdr. James M. Landreth, U.S. Navy

A naval officer discusses why China’s massive fishing fleet should be closely monitored by military planners because of its harmful activities below the threshold of conflict and its potential use as a paramilitary force.

Competing with China for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

Gen. Robert B. Brown, U.S. Army

Lt. Col. R. Blake Lackey, U.S. Army

Maj. Brian G. Forester, U.S. Army

The commander of U.S. Army Pacific discusses China and the role of the Army in dealing with Chinese activities in the Pacific theater.

Contemporary China: In Conflict, Not Competition

Timothy L. Faulkner

We must not misunderstand the Chinese approach to warfare, according to this senior intelligence officer. The conflict China is waging with the United States has put it in a positional advantage that, if left unchecked, will allow it to dominate in terms of diplomatic, intelligence, military, and economic power by 2050.

Chinese Soft Power: Creating Anti-Access Challenges in the Indo-Pacific

Maj. Robert F. Gold, U.S. Army

China is using soft power to isolate Taiwan and set the conditions to deny the United States access to the region. The U.S. Army must be prepared to conduct amphibious operations and work as part of the joint force to open critical infrastructure needed to sustain operations in the Indo-Pacific region.

Economic Warfare: China’s Financial Alternative to Military Reunification with Taiwan

1st Lt. Bethany G. Russell, U.S. Army

China is more likely to use economic means rather than military force to pressure Taiwan into reunification, according to this author. China can be expected to use its economic leverage to disrupt markets and implement sanctions to compel the island to agree to annexation for the sake of its economic survival.

How to Counter China’s Disinformation Campaign in Taiwan

Linda Zhang

The author describes how the People’s Republic of China’s malign influence in Taiwan’s traditional media and its ability to spread propaganda and disinformation on social media threatens Taiwan’s press freedom and democratic process.

Preparing for the Future: Marine Corps Support to Joint Operations in Contested Littorals

Gen. David H. Berger, U.S. Marine Corps

The commandant of the Marine Corps describes how the Marines are radically reorganizing and rearming to develop greatly expanded capabilities to support future joint operations in contested littoral areas of operation as a multi-domain reconnaissance and counterreconnaissance force.

Taiwan and the U.S. Army: New Opportunities amid Increasing Threats

Eric Setzekorn, PhD

The author discusses how the evolving security situation in the Taiwan Strait offers the U.S. Army a chance to play an important role in deterring Chinese military action and strengthening American strategic connections in East Asia.

Understanding the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force: Strategy, Armament, and Disposition

Maj. Christopher J. Mihal, PMP

The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force is perhaps China’s most valuable current military asset as it provides China both offensive and defensive capabilities against a wide range of opponents as well as the inherent value of deterrence that nuclear weapons provide any nation.

The Impact of Base Politics on Long-Range Precision Fires: A Closer Look at Japan

Maj. Richard M. Pazdzierski, U.S. Army

Japan’s political culture surrounding military bases and exercises have affected the security aspects of the U.S.-Japan alliance for many decades and will likely have a significant impact on the Army’s ability to train, fight, and win with long-range precision strike capabilities intended to deploy to Japan.

Drive Them into the Sea

Brian J. Dunn

An Army corps will be indispensable and must be fully incorporated into U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s Taiwan contingency plans. The author espouses an aggressive offensive military response to a potential Chinese attack into Taiwan.

Deterring the Dragon: Returning U.S. Forces to Taiwan

Capt. Walker D. Mills, U.S. Marine Corps

A U.S. marine opines that if the United States wants to maintain credible conventional deterrence against a People’s Liberation Army attack on Taiwan, it needs to consider basing troops in Taiwan.



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