Resist the Chinese Boogeyman Tails

I remember hearing once while working for the U.S. government as a China political and military intelligence analyst and advisor from 1993 to 2005 that America needs to maintain another global superpower as an enemy to fear and oppose. Because, at the time, relations with Russia had greatly improved, one popular assumption was that China would fill that role. In my opinion, they never fully did. Instead China seemed to be more interested in continued, relatively stable economic growth which necessitated a certain amount of mutual cooperation with the United States. However, now that we’re faced with an American President who appears eager to strike up some adversarial international relationships, the old question of a superpower enemy raises its mighty head once more. Putin makes Russia an obvious and perhaps legitimate contender for the role, but the perceived amicability between Trump and Putin complicates that notion somewhat. Meanwhile, Trump appears to have made a point of opposing China at every possible opportunity, and the Chinese seem to have both inherited and developed a reciprocal distaste for Trump.

As such, rumors of an upcoming and escalating hostile rivalry with China abound. There’s concern that Chinese frustration with the current administration will result in military hostility, possibly beginning with an exchange in the Spratlys and increasing to the point of all-out open military…