China and the Art of War – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

Suffice it to say, author Gordon Chang has been around the block on the topic of China.

His books include Plan Red: China’s Project to Destroy America, The Coming Collapse of China, China is Going to War, and The Great U.S.-China Tech War, among others.

His biography tells the specifics, noting that as a boy his own father “left China in search of a better life.” He clearly found it, and Gordon goes on to describe what resulted in his own life.

Chang lived and worked in China and Hong Kong for almost two decades, most recently in Shanghai, as Counsel to the American law firm Paul Weiss and earlier in Hong Kong as Partner in the international law firm Baker & McKenzie.

In short, there could be no one better to guide mystified Americans through the jungle that is America’s increasingly difficult relationship with China. This would be, at this point, of critical importance.

And the headlines of this difficulty flow. A mere sampling:

• The BBC: “Why Trump is hitting China on trade — and what might happen next.”
• The Economist: “Why China thinks it might win a trade war with Trump: The country’s officials vow to ‘fight to the end.’”
• NPR: “China vows retaliation and a ‘fight to the end’ after Trump’s latest tariff threat.”
• CNN: “China has a message for Trump: the U.S. won’t stop its rise.”

And on goes a very long parade of similar headlines pushing the idea of the U.S. facing a terribly mighty adversary in China.

Not to be forgotten is the ancient wisdom on dealing with the Chinese that was written a bit ago — in fact, some 2,500 years ago. That would be the classic The Art of War, authored by the famous Chinese philosopher/general Sun Tzu. Tzu’s writings are indispensable to this day when dealing with an adversary. They begin this way: “The art of war is of vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence under no circumstances can it be neglected.”

Famously, Sun Tzu also wrote this on the subject: “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. …. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” (RELATED: Trumping China)

All of Sun Tzu’s wisdom is worth recalling right now as the two nations face each other in this mega-battle over tariffs and economic might. (RELATED: Simple Math Shows That China Lacks Leverage in This Trade War)

China scholar Chang, writing in The Coming Collapse of China, notes:

The Communist Party has struggled to keep up with great change over the last two decades, but now it is beginning to fail as it often cannot provide the basic needs of its people. Corruption and malfeasance erode the Party’s support from small hamlet to great city …. Social order in their nation is dissolving. The Chinese are making a break for the future, and the disaffected are beginning to find their voice …. The people are in motion now, and it’s just a matter of time before they get what they want.

In short, the “great change” Gordon Chang writes about is at hand, materializing in the almost daily headlines about the relationship between President Trump and China.

Among other things, President Trump has been handed the short end of the stick by President Biden when it comes to dealing with China. But I digress.

Yet Gordon Chang is hopeful and advises not to overestimate China’s strength. Says he:

On paper, China looks powerful and dynamic even today, less than twenty-five years after Deng Xiaoping began to open the country to the outside world. In reality, however, the Middle Kingdom, as it once called itself, is a paper dragon. Peer beneath the surface, and there is a weak China, one that is in long-term decline and even on the verge of collapse. The symptoms of decay are to be seen everywhere. …. China is drifting, unwilling to go forward as fast as it must and unable to turn back.

In short, amid all the urgent headlines about a tariff battle between President Trump and the Chinese, there is more — so much more — going on inside China and the Chinese government.

And one can be sure President Trump knows it.

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