In the National Interest

August 17, 2010

It seems America might be helping Vietnam become a nuclear power.

The Hindu reports that China is protesting what might be an American “double standard”.  A leading Chinese strategic expert on nuclear policy and disarmament told The Hindu that any move to allow Vietnam, which neighbors China, to enrich its own uranium would be “double standards” on the part of the U.S.…

This latest hot-button issue took off soon after the Wall Street Journal reported that the US was talking with Vietnam about sharing nuclear fuel and technologies that would include Vietnam enriching its own fuel, which is used in nuclear weapons.

Why would the U.S. play this dangerous game?  The answer may be found from Margi Mason of the Associated Press.  She writes that the U.S. has a “national interest” in seeing the claims resolved in the South China Sea.

So, what is in the national interest of the US to help Vietnam?  The answer is oil and to keep our military close to China while gaining allies. 

The US population needs the gasoline and diesel made from oil to drive to work and shop. The huge oil companies need to sell that oil, gasoline and diesel so they can pay wages to their employees while making profits. America’s national interest is everything to do with jobs and the economy.

However, China is not happy because what the US is doing in Vietnam is not in China’s national interest.

Discover The Real Police State

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Dangers of the Korean Incident

July 30, 2010

Sunny Lee writing for the The Korea Times reports that the majority of Chinese policymakers and academics feel that the Cheonan incident, where a North Korean torpedo allegedly sank a South Korean navy ship, “may” not be true. However, that doubt is not the only factor playing a crucial role in Chinese decision-making.

The Chinese also feel that the US and South Korea are politically motivated and overreacting. China sees the incident as part of the 60-year-long hostility between the two Koreas. In fact, China wants the US, South Korea and North Korea to pull back from the incident.

China’s opinion may be the best advice. 

If you do not agree, consider World War I, the “Great War” if a war may be called great. World War I was not caused by dictators hungry for power as in the case of Mussolini and Hitler and the military oligarchy that ruled Japan during World War II.

World War I was caused by a strong sense of nationalism and emotions that were allowed to rule the day. Strong feelings of nationalism fed hatred in pre-war Europe. It turned Frenchman against German and Russian against Austrian.  Source: Causes of World War I

Regarding the Cheonan incident, China is the cool head while the hotheads are the US, South Korea and North Korea. If these hot heads prevail, how much suffering and death would add to the 45 deaths already caused by the sinking of the Cheonan?

The match that lit World War I was the assassination of one man, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914.  By the end of the war in late 1918, fifteen-million people had been killed, making the war one of the deadliest in history. 

Does the world want that in Asia?  America’s Military Industrial Media Empire might, but China clearly doesn’t—evidence that war is the last thing China wants.

Discover more about China and North Korea

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Jousting With a Reluctant Dragon

July 19, 2010

The evidence says that America doesn’t want to share its global “Super Power” status with anyone.  In U.S. Missiles Deployed Near China Send a Message, Time shows that the US mindset concerning the military and war stays strong. 

However, it must be confusing to Americans when the Feds continue to justify spending heavily on defense at the same time that China cuts its defense spending in half, and Time asks Why Is China Slowing its Military Spending?

China has one aircraft carrier.

In fact, Time says, “China’s 2010 military budget, which is awaiting legislative approval, will be $78 billion. That would make it second only to the United States, which for 2010 has a total budget of $663.8 billion. U.S. spending is equivalent to 4.7% of the nation’s GDP, while China’s defense outlay equals about 1.5% of its estimated 2010 GDP.”

What’s wrong with the Chinese? Don’t they know America’s military industrial partnership “needs” a bad cop to scare the American people to justify maintaining the most expensive and powerful military on the earth?

Too bad most Americans still don’t live on farms. When America was rural, the people were not as warlike. Before Pearl Harbor was bombed, most Americans didn’t want anything to do with war. The same situation happened in World War I when almost half of the people lived on farms and in small communities, which is sort of like China today with 700 million living in rural areas.

See When the Generals Laughed

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Warrior King

July 17, 2010

Qin Shi Huangdi (259 – 210 BC) unified China by using advanced weapons and brutal tactics. The Qin Dynasty arsenals made swords and other weapons with a precision unknown in Europe. Trigger mechanisms for crossbows and arrows were made in runs of tens of thousands.

The Qin military machine had one command—attack.

At this time, the Roman Empire had gathered 80,000 troops to defend Rome against Hannibal. In China, the king of Qin had an army of one-million.

Bravery was valued above all else. When a Qin soldier was killed in battle, it was up to his fellow troops to avenge his death. The penalty for cowardice was death.  More than two million will die before Qin Shi Huangdi conquerors all China.

Qin’s officers were advanced in rank by winning in battle. If you wanted to be advanced in rank, you brought back the head of an enemy solider. The honorable way to treat prisoners of war was to bury them alive.

Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi was the father of a unified China. He was also brutal and ruthless.

To discover more, see The First Emperor: The Man Who Made China (Part 1 of 9)

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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3 Comments | China, Chinese history, history, military spending, politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Boogeyman Books and Fear Sells

June 30, 2010

Out of curiosity, I crawled Amazon looking for books bashing China. The first one was Americas Coming War with China, published in 2006.

Martin Sieff, the National Security Correspondent for UPI had this to say, “America’s Coming War with China is a thoughtful, even-toned, deeply disturbing book. Ted Galen Carpenter has long been one of the wisest, most far-seeing foreign policy voices in Washington. His quiet, careful documentation of an on-rushing, potentially catastrophic confrontation between the United States and China over Taiwan, which can still be avoided, but may not be, is far more troubling than the hysterical claims from other sources that brand China as an inevitable, mortal enemy of the United States. This is clearly one of the most important books on U.S. foreign policy in years. It is essential reading for everyone who cares about the peace of the world.”

Now, a dose of reality. China has more troops in uniform but look at the weapons.

America’s military expenditures for 2009 were almost 700 billion (4.3% of GDP) and China spent less than 100 billion (2.0% of GDP).

Not counting Afghanistan and Iraq, there are about 100,000 US troops in Asia, 40,000 in South Korea, and more bases in countries that ring China like Japan. Source: Global Research

The US has 11 aircraft carriers and 1,559 navy ships
China has 1 aircraft carrier with 760 navy ships

China has about 240 nuclear warheads
The US has more than 5,000 active with another 4,500 retired

The US has 18,000 military aircraft
China has 1,900. Source: Global Firepower

Here are a few other titles to help stay awake and afraid in the dark.

  • Showdown: Why China Wants War with the United States, 2006
  • The Coming Conflict with China, 1998
  • Red Dragon Rising, 2002
  • Hegemon, China’s Plan to Dominate Asia and the World, 2000

See When the Generals Laughed

_________________________

Lloyd Lofthouse,
Award winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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Leave a Comment » | America, China, military spending, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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