Are China And The United States Preparing For War?

Fang Fenghui (left), chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, welcomes Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, in Beijing on Monday. Kuang Linhua / China Daily

China And The United States Are Preparing For War -- Michael Pillsbury, Foreign Policy

Despite the Obama-Xi handshake deal, the probability of confrontation will only heighten as long as the PLA remains a black box.

At a Nov. 12 news conference in Beijing, General Secretary of the Communist Party Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to notify the other side before major military activities, and to develop a set of rules of behavior for sea and air encounters, in order to avoid military confrontations in Asia. "It's incredibly important that we avoid inadvertent escalation," Ben Rhodes, a U.S. deputy national security advisor, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying. An "accidental circumstance," he said, could "lead into something that could precipitate conflict."

Should we really be worried about war between the United States and China? Yes. Over the last four decades of studying China, I have spoken with hundreds of members of China's military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), and read countless Chinese military journals and strategy articles. Chinese military and political leaders believe that their country is at the center of American war planning. In other words, Beijing believes that the United States is readying itself for the possibility of a conflict with China -- and that it must prepare for that eventuality.

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My Comment: Will the Chinese military become open enough to satisfy their U.S. counterparts .... I doubt it. But the Chinese military has become "more open" in the past few years, to not only promote their role in China, but to also intimidate and warn their neighbors.